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Go to link to have some “eco-fun” in iambic pentameter…well, broken pentameter at best…:). Enjoy because I think it’s fun to do something a bit out of the box every now and then.
Rand Zacharias
Rand Goes “On The Rocks”…
September 10, 2013 — randillusionSo Dad and I Went Hunting…
September 3, 2013 — randillusionNietzsche’s Niche–Definitely NOT Where You Might Think
February 23, 2011 — randillusion
Nietzsche’s mark on the world could be summed up in three not-so-simple philosophies of thought: Eternal Recurrence, Übermensch and Will to Power–of course, we’ll try to simplify. Thereby making these ideas, or ideologies, understandable and having said that, we could filter Nietzsche’s final focal lesson down to one singular statement that he commonly used and was attributed to originate with the eloquent Greek, philosophizing poet named Pindar, “Become what you are!”
In order to begin understanding Nietzsche we should go back to his early years—learn about who he was in youth. If our purpose in reading and writing is to learn how better to think, than Nietzsche is a challenging starting point—for his thinking drove many away from him, and him from many (including the likes of Richard Wagner, the composer and his wife, Cosima) but it is no less profound or fundamental in allowing us to learn from reading and writing why we think the way we do—and why Nietzsche thought they way he did—and why so many misunderstood what he was saying in his masterful volumes—even his own sister misunderstood Nietzsche and did him, and his work, great harm by tainting it with the espousal of friendship to the Nazi’s Fuhrer, Adolph Hitler—long after Nietzsche’s death in 1900.
Early Life
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was the firstborn son arriving on October 15, 1844 in Röcken, Saxony to a Lutheran pastor and his wife. He was expected to follow in the footsteps of his father, but when Friedrich was five years of age, his father fell and died of the brain injury soon after. The family moved a year later to Naumberg. In his early school years, he was known as “the little pastor,” and he loved poetry and music. Growing up, he was surrounded by the feminine—he grew up living with his mother, sister, grandmother and two aunts. At 14, in 1858, he acquired a scholarship at an austere Lutheran private school where he first began his career of philology—the love of literature. He excelled at Ptorta, the school, leaving in 1864 at the age of 20. He thanked “God and the King,” indicating none of the revolutionary thinking that would become his over the course of his life time.
Secondary Education
Moving to the University of Bonn, to study theology (the study of God) and philology (the study of literature), Nietzsche soon became disillusioned by religion and studied the works of Schopenhauer. However, this first professor of “will,” was extremely negative and forged the ideas of ascetically enduring life till it’s tragic, conclusive death. Nietzsche said, “Schopenhauer preaches asceticism and the denial of life. I shall teach the joyful affirmation of life!” Personally, I too, recall my own disfavour for the negative fate of serving a deaf god and hoped to make life joyful and rich—the pursuit of happiness—these are the affirmations of a young man with higher ideals for his own future.
In 1867, twenty-three year old Friedrich was sent to war and served a very short stint in the King’s army. After an incident with his horse he suffered a chest injury, and was dismissed from service. He began to think about academia and stated to a friend in a letter, “All writing is useless that does not contain a stimulus to activity.” A paradoxical statement when one realizes how weakly Nietzsche was over the course of his life. Previous essays that he’d written became prominent and the University of Basel wished Nietzsche to become a Professor of Philology. He was flattered and accepted the position, becoming the youngest, at 24, to ever receive such a position at the institution—but leaving after a mere ten years. He would state, “No entirely radical truth is possible,” referring to discovering truth in the life of a university academician. His health, always tenuous, was a good portion of the reason for his resignation. His disillusionment with the powers that be theologically and academically continued to grow. One should remember that Nietzsche had profound confidence in his own mind—he knew early on that his life’s writings were likely to be misunderstood, but one day his opus works would find an audience and his concepts of truth, morality and science would be heard as he intended. He said, “My time has not yet come; some are born posthumously!” Nietzsche knew he was well ahead of his time.
Beyond Academia
From 1879 to 1888, Nietzsche saw his most productive literary period. His eyesight troubled him and he tried working with typewriters of the day, the Hansen Writing Ball—a typewriting instrument of that era was one of his adventures. Peter Gast, a former student, became a kind of private secretary, even bowing to Elisabeth—Nietzsche’s sister, a constant thorn—when working on publishing works posthumously for his mentor. Gast was a musician named Heinrich Köselitz, whom Nietzsche renamed to the German term for guest or visitor.
