The Four Loves

Chapter II

The lowest - without which the highest does not stand

The human mind is generally far more eager to praise and dispraise than to describe and define.

Where Need-love is left unaided we can hardly expect it not to "die on us" once the need is no more. That is why the world rings with the complaints of mothers whose grown-up children neglect them and of forsaken mistresses whose lovers' love was pure need - which they have satisfied. Our Need-love for God is in a different position because our need of Him can never end either in this world or in any other. But our awareness of it can, and then the Need-love dies too.

Nothing about us except our neediness is, in this life, permanent.

If you take nature as a teacher she will teach you exactly the lessons you have already decided to learn; this is only another way of saying that nature does not teach. ... in them each (the images of nature) man can clothe his own belief. We must learn our theology or philosophy elsewhere (not surprisingly, we often learn them from theologians and philosophers). hahahahaha! Nature never taught me that there exists a God of glory and of infinite majesty. I had to learn that in other ways. But nature gave the word "glory a meaning for me.

Where the sentiment of patriotism has been destroyed this can be done only by presenting every international conflict in a purely ethical light. If people will spend neither sweat nor blood for "their country" they must be made to feel that they are spending them for justice, or civilisation, or humanity. This is a step down, not up. ... a false transcendence is given to things which are very much of this world.

Large parts of "the World" will not hear us till we have publicly disowned much of our past. Why should they? We have shouted the name of Christ and enacted the service of Moloch.

Doubt may be a poor encouragement to do anything, but it is a bad reason for doing nothing. (G.Mac.)

Colour

As the air grew black and the winter closed swiftly around me, the fluttering fire blazed out more luminous, and arresting its flight, hovered waiting. So soon as I came under its radiance, it flew slowly on, lingering now and then above spots where the ground was rocky. Every time I looked up, it seemed to have grown larger, and at length gave me an attendant shadow. Plainly a bird-butterfly, it flew with a certain swallowy double. Its wings were very large, nearly square, and flashed all the colours of the rainbow. Wondering at their splendour, I became so absorbed in their beauty that I stumbled over a low rock, and lay stunned. When I came to myself, the creature was hovering over my head, radiating the whole chord of light, with multitudinous gradations and some kinds of colour I had never before seen. I rose and went on, but, unable to take my eyes off the shining thing to look to my steps, I struck my foot against a stone. Fearing another fall, I sat down to watch the little glory, and a great longing awoke in me to have it in my hand. To my unspeakable delight, it began to sink toward me. slowly at first, then swiftly it sank, growing larger as it came nearer. I felt as if the treasure of the universe were giving itself to me – put out my hand, and had it. but the instant I took it, its light went out; all was dark as pitch; a dead book with boards outspread lay cold and heavy in my hand. I threw it in the air – only to hear it fall among the heather. Burying my face in my hands, I sat in motionless misery. (Lilith 47)

The Basics

I needn't lose 100 lbs
quit a drinking habit
raise a family of 10 on welfare
write a magnum opus
be a navy seal

Why can't I do something as simple as
get in and out of bed with the sun?
find ways I like to exercise?
eat in response to my body, not my mind?

In other words, why don't I take care of myself only a basic extent so that I won't be able to find a way to blame myself if I get cancer?

I don't have to love the whole world
be married to Karenin
or love someone who raped and killed my sister
or serve a racist slave-driver
(I do want to know myself, and love despite what I find.)

Why can't my intent toward those round me be
simple
kind
generous?

In other words, the basics are not as basic as they seem. So I turn my focus upon Him, and abide.

I got the job

Anna's officially a teaching associate in the special ed department until the first two days of June. The interview went swell, one of the interesting topics of conversation regarding whether teaching is a science or an art.

Anna is also officially craving MILKA, which isn't to be had for miles. :(

In other news, my young charge K. got naked in the bathroom today, and had to be coerced to put his boxers back on under his jeans. So many skills to be learned by experience! Any suggestions explaining this lavatory stripping habit?

Mereology, or, "Is 2+2 still 4?"

"I am intrigued by (music's) being more than the sum of its parts" said a friend, passionate in conversation, leading me to ponder in this post...

"Philosophy will be done well or poorly based on your mereology." Mereology is the theory of parts and wholes, addressing the question of whether something can be truly distinct, yet absolutely and completely inseparable. Think of a statue made of both gold and silver: two colors may be distinguishable, but they will not be taken apart.

How many things are more than the sum of their parts? 1) I certainly am, as a physical and spiritual being. (What I identify as my) mind, body, and emotions conglomerate into something that is inseparable yet distinct from my spirit. 2) A book's meaning is more than the words on its pages; that's why some of them are very worthy of being poured over repeatedly. 3)A film similarly has life components, even truth, that weren't directed into it - they just appear (though I doubt anyone wants to admit that...besides, who cares as long as it does well in the box office). 4) Words aren't just letters. 5)Oh, and HELLO - relationship! CSL (The Four Loves) talks about person A dying, and person B losing not only A, but the B-A relationship, C loses the C-A relationship as well as observation of the B-A relationship. Heard the phrase "Let's find out what it means to be 'us'!" - not just who I am, not just who you are, but who we are together. 51/2)Again, a family: it isn't just the several individual people, but the living dynamic created between them.

What's the significance of this? AN UNDERSTANDING of community - that each part helps create the framework in which we ineluctably live, adding to the whole to makes it what it is, taking away from it when it leaves; people can thus be understood to be as valuable and unique as they really are. AN APPRECIATION of what is beyond our comprehension/understanding/knowledge, and thus gets de-legitimized, i.e. the metaphysical dimension to reality.

Why would we think otherwise? Why would we think the world was only made of addition, or finite mathematics for that matter? Probably because the world is mechanized/technologized, leading our thought to be in terms of quantity instead of quality, that which is measurable, take-apart-able. Think about off-shoring and out-sourcing, results of the information revolution of the last couple decades. Jobs that once took place locally can be split into a million pieces and sent all over the world before there is a finished product. If space (even time?) is extraneous to the completed product, it seems to follow logically that what finally comes together is no more than what it was when separate. Thus based on current social/economic conditions we assume as we do. Another way of answering includes what's mentioned in the above paragraph, noting current trends in ignoring all that is not material, all that is para-natural/behind-the-scenes-Real.

Mereology seems to relate to the mind-body question and to metaphysics. How?

to be continued...