Some of you read these words knowing under the right conditions we might talk about anything and everything not as theory but as fact.
We have done it more than once and likely will again because some things simply are just as some things simply aren’t.
Others reach out and ask me to engage and are surprised when I offer no response because they know me as unfiltered and willing to say anything.
Nothing has changed, I am still unfiltered and willing to say anything.
If I choose not to engage it might mean I think you said something so profoundly dumb that engaging would mean giving up a few more IQ points and I don’t have any more to spare.
Or it might mean I don’t think there is any merit in talking about something where no opinion will be changed and I think what you said is dumb enough to prevent others from adopting your side.
Granted we live during a time when it seems the bar is set so low it is foolish for me to believe no one will agree but still there are conversations I won’t have.
What Russell Said
Someone told me they saw a deep sadness in my eyes and an agony in my soul.
“I recognize it and I see how you mask it.”
I told them every man has his joy and his sorrow and if you have never loved and lost you have never lived.
“Some fires appear to wake you out of your slumber and to remind you of what could be.”
They told me that sounded like something a wannabe writer might say and I shrugged my shoulders.
If memory serves I responded with a couple of Bertrand Russell quotes and was told I shouldn’t use them unless I knew how to do so properly.
Don’t know if they think I do or not and didn’t take time to find out but I have a few to share here nonetheless,
“A stupid man’s report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.”
― Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy
This seems particularly relevant for this moment in time because far too many people push out nonsense based upon a limited and very biased understanding of what the scientists and experts say.
Some tell me I ought to take them more seriously because they are only calling balls and strikes while using common sense which reminds me of a different quote but still relevant and important.
A great challenge of life:
Knowing enough to think you are right, but not knowing enough to know you are wrong.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) February 1, 2017
Circling back to Russell there are two other quotes that strike me as significant for this time.
“To teach how to live without certainty, and yet without being paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy, in our age, can still do for those who study it.”
― Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy
and
“When considering marriage one should ask oneself this question; ‘will I be able to talk with this person into old age?’ Everything else is transitory, the most time is spent in conversation.”
― Bertrand Russell
Maybe You’ll Find Me
I miss hiking and camping. Miss being in the mountains and walking through some specific places that always recharge my batteries and nourish my soul.
There was a time when I would do visit these places on my own and if I could do so easily I would go now.
Every now and then I think about going off the grid and just going.
There is a certain attraction with turning it all off and shutting it all down. A certain attraction on going on a long walkabout.
I could do it.
I could go visit those places and spaces and I could go find new ones.
Some adventures have to wait and some have to be taken because waiting means they will never happen.
This pandemic really brings some of it to the surface and the need to do more than flirt with ideas.
I’d rather grab somethings with both hands and find out first hand what is than leave it all to imagination.
And I just might.
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