...from Descartes' Meditation #4

Descartes has this famously weird ontological proof for the existence of God which sort of argues that the "idea" of perfection in our minds points to a separately subsisting Supreme Being. Be that as it may, the other very interesting aspect of this meditation has to do with humans who are self-consciously error-prone and tormented thus by that same idea of perfection, (autonomy, independence, invulnerability, freedom from fallibility) that we can never quite get out of our minds:  "And it is true that when I think only of God and direct my mind wholly to Him, I discover [in myself] no cause of error, or falsity; yet directly afterwards, when recurring to myself, experience shows me that I am nevertheless subject to an infinitude of errors, as to which, when we come to investigate them more closely, I notice that not only is there a real and positive idea of God or of a Being of supreme perfection present to my mind, but also, so to speak, a certain negative idea of nothing, that is, of that which is infinitely removed from any kind of perfection; and that I am in a sense something intermediate between God and nought, i.e. placed in such a manner between the supreme Being and non-being, that there is in truth nothing in me that can lead to error in so far as a sovereign Being has formed me; but that, as I in some degree participate likewise in nought or in non-being, i.e. in so far as I am not myself the supreme Being, and as I find myself subject to an infinitude of imperfections, I ought not to be astonished if I should fall into error."  - from Rene Descartes - Meditation #4 

The Sun is out in Maine.

Thou Shalt Not! (if that's okay with you...)

Call me an aging curmudgeon (I know I sound like one) prone to reactionary nostalgia for biblical-sounding imperatives, but wouldn't you agree that these days we aren't inclined to follow very many "thou shalt not" pronouncements, and even if we did, we wouldn't know what to do with them. They wouldn't inspire us to go about avoiding specific behaviors with any degree of seriousness. (Examples: Thou shalt not worship false gods! Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife! I can hear people yawning already. Not me - them!) It used to be that a society defined itself according to a somewhat rigid set of "do's and don'ts" with emphasis on the "sacred prohibitions."But if a person tries to say nowadays "Thou shalt not be inordinately snarky toward people whose articles you are reading online," or "Thou shalt not neglect hygiene or decorum when standing in a crowd," or even better "Thou shalt not share intimate details of thy private life or go in search of publicity, self-promotion or other vain immodesties for the so-called benefit of people who really don't seek to inquire into your business"  how many people would automatically nod in agreement? And so - (huge sigh) -  I'm trying to make a short list of any actions that we absolutely will not tolerate as a community of like-minded moral agents here in America. But it's hard. Let's see...what can we all agree upon? Well, for starters, even these days, thank goodness, you (#1) cannot go around killing people at random or (#2) assaulting people (against their will) or (#3) slandering them on the basis of skin color without serious repercussions. So that's three big restrictions on our freedom right there that I hope no one will quibble with. And it's also somewhat unacceptable (again, thank goodness!) to (#4) abuse or harm children without incurring public wrath and infamy...And while we're at it, you'd be strongly advised against (#5) major forms of theft, trespass or extortion against another person's livelihood (to couch this crime in broadest possible terms). Since I don't hear a chorus of temper-tantrums breaking out, let me go one step farther. Wouldn't it be really, really helpful, wouldn't the world be that much more pleasant and hospitable (!),  if people on various parts of the globe (specifically, men) could start  treating their spouses, sisters, friends, girl-friends, mothers, daughters, grandparents, complete strangers who happen to be women, etc. etc. with greater degrees of respect on a consistent basis? But - oh heck - we're still working on that one. That's just too much re-adjustment for some backward males to adapt to. It should be on the list though - eh - at #6 if not higher up. And women, be nice to the men in your midst. I'm sure you will...And let's see, I'd like to see something about honesty and fidelity as well. There would be room at the #7 slot, but given that people lie on average 27 times a day just to get by, and show spotty fidelity to friends/spouses as they go, that's another one that we just can't put on the list without people sort of rolling their eyes at us. So in place of that can we agree to avoid whatever gratuitous trashings of the environment we are tempted to commit - unless we happen to work for large oil and coal conglomerates? (They forced me to add a loophole.) There. I'm stuck at seven. What am I forgetting???  It would be nice to get to ten.

The Gift We Didn't Ask For...

