Mad Season

Some of us are born chasing poetry.

You choose what to think about. And you may not feel that way every day, but the truth is, that you choose what you think about. It’s one of the few things that you can choose and it is—it’s kind of the definition, I think, of being a person. It’s that you have this weird gift of consciousness and you get to choose how you direct that gift. Like, how you direct your ability to think about things. So, if you choose to think about the relative health of the romantic relationships of The Situation, you’re making that choice. MTV is not making that choice for you, The Situation is not making that choice for you, you are making that choice. If you choose to think about astrophysics, you are making that choice. Every second of your definitionally temporary consciousness, you are choosing how you spend something that will not last forever. You are choosing how you spend your life, and it will be spent. And that’s a very serious thing that you have to try to take pretty seriously, even though, of course, much of our lives—because consciousness is kind of a burden—needs to be spent turning that off, which is, you know, why God made television. But we have this responsibility to ourselves, to each other, but also to the people who came before us and the people who will come after us, to think consciously about what we’re thinking about. And that was, in some ways the beginning of The Fault in Our Stars for me, was trying to think about, what I should be thinking about. Trying to think how I should be orienting my life, what should I value, what should I prioritize. And I grew up—and so did most of you—I think, in a world that values a very specific kind of heroism. The kind where you jump on a grenade to save your buddy, or you die heroically because your family says that you can’t marry the girl you want to marry, and you’re fourteen and somehow you think that’s a deal breaker?—which is the plot of Romeo and Juliet, I ruined it for some of you, sorry; I should have prefaced that with a spoiler alert, but if you haven’t read Romeo and Juliet, that’s your fault—or in another of our great epics of heroism, The Odyssey—which I’m also about to spoil for you, but it’s a good reading experience, regardless. There’s this dude, his name’s Odysseus, he does some good warring, top-notch warring, and it takes him a long time to get home, because a bunch of stuff happens, and then he finally gets home and his wife has a bunch of suitors, and the correct response to that situation is to be like, ‘Hey! I was gone for a long time, and there’s no text messaging, you didn’t know I was okay, like of course there’s a bunch of suitors living here, that’s cool, but suitors it’s time to head on out and, you know, find someone else’s house to occupy.’ And instead, what happens is that the palace floors course with blood, and that is your happily-ever-after ending. And Augustus Waters in this novel really buys into that idea of heroism, that idea that the best lives are lived on the biggest possible stage, and that the best lives are lived with an eye toward the grand heroic gesture, whether it be sacrificial or otherwise. That, like, the good life, by definition, is the big life. Well, I’m here to tell you that even the biggest lives are temporary, including the life of Odysseus, including the life of Romeo and Juliet, because, you know, we’re temporary. And if that’s the only way that we orient our lives, if that’s the only thing that we value, we’re doing ourselves, I think, a great disservice. So, I wanted to write The Fault in Our Stars because I wanted to write a story that was about the kind of small heroism that almost all of us are going to have to choose; very few of us will have the opportunity to jump on a grenade and save many, many people. The vast majority of us will have to find tiny ways to take care of ourselves and each other in the best ways that we can figure out how to do. And that’s really what The Fault in Our Stars is about, ultimately. It’s about these two kids and their parents trying to figure out how to take good care of each other and trying to figure out how to leave the best possible world for those who will come after, and also live a life that honors those who have come before.

John Green, on The Fault in Our Stars at the Tour de Nerdfighting Event in Austin, Texas (21 January 2012)

(Source: atoska, via edwardspoonhands)

itsjustafantasyfortwo:

Glee guys wearing glasses appreciation post.

(via caitlinsaywhatt)

xxbeccabeastxx:

Catching Fire, page 159.

Mockingjay, page 314.

(via iamjustangry)

I shouldn’t need to wish that I am all I am not; I shouldn’t need to always offer you my thoughts, but I do. And I’ve opened myself up to the wrong and felt that pain. (And I’ve opened myself all up to you and felt the same.) Please don’t explain, just let me continue dreaming.

Matt Nathanson. “Continue Dreaming.” I can’t wait to see him in March.

10knotes:

Submitted by                                                                                                                       thekaycho
Your life is meaningless without following this blog!

:D The Scarecrow was one of my favorites characters from any TV show or movie when I was younger. <3

10knotes:

Submitted by thekaycho

Your life is meaningless without following this blog!

:D The Scarecrow was one of my favorites characters from any TV show or movie when I was younger. <3

Let them say what they will, ‘cause they will anyhow.

thedailywhat:

From One Muppet To Another of the Day: At a press conference to promote the London premiere of the Muppets movie, Kermit and Miss Piggy respond to Fox Business host Eric Bolling’s claim that the film pushes a liberal pro-environment anti-capitalist agenda in an effort to brainwash kids.

[dangerousminds.] 

(via findthebeat)

All of these are marvelous.

I’m in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you.

Augustus Waters in The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (via msguthrie)

(via epicjohngreenquotes)

Next time, I’ll be braver; I’ll be my own savior when the thunder calls for me.

Next time, I’ll be braver: I’ll be my own savior, standing on my own two feet.

dannielle:

tyleroakley:

jmonster66:

urethrafranklin:

originaltitle:

snivellus:

deathcab4booty:

kevofsho:

swagilibrium:

the fuck

WHAT IS THIS BLACK MAGIC?!

jesus take the fucking wheel

i would fling my fucking phone across the planet if someone played that

mother fucker

i wouldn’t even bother playing
i would just resign and never play the game again

I’d cry. tear drops all over my phone.

I’d kill my opponent with fire - must be a witch.

what the legit fuck.

dannielle:

tyleroakley:

jmonster66:

urethrafranklin:

originaltitle:

snivellus:

deathcab4booty:

kevofsho:

swagilibrium:

the fuck

WHAT IS THIS BLACK MAGIC?!

jesus take the fucking wheel

i would fling my fucking phone across the planet if someone played that

mother fucker

i wouldn’t even bother playing

i would just resign and never play the game again

I’d cry. tear drops all over my phone.

I’d kill my opponent with fire - must be a witch.

what the legit fuck.

(via findthebeat)

“Back when we were dating, Robin and I had this running joke. We were the only two people in the world who found it funny.”

(Source: thesunlessnight, via areyouquestioningmybadassness)