If we simply called ourselves,using an old expression,godless, or unbelievers, or perhaps immoralists,we do not, believe that this would even come close to designating us: We are all three in such an advanced stage that one — that you, my curious friends — could never comprehend how we feel at this point. Ours…
For seeing the ultimate beautiesof a work,no knowledge or good will is sufficient;this requires the rarest of lucky accidents: The clouds that veil these peakshave to lift for onceso that we see them glowing in the sun. Not only do we have to standin precisely the right spot in order to see this,but the…
Every philosopher has probablyhad an evil hour when he/she thought: What do I matter if one does not accept my bad arguments, too? –And then some mischievous little bird flew past him and twittered: “What do you matter?What do you matter?” –excerpt The Gay Science, Book 4, Section 332 by Friedrich Nietzsche Perhaps we ought…
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…
Learning from artists — How can we make thingsbeautiful, attractive, and desirable for us when they are not?And I rather think that in themselves they never are. … from artists whoare really continually tryingto bring off such inventions and feats. Moving awayfrom things untilthere is a good deal that one no longer seesand there…
I was asked to say more about the Louisville Pride parade of this past weekend. I thought about what the event meant to me, as a straight male. Lived experience means something different for each of us. We depend upon words to communicate our internal experience which is personal, intimate, private and concealed. No…
On this day in 1865, a contingent of Federal troops lead by Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston Texas to proclaim, to enforce the end of enslavement of black Americans. Today is Juneteenth, a national day of remembrance. I offer for your pondering along with me, these magnificent words from Nietzsche. The photos were…
…Since the ancients believed in dreams,waking appeared in a different light. The same goes for the whole of life, which was illumined by death and its significance;for us “death” means something quite different. All experiences shone differently becausea god shone through them. –excerpt The Gay Science, Book 3, Section 152 by Friedrich Nietzsche As the…
Yeah, I know it’s a spectacle. But it is a spectacle that I care about. For most of my adult life drag racing has captured my imagination. A distinctly American, male oriented form of competition, involving imagination to visualize the possibilities of maximizing the output of an engine, to understand the physics of a…
At the racetrack on a Saturday afternoon, I feel gratitude for yet another experience of earthly paradise. I am able to be with others, fellow citizens that I know only slightly. That fragment of common ground is enough: the passion for quarter mile competition unites us. Paradise, an ideal condition of experience is always…