Friedrich and Elisabeth would quarrel and reconcile constantly—she would be the instrument in the delivery of Nietzsche’s legacy, but not a good one. She was a strong Anti-semite—a position that Nietzsche could not hold. The racial hatred of the German society would ultimately alienate him to the point of demanding he was not of German birth, but rather, Polish nobility. “I feel kinship only with the most cultivated French and Russian people, but not at all with the so-called distinguished elite among my own countrymen, who judge everything from the principle: ‘Germany above everything’…” This statement alone indicates that Nietzsche was German (Prussian), but so disillusioned by the mindset of the German ego that he would shun it and claim ownership of Polish descent. He’d rid himself of any kind of passport April 17, 1869—remaining stateless to the end of his days.
The Lonely, Poetic Philosophizing Philologist
Nietzsche was a very lonely man, and even though he led a very social life through literary discussions, musical appreciation and academic intercourse in his first three decades, Nietzsche seemed never able to separate himself from his lonely pursuit of understanding—perhaps a modern example might be Stephen Hawking. Both men were/are challenged to maintain good health but each one has, or had, a very solitary journey to discovery.
Nietzsche’s solitude was self-prescribed as he continuously had fallings out when reaching conclusions of ideology in music, meaning of life, philosophy, politics, religion, philology, racial bias, etc.
So where do we put Nietzsche in the bookshelves of history’s library?
Let’s look at some of the titles of his works. Human, All Too Human; Beyond Good and Evil; The Gay Science (meaning The Joy of Science); The Anti-Christ; Thus Spoke Zarathustra; The Will to Power; Ecce Homo ( the Latin words used by Pontius Pilate in the vulgate translation of the John 19:5 verse, when he portrays Jesus scourged on the crucifix with a crown of thorns—the King James version of the bible says, “Behold the Man.”) are but the most fundamental works of the poetic, philosophizing philologist. His last work revealing his most common diatribe, “Become what you are.” We must remember this point. How could a man so obsessed with changing the world he was living in, rejecting even the artists, be writing about religion with such zest, blasphemous prose, and not be somehow moved by spirit? Perhaps, a spirit of creation demanding an escape from false structures in the institutions of faith present then—and now?
We could look at Nietzsche’s life and see his burgeoning capacity to hope become a lengthy slow, sinking into the reality of existence at his time—is it not very similar, for many, in our time? However, it is important to realize that Nietzsche was an optimist—not a nihilist. We could see a young man brought down by his horse to return to literary discourse, and constant discontent, trying to enhance, and change, the establishments of intelligence, theological belief, the arts and political powers. Nietzsche seemed consumed in the pursuit of creating a more intelligent, tolerant human culture—one that rose to creative excellence and originality. For him, the cultures of the day only copied what had come before. He could well have stated, “We think, therefore, we should become.” Instead of looking to the past Roman, Greek or Judaeo cultures for inspiration—Nietzsche wanted to see original thinking, change, growth and expansion of the human societies of the planet.
Nietzsche wanted the youth of the nations to unlearn what was being swallowed through traditional patriarchal and matriarchal structures. He said, “Only then can we produce our own cultures. Rather than follow the cultures of the past swallowing them whole like a crocodile swallows an antelope, leading to complete inertia. The goal of humanity cannot lie at the end of time, but only in its highest specimens.”
The dilemma we have with Nietzsche is that so much of his work unveils itself in the realm of fictional or poetic prose—he’s hard to understand—but he was so thorough in his historical education that we should attempt to be no less thorough in reaching conclusions of truth, morality and science.
Was he completely atheistic? Was he delusional? Was he a new messiah for an intellectual age? Or was he a German philosopher that has no relevance to our time, our place, our universe?
Let’s look at his three big theories. Übermensch, the Will to Power and Eternal Recurrence. Will to Power began with Nietzsche’s disgust with Schopenhauer’s “will to live.” The “will” doesn’t exist as an entity—it is our function to control and gain power—which can never be fulfilled so, therefore, we are destined to our sad fate—physical death—amor fati (love of destiny). “The purpose of the void is to realize we are void of purpose,” was a nihilistic introductory quote of the philosopher. However, Nietzsche combines his Eternal Recurrence theory with Will to Power with this quote;
“My idea is that every specific body strives to become master over all space and to extend its force (its will to power) and to thrust back all that resists its extension. But it continually encounters similar efforts on the part of other bodies and ends by coming to an arrangement (“union”) with those of them that are sufficiently related to it: thus they then conspire together for power. And the process goes on.”
