Formerly, one wished to acquire fame and be spoken of. Now that is no longer enough because the market has grown too large; nothing less than screaming will do. As a consequence, even good voices scream till they are hoarse, and the best goods are offered by cracked voices. Without the screaming of those…
We live in the age of cybernetics, of next-day Amazon delivery, of iphone instant communication anywhere in the world. The American way of life is idealized as the apex of 21st century freedom and affluence by many. Nietzsche, living in the late 19th century, as the industrial age broke like a wave transforming Europe,…
Mid-life No. Life has not disappointed me.On the contrary, I find it truer,more desirable and mysterious every year–ever since the day when the great liberator came to me: the idea that life could be an experimentof the seeker for know1edge–and not a duty, not a calamity, not trickery. –And knowledge itself: let it be…
There is as much wisdom in pain as there is in pleasure… In pain I hear the captain’s command: “Take in the sails!… The bold seafarer “man” must have mastered the art of doing a thousand things with his sails; otherwise he would be done for in no time, — the ocean would swallow…
Let us stop thinking so much about punishing, reproaching, and improving others! We rarely change an individual, and if we should succeed for once, something may also have been accomplished, unnoticed: we may have been changed by him. Let us rather see to it that our own influence on all that is yet to…
July 4th, Memorial Day 2023. And feelings that well up? Emotions are involuntary… Patriotism? Love-of-country? Perhaps I should just fix a standard American flag to the front of the garage door, a flag purchased from Amazon, or from the local Menards, –let that action suffice… Should I join the apathy, that bland, happy indifference…
Perhaps you’ve reflected upon the course of your life marveling at the path you have taken? I cannot describe the person that I’ve become by comparison to who I was as a young adult in my early 20s. In that day I did my best to be an “enthusiast for Christ.” Jesus-is-the-answer might have…
Without a laptop computer for several days, it was difficult to write. The replacement, a new Lenovo Thinkpad was ready yesterday. Now, I must, one task at a time, wrangle the new machine into the arrangement which is suited to my style of use. Much has taken place in the interim since my mind/body…
The wall is a there. That terminus for every man, in every woman’s future. You likely guess my meaning. Just as there was a time before my entry, there will be a time for exiting. Time. Birth and death are measured in time. Our manner of conversation marks birth dates, and in the obituary,…
Preludes of science— Do you really believe that the sciences would ever have originated and grown if the way had not been prepared by magicians, alchemists, astrologers, and witches whose promises and pretensions first had to create a thirst, a hunger, a taste for hidden and forbidden powers? Indeed, infinitely more had to be…
