He was the kind
Posted: September 5, 2013 Filed under: Random Workout | Tags: Adventure, art, blogging, compassion, Creative Writing, culture, kindness, life, love, lululemon, lust, Media, meditation, mental health, musings, natural, Observation, Omaha, passion, philosophy, pop culture, Prose, running, simplicity, Stefan Zweig, trail running, whole foods, WOD, writting, yoga 7 Comments… of young man whose handsome face has brought him plenty of success in the past and is now ever-ready for a new encounter, a fresh-experience, always eager to set off into the unknown territory of a little adventure, never taken by surprise because he has worked out everything in advance and is waiting to see what happens, a man who will never overlook any erotic opportunity, whose first glance probes every woman’s sensuality, and explores it, without discriminating between his friend’s wife and the parlour-maid who opens the door to him. Such men are described with a certain facile contempt as lady-killers, but the term has a nugget of truthful observation in it, for in fact all the passionate instincts of the chase are present in their ceaseless vigilance: the stalking of the prey, the excitement and mental cruelty of the kill. They are constantly on the alert, always ready and willing to follow the trail of an adventure to the very edge of the abyss. They are full of passion all the time, but it is the passion of a gambler rather than a lover, cold, calculating and dangerous. Some are so persistent that their whole lives, long after their youth is spent, are made an eternal adventure by this expectation. Each of their days is resolved into hundreds of small sensual experiences – a look exchanged in passing, a fleeting smile, knees brushing together as a couple sit opposite each other – and the year, in its own turn, dissolves into hundreds of such days in which sensuous experience is the constantly flowing, nourishing, inspiring source of life.
– Stefan Zweig, The Burning Secret and other stories
CultFit 
Lady killers, huh? Lol. Think it goes for both genders. 😉
Do they get more of life because of the experiences?
Or is it the very reason why they keep seeking… chasing… because they actually get less of life?
We are sharing the same thoughts here in regards to this brilliantly written piece. 🙂 If you will allow me, and given the tone and conversation of this past week, let us delve into your last thought … “because they actually get less of life?”
Let’s take this thought and pin it on me as it relates to competing – living – wellness, along these lines. We can broaden them more later. 😉
The Hedonic Treadmill – The more I was injured the less I got out of my life, so I competed more to squeeze as much as I could out of each event, each yoga class, each whatever – name it! Then I would get injured more, keeping the treadmill rolling along.
You can see where this whole mess leaves us …
This brings us back to the basics. It’s never the amount of things that matter; but the quality of how we dive into such things. Whether they’re physical activities, traveling, work, chores, going out with family or friends… we can do these sooo many times. Even over and over again… but when our goal is mere numbers instead of living the experience… we’ll forever be longing, craving, searching. And it’ll be an endless struggle of being on the hedonic treadmill.
There’s never really a clear-cut procedure how to live the experiences that unfold. Sometimes we get more of life when we begin taming the ego. Sometimes it gets the best of us. Sometimes it’s both. Wouldn’t it be so much easier when a manual of procedure is there? But then again, do we actually get more out of life? Think the mistakes and failures and loss we undergo adds to the quality of these experiences. There’s more character to ourselves. There’s more to us.
Talk to you soon!! =) has been a tiring week for me. See what happens when I do more… 😉
Be well today and I hope you had a peaceful and quiet weekend. 🙂
Like the photo and the writing is brilliant.
Thank you so much! I plan on sharing more of Stefan Zweig’s work in the near future, they are breath taking to say the very least. Be well today and I hope you have a brilliant weekend, take care!
That is certainly worth thinking about.