Nietzsche is trying to display the balance of natural existence—is it nihilistic? No, he did not espouse this negative view of human existence, but neither did he espouse the master/slave concepts of modern Christianity—or any faith—or the linear end game of an “end of days,” like the Judaeo, Christian and Islamic time lines. He thus moved on to the next theory of Übermensch. A kind of future human being that would evolve into responsible, practical, tolerant, non-religious, evolved examples of human perfection—as grandiose as this idea of a better class of human development may have sounded it fit hand in glove with the “survival of the fittest,” and “eugenics” (genetic selection) that was rising in the scientific, and political, minds of the day. This is not what Nietzsche was discussing—his was a discussion of present human kind as a bridge to the next realm of “super” human existence—not like the comic book hero, but rather cerebrally, and culturally, enhanced mankind—unbound by foolish superstitions of good and evil, of absolute truths delivered by uncertified “prophets.”
It was not physically, that Nietzsche was discussing the evolution of humankind alone. And it was not an ideology of racial segregation or prejudice of any kind—it was a cerebral foretelling of metaphysical advancement in which the evolution of humankind was raising from the primordial ooze of superstition, dogmatism and unenlightened thought patterns and archaic traditions.
Übermensch may be the most controversial of his theories because it was through misuse, and misinterpretation, of all his theories that his name became connected with the Nazi regime—along with the help of his uneducated, anti-Semitic sister, Elisabeth—even though, he wished no part of this thing, this darkness, that had its genesis in his lifetime, and was breeding throughout the Germanic society with help from Wagnerian operas, societal philosophers and political/social elements. Remember, Hitler wasn’t born until April 20, 1889—young Adolph would only be eleven at the time of Nietzsche’s death. Otto von Bismarck was the hated king of Nietzsche’s life.
The Superman—comic book hero or Über race of Hitler’s Reich—isn’t what the conceptual realization of Übermensch is about in Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra. We have to remember that Nietzsche was completely against the structures of the day—God was dead, because the structures of faith, the power mongers had done away with him, he wasn’t at play in the fields of civilization. Humanity had moved on to a position of mortal control, in which, God was dead. This era of technological advancement, industrialization, invention and nationalism was creating a world of possibility—but there were cracks in the structure.
The bastardization of Nietzsche’s ideas by the Nazi regime would not have been received kindly by the man—much like Darwin’s name being placed on, or beside, the biological results of attempted eugenics or social Darwinism—wouldn’t be appreciated by Darwin.
Ayn Rand
February 15, 2011 — randillusionAyn Rand was born in St. Peterburgh, Russia in 1905 and named Alissa Rosenbaum. Her father was a chemist named Zinovy. Her mother Anna, was the daughter of a successful tailor.
At the time of the Russian Revolution, her father’s chemistry shop was closed and young Alissa (the future Ayn) witnessed the social upheaval of what became the Soviet Union. Her father was forced to find work in the Soviet shop system. She studied history and graduated with the highest honors from the University of Petrograd in 1921. Emigrating to America in 1926, she changed her surname to a portion of the company’s namesake stamped on the typewriter she used; the company name was Remington-Rand. Reminton-Rand owned the world’s first super computer, the Univac, in the 50’s. It was developed for military purposes and then expanded its abilities to be used for census and data retrieval and compilation.
From 1926 to 1949 Rand stayed in Hollywood and moved through various positions of the movie industry, including her start in script writing. She worked for big names like RKO Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. With Hal Wallis Productions she contracted to work for the studio for six months and the remaining six months of the year was dedicated to pursuing the completion of her own writing. Her first best-selling novel, The Fountainhead, became a movie in 1949.
Rand first married an actor Frank O’Connor in 1926, and soon became a naturalized American citizen. She loved her adopted country, capitalism, and the pursuit of happiness for self. She was an atheist, philosopher and leading intellectual who did not approve of the social state that offered welfare to the unemployed. She adhered strictly to capitalism and dedication to self esteem and self preservation. She hated altruism–the sacrificing of self for the happiness of another. “Altruism is suicide,” states Rand in an interview with Phil Donahue in the late 70s. She loved Aristotle, the philosphical father of reason–and hated Plato.
Her complicated opinions left many scratching their heads because of her atheistic belief. She certainly leaned toward Social Darwinism–and survival of the fittest. One of her greatest complaints was the billions of dollars given to handicapped children who would never contribute to the progress of humanity, and the neglected opportunity of also giving funds to gifted children.
