A Homemade Day
I woke up
this morning
that is the time
to wake up
I think
I guess
anyway, I woke up
this morning
no birds sang
the frogs
had croaked
in the night
not me
so I sang
sat about
making the day
my own
Lurching Restart
I’m back. Sorta. Anyway, I do expect to begin posting here again over the next few weeks. I’ve missed working on the blog and interacting with those of you who follow it. But I want to restart by shouldering Heidegger’s reminder:
There is a significant darkness in every philosophical endeavor, and even the most radical of these endeavors remains finite.
No Systems Go
Obviously, things have been slow around here. I’ve tried a few times to get back to regular posting, but it seems that each time some new difficulty arises and all I end up with is new ideas partially developed but then abandoned. So–I am going to shut Quantum Est down for a while, maybe for a few months or more. I have really enjoyed the conversations the blog has started and the new friends I have made. I hope that after I have caught up, really caught up, I can come back to the blog with new perspective and new resolution. For now, I will turn off the lights and wish you a good night. “Yes; good night, good night. Good night, any surviving dear old Carian guests. Good night, ladies. Good night, all.”
“Inflammatory Writ”–(Video) Joanna Newsom
“Don’t Go Crazy”–(Music) Ben Morey
From Ben Morey’s new album, Pleasant. “Life’s got a hole in it.”
Winter is Icummen in–Poem (Pound)
Winter is icummen in,
Lhude sing Goddamm.
Raineth drop and staineth slop,
And how the wind doth ramm!
Sing: Goddamm.Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us,
An ague hath my ham.
Freezeth river, turneth liver,
Damn you, sing: Goddamm.Goddamm, Goddamm, ’tis why I am, Goddamm,
So ‘gainst the winter’s balm.Sing goddamm, damm, sing Goddamm.
Sing goddamm, sing goddamm, DAMM.
The God of the Philosophers (Herbert McCabe)
It is true that philosophers, generally speaking, are the most dogmatic of men, but they cannot claim any divine authority for their dogmatism. The kind of philosophical reflection that is called “natural theology” exists because God made the world and men. I think that this reflection can lead to the conclusion that there is a “beyond” that transcends all that we can know. Broadly speaking, we look at the world and it has a created look about it, which is as far as we can go. There used to be an idea (invented, I think, by Pascal) that the God of the philosophers was a different kind of being than the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Now of course the God of the philosophers that Pascal had in mind may very well be different from the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but the God of my philosophy (and here I am at one with St. Thomas) is not well known enough to be different from Yahweh of the Old Testament. Philosophy tells us almost nothing about God, certainly not enough to set up a rival religion. –The New Creation
“The Lion in Winter”: The Greatest of All Christmas Movies?
Well, maybe the greatest of all movies set at Christmas time. Here’s a great bit from the film.
“Who is my Neighbor?” (Marcel)
A caricature cannot be my neighbor, and my neighbor cannot be a caricature. –Gabriel Marcel
Night Brooded Over Jordan-Hare: An Auburn philosophy professor goes deep on The Miracle | The War Eagle Reader
A little celebratory confection.
Quantum Est In Rebus Inane 