To love humanity for the sake of God
– that has been the noblest
and most bizarre feeling
people have attained so far.

That the love of humanity,
in the absence of any sanctifying ulterior motive,
is one more stupidity and abomination;

that the tendency to love humanity like this
can only get its standard, its subtlety, its grain of salt and pinch of ambergris*
from a higher tendency:

– whoever it was that first felt and “experienced” all
this, however much his tongue might have stumbled
as it tried to express such a tenderness,
let him be forever holy
and admirable to us
as the man
who has flown the highest so far
and has got
the most
beautifully
lost!

Beyond Good and Evil, by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. by Judith Butler, aphorism 60

I walked around a dying mall, passing vacant store fronts, the once popular retail mecca, a ghost of what it once was. Interpretations, conclusions arose in my mind, of what happened. Memories came from when I lived near this place. Here I shopped for Christmas gifts. Memories came of the business relationships that my company entertained with retailers who at one time leased space here. Now the place approaches dereliction.

As you’d expect a plan of resurrection is published, a mall 2.0.  Odds for success?  Doubtful given the momentum of internet based shopping. I felt a mixture of sadness, nostalgia, and revulsion walking around the nearly deserted mall.

Finding seating near to Macy’s entrance I opened my edition of Beyond Good and Evil and read this passage. Reading these words evoked similar sensations of sadness, of nostalgia-like pity, and of horror.

This oblique admonition of religion, to the love of mankind, suggests no consideration of human behavior in history. No mention either of human effects upon nature. Is all of that to be behind a curtain? That humanity ought to be loved for God’s sake, the very thought is noble and bizarre.  Loving humanity for humanity’s sake is insane, a stupid idea. But for the sake of God?  Well?

I knew/felt that these words written by Nietzsche warranted commenting upon. Nietzsche compares loving humankind motivated by a higher divine intent with ambergris* a product of the sperm whale once used by perfumers to lend persistent quality to an aroma.  He suggests, speculates, whether Moses (Exodus 4:10) was the first to entertain such an outrageous, unprecedented idea, loving humankind for God’s sake.

We, fly so high and are so beautifully lost!

A tune always helps get us through the day.  This, Heart of Glass by Blondie, will carry us through.