tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post8904658320917444212..comments2024-03-29T11:07:05.031+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: Religio MediciBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-32382154244445992432015-05-26T16:16:13.272+01:002015-05-26T16:16:13.272+01:00@NF - There are some questions which demand an ans...@NF - There are some questions which demand an answer, and will not go away, and trying to distract oneself by absorption (even in art/ beauty) somehow makes it worse. I did not choose to be concerned by why questions, but it was unavoidable. I was seeking for about 35 years. But I did eventually find the answer, or allow myself to recognize the answer having cleared away some false assumptions - and am very grateful I did. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-29741666231792050502015-05-26T14:03:23.506+01:002015-05-26T14:03:23.506+01:00Why in the great sense is not answerable without e...Why in the great sense is not answerable without error and projection. If a man wants a mirror wherein to gaze upon that part of self, then "why" is the question that consumes him. It is not a terribly useful question in my experience. I usually asked it in a defiant fists towards the sky shout as a youth. As an older man I do not have the time to waste with it, as it just left me in the same angst filled state as led me to the point of asking. In other words, life is too short for such things, especially when I am aware that death is much closer than it was when I was 25.<br /><br />Better to ask "what", as in, "What is the way to live which is best for a man - this man as well as all men?" This question at least leads someplace, and offers a pathway out of the absurdity and towards meaning.<br /><br />I haven't found the best answer, and that is not terribly surprising, but I have found that the search if partaken with vigour, courage, and honesty will yield some modicum of satisfaction and meaning, and perhaps may shine some light into previously occluded spaces. At worst it is a reasonable way to fill the time between the bookends of infinity that delimit this brief span which is mine to live. <br /><br />Beauty is something which captivates my attention, but not as an object to hold but as an emergent and perennial form that causes me to smile. Yes, all particular expressions of beauty fade, but beauty itself is constantly flowering. Beauty inspires love and appreciation - provide I do not fall into the trap of trying to possess it. Sharing beauty - teaching and demonstrating how to see it, are important to me. I would make my life an opal with swirls of colour that draws the viewer into reflection upon the mystery of existence. I would be a broken shard of ice in summer sun, which in melting dances light across the spectrum with rhythmic pulses - dancing joy. There is time enough for sorrow which itself is a veil to penetrate and appreciate. Sorrow that parts the veils - which circumcises the outer foreskin of life to reveal is its own form of beauty. It is that I love about Mahler, and especially the last movement of his 10th symphony - realized by Cooke.<br /><br />There is nothing I can possess, but I can dance with passion, and through it experience life as fully as is possible.Nicholas Fulfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15779171820370486921noreply@blogger.com