Duodecinnal

Twelve years have long past 

Since the vows that we swore; 

My lot with you was cast,

With the woman I adore.

Twelve years have long past,

Two children you have bore;

These years are going fast,

Exhausted, busy and sore.

Twelve years have long past,

But I long for still more.

I hope your love will last 

For twelve long years more. 

Twelve years have long past,

My hair growths thin and I snore,

My youth and I stand in contrast,

In twelve long years I’ll be an eyesore.

Twelve years have long past,

Your beauty radiates as before;

Your character still kind and steadfast,

Filled with whit and candor.

Twelve years have long past

And for twelve years more,

I vow my love holdfast 

Unwavering as we originally swore. 

Another Lost Chapter of Herodotus

Across the sea to the West there is a great and industrious people. They labor tirelessly and seem intent on forcing order on the world. Of wealth they have no end. The brightest artificers among them continue to invent new means of order and comfort - they have mechanized almost every function of their lives. One of the particularities of these people is that no matter how easy they have made their labors, they continue to work even harder to make all things even easier. 

Despite their reputation for continuous toil, and even though illness or injury scarcely stops their labor, on the first weekday of the second month of the year the people cease work to observe a holy day. Few men can be found in the factory or the field. Many a fated calf are slaughtered in the days prior to the festival; the fatty portions are placed upon alters and the smoke rises as a sweet smelling aroma. The women also labor to prepare for a feast. Special emphasis is placed upon eating food with the hands only. It may be that like the fasts observed by other peoples, they choose to remember the difficulty of eating without their usual comforts. Nevertheless, the holy day is not a solemn one. The people adorn themselves with clothes, paint, jewelry, and headdresses in accord with their piety. The most pious of them being nearly naked and adorned head to toe in vibrant colors. This perpetration is in observance of a game they regard as sacred and holy.  

As many as are able make a pilgrimage to one of the amphitheaters that have been erected across their land for this game. The rest of the population, either being too poor or living too far off gather together to watch a miniature likeness of the game. The game invented by their forebears, though a point of ridicule by their neighboring peoples, is a source of great pride. The game consists of two teams of men, having proved over the previous year to be the most athletic and strongest, with a many tedium of rules, that seek to posses and carry a sacred pig across the field. The team that carries the pig to the end of the field the greatest number of times, in the allotted time is declared the victor. Both teams, including the people, offer prayers and shout chants in anticipation of the game. Musicians play songs to inspire the athletes, and after the people have feasted and becoming sufficiently intoxicated, the game begins. The festival taking nearly a day of preparation, feasting, and spectating concludes with one team arising victorious over the other. The people who have identified with the victorious team celebrate jubilantly; it seems that they take this as an omen of goof favor from their gods. The people who have identified with the defeated team weep and wail, rend their clothes, beat their chests, and commit offerings for the coming year that they may find favor with their gods. The feasting continues well into the night, and then, the next day, the people return to their toils with scarcely a repercussion from the previous day. 

For the Poet

Congratulations are due,

To the poet who

Graces our thoughts with letters. 

May your hearts be bound together with fetters,

Your affianced and you. 

For Josh

There once was a boy named Josh,
Who thought he was very posh.
He spoke with an accent - ate his crumpet,
And, washed in the house of Bath.

A Night Under the Trees, Illuminated by the Moon

Burning, turning, crackling in the air,
The smoke rises into the air.
The cherry coal, bright in the night;
The time when thoughts take wing and flight.

Oh, soul, thou restless one;
Oh, mind, thou restless one;
Never still, always twisting and yearning.
Hardly content, always yearning and churning.

Quieter of souls, that golden leaf;
Tamer of thoughts, that golden leaf.
An hour of rest - a time of peace;
Thoughts are singled - wanderings cease.

Praise be to God for the rest of man!
Praise be to God for the rest of man!
For, when man stops and steadies his eyes,
His thoughts like the smoke, to God will rise.

Fare-well

There once was a Ririe that moved across the sea.
Wonderlust drove him to see what there was to see:
Birkenstocks, beer, concrete walls,
Minimalist construction and Victorian shopping malls.

He went to fill his head with knowledge,
And there complete his final year of college.
The land of Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, and Marx
Hosted this young man as he fulfilled his marks.

