I will hopefully have some more sophisticated thoughts about this soon, in blog post form. For now, I will just call this a masterpiece and a treasure.
Thank you for writing this, Daniel. I think it's something I really needed to read, at exactly the right time. Funny, that.
Thanks! I have felt the same way about some of the things I've read recently from you, John Carter, Harrison Koehli, Gutternouth, and others on substack: some things I really needed to read, at exactly the right time. I remember reading an essay years ago about Tolkien's Catholic Christianity and how his faith came through implicitly in his writing in the form of a well-ordered universe where things seemed to occur in accordance with some sort of divine providence. I'm no Lord of the Rings buff, so I couldn't say whether that is an accurate characterization of his writing, but I liked that idea and feel like it does capture something I've seen at work in our world, like that that eerie phenomenon of happening upon a book or essay at exactly the right time. Graham Hancock playfully referred to it as the work of "library angels." Whatever it is, it happens often enough that it seems to be a definite sign that someone is looking out for us!
Superb piece! And I can so relate to many things you describe here. The depression is real. Some of it is inevitable, but some of it is of our own making I found. There is a cliché that, if really understood in the right spirit, is actually terrifying and true: happiness is a choice. The lesson I'm trying to learn at the moment is to enjoy the process, to enjoy even the trials, the dead ends... As you said, by going in new directions we open ourselves to Grace, even if God can take his time, and even if it seems we come full circle at the end, yet wholly changed...
Thanks for the feedback. Agreed that happiness is a choice, though it's sometimes a difficult choice that must be made anew each day and even multiple times a day. In a weird way, depression can be addictive in its own sinister and twisted and diabolically seductive way, and contending with it can feel like being an addict in recovery, with good days and then the bad days where you want to relapse. Every day, you gotta do the work to stay depression-free.
I am a member of the Octagon Society, Order of Spiritual Alchemy, the librarian on the council. The work is like intense self psychoanalysis, no grading, no oversight, just you looking at yourself and what made you who you are. Membership confers nothing but your own gratification. I found it very rewarding, and I think you might too. I'm here by way of Mark Bisone's The Cat Was Never Found.
Thanks! I will definitely check that out. I hadn't thought about alchemy in a spiritual sense until recently reading Laura Knight-Jadczyk's "Secret History of the World," which was way over my head and which taught me how much of what I thought I knew that I actually don't know. (I don't know if I phrased that right...) I finished the book with more questions than I had when I started, including questions about spiritual alchemy; so the link you shared is timely.
In a phrase, it is a little like turning the lead of trauma, negative patterns and unhealthy relationships into the creative gold of the person you wish to be and the things you want to create.
💬 the converse of this aphorism seems true as well
Got dumbfounded for a fleeting moment, for my default of converse = to reverse the if... then relationship and proceed from How to Why—while yours is to change the premise to its opposite. Funny, that. Now I’m stuck contemplating what deep-rooted differences in our sense-making algorithms that might be pointing at 🤦 Thankyouverymuchindeed 😜
To divert those sticky thoughts that won’t flush around the U-bend, went excavating for Hannah Arendt’s observation on the state of world many decades back ↓
🗨 Under the most diverse conditions and disparate circumstances, we watch the development of the same phenomena—homelessness on an unprecedented scale, rootlessness to an unprecedented depth.
↑ Makes us long for a place to call home and a group to call our own.
Thanks for commenting! You are probably correct about formulating the "converse" of the statement. Converse, inverse, reverse, I get them all mixed up... But that's an interesting question you raise about what our different formulations might indicate about our sense-making algorithms.
Anyway, you hit the nail on the head: "Makes us long for a place to call home and a group to call our own." Amen to that. In the meantime, at least we're able to connect virtually with kindred spirits on Substack!
I see it as a feature not a bug that language resists definitively ‘correct’ formulations. Words lug weighty loads of bespoke connotations & contexts—that’s how we’re able to read more into a text than the author has [consciously] put there. The uncertainty never fades completely. As it should be, to reflect the inherently ambiguous reality we attempt to communicate. All the more fascinating to try unpack the mismatches as above 😊
Oh, and etymologies in different tongues are a whole ‘nother can of worms! As are corresponding idioms. Or useful concepts lacking words in some languages but not others.
~~
ETA Synchronicity at marvellous work 😇
🗨 Life is a struggle. There is darkness. There is evil. We all have a duty to be brave enough to struggle on ourselves, sure, but most importantly to have the courage to reach out a hand to others, to hold on to the principle that all lives are worth a fight.
You're right about language being terminally inexact! "We see through a glass darkly..." So if our perceptions are blurry, our descriptions of what we perceive must be even more blurry. I guess the linguistic ambitions of logical positivists were doomed a priori!
I wandered here but I'm sure I've been here before. My tonic to indecisive action is to read as many hours of the day as necessary to prevent too much of my own thought from creeping in and upsetting me because i can't figure out where or what I'm supposed to be doing, although i know what i am doing is not it. Any hoo - pretty sure I've been here before but you might have succumbed to one of my manic unsubscribing fits because i realize I'm reading too much so attempt to solve it by stopping subscribing (it rarely works). So, all that unnecessary babble aside i wanted to tell you what a wonderful article this is and that it really spoke to me. I hope you have had more luck finding the appropriate soil and location to plant your tree than i have had, but regardless I'm a little less stressed that i may never figure it out after reading this. Thanks🙃
I'm aware this isn't the main topic but as you touched upon the concentration camps, have you ever heard of Rheinwisenlager? Nice little story right there.
I will hopefully have some more sophisticated thoughts about this soon, in blog post form. For now, I will just call this a masterpiece and a treasure.
