Nativity Unwrapped
When we use the word “happiness”
as defined by our philosophy,
we’re not in the first place thinking
like tired, anxious, and suffering
philosophers, inwardly and outwardly
at peace in the absence of pain, impossibility,
tranquility, the “holy of holies,”
at equilibrium, something that more
or less has the value of a deep dreamless sleep.
Our world is rather uncertain, changing,
variable, equivocal, a dangerous world perhaps,
certainly more dangerous than simple,
immutable, predictable, fixed,
everything that the previous philosophers,
heirs of the needs and fears of the herd,
honored above all.
-excerpt The Will to Power by Nietzsche (1885-1886)
The world gives birth and, like a woman, it isn’t pretty.
Every throw of the dice isolates one from the others. Nothing gathers them as a totality. The totality is necessity. The dice are free.
–excerpt On Nietzsche by Georges Bataille, trans. by Stuart Kendall p. 135
So, you’d like to understand, penetrate the meaning of the Nativity? You know that tableau of Joseph, Mary and a newborn. They are nearly “on the street” without proper accommodations… We take for granted proper shelter do we not?
Those crossing the border at El Paso, fleeing hunger in their home country, only to face the Texas National Guard and razor wire, take nothing for granted. Their act, their state of mind is nothing other than a throw of the dice.
The same can be said of soldiers on the front lines in Ukraine, confined to a muddy trench, and their families in the Ukrainian heartland, exposed to cold and deprivation… “Life” as a throw of the dice.
Throw if you would be free.
2 thoughts on “Nativity Unwrapped”
The world seems to be run by tired old men who somehow believe that by spreading fear, destruction, and cruelty, they will become immortal. I suppose in some ways, that is true. The lives of the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people they affect with their sociopathic behavior are inexorably altered, many times by death. This changes the path of the world in ways we cannot imagine. Think of those who were great thinkers, philosophers, scientists, and artists whose lives were cut short in the Nazi death camps. How would their contributions have enlightened us all, or where might we be in fighting cancer, or coming to grips with climate change? We pause a moment to contemplate the “butterfly effect” and how the single beat of those delicate wings will alter the universe. Then we might think of Putin, Hitler, Xi, Assad, and so many others as 1,800 ton butterflies wreaking havoc across the globe and forever corrupting the paths of humanity. Is this not a form of immortality?
Not a particularly happy thought the morning prior to a day known for the gathering of families and for pronouncing Peace on Earth, but isn’t it just as relevant to remember the poor, the hungry, the dispossessed, the victims of these maniacs during this time of reflection and of hope? For it is my own hope that by keeping those who are suffering close at hand, we might someday extricate ourselves from the blindness of these men who strive to be gods and find the peace on earth we so desperately want.
A memory that is “on point” for this season, of austere contrast, the winter solstice two days ago, and Christmas day tomorrow. I think to the extent we become human, that we are in solidarity with each other, no matter our geographical location, or our circumstances. All are mortal. Immortality is illusion, a lie of gigantic proportion. Peace on earth is possible.