These are the concluding words, the wrap-up of Beyond Good and Evil. Nietzsche takes his measure of a comprehensive philosophy which he has offered, not unlike a master-work painting of detail and subtlety. The author declares what he has said/written is already showing decrepitude, the dissolution inevitable to everything that is time bound.

I propose to extend Nietzsche’s assessment here. Americans anticipate election day of November 4th with dramatically divergent expectations. The options appear distinct, stark in difference. Still, still, have we not come to this juncture too late? Will a society so existentially at odds, so riven with a drumbeat of acrimony be knit once again into a single fabric by a single election?

Nothing, nothing at all stands as independently true, durable, impervious to avarice, unstained by ambition. Not the Bible. Not the Constitution. Not the flag. Not even “service to one’s country.”

What are
the only things
we are able to paint?

Alas, always only what is on the verge
of withering
and losing its fragrance!

Alas, always only storms
that are passing, exhausted,
and feelings that are autumnal,
and yellow!

Alas, always only birds
that grew weary of flying
and flew away
and now can be caught by hand
–by our hand!

We immortalize

what cannot live and fly much longer
–only weary and mellow things…

Beyond Good and Evil, by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. by Walter Kaufmann, aphorism 296