#privation

If desire causes suffering, it may be because we do not desire wisely, or that we are inexpert at obtaining what we desire. Instead of hiding our heads in a prayer cloth and building walls against temptation, why not get better at fulfilling desire? Salvation is for the feeble, that's what I think. I don't want salvation, I want life, all of life, the miserable as well as the superb. If the gods would tax ecstasy, then I shall pay; however, I shall protest their taxes at each opportunity, and if Woden or Shiva or Buddha or that Christian fellow--what's his name?--cannot respect that, then I'll accept their wrath. At least I will have tasted the banquet that they have spread before me on this rich, round planet, rather than recoiling from it like a toothless bunny. I cannot believe that the most delicious things were placed here merely to test us, to tempt us, to make it the more difficult for us to capture the grand prize: the safety of the void. To fashion of life such a petty game is unworthy of both men and gods. ↗

— Tom Robbins

#desire #prayer #religion #repression #salvation

I think she's afraid to even hug me now. It's my fault, but I miss it, Andrew. I miss it so much it aches sometimes, you know?' I do know. I do know, I want to tell him, but I let him talk. And he does, with a gut-wrenching honesty that tears at my heart. 'I want to be held. Is that so wrong? I want to be held, and stroked. I want to know that someone loves me. I want to feel it on my skin.' He looks at the ceiling and exhales, then meets my eyes again. 'But nobody touches me anymore. Not even when I have a fever. Mom just hands me a thermometer now.' He drops his eyes and his ears redden. 'Even when you kiss me, you don't touch me. It's like I'm a leper or something. I can hardly keep my hands off of you, but it's not the same for you, is it? ↗

— J.H. Trumble

#loneliness #sensory-deprivation #touch-me #undesirable #word-of-your-body

Being a good host offsets the deprivation and loneliness of my youth. ↗

— Alan Ladd

#deprivation #good #host #loneliness #youth

I've overcome neglect and deprivation, abandonment and abuse. ↗

— Tatum O'Neal

#abuse #deprivation #i #neglect #overcome

I like to talk about my obsession with french fries because I don't want people to think that 'Let's Move' is about complete, utter deprivation. It's about moderation and real-life changes and ideas that really work for families. ↗

— Michelle Obama

#because #changes #complete #deprivation #families

What government has been doing, we've got major programmes now, of billions of pounds, which are directed by central government into these areas of deprivation. ↗

— John Prescott

#been #billions #central #central government #deprivation

We have mistaken the nature of poverty, and thought it was economic poverty. No, it is poverty of soul, deprivation of God's recreating, loving peace. ↗

— Thomas R. Kelly

#economic #god #loving #mistaken #nature

An odd thing about beauty, however, is that it's absence tends not to arouse our sympathy as much as other forms of privation do. ↗

— Jonathan Franzen

#privation #beauty

I had an out-of-body experience so strange that it felt normal. You see, my soul, or essence, had left my body and went and inhabited the body of my clone. So I wasn’t in my body, and yet I was. Or maybe none of that happened, and I was just in a delirious, sleep-deprived state.
 ↗

— Jarod Kintz

#delirious #normal #sleep-deprivation #soul #experience

For lack of love one does a million other things. ↗

— Marty Rubin

#busyness #deprivation #love #love