The concluding appendix of The Gay Science is a collection of poems. The section is entitled Songs of Prince Bird-free, or “free as a bird.” The German term signifies an outlaw whom anyone can shoot on sight. The reader of The Gay Science likely would not be surprised at the ambiguity of the title. …
I felt ambivalence. Not being a connoisseur of antique automobiles why would I desire the press of congestion at the Geneva Concours d’Elegance? Contemplating vintage vehicles on the flat screen in the course of a television historical drama is enough for me. On the other hand, the event was free… As you would guess…
Another poem from the concluding appendix to The Gay Science. I like the sardonic note of this one, a surreal description of a professional religionist, of a man-of-the-cloth. Beppa is the pious priest, the first to benefit from forgiveness-at-a-discount offered by the church. “With another sin, one wipes old sins away.” Another phrasing that…
Saturday is a quasi holiday for many adults, and for children. A timeout from the usual routine of work, perhaps some chores around the yard or house, followed by a visit to the Farmer’s Market. Certainly that describes a Saturday in late summer for those like myself living in a Fox River Valley community. …
“Who will sing a song for us?” — and that is the question is it not? Who, perhaps you or I will step forward to do our best with the future’s melody! What of concern which you and I are certain to have of being misunderstood? That is none of our business! It is…
So the hand moves forward, the tragedy begins… That describes my sense of reality after reading the account of the Republican debate last night. I did not watch. I was tempted by shear voyeurism, but managed to resist my inclination. The eight Republican candidates running for second place, far behind the polling numbers of…
I approached the Fox River this morning on Fayban Parkway, the sky was smoky, a low hanging mix of Canada Wildfire haze and high humidity. I remembered reading the New York Times report that as the climate warms wild fires, storms, floods and extreme heat are going to increase across our country. Some areas…
That said, it’s difficult not to think of the present day as a tipping point (a word used a great deal in discussions of climate change). And since none of us are PhD scientists who have written dozens of papers on the impact of humanity on the environment (at least I don’t believe any…
Another passage that should bear no further comment. Is it enough to raise one’s voice in resistance to the denial of history , to thinly veiled misogyny in red-state anti-abortion laws, to indifference to lying by candidates for public office, to climate warming denial,… That is to write or to speak as opportunity affords…
Hatred, on the other hand, places people on a par, vis-a-vis; in hatred there is honor; finally, in hatred there is fear, …. a good and ample element of fear. We fearless ones, however, we more spiritual human beings of this age, we know our own advantage well enough to live without fear of…
