As do the writings of St Thomas Aquinas, so do yours instill a feeling of wisdom, charity and peace. Your Interior life, though certainly complicated, reflects a beautiful and wise soul. Thank you for sharing your stories.
Great article on the relationship between art and awe and the human condition. I suspect art has two useful functions that correlate with the two Stoic philosophical exercise buckets — to wake us to transcendent awe (anti nihilism) and to shake us from delusion (anti materialism). To zoom us in or zoom us out. Humans need both. I've got an article written on this that I'm looking for a home for and really need to get back to shopping it around so I can share it.
Since we have no 'writing' about that time in human existence, those cave paintings are so significant, and I think you got one of their greatest meanings and one so relevant for us in this moment "...our innate response to ancient hardship – of claws and cold and caves and cosmic misery – is beauty and not ugliness." How to teach others to respond to hardship with beauty? That is a story of the cycle of human growth that we each get a chance to repeat in microcosm in our lifespan. Thank you for this reflection
Anthony, that is beautifully said, and your observation that we each get to repeat in our own lives is spot on. Remembering we are part of that ancient chain stretching back tens of thousands of years has meaning in and of itself. Thank you for jumping in.
"...does anyone doubt they would rather meet the knuckle-draggers in their caves over the madmen in their luxury?"
I've always had more respect for people who can express comprehension of reality than for people who can express only the small space inside their own mind.
The Bible said, “Jesus was perfected through suffering” and the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane was about pleading on his own behalf to be exempted from the suffering and death he foresaw, but accepting it if there were no alternatives.
The refiner’s fire 🔥 which purifies us of the dross in our individual alloy as human beings is a key prophetic trope.
I’m sure you’ve had many injuries and perhaps wounds. What you write about self-pity and the decision we get to make about how to channel it resonates with me. I’ve had many injuries in my life but only broken one bone, in my foot, when I was eleven.
When I broke my foot it was painful, but I walked to the nurse’s office without a murmur. It was only about half an hour after I broke it, when I experienced her sympathy and concern, that I started to cry. I quickly pulled myself together and stopped crying, but I never forgot how my self-pity was triggered by the well-intentioned but incapacitating kindness of the school nurse.
Thank you Chris. Perfect quote and reference. I had a similar event when I was a kid. I remember playing with a large gash in my leg I got while doing a stunt on a bike, amazed at how odd it was. When my mom picked me up thirty minutes later, the waterfall kicked in, partly because I felt safe. Maybe seeing this differential is part of the experiences of free-range child raising that make it so valuable.
Always a gift to be drawn to a thinking space in which I’m encouraged to see the potential in living a stripped down, bare-bones version of myself - one cannot get more so than in seeing ourself in our French Caveman likeness. Thank you for that.
A question I have for you is when you were on your tours of duty, confronted as you were with imminent peril and finding the yourself between life & death, did you see and sense beauty? Or, is this a concept/practice you recognize now as something that would have benefitted you at that time?
You're welcome. No, it was those experiences that heightened my sense of beauty in real time. The greater the danger, the more heightened the sense: sounds, mountains, rivers, the weight of a pomegranate - it is all maxed out.
Another great piece, thanks Sam. Chesterton writes in 'The Everlasting Man' about ancient cave art and that the creation of art is a clear evidence of Man's uniqueness.
I have also thought for some time that our ability to act contrary to our basic instincts - which actually isn't a bad definition of 'virtue' - is what really separates us from the animal kingdom. I'm not convinced that even the most intelligent or affectionate or loyal of animals can ever truly do this: their instinct can often itself be noble, by human standards (most animals will willingly die to protect their young), and their instinct can also be trained to human ends - but it cannot be resisted.
You are on to a really intuitive point, that instinct can drive noble behavior but not resist it. It is noble in our eyes, and I greatly value it, but I am not sure it measures up against our choice to do the noble versus ignoble thing. This could be a great essay on its own. Thank you for jumping in, Greg, I appreciate the comment and thinking material.
This is a profoundly Stoic viewpoint. I think it takes some bruises for this to be second nature. Given some of what I'm learning in your own essays, this makes more sense to me. Thank you, Barry.
As do the writings of St Thomas Aquinas, so do yours instill a feeling of wisdom, charity and peace. Your Interior life, though certainly complicated, reflects a beautiful and wise soul. Thank you for sharing your stories.
