We’ve got gluts of information but are dizzy for lack of a norm. The norms of capitalism, friendship, and religion: everything is so provisional, situational, optional, such a matter of lifestyle choice that the very word “norm” is likely to victimize somebody. Our magnetic field is dislocated; gravity itself seems weakened. But weightlessness is…
I have friends who believe that strict adherence to a strict interpretation of the US Constitution is all that is needed to fix what is wrong with our society. I resist that position on many accounts. A visceral scream rises within my psyche at this proposal. That notion is the analogue of the Biblical…
Recently I had a brief exchange of views with a friend who is a Trump supporter. Our conversation exchange of a few text lines concerned the tale of an old dog that habitually chases vehicles. The conundrum arises when the dog happens to catch, and somehow latches onto a vehicle. It immediately realizes that…
Language is a gift as dangerous to humanity as the horse was to the Trojans: it offers itself to our use free of charge, but once we accept it, it colonizes us. The symbolic order emerges from a gift, an offering, that marks its content as neutral in order to pose as a gift:…
Wednesday is another gray day. It is somewhat warmer, 18 degrees. It is snowing outside. A giant nor’easter is hammering the east coast today with wind, freezing rain and ice from Florida to the Carolinas. The meteorologists are warning of up to six inches of snow into New England. Climate change, what climate change…..?…
Reflection for a new year We mistake what is manageable for a catastrophe; we despair of ourselves too soon; we alienate others by overreacting; we don’t notice and appreciate what there is still to be grateful for; we forget we’re going to die and that a lot of today’s headache will soon be forgotten….
It is unusual for me to leave you behind for any reason. When I crossed the Ohio River on the new toll bridge leaving Louisville, I felt deeply why I needed to leave you behind. For the first time I felt our family; how substantial, how strong it has become. We grieved for our…
A friend observed with chagrin that I was too pessimistic in outlook. I was tempted to compose a detailed justification. The inclination for a pointless dialog passed. This quotation sums it up for me: There are no pessimists; there are only realists and liars. —Paul Virilio
…………….in a time of empire collapse. “What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.” —-Seneca We get weepy and furious because our plans have failed and we strongly expected them not to. The task of philosophy is to disappoint us gently before life has a…
There is nothing more terrible, and more truthful than a mother weeping for her stillborn child. Words absolutely fail to convey anything of the meaning of the experience. One observes and understands nothing of what is happening. To weep is a natural, appropriate response to death, the passage of something or someone who is…
