AURIFY
In fields of gold where sunsets dance,
Aurify hues in a divine trance.
Balmily breeze whispers through the air,
As nature's symphony begins to prepare.
Caterwaul echoes in the twilight hour,
A melody sung with ancient power.
Amidst the trees, their branches sway,
To the rhythm of night and day.
Diaphanous clouds float overhead,
Like wisps of dreams in a sky so spread.
Stars twinkle, a celestial ballet,
Guiding wanderers on their way.
Through valleys deep and mountains tall,
Nature weaves her enchanting thrall.
Each element a thread in her grand design,
A masterpiece where beauty aligns.
So let us wander, hand in hand,
Through landscapes vast, across the land.
Where aurify dreams and balmily sighs,
Create a world where hearts arise.
In the Presence of Humanity
The bleakness of my existence
was challenged aggressively when
a being of mortal perfection
turned and stared at me
her eyes consumed my soul
leaving me stunned
in the wake of
her remarkable sensuality
at that moment
everything was different
yet remained the same
her beauty was indomitable
against the nauseating ugliness
life regurgitated
as a matter of habit
while I vacillated
between illusion and disillusion
after realizing I conjured
this amazing being
into my unbalanced reality
attempting to temporarily offset
the pathetic loneliness
of my existence
forcing me to admit
“I need humankind.”
In the heart of flames, shadows dance,
Cleansing whispers, a fiery trance.
Embrace the heat, let it ignite,
As old wounds fade, into the night.
A symphony of crackling cries,
Beneath the moon, the phoenix flies.
From ashes rise, a spirit new,
In the furnace of trials, reborn true.
Scorched memories, seared and charred,
A cleansing by fire, no longer marred.
Through the furnace of pain, we find our light,
In the crucible of trials, we take flight.
So let it burn, let it blaze,
Through the darkest nights, and endless days.
For in the flames, we find our might,
A cleansing by fire, set alight.
The Helps and Hindrances of Stoicism
Stoicism ultimately aims at the harmony of order--order within one's self, order of one's actions and possessions, and order of self within the context of the whole cosmos. Achieving harmony in these ways is Stoic eudaimonia, that is, the perfection or fulfillment of the human unto beatitude or absolute happiness. In other words, the Stoic believes that if human beings are able to achieve this three-fold order, they will not want or desire anything else--they are perfected or complete.
According to the Stoic, one's self, one's actions, and all the parts of one's self all fall under the human being's "power" to order. This is largely true. Because of my nature as a human being, here I am sitting at my computer, because I have to be somewhere. I am typing these words because I know how and I have some proclivity or tendency to do it. Further, I am content in the knowledge of what I am doing is in conformity with the logic of the cosmos such that I am not experiencing any extremity of emotion. Thus, I demonstrate the order of myself in conformity to the world around me, order in my actions, and inner order.
Again, according to the Stoic, if there is any disorder to be found among these things, there is a single remedy: knowledge. If I am sad that I am sitting here typing this rather than doing something else that I might think to be more worth my time, it is because I am ignorant of some part of the overarching logic of the universe. Either it has been ordained that I be sitting here typing and I am just ignorant as to the reason why, or I am actually supposed to be doing something else, and so that hypothetical sadness would have driven me to be doing something else. If I am sick or injured, I can be healed through a knowledge of medicine or the knowledge of a doctor, to bring myself back to a certain equanimity of life. For whatever disorder, knowledge can bring order.
It very much seems that Stoicism is the answer to the many ills of our time. The teenage mental health crisis as a result of social media addiction seems able to be solved by the knowledge that putting down the phone and hanging out with people is good for teenagers. If tech CEOs and boards knew not to be so tight-fisted over the trillions (yes, with a capital "TR") of dollars in their control, perhaps the economy would be in better shape. Perhaps, someone should tell them.
On paper (or in this case, on screen), this all sounds like it should work and lead to happiness, but it ultimately does not. There are a few problems with Stoicism that are insurmountable. For one, it certainly seems our will is free contra Stoic determinism. I think many people, teens included, know that scrolling for hours on end is bad for them and yet they fall into it because it is something of a natural tendency. The Stoic is all about following our tendencies and inclinations. As a result people are sad and depressed in alarming numbers. Why? I think Aristotle had the right answer in saying there are conflicting appetites in human nature, and that we have to choose to follow our intellectual appetites. There is a free choice to make, and a certain amount of effort needed to make that choice. Knowledge is not enough.
Another related problem is the reality of our emotions. Stoicism denies the moral usefulness and value of our passions. One thing the Stoics definitely get right is that our decisions should be made in an "even-keeled" emotional state as much as possible. In doing so, we are able to let reason take the reins and make the best, most reasonable decision. However, I question both the sanity and moral compass of anyone who does not want to mourn the death of a loved one, or rejoice in the birth of their child.
