…a thought comes
when “it” wants, and not when “I” want.

It is, therefore, a falsification of the facts
to say that the subject “I”
is the condition
of the predicate “think.”

It thinks:
but to say the “it”
is just that famous old “I”
– well that is just an assumption or opinion,
to put it mildly, and by no means an “immediate certainty.”

…People are following grammatical habits here in drawing conclusions,
reasoning that “thinking is an activity, behind every activity something is
active, therefore –.”

Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. Judith Butler, aphorism 17

A friend asked this morning whether I was writing or if I had writers block. Writers block!? I understand the term. That’s when one desires to write, but is overcome by an impediment of feelings, confused, unsorted, which get-in-the-way of the business of crafting a story.

Or perhaps one is numb, obstructed by a “nothingness” that one is feeling. I have experienced both of these states, and I suppose they are not uncommon. Each of us is an unique individual with much in common!

I approve of what Nietzsche has to say about thinking.  The more that I “think” about thinking the less confidence I have that I know what thinking is, how it begins, or whether there is a definite “I” that thinks!  From my own experience, thinking and writing comes when it wills!  It is as if thinking rises up as a ghost, triggered by sensations, by memories not yet formulated, hidden, maybe by the atmosphere of this room… As you can see, it is possible to go on and on. We can say a great deal about “thinking” while knowing so little.

And I am reluctant to believe there is any such “block.”  On occasion when words do not come, then I am not ready to write. That is all. Read some more. Relax. Cultivate the garden, water the plants, do a bit of pruning, etc. Trust thinking (whatever that is) to come when it wills.

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One more thing. I read a snippet of the New York Times article this morning about the destruction of Ukraine.  There’s nothing left of towns and villages in proximity to the front lines.

This concluding statement of the Times piece sums up the matter:

“Volodymyr Zelensky has pressed the Biden administration to let Ukraine strike deep inside Russia with American-made weapons. So far, the White House has refused.”

Something that needs saying out loud, and I will say it.  Biden is a man without balls.

To read the entire New York Times article CLICK HERE