Thursday, April 26, 2007

Philosophy Does Have its Consolations

Aphorisms are the fast food of philosophy, they give a great sound-bite and can stand in for actual conversations an extraordinary amount of the time. However, for the long hours alone with doubt, nothing has the staying power of full-strength philosophy - even for a dabbler such as myself.

Everything you can think of - every pain and ache and anguish. Poets have been there and carved the passage they took into the stones along the way. Philosophers eat those stones and eat the pain and eat down all the doubt and sit, alert and still while giant eggs of wisdom form in them and get squeezed out their eyes. Well, that's how it seems, although most philosophers seem keen to point out that they do their own laundry and washing up. So maybe those eggs need movement of the body to help them come out.

There is a feeling of exile at the moment. I am homesick again. I do have a plan for being here, it's not subtle or sophisticated - make money and set up the infrastructure for a life.
It is starting to come together too, and that's why I came - these things are attainable here. But of course they're *here*. I have the habits of a decade to appraise and choose to keep or not. The short-term plan is still in it's first third. One year or two is not so long int he bigger picture, after all.

Plans do unfold as long as you have them and tend them. Better hope I planned for the right things then!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Some wiseguy (Buddah) said "Take joy in the small, everyday events, because this is what life is made up of" by this I think he meant that if you don't enjoy the washing up, then you won't enjoy much because its close to all washing up with a few symphonies in between. Hugs. Lee.

J9 said...

Both Gorgeous and true!