Finding is losing something else. I think about, perhaps even mourn, what I lost to find this
Interpretation
Finding something often requires sacrificing or losing something else, leading to mixed feelings about the loss.
This quote by Richard Brautigan reflects on the idea that every gain in life comes with a corresponding loss. It suggests that in the process of acquiring new experiences, relationships, or possessions, we inevitably leave something behind, creating a sense of nostalgia or mourning for what was relinquished. Brautigan invites us to contemplate the bittersweet nature of finding joy or fulfillment, which is often intertwined with the pain of letting go.
In practice
In a speech about personal growth, one could use this quote to emphasize the need to embrace change despite the sadness of what is left behind.
A sombrero fell out of the sky and landed on the main street of town in front of the mayor, his cousin, and a person out of work. The day was scrubbed clean by the desert air. The sky was blue. It was the blue of human eyes, waiting for something to happen. There was no reason for a sombrero to fall out of the sky. No airplane or helicopter was passing overhead and it was not a religious holiday.
In a Cafe" I watched a man in a cafe fold a slice of bread as if he were folding a birth certificate or looking at the photograph of a dead lover.
I like to think_x000D_ (it has to be!)_x000D_ of a cybernetic ecology_x000D_ where we are free of our labors_x000D_ and joined back to nature,_x000D_ returned to our mammal_x000D_ brothers and sisters,_x000D_ and all watched over_x000D_ by machines of loving grace.
I feel as if I am an ad for the sale of a haunted house: 18 rooms $37,000 Iβm yours ghosts and all.
Gee, You're so Beautiful That It's Starting to Rain Oh, Marcia, I want your long blonde beauty to be taught in high school, so kids will learn that God lives like music in the skin and sounds like a sunshine harpsicord. I want high school report cards to look like this: Playing with Gentle Glass Things A Computer Magic A Writing Letters to Those You Love A Finding out about Fish A Marcia's Long Blonde Beauty A+!
For 13 to be unlucky would require there to be some kind of cosmic intelligence that counts things that humans count and that also makes certain things happen on certain dates or in certain places according to whether the number 13 'is involved' or not (whatever 'is involved' might mean).
Freedom is the power to create out of nothing, the power of the spirit to create out of itself.
That saints will aid if men will call; For the blue sky bends over all!
Historian: an unsuccessful novelist.
The world leans on us. When we sag, the whole world seems to droop.
For it must be noted, that men must either be caressed or else annihilated; they will revenge themselves for small injuries, but cannot do so for great ones; the injury therefore that we do to a man must be such that we need not fear his vengeance.
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