…modem pessimism,
and a more ancient and stronger expression
in the teaching of Buddha;
but it is part of Christianity also,
if more doubtfully and ambiguously so
but not for that reason any less seductive.

The whole pose of “man against the world,”
of man as a “world-negating” principle,
of man as the measure of the value of things,
as judge of the world
who in the end
places existence itself upon his scales
and finds it wanting
— the monstrous insipidity of this pose
has finally come home to us and we are sick of it.

We laugh
as soon as we encounter the juxtaposition
of “man and world,”
separated by the sublime presumption
of the little word
“and.”

…when we laugh like that,
have we not simply carried
the contempt for man one step further?
And thus also pessimism, the contempt for that existence which
is knowable by us?

Have we not exposed ourselves to the suspicion of an opposition
— an opposition between
the world in which we were at home up to now
–with our reverences that perhaps made it possible for us to endure life,
and another world that consists of us
–an inexorable, fundamental, and
deepest suspicion about ourselves
that is more and more gaining
worse and worse control of us Europeans…

“Either abolish your reverences or –yourselves!”
The latter would be nihilism;
but would not the former also be
— nihilism?

— This is our question mark.

–excerpt The Gay Science, Book 5, Section 346 by Friedrich Nietzsche

Again, it is a Sunday morning.  I have memories of Cocktails-in-the-Park, experienced last night with my wife, and another relative.  Never mind that we three were all soaked by a summer shower at the start of the outdoor event.  I was gratified to be invited to share a large umbrella by a stranger, and then sheltering under a pop-up tent owned by one of the vendors… After a half hour, the rain gave way to a grey, cloud dappled sky.  An evening of libation and shared conversation with others followed; all present are related by ties to this community, to this Fox River Valley.  That we share a common way-of-life was palpable.  I felt reverence while contemplating what I was experiencing…

Concurrently, along a 600 mile front line, Russian and Ukrainian artillery created canopies of fire and steel splinters, seeking men and women living in trenches.  An autocrat decides to crush a neighbor, — thousands on both sides of the front line are exposed to the nightmare of random death, or worse, — maiming for life.  And there are mines.  Villages, fields, a way-of-life is ruined at least for a generation.

Several days ago word came that a good friend was diagnosed with cancer.  He said that the prognosis does not look good.

So, my reverence dissipates to a sardonic laugh.