Reminds Me Of One Of My Favorite Poems By Jack Gilbert Called 'Failing And Flying'.

Reminds me of one of my favorite poems by Jack Gilbert called 'Failing and flying'.

"Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew.

It's the same when love comes to an end,

or the marriage fails and people say

they knew it was a mistake, that everybody

said it would never work. That she was

old enough to know better. But anything

worth doing is worth doing badly.

Like being there by that summer ocean

on the other side of the island while

love was fading out of her, the stars

burning so extravagantly those nights that

anyone could tell you they would never last.

Every morning she was asleep in my bed

like a visitation, the gentleness in her

like antelope standing in the dawn mist.

Each afternoon I watched her coming back

through the hot stony field after swimming,

the sea light behind her and the huge sky

on the other side of that. Listened to her

while we ate lunch. How can they say

the marriage failed? Like the people who

came back from Provence (when it was Provence)

and said it was pretty but the food was greasy.

I believe Icarus was not failing as he fell,

but just coming to the end of his triumph."

I think everyone should remember that : anything worth doing is worth doing badly

I think a lot about how we as a culture have turned “forever” into the only acceptable definition of success.

Like… if you open a coffee shop and run it for a while and it makes you happy but then stuff gets too expensive and stressful and you want to do something else so you close it, it’s a “failed” business. If you write a book or two, then decide that you don’t actually want to keep doing that, you’re a “failed” writer. If you marry someone, and that marriage is good for a while, and then stops working and you get divorced, it’s a “failed” marriage.

The only acceptable “win condition” is “you keep doing that thing forever”. A friendship that lasts for a few years but then its time is done and you move on is considered less valuable or not a “real” friendship. A hobby that you do for a while and then are done with is a “phase” - or, alternatively, a “pity” that you don’t do that thing any more. A fandom is “dying” because people have had a lot of fun with it but are now moving on to other things.

I just think that something can be good, and also end, and that thing was still good. And it’s okay to be sad that it ended, too. But the idea that anything that ends is automatically less than this hypothetical eternal state of success… I don’t think that’s doing us any good at all.

More Posts from Eneillustration and Others

3 years ago
Life Saving Treatment for Allanah, organized by Mae Jauregui
gofundme.com
Hello Everyone!   I am Mae and my best friend Allanah was officially diagnosed wit… Mae Jauregui needs your support for Life Saving Tre

Hi friends, My close college buddy, someone I have known since we were kids, has cancer. She's been supporting her parents financially, and she's one of the kindest and most artistic souls I have ever known. Right now Allanah is fighting acute myeloid leukemia, and her hospital bills are TITANIC to say the least. Me and our other best friend, Mae, have been doing everything in our power to spread her gofundme. Since Allanah's stay at the hospital, her hospital bills have accumulated to 400,000 pesos. It's 7,779 usd- she hasn't even been at the hospital for a MONTH. Her chemo costs 100,000 pesos per cycle, but she is taking a lot of meds to help keep her immune system strong. Right now Allanah's legs are having complications with infections, and her fever is constant. She needs blood and platelet transfusions almost on the daily. Each platelet transfusion costs 30,000 philippine pesos. It's insane. I want her to feel less scared, I want her to feel that recovery is possible. And right now, the very least that can be done to help keep her mental health strong is for us to continuously boost her gofundme, and to make sure that her treatment is not impossible, and so that she has one less thing to worry about so she can focus on getting stronger.

Allanah has always been the most talented artist in our friend group. I want her to sing and draw again. I want her to feel safe. Please help us keep our friend fighting. It would mean the world and beyond. Thank you for reading this far.

Hi Friends, My Close College Buddy, Someone I Have Known Since We Were Kids, Has Cancer. She's Been Supporting
3 years ago
Felt Really Unmotivated Today. But Then I Receive, Nice ??? Emails ?? And, Good Phonecalls ???
Felt Really Unmotivated Today. But Then I Receive, Nice ??? Emails ?? And, Good Phonecalls ???

Felt really unmotivated today. But then I receive, nice ??? emails ?? and, good phonecalls ???


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4 months ago
Bluesky post from user @xavierck.com‬
Here are 543 images (1.5GB) of items at the Philadelphia Museum of Art arms and armor exhibit. You're free to use them for anything, even commercially. I tried to focus on details not usually represented in available reference material.

Photos of armor and link to Googledoc
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NRzgyUOQkhB3JaMEFJhiwXqMxiMw2XMc/view
🍁 Xavier 🍁 (@xavierck.com)
Bluesky Social
Here are 543 images (1.5GB) of items at the Philadelphia Museum of Art arms and armor exhibit You're free to use them for anything, even c
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eneillustration - eneillustration
eneillustration

Hi. I'm Ene and I draw things. Sometimes it's frogs, sometimes it's people, other times it's my every day anxieties. Most of the time, I don't draw at all.

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