Once upon a time--just long enough ago for a life story to play out from start to finish--there was a young man of exactly the character that I like the most: incredibly intelligent, incredibly driven, taking no assumptions or institutions for granted, and rising above what was expected from him.
Interesting, what should he have done differently? Stayed with the first wife? Marry someone else? Be more careful with partner choice after giving her everything?
This is a great great line but I’m struggling to know how much I agree.
I think it’s at least partially right and on to somethign real. I do think this guy was used, and that it’s tragic that his desire for, and I think genuine capacity for, a deep all-level intimacy was never reached. But also….with the choices he made it couldn’t have turned out any differently, and he was getting something out of those choices in the short term…Like in the Regina Spektor song:
His destiny was just too big to spend
So her broke it into smaller bills and change
By the time he tried to buy the things he needed
He had spent it all on loosies and weed
Basically I think this is the kind of thing that totally happens to this kind of guy. But also, sometimes, they get redeemed! The problem is that I don’t really know how to write that.* Francois Mauriac did!** Viper’s Tangle is obviously about a very similar situation, iconoclast genius lawyer husband, possibly gold digging wife, but the lawyer gets redeemed: https://www.sympatheticopposition.com/p/vipers-tangle
I kind of think my guy could have been redeemed maybe, but this was the best I could do.
*Potentially a bigger problem is that maybe I don’t know how to write that because I don’t know how people get redeemed.
**He knew how to write it. Jury is out on whether he was right about the mechanism.
As a young man, after all, he was distinguished more than anything by great capacity for dissatisfaction; of course the world belongs to the Ceasars, a great mercy is that they cannot, constitutionally, enjoy it.
Two posts from you in 24 hours! What did we do to deserve this bounty...
(I really liked this piece AND the last one)
🙏
Nice
Interesting, what should he have done differently? Stayed with the first wife? Marry someone else? Be more careful with partner choice after giving her everything?
I do not read this story as depressing - to me its lesson is that people end up about as happy as they are.
“People end up about as happy as they are”
This is a great great line but I’m struggling to know how much I agree.
I think it’s at least partially right and on to somethign real. I do think this guy was used, and that it’s tragic that his desire for, and I think genuine capacity for, a deep all-level intimacy was never reached. But also….with the choices he made it couldn’t have turned out any differently, and he was getting something out of those choices in the short term…Like in the Regina Spektor song:
His destiny was just too big to spend
So her broke it into smaller bills and change
By the time he tried to buy the things he needed
He had spent it all on loosies and weed
Basically I think this is the kind of thing that totally happens to this kind of guy. But also, sometimes, they get redeemed! The problem is that I don’t really know how to write that.* Francois Mauriac did!** Viper’s Tangle is obviously about a very similar situation, iconoclast genius lawyer husband, possibly gold digging wife, but the lawyer gets redeemed: https://www.sympatheticopposition.com/p/vipers-tangle
I kind of think my guy could have been redeemed maybe, but this was the best I could do.
*Potentially a bigger problem is that maybe I don’t know how to write that because I don’t know how people get redeemed.
**He knew how to write it. Jury is out on whether he was right about the mechanism.
As a young man, after all, he was distinguished more than anything by great capacity for dissatisfaction; of course the world belongs to the Ceasars, a great mercy is that they cannot, constitutionally, enjoy it.
Very striking!!!!!
🙏
A cautionary tale. Truly depressing. There is nothing more morbid than wasted lives.
I think his clients were happy at least!
Ok, now you got me laughing! Life’s a rollercoaster.
100% believable.
Good story.
🙏