Toasting The Immense Gentleness
How at that moment—
at the limit of the laceration of reason—
happiness grows in me from my obvious inability to possess it.
We are like the meadow about to be inundated with rain,
disarmed under a wan sky.
having only one recourse:
to carry our glasses to our lips,
and to drink gently from this immense gentleness,
inscribed in the derangement of things.
No one ever lived this life in time to any other resolution
than the festival.
–excerpt On Nietzsche, by Georges Bataille, trans. by Stuart Kendall p. 138
Christmas blends into the New Year in Japan. There, it is a full week of feasting, being-with-others in the ample open spaces of temples and shrines. A much anticipated aspect of the celebration is traveling in company with friends to these places of heritage and beauty. And the food, a full-spectrum-delight of the senses to apprehend and partake together in what seems an endless selection of delicate, gastronomical offerings.
To become one with the all. Is that not what each of us desires?
Is there any other resolution than the festival?
