"If pain and action are inseparable, then it follows that the active, creative, sensitive man is doomed to suffer. He is the one who knows that the desire to express or to avoid grief is the impelling force of life- that pain is the Janus-face of joy; but then he becomes aware of the duality of all value. He sees that life and action exist in a perpetual tension between opposites, each of which owes its existence to the presence of the other. This tension is the source of all change and growth, for as night exists only in contrast to day, so night flows eternally into day and day to night again. The life of the race is perpetuated in the flow of natural process from birth to death to birth again; the life of the individual man moves from joy to pain to joy eternally."
- Doris V. Falk, Eugene O'Neill and the Tragic Tension
Eugene O'Neill is my favourite playwright. The more I research modern playwrights the more I realize they were more philosophers of life than playwrights. Or maybe that's what playwrights are. In any case, O'Neill's philosophy much coincides with my own and I feel a kindred connection to this man of sorrow. I don't want to explain this piece of writing because I do not think that is the reason for art. I want to admire it and let it stand on its own. So I will. Take what you will from this. Thirst over it. Taste it fully and let it devour the pains of hunger in your soul.
One Thing I Love: communion
Song of the Day:
Numb by Linkin Park
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