Intermission

Currently reading:
The Myth of the Eternal Return
   by Mircea Eliade

I'll most likely put up the rest of the argument sometime before too long (maybe in some sort of illo tempore). I need to track down citations, and that's always my least favorite part of papers. Who cares whether or not the person actually said that as long as I can make it sound creative, after all?

In the meantime, I just had some thoughts on studying which I thought I'd jot down. It seems like curiosity used to be enough to get me to read anything. Curiosity can be a vice when it pulls one away from what is really important. However, sometimes there is an innocence about curiosity as well, a self-forgetfulness as one simply and artlessly gives oneself over to understanding another (whether that be a person, culture, idea, et cetera; not that those are entirely separate). This innocence is lost as we go on to have to write paper after paper, and seek a job in what we once loved. "Pragmatism" sets in, we start having to cast a critical eye on everything we look at in order to determine its worth for research material, for building our career, for getting us into the right schools, for the eventual use it could be to society. This leads to getting wrapped up in our own concerns, and using the words of other people for our own ends. To some extent, this is a necessary stage an academic must go through; there needs to be a deeper reflection on ones studies. However, this stage too must be transcended where one again can come to a text and devote oneself to it for a time in a deeper, more concentrated way. This is a way which does not ignore the practical issues, but at the same time realizes the worth in listening to the words of others and the occasionally limited, fallible nature of various practical judgments.

Understanding

Currently reading: The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton

Understanding is a form of love. I don't mean pure, disinterested intellection, but rather an inward knowing; knowing that may issue forth rational knowledge but sometimes can only show forth as the vagueness of a soft, light mist. I think this is in the end why I've never gotten fully into modern philosophy; it seems to remove this aspect of understanding, settling for a mere, objective account of what there is, and thus displaying a certain hollowness. Maybe this is how Scotus accounts for theology as a practical science.

More importantly than that, however, is that I think this may be an insight into what it is to know and love God. We see God work throughout Scripture, and in particular we see Jesus in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead. Jesus said that whoever has seen him, has seen the Father. I doubt that this plumbs the depths of that statement, but could part of this be that through seeing Jesus' life, through understanding him in the gospels, through learning what matters to God through the actions of his Son, and through our own imitation of Christ, through these we find what it means to know and love God? This seems to tie together the words of Jesus at the Last Supper in John's gospel. While we're at it, maybe this is a key to understanding the Eastern idea of theosis.

Of course, upon writing it down, it's probably the case that I'm the last person to notice this. Darn head seems to keep getting in the way.

On Rabbits

Our rabbit Tiger loves to escape. When we would put him in a pen made up of cardboard boxes, he would spend so much time nudging at cracks, jumping over low spots, and running headlong into weak points in the wall. We never could build a pen which would hold him in; even when I tried taping boxes together, the little bugger pulled hard enough to take them apart again.

Now, we finally got him a real pen. No escapes from this one. Tiger finally has a place which is decently larger than his cage where he can run loose for long periods of time, as we do not need to watch him constantly.

So what does Tiger do with this newfound freedom? He still tries to escape. He'll endlessly dig up the cloth at the edge of the cage, hoping that he'll discover a way out eventually. He'll poke his little nose in between the wires. Sure, the new setup is not ideal, of course he'd rather have the run of the house, but it's a step up from his cage. But he'll spend his time looking for a way out instead of playing while he has time.

How many times am I like Tiger?