This is high praise, Asperges. I'm grateful you enjoy them.
Great article on the relationship between art and awe and the human condition. I suspect art has two useful functions that correlate with the two Stoic philosophical exercise buckets — to wake us to transcendent awe (anti nihilism) and to shake us from delusion (anti materialism). To zoom us in or zoom us out. Humans need both. I've got an article written on this that I'm looking for a home for and really need to get back to shopping it around so I can share it.
Michael Pollan talks about this quite a bit in his book about psychedelics, "How to Change your Mind," actually. It's great stuff.
Since we have no 'writing' about that time in human existence, those cave paintings are so significant, and I think you got one of their greatest meanings and one so relevant for us in this moment "...our innate response to ancient hardship – of claws and cold and caves and cosmic misery – is beauty and not ugliness." How to teach others to respond to hardship with beauty? That is a story of the cycle of human growth that we each get a chance to repeat in microcosm in our lifespan. Thank you for this reflection
Anthony, that is beautifully said, and your observation that we each get to repeat in our own lives is spot on. Remembering we are part of that ancient chain stretching back tens of thousands of years has meaning in and of itself. Thank you for jumping in.
"...does anyone doubt they would rather meet the knuckle-draggers in their caves over the madmen in their luxury?"
I've always had more respect for people who can express comprehension of reality than for people who can express only the small space inside their own mind.
100% perfectly said.
A very interesting perspective, as usual.
The Bible said, “Jesus was perfected through suffering” and the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane was about pleading on his own behalf to be exempted from the suffering and death he foresaw, but accepting it if there were no alternatives.
The refiner’s fire 🔥 which purifies us of the dross in our individual alloy as human beings is a key prophetic trope.
I’m sure you’ve had many injuries and perhaps wounds. What you write about self-pity and the decision we get to make about how to channel it resonates with me. I’ve had many injuries in my life but only broken one bone, in my foot, when I was eleven.
When I broke my foot it was painful, but I walked to the nurse’s office without a murmur. It was only about half an hour after I broke it, when I experienced her sympathy and concern, that I started to cry. I quickly pulled myself together and stopped crying, but I never forgot how my self-pity was triggered by the well-intentioned but incapacitating kindness of the school nurse.
Thank you Chris. Perfect quote and reference. I had a similar event when I was a kid. I remember playing with a large gash in my leg I got while doing a stunt on a bike, amazed at how odd it was. When my mom picked me up thirty minutes later, the waterfall kicked in, partly because I felt safe. Maybe seeing this differential is part of the experiences of free-range child raising that make it so valuable.
Always a gift to be drawn to a thinking space in which I’m encouraged to see the potential in living a stripped down, bare-bones version of myself - one cannot get more so than in seeing ourself in our French Caveman likeness. Thank you for that.
A question I have for you is when you were on your tours of duty, confronted as you were with imminent peril and finding the yourself between life & death, did you see and sense beauty? Or, is this a concept/practice you recognize now as something that would have benefitted you at that time?
You're welcome. No, it was those experiences that heightened my sense of beauty in real time. The greater the danger, the more heightened the sense: sounds, mountains, rivers, the weight of a pomegranate - it is all maxed out.
Another great piece, thanks Sam. Chesterton writes in 'The Everlasting Man' about ancient cave art and that the creation of art is a clear evidence of Man's uniqueness.
I have also thought for some time that our ability to act contrary to our basic instincts - which actually isn't a bad definition of 'virtue' - is what really separates us from the animal kingdom. I'm not convinced that even the most intelligent or affectionate or loyal of animals can ever truly do this: their instinct can often itself be noble, by human standards (most animals will willingly die to protect their young), and their instinct can also be trained to human ends - but it cannot be resisted.
You are on to a really intuitive point, that instinct can drive noble behavior but not resist it. It is noble in our eyes, and I greatly value it, but I am not sure it measures up against our choice to do the noble versus ignoble thing. This could be a great essay on its own. Thank you for jumping in, Greg, I appreciate the comment and thinking material.
I learned with maturity to have no room for self pity. I sometimes just look at the Atlantic waters and tall pines and say wow!
This is a profoundly Stoic viewpoint. I think it takes some bruises for this to be second nature. Given some of what I'm learning in your own essays, this makes more sense to me. Thank you, Barry.