Thank you for writing this, Daniel. I think it's something I really needed to read, at exactly the right time. Funny, that.
Thanks! I have felt the same way about some of the things I've read recently from you, John Carter, Harrison Koehli, Gutternouth, and others on substack: some things I really needed to read, at exactly the right time. I remember reading an essay years ago about Tolkien's Catholic Christianity and how his faith came through implicitly in his writing in the form of a well-ordered universe where things seemed to occur in accordance with some sort of divine providence. I'm no Lord of the Rings buff, so I couldn't say whether that is an accurate characterization of his writing, but I liked that idea and feel like it does capture something I've seen at work in our world, like that that eerie phenomenon of happening upon a book or essay at exactly the right time. Graham Hancock playfully referred to it as the work of "library angels." Whatever it is, it happens often enough that it seems to be a definite sign that someone is looking out for us!
Superb piece! And I can so relate to many things you describe here. The depression is real. Some of it is inevitable, but some of it is of our own making I found. There is a cliché that, if really understood in the right spirit, is actually terrifying and true: happiness is a choice. The lesson I'm trying to learn at the moment is to enjoy the process, to enjoy even the trials, the dead ends... As you said, by going in new directions we open ourselves to Grace, even if God can take his time, and even if it seems we come full circle at the end, yet wholly changed...
Thanks for the feedback. Agreed that happiness is a choice, though it's sometimes a difficult choice that must be made anew each day and even multiple times a day. In a weird way, depression can be addictive in its own sinister and twisted and diabolically seductive way, and contending with it can feel like being an addict in recovery, with good days and then the bad days where you want to relapse. Every day, you gotta do the work to stay depression-free.
I very much enjoyed this essay! Thank you.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
I am a member of the Octagon Society, Order of Spiritual Alchemy, the librarian on the council. The work is like intense self psychoanalysis, no grading, no oversight, just you looking at yourself and what made you who you are. Membership confers nothing but your own gratification. I found it very rewarding, and I think you might too. I'm here by way of Mark Bisone's The Cat Was Never Found.
https://octagonsociety.org/octagon-society/
Thanks! I will definitely check that out. I hadn't thought about alchemy in a spiritual sense until recently reading Laura Knight-Jadczyk's "Secret History of the World," which was way over my head and which taught me how much of what I thought I knew that I actually don't know. (I don't know if I phrased that right...) I finished the book with more questions than I had when I started, including questions about spiritual alchemy; so the link you shared is timely.
In a phrase, it is a little like turning the lead of trauma, negative patterns and unhealthy relationships into the creative gold of the person you wish to be and the things you want to create.
💬 the converse of this aphorism seems true as well
Got dumbfounded for a fleeting moment, for my default of converse = to reverse the if... then relationship and proceed from How to Why—while yours is to change the premise to its opposite. Funny, that. Now I’m stuck contemplating what deep-rooted differences in our sense-making algorithms that might be pointing at 🤦 Thankyouverymuchindeed 😜
To divert those sticky thoughts that won’t flush around the U-bend, went excavating for Hannah Arendt’s observation on the state of world many decades back ↓
🗨 Under the most diverse conditions and disparate circumstances, we watch the development of the same phenomena—homelessness on an unprecedented scale, rootlessness to an unprecedented depth.
↑ Makes us long for a place to call home and a group to call our own.
Thanks for commenting! You are probably correct about formulating the "converse" of the statement. Converse, inverse, reverse, I get them all mixed up... But that's an interesting question you raise about what our different formulations might indicate about our sense-making algorithms.
Anyway, you hit the nail on the head: "Makes us long for a place to call home and a group to call our own." Amen to that. In the meantime, at least we're able to connect virtually with kindred spirits on Substack!
Thanks for commenting my commenting! 😉
I see it as a feature not a bug that language resists definitively ‘correct’ formulations. Words lug weighty loads of bespoke connotations & contexts—that’s how we’re able to read more into a text than the author has [consciously] put there. The uncertainty never fades completely. As it should be, to reflect the inherently ambiguous reality we attempt to communicate. All the more fascinating to try unpack the mismatches as above 😊
Oh, and etymologies in different tongues are a whole ‘nother can of worms! As are corresponding idioms. Or useful concepts lacking words in some languages but not others.
~~
ETA Synchronicity at marvellous work 😇
🗨 Life is a struggle. There is darkness. There is evil. We all have a duty to be brave enough to struggle on ourselves, sure, but most importantly to have the courage to reach out a hand to others, to hold on to the principle that all lives are worth a fight.
https://clairefox.substack.com/p/let-battle-commence#%C2%A7a-call-to-courage
You're right about language being terminally inexact! "We see through a glass darkly..." So if our perceptions are blurry, our descriptions of what we perceive must be even more blurry. I guess the linguistic ambitions of logical positivists were doomed a priori!
I wandered here but I'm sure I've been here before. My tonic to indecisive action is to read as many hours of the day as necessary to prevent too much of my own thought from creeping in and upsetting me because i can't figure out where or what I'm supposed to be doing, although i know what i am doing is not it. Any hoo - pretty sure I've been here before but you might have succumbed to one of my manic unsubscribing fits because i realize I'm reading too much so attempt to solve it by stopping subscribing (it rarely works). So, all that unnecessary babble aside i wanted to tell you what a wonderful article this is and that it really spoke to me. I hope you have had more luck finding the appropriate soil and location to plant your tree than i have had, but regardless I'm a little less stressed that i may never figure it out after reading this. Thanks🙃
Excellent article, thanks!
I'm aware this isn't the main topic but as you touched upon the concentration camps, have you ever heard of Rheinwisenlager? Nice little story right there.