Consider the P in our Phdegreed

“This is more like a philosophy
course than a literature course,
Sam.”

“Well, my Doctorate’s in
Philosophy of Literature—
not Literature of Philosophy.
All Doctors of Philosophy here.
Swimming in it. Ask us the
difference between all wet
& dry. This is not your
voc-tech institution".

He termed the purpose of conversations
(and the discussions that would spread
around the world out of their interaction )
“clarification of thought” (David Dark on
Peter Maurin & Dorothy Day)

*********

Imagine conversations going on and on
characterized as clarification of thought
clarified & re-clarified clearly without
calcifying.

What a source: our confusion—local
food for thought good as clean coal &
turbines, solar solipsistic energy
mothering invention.

No confusion? No need to be in-talk
together, then. We see clearly now, being
about the business of getRdone: covering
ground, clean & sober: a clear sweep with
our “most liberal students” of all the colleges
in the Princeton review.

(Used to be token recognition.
Our token cognition. )

But I’m confused. I confess.. Longing in
my old age for extended contact sustaining
sustainable converse-action, the kind carried
on sitting down that continues without liability
of correctile mis-function: rolling thunder
bolts from the blue, storks hauling bundles
of oikological un-postponed joy, sparks
sparking the gaps, analogies running through
the curriculum raising high the roof beams,
building up templates from old scratch
reinventing wheels and all this time
practicing liberal art and liberal arts, too:
those exclusive ways of talking,
compartmentalized and clear, cerebral
country clubs not for every body.

Imagine: confusion as renewable resource:
o hap-y day. I believe there’s good & plenty. ’

Punch reply-to-all if you think there’s enough
to go round. Not, if you don’t. & no clarification
of thought need apply, we got Doctors of
Philosophy galore: good & plenty. .




How can he remember well his ignorance—
which his growth requires--who has so often
to use his knowledge?

How can a man be a philosopher and not
maintain his vital heat by better methods
than other men?
(Walden)

[EngMajor (Humanities Division)
ways of talking here—needing
“clarification of thought by other
more practical and applied disciplines.

What Would Biologists Say?
The Sociologist? Neuro-Logical
Psychologist? Doctors of Philosophy
in all these realms & territories: a
treasure trove of wisdom loving
liberal artists across the curriculum.

School Mode (not to be collapsed,
conflated, and confused with
Church & State Modes)]