Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand was a writer who was born in Russia and emigrated to the United States.

Her most famous work of fiction is called "Atlas Shrugged."

In this book, Ayn Rand lays down the principles of a philosophy called Objectivism. She saw how not just mystic beliefs of the religious could contaminate the mind; she also saw the materialists like in her homeland of communist Russia also required people to abandon clear thinking for impossible ends. The collectivism of her time required people to put other people lives and futures ahead of our own. She argued that the basis of our happiness is our struggle to survive by the means of reason and the creation of tools. Smart creatures are able to make the tools to survive an ice age. Intelligence allows us to become productive. This productivity allows for a free exchange. A value for a value, not a fraud for another fraud should be the basis of trade according to the book. To Ayn Rand, the problem was forgetting to seek our own good. When a ruling group of people decides to take your productivity for the sake of an unproductive group, such a system is no different than robbery.  

Ayn Rand revives the thinking of Adam Smith on capitalism and demonstrates in the story how the promise of equal benefits to all for the labor of the few was based on bad premises. To reward the unproductive with the achievements of the productive is the same as rewarding vice and punishing virtue. Communism invalidated both property and mind. 

In Atlas Shrugged, the industrials decided to go on strike. Against the tide of mandatory wage hikes, employment equality for all the industrialists just said "enough is enough I quit." This left the government and the rest of society in a bewildered state where no one really knew how to make the steel, build a railroad and make the grand machinery of the modern world work. Bureaucrats just could not understand anything. The book underscores where real values in society emanate. They come from the good minds of those that invented the infrastructure of the modern world in the first place. Value is destroyed when people's thoughts and productivity is invalidated.

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"The function of man is to live a certain kind of life, 

and this activity implies a rational principle, 

and the function of a good man is the good 

and noble performance of these, and if any action is well performed 

it is performed in accord with the appropriate excellence: 

if this is the case, then happiness turns out to be

 an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue."

(Aristotle- Nicomachean Ethics, 1098a13)

Ayn Rand's influence was from  Aristotle who proposed that reason is the tool to achieving the ultimate goal of happiness.  Both Aristotle and Epicurus agreed that rational thinking allows people to avoid the pitfalls of mysticism. Mysticism elevates revelation over skeptical thinking, dreams over reality and the fortune teller over actual fortunes. 

Reason is important to us and is the only thing that separates us from inanimate matter. Without a clear picture of the nature of our world, one is limited in the ability to perceive it and more susceptible to mystical explanations. If one is ignorant about the cosmos, for instance, one could not really have complete happiness. There still might be some myth about the universe that involves an angry god or deity. It's really nice to know it was not Zeus or any other of the gods that cause natural disasters. For centuries people thought that lightning bolts were from the angry gods. Now we know the principles of electromagnetism and even use these forces to power the internet.

Objectivism, like the critical thinking of Greek times, asked definite questions about what reason is, why sacrifice is a bad thing and how the best and highest value is in life is happiness. Its achievement is based on finding our freedom. We need to live in a just society that permits us both the freedom to think and freedom to use our ideas to produce. The mysticism of India has only left them in disease-ridden hovels along the Ganges. The freedom in the United States has created the skyline of Manhattan.

The real virtue in Epicureanism and Objectivism is the ability to use one's mind. Reason is the ability to discern how to survive. This virtue is fundamental and is hinged on the glorious premise that knowledge is attainable. To deny the use of reason is the greatest vice. It only leads to mental and physical decay. "To think" or "not to think" - that is the question. 

The chief goals for Objectivism were: Reason, Purpose and Self-esteem.

Reason is thinking clear headed. Purpose is the value of applying your rational mind to the task of life improvement. Self esteem is the value of self recognition of the good. 

The premises of the book are very similar to those you find in Epicureanism. The major goal was happiness. The achievement of this goal was to live wisely; only then could you also live pleasantly. 

Here are a collection of great quotes:

"Virtue is not an end in itself. Virtue is not its own reward or sacrificial fodder for the reward of evil. Life is the reward of virtue and happiness is the goal and the reward of life."

"By the grace of reality and the nature of Life, man -every man- is an end in himself, he exists for his own sake, and the achievement of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose."

"The purpose of morality is to teach you not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live."

"Man cannot survive except by gaining knowledge, and reason as his only means to gain. Reason is the faculty that perceived, identifies and integrates the material provided by his senses. The task of the census is to give him the evidence of the existence, but the task of identifying it belongs to his reason ; his senses tell him only that something is, but what it must be learned by his mind."