Their language, too, he learned to speak.
His head grew and grew though his body remained meek.
History, philosophy, literature and the arts,
He mastered through and though all of their parts.

But like all men, his fate is not sealed.
Will passions or Truth his spirit yield?
Will he become mad as a hatter, wagging his finger
Or, be sound of mind, producing thoughts that linger?

For Tommy V.

Ol, Tom is jolly man.
Out-smart, there are few who can.
He shaved his head;
Has yet to wed.
I'm thankful our friendship began.

For Benjamin

Benjamin, my bearded friend.
The ancient world he does not pretend,
To know its parts,
And secret arts.
Their stories he tells with no end.

For Oliver

My son, fruit of my loin.
God, your parts He did join.
You squawk and squeal,
Jerk and reel.
Myriad is your price in coin.

For Matt Shockey

Old Red, my goodly peer,
Guzzles down frothy beer,
He smokes the pipe,
When the tobacco is ripe,
And, is full of mirth and cheer.

The Great Emptiness

The other day I found myself engaged with a group of young men discussing the nature of love. Not romantic love, as such, but the concept in general - Platonic love specifically.

During the conversation I noted the saying from Pascal, "there is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God [...]". I then expanded, of all the desires that I have, even when they are satisfied, I still find myself unsatisfied. I abstract from normal human experience, there must be something that will satisfy this desire, and that it is immaterial, or supernatural.

To this one of the gentlemen responded, "I don't mean to be a buzz-kill, but I think that it is important to acknowledge where our desires come from - evolution. Biological needs have been "programmed" into us, since the individuals that continually sought to satisfy their desires prospered".

In the moment, I confess, I was quite speechless. Furthermore, when I asked for an example only more confusion was added. Upon reflection, I think we miss understood each other. At the time his explanation seemed empty to me. If there is any desire - evolution is it's cause. That is fallacious in the same way as the God-of-the-gaps theory; it explains everything and nothing all at once.

So, what did I mean? Certainly I would agree that I have physical desires (food, water, shelter, sex, etc.) and I acknowledge that those desires can be satisfied. Once satisfied, it is only a matter of time before the desire is found in me once again unsatisfied. I think this was the cycle my friend was referring to, however, my point was different. Even when all of these physical desires are satisfied, there is still a desire in me that is unsatisfied. This desire is therefore unique from the other physical desires.

Occasionally this supernatural desire can be mistaken for one of the physical desires, but it is easily found out which category it belongs to. The point that I wanted to make in the conversation was, sometime I mistake this supernatural desire for mere physical desires. I try to satisfy it with physical means, and though a physical desire may be satisfied in that instance, the supernatural desire goes unsatisfied, and leaves a sense of emptiness. However, I have found, when the supernatural desire is recognized as such, it can be satisfied in God.

The Unsung Story

A golden beam, passes through the golden sheen,

to land on the crippled hands.

A disfigured face, by which is too hard to trace,

the unsung story and tale.

Whether his mind or heart, he went looking at the start,

it brought about his ruin.

Now at his death, he murmurs through his breath,

"I can't return empty handed."

The Mind

The mind of some is quick and strong - like a leopard leaping to and fro, from thought to thought.

However, my mind is slow and dull; ideas must be nurtured until fully formed - like the walking of a great elephant who moves one foot at a time in a slow, sure march.

A Deep Depression

If God does not exist and there is no after life, then there is at least one strong conclusion that can be drawn: this life is all you have to live. There will be no reconciliation of rights and wrongs. No eternal rewards or punishments. No healing of things long since broken. Death ends all. There is no ultimate purpose. There is no ultimate design. There is no ultimate meaning. Eat, drink, and make marry; for when it is over, it is all over - you cease to exist...... I hope you are happy with your life.

On Morality

To show that the existence of God is necessary for ethics, I have heard a Christian say, "if God does not exist, then I have no reason to live morally - I might as well lie, murder, rape, and pillage."

In response I have heard the atheist say, "I am sorry that you are so weak of mind that you require a belief in God to act rightly."

Notice, however, an important distinction. The Christian is saying that if God does not exist there is no morality, i.e., since there is morality (it is apparent to all) then God exists. He is not saying that his belief in God makes him moral, but that the existence of God defines morality in the world as we experience it.

Learning for Learning's Sake

Who desires to learn for the sake of learning?
Such a person grasps after the wind.

