Joined with a group  of friends last night to exchange ideas about morality.  Is morality relative or absolute?  The notion of an absolute, something not disposed to many interpretations, a universal standard, — inevitably is linked to the idea of a deity.  Absolutes of any kind, morality included, are affairs of divinity, since we define god as the entity that knows and acts with certainty.  Things relative, on the other hand are affairs of human imagination, the product of our community, of our trial and error construction.

Coincidentally this morning I read what Nietzsche wrote about poetry, words in rhyme, and our desire to know the future with certainty, even better, — to influence a certain future outcome.

On the origin of poetry-

Those who love the fantastic side of man
and at the same time
champion the notion of instinctive morality,
argue as follows:
“If we assumed that utility
had always been venerated as the supreme deity,
how could we possibly account for poetry?

After all, this rhythmic speech
does anything but promote the clarity of communication,
and yet it has shot up all over the earth,
and still does, as if it meant to mock expediency and utility.
The wild and beautiful
irrationality of poetry
refutes your utilitarianism.

It was precisely the desire to get away from utility
for once that elevated man
and furnished the inspiration for morality and art.”

Well, in this case I have to side with the utilitarians.

…When one lets rhythm permeate speech
–the rhythmic force that reorders all the atoms
of a sentence, bids one choose one’s words with care,
and gives one’s thoughts a new color,
making them darker, stranger, and more remote

–the utility in question was superstitious.

Rhythm was meant to impress the gods more deeply…
Thus one tried to compel the gods
by using rhythm and to force their hand:
poetry was thrown at them
like a magical snare.

It is not only in the cult song
but also in worldly songs of the most ancient times
that it is assumed that rhythm has a magical power.
As one draws water or rows, for example,
a song is supposed to cast a spell
over the demons that one
imagines at work in such cases;
it makes them pliant and unfree so that they become man’s instruments.

Every action provides an occasion for song:
every action depends on the assistance of spirits,
and the magical song and the spell seem to be the
primeval form of poetry.

Rhythm enabled one to do anything
to advance some work magically;
to force a god to appear, to be near, and to listen;
to mold the future in accordance with one’s will;
to cleanse one’s own soul
from some excess (of anxiety, mania, pity, or vengefulness)
–and not only one’s own soul
but also that of the most evil demon:
without verse one was nothing;
by means of verse
one almost became
a god.

–excerpt The Gay Science, Book 2, Section 84 by Friedrich Nietzsche

What poem, what incantation is recommended for this day?  Its Thursday – I could use the assistance of the gods, to advance today’s portion of spring yard work, the mulching, seeding etc.  Would you approach the altar of a god, without a poem, without a song?  Would you join me in this prayer?

I’m always working slaving every day
Gotta get away from that same old same old
I need a chance just to get away
If you could hear me think this is what I’d say

Don’t need nothin’ but a good time
How can I resist
Ain’t looking for nothin’ but a good time
And it don’t get better than this….

Lyrics by Bret Michaels, Bruce Anthony Johannesson, Rikki Rocket, Bobby Dall