Introductions
Given thoughts of dispositions, I should mention that recently I keep attempting to imagine what the first moment Mozart heard music must have been like. Surely, it was incredibly early in his life and one could argue it was irrelevant given that he probably had heard it in some sense while in the womb. There [...]
Human Types
The continuum of human characters is really extraordinary. All of the strange misfunctions of the chemistry of the mind have counterparts in progressively less powerful, but still existent dispositions. I, for instance, have a strong disposition to OCD, though I do not actually possess OCD. I have felt only a few times in my entire [...]
Out Damned Spot!
Condenadme, no importa, la historia me absolverá. Few words men have ever spoken trouble me more than those words, filled as they are with the purest form of righteousness. There is a confidence in them that represents life itself, the life that finds a way to survive under all circumstances. There is profound strength in [...]
Glassjaw
Talk about pissed off lyrics. I wish you a broken heart and a Happy New Year.
They As Genderless Singular Pronoun
The use of they to replace he as the impersonal singular Pronoun in English fascinates me as it seems to me the only radical grammatical change to have taken place in my lifetime. The rules are clearly quite complex as I just realized that it is correct spoken English to say, “everyone believes they are [...]
Writing
Writing has that remarkable ability to remind us of the soul of another we have since lost contact with. In some sense, we can still feel the intimacy we once had with someone simply reading what they have written and this is wonderful given how many life robs us of.
Free Will
Again and again I come upon this misconception, this dreadfully simple confusion that recurs because of our basic cowardice towards reality: free will is an absurdity — and a sort of sin, stemming as it does from the worst sort of courtrooms, the ancient religions with their notions of the condemnation of man by an [...]
A Question Of Conscience
When you say you walk apart from the herd, do you do this as one who walks ahead? or as one who cannot keep up? or as one who simply wonders off in nonsensical directions? Only one of these is admirable and is easily confused with the other two. If you think you lead, that [...]
The Sharp Hint Of New Tears
On the way home this car hears my confessions. I think tonight I’ll take the long way in this weather. The wind outside is biting. It has left me feeling tired and exposed. You’ve been asking me to bleed. It seems these kinds of questions — they come too easy to you now. Your lack [...]
Honor Amongst Enemies
What have we really lost since the time of Homer? Above all else, I think the capacity to wage war honestly. We have lost the ability to say, “this person is beautiful and at core basically the same sort of person as I am, but our circumstances demand we kill one another and I will [...]