What’s important in your life? Go on, take a pen and paper and make a list.
What’s on your list?
I’ll bet that much of your list will be invisible things – relationships, love, meaning, purpose, happiness, health, safety……..I don’t know – you tell me – what would you include and what’s the ratio of invisible things to visible, material things on your list?
Robert Solomon uses the idea of thin-ness to rail against the sterility of a life which is based on logic, but excludes a consideration of emotions. I think a materialistic life is a thin life – not that we don’t need material things (like food!) but that to consider only the material, physical phenomena of life as real, is both a delusion and, frankly, a poor experience of life. Life with the life taken out!
Saint-Exupery had it right in his Petit Prince –
“Goodbye,” said the fox. “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
“What is essential is invisible to the eye,” the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
or – in the original –
– Adieu, dit le renard. Voici mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.
– L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux, répéta le petit prince, afin de se souvenir.
so, do you agree? Are the most important things in life invisible? Are they exactly what cannot be measured?
Heroes Not Zombies 
Yes, though I wouldn’t use the word invisible to describe it. More that it goes without saying, easily taken for granted, and hard to express with concrete words. Intangible is closer. And yet, those who are “in tune” can sense these things, can “see” them and “hear” them. And so the idea of Empathy comes up again. *smile*
If you where on a battlefield and numerous gun shots and bombs where exploding around you it would be your prerogative to accurately assess the dangers in your physical environment to preserve your life and senses to accomplish your mission.Our goals are always dependent on a physical reality but never created by them,only joy can create goals and joy comes from the light of being fearless.
Ah KatK I take the point about “intangible”. Well made.
Josh, thank you for this – I completely agree. By the way I really love your photography.
http://www.rallscollection.com/artists/vogelsang/gallery1.html – this is yours, isn’t it?
They are, thankyou for putting that up.Through Nadja you’ve introduced me to the word(let me get my dictionary)anthroposophical, which from the little I have read about tries to understand the connection of an experience to the cause of the experience and the fostering of insight from that understanding.I look foreward to finding out more about it.
I’m delighted you liked the photographs.
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