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+!
By now, everyone I know is one of seven strangers, inevitably hoping to represent a predefined demographic and always failing horribly. The Read World is the real world is The Real World is the read world. Itβs the same true story, even when it isnβt.
America must begin the struggle for democracy at home. The advocacy of free elections in Europe by American officials is hypocrisy when free elections are not held in great sections of America.
Let it be henceforth proclaimed to the world that man's conscience was created free; that he is no longer accountable to his fellow man for his religious opinions, being responsible therefore only to his God.
No nation is drunken where wine is cheap.
When a hundred men stand together, each of them loses his mind and gets another one.
The law has no claim to human respect. It has no civilizing mission; its only purpose is to protect exploitation.
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