Rand wanted less government–no taxes, not health care, and certainly, no welfare. The ability to produce a product should bring one enough capital to exist–without the altruism of a socialistic system.
One of Rand’s favorite television shows was Charlie’s Angels . She desired human perfection with perfect government that allowed the individual to excel in the venue of lives, and life styles, chosen. She couldn’t stand the ideas of big government, god, socialism and totalitarianism. Mussolini had her work banned in fascist Italy.
The observation of reality was the standard of existence–not the hope of a godly impact on your life. “You are destroying your own mind–when you believe in God–you are denying your own ability to reason. It is giving your life away, hoping that there is a world after this one,” states Rand.
“You are going against reality,” Rand reasons, “You are going against the nature of reality when you give up your existence on the hope of a supreme being as the guide for your life. I hate the people that conceived of the idea of God. I know that there isn’t a god, because there is no evidence. However, I have no right to hold people to my belief system.”
Rand’s conclusions about religion include the facts that most people are born into a faith or are emotionally moved to join a faith. “It is not logical to follow a being that has no evidence of existing. In the philosophy of logic–we can not prove a negative–so, for me to prove that God does not exist is impossible–one doesn’t prove a negative in the school of reason. I have no evidence that he does exist, therefore he doesn’t. It would be an illogical task to undertake–an impossibility.”
Ayn Rand’s dogmatic conclusions found many enemies to her world of pure logic and intellectualism. She was very critical of President Carter during his term in office, declaring that his eternal smile was an altruistic front that would only lead to insanity. She felt that the right needed more leadership in creating a more American reality for the individual.
The fascinating paradox of her work is that it required all people of a state, nation or country to think intellectually, logically and objectively at the same time. It was an utopian dream. If a nation could come to the point of atheistic reason by eliminating religion a major tenant of freedom would be eliminated–the right to the freedom of religion.
What Rand wanted was freedom from religion. To each individual the right to come to a philosophical belief that would result in various methods of prosperity without the guidance of an invisible, non-existent entity guiding the people. The success or failure of an individual’s philosophy would be indicated by their ability to create capital, ie. make a living.
She will continue to be a major force in philosophical circles even though she passed into the great beyond almost thirty years ago. If she couldn’t prove the existence of god during the course of her lifetime–most theologians would proclaim,”She knows now!”
Nietzsche, Ubermensch and Superman
February 14, 2011 — randillusionIn the coming days I’m going to write a short dissertation on the eloquence and irrelevance of Nietzsche. The poor man never had a chance and was a product of his environment–and education.
If he had gone out and procreated, versus sitting alone and contemplating the meaning of life–poor Nietzsche may have enjoyed his short, eternally re-occuring life. He may have stopped dreaming of the evolution of humankind and really lived. It is what he ultimately describes in his writings. Live, for god’s sake, live.
I think you’ll enjoy my short bio on Friedrich Nietzsche–too many of us are scared to even discuss his dissertations. It’s alright, he was deep, but not that deep.
The untermensch discusses the Ubermensch
Greta Garbo just wanted to be left alone
February 10, 2011 — randillusion
Greta Lovisa Gustaffson was born on September 18, 1905 in Sweden. She was to become a member of Hollywood royalty, placing fifth in all time rankings for greatest actresses by survey, but her beginnings were humble and fraught with poverty and a longing to become a member of the theatre. For her visiting the Biograph (theatre) on evenings as famous players exited and young Greta dreamed of being on the famous actors and actresses elevated plane of existence–her dreams would one day be realized–but they would not always carry the joy and happiness that Greta hoped for. The Guinness book of World Records would one day report that she was “the most beautiful woman in the world.”
In Sweden, the days of silent movies were a grand era and Greta’s home nation was renowned for great screen work and direction. Men, like Mauritz Stiller, who would ultimately become Greta’s mentor and champion and short-time lover, would move to Hollywood, only to find a different kind of system that they may, or may not, be able to work in. The Hollywood ego was huge from the very beginning and careers could be made or broken if the movers and shakers of Hollywood didn’t like an actor or director.
Greta’s story would be filled with drama, romance, sensuality, mystery and overwhelming popularity that would one day see her say, “I just want to be left alone.” Perhaps, it is with this phrase that we, the people of the world, have come to look at Garbo with severe disdain or pained passion. We may think, how could anyone retire at 36–in her prime–and never see the silver screen again?
