Tag Archives: #meaning

Anonymous

Posted on January 14, 2021 by d4vid

If I were Lawful Evil, I would write a tome debunking the QAnon connections with the Star Wars mythology and, thus, cement the QAnon connections with the Star Wars mythology.

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Cynicism & Exuberance

Posted on July 28, 2020 by d4vid

I was thinking about why over the decades I have always found Penn & Teller so delightful and I think it is because they combine two important aspects of my own personality:  cynicism & exuberance.

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Handbook

Posted on May 17, 2019 by d4vid

Harmontown turned me on to a comedy podcast called Hollywood Handbook which I’m quite enjoying. As a throwaway sideline in one of their interviews, they started going off on the idea of “Chop wood, carry water.” (Apparently there are two … Continue reading →

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Trap

Posted on May 22, 2018 by d4vid

Sometimes existence feels like being born into a bear trap.

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Snap

Posted on April 28, 2018 by d4vid

The ending of Avengers: Infinity War definitely resonated with me as I continue to think about meaning and mortality and existence.

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Delight & Melancholy

Posted on April 4, 2018 by d4vid

Driving down a lonely New Mexico highway at dusk listening to “Wicked Game” filled me with a Lynchian sense of melancholy. My favorite feeling is delight.  But I’ve also always found a certain delight in melancholy.  Not all melancholy, perhaps, but … Continue reading →

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Ikigai

Posted on February 24, 2018 by d4vid

I’m astonished I’ve never run into this Japanese word before:  ikigai.

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Enantiodromia

Posted on January 20, 2018 by d4vid

I’ve been studying the Daoists recently and it’s gotten me thinking a lot about enantiodromia:  the tendency of things to become their opposites.

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Last

Posted on January 3, 2018 by d4vid

The name “David” means “beloved” in Hebrew. David Lawrence Young Sr. begat David Lawrence Young Jr. David Lawrence Young Jr. begat David Lawrence Young III. David Lawrence Young III begat David Lawrence Young IV. My father, David Lawrence Young III, … Continue reading →

Posted in L.A. | Tagged | 3 Comments

Love & Narrative

Posted on December 5, 2017 by d4vid

All that being said, there are only two things in the universe which—despite evidence to the contrary—I have chosen to believe in:  love & narrative.  These two ideas are so important to me that I’ve even broken with my strict … Continue reading →

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Delight

Posted on November 5, 2017 by d4vid

In reevaluating what I value in life, I keep coming back to how important I find the concept of delight. “Delight” and “delectation” both come to us from the Latin word delectare meaning “to charm.”  So, there’s that important connotation of … Continue reading →

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Portrait

Posted on October 31, 2017 by d4vid

At some point in high school, a friend demanded that I read James Joyce‘s The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.  I promptly bought a copy, put it on my bookshelf, and ignored it for a quarter of … Continue reading →

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Appointed

Posted on October 25, 2017 by d4vid

At least once a week, I think of this moment toward the end of Brewster’s Millions.  It reminds me of the sand mandala.  There’s profound beauty in getting something exactly right, even if it’s just for a fleeting moment.

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Immortality

Posted on October 19, 2017 by d4vid

For years now I’ve been following a blog of longform essays called ribbonfarm which was started by Venkatesh Rao.  (It’s considered by some to the “slightly evil” twin of Eliezer Yudkowsky‘s Less Wrong blog.  In 2012, Rao drew a map of various … Continue reading →

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Nosedive

Posted on October 18, 2017 by d4vid

I told my therapist today that I felt like I had pulled out of my existential nosedive into nigh-suicidal abject despair & nihilism. Now I feel like I’m just wrestling with what I called “generic North American midlife crisis.” That … Continue reading →

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