Tuesday, and I plan to have lunch with a friend.  Later in the day, I hope to meet another friend for coffee at Starbucks.  Can I imagine a more agreeable day?  It gets better.  In the evening, I will join a group of old friends via Zoom to discuss the topic, “What Is Life?”  Could I imagine a more intriguing subject for discussion?  No, I cannot.

At some juncture one has to “throw down,” to make that bold and forceful move to say what life has meant to you, given the one life that you are likely to have.  That phrase must come from the the physical action meant as a formal challenge to combat, to “throw down the gauntlet.”  And yes, your ticket is only for a single ride.  Sorry, resurrection, reincarnation, the transmigration of souls is not credible to me.  So what does life amount to?  Given my best effort, what would I say about life?

While in the kitchen yesterday, my wife pointed out two squirrels engaged in a frantic wrestling exercise.  At the back of our lot, in a protected corner without the worry of any predator the two tree dwelling rodents grappled, their lithe bodies turning and twisting for some minutes.  Was I observing a mating ritual?  It is early spring after all.  I’ll never know.  Squirrels do what squirrels do.  They do not write philosophy papers.  Somehow it seemed a sacred moment.

I read twenty some pages of The Phaedo by Plato yesterday.  The Phaedo was written by Plato describing the last conversation between Socrates and his friends, on the eve of Socrates execution.  Plato was not present due to illness.  Plato later interviews Phaedo a close friend of Socrates who was present for that memorable exchange between friends, in the last few hours of Socrates life.  Perhaps this is my last opportunity to read The Phaedo.  I just turned 72 after all.  There is a last time for everything is there not?  I digress.

Socrates is about to drink the hemlock which will induce a sleep, the sleep produces a paralysis of the heart which of course signals the termination of life for the subject.  This departure Socrates chooses rather than exile.  Exile would have meant a forced move from the city of Athens, from the society to which he had dedicated his military service, and from the civic life he had endeavored to remedy by his philosophical efforts.  Leaving voluntarily by way of drinking hemlock seemed more reasonable to Socrates.  Socrates isolated from Athens would not be Socrates.  How did Socrates use the last most precious hours of his life?  He offers to trusted friends his account of life, a rationale for the practice of philosophy as a preparation for a good death.

Finally I had several hours to myself in my vehicle yesterday.  Among the random tunes that I listened to on the radio, this one captured my mind.  The attraction between male and female, that electricity rising from the depths of our genes, as old as the time before we lived in villages, before cities, the time when we were tribal on the Savannah… This tune and the lyric speaks to wildness, to the pounding onrush of life, to the beauty that envelops us, and to death as well.

I know that you will ask when you read the lyric, “Is that true?”  True enough.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpzkSg9e3Uw

Fat Bottomed Girls

By Queen

Ah you gonna take me home tonight
Ah down beside that red fire light
Ah you gonna let it all hang out
Fat bottomed girls you make the rocking world go round

Hey I was just a skinny lad
Never knew no good from bad
But I knew life before I left my nursery (huh)
Left alone with big fat Fanny
She was such a naughty nanny
Heap big woman, you made a bad boy out of me

Hey hey!

I’ve been singing with my band
Across the water, across the land
I’ve seen every blue eyed floozy on the way (hey)
But their beauty and their style
Went kind of smooth after a while
Take me to them dirty ladies every time

C’mon!

Ah, won’t you take me home tonight?
Ah, down beside your red fire light
Ah, and you give it all you got
Fat bottomed girls you make the rocking world go round
Fat bottomed girls you make the rocking world go round

Hey, listen here
Now I got mortgages and homes
I got stiffness in the bones
Ain’t no beauty queens in this locality (I tell you)
Oh, but I still get my pleasure
Still got my greatest treasure
Heap big woman you done made a big man of me (now get this)

Oh (I know), you gonna take me home tonight (please)
Oh, down beside that red fire light
Oh, you gonna let it all hang out
Fat bottomed girls you make the rocking world go round (yeah)
Fat bottomed girls you make the rocking world go round

Get on your bikes and ride

Ooh, yeah, oh, yeah, them fat bottomed girls
Fat bottomed girls, yeah, yeah, yeah
Allright
Ride ’em come on
Fat bottomed girls
Yeah, yeah, right

Lyrics by Freddie Mercury