Thoughtful, thought provoking article, thanks. Have you considered illustration, making a drawing, to project your thoughts more constructively, less guiltily than philosophizing or psycho analyzing? Works for me. You are already half way there with the magrette and the uncredited baroque-ish painting. Us imaging albert's boulder boy happy only helps us with our own futilites, it does nothing for him, so depending on how much empathy you have you joy is canceled by his woe
I love that idea! This article is part of a daily writing process I'm experimenting with while I spend time labouring away on my mini-Thoreau movie. But I was only thinking this morning that maybe I could turn some of these daily pieces into videos and I saw your comment. Would be great to put visuals to this and bring it fully to life. Also means that I can make more movies
Much appreciated Michael and hammer on the nail summary. Love the Bly quote where's that from? I love Iron John and had the Rag and Bone collection he put together but haven't read much of his outside of that
Interesting reading this right after that stuff about hugs and handshakes (catching up on my blogs). I felt that essay was overcomplicating things, which is the sin of us intellectuals. But this essay ends on a good note, you have to embrace what you are, instead of wishing you were a simple-minded farmer. Misdirected intellectual energy overcomplicates things, but an intellectual functioning correctly can discover new truths, present old truths in a way adapted to the present context, simplify, resolve disputes.
that's a lovely word Carlos thanks for sharing tha. As for the misdirected intellectual energy I agree but of course there's a biting point in there navigating between the excess and the importance of temperament
46. Married and divorced thrice. Three children. I lived it, and I've experienced many things beside. Jung once remarked, in a lecture on Zarathustra, that Nietzche failed to individuate, but I think Nietzsche became exactly what he was supposed to be, in the end, as tragic as it was.
I always enjoy your insights.
To my mind, ideology is a poison best avoided by anyone who wants to maintain a pure heart and a good conscience--things which people now question as if they do not or could not ever have existed!
But they are always there to find for those who seek.
Extra credit for "Imagine Prometheus happy". Nice aphoristic portmanteau!
Outgrowing something has more to do with there being more things grappling for our attention. Children definitely do not fall for ideoligies, they just idolize their favourite characters. This is what massive corporations desire most likely. For adults, ironically massive media complexes and master manipulators are put to place to feed them ideologies.
The trap I sense from this piece of writing is our way of coping with limited time. At my age, it is not even in the realm of possibility to have decades long shared experiences with a single loving human being. Even thinking about this feels delusional. I have not read nietzsche yet, with this idea of dealing with ascetism, his books on morals and good-evil will feel different.
In a philosophy group, not associated with any institution except Meetup, we were doing the usual "tell us what you've been reading" topic. A professor of philosophy at a local university didn't bring a book, instead he passed around an annotated paper he'd written, one page, summarizing his views on Hegel. His basic point was that he didn't like ideology, the concept of ideology, and he thought it distracted people from connection and humanity. 'Distract' might not be the right word, but I think you probably it, because the first half of this essay was basically the same message.
I think people who do abstract thinking for a while get really jaded by it eventually, and one of the first things to go is a respect for how deeply human self-interest can run and how inntellectually and viscerally challenging people can be. You could end up like that professor and tell yourself that human connection is natural and the abstractions always end up being a prelude to conflict, but that ignores how common decency is at least partially a product of codified ethical language and law and social expectations that have some solid rigor to them. We do not live in a world that was perfect and then fell, Eden-style, because we were thinking too much. We live in a world where we have had to balance out different impulses, some of them brutal and grasping and close-minded, into a working social machine. That work is never done.
We need the abstraction, even if it's ice cold, as much as we need the empathy.
Philosophy is not a source of comfort or a coping mechanism in the way our psychological society registers these things. Philosophy is supposed to reflect truth with blunt clarity. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but if it helps you cope, it's because you trust its interpretation of how things work, not because it's delivered to you in validating language or sympathizes with your emotions. That's not its purpose. And we need it because we are not just animals that need a good belly rub and a Milk-Bone to embrace our lives. Blessing or curse, we are real agents.
Thoughtful, thought provoking article, thanks. Have you considered illustration, making a drawing, to project your thoughts more constructively, less guiltily than philosophizing or psycho analyzing? Works for me. You are already half way there with the magrette and the uncredited baroque-ish painting. Us imaging albert's boulder boy happy only helps us with our own futilites, it does nothing for him, so depending on how much empathy you have you joy is canceled by his woe
I love that idea! This article is part of a daily writing process I'm experimenting with while I spend time labouring away on my mini-Thoreau movie. But I was only thinking this morning that maybe I could turn some of these daily pieces into videos and I saw your comment. Would be great to put visuals to this and bring it fully to life. Also means that I can make more movies
Excellent writing, so enjoyable. A couple of thoughts from the bleachers… always presumptuous !
