Thomas Wolfe's "Man's Youth" (2)

A young man is so strong, so mad, so certain, and so lost. He has everything and he is able to use nothing. He hurls the great shoulder of this strength forever against phantasmal barriers, he is a wave whose poser explodes in lost mid-oceans under timeless skies, he reaches out to grip a fume of painted smoke; he wants all, feels the thirst and power for everything, and finally get nothing. In the end, he is destroyed by his own strength, devoured by his won hunger, impoverished by his own wealth. Thoughtless of money or the accumulation of material possessions, he is none the less defeated in the end by his own greed – a greed that makes the avarice of King Midas seem paltry by comparison.

And that is the reason why, when youth is gone, every man will look back upon that period of his life with infinite sorrow and regret. It is the bitter sorrow and regret of a man who knows that once he had a great talent and wasted it, of a man who knows that once he had a great talent and wasted it, of a man who knows that once he had a great treasure and got nothing from it, of a man who knows that he had strength enough for everything and never used it.

Thomas Wolfe's "Man's Youth"

Man's youth is a wonderful thing; it is so full of anguish and of magic and he never comes to know it as it is, until it has gone from him forever.

It is the thing he cannot bear to lose, it is the thing whose passing he watches with infinite sorrow and regret, it is the thing whose loss he must lament forever, it is the thing whose loss he really welcomes with a sad and secret joy, the thing would never willingly relive again, could it be restored to him by any magic.

新學期的展望. A Prospects for New Semester

二十世紀著名的存在哲學家Heidegger曾經說過: 閒話,好奇心,與生活中模擬兩可的生活態度,是人存在的基本方式.
此為"此有的陷溺"(das Verfallen des Daseins).

人往往習慣"陷溺"在茫茫人海之中. 不覺自己的墮落,反覺得有趣.

在這之中.人忘記自己: 從何而來? 所由為何?? 又何去何從???....

此為"存有的遺忘".

人在存有之中遺忘自己. 只有"良心"才能將之喚醒.....