What is happiness? By what means do we know if we are happy? It seems that only in retrospect I judge myself to have been happy. My grand daughter is almost four years old. She appears to be as happy as is humanly possible when I push her high in a swing. While swinging…
This strange poem resonates with me. Nietzsche was in a class by himself as a professional intellectual. The youngest person to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel at the age of 24, he later turned to philosophy. Nietzsche was an incessant writer. He was plagued with health problems. Also,…
“Souls that are unsure” Souls that are unsure and cloying I loathe like their acclaim. All their honors are annoying, All their praise is self-hatred and shame. Since I do not join their dances, Tied to their old rope, I am followed by their glances’ Sweetly poisoned envy without hope. Let them curse me…
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. …
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. …
I received this poem yesterday. Later in the day I observed hibiscus growing wild in a wetland by the Braeburn marsh. I was excited to return later, parking my vehicle in a nearby neighborhood then hiking over the wetland, dry now because of the summer drought. The hibiscus were magnificent, glowing, saucer-sized gems in…
The poem came my way yesterday. Life is long and arduous, all the more so for humans. Risk and suffering cannot be “structured out” as we Americans are accustomed to think. There is no manifest destiny. We are not on-a-mission-for-god. Just because you and I have a voice, because our system of transfer of…
Monday in Geneva is overcast, most likely with haze from wildfires in Canada. The anticipated Ukrainian counter offensive has likely begun. Reuters alone reported a press release from the Russian side. The relative absence of information leads me to believe that engagement has begun. No question that many are going to die. There’s a…
Am I Am I the pebble lying in the stream or the water freed from melting snow Am I a dreamers sleeping dream that has no home, nowhere to go Am I a thought to build the bridge between two points of view I am at least one thing I know, a solitary monument…
Joined with a group of friends last night to exchange ideas about morality. Is morality relative or absolute? The notion of an absolute, something not disposed to many interpretations, a universal standard, — inevitably is linked to the idea of a deity. Absolutes of any kind, morality included, are affairs of divinity, since we…