"Reason is man's only means of knowledge, is his only standard of proof."

"There is a morality of reason, a morality proper to man, and Man’s Life is its standard of value. "

“All that which is proper to the life of a rational being is the good; all that which destroys it is the evil."

"Virtue is not an end in itself. Virtue is not its own reward or sacrificial fodder for the reward of evil. Life is the reward of virtue and happiness is the goal and the reward of life."

“Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artist’s metaphysical value-judgments.”

Temperance

Temperance is a strength of character recognized by most every person and religion on the planet. Temperance is knowing when one is satisfied with our eating and drinking choices before we pay the price from the Law of Diminishing Returns. In our western society the highest form of evaluation for any investment involves the concept of maximizing gains and minimizing costs. If the value of the limited resources of this planet were given a proper "cost input" into our goods, we would not have ravenously plowed down over half the rain forest for our hamburgers.

An overly indulgent species with a population explosion cannot survive when resources are limited.  That same species needs to allocate and consume these resources to preserve its sustainability. A good planetary hygiene would be to have us all assert more moderation in our treatment of the planet's resources.

The ancient Greeks in the days of Pythagoras considered that Temperance or Moderation was the very first of the "Cardinal Virtues". The first requirement of any philosophy should be to control our own animal passions before we can cultivate our convictions and live justly.  A healthy mind and body are first necessary to having right thoughts and actions. The very success or failure of your philosophy will manifest itself in both your appearance as well as your conduct.

To Epicurus, the elimination of bodily pain (Aponia) came before one could eliminate mental anguish and achieve and the imperturbable state of Ataraxia, the highest goal.  The pains of our body can be eliminated with proper nutrition and exercise. We can choose to ingest food that will awaken our minds or clog our arteries.

Socrates said that "the unanalysed life is not worth living." Moderation is a consequence of the self-analysed life. If you know yourself, you will know a healthy diet precedes a healthy life. Heart attacks, cancer, and diabetes kill almost 10 times more people than cigarettes! These 3 diseases are directly connected to what we are eating.

According to Wikipedia, "There has been an increase in obesity-related medical problems, including type II diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and disability.^[15] In particular, diabetes has become the seventh leading cause of death in the United States,^[80] with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimating in 2008 that fifty-seven million adults aged twenty and older were pre-diabetic."

The United States population now has the highest obesity rates in the world with 2 out of 3 overweight and 30% being obese. Oddly if you go from Seattle to BC Canada on a short drive north up the I-5, where it is colder with presumably less to do, the obesity rate sharply declines to 19%. Cold, boredom or even genetics do not explain obesity differences between these two major cities. Both have cold weather that is similar. Both offer a great variety of things to do to avoid boredom. What's dramatically different between these two nearby cities are the eating choices. The difference between the diet of a Canadian and an American is seen in the smaller restaurant servings you will find in British Columbia versus Seattle. Americans are just eating way more than the rest of the world.

Foods containing excessive sugars and fats are simply unhealthy. And, we are seeing a historical increase in the amount of fat and sugar consumption. In 1900 the average person ate only 4 lbs of cheese per year. Now that figure is 33 lbs and heart disease is now the #1 killer.  The China Study ,which drew on the research of 65 countries and is the largest scientific study conducted regarding international diet, learned that sugar intake is the root cause of the major rise in cancers in the US with one out of every four people dying from cancer. The science findings are clear and decisive. We must moderate our meat based diets and decrease our sugar intake if we wish to avoid most cancers and heart disease.

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The Purveyors of Poison

The wolves in sheep's clothing.

I recently saw a bar in the heart of an alcoholic community of vagrants in Portland Oregon calling itself "Rock Bottom."  Another bar was called "Thirsty." How did we get to the point when products are promoted based on the very qualities we want to avoid? Names like Big Boy and Big Macks come to mind. Destructive behaviors are being comically played off as admirable. Moderation is becoming increasingly difficult as we are surrounded by flashing banner ads and booming commercials that celebrate indulgence not restraint.

Let's all wake up!  Unfettered self-indulgence is plundering the planet.
FACT: Since 1900, 80% of the rainforest has been cut down to grow cattle for a population that has tripled in size.
FACT: 55% of all the wildlife have been killed by humans since 1970 to meet the demands of our meat-based diets.