I can understand if someone wants to cry and yet cannot, since mourning is a complex experience. But death is a natural evil which should move anyone to sadness even if it is not exteriorly expressed. A Stoic apatheia is not really welcome in such a case, which we modernly would call an emotional numbness. Again, that numbness is a tendency that we can just "fall into" suffering, but most people will say that it is not something they really want. People want to feel. It takes effort to actively process, become vulnerable, and let the gravity of loss "sink in." There is such a thing as "a good cry," and it comes with the knowledge of the reality that death is not a good thing, even if it is a natural thing. The experience of feeling is a two-sided coin. It is only by allowing oneself to be vulnerable to mourning and feeling sadness that one is thus also enabled to rejoice and feel joy. To reject emotions is to reject both sadness and joy.
So what does all this mean in application? No, I do not think that just because Stoicism is wrong that it should be entirely dismissed and never talked about. There are certainly parts of life that it gets right. Making decisions based purely on passion and instinct is certanly not the right way to live life. Living life only in and by emotions does not capture the truth of human nature and experience. And, obviously, harmony and order are good and noble things for which we should definitely seek. So, parts of Stoicism are helpful pedagogically in the quest for the real truth of the human being, who is a rational animal. Living stoically up to a point, then, is helpful for developing the virtue of temperance which is one of the Stoic virtues. Temperance is the control of the emotions. If someone is overly emotional, Stoicism can help in the practice of developing the habit of "tamping" them down before thinking and making a decision, which helps also in the exercise of another virtue, prudence. This leads to an inner harmony and order, letting reason reign as the most important part of human nature. However, as mentioned above, the feeling of emotions is a part of human nature, a reality that Stoicism denies as a human good. Further, being physicalist-materialist in essence, Stoicism denies that the human will is free. The merely Stoic man may be free of sadness, but he is not truly free.
What I traded in for America
Shooting my eyes across the prettiest hues, hints of miracles,
traces of history left behind each boot print made to unsettle the wintery Eden in this…
My other mystery.
Stiff backed and leaning against the giant walls made callous from my wishes
to love more
to see more
to never leave this place
reaching for a sweater left forgotten like a heart on the clothesline
left to bleed for no one and nothing but the aftermath
and nothing but the memory remains.
Fading now like bad weather, like bad skin,
like hallways mute the echo of the scream of which I screamed into and found no way back.
Expiring like the stuff of fantasy made to taunt the sleepy dreamer in her wake.
This is not a love story or a hero journey
I am held captive tricked by the steel beast,
fierce and hungry, bribing me with its promise of forever
and forever is a song.
A million miles lay out like a snake roasting in the stink of heat and I hold and grasp
but Ah! The void is truly empty
and eh! It knows me
No matter how much I believe in your wildest dreams
I knew when I felt my heart tearing from the inside watching my own surgery
hey! come look inside my chest cavity
See the exits are all blocked, that there was no way back.
But oh!
But oh!
How that courtyard kept me like an etched Inferno scene
I am not a saint, or whore or any one’s mystery
I had something more than a pile of photos.
I was running my own river of thought
Remember the night? the one that opened its mouth, grinning at us from all the wrong directions
swallowed us up like a whale, mangled our luggage.
I don’t want to roll around down here for crumbs anymore
But all there is
IS THIS
All rage turned beast, and our beauty IS our ugliness
The flaw, the cut, the death… Perfect
Unimpressed in the world’s greatest theaters turn our backs at the glitter
And all we are IS THIS
Sensitive to touch
Inspired by sound
Memories that grieve us and not the other way around
If only I knew of an alphabet that doesn’t frighten me…
The Slippery Slope Remains the Undefeated Champion
The Slippery Slope Remains the Undefeated Champion
The lessons of history
Are forgotten
Are ignored
Are deemed irrelevant
And thus,
Are required to be relearned (again and again)
The payments for this tuition
Are paid in the blood of millions
Too busy to care, too apathetic to know to care
President Washington warned of the dangers of foreign entanglements
President Eisenhower told of the military industrial complex
Martin Niemöller spoke of no one being left to speak out for me
And still, the ignorant remain blissfully ignorant
Hitler killed millions, Stalin more than Hitler, Mao more than Stalin
Socialism and Communism (vote your way in, shoot your way out)
Killed more than all three combined in the 20th Century alone
George Santayana forewarned of the consequences of failure
But, TikTok is more fun
You may wonder which message was lost, but I don’t wonder as to why
Rules for Radicals and Mein Kampf are blueprints
1984 is fiction
The difference becomes moot when everyone is literate, but no one wants to prove it
Once the door becomes the slightest of ajar to the narrative and not the truth
Appeasing the shouters, the leeches, and the looters
Once men actively seek a benevolent master over personal freedom
Then the slippery slope becomes more than a placation
It becomes a daily expectation
It becomes easy to do nothing else
And such is how slaves have always been made