A Well Without Water
A well without water. A bird that can’t fly. An alley with no exit. And— —excerpt from The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Weightlessness
We’ve got gluts of information but are dizzy for lack of a norm. The norms of capitalism, friendship, and religion: everything is so provisional, situational, optional, such a matter of lifestyle choice that the very word “norm” is likely to victimize somebody. Our magnetic field is dislocated; gravity itself seems weakened. But weightlessness is…
Che Vuoi? Part II
I have friends who believe that strict adherence to a strict interpretation of the US Constitution is all that is needed to fix what is wrong with our society. I resist that position on many accounts. A visceral scream rises within my psyche at this proposal. That notion is the analogue of the Biblical…
Greeks Bearing Gifts
Language is a gift as dangerous to humanity as the horse was to the Trojans: it offers itself to our use free of charge, but once we accept it, it colonizes us. The symbolic order emerges from a gift, an offering, that marks its content as neutral in order to pose as a gift:…
Sadness
Wednesday is another gray day. It is somewhat warmer, 18 degrees. It is snowing outside. A giant nor’easter is hammering the east coast today with wind, freezing rain and ice from Florida to the Carolinas. The meteorologists are warning of up to six inches of snow into New England. Climate change, what climate change…..?…
Reflections
Reflection for a new year We mistake what is manageable for a catastrophe; we despair of ourselves too soon; we alienate others by overreacting; we don’t notice and appreciate what there is still to be grateful for; we forget we’re going to die and that a lot of today’s headache will soon be forgotten….
New Years Day
A friend observed with chagrin that I was too pessimistic in outlook. I was tempted to compose a detailed justification. The inclination for a pointless dialog passed. This quotation sums it up for me: There are no pessimists; there are only realists and liars. —Paul Virilio
Meditation
…………….in a time of empire collapse. “What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.” —-Seneca We get weepy and furious because our plans have failed and we strongly expected them not to. The task of philosophy is to disappoint us gently before life has a…
Loss
Friday morning at Baptist Health here in Louisville. I didn’t expect to be here at this time. Yesterday I received word that our daughter lost the baby that was due in another month. The news came as a shock, a lightning strike on a clear day. The pregnancy had proceeded normally with regular checkups. …
Che vuoi?
What do you want? The thought came this morning while reading. I am looking forward to the start of a new year of philosophical work with friends. That seems to be the only way to understand what it is that I want from life….. I have concluded that I need help, that working on…
