Sunday, and freezing mist has covered pavement with a quarter inch of ice.  I will be satisfied with the cup of coffee from the kitchen.  The short drive to the Starbucks on 3rd and State in Geneva would be a risk.  I appreciate the hot rich astringent cup of Starbucks coffee, and anticipate the brief exchange with the baristas.  But not enough to gamble.

I continue my reading of The Phaedo, written by Plato.  Plato’s skill as a playwright shines through.  Plato uses the conversation between Socrates who is shortly to die, and Cebes his confidant, to “sell” his philosophy of ideas.  Plato thought that reality in a perfect, unalloyed form consists of ideas in all of their abstract beauty.  His notion contrasts with the material world which is a flawed re-presentation, of the perfect, unchanging, eternal realm.

There is no question of Plato’s success at disseminating to future generations his idealistic way of thinking.  Segments from the dialog in The Phaedo were adapted by future generations to good use, filling out the Christian notion of life after death, heaven and hell.  It is intuitive that justice, requires life-after-life to met out deserved reward, deserved redress for the deeds done in this life.  I cannot imagine a more effective vehicle for marketing such a collection of ideas which are found at the very foundation of our experience.  The drama of Socrates describing the principles by which he has lived, and will live — until the moment of his death, is superlative  Socrates under the pen of Plato transforms the meaning of life and of death.

---

A song, we need a tune for the day ahead…  This one suits our time and place:  Let Her Cry by Hootie and The Blowfish. Plato would have agreed with the sweet tragic scene, iconic of our human experience presented by these lyrics.  In this world of change there are things that cannot be fixed, “Let her be, let her be.”

Let Her Cry

By Hootie and The Blowfish

She sits alone
By a lamp post
Trying to find a thought that’s escaped her mind
She says Dar’s the one
I love the most
But Stipe’s not far behind

She never lets me in
Only tell me where’s she’s been
When she’s had too much to drink
I say that I don’t care
I just run my hands through her dark hair
Then I pray to God you gotta help me fly away and just…

Let her cry, if the tears fall down like rain
Let her sing, if it eases all her pain
Let her go, let her walk right out on me
And if the sun comes up tomorrow
Let her be, let her be.

This morning I woke up alone
Found a note standin’ by the phone
Saying maybe, maybe I’ll be back some day
I wanted to look for you
You walked in
I didn’t know just what I should do
So I sat back down and had a beer and felt sorry for myself saying…

Let her cry, if the tears fall down like rain
Let her sing, if it eases all her pain
Let her go, let her walk right out on me
And if the sun comes up tomorrow
Let her be, let her be.

[Solo]

Let her cry, if the tears fall down like rain
Let her sing, if it eases all her pain
Let her go, let her walk right out on me
And if the sun comes up tomorrow
Let her be, oh, oh.

Last night I tried to leave
Cried so much I could not believe
She was the same girl I fell in love with long ago

She went in the back to get high
I sat down on my couch and cried
Yelling oh mama please help me
Won’t you hold my hand and…

Let her cry, if the tears fall down like rain
Let her sing, if it eases all her pain
Let her go, let her walk right out on me
And if the sun comes up tomorrow
Let her be, oh, oh.

Let her cry, if the tears fall down like rain
Let her sing, if it eases all her pain
Let her go, let her walk right out on me
And if the sun comes up tomorrow
Let her be, oh, let her be.

Writer(s): Mark Bryan, Everett Felber, Darius Rucker, James Sonefeld