This weekend I am in Louisville, Kentucky. I like Louisville. On the Ohio River the city draws from the past and reaches for a future. I am reminded of the story of Daniel Boone, that he was a Kentuckian. There is a regional pride here, a linkage to what is owed to the past.  The fleur de lis, a French lily flower is the symbol of Louisville, a tie to Louis XVI and the American Revolution. The “look back” is also combined in Louisville with a delightful progressive attitude which looks forward to the creation of the future.

Louisville is home to a robust Gay community. A thriving residency of artists is visibly supported by galleries, art fairs, and festivals.  Music, good food, conviviality and what is possible in the course of a sharing of minds, impresses me as true of Louisville.

Today I look forward to enjoyment of the annual Pride parade. Following will be a leisurely afternoon the the park in good company. There will be music, vendors, and drag shows to expand the imagination.

Today another segment from Nietzsche, – a full spectrum of painterly prose, every color from dark to delicate pastels, to describe what it is like to be and to become a “free spirit.”

At home in many countries of the spirit,
at least as guests;
repeatedly slipping away
from the musty, comfortable corners
where preference and prejudice, youth, origin,
accidents of people and books, and even the fatigue of traveling
seem to have driven us;

full of malice at the lures of dependency
that lie hidden in honors, or money,
or duties, or enthusiasms of the senses;
grateful even for difficulties and inconstant health,
because they have always freed us
from some rule and its “prejudice,”
grateful to the god, devil, sheep, and maggot in us,
curious to a fault,
researchers to the point of cruelty,

…ready for any trade
that requires a quick wit and sharp senses,
ready for any risk,
hidden under the cloak of light,
conquerors,
even if we look like heirs and prodigals,
collectors and gatherers from morning until evening,
miserly with our riches
and our cabinets filled to the brim,

…sometimes night owls at work,
even in bright daylight;
yes, even scarecrows when the need arises
– and today the need has arisen:

inasmuch as we are born,
sworn, jealous friends of solitude,
our own deepest, most midnightly, noon-likely solitude.
This is the type of people we are,
we free spirits!
and perhaps
you are something of this yourselves,
you who are approaching?
you new philosophers? –

Beyond Good and Evil, by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. Judith Norman, aphorism 44