Greta remains somewhat of a mystery long after her death on April 15, 1990, when she suffered renal failure and finally exited life’s stage after recuperating from a bout with “the old man’s friend,” pneumonia. Most reports claim she died of natural causes, but others claim she had become dependent on alcohol during the 80s which attributed to her health problems. She also survived a battle with breast cancer–during the course of her hermitical last years.
Who was Greta?
Greta Garbo documentary Pt. I video at this link…it’s a nine-part documentary from Turner Classic Movie channel.
Early Career
Greta, at fourteen years of age, began her working career as a lather girl in a barber shop when her father died of nephritis–she would also lose her beloved sister to lymphatic cancer by the time Greta was twenty-one. These early tragedies for the future star may explain a great deal of her personality in regards to men, women and her personal relationships. Her natural beauty and desire to become a model and actress soon found her working at a local department store selling fashion items to the women of Sweden.
She was asked to participate in a short commercial reel in which a famed Swedish actor, Lars Hanson, made a cameo–Greta would one day work as his romantic interest in a future Swedish film. You can watch a glimpse of this reel in the video above. You may notice thick, unplucked eyebrows on the plump Greta Gustaffson–it has been reported that she lost 25 kilograms once she arrived in Hollywood.
Greta’s first film came in 1922–it was called Peter The Tramp. Mauritz Stiller enters her life to bring her early success by the age of eighteen. Stiller also assists in creating the future icon of the feminine mystique’s stage name–Garbo –and by 1926, when Stiller was asked to move to Hollywood, by Louis B. Mayer of MGM, to attempt his hand at directing in the American cinema–Garbo was at his side. Mayer’s interest was more skewed to the talents of the young actress than Stiller’s direction. Her first arrival to America at New York’s port came with little fanfare and only a lowly industry assistant arrived at the docks to greet Stiller and the future superstar.
Her statement after a short time in Hollywood, “Here, it is boring, incredibly boring, so boring I can’t believe it’s true.” California had none of the seasons that Garbo so adored in her youth–in Hollywood, it was brown and green. After her first movies–and the films’ grand successes–Garbo would threaten to leave with the simple phrase, “I think I’ll go back to Sweden!” With this statement, studio heads would do everything in their power to fulfill Garbo’s every whim.
In 1928, Mauritz Stiller returned to Sweden after being fired by the Hollywood machine. He died at the age of 45, shortly after arriving in his homeland. Garbo was devastated by his passing. She’d only known him a short time, but he may have well been the greatest influence the young actress would ever have in life, acting and love.
“If you’re going to die on screen, you must be strong and in good health.” Garbo once stated–she likely gave credit to Stiller for this brief oxymoron. Four years after his passing she revealed much of the importance this Swedish director had played in her life. She said, “Stiller’s death was a great blow to me. For so long I had been his satellite. All Europe at that time regarded Stiller as the most significant figure in the film world. Directors hurried to the projecting rooms where his prints were shown. They took with them their secretaries and, in the dim silence, they dictated breathless comments on the wide sweep of his magnificent technique. Stiller had found me, an obscure artist in Sweden, and brought me to America. I worshiped him. There are some, of course, who say it was a love story. It was more. It was utter devotion which only the very young can know – the adoration of a student for her teacher, of a timid girl for a master mind. In his studio, Stiller taught me how to do everything: how to eat; how to turn my head; how to express love – and hate. Off the screen I studied his every whim, wish and demand. I lived my life according to the plans he laid down. He told what to say and what to do. When Stiller died I found myself like a ship without a rudder. I was bewildered – lost – and very lonely. I resolutely refused to talk to reporters because I didn’t know what to say. By degrees I dropped out of the social whirl of Hollywood. I retired into my shell. I built a wall of repression around my real self, and I lived – and still live – behind it.”
Life and Art–Twins of a Superstar’s legacy
Timing is everything. For Garbo, who couldn’t speak the English language upon her arrival in the mid 1920s–silent pictures were a boon. So was the medium of black and white film that exposed her beauty dramatically. The contrasting revelation of black and white upon Garbo’s face, along with specialized lenses, was serendipitously fortunate and created the world’s first great superstar actress. She would have to travel across America, and the Atlantic Ocean, under pseudonyms to stop the constant hounding of photographers, the press and the public. She was one of the first actresses to receive this sort of constant attention–even though the world, or term, of paparazzi had yet to be realized or coined.
