It's a time honoured tradition to conclude one's e-mail with a philosophical or humorous remark, the so called signatures. My signatures usually reflect how I feel at that time or contain some hidden reference to a major event that is going on in my life. I am pretty easy to decode if you just follow all my e-mail signatures. I have collected a sizeable chunk of the signatures I used in the last couple of years, and present them here together with some short remarks on why I used this signature...
To me the quote signifies the tragic truth of life that everyone you love can be taken away by life at any moment: accident, disease, heart failure, whatever. It also means that you got to live life as if the last day has arrived. It might well be. Don't postpone that date with friends, you might as well never see them again. Never fail to tell someone you love him/her; wouldn't it be sad if they go to meet their maker without you having parted with this important piece of information?
An absolute certainty like this also relieves me from fear. There is nothing to be afraid of. This is life, anything can happen. There is no reason to be scared since the danger is there for sure...
It comes from "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand, one of the most gripping books I have ever read. It is best explained by an example: Taking away a threat is not a reward. Suppose someone comes around, puts a gun to your head and tries to pressure you into doing something for which the reward is the removal of the gun. Taking away the gun is not a reward, it is taking away the threat. An entity (a reward) is not the absence of a non-entity (the absence of reward's opposite). You might well be smart to give in (life is the absolute standard of things), but make sure that nobody lives under the impression that you were rewarded, you were pressured.
Although this example is somewhat concocted, it happens in real life much more often than you would imagine. The state (i.e. the anonymous body supposed to represent the will of the group) has a surprising array of powers and threats, the removal of which is supposed to be a reward...
Another lemma pretty close to this one is: "He who does not value his own life holds yours in his hand". If you don't value your life, you're pretty much Consequence Free (have you thought of the name of the band yet :-). The September 11th attack "proves" this...
If you perceive yourself without power, you fear that you will not be able to accomplish your goals. If you feel powerful (and you're in your right mind), you fear that your power is so large that it will inadvertently destroy what you are not carefully protecting (collateral damage :-). Also keep in mind the Wizard's Second Rule (the rule of unintentional results).
However, it has a deeper meaning for me as well. There is little or no point in denying your past or the events that took place. They have happened and their effects are visible until todo. If for nothing less, they made you who you are today...
Although a rational creature by nature, I am perfectly willing to let myself be led by my emotions. Emotions are very powerful. Most of the time what you feel you must do (even if it's only deep inside and heavily repressed) will be done in the end.
Love and the illusion of love (sometimes pretty hard to distinguish from one another; in fact, some people never manage it during their entire life) can be found in the most unlikely places and I am loth to just let it lie there.
The quote is from a Tracy Chapman song and it perfectly summarises my 'philosophy' on this part of life, the universe and everything... I also used this signature as a signal of my frustration when a sort of relationship I was in at that time failed because my beloved one was in full denial and evasion mode.
This is somewhat of a haphazard explanation....
Do you gaze at what is and wonder why this is so? Or do you look for what is not and try and accomplish that. There are too many people around that ask only "why?" and never take the steps to move on. If you have children, you know what I mean :-)
One of my collegues replied that the call to "flush()" would dump with a NullPointerException as a result of "jos.getBrain()" returning nothing... :-) I hit him over the head with my Java book, and he was thus enlightened...
I once postulated that "happiness" is in fact more of an (innate?) trait of people than the result of external circumstances that people find themselves in. If you're a happy person, that happiness more often than not is capable of overcoming any bad luck you might run into. That observation suggests that happiness derives from factors within oneself, and not from external sensations or attributes.
Although I am not a full blood Stoic, I do see the truth in the central lemma as stated in the quote. Over the past years it has helped me to focus on my perception of things and in many situations I have been successful in changing my perspective and maintaining my mental "health"...
My interpretation of these lines go back to earlier signatures on freedom, having nothing left to lose and being Consequence Free (the name of the band is "Great Big Sea" by the way). All that binds you deters you from doing, from attaining freedom...
Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to the dark side... (from Star Wars).
So that's the perfectly legal C declaration "volatile float josv" explained. Interpreted outside the C context (by humans) it has another meaning too. You're probably getting it...
This quote comes from the book. It perfectly describes my own feeling with respect to a lot of spiritual systems that seem to be made for perfect people. I am not perfect! The simple fact that I am human brings with it all sorts of flaws (stemming from both nature and nurture). Trying to adhere to a set of "guidelines" that are impossible for me to follow only makes me depressed...