Discover the pearls of wisdom from one of the greatest poets ever.
I have always believed that good literature is an exercise in psychoanalysis where the therapist and patient are the same people: the writer.
And novels, essays, and short stories are just an exercise of introspection where the author rediscovers himself in hypothetical situations.
But when the writer writes poetry, something changes; he is no longer a psychologist who analyses himself; he becomes a shaman, a visionary capable of understanding himself and the world and anticipating the future in his verses.
When he writes poetry, it is as if the writer connects with the universal source and directly connects with the ancestral, present, and future wisdom of humanity.
That’s why today I want to share with you three phrases from Charles Bukowski, one of my favorite cursed poets, that will make you see reality in a transversely different way,
Let’s start.
1. On Routine
“It is not the big things that send a person to the madhouse. No. A continuous succession of small tragedies sends a person to the madhouse.”— Charles Bukowski.
I love Routine; Routine is the only way to build something meaningful. but routine it’s not dull; I realized that as Zen masters teach, “You never live the same day two times.”
But Bukowski it’s also right; if you are incapable of seeing the miracles that life spread along your days in the form of little things: the smile of a child, the “Hi” of a beautiful stranger, the luck of finding parking in front of work during rush hour, your life eventually becomes a hell.
Focussing and getting obsessed with the minor tragedies of the day can make you mad as f*ck.
- Your date arrives late, and your head thinks it’s cheating on you.
- That heartburn when you finally stop eating salad and skip your diet.
- That weekend trip costs you twice as much because you get hit by a speed camera and get a ticket.
The accumulation of small miseries makes you explode over silly things at the most unfortunate moment possible.
Accumulate this kind of little sh*ts drives people crazy in the queue at Starbucks because they have to wait 5 minutes too long for their Chai-latte.
Lesson: be grateful, see the beauty in everything, and don’t take anything for granted. If you are healthy today, you already have more than many people. And by realizing this, you will avoid going crazy.
2. On Real Life
“There are people so tired, machine-gunned, and mutilated by love or non-love that buying a can of tuna on sale in a supermarket is their finest hour, their most significant victory.” — Charles Bukowski.
Here Bukowski speaks about the “be kind; you never know what battles someone is facing” thing.
And it’s right, despite dying in 1994. He never sees the social media reality: the smiling selfies and all that sh*t, but he predicts the main problem we face today: loneliness.
Nobody trusts nobody anymore. People are options, and because of that, relationships become like provisional work until you find your dream job.
No one is satisfied with anyone; everyone aspires to more: a more attractive partner, a partner with more money, a partner with more time to invest in the relationship, a partner with a better social position, and all that jazz.
That’s why nobody gets too involved. And when something fails, instead of fixing it, we do like in the consumer society: we throw the relationship away as if it were an appliance that no longer works and is more expensive to repair than to buy, and we go to the shop (Tinder or wherever) to look for a new one.
But we only have one heart, which has been thrown away and replaced so many times that we no longer trust anyone.
And that’s why, as Bukowski says, we look for that can of tuna in the supermarket, which we identify as “that which we can control and won’t go wrong.”
And it is sad.
Lesson: Compromise is good, but you only see it with time and effort. Give it a try, Compromise leads you to loyalties, and that’s what transforms a romantic partner in part of your family.
3. On dead
“After many years, things start to repeat over and over again. You start to see the same substance, the same action-reaction. You begin to get tired of life. So when death comes, I will say, “Ok, babe, It’s time. It’s good.” — Charles Bukowski.
Charles Bukowski was a contradictory man like any human being because, in addition to that fatalistic phrase, he also wrote things like “You can’t win death, but you can win death in life.”
And he tried; he was jogging while fighting leukemia that killed him.
So he didn’t want to make it easy for death.
So he wasn’t as tired of “always the same” as he said. And this makes me reflect that most people are not sincere about death.
Those who are most emboldened, in the end, are the ones who fear it the most. I think Bukowski didn’t want to die; he wanted to go on living, even if he had to play the role of the cursed poet.
Because, in the end, we all change our minds. And when we do, everything becomes new. And the actions-reactions that Bukowski refers to are different.
Lesson: Live a life that makes you change your mind about death, a life that says…. I don’t want to die, not now because I’m having a great time 🙂
A virtual hug
AG