cogitoscribosum

[cogitoscribosum]

One must have chaos within oneself to give life to a dancing star.

F. Nietzsche

Nietzsche was an imbecile for ditching his “cautious feminism” for blatant misogyny all because of unrequited love (ugh!). But I do enjoy reading him. A friend told me to steer clear of him for the time being, as I’ve been in the limbo dealing with a whole lot of shit. But, to be honest, he comforts me. It’s like having coffee in the morning with a friend that gets you. You see, people misconstrue things or just spread misinformation out of sheer ignorance. Nietzsche didn’t go mad because his philosophy was maddening. A recent study shows that it wasn’t even because of neurosyphilis, as is generally believed, but because of frontotemporal dementia. Anyway, his philosophy is fine and quite fun to read, except, of course, for the unjustified and potentially harmful bitterness towards the opposite sex. 

I’m one third into Thus Spoke Zarathustra at the moment and can’t stop thinking about this quote from the preamble (above). Surely Nietzsche did not know what we know now: that we are made of stardust, or, more precisely, that most of the elements that make up the human body were once stars that went supernova; surely he was not familiar with the term supernova either, since it was invented after his time; and perhaps even the concept itself eluded him. If anything, this makes for a fortunate collision between life and metaphor or between life and the attempt to capture life. But the point I want to make is this: if supernovae are chaos unto death, as science has it, they are also chaos unto life as the unfolding of death.

Think about chaos… the catalyst... the culprit and the redeemer... stars in chaos give life to humans... humans in chaos give life to stars... what a beautiful imagery! 

Sadly, though, not all humans have chaos within themselves. Most of us are like bees or ants with our hive minds and choreographed marching, either unaware that there is a choice to be made or resolutely unwilling to make that choice. No wonder, I say, seeing that the process is, as Nietzsche puts it, “a dangerous crossing, a dangerous wayfaring, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous trembling and halting.” 

This is definitely not an endeavour for the faint of heart. But wouldn’t life be better, more meaningful, and more beautiful if more of us walked the tight rope?

#zarathustra #nietzsche #overman #supernova #dancingstar #chaos

[cogitoscribosum]

My ever-shrinking circle

Why is this circle so small? I thought by now its radius would be proportional to its lifespan. After all, whether we waltz, walk or wade our way through life, we accumulate more than obliterate. But the more I become, the more it’s undone. With fractions of its line straightening and moving on. If only they turned a right angle every so often, it wouldn’t be so tangential. But it’s late and I wonder what shape they have become and what it will be of my ever-shrinking circle... (19 Nov. 2018)

[cogitoscribosum]

Wake

The unthinkable death The incredibly beautiful Thing that we had.