Her first films in America, Torrent (1926); Flesh and the Devil (1926) and Love (1927) brought her $400/week, $600/week and $5,000/week respectively. We can begin to see the effect Garbo was going to bring to the world–and her own pocketbook. In 1931, during the early stages of the Great Depression Garbo was asked to portray the tragic heroine in Anna Christie–her salary was a whopping quarter of a million dollars–imagine what that could buy during this dark era in American history. By 1936, Garbo commanded a half a million dollar fee for starring in her favourite film, Camille, directed by George Cukor. In 1941, at the making of her last film, Two-Faced Woman, her wage earnings dropped to $150,000. However, over the course of the next fifty years there would be million dollar offers to bring the acclaimed actress back to the screen–fortune never smiled on any of these projects.
Garbo’s life saw the introduction of John Gilbert when she made Flesh and the Devil–Gilbert portraying the dashing hero. The pairings love scenes steamed with sensuality and life soon imitated art. Gilbert and Garbo began an on again, off again love affair that had Gilbert reportedly asking for Greta’s hand in marriage three times. She finally accepted his proposal but never showed up for the ceremony. The pair never married but a torrid affair lingered for years until Garbo went the way of Garbo–it may have foreshadowed the slow demise of Gilbert’s career.
Gilbert’s transition to talkies was difficult. It may have been a manipulated tactic caused by Louis B. Mayer upon an incident in which Garbo’s name was slurred and Gilbert accosted the movie mogul verbally and physically. Gilbert’s voice was recorded in a manner that raised his natural baritone to a squeaky scale that made test audience’s laugh–Gilbert’s career suffered a slow, painful demise with several comeback attempts–he played opposite Garbo one last time in Queen Christina (1933). In the film’s roll of credits–Garbo gets top billing, while Gilbert’s name appears after the title–a visual slap to the actor’s legacy. Gilbert died in 1936, at the age of 38, due to complications from alcohol abuses–a heart attack ended what should have been a much more successful career. Marlene Dietrich and Gilbert were set to appear in the film, Desire, at the time of his death. Dietrich, a nemesis of Garbo, was involved with Gilbert before his premature demise.
Who was Garbo…really?
She was born into a poor home in Stockholm, and by her own admission, a tomboy at heart.
Rumours, innuendo and written biographies tell stories of bisexuality, lesbian affairs, depression, illness, alcoholism and strange disciplines and dietary habits being a part of Garbo’s life.
The astonishing success of a poor, uneducated girl who grew up to be admired, hated, loved, adored and pursued by the lowliest public citizens of the planet and the elite rulers who controlled world events should be evidence enough to conclude, “GG (this was a nickname) was a smashing hit for all of humanity that lived with quiet dignity and aplomb. She tried, under ludicrous circumstances, to excel at her craft–and in her life.”
A wonderful biography written by Karen Swenson entitled Garbo: A Life Apart shortly after Garbo’s demise gives us an inside look at the character and charm of a woman who was pursued by the world upon her entrance into adulthood.
Garbo succeeded with her Bohemian, tomboy, yet sensual, charm in confusing and mystifying detractors and admirers alike, but when looking at the comprehensive sketch of Garbo’s wisdom provided by recorded quips, comments and events in her life–we see a well-developed, thoughtful and mature woman who wanted to live life to the fullest. Sadly, Garbo admitted, life wasn’t easy and certain portions of life’s pie she was not able to enjoy a slice of. Marriage, childbirth and perhaps, real sincerity, in all of her personal and professional relationships that may have been experienced with an average life.
At one point in her world travels, Garbo sits with Winston Churchill, his wife, Clementine and Aristotle Onassis aboard the shipping tycoon’s yacht sipping at the cocktail hour. It is unknown what the conversation may have been that fine day, but when one thinks of power, fame, civility, beauty and wealth all sitting at the same table, perhaps it isn’t difficult. Perhaps, they all wanted a break from dutiful lives and told each other jokes of an innocent nature?
During the course of Garbo’s retirement she often asked advice of business leaders and art aficionados. Garbo was very frugal and remembered the poverty of her youth. When she died attended to by her loving extended family Garbo’s estate was found to be worth over fifty million dollars. The small apartment she lived and died in for the last decades of her life were decorated with impeccable art and decor that exhibited a life well lived.
She once answered when asked about secrets, “Every one of us lives his life just once; if we are honest, to live once is enough.”
To do it well and be remembered for things one has done decades before is immortality–and that, too is enough.
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Randillusion's Blog 
So, Dad and I went hunting…
September 3, 2013 — randillusionMy first hunting trip remembered…with two very interesting pictures…taken 39 years
apart.