 Dogmatical self-assertion is often met with this riposte: “There is no absolute truth.” Only un-importantly is this correct. However, that reproach against another’s speech is also entirely mistaken. For no one is ever able to even try to pronounce absolutely. All we say is inescapably bound to a subject matter. It cannot be absolute of that subject matter and, so, independent. A runner as fast as lightning cannot exist, but the idea is derived from elements we have experienced. We may therefore picture this or speak about it. Though this runner will never become bodily real, he can become a true creation of metaphor or a magic tale.  But no one can express – rightly or mistakenly – anything empty of subject matter. To tell me meaningly, “There is no absolute truth,” is to say that, “A nothing is, in fact, a nothing.” All we say and all we think – true or false – is bound to its own territory of regard and, in another study, I will pursue that outlook.    A lady poet and a friend of mine opened a series of her verses quoting Nicholas Cage. I do not recall the words verbatim, but the awful meaning was unmistakable and clear: Life is awful; we love all the wrong people; our hearts get broken; then we die. I trust, foolishly perhaps, for myself and for my fellows in a better turn of luck. Our day is dire. Right people love right people wrongly. If your heart be broke, do not presume to die – repair another broken heart imperfectly, because you both are human. In due time, depart this life with Grace. We are right people, you and I, but bunglers in the craftsmanship of love. Dreamily we look for bliss into a distant sky, though our lacks need tending here and not above. We are right people, you and I.   Comment:
Do today's problems come more from loving the wrong people or right people wrongly ? In my advertisement redesign, I could not misspell a word. But in the work-a-day . . .  . . . errors are the Rule of our road. I deplore my -- and others' -- missteps, our slipshod haste and corner-cutting self-accommodation. Some follies I have ventured need forgetting . . . . There are failures that ignite the brain with comprehension. Those dead-endings become roadside lanterns shining very piecemeal upon the path ahead. Such errors have a value that deserves reporting to save a later worker needless wanderings and time. A century ago, aircraft seemed the miracle of their time, yet were full of aeronautical mistakes. Thus -- we fly today frequently and safely and at speed. Schoolboy mathematics can be a perfection, if the schoolboy knows the answers. Beyond the lecture hall and classroom, we build short-falls upon a fundament and ground plan of successive short-falls. This is never easy going. So, give yourself, and give to me, a liberty to celebrate each time we gain a pace or two ahead.   |
Johannes
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