A Kind Of Race
My exploration of Zhuangzi continues.
I am drawn toward his story telling, his manner of doing philosophy. This 4th century BCE Taoist intellectual responds to several defined schools of thought by writing philosophical fantasy. Philosophical fantasy! Imagine someone rising to his/her feet in a lecture hall at a philosophy conference Q&A session, to describe a butterfly dreaming or of dreaming that one is a butterfly each a mirror image of the other– makes me laugh to myself.
I read these lines about Zhuangzi perspectival relativism, and was reminded of Sophocles Antigone.
Any practical guide
is an actual path of judgment-making
that takes one from that axis
down one particular way of making distinctions…
Occasionally he presents the infinite possibility
of these standpoints…as almost a tragic inevitability.
Once we have started on a tao,
we seem doomed to elaborate and develop it
in a kind of race to death.
Youth is a state of being comparatively open
to almost any possibility
and as we grow and gain knowledge,
we close-off the possibilities in a rush
toward old-age and death.
Nothing can free us
from the headlong rush to complete
our initial commitments
…as if they were oaths and treaties.
We rush through life
clinging to the alternative we judge
as winning.
“Is life really as stupid as this?
Or is it that I am the only stupid one
and others are not so stupid?”
What tune do you suggest as a complement to the sweet pessimism of your quotation? This is a suitable counterpoint: Feelin’ Satisfied by Boston.
Feelin’ Satisfied
by Boston
Well come on
All you people
The time has come to get together
You gotta have a little rock ‘n’ roll music
To get you through the stormy weather
Just do whatever you feel
When you let go
Nothing’s gonna help you more than rock ‘n’ roll
So come on, put you hands together
Yeah come on, put your hands together
Well come on, you know it’s now or never
Take a chance on rock ‘n’ roll
Ooo are you feeling satisfied
Come on let us give your mind a ride
Ooo are you ready tonight
Come on let us give your mind a ride
It’s up to you, you can do what you like
Come on let us give your mind a ride
Oh that funky feeling
Is what you need to get you through
Yeah you oughta know
I’ll tell you something
Don’t let your troubles get to you
Cause win or lose it’s alright
When you let go
Nothing’s gonna help you more than rock ‘n’ roll
So come on, put you hands together
Yeah come on, put your hands together
Well come on, you know it’s now or never
Take a chance on rock ‘n’ roll
Ooo are you feeling satisfied
Come on let us give your mind a ride
Ooo are you ready tonight
Come on let us give your mind a ride
It’s up to you, you can do what you like
Come on let us give your mind a ride
2 thoughts on “A Kind Of Race”
If I may add a piece from years back that I subjectively view as relevant.
Crossroads
The young man speeds along
the black-topped, yellow-striped road
as if racing against his soul.
Only when the wind rips at
the smooth skin of his unlined faced
can he straddle the line,
gaze into the distance
and glimpse the thrill of mortality.
With foot slammed on the pedal,
his heart pounds, unrestrained,
as he shoves his middle finger
into the face of death and screams,
“Catch me if you can.”
The old man drives along,
cautiously through pot-holed streets,
fearful that time itself might break.
He grips the wheel
pinning it to the dashboard,
checks his rearview mirror,
aware of the cloaked specter,
who will, in time, claim him.
The old man does not hurry.
Life has sped past in a blur
and he knows what is waiting.
No need to rush.
His destination can wait.
A thoughtful comparison, and I have observed the contrast as well. I guess that the rebel heart in me is still somewhat alive. On occasion I will take it to the limit. I just have a better grasp of the potential effect than I ever could when I was sixteen.