Comments on: The Energy

By: K.J. Webb

K.J. Webb — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:44:42 +0000

The question is whether “security” (which I put in quotes because it’s a pretty slippery term) is antipathetic to an honest life – or at least a life without illusions. That’s something we both value highly, so we are agreed on the outcome. Where the disagreement may exist is on how you get there. I don’t think it’s a matter of externalities – living on the edge, say, as opposed to living more conventionally. Having money or not having it, having status or not having it. Some of the profoundest of our species wore good threads, ate good dinners and sat behind a nice set of wheels (even before the Vibe arrived!). Some were assholes, of course.

By: John H. Farr

John H. Farr — Thu, 15 May 2008 06:10:42 +0000

I have absolutely nothing against what passes for “security” and enjoy as much of it as I am blessed to experience. It is, however, an illusion, which is all I’ve ever been driving at.

By: K.J. Webb

K.J. Webb — Thu, 15 May 2008 00:27:24 +0000

I know you believe that there’s a big difference between those with security and those without. I don’t see it myself. Life is life. We make our bed, we lie in it. Nobody gets out of this life alive. Some folks face up to that fact, some don’t. I think you face up to it, and you have woven a personal mythology on the general theme of being, as you say, “off the reservation”. That’s your trope for being honest. Palefaces have their own mythologies, however. You gotta walk in the mocassins of the other guy to know just what his challenges are. In the end there’s just one challenge – making something of the short life each of us is given.

By: John H. Farr

John H. Farr — Wed, 14 May 2008 23:46:33 +0000

Well of COURSE they are. But most people who have “security” in their lives don’t admit that. My point is exactly yours, that regardless of material circumstances, there’s something else going on here to pay attention to.

By: K.J. Webb

K.J. Webb — Wