Monday, June 22, 2015

A thought comes when IT wishes...

Varieties of Thinking Experience

With regard to the superstitions 
of logicians , I shall never tire of 
emphasizing a small, terse fact, 
which is unwillingly recognized
by these credulous minds—namely, 
that a thought comes when "it" 
wishes, and not when "I" wish; so
 that it is a PERVERSION of the 
facts of the case to say that the 
subject "I" is the condition of the 
predicate "think."  (Beyond Good and Evil) 

“When Tommy Tucker's  mother killed
herself, we stopped calling him fat.”

 This opening sentence from a student's 
story sticks in my head as I drive  to 
 Shoe Barn for summer sandals and 
 now, sitting on the back porch, I look at it.
It's over 90 degrees. I didn't read the story. .

I taught waterskiing and sailing summers 
in late 50's and later wrote a dissertation
on Nathaniel Hawthorne. Ann was 
cheerleader, homecoming queen,
valedictorian and Phi Beta Kappa.

Is not living  valuing,
preferring, being unjust,
being limited, endeavoring
 to be different?” (Beyond etc.)

Aunt Harriet started the Civil War. 
Her brother Henry auctioned off 
slaves to freedom from his
pulpit in Brooklyn       

Mother packed clothes and shipped 
them  south toSwannanoa and Old 
Farm School --the train slowing
from Black Mountain so as to toss 
the bundles before speeding to Asheville.

When my cousin''s husband got his
 head cut off by Auca  Indians, she
took their small blonde daughter
to live with them and spread the 
word of Christ.

“We believe that severity, violence, 
slavery, danger  in the street and
in the heart, secrecy, stoicism, 
tempter's art and devilry of every
kind,—that everything wicked, 
terrible, tyrannical, predatory, 
and serpentine in man, serves as 
well for the elevation of the human 
species as its  opposite”(N)

My brother bumped into Libba Cotton 
in Baltimorespending an evening playing
 “Freight Train” and other songs from 
Chapel Hill having walked away from 
 college after  hearing  Joseph Spence 
one spring evening in  New Haven
He never returned

My first fall at Warren Wilson. Adeeb 
tossed a phone line to his girlfriend's dorm. 
It hit a live wire and electrocuted him. 
We named the soccer field after him.
Kartaloub Field.

2 comments:

  1. Gene Veith on the Christian imagination, in Edmonton, last year. (They must have just got it up. I have a summary on my blog. Hey, maybe I am in it, if they panned the audience...)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JatQ4L_mvyI&feature=youtu.be

    ReplyDelete
  2. No audience. Links to summaries, though:

    http://thoughts-brigitte.blogspot.ca/2015/06/gene-veith-lecture-notes-and-youtube.html

    ReplyDelete