We should be ashamed! Instead, of developing a unified shame for gluttony we have developed a culture where more IS considered better. Vice and Virtue have reversed meanings!

If you light up a cigar in an elevator, you will have everyone screaming at you to put it out. Maybe the same kind of moral indignation is we should feel towards shameful undisciplined lifestyles . Our appetites are mowing down the rain forest and draining the last available clean water for future generations. Indignant yet? You should be.

Perhaps if we redefine the problems of these people as vulgar and reprehensible they would not blame their diets on bad politics or Monsanto. Blame should be leveled on our own spending decisions. No one is forcing you to drink a Coke (which contains 9 teaspoons of sugar) or to eat that hamburger that requires 1300 gallons of water or the equivalent of taking 13 showers. You are the voter who decides what kind of society you will have and what kind of lifestyle you will have with the most powerful vote you will ever make - one made at the ballot box of your grocery store!

There is no dignity in self-destructive behavior. How many countless species have come before us and perished due to lack of food?  We come from a long road as humans from a world of too little, a world filled with famine for millions of years only to come to a place where we bear the insult of people drowning in abundance!

No thanks to our ravenous diets, we are burning down the forests and emptying the oceans of its fish for another tasty dish.  Over 56 billion farm animals are alive today waiting for their slaughter within the next year. If you were to stack all these animals upon one another, they would reach the Moon. (See Occupy for animals counter). 

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Are we the Modern Day Easter Island?

The Moai statues seem to cry out "you have been warned!"

We see in history that a population that over consumes quickly runs out of resources and quickly dies out. Such a dying out happened on Easter Island. Once the population reached some 30,000 inhabitants, sociologists believe the Island became too small for it's population. In a desperate attempt to avoid self-annihilation, they cut down the remainder of their food supplies to appease their gods with the construction of the foreboding statues called Moai.

Are we going the way of Easter Island? The scientific organization called The Global Footprint Network thinks so and the conclusive evidence suggests that an average American now requires some 10 hectares of land per person to support his diet. This is about 5 times more than the average person. Unfortunately, our planet cannot sustain more than 5 billion people at our present levels of consumption. According to the Global Footprint Network, if everyone on earth had the diet of an average American, we would need 5 Earths to produce enough food to feed everyone in the world today. Sandwich Earth is being rapidly consumed. Human history will sadly only leave an iron layer trace of the Anthropocene era. (For more details, see my blog on the Holocene Extinction.)

It is time to put Temperance back into the fashion of our philosophies. Our personal health, that of the planet and the future of the human species depend on it. Temperance is not just a good wholesome philosophy grounded in health, it is a desperate cry to the most moral obligation we have.
Without it, this species is doomed.

Phillip Larkin Poem - Church Going

Church Going 

Once i am sure there's nothing going on
I step inside letting the door thud shut.
Another church: matting seats and stone 
and little books; sprawlings of flowers cut
For Sunday brownish now; some brass and stuff
Up at the holy end; the small neat organ;
And a tense musty unignorable silence 
Brewed God knows how long. Hat-less I take off
My cycle-clips in awkward reverence 

Move forward run my hand around the font.
From where i stand the roof looks almost new--
Cleaned or restored? someone would know: I don't.
Mounting the lectern I peruse a few
hectoring large-scale verses and pronounce
Here endeth much more loudly than I'd meant
The echoes snigger briefly. Back at the door
I sign the book donate an Irish sixpence 
Reflect the place was not worth stopping for.

Yet stop I did: in fact I often do 
And always end much at a loss like this 
Wondering what to look for; wondering too
When churches fall completely out of use
What we shall turn them into if we shall keep
A few cathedrals chronically on show 
Their parchment plate and pyx in locked cases 
And let the rest rent-free to rain and sheep.
Shall we avoid them as unlucky places?

Or after dark will dubious women come
To make their children touch a particular stone;
Pick simples for a cancer; or on some
Advised night see walking a dead one?
Power of some sort or other will go on
In games in riddles seemingly at random;
But superstition like belief must die 
And what remains when disbelief has gone?
Grass weedy pavement brambles buttress sky.

