Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from November, 2009

-------> ------->

But how can renewal come about?--the perennial question of reformers and revolutionaries, of anyone who wants to start over, who wants another chance. Even in America, the land of the second chance, and of transcendentalist redeemers, the paradox inevitably arises: you cannot change the world (for example, a state of marriage) until the people in it change, and the people cannot change until the world changes. Pursuits of Happiness, 257. The only way back is the way forward.

Progressive Tragedy

The tragic need not be associated with only a tragic vision ...much like doubt need not fall into skepticism. Resignation is the natural end of a tragic vision; however, this fate is a misunderstanding of tragedy itself. Our desire for an end, a passivity, a will-to-nothingness is the denial of tragic wisdom , a denial of the temporality of tragedy.

Fix Me

So I'm jumping on the old but newly-rediscovered bandwagon of the Fixed Schedule Work Ethic Now, I know what you're saying: Remember what happened last time? I promise I'm allotting a certain amount of time for shaving and general maintenance this go around. In fact, I'm even timing everything that I consciously act on so that I can track and modify my love(lack-there-of)/life(need-more-of)/work balance. 14 minutes and 38 seconds. I've always had a knack for writing at the speed of the incredibly slow. And so, Thanksgiving is almost here, and I really haven't spent nearly enough time considering what I'm grateful for (too much doing, and not enough reflecting). It's also that time of year where I'm grasping for that inspirational passage that will slowly overgrow the engine up-stairs and flow out of the fingertips effortlessly to finish off our annual newsletter. Last year's article was appropriate, but given where we were, and where we ar