Why do we focus so intensely on our problems? What draws us to them? Why are they so attractive? They have the magnet power of love: somehow we desire our problems; we are in love with them much as we want to get rid of them. Problems sustain us - maybe that's why they don't go away. What would a life be without them? Completely tranquilized and loveless ... There is a secret love hiding in each problem.
- James Hillman, The Essential James Hillman: A Blue Fire, edited by Thomas Moore
Thanks to Rob Breszny, my favorite astrologer, for including this quote in his weekly newsletter. What great questions! Oh yeah!!
15 comments:
"There is a secret love hiding in each problem." WOW! I love that! It's so true - what we worry about is what's valuable to us. Our worries reveal our passions.
there are so many levels of meaning in this passage by hillman.... thanks for to you and rob for passing along this bit of wisdom.
the idea of a secret love hiding in each problem-- a little passion can cause a heap o trouble sometimes, but indeed, it just adds to that spice of life doesn't it?
this made me laugh aloud as just yesterday i listed as one of my denials--i deny that i have any real problems. . .
talk about your rose colored outlook---
LOVE YOU!
Okay, you have befuddled me - each sentence can take a lifetime to ponder and here are a bunch of interesting points all joined together. Excellent and overwhelming. I don't have time to analyze right now however because I have too many problems to deal with...
If this is indeed true, it's a good advertisement for one love at a time.
Maybe this is why I found it so difficult to experience that very brief period of nirvana.
Ah, Rob Breszny. I always check out all of his horoscopes because there's always something useful - whether it's under "my" sign or not.
"A secret love in each problem" - beautiful formulation.
"A secret love hiding in each problem." The problem is finding it. Hang on, that's another problem! I must be in love.
P.S. I've enjoyed your fabulous photos this month.
I could blast this philosophy, but instead I will quote Paris Hilton. You want a blissful life? She has a blissful life.
In Africa, Paris is quoted this week as saying, "Every time Paris saw something she liked, like a woman's dress, she would ask how much it was. That included a cheetah she saw at an animal park. She asked how much it was and said, 'If I bought a cheetah, would it run away from me or could I keep it?"
When you are that stupid? You don't have problems. You are too stupid to have problems. Your problems are "Why are these Manolo's pinching my feet? Why can't I have seventeen dogs? Why do you want my head up and facing that picture on the wall?"
I wish I could believe that the cheetah wouldn't run away, wouldn't eat my dogs, wouldn't eat my shoes, and wouldn't wind up featured in a sex tape with me in about six months time.
Call me someone wishing for a pink, sparkly moment in life.
Cube, Paris Hilton IS denial. She is a solid chunk of cluelessness. The 'secret love' in her problems is completely invisible. But they are there. i believe it.
Another way to look at it: I'd rather read James Hillman than about Paris Hilton any day. Is that my denial?
Thanks, dumbad!
Too much reality can make you long for denial, Reya: the river or your mindset.
Dennis finds his problems extremely attractive.
true, this comment - but sometimes sadly true, don't you think? theres problems, and then theres problems....
I love the colors and the whole "feel" of that photo, Reya! The warmth of the colors combined with the slightly tilted word make me feel relaxed just by looking at it. Very visually pleasing.
Gary made me laugh!
This is very interesting ... I never thought about problems in this way before. Thanks for sharing!
On the quote: There is such a thing as "admiring a problem" so much that you don't want to solve it, you just want to dwell in the problem and wear the problem as a mantle.
I agree with Lynne, just looking at the word "relax" is relaxing. Thanks, I guess I needed that. Reminds me of what I thought was a strange interaction years ago: my sister told my 5 year old nephew to relax and I visibly saw him relax. I said to her: "He's five. You need to tell him to relax?" And she said "Yes." And that was that.
I guess we all need to be reminded how tightly we're strung from time to time. :)
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