True to Form

Why do people say the things they do? They might say things in order to testify, mislead, fool, excite, amuse, entertain, imply, indicate, conclude, express, ingratiate, train, edify, teach, exalt, redeem, forgive, bless, annoint, direct, advise, aid, inform, reform, cede or grant a point, relinquish, introduce, agree, disparage, describe, insult, deny, decline, accept, narrate, qualify, demand, acknowledge, name, open, bequeath, greet, consecrate, compliment, denigrate, negotiate, explain, expunge, elucidate, humiliate, hurt, disadvantage, exploit, profit, record, encourage, satisfy, please, share, reject, insult, condemn or bid farewell. There might be times when people say things for no reason at all.

Truth is, though, no one ever says anything because it is true.

Shivaree!

"Another time, we went to Mannheim and attended a shivaree -- otherwise an opera --, the one called Lohengrin. The banging and slamming and booming and crashing were something beyond belief. The racking and pitiless pain of it remains stored up in my memory alongside the memory of the time that I had my teeth fixed. There were circumstances which made it necessary for me to stay through the four hours to the end, and I stayed; but the recollection of that long, dragging, relentless season of suffering is indestructible. To have to endure it in silence, and sitting still, made it all the harder. I was in a railed compartment with eight or ten strangers, of the two sexes, and this compelled repression; yet at times the pain was so exquisite that I could hardly keep the tears back." Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad, ch. 9.

Scribbles after Wittgenstein

We must guard against the temptation to use nature to explain anything personal. An itch occurs and, naturally, I scratch it. Do I use the same number of fingers you would? Scratch lightly or vigorously? Do I curse the itch or enjoy it? Do I curse it while secretly or guiltily enjoying it? Do I worry this itch might indicate disease, become infected? Stoics don’t scratch itches; they ignore them. Might not itches be taken as omens of future events? Happy or unhappy ones? Do I rub some icon afterwards, say for good luck? Or rub alcohol on it out of medicinal prudence? (Aren’t these sometimes the same thing?) Might not scratching my own or someone else’s itch be a sort of proposal, part of sexual play? A mingling of atoms sheds no light on any of this.

True, when we manage to trace out the causes of itches, tickles, pains, thoughts, inner voices, dreams, intentions, beliefs, aversions and whatnot, these bits of humanity are explained. And even if such explanations as we currently possess are incomplete, they are at least leading, and often productive (of effective medicines or public policies for example, or of sensible strategies for avoiding injury). But that some natural cause has some natural effect, while potentially useful, is not particularly interesting to me as a student of history, a music listener, a movie goer, a dreamer, a person. I want to know what roles a certain experience plays in people’s lives, to what degree they can alter these roles, and whether or not they should in fact alter them.

What clown studies Newton to improve his juggling technique?

The point is not to denigrate the science of bodies, but to recall that the subjects of such study do not blush with embarrassed pleasure, or wonder whether to turn on the light to see if they’ve been bitten by an insect. While I suppose you to be physically constituted, I nonetheless acknowledge and recognize your humanity. Does the fact that I do both of these things in English, indeed sometimes with the same words, indicate the substantial simplicity of my world, or the complex and flexible character of the language I speak?

It will happen that a doctor treating an illness also treats the patient with respect. How is this possible? It is possible if the same word does different things in different circumstances. But our words imply a world, don't they? How can one world have different natures? Say rather: there are worlds. But only if you have to.

Dream a Little Dream

She puts red paint on the backs of my hands, lumps of it. It starts to run and looks like blood. This makes you one of us.

Cabbages

Of Diocletian: "His answer to Maximian is deservedly celebrated. He was solicited by that restless old man to reassume the reigns of government and the Imperial purple. He rejected the temptation with a smile of pity, calmly observing that, if he could show Maximian the cabbages which he had planted with his own hands at Salona, he should no longer be urged to relinquish the enjoyment of happiness for the pursuit of power." Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. 13.

Manual Dexterity

handpicked, handhold, handstand, handbag, handmaid, handgun, handicap, handle, handlebar, at hand, by hand, on hand, hand on, hands on, in hand, hand in, hand to hand, hand in hand, hand to mouth, my hands are full, my hands are clean, I wash my hands of it, on the other hand, hand off, offhand, take in hand, a laying on of hands, tip my hand, out of my hands, off my hands, hands off!, hands down, handmedown, at first hand, second hand, handicraft, a wave of the hand, the hand of friendship, hands of a surgeon, handshake, handyman, handsome, gladhand, open handed, backhand, hand back, hand over fist, hand in glove, left handed, right hand man, hands up!, handout, all hands, hand over, hand over hand, keep a hand in, handclap, gotta hand it to you, in the palm of my hand, one hand tied behind my back, head in hands, hold hands, join hands, handmade, heavyhanded, no hands!