So I'm busted for the spelling-bee winning, French philosophy-reading geek that I am. All I can say is that I came by it honestly. (Only Epictetus is a better coach in survival than ol' Michel.)
I can't remember the name of the essay that first got my attention, but it had something to do with learning how to
die properly; more specifically that the one useful thing a person could do with their mind and their time is learning to live in such a way that they could die at any time without the awful headrush of ignorance, fear, regret, and cowardice that afflicts most of us in that painful, awkward and inevitable moment.
This was a lesson that had particular meaning at the time that I first discovered it, and it's stuck with me ever since. In order to maintain it's sanity, the first duty of a human towards itself is to learn to genuinely love it's own death, and that only when one can properly do that is one prepared to do anything else of any real value.
What kept me with him, beyond his verve with an epigram, was the fact that he managed to live a truly sensible life, jotting back and forth between philosophy, urban planning, city politics, warfare, music, a long and seemingly relatively healthy marriage, fatherhood, poetry...
He could function. He was not a drone. He had learned to
think independently, and to be patient, and to be as competent as he was physically capable of in whatever he set his hand to. He was a draftsman. He was technically-minded. He was not a one-trick pony. He wrote well
because he thought well. He didnt give himself airs.
He was never pretentious. He was a man, in every sense of the word.
As far as the Albigensians go, ask yourself how the history of the world would have been different had they continued to grow as they had all signs of showing? Had Gnosticism become the second-most popular religion on earth rather than the debauched, hierarchical, hypocritical, manipulative, monotheistic, murderous mess that in a most UnChristian manner we call Christianity? Had they not been massacred in a most un Christian manner in the name of Christ and the throne of France? It probably would have been just as bad, but hey, even a prisoner can dream.
I'm coming out of the closet here in a way I'd like to avoid.
Please don't do this to me.
Yrs.
David
Very Dead French People
B
Baerwald
(view)
So I'm busted for the spelling-bee winning, French philosophy-reading geek that I am. All I can say is that I came by it honestly. (Only Epictetus is a better coach in survival than ol' Michel.)
I can't remember the name of the essay that first got my attention, but it had something to do with learning how to
die properly; more specifically that the one useful thing a person could do with their mind and their time is learning to live in such a way that they could die at any time without the awful headrush of ignorance, fear, regret, and cowardice that afflicts most of us in that painful, awkward and inevitable moment.
This was a lesson that had particular meaning at the time that I first discovered it, and it's stuck with me ever since. In order to maintain it's sanity, the first duty of a human towards itself is to learn to genuinely love it's own death, and that only when one can properly do that is one prepared to do anything else of any real value.
What kept me with him, beyond his verve with an epigram, was the fact that he managed to live a truly sensible life, jotting back and forth between philosophy, urban planning, city politics, warfare, music, a long and seemingly relatively healthy marriage, fatherhood, poetry...
He could function. He was not a drone. He had learned to
think independently, and to be patient, and to be as competent as he was physically capable of in whatever he set his hand to. He was a draftsman. He was technically-minded. He was not a one-trick pony. He wrote well
because he thought well. He didnt give himself airs.
He was never pretentious. He was a man, in every sense of the word.
As far as the Albigensians go, ask yourself how the history of the world would have been different had they continued to grow as they had all signs of showing? Had Gnosticism become the second-most popular religion on earth rather than the debauched, hierarchical, hypocritical, manipulative, monotheistic, murderous mess that in a most UnChristian manner we call Christianity? Had they not been massacred in a most un Christian manner in the name of Christ and the throne of France? It probably would have been just as bad, but hey, even a prisoner can dream.
I'm coming out of the closet here in a way I'd like to avoid.
Please don't do this to me.
Yrs.
David
I can't remember the name of the essay that first got my attention, but it had something to do with learning how to
die properly; more specifically that the one useful thing a person could do with their mind and their time is learning to live in such a way that they could die at any time without the awful headrush of ignorance, fear, regret, and cowardice that afflicts most of us in that painful, awkward and inevitable moment.
This was a lesson that had particular meaning at the time that I first discovered it, and it's stuck with me ever since. In order to maintain it's sanity, the first duty of a human towards itself is to learn to genuinely love it's own death, and that only when one can properly do that is one prepared to do anything else of any real value.
What kept me with him, beyond his verve with an epigram, was the fact that he managed to live a truly sensible life, jotting back and forth between philosophy, urban planning, city politics, warfare, music, a long and seemingly relatively healthy marriage, fatherhood, poetry...
He could function. He was not a drone. He had learned to
think independently, and to be patient, and to be as competent as he was physically capable of in whatever he set his hand to. He was a draftsman. He was technically-minded. He was not a one-trick pony. He wrote well
because he thought well. He didnt give himself airs.
He was never pretentious. He was a man, in every sense of the word.
As far as the Albigensians go, ask yourself how the history of the world would have been different had they continued to grow as they had all signs of showing? Had Gnosticism become the second-most popular religion on earth rather than the debauched, hierarchical, hypocritical, manipulative, monotheistic, murderous mess that in a most UnChristian manner we call Christianity? Had they not been massacred in a most un Christian manner in the name of Christ and the throne of France? It probably would have been just as bad, but hey, even a prisoner can dream.
I'm coming out of the closet here in a way I'd like to avoid.
Please don't do this to me.
Yrs.
David
