Anyone else feeling a little hollow these days?

[sheshe2]

💙

[highplainsdem]

1. Very. And wow, what a sculpture! Do you know where that is?

[sheshe2]

2. I have no clue where it is from.

I found it on twitter and suited how I feel these days. It is a pretty amazing sculpture. I wish I knew the artist.

TY.

[greatauntoftriplets]

5. It's in Geneva, Switzerland. Explanation is below.

https://wherecreativityworks.com/melancholy/

[sheshe2]

6. I was just going to post that, Thank you!

Lake Geneva
This sculpture is by a Hungarian Sculptor Albert Gyorgy and it is placed in Lake Geneva in Geneva, Switzerland. Melancholy, a sculpture created by Albert Gyorgy, portrays the void that grief leaves us with.Aug 13, 2024

[greatauntoftriplets]

7. You're welcome.

I knew that I'd seen it before, but couldn't remember. So I had to look it up.

[highplainsdem]

11. Thanks!

[greatauntoftriplets]

14. No problem.

I was curious myself.

[sheshe2]

3. OMG! Found it on the first try!

I typed in Hollow Man sculpture and here it is.


https://www.tokeli.com/post/the-hollow-man
The Hollow Man is always looking around for something to fill himself up with, and he almost doesn’t care what it is. He hasn’t the discernment that comes when one knows WHO they are. There is an internal compass that must be cultivated for discernment to exist within.


The Hollow Man reaches outside of himself for wisdom and thus does not recognize true wisdom, as he does not have the gauge within to find, seek, discover, uncover, and discern the Greater Truths. He is a leaf in the wind, blown about, here and there. He adopts ideas as his own and regurgitates them verbatim. He vociferously re-spouts these ideas and “facts” to the world, puffing himself up with importance. He is happy to shame those beneath him intellectually. His desire to conquer with “rightness” is a desire to be Right which supersedes a desire to find Truth. This feeling of being right also fills his void temporarily as he seeks opportunities to tell others (more ignorant people in his estimation) how it really is. He is right so they must be wrong…and re-educated by him. The Hollow Man is temporarily buoyed by a sensation of righteousness, though the emptiness of his soul is always hungry for more. Though he appears to be puffed up, inside the Hollow Man remains concerned about his emptiness, but he would never admit this to the outside world because that would put him in a position of extreme vulnerability which is too frightening.


When an Outlier with an opposing viewpoint comes into the picture, into the Hollow Man’s field of reference, if her words are inspiring, she may in fact confuse and disorient the Hollow Man, causing him to question his beliefs. This is disconcerting. Here is an opportunity for openness on the part of the Hollow Man. Up until this point now, the Hollow Man fills his void the easy way, the quickest route. But the Outlier’s ideas require more self-work; she looks at information outside of her too, but then she brings it home and chews on it a while. There is a kind of self-disciplined homework or self-work she does — personal discernment and sovereignty, intuition, patience for the long journey, trust in Self, willingness to surrender to a faith in Great Spirit (oh yes, this last layer is the hardest to accept, and yet the most important developmental layer, given the human tendency toward resisting surrender).

[highplainsdem]

10. Thank you!

[CuriousSavage]

15. Beware of Google...

Yes, it is literally an image of a hollow man but I have to say that it is hardly "just" the Hollow Man sculpture. It looks like someone misappropriated the sculpture to bolster their online rant. I am not an expert on sculpture but I have unfortunately become an expert on the context. The name of the piece is Melancholy. Like... sorrow to the depth of your soul, every cell aching, lungs not working, all out of tears, days-weeks-months-years all a blur into one long nightmare kind of sorrow. For those who know what I mean, this piece speaks to you. It feels like you're looking at yourself in the mirror. I have always enjoyed art but no single piece has ever affected me so profoundly.

By the way, as a 20+ year lurker and posting newbie, it is an honor to reply to you.

[Celerity]

17. It is not a 'rant'. It is a short essay. Also the pic was not misappropriated. The author clearly listed the sculpture's

title and creator.

https://www.tokeli.com/post/the-hollow-man

[sheshe2]

18. Thank you, Celerity.

I find the sculpture quite moving.

[Passages]

4. America, depleted and hanging its head in shame.

[PatSeg]

8. Like in gutted

It could be worse I suppose. I could be young looking at a very bleak future.

