A group of us attempted to better understand what is meant by culture. Isn’t culture tacitly agreed upon habits of behavior, norms of a common life, a form-of-life shared? Expectations are built up gradually by observation and practice. So much becomes “as if” instinct, imprinted habit. I simply know how to act, and how…
To love is to give what you do not have to someone who does not exist. -Jacques Lacan, Seminar VIII Today I “decided” to dedicate time to revisit the ideas of Jacques Lacan (1901-1981). Lacan was a psychoanalyst practicing according to the insight offered by Freudian philosophy which treated the unconscious. Lacan was interested…
‘I performed first the music calculated to awe; and you were frightened as if by a ghostly visitation, I followed it with that calculated to weary; and in your weariness you would have withdrawn. I concluded with that calculated to perplex; and in your perplexity you felt your stupidity. But that…
Spent the morning reading about the thought of Chuang Tsu. Also I read a few minutes from the Zhuangzi, a English translation of his story telling. Amazing! Words simply fail to do justice, there’s no straight forward description of his point of view. Moreover, I doubt if our 21st century external circumstances are really…
Showers today. Should I mind. Of course not. It is enough to remain in my circle of responsibility, of duty and concern. Weather, and the machinations of governments whether in Chicago, or in Washington are affairs upon which I have no effect. Is anyone in charge? Likely nobody. Office holders moving about as marionettes,…
My exploration of Zhuangzi continues. I am drawn toward his story telling, his manner of doing philosophy. This 4th century BCE Taoist intellectual responds to several defined schools of thought by writing philosophical fantasy. Philosophical fantasy! Imagine someone rising to his/her feet in a lecture hall at a philosophy conference Q&A session, to describe…
Read more of the Zhuangzi this morning. Stories concatenated in succession, the writer considers that his thinking, his point of view could be, might be, or was, radically different — even reversed. “This” is easily “that” in another context. In a time past I thought differently… I am entranced by this love song, every…
Gary Wright has died. On Monday September 4th Wright passed after some years struggle with illness. From 1976 do you remember The Dream Weaver? Here is what Billboard wrote about Wright: The Dream Weaver, released in the summer of 1975, peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 album charts in April 1976, with…
Unteregehen – going down, drowning, to perish It’s Friday, early September with a hint the Fall soon to come. Things in time reocurr, over and over. Time is infinite, an open ended flow. But “things” in time are bounded by circumstance, arise and come to be and then dissipate. You could become depressed if…
Feeling empty this morning. What is to be said/written? The coffee is hot and astringent. The traffic outside the front window at Starbucks rushes by upon it’s metaled ways. There’s the look of rain in the gray clouds. Time will tell how much we will receive. Hot, dry weather has persisted. Vegetation is thirsty…
