What is great in humankind
is that he is a bridge and not an end:
What can be loved in man is that he/she
is a passage and a fall.

–Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Prologue §4

I love he/she whose soul is deep,
even in being wounded,
and who can perish of a small experience:
thus he/she goes gladly over the bridge.

–Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Prologue §4

Humankind is a rope,
tied between the animal and the overman –
a rope over an abyss.

a dangerous across,
     a dangerous on-the-way,
          a dangerous looking back,
               a dangerous shuddering and stopping.

–Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Prologue §4

Recovered from Covid.  As a “senior citizen,” a polite euphemism for recognizing at a deeper level that one is old, no longer in one’s prime, I am thankful to feel well again.  Much has been written, even poetry about reaching this stage in life.  It is a stroke of luck really, since there are many ways to die at a younger age.  Age stimulates reflection, consideration of the path that one has taken, then the resolve to continue one’s personal journey.

How could I not be inspired, discover a motivating fire in these words by Friedrich Nietzsche?  What is meant by: to be a bridge, a passage, a fall?  The words have connotation of service, to feel that one is in service to something greater than oneself.  Especially the suggestion that even if the outcome of my life in many respects be considered “a fall,” — failure in a greater cause is worth embracing.

Am I able today to go gladly over the bridge?

Finally to be a rope tied between the animal and the overman…  Moreover the rope is stretched over an abyss.  Can we not all speculate about the meaning of that phrase?  There is no question that the image is crackling with an aura of danger.

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A tune for this Monday, a somber day somehow appropriate to the memory of M. L. King, his life given for a great cause…  Bonnie Raitt performs Nick of Time.  Time presses us, and we all are borne along by time.

Nick Of Time

A friend of mine, she cries at night
And she calls me on the phone
Sees babies everywhere she goes
And she wants one of her own

She’s waited long enough she says
And still he can’t decide
Pretty soon she’ll have to choose
And it tears her up inside

She is scared,
Scared to run out of time

I see my folks are getting on
And I watch their bodies change
I know they see the same in me
And it makes us both feel strange

No matter how you tell yourself
It’s what we all go through
Those lines are pretty hard to take
When they’re staring back at you

Oh Oh Oh, scared you’ll run out of time

When did the choices get so hard
With so much more at stake
Life gets mighty precious
When there’s less of it to wa-a-a-aste

Mmm-m-m-m-m-m

Mmmmmmm, scared you’ll run out of time

Just when I thought I’d had enough
And all my tears were shed
No promise left unbroken
There were no painful words unsaid

Yo-o-o-u came along and showed me
I could leave it all behind
You opened up my heart again
And then much to my surprise

I found love, baby, love in the nick of time
(Love in the nick of time)
I found love darlin’, love in the nick of time
(Love in the nick of time)
I found love baby, love in the nick of time

Ooooooo-ooo-ooo-whoo-ooo
Yeah baby

Uhhhhh-huh-uh

Found love…
In the nick of time…

Thought I’d given up…
Given up baby…

Oh ooo wo ooo wo…

Lyrics by Bonnie Raitt

One more quotation from Nietzsche:  “Once I saw both the greatest man and the smallest man naked: all to similar to each other, even the greatest all-too-human.”  –Thus Spoke Zarathustra, pt 3, The Convalescent, §2.