A shape less recognizable each week 
A purpose more obscure. I wonder who
Will be the last the very last to seek
This place for what it was; one of the crew
That tap and jot and know what rood-lofts were?
Some ruin-bibber randy for antique 
Or Christmas-addict counting on a whiff
Of grown-and-bands and organ-pipes and myrrh?
Or will he be my representative 

Bored uninformed knowing the ghostly silt
Dispersed yet tending to this cross of ground
Through suburb scrub because it held unspilt
So long and equably what since is found
Only in separation--marriage and birth 
And death and thoughts of these--for which was built
This special shell? For though I've no idea
What this accoutered frosty barn is worth 
It pleases me to stand in silence here;

A serious house on serious earth it is 
In whose blent air all our compulsions meet 
Are recognized and robed as destinies.
And that much never can be obsolete 
Since someone will forever be surprising
A hunger in himself to be more serious 
And gravitating with it to this ground 
Which he once heard was proper to grow wise in 
If only that so many dead lie round.

1955

The Holocene Extinction

We have entered into an unprecedented time in history when our species has done so well that we have become the virus eating and rotting our green planet. Geologists are now debating to call this era the Anthropocene. Since 1970 we have doubled in population and we have already decimated most of the habitable areas of the planet  along with water and food sources. We are regretfully entering into the 6th major extinction event on the planet called the Holocene Extinction. This time, no asteroid will have caused it, we will have. Ironically, Humanism has done so well in advancing the health and wealth of all people on the planet that we have quickly used up all our resources. Our success as humans is killing us. Here is some background facts and information to support this grim conclusion:  POPULATION EXPLOSION Fritz Haber - responsible for half the population explosion today. Noble prize 1918 Food choices (meatbased) has declared war on the world. See Cowspiracy movie Frank Fenner, (scientist credited for eliminating smallpox) predicts humans extinct in 50 years In 1980, he announced to the World Health Assembly that the disease had been eradicated, an accomplishment hailed as the greatest achievement of the World Health Organisation. We require 1.5 earths to feed 7 billion according to Global Footprint Network We will need 2 earths to sustain everyone by 2030. END OF MAN Nasa predicts a collapse of the species. Anthropocene Holocene Extinction Fresh water is running out! 52 % of wildlife is gone since 1970 50% of rain forest has been cut down! 90% of all large fish since since 1950 are gone Climate is heating up 30% increase in CO2 in ocean since 1960 10% increase in global methane and coming from Arctic- Permian Extinction We are in 6th of Earths extinction events What happened on Easter Island is now occuring globally LOSS OF RESOURCES Farming has changed 50% of all the earths arable lands for human food. The UN now insists this is a major threat to environment. 80% of all our drinking water goes to livestock. It takes 1300 Gallons of water to make a burger according to USDA. 80% of rainforest is gone and 90% of rainforestof entire West Coast of Africa is gone forever. Livestock production produces more carbon emissions then cars. In 2007 California lost 190,000 acres to wildfire. Yearly 18 million acres of rain forest are lost. San Joaquin Valley lost equivalent of 2 Lake Meads in only 4 years! Ogallala Aquifer drying up in 50 years. EATING MEAT IS PRIMARY CAUSE OF RESOURCE DEPLETION Report from the Worldwatch Institute says that “…the human appetite for animal flesh is a driving force behind virtually every major category of environmental damage now threatening the human future…” 5% of water consumed in the US is by private homes. 55% of water consumed in the US is for animal agriculture. This and other great statisics with sources. -The Book by Dr. Richard Oppenlander " Comfortably Unaware Insights: Water loss in California and export of water for livestock. A quarterpounder requires 55 square feet of rainforest 100 million actres in California, Nevada and Arizona. 82 M used for livestock. 500,000 acres urban zones. rest is State and Federal that continues to open areas for livestock. 50 million pigs in Iowa and Missouri using 60 times the water per pig then a human uses daily. These are accelerating the depletion of the Aquifer and the return of the Dust Bowl. 28 billion fish are taken in ocean annually. Up to 5 times more biomass is killed in process There are 60 billion livestock animals alive today. 30 to 50 million sharks each year are killed as bykill. 35,000 miles of rivers and groundwater in 17 states has been permanently contaminated by farm waste. 42% of irrigation water in California is used for livestock. Use of aquifer in San Joaquin is pumped out at half a trillion gallons more then recharge rate. This is California largest source of drinking water formed from the last ice age melt. The ground has sunk 29 feet. The Ogalala will be dry by 2020 and 8 states depend on its water. It is drawn down 3 to 10 feet/year. When fires occur in California, it is broadcast on the news. During October 2007, for example, when approximately 190,000 acres in California were lost, there was seemingly non-stop news coverage. That same year, over 30 million acres were lost in the rainforests, with no news coverage whatsoever. Is one circumstance really less devastating than the other? In fact, over 30 million acres of rainforests per year have been lost every year since the 1970s. Although some of this rainforest land is logged, most is slashed and burned, then used to either raise cattle or to raise crops to feed to cattle. As much as 80 percent of all global rainforest loss is turned into grazing for cattle or crops for livestock, and the process is extremely land-intensive. It requires fifty-five square feet of rainforest to produce just one quarter-pound burger.