There is an infinite of wisdom and facts, while only a finite time and mind. Those who seek an infinite as an end are blind and lost. Those who seek the Infinite as an end with learning, money, etc. as means see clearly.

Drive

Who lives a better life, one committed to study, or one who lives for experience?
The one who experiences since he fulfills the act of living, and the first only observes it.

So, the one who studies continually, fails to live life?
He does.

So, it can be said that living is "knowing that" and not "knowing how"?
It seems so to me.

But, does not the one who neglects thinking rush quickly into folly?
He does.

And, it can be said that a foolish life is inferior to a life lived in wisdom?
It can.

So, the fool does not really experience life.
Not in its full potential.

So, who lives a better life?

Anniversary

Alone two set off,
Much distance to cover each.

Come, united in love and joy,
Until they reach the Heavenly beach.

Some Explication From Medieval Phil.

Chapters two and three of the Proslogium contain Anselm’s famous proof. In chapter two Anselm gives three premises and a conclusion. They are numbered in this paper as follows: 1) God “art a being than which nothing greater can be conceived,” 2) “it is one thing for an object to be in the understanding, and another to understand that the object exists,” 3) “that, than which nothing greater can be conceived, cannot exist in the understanding alone,” and therefore 4) “there exists a being, than which nothing greater can be conceived, and it exists both in the understanding and in reality” (Anselm 39).

God by definition is a being in which nothing greater can be conceived; thus premise 1) is true by definition. Premise 2) is more controversial, depending upon how it is interpreted. Existence can either be a property of an object or it can be defined as existing in W possible worlds; in either case it is making the claim that existence is different from and better than nonexistence. Premise 3) is making an inference from premise 1) and 2); if God is the greatest conceivable being and existence is better than nonexistence, then the greatest conceivable being has the property of existence or exists in all possible worlds W. Conclusion 4) follows directly from premise 3), viz. God exists.

In chapter three Anselm gives a slightly different formulation of the argument. In chapter three Anselm has two premises and one conclusion; they are numbered in this paper as follows: 5) God “cannot be conceived not to exist,” 6) “there is […] a being than which nothing greater can be conceived to exist, that it cannot even be conceived not to exist,” and therefore 7) God necessarily exists (Anselm 39). The justification for premise 5) is, “it is possible to conceive of a being which cannot be conceive not to exist; and this is greater than one which can be conceived not to exist” (Anselm 39). This is saying that a necessary being is greater than a contingent being. Since, God cannot be conceived not to exist, and there is not a being conceivable that is greater than God, God exists necessarily.

Both of these arguments work together to form Anselm’s proof. The argument in chapter two shows that the greatest possible being that can be conceived actually exists. The argument in chapter three shows that this being is a necessary being. The argument also claims that God is the only necessary being.

An objection to this argument that Gaunilon raises is, it is possible to think of an island that is the greatest possible island, but that does not mean the island actually exists. Anselm replies that Gaunilon is correct in thinking about the island because it is a contingent object: it is possible to conceive of the island not existing. God, however, is not a contingent being since it is not possible to conceive of God’s non-existence - this is demonstrated in chapter two.

Even if it is objected that existence is not a property that can be had by an object, Anselm could respond that the being than which nothing greater can be conceived that exists in all possible worlds is God (Look). This formulation is also helpful in understanding how this being is also necessary, viz. in every possible world it is not possible to conceive of the non-existence of God.

Anselm’s argument is valid and sound in proving that God exists. It should be noted that this proof does not say anything about the nature of God; if one wanted to know about God, they would have to look for empirical evidence or provide different proofs for God’s attributes. This proof, however, clearly demonstrates that God exists and could not be otherwise.

Quotations taken from:
St. Anselm. Proslogium. Readings in Medieval Philosophy. Ed. and introd. Andrew B. Schoedinger. New York: Oxford Press, 1996. 36-40.

Look, Brandon C. “Anselm, Aquinas, and Pascal.” U of Kentucky Philosophy Department. 5 March, 2009. http://www.uky.edu/~look/AnselmAquinasPascal.pdf

Humanity

Why educate the masses?
So they can live a fuller life, and be more useful and productive to society.

Why not make them slaves?
Since they are humans, they have the right to achieve their full potential.

Why do they make slaves of themselves to their ignorance and passions?