abundance

so many apples to pick, so many leaves to admire; so many walnuts to drive over (not pictured); so much worry about the financial situation; so much discouraging local politicking to do; so many hopes for obama.

so much going on: beautiful fall weather making staying inside difficult; so much to write, between a monday writing workshop and a wednesday existentialism class where i am keeping an 'existential' journal as a project, and then there's my everyday journal. another trip to california in late september and visiting college friends for our biennial hoedown. and so the blog has been neglected.

however, i have a plan for posting day tomorrow, thanks to the urging of faithful followers who have complained of nothing to read.

meanwhile i offer you this thought from Heidigger (from Being and Time) to ponder:
Da-sein is a being that does not simply occur among other beings. rather it is ontically distinguished by the fact that in its being this being is connected about its very being. thus it is constitutive of the being of Da-sein to have, in its very being a relation of being to this being.

now that i am advancing in age, i can happily enjoy reading such things. philosophy used to frighten me. but it is so interesting, as a good friend of mine is inclined to say. maybe Gertrude Stein got it from Heidigger.

sarah palin on kierkegaard

sarah palin and i registered for the same philosophy class at the community college this fall: existentialism. she and i have the same problem: who are we? is she a perky, hard-hitting politician, a pit bull in lipstick, or is she a sweet loving mother of five, devoted to her kids, even the unmarried one with the bun in the oven, and her snowmobiling dude and with all those good american family values and moose for dinner. (who am i is another question. i do know i like roast moose).

this week, our first exam was on kierkegaard. standing in the hall before class, sarah told me, "Ya know, that keerka--keerko--oh what the heck, whatever his name is, is hard to read. all that stuff about the 'knight of faith" and "tragic hero"--i might be a knight of faith, but i'm not quite sure...i'm gonna ask my pastor. john is one fer sure, you betcha."

she winks and goes on: "well, ya know, me, i like aristotle. he was a philosopher, wasn't he? i think so anyway. we read about him in some class at hawaii pacific. it's kinda hard to study in hawaii, ya know, with all those buff surfer dudes in class."

"i bet it is," i muttered. "where i went to college there weren't any surfers or any dudes, so i didn't have that distraction."

Sarah huffed, "Well, i'm just gonna talk about aristotle on my exam. he liked happiness. i think it was him, unless it was that plato guy."

"Yep," I said, "it was aristotle. it's a special kind of happiness, actually."

I resisted throwing out the word 'eudaimonia.' my pronunciation of classical greek isn't the best, but i do know how to say "where is the bus?" in modern greek.

Sarah grinned. her glasses flashed and her bangs trembled."i'm really happy. really, really happy. i have it all, now don't i?"

"Well, not quite yet." i tried to cross my fingers and hold my thumbs at the same time.

"That teacher, bless her, she is so lucky to have me in her class, don't ya think? someone with a lot of experience, a regular american with a family. doggone it, i'll just write what i like, about happiness and all. i'm a maverick. i'm sure she'll give me a good grade, don't ya think?"

"you betcha," i replied. "good luck to us all."