What is Philosophy?

"No philosophy is true that is not based on science." - Albert Einstein

The term philosophy often gets tossed about without understanding what it actually means. Obtruse and dead weight ideologies confuse the original purpose of philosophy. We have made philosophy a dry and uninteresting discussion filled with a new language that uproots our curiosity and plummets us to a state of banal apathy. 

But, in the beginning philosophy was simply science. The very basics of Philosophy is about understanding reality and explaining how to be as happy as possible. It should not be a deadpan and stale discussion. It is the conversation everybody wants to be part of. It's the conversation of our lives and how to improve them. But happiness is elusive for most because life is at it's core hard. We are born, we suffer and then we die. What's the point of it all anyway?

WHAT IS REAL AND HOW CAN WE KNOW IT? 

They very first question proposed by the ancient thinkers was: "What is real?"  This question is posed in the first branch of Philosophy and the very first step for anyone interested in philosophy must ask. There are those who believe in an unseen world that can be believed by faith. But, a new way of thinking called Empiricism was being used by ancient Greek philosophers. Empiricism owns up to the fact that we are easily misled by imaginings and proposes to put to the test our ideas before they assume credibility. Empiricism is at the very foundation of our modern world today.

It was in ancient Greece that was the cradle for both modern day ideas of the universe and philosophy.  The ancient Greeks probed mysteries by discovering the tools of rational inquiry. The universe was not just a Maya or dream. It was real and it could be studied! The ancient Greek philosophers were the first scientists. Democritus in 400 BC proposed that nature was comprised of atoms and even Aristotle was a biologist.

Empiricism and Logic answered the first question asked by Philosophy.  It seemed such a basic question and is still so important today with so many religions that are basing their way of thinking on another system.

According to modern psychologists, a person who believes in a thing with no evidence is suffering from a delusion. The first step in philosophy is to correct the mind in it's propensity to heed authority and follow the leader. We must ask questions. But, the aspiring philosopher inevitably must ask the next major question proposed by Philosophy: How to achieve happiness?

WHAT IS HAPPINESS? 

To Epicurus, happiness was the most essential goal in life. Since we were children, our goal was to be happy. The very purpose and testing grounds of any natural philosophy is to determine it's effectiveness. That is, does it reduce suffering and increase pleasure? Happiness can come from actively being involved in an activity or simply in contemplation. Finding ones bliss requires a fearless mind and a pain free body. That is why, like a doctor offering you medicine, a philosophy is useful if it achieves giving you happiness.

Science seems to leave us in a cold and meaningless world. A scientist cannot admit to evidence for Karma. No ethereal other world is waiting beyond the grave that we can be certain of. We were born into a world of suffering and then die. What is it all for?

Happiness is systemically a result of the suppression of it's evil twin - suffering. To Buddhism, life was like a dream and produced illusions that meditation could detach you from. Death is also portrayed as some kind of illusion. On the contrary, the Greek thinkers like Epicurus dismissed ideas that have not passed the tests of sound argument as well as empirical evidence. The real way to get rid of suffering is to eliminate false beliefs as a source of mental conflict.

