Starbucks on Saturday morning, the first day of Memorial Day weekend.  Sunshine is rapturous…

I sometimes catch myself in a fit of imagination wondering what it must have been like to live in the Athens of Greece during the reign of Pericles, the golden age of Athenian democracy.  Radical idealists of all stripes are possessed by a passion to return to some golden age.  If one is a Christian fundamentalist, return to the purity of the early Christian church, before followers of Christ earned the disparaging label of “Christian” by their polytheistic neighbors…  The Trump-following right-wingers of today say they want to return to the basics of government as laid down by the founders, constitutional purity.  Get government out of social programs, the restricting individual’s freedoms…

It’s always that fantastic return to an imagined golden age…

Here is a more brutal, more realistic description of spending time in an earlier golden age meant!

The greatest change —

The illumination
and the color of all things have changed.

We no longer understand
altogether how the ancients experienced
what was most familiar and frequent
–for example, the day and waking.

Since the ancients believed in dreams,
waking appeared in a different light.

The same goes for the whole of life,
which was illumined by death and its significance;
for us “death” means something quite different.

All experiences
shone differently because a god shone through them.

All decisions and perspectives
on the remote future too;
for they had oracles and secret portents
and believed in prophecy.

“Truth”, was experienced differently,
for the insane could be accepted formerly as its mouthpiece
–which makes us shudder or laugh.

Every wrong had a different effect on men’s feelings
— for one feared divine retribution
and not merely a civil punishment and dishonor.

What was joy in ages when one believed in devils and tempters?

   What was passion when one saw demons lying in wait nearby?

      What was philosophy when doubt was experienced as a sin
      of the most dangerous kind
      –as sacrilege against eternal Jove,
      as mistrust of all that was good, high, pure, and
      merciful?

We have given things a new color;
we go on painting them continually.
But what do all our efforts to date avail
when we hold them against the colored splendor of
that old master
— ancient humanity?

–excerpt The Gay Science, Book 3, Section 152 by Friedrich Nietzsche

Upon further thought I am quite satisfied to live in my own place and time, in Batavia of the early 21st century.  It is likely that most if not all of the Starbuck’s patrons around me are untroubled by angels, demons, spirits imposing divine or demonic influence…  Madmen are not oracles.  The will of any deity is irrelevant, and doubt is no sin.

Happy to be here!

Enjoy the weekend!