What I would tell the graduates this year: Fellow mortals and sensitive bipeds out there, grappling with the pains of existence and the current lousy job market, I come with more words of advice for you which may at first glance seem overly sober and lugubrious... please don't blame me, though, I'm just the messenger here. This isn't much - I know - but it's all I have on the spur of the moment (I'm not getting paid for this) and besides, it's a topic that I predict you'll keep coming back to in the days ahead: Whatever else you take away from this special moment, please remember as you go forth, today, mindful of various blessings and advantages you have received along the way, that attached to every one of us is some unwanted and unasked-for circumstance, some dreaded fateful condition, an obstacle, a hindrance, an albatross, a curse, a blight, a wretched hassle, a wound, a hurt - something that we're stuck with for the long haul, something that gets in our way, makes us upset, keeps us vulnerable, adds to our insecurity, gives us reason to feel cheated, to feel handicapped, goes against our most cherished agendas of survival, success and prosperity in life. It might just be an obvious physical blemish, a mental quirk, a flaw in temperament, a cognitive deficit in some obscure area,  a personality glitch (shyness, anyone?), a traumatic memory, a shift in fortune, a bad year, a lost decade, a troubled sibling or problematic parent, an extended dysfunctional family or inauspicious cultural climate (feeling like we were born in the wrong decade or century). We carry it around with us and it marks us for life; it grates upon our nerves because it's like some alien presence, an unexpected guest, an unwanted care-package, this random prosthetic to our otherwise normal physique, this fly in our daily soup that continuously spoils the feast - bringing us back to the lingering question of how things might have been - if only we had not been strapped with IT. And the problem in a nutshell is very simple - what to do about "the gift that we didn't ask for" - to view it as a weird, unexpected blessing-in-disguise from the great beyond or to use it as our ongoing Exhibit A of "more sinned against than sinning." How many of us carry around this familiar rock, for years and years, never knowing quite what to do with it, where to put it, how to hide it, what to make of it, until IT drags us down several notches from where we expected to be; or else we run from it, pursuing alternative scenarios where such afflictions cannot exist (!), generating as we go oodles of new commotion and chaos around ourselves designed to overshadow IT, to deny that it's really there. So much of life is taken up with responding (somewhat negatively, I must add) to what we didn't choose and never in a million years would have requested voluntarily. But there you have it. Even at this very late date in human history, when it seems that we should finally have gotten all our wishes met, given that the weight of nature, tradition and large institutions has been lifted from our backs, even now, how absurdly difficult it remains to do away with these sources of discontent...troubles that we can't run away from... which has the effect of forcing us to question, to turn back upon ourselves, to inquire as to what kind of creatures we really are (aside from all the hype and self-promotion), what strange entities capable of intense frustration, regret and self-conscious misery. And so graduates, I end my little jeremiad by telling you in advance that, although there is no solution to this awful package, and that even pharmaceuticals, sensuality and rock-and-roll can't reverse the trend, nevertheless, the good news is, if there is any, that what seems like the biggest downer - the source of isolation, frustration, alienation, angst, sadness, resignation, despair and whatever else we go to the doctor to complain about, is for some lucky mortals out there, also a source of the most sublime healing power. Who knows how and who knows why, but  there are actually some who know how transform their hurt into advantage, their weakness into strength - these cherished few among us who keep us afloat,  keep us inspired by their example - not of ease but of hardship. We admire the people most whose lives we would ourselves never wish for.  So when you bump into one of these enlightened ones during your journey, be sure to ask them what their secret is - how they turned lead into gold - knowing that they share the same wounds as you - different in form and content surely - but the similar as to genus - that of the unasked-for gift.

Another Rainy Day

Another rainy day in the forecast. Squirming like a catawba worm. Looking up words in the dictionary. Impatience. Agitation. Disquietude. Boredom. Tedium. Monotony. Doldrums. Lassitude. Lethargy. Ennui. Fatigue. Yawning. Weltschmerz. Frustration. Petulance. Peevishness. Turbulence. Unrest. Irritability. Annoyance. Discontent. Vexation. Resentment. Insomnia. Jitters. Cabin Fever.

Why did Jonathan Franzen Criticize Edith Wharton?

I'm somewhat baffled that Mr. Franzen chose to "go after" Edith Wharton in a recent New Yorker article. Any thoughts on that? Anyone?

Farther Away by Jonathan Franzen

"What Franzen is getting at is the concept of being "islanded," the notion that — no matter what — we are on our own, all the time. This is among his fascinations; there's a reason his first essay collection was called "How to Be Alone." In that sense, all of it — from the kid in that car to the teenager wandering New York to the birder on Robinson Crusoe's island — is of a piece with David Foster Wallace and even Neil Armstrong: isolated dots of consciousness in a capricious universe, trying to find a point of real connection before time runs out. "The prospect of pain generally, the pain of loss, of breakup, of death, is what makes it so tempting to avoid love and stay safely in the world of liking," Franzen acknowledges, but in the end, it is the counter-argument that lingers, even (or especially) when it leaves us exposed." - David L. Ulin (from a recent LA Times book review)