[sheshe2]

16. I know.

That's why my main concern is not for me but the young ones that will be left with this mess and perhaps a dying planet.

I don't understand what the GOP/Maga are thinking, they have children too.

[PatSeg]

23. Yes, it is primarily my children and grandchildren

that concern me. You would think that MAGA have similar concerns about their children and grandchildren.

[MorbidButterflyTat]

9. Yes.

This reminds me of the woman's sculpture in Rear Window she called, "Hunger."

[sheshe2]

19. Thank you for this!

I don't remember this scene at all. Perhaps I should watch the movie again.

[MorbidButterflyTat]

20. You're welcome!

You definitely should watch the movie again. Hitchcock is one of my favorite escapes.

[sheshe2]

21. Thanks, will see if I can find it!

Lol...I think the last time I watched, it was in black and white.

[BidenRocks]

12. The Soul Of America

I am officially unsociable.
I am screaming at the radio in my car.

[Meowmee]

13. It all feels like a continuation

Of what started in 2015-16 to me. Definitely worse this past two months in this second reign of terror. There is a lot of stress to try and get things done quickly while we watch the country fall apart.

[wendyb-NC]

22. Wow. That resonates

Especially since inauguration day this year.

[Aristus]

24. All the time.

I genuinely thought our country was getting better, progressing, moving past the centuries of institutionalized hatred, bigotry, racism, misogyny, and deliberately regressive political policy.

I was wrong.

I guess the only thing left to do is support the establishment of the Republic of Cascadia...

[Torchlight]

25. Worn down, but not worn out

God as my witness, I've mirrored that statue's pose dozens of times this year so far and so far as I can tell, will do so again and again over the next three.

I sometimes feel an isolated despair about the here and now, but I guess I have more faith than I should in the collective will of the nation, and I think we'll get back on the right track; but I also believe that until it happens, a lot of good people are going bend, then break, and finally shatter.

[karin_sj]

26. Every single day

What's happening to our country is the first thing I think about when I get up in the morning and the last thing I think about before going to sleep. And all day, I feel a sense of doom and dread as to what's going to happen next. I know this is exactly the way they want us to feel, but it's hard to feel much hope these days. I haven't lost all hope but it does seem pretty bleak right now.

[Dulcinea]

27. Yes.

But I keep going. I fight for my daughters, ages 23 & 21, who have fewer rights than I did when I was their age, and for my 8-year-old nephew. When we give up is when we have lost, & I refuse to lose to this bunch of wastes of oxygen.

[hunter]

28. DU is my only "social media" and I don't watch any traditional television...

... most especially television news and opinion. Before twitter came along I used to think television was the worst medium for news and opinion.

I don't see any advertising on my television or computer. I pay money to sites like DU or The Guardian to make advertising go away. I also use ad blockers, but not on sites I regularly visit except to block ads that pop up, move, and/or make noise.

My wife and I don't have cable, satellite, or broadcast television. Our television only plays DVDs and two or three no-advertising streaming services. That's all it does.

Social media like the-site-formerly-known-as-twitter and traditional television news, opinion, and advertising are all designed to make you feel empty anxious so you go out and buy something you probably don't need to fill the void. It's not just consumer goods, but damaging political and religious ideologies too.

I quit television news and opinion more shortly after 9-11-2001. My wife has never been interested in television news, she used to say "What is that crap? Turn it off!" if I was watching the news when she came home from work and I was getting ready to leave for work. ( When our children were young we were fortunate that we could schedule our work so one of us was always home. We had no childcare expenses. )

We quit cable television soon after, and broadcast television in January 2012.

I have never understood Twitter. I was blocking it before Musk bought it. It seems to me that there is very little actionable content on twitter and too much noise. Being the first to know some bridge three thousand miles away has collapsed, or the latest dumb ass thing Trump has said isn't going to get me off my butt. If something is actionable then I'm going to get a phone call. Or my wife is. Or maybe we'll making those calls ourselves.

I'm very protective of my own mental health. When my mind has gone completely sideways I've landed in the psych ward. I'd rather avoid that.

[mvd]

29. Yep

This regime has been just as bad as I expected or even more. And there’s still so long to go.