abstract

the mind rises up and wrails against the concept of
no being
when gorgias states that nothing exists
and that if it did it is incomprehensible

but what is he looking at
i think he is looking at the
immense medium of
the storehouse of mystery

we know something
therefore something exists
it stands to reason

and we possess common sense
even if people tend to defy it constantly
still we have it
we drive cars

so how would gorgias live in a community?
that's my communication question of the day
a la dies
if someone lives in a state of cognitive nihilism
decideing each day that nothing exists
i am only experienceing a psychological state
known as existential dreaming then of course
all is only imagery
but we are faced continually with the real fact
of real people
something about the human mind and self will
that is obstinant

the human person will not go away
but what is a person
this is the great question of the 20th century
i think the philosophers like levinas and scheler and edith stein
and merlou-ponty and bergson and maritan of course these people were
intensly interested in the idea of person and how the idea of person
works itself out in the real world
a world that is to some marked degree imagined
people are continually imagining things and space
so what

the community stands as a locus of grace
into which almost any character can have a footing
can have a say can have a place of refuge
there is always discipline
how to march how to bow how to put the food on the table
these are great opportunities for community
gorgias can bow to br urban
br urban who does not give a flippity dingdong
for the unknowing incomprehensible nothing shadow
he only wonders if the carrots will be planted
if the flowers and the birds will thrive
these things exist
all else is phantasm

we do well to grant ourselves the luxury
of looking upon our own ethereality
but we must have bowel movements
and we must greet one anothers' disenchantment
with the world

for that is community
a group of people who are willing
to encounter disenchantment together

how do we arrange our shared tedium
how do we remain joyfully bored with life
with one another
how do we gracefully make the best of a bad scene

these are community thoughts

come one us lord
unite us in the womb of your mother
from which we may be ever born
into a world of necessary heart blood

on the 7th day of christmas