How things even out
I find Jack Handey brilliant and hilarious. Here is his latest essay on how things even out. (Perhaps the funniest line is a sleeper: “Even in the afterlife things probably even out, although I can’t imagine how.” Why do you suppose ‘the afterlife’ was invented in the first place?!)
An attempt at poetry
Listen: I know I’m not a poet, but what’s the point of blogging if you can’t throw an amateur attempt out there once in a while? Here goes:
A reason for the aliens
When the aliens in their shimmery green space suits
Finally pin me to the ground and ask me
(demand, in fact)
To provide a single reason why they should not
Vaporize the entire planet
(A fiery Armageddon for all our sins, none
Of which they can fully understand)
I do not, not even for a moment,
Think of our mighty dams and symphonies
Or all of the other loud noises we have made
But I think instead
Of a snowy afternoon
When my son came home with a headache,
A touch of flu,
And he laid in his bed
With his hands slipped neatly
Beneath his head
And my wife curled in with him to sleep
And I watched from the door
While the snow fell so silently, so silently,
Less even than a prayer.
Borges quote
A recent commenter offered this stunning speculation on the nature of aesthetics by Jorge Luis Borges:
“Music, states of happiness, mythology, faces belabored by time, certain twilights and certain places try to tell us something, or have said something we should not have missed, or are about to say something; this imminence of a revelation which does not occur is, perhaps, the aesthetic phenomenon.”
Nietzsche overture
Well, I have put the Spinoza/Nietzsche book on the back burner for now. I have found that bashing religion with arguments makes me unhappy, so I’ll let it alone. I’ll work full-force instead on a book on Nietzsche, which was my original plan anyway. (I may also write a separate book on Spinoza; we’ll see.)
But I’m writing in a style that’s unconventional for philosophy. The technical term for the style is: “loosey-goosey.” I’m not sure it is a good style, or that I have any talent for pulling it off, so I’d be interested in hearing what any readers’ responses are.
I’ve put the introductory chapter over on the “About CH” page (link over on the right).
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