Happiness – by Hermann Hesse Translation from the German by Gerry Busch To me, happiness means something quite specific, namely completeness itself, timeless existence, the eternal music of the world, that which others may have called the harmony of the spheres or the smile of God. This phenomenon, this endless music, this richly resounding, golden, glittering eternity is the pure, absolute present, it knows no time, no history, no before, no after. The face of the world beams and laughs endlessly, while people, generations, races, empires rise up and blossom, only to fall back into the shadows of oblivion once more. Endlessly life plays its music, endlessly it performs its round dance, and anything we mortal, endangered, frail beings derive in the way of joy, solace and laughter is the glow from that, an eye full of light, an ear full of music. Regardless of whether or not the “happy” people in legends ever existed, or whether the great light shone on those children of fortune and chosen people merely during festive occasions, or only for moments at a time, they could not have experienced any other happiness, shared in any other joy but this. Breathing in the absolute present, singing along with the chorus of the spheres, dancing along in the world’s round dance, laughing along with the eternal laughter of God, this is our share of happiness. Many have experienced it only once, many only occasionally. But the people who experienced it were not merely happy for a moment, they also brought along with them some of the glitter and sound, some of the light of timeless joy — the source of everything that shines as brightly centuries later as on the day it was created, such as love brought into the world by lovers, solace and serenity given us by artists. It has taken me a lifetime to arrive at this sweeping, universal, sacred meaning for the word happiness, and perhaps it is necessary to emphasize to the school children among my readers that I am in no way engaging in semantics here; instead, I am describing my own inner development, and am not trying to persuade them to adopt a meaning this strong in their oral or written usage of the word happiness. For me, however, that beloved, glowing little word happiness has become associated with everything I have felt since childhood upon hearing the sound of the word itself. The sensation was certainly more pronounced in childhood, the response of all the senses to the sensual qualities and appeal of the word were louder and more intense, but if the word itself had not been so deep, primal and all-encompassing, my ideas about the eternal present, about the “golden trail” (in Goldmund), and about the laughter of immortals (in Steppenwolf) would not have crystallized around this word. As elderly people try to recall when, how often and how profoundly they have felt happiness, they search primarily in their childhood, and rightly so, because the experience of happiness requires, above all, an independence from time, and from fear and from hope, as well; but most people lose this capacity with age. When trying to remember my share in the glow of the eternal present, in the smile of God, I return to my childhood, too, for that is where the most significant discoveries turn up. Of course, the happy times of youth were more dazzling and variegated, more festively dressed and more colorfully illuminated; the intellect played a bigger role during those times than in childhood. But on closer and closer inspection, they turn out to have been more fun and merriment than true happiness. People were cheerful, witty, clever, and amused one another. I remember one moment among my circle of friends when I was in the full bloom of my youth: During a conversation, someone innocently asked for the definition of Homeric laughter, and I answered him using rhythmical laughter that was an exact imitation of hexameter. This brought hilarity and the clinking of wineglasses — but moments like this did not survive further scrutiny. That was all very nice, it was funny, tasted good, but happiness it was not. Happiness, it seemed, when one pursued this study long enough, happiness had only been experienced in childhood, in hours or moments that were very hard to recapture, for even then, even in the realm of childhood, the glitter did not always turn out to be genuine, the gold was not always pure. If I was painstakingly selective very few experiences remained, and even they were not pictures one could paint or stories one could tell; they adroitly defied description. When such a memory first presented itself, it was a recollection of weeks or days, or at least one day, maybe Christmas, a birthday or the first day of a vacation. But to reproduce just one childhood day in memory would require thousands of images, and one’s memory cannot bring together a sufficient number of pictures for even one single day, let alone half a day. Nevertheless, whether in occurrences lasting days, hours or mere minutes at a time, I have experienced happiness often, and have had brief encounters with it in my later years, even in old age. As often as I have summoned up, queried and tested those early encounters with happiness, however, one in particular has survived. It was when I was a schoolboy, and the actual feeling, that which was genuine, fundamental and magical about it, the condition of inner laughter and being one with the world, absolutely free of time, hope and fear, and living totally in the present, cannot have lasted long, perhaps just minutes. A lively boy of about ten years, I awoke one morning with an unusually sweet and profound feeling of joy and well-being which shone through me like an inner sun. It was as if something new and wonderful had occurred right at this moment of awakening from a good sleep; as if my miniature, boyish universe had entered a new state of being, a new light and climate; as if early this very morning, all of life had finally attained its full value and meaning. I knew nothing of yesterday or of tomorrow, I was immersed in a wondrous today and I gently bathed in it. It felt good and was savored