The ultimate noblemindedness.-

What makes a person “noble”?

…the passion that attacks those who are noble is peculiar,
and they fail to realize this.
It involves the use of a rare and singular standard and

almost a madness:

the feeling of heat in things that
feel cold to everybody else;
the discovery of values
for which no scales have been invented yet;

offering sacrifices on altars
that are dedicated to
an unknown god…

–excerpt The Gay Science, Book 1, Section 55 by Friedrich Nietzsche

What do we mean to say when we use the term “noble?”  Nietzsche offers that we are attracted to a noble individual because he/she has a singular view of things.  This view is mad by comparison to that of the rest of us.  The noble individual notices things, she expresses things.  It’s as if their “hair was on fire,” a divine madness.  Socrates was such a person, as was Jesus and Buddha.

So radical were the consequences of their words, considerable effort was expended to make a paste-up collage of their words, transmogrifying their legacy into a sacred realm,

We are willing to pay real money to be mystified, to have our fears played upon, to exacerbate our self doubts…  Paying to pray to our known gods.

Of course noble minded individuals are present in the mundane level of life too.  I consider the late Harry Belafonte, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and President Jimmy Carter to exemplify the noble minded.

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Music, the story of our lives, which tale of wistful sadness will “get us through” today?  Downtown Train by Rod Stewart.