If I’d lived my life by what others were thinkin’, the heart inside me would’ve died

I was just too stubborn to ever be governed by enforced insanity

Someone had to reach for the risin’ star, I guess it was up to me

"Up to Me" by Bob Dylan)

Tuesday, February 07, 2017

Burt Bachrach and Dionne Warwick: Loneliness Remembers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv62rtEdVAk

This video gives to me an amazing array of memories---yet, I have never heard this tune until it appeared on Youtube. It awakens a sense of 'seventies-ness'---all of it, you can hear this in their tone of voices, playful---a kind of pathos that is forgotten. Dare I call it innocence---the feeling of 'back in the day'.

Specific memories: in the dentist's chair at Dr. Thaler's, I listened carefully to every song on the Muzak radio---this brings back memories of my mother---I can almost see her and to reach out and touch her---it is such a rich tapestry! Flower power. I am amazed at the power of memory---yes---think about it---this power of memory to recall and re-present this world. It is all right there at my fingertips---along this corridor. Do you recall these days, along the ragged alleyways in Duncansville, St. Catherine's old wooden chapel---the Wye Switches?


Global Warming Hoax

Sunday, February 05, 2017

Utter Astonishment

Let’s begin by distinguishing wonder and astonishment. The sense of wonder is indeed the fountain from which authentic philosophy issues---wonder concerning the beauty of a bubbling brook or a raging snowstorm---wonder seems to be aimed at some phenomenon that is present and entails a perplexity which is felt alongside an experience of nature. This human ‘sense’ initiates philosophical inquiry: questioning and thinking.



Astonishment arises not from a specific phenomenon but from the startling, and immediate sense of the total sum of phenomena in the face of nothing.

The artist is amazed at the poetic majesty of the glowing horizon at the end of day or the reflection of the sunset on the surface of the lake---wonder gives forth a question of how this specific manifestation of beauty arises, not only in nature but within her sense. 

Later she is struck all at once with another question---one more disturbing, apparently groundless---but how is it that any of this appears to me at all? And more profoundly---how is it that I am sensing this? How is it that I am? How is it that any of this appears at all including me?

St. Augustine in The Confessions touches on both the sense of wonder and this more radical ‘sense’ of utter astonishment which calls into question the very ground of his own being, his soul: "For then shalt Thou rest in us, as now Thou workest in us; and so shall that be Thy rest through us, as these are Thy works through us. But Thou, Lord, ever workest, and art ever at rest. Nor dost Thou see in time, nor art moved in time, nor restest in a time; and yet Thou makest things seen in time, yea the times themselves, and the rest which results from time (Confessions Book 13).

By “astonishment” I am not referring to any cotidian marvel but the utterly astounding thought which first of all appears as terrible and full of awe. It is not clear how common this experience is, as for myself, I have never met a person who claims to have felt this, save for a few philosophers, and of course the greatest writers---St. Augustine, Heidegger, Dostoevsky. It is absolutely uncanny and springs up all at once---not in the senses but at the root of on’e being. Heidegger calls this ‘Nothing’---‘das Nicht’. Yet, the full sense of terror cannot be grasped by merely reading about this ‘phenomenon’---it must be directly experienced. 

Astonishment sends one reeling--the Oxford English Dictionary’s first entry for ‘astone; astun’ is “1. To stun; to strike senseless with a blow or partially senseless with a loud noise.” Further meanings are “to daze, to stupefy. strike mute with amazement, overwhelm one’s presence of mind, to confound, astound, astonish (‘Astone’ OED, p.521).” Such a dazzling is not brought about by one’s will. Rather it overcomes the thinker, creeping in and then all at once. Having experienced this one can never forget it. It is unique, primordial and undeniable. Heidegger also calls this ‘falling’ ‘Geworfenheit: thrownness. It is overwhelmingly complete and completely disarms the senses and mind. Leaving one with the most profound question: How is it that I am here and all of the universe besides? It is strange and alienating.
Incidentally, before we leave the etymology, one notices the term 'stone' in the root of 'astonishment'---indeed it is the same root as 'to get stoned'---in Dylan's Rainy Day Women: "everybody must get stoned." Better yet we hear this in Van Morrison's "And it Stoned Me":  And it stoned me to my soul/ It stoned me just like going home/ It stoned me."


Saturday, February 04, 2017

Bob Dylan Project

http://thebobdylanproject.com/http://thebobdylanproject.com/

All the Dylan songs, albums, lyrics and chords free streaming Dylan radio!!


One Percenters in Ancient Times

Much is made of the excessive luxury of billionaires these days---and indeed it is excessive---there is a great divide, even exponential, between us and them. However it should also be noted that there have been days of greater wealth divides---think of the ancient Kings of Israel---what do you think the wealth of King Solomon would be like in terms of current money measurement? I do not think you could actually measure it in trillions of dollars! But this is a false comparison---I mention it just to provoke thought. What do you reckon the pyramid of King Amenhotep or Tutankhamen of ancient Egypt were worth in current dollar measurement? Food for thought!