by my mind and my senses without curiosity and without explanation; it permeated me, and tasted magnificent. It was morning; through the high window I saw the pure, bright blue of the sky as it hovered cheerfully over the long roofs of the neighboring houses. It too seemed full of joy, as if it had special plans, and had put on its finest clothes for the occasion. There was nothing more to be seen of the world from my bed, only this beautiful sky and this long strip of roof on the neighbor’s house; but even this roof, this boring and dismal roof made of dark reddish-brown tiles, seemed to be laughing. Over its steep, shadowy, oblique surface ran a gentle play of colors, and the one bluish glass tile between the reddish clay ones seemed alive, and seemed to take a particular pleasure in reflecting a bit of this quiet, steadily shining morning sky. The sky, the somewhat rough edge of the roof, the uniformed army of the brown tiles, and the thin, airy blue of the glass tile seemed in a beautifully pleasant way to be in agreement with one another; they appeared to have no other intention on this special morning but to laugh at one another good-naturedly. The blue of the sky, the brown of the tiles and the blue of the glass had a purpose; they belonged together, they played with one another, they were in good spirits; and it felt good to see them that way, to be a spectator of their games, to feel permeated by the same morning glow and the same sense of well-being that they were enjoying. And so I lay in bed for a delightful eternity, enjoying the onset of morning and the peaceful after-effects of sleep, and if I have savored the identical or similar happiness at other times in my life or not, none of those moments could have been any deeper or more genuine: The world was in order. And whether this happiness lasted a hundred seconds or ten minutes, it was so far removed from time that it resembled every other genuine happiness as completely as one fluttering blue lycaenid butterfly resembles another. It was transitory, it got engulfed by time, but it was profound and ageless enough to draw me back to it today after more than sixty years, so that in spite of my tired eyes and aching fingers, I am compelled to recall it, smile at it, recreate and describe it. This happiness consisted of nothing else but the harmony of the few things around me with my own existence, a feeling of contentment and well-being that needed no changes and no intensification. It was still quiet in the house, and not a sound was heard from outside, either. Were it not for this silence my reverie would probably have been disrupted by reminders of daily duties, of getting up and going to school. But it was obviously neither day nor night. True, the pleasant light and the cheery blueness of the sky were there, but one could hear neither the maidservants’ footsteps on the sandstone tiles of the court, nor a slamming door, nor the boy from the bakery on the steps. This morning interlude was beyond time, it demanded nothing, it hinted at no events to come, it was self-sufficient, and since I was an integral part of it there was no actual day for me either, not one thought about getting up and going to school, about half-completed homework assignments or poorly studied vocabulary, about rushing through breakfast in the freshly aired-out dining room across the way. My happiness met its downfall this time through an intensification of beauty, through an increase and overabundance of joy. As I lay there motionless, letting the bright, peaceful morning world penetrate me and draw me into itself, something unusual in the distance forced its way through the quiet; it was something glittering, overly-brilliant, golden and triumphant, bursting with joy, full of fascinating, stimulating sweetness: the sound of a trumpet. And as I finally woke up completely, sat up in bed and threw the covers back, the sound had already acquired two voices, many voices: It was the town band marching along the streets, making them reverberate with their playing; an extremely rare and exciting occurrence, blaring out with merriment, making my childish heart both laugh and sob at the same time. It was as if all of the happiness, all of the magic of this blissful hour had flowed together into these stirring, bittersweet tones and flowed away, becoming temporal and transitory once more. I was out of my bed in one second, trembling with excitement, and I dashed to the door and into the adjoining room where I could watch the streets below from the windows. Giddy from excitement, curiosity and the desire to participate, I lay down in an open window, listened with pleasure to the swelling, majestic sounds of the approaching band, saw and heard the neighbors’ houses and the streets awaken, come to life, and fill up with faces, figures and voices — and at that very same moment I recalled everything that had been completely forgotten during my euphoria between sleep and daylight. As it turned out, there was no school today — no, it was an official holiday, the King’s birthday, I believe, and so there were parades, banners, music and incredible entertainment in store for us. And with this realization I had returned and was subject once again to the laws which govern everyday life; for even if those metallic sounds had awakened me to a holiday rather than an average day, the special, beautiful and sacred aspects of this morning’s magic had already passed, engulfed by the waves of time, world and routine once more. … Hermann Hesse, 1955

William Edelen on Wonder

If we are fortunate, we can rediscover wonder. We who have become so preoccupied with gaining and spending, with winning and losing, we have lost sight of the fact that we live surrounded by miracles. Wonder is the capacity of sustained joy and awe. Wonder is a sense of freshness and spontaneity.

Every day is a surprise party. Life is a cafeteria of delights, a new flower ... a hummingbird hovering ... a cucumber cucumbering. To sense the ultimate in the common, and in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal, is to live with wonder.