Enjoying the view from Limbo
For the thinking individual, the paradox of writing or speaking for public consumption is that the moment you realize you have been “discovered,” which is to say that you have found some kind of audience, you will be tempted every hour by the devil who has devoured the soul of almost everyone who has ever been in this position. Why are people of...
The most important part of any conversation is the silence. For speaking is thought translated into verbal symbols, and thought is by definition a silent, private activity of the soul. Thus, a conversation consisting only, or even primarily, of words flying back and forth involves little speaking in the strict sense, but only talking, much as Wilde wrote that a woman who cannot...
A man when alone — I mean truly alone, not merely waiting for others to arrive — occupies his own depths. He lives in ocean currents and the most profound silence. Two such deep-flowing individuals, in conversation, may hope to preserve some of that serious silence between them. For the source of all conversation — using that word in its essential, definitive sense...
Today is full of the noise. Every moment, the mindless chatter of the most mindless of chattering creatures, the late-modern slave, cuts through every thought, interrupts every quiet intake of breath, disturbs the rhythm of every calm reflection. I walk to the pond, a cup of coffee in my hand and a camera around my neck, hoping for a peaceful moment of escape...
It’s a quiet Saturday here in Day Something of the emergency to end all emergencies. I am hiding out in my favorite work space, trying to make the most of the unexpected time afforded by the corona-virus-delayed start of the spring semester. “Never let a crisis go to waste,” as Rahm Emanuel, a Clinton-Obama strategist and thug, famously said. Without further ado, then,...
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