酷我-北美枫

[ericcoliu]

A Little Tiny Sea Wave in a Big Wide Ocean

There is a little sea wave, a he-wave who is bobbing up and down in the ocean, having a great time. He often immerses himself in a competitive race against his fellow waves and billows; sometimes he takes pleasure in solitude, passively being lifted and dropped by the gentle wind. “What a great joy being a sea wave!” he ponders.

As time goes by, he gradually approaches the shore. All of a sudden, he realizes that he is going to crash into the shore. This discovery of his own doomed fate, he tries to stop his moving toward the shore, but it is futile because the waves following him keep persistently and violently pushing him toward the shore. "Oh! My God, what is going to happen to me?" he exclaims with a despairing look on his face.

At this moment, along comes another wave, a she-wave who is bobbing up and down, having a good time. She speaks to him, "Why are you so unhappy? Don't you enjoy yourself being lifted and dropped by the gentle wind?"

"You are such a fool," he yells, "Don't you see that we are going to crash into the shore without any trace of our life left behind? We are destined to be annihilated since we were born into the ocean."

She responds to him in a gentle and firm tone, "Don’t be sad, my fellow wave. Don’t you see that you are not a little tiny sea wave? You are part of this big wide ocean."

"What nonsense are you talking about?" he angrily shouts, "if I were not a little sea wave but part of the ocean, how did you find me and talk to me in this big wide ocean comprising a huge mass of indistinct waves?"

Silence falls between them. Finally and inevitably, they are crashing into the shore.



PS: I’m not an original conceiver of the short story above, which is a story I had heard or read elsewhere some years ago. What I’m trying to do here is to re-tell the story in a philosophizing way in an attempt to reflect upon my reading of Martin Heidegger's Being and Time.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

A Little Tiny Sea Wave in a Big Wide Ocean

There is a little sea wave, a he-wave who is bobbing up and down in the ocean, having a great time. He often immerses himself in a competitive race against his fellow waves and billows; sometimes he takes pleasure in solitude, passively being lifted and dropped by the gentle wind. “What a great joy being a sea wave!” he ponders.

As time goes by, he gradually approaches the shore. All of a sudden, he realizes that he is going to crash into the shore. This discovery of his own doomed fate, he tries to stop his moving toward the shore, but it is futile because the waves following him keep persistently and violently pushing him toward the shore. "Oh! My God, what is going to happen to me?" he exclaims with a despairing look on his face.

At this moment, along comes another wave, a she-wave who is bobbing up and down, having a good time. She speaks to him, "Why are you so unhappy? Don't you enjoy yourself being lifted and dropped by the gentle wind?"

"You are such a fool," he yells, "Don't you see that we are going to crash into the shore without any trace of our life left behind? We are destined to be annihilated since we were born into the ocean."

She responds to him in a gentle and firm tone, "Don’t be sad, my fellow wave. Don’t you see that you are not a little tiny sea wave? You are part of this big wide ocean."

"What nonsense are you talking about?" he angrily shouts, "if I were not a little sea wave but part of the ocean, how did you find me and talk to me in this big wide ocean comprising a huge mass of indistinct waves?"

Silence falls between them. Finally and inevitably, they are crashing into the shore.



PS: I’m not an original conceiver of the short story above, which is a story I had heard or read elsewhere some years ago. What I’m trying to do here is to re-tell the story in a philosophizing way in an attempt to reflect upon my reading of Martin Heidegger's Being and Time.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[ericcoliu]

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end; ...

-- William Shakespeare, Sonnet LX
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end; ...

-- William Shakespeare, Sonnet LX
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[Champagne]

This prose writing reminds me of a very important fact about our radical temporal being, being-toward-death articulated in Heidegger's Being and Time.

This fact is the truth expressed here beautifully by ericcoliu's quote from Sonnet LX. Indeed, life goes on forever toward its end, never slowing down or going back, which marks the ending of A Little Tiny Sea Wave in a Big Wide Ocean.
_________________
I'm Champagne,
Bottled poetry with sparkling joy.

[[Champagne]]

This prose writing reminds me of a very important fact about our radical temporal being, being-toward-death articulated in Heidegger's Being and Time.

This fact is the truth expressed here beautifully by ericcoliu's quote from Sonnet LX. Indeed, life goes on forever toward its end, never slowing down or going back, which marks the ending of A Little Tiny Sea Wave in a Big Wide Ocean.
_________________
I'm Champagne,
Bottled poetry with sparkling joy.

[ericcoliu]

[[ericcoliu]]