77, my life spent with the dying providing hospice care.
Siddhartha:
Seeking comfort in the mind, the only place certainty can exist in the presence of emerging vulnerability.
You:
Absent certainty. Discovering life is only lived in the presence of vulnerability (Pat)
Robert Bly:
“As children, we knew ours was a muddy greatness.”
Much appreciated Michael and hammer on the nail summary. Love the Bly quote where's that from? I love Iron John and had the Rag and Bone collection he put together but haven't read much of his outside of that
Bly: St. George and the Dragon.
A poem I think you will appreciate:
The Bear
He knew he would have
to take his clothes off…
To leave the scent
of the ordinary behind.
To give up what separated him
from his passion.
No longer willing to hibernate
in someone else’s forest.
Stepping closer to the fire,
Making himself visible
for the first time,
to that which would consume him.
His greatest fear
to become
what he longed for.
Michael Tscheu
Harbin Hot Springs Quarterly, Fall 2012
First Prize
Thanks for the Bly and thanks moreover for this Bear one. Dang that's powerful stuff
Interesting reading this right after that stuff about hugs and handshakes (catching up on my blogs). I felt that essay was overcomplicating things, which is the sin of us intellectuals. But this essay ends on a good note, you have to embrace what you are, instead of wishing you were a simple-minded farmer. Misdirected intellectual energy overcomplicates things, but an intellectual functioning correctly can discover new truths, present old truths in a way adapted to the present context, simplify, resolve disputes.
I love the Japanese concept of oubaitori: https://medium.com/@anitajbrady/279-oubaitori-%E6%A1%9C%E6%A2%85%E6%A1%83%E6%9D%8E-c9abd17d9072 . Gotta be the flower you are.
that's a lovely word Carlos thanks for sharing tha. As for the misdirected intellectual energy I agree but of course there's a biting point in there navigating between the excess and the importance of temperament
46. Married and divorced thrice. Three children. I lived it, and I've experienced many things beside. Jung once remarked, in a lecture on Zarathustra, that Nietzche failed to individuate, but I think Nietzsche became exactly what he was supposed to be, in the end, as tragic as it was.
I always enjoy your insights.
To my mind, ideology is a poison best avoided by anyone who wants to maintain a pure heart and a good conscience--things which people now question as if they do not or could not ever have existed!
But they are always there to find for those who seek.
Extra credit for "Imagine Prometheus happy". Nice aphoristic portmanteau!
Outgrowing something has more to do with there being more things grappling for our attention. Children definitely do not fall for ideoligies, they just idolize their favourite characters. This is what massive corporations desire most likely. For adults, ironically massive media complexes and master manipulators are put to place to feed them ideologies.
The trap I sense from this piece of writing is our way of coping with limited time. At my age, it is not even in the realm of possibility to have decades long shared experiences with a single loving human being. Even thinking about this feels delusional. I have not read nietzsche yet, with this idea of dealing with ascetism, his books on morals and good-evil will feel different.
The only freedoms we have is the choice what to be slaves to.
I guess for anyone with any philosophical inclination, I think in essence only one question remains:
Can you carry the weight of your queries along with the burden of your answers?
In a philosophy group, not associated with any institution except Meetup, we were doing the usual "tell us what you've been reading" topic. A professor of philosophy at a local university didn't bring a book, instead he passed around an annotated paper he'd written, one page, summarizing his views on Hegel. His basic point was that he didn't like ideology, the concept of ideology, and he thought it distracted people from connection and humanity. 'Distract' might not be the right word, but I think you probably it, because the first half of this essay was basically the same message.
I think people who do abstract thinking for a while get really jaded by it eventually, and one of the first things to go is a respect for how deeply human self-interest can run and how inntellectually and viscerally challenging people can be. You could end up like that professor and tell yourself that human connection is natural and the abstractions always end up being a prelude to conflict, but that ignores how common decency is at least partially a product of codified ethical language and law and social expectations that have some solid rigor to them. We do not live in a world that was perfect and then fell, Eden-style, because we were thinking too much. We live in a world where we have had to balance out different impulses, some of them brutal and grasping and close-minded, into a working social machine. That work is never done.
We need the abstraction, even if it's ice cold, as much as we need the empathy.
Philosophy is not a source of comfort or a coping mechanism in the way our psychological society registers these things. Philosophy is supposed to reflect truth with blunt clarity. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but if it helps you cope, it's because you trust its interpretation of how things work, not because it's delivered to you in validating language or sympathizes with your emotions. That's not its purpose. And we need it because we are not just animals that need a good belly rub and a Milk-Bone to embrace our lives. Blessing or curse, we are real agents.