Friday, July 23, 2021

Gone Fishing


If you have ever been on jury duty, you will remember the interrogative locution “and did there come a time?” posed to a witness when chronology is being confirmed. Fate comes out of the woodwork at a certain point in everyone’s life and becomes a visible player. You remember Tiresias from Oedipus. In The Lonely Man of Faith, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik asks  "Is it the Kierkegaardian anguish--an ontological fear nurtured by the awareness of nonbeing threatening one's existence--that assails me...?" When does finitude ever more real, imminent and palpable like a red Stop sign in the distance? A year or two or three from now, you might not be a thinking self-reflexive consciousness. It’s a tough nut to swallow for even the most philosophically inclined. No longer being a thinking being is not something, it's easy to get your hands around. The person in late middle age actually may marvel at the wherewithal of those in their late 80s and even 90s who carry on like life is forever while living at the edge of the abyss. Panic or acceptance or probably something in between is the modality many mortals fall into as their biological clocks continue to tick. Is it reassuring that life will go on after you're gone? Can you imagine your loved ones falling into the arms of a lover, trainer or therapist after they've said their goodbyes?

Read "It's Not a Rehearsal" by Francis Levy, HuffPost

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