Contents
Philosopher and culturologist Grigory Pomerants – about when wisdom coincides with stupidity and how to be happy “for no reason”.
“They say that fools are happy. This is true, although not at all simple. The first meaning: in happiness there is something from luck, from stupid luck. But another soul can find itself in failures, and being itself is also happiness, a great (unfortunately rare) happiness. “God! Soul came true. Your intent is the most secret…” – wrote the unlucky Marina Tsvetaeva. And a hundred years earlier than her – Tyutchev:
When there is no God’s consent,
No matter how she suffers, loving,
The soul, alas, will not suffer happiness,
But he can redeem himself.
I don’t want my young friends to be constantly lucky. A tree grown under wind and rain is better than a greenhouse palm. It has more inner tension, life, beauty. You can’t harden a blade without immersing it in hot and cold. It does not matter what will be more: grief or joy, suffering or delight. If only the soul came true. If only the measure of suffering did not exceed her measure, did not break, did not drive her crazy.
Read more:
- Viktor Frankl: “Happiness is like a butterfly”
Job cast his lot. The devil, playing by chance, threw him grief after grief – but in the end God spoke. This is not always the case in life, and the meeting with God goes into the afterlife. But the biblical Job suffered to exultation here on earth. Thus ends the Book of Job, who lived in the land of Uz. And this, in my opinion, is what God intended (although it does not always work out). The unfulfilled soul, although it comes across happiness, will almost certainly miss it or not notice it. Having suffered herself, she finds how to be happy for no reason and give this happiness to everyone who picks it up. And here is the second meaning of the saying: happiness is impossible without innocence, reaching even stupidity. Happiness is given only to those who are not overloaded with goals, worries, who threw them out and swam along the river of life. Wisdom here coincides with stupidity. “Unless you are like children, you will not enter the kingdom.”
The Moscow summer of 1962 turned out to be cold, wet, in September the wind was blowing through the car, Zina caught a cold, and suddenly paradise, a grove of relic pines (not yet fenced), a cross of cypress alleys around an abandoned monastery – and not a single rain. The smell of the sea and dry pine needles. The body becomes elastic, as if the gods have granted me eternal youth, and in the evening you are completely lost in sight … According to the canon of sunset, we first look at the purple hills. Then, through the burning trees, we pass on the other side of the cape and sit down on a red coniferous pillow – until deep darkness. The sun solemnly plunges into the sea; the strip of dawn, as in Japanese prints, flares up, then goes out. And the bowl of stars opens.
At the moonlight, the distances gathered quietly,
Sleeping mountains clung to the water,
And the cypress trees stood up for prayer,
Holding a star on each finger.
High forest in silver dress
He got up on his tiptoes and sighed.
Everyone is waiting for the illuminated sea
Blessed them with a big hand…
Read more:
- I want everyone to love me
Grigory Pomerants – philosopher and culturologist (1918-2013). Born in Vilna, graduated from IFLI, in 1941 he volunteered for the front. In 1949 he was convicted of anti-Soviet propaganda and rehabilitated in 1958. Author of many philosophical works. His autobiography, Notes of the Ugly Duckling, was first published in 1995 by the Moskovsky Rabochiy publishing house.
For more details, see G. Pomerants “Notes of the Ugly Duckling” (Center for Humanitarian Initiatives, 2013).