Christmas Eve and I begin the day at Starbucks… Why wouldn’t I? Beginning a day, any day with some reading, some contemplation, and pleasant conversation is agreeable to me. That is what I want. For the most part, on many occasions I have no idea about what I want. If you were to ask, I’d give a dishonest answer as the most efficient means of deflecting the question.

I revisited some notes that I saved several years past on the philosophy of Jacques Lacan. I was captivated by Lacan on discovery of his work/writing. Lacan melds Freudian analysis with insights from theory of language. Said plainly: the ways which we use language to conceal the truth from ourselves. “The truth” after all is first and foremost that is most real about ourselves. A therapist that I know described well the process of excavating one’s truth as “peeling the onion.” One peels away, and then takes a break, steps away. One must allow the tears, and the eye-pain caused by the essence of onion to subside. And then you peel some more…

These lines from Ranier Maria Rilke parallel Lacan’s insights:

There exists a creature
that is perfectly harmless;
when it passes before your eyes,
you hardly notice it and
immediately forget it again.
But as soon as it somehow,
invisibly, gets into your ears,
it begins to develop, it hatches,
and cases have been known
where it has penetrated
into the brain
and flourished there devastatingly,
like the pneumococci in dogs
which gain entrance through the nose.
This creature
is your neighbor.

The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
By Ranier Maria Rilke, trans. by Stephen Mitchell

That’s all that I have at this time.

“Merry” Christmas

PS Here is a fine tune to hold onto: Christmas by Darlene Love