I want to be GOOD so BAD

Postlude to General Education Task Force Maybe


“Man is fully a man only when he’s in play.”  Schiller
 
This quote from a new book on the life-long love affair
 between J.P. Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir 
 
                               *****
In the war of magic and religion, is magic
ultimately the victor? Perhaps priest  and
magicians  were once  one but the priest,
learning humility in the face of God,
discarded the spell for the prayer.
(from Just Kids, the almost life-long love affair
between Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe.    
 
                             ****** 
 And this gem from a  book called Synchronicity by 
Joseph Cambray:
 
“Curiously, some cosmologies of the pre-modern
era, such as the alchemical one, parallel that of
sub-atomic physics  with an original state prior to
any differentiation  of substances.
 
They present a world of relations rather than objects,
that is, attending to the interconnectedness of all
things, where  interactive processes appear more
fundamental than discrete objects.”
 
                   A world of relations
                    rather than objects.
 
Imagine paying efficient attention to the  inter-connectedness
of all things where inter-active process is acknowledged as
more fundamental than discrete objects.
 
Easier said than done. .
 
And it sounds snickeringly like nu-age even with (especially with)
the reference  to sub-atomic physics.
 
Let the Life-Long Love Affairs between Sartre and  Simone,
Patti and Robert be primary subject of consideration.  Not
Sartre and Simone, Robert and Patti:  mere tokens is all—
manifestation  and embodiment sure: but easily eclipsing
if not occluding the Pattern The Connects. .
 
IT s not about  THEM, know what I mean?
It’s about The Relationship. 
Forest not trees.
 
                           *******
Re World Peace:
 
Thoreau said he wouldn’t walk across the street to save
the world. Rescue the drowning and tie your shoe laces,
he advised. Set about being good,  rather than doing good. 
I imagine he imagined a spin-off effect.
 
Related to World Peace:  “in discussing individuation,
becoming  more fully one’s self,. Jung repeatedly points
out that this  is not a form of perfection but is about
completeness. It requires ways to deal with all aspects of
one’s personality,  positive and negative.
 
Because Jung includes the undesirable aspects of personality,
both individual and collective, the holistic goal tends to differ
from that of morality, which is commonly found in many
philosophical or religious systems.”   (Cambray)
 
Mostly I am a dog fascinated with my trainer pointing his finger.
I wag my tail in acute efficiency, attentive to every  move he
makes with no notion of bird-in-bush, the direct object of
his instruction emerging in my awareness. Clueless.  I want to
be good so bad I can’t afford the bad it takes to get good,
that’s how bad I want to be good.

xxxooo, Sam