…we understand our situationas one of high tragedy,alone in a silent universe,without intrinsic meaning,condemned to create value. But at a later moment, the same doctrine, by its own inherent bent,yields a flattened world,in which there aren’t very meaningful choicesbecause there aren’t any crucial issues. The Ethics of Authenticity by Charles Taylor, The Slide to…
…authenticity too comes to be understood, as its own goal. It is born, out of a shift in the center of gravity of the moral demand on us: self-truth and self-wholeness are seen more and more not as means to be moral, as independently defined, but as something valuable for their own sake. …the…
At last Friday is here. Retired, five or so years are in the rear view mirror, I only have a memory of deadlines, of moral and financial and administrative accountability with co-workers and customers. That was my life. All is change, and everything, no exceptions has its season. All is now, – a flow…
Saturday, May 23 of Memorial Day weekend. This weekend is prime time. It is a fold point when spring starts to feel like summer. Or not. The Midwest at this juncture in May, a day can be chilly enough to beg a winter’s coat, or edge close to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. I tell myself…
Monday morning has been grey, cloud covered. Consistent with the forecast, a short and ferocious downpour a few minutes ago. Curtains of rain. I heard the force of water beating upon the exterior roof here at Starbucks. I remembered the final diminutive vegetable seedlings that I planted over the weekend. The tiny plants hold…
I can aesthetically attend to the very experience of having my experience narrowed. This is, in fact, one of the best parts of climbing—that lovely feeling of having the world disappear, all my worries about my obligations and my finances vanishing. My whole consciousness is lost in complete devotion to this one problem, this…
A day presents itself, Thursday. In the afternoon I expect to join a circle of friends at the Barnes & Noble to discuss the topic of friendship in the light of what Aristotle had to say in the Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle composed a summation of his understanding of life lived well, a legacy statement…
Rob Brezsny is a fine writer. I subscribe to his blog as a vote in favor of excellence, also to endorse his message of self-cultivation. We journey together. I touched on the May 4 Met Gala in a past post. Rob expanded upon my thoughts with eloquence. I will pass on his words to…
Monday at 9AM. In a few minutes I’ll depart Starbucks for home. Waking later today (continuing to battle this congestion) nonetheless a cup of coffee energizes body and spirit for another day. I am not into game playing. I’ve cared little about board games, card games, etc.. Certainly there are reasons for my diffidence…
It is camera lucidathat we should say(such was the name of that apparatus,anterior to Photography,which permitted drawing an object through a prism,one eye on the model, the other on the paper);for, from the eye’s viewpoint, “the essence of the imageis to be altogether outside,without intimacy,and yetmore inaccessible and mysteriousthan the thought of the innermost…
