Yesterday I finished Thus Spake Zarathustra by Nietzsche.  Zarathustra is not finished with me.  I plan to revisit the text.  I will obtain another translation.  Why not?  A somewhat different  linguistic angle cannot help but improve understanding of the story.

I began reading Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse.  That is another book that I postponed reading until I felt that I was ready.  After all how much work is one prepared to do?  There is a time for everything.

In the preface I read these words:

“Most men will not swim before they are able to.” Is that not witty? Naturally, they won’t swim! They are born for the solid earth, not for the water. And naturally they won’t think. They are made for life, not for thought. Yes, and he who thinks, what’s more, he who makes thought his business, he may go far in it, but he has bartered the solid earth for the water all the same, and one day he will drown.”

― Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf

The parallel between swimming and thinking seems right.  I remember learning to swim.  Years later after I learned to walk and was walking and running with absolute confidence, I learned to swim.  Learning to swim was terrifying.  Not that my experience is universal.  It varies.  Some are less fearful and more gifted.  I learned with a few episodes of coughing up accidentally swallowed water.  After several lessons, it was my turn to jump off the edge into the ten foot deep-end of the pool.  Somehow, I made it to the far side.  No matter the difficulty I learned.

Walking is natural, swimming is not.  Thinking in a disciplined productive manner is likewise not a natural activity.  It is something hard won by practice.  The practice comes by being widely read, by following thought- forms, patterns of excellence left by others before us.  Thinking well comes by time spent in the presence of others who are also serious about learning to think well.  It helps to be willing to laugh at oneself.

After one coughs up a lung-full of water,–just laugh!  It is a fine day for a swim.  Where else would you rather be?!

Here is a good quote about heroically treading water.

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A hero is one who knows how to hang on one minute longer.

–Novalis  1772-1801