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Tag Archives: Life

To the top and back

28 Tuesday Jan 2020

Posted by Floreva in Creating, This world we live in

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#pencildrawing, climbing, George Mallory, Life

This drawing is both a reflection and an achievement. By the time I finished it, I realised the face of the climber looks like my younger (and beloved) father’s. But that’s another story.

Climbing to the top of the mountain, figuratively speaking or not, physically climbing to the summit, our personal pyramid of goals or simply the objective to become the best person we know we can be, all this can be synthesize in the picture of a mountaineer, contemplating his feat, sitting atop of the peak he’s just ascended.

George Mallory once compared climbing to being an art, thus in his statement linking the climber to being an artist. In his writings about climbing, it describes it as a symphony. Surely, in his days of discoveries and challenges, with gear retrospectively dubbed as “inadequate” by modern mountaineers ( a statement which I am not sure to  agreeing with), climbing “unconquered” mountains set in unchartered territories  was a much more dangerous adventure than it is now

Now, who said mountains have to be conquered?

They were there before us and will be long after we’re gone. It’s just another belliquose term to describe a feat of courage, effort, motivation and pushing one’s limits. And it does not reflect properly the tremendous journey it can be. The very word implies a warlike confrontation of some sort, with a winner and a loser, or someone asserting their power over something.

Mountains are not conquered.

But we are,  by the intoxicating adrenaline rush, the empowerment of achieving an arduous task, the supreme boost of esteem attached to victory over difficuty and over ourselves. Afterwards comes the joy of being rewarded by an impressive view and a deep sense of completion.

On the other hand, fear can be conquered ; shyness, jealousy, envy, greediness, suffering have to be conquered too. Because those emotions or feelings never vanish entirely, do they? They lurk in a dark corner of the soul, muzzled for a time, feeding on one’s insecurities. We can conquer them, and yet have to remain watchful of their taking over our heart and sensibility. It’s a never ending task.

So, let’s just climb mountains, and conquer our fragile selves.

Alpiniste FV

Sommet 1963- copyright Florence Vitel 2017

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For sale : shining armour and white charger

23 Thursday Jan 2020

Tags

inkdrawig, Life

Because Princes face challenges too…. and education is good to have…

(Not related to Prince Harry leaving the firm, though. This drawing was done in Oct 2018)

Crown and Armour for sale FV

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Posted by Floreva | Filed under Creating, This world we live in

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Metaphor for a bizarre Western value

11 Tuesday Jun 2019

Posted by Floreva in Life in style

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

#inkdrawing, Life, music, Our world

Hi Folks,

I think this drawing is self-explanatory.

It’s called the Race to the top (and it needs more inking).

Update : It’s  a metaphor for the highly praised value in western societies : money and how to make more of it than the neighbour/colleague/friend/anyone else. Now, dont’ get me wrong, money’s a good thing. What’s not optimal is when what’s engrained in our brains is that it is the only value one must seek, detrimental to ethics, kindness, generosity, help to others, a sense of community. So, the end is grim, as shown in the drawing, when it’s the only ladder steps some of our fellow humans climb in pursuit of a sense of identity, when one’s identity = how much money one makes, and how badly they want it ( even crushing/mistrating/etc others to get it).

Not that I am cynical (because cynism allows for no hope), but rather a realist (eye-opened and sad, but doing something about it) that happens to have a sever condition of unshakeable enthusiasm and love for life coupled with a deep-rooted trust that humans will eventually do good on a regular basis, with a mild itching of humour (sometimes very dark), peppered with noir tendencies ( I watched too much noir movies as a teen, probably).

Race to the top

The race to the top – Ink- copyright Florence Vitel 2019-2020

The musical conterpart to my condition could be the blues, and the literary genre could be linked to the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, right there, between an everlasting awe for the Creation and creativity humans can display and master and achieve, also the  brutal thruth that human as an evolving race is quite fucked up (pardon my French) and rather fucks up everyhting it comes in contact with.

Ugliness (in behaviours, treatment of our planet, of  the air, of other species and of the variety of people within our own species) as the polyester-ic (poly-hysteric?) lining of this shimmering cloak of beauty that covers this wonderful sphere we will no longer be able to call home if we contiue, as a group, to behave like imbecile spoiled brats lead by ignorant , greedy, power-thirsty and crass-stupid corkcroaches . (Hum, not very appealing).

No apologies for the long complicated sentences, that’s part of my literary charm, I guess, can’t deprive you of that, right? 😉

BUT, there are many good reasons to rejoice too, when we see independent actions and groups of persons all around the world coming together to trigger change, to induce new behaviours and implement sustainable ways of living, more in harmony with this marvellous paradise (Scientist & neuro researcher Bruce Lipton says we are born in heaven, and what do we do with it?).

Creative in destruction,  but more creative in creation, that’s us, the paradoxical little annoying bugging colony on this big blue planet.

Let’s rejoice, for times a-changing. For the better.

Plus, summer’s almost officially here. What’s not to love?

Floreva

 

 

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Here we go, coffee addicts…

06 Sunday May 2012

Posted by Floreva in Cafés, Caffeine, Movies, Places, TV Series

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Absolutely Fabulous, after McCallum, Bones, CIS Las Vegas, Coffee, Dexter..., Doc Martin, Downton Abbey, Dream On, Falty Towers, Homeland, Inspector Lewis, Jekyll, Law and Order, Lie to Me, Life, Mad Men, MI-5, Midsommer, Monarch of the Glen, n Magnum, Nurse Jackie, NYPD Blue, Tea, the Avengers, the Mentalist, The Prisoner, the Tudors, Twilight ZOne

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