A Dream Within A Dream
A magnificent morning graces Geneva. The air temperature is a touch cool, a reminder that we are on the cusp of Fall. Seated, by the big window at Starbucks I read this quotation from the ancient Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi. Zhuangzi has been characterized as the Wittgenstein of Chinese philosophy.
Once Zhuang Zhou dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn’t know he was Zhuang Zhou. Suddenly, he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuang Zhou. But he didn’t know if he was Zhuang Zhou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuang Zhou. Between Zhuang Zhou and a butterfly there must be some distinction! This is called the Transformation of Things.
There is a concours de’Elegance car show setting up across Main Street on 3rd Street. When I finish writing this, I’ll walk across the street for a few minutes. A car show is an old-white-guy event, and I say that with ironic affection as I now belong to that tribe. Old white guys share the taste for such 
“precious metal” and have the discretionary resources to collect such toys. What one collects says much about one’s way of life, and what is most important in the scale of one’s values.
I read this morning in the New York Times that the President when asked if he had second thoughts about the trade war with China replied that he has second thoughts about everything. No doubt everyone is still scratching their head over that answer. Was that a yes or a no? Confusion reigns.
Is confusion necessary, inevitable, a visitation by fate or by the gods?
What is real? Is the car show across the street, rows of finely restored vintage vehicles, — substantial, real, of enduring reliability? Is the tit for tat of tariffs, and escalating threats between the President of the United States and his administration and China equally real?
A final thought: Is reality a matter of “either” “or?”
Is it possible that reality comes down to “real enough,” — each real in it’s own way?
Trade wars cause pain. Pain of this type, large scale economic suffering in the past, has devolved into war, — old fashioned assault. That is the moment when the “real enough” collapses into the brutal death of individual men, women and children.
