15 Comments
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Paul D'Arcy's avatar

I don't know what it all means, but I enjoyed your perspective. ♥️

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Revathi Ganesh's avatar

Wonderful thoughts here— love this so much!🫶

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iL.'s avatar

thank you, Revathi 🫶🏼✨

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Amit Charles's avatar

Thank your for sharing.

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Diana's avatar

So much can be said about Bukowski, but I will quote Hemingway's words, who said it simple– "damn genius".

Beautiful tribute, Ilan!! Bukowski (and Hemingway) raise a toast to you somewhere out there…

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iL.'s avatar

What a wonderful comment, thanks for making me smile! He truly was a genius, his words seem to hold such weight. Thank you, Diana.

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Roberto Lampl's avatar

Your piece reminded me of the importance of humility. Abs’ story teaches us that each person is a world on its own, I also loved the visuals btw.

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iL.'s avatar

<3 Thank you!

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Amit Charles's avatar

Thank you so much for sharing this @revsthi ganesh

Much needed note at this point of time. I was reminded of Herman Hesse's Siddhartha and the lessons he learnt from the river. Thanks again for writing this. Keep going.

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iL.'s avatar

What a beautiful note, thanks Amit. I’m a big fan of Herman Hesse and Siddhartha is one of my favourites of his. Appreciate the kind words

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MJ Bel's avatar

Maybe “Don’t try” is purposely left to interpretation. I like to think it means there is no reason to try because everything you seek is already available within.

Interestingly, I included Bukowski’s quote in my post yesterday, “Find what you love and let it kill you”, as if I had known his death anniversary was coming up.

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iL.'s avatar

I love that perspective MJ. There is an assurance that comes from knowing all that we seek can be found within. Going to check out your essay :)

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Rhys's avatar

Thanks for this lovely bit of writing. I was going to make a comment about wuwei myself, but I see another commenter has beaten me to it - but, yes, ‘not-doing’ is a very interesting idea to explore. Instead, more frivolously, I will just mention an Al Stewart song you might enjoy: ‘If it doesn’t come naturally, leave it’

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John Raisor's avatar

Google Wu Wei

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Matt DiGeronimo's avatar

Beautifully written. Thank you. Tangentially related and much more tactical than your philosophical perspective, I have observed that "effort" is way overruled in the workforce.

https://open.substack.com/pub/curiousleaders/p/why-do-we-measure-and-value-effort?r=2ldy4w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

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