In the vein of Oakeshott and Eliot ("History is now and England"), I give you Henry Da
vid Thoreau:
"All these times and places and occasions are now and here. God himself culminates in the present moment, and will never be more divine in the lapse of all the ages. And we are enabled to apprehend at all what is sublime and noble only by the perpetual instilling and drenching of the reality that surrounds us. ... Be it life or death, we crave only reality. If we are really dying, let us hear the rattle in our throats and feel cold in the extremities; if we are alive, let us go about our business. Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains."
Thoreau obviously gets the transcendence that inheres in the person. Also, his craving for reality speaks to a search for truth, including the truth of existence that is admirable, and seems to be acknowledging the connection between the "is" and the ought." The theology, however, is a little iffy (although I do think heaven will be something of an eternal present, but one that includes within it action and movement--it will be an actualized telos).
vid Thoreau:"All these times and places and occasions are now and here. God himself culminates in the present moment, and will never be more divine in the lapse of all the ages. And we are enabled to apprehend at all what is sublime and noble only by the perpetual instilling and drenching of the reality that surrounds us. ... Be it life or death, we crave only reality. If we are really dying, let us hear the rattle in our throats and feel cold in the extremities; if we are alive, let us go about our business. Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains."
Thoreau obviously gets the transcendence that inheres in the person. Also, his craving for reality speaks to a search for truth, including the truth of existence that is admirable, and seems to be acknowledging the connection between the "is" and the ought." The theology, however, is a little iffy (although I do think heaven will be something of an eternal present, but one that includes within it action and movement--it will be an actualized telos).
And for free: "To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea." Although I don't appreciate the dig at old women, I have felt repeatedly the truth of this assertion. Why is there this obsession with news? Really, shouldn't we be concerned with what is closest to us? And even then, not with the squirrels outside our window--but with the ideas, literature, wine and cigars that really matter. See, I can be concerned with mundane things as long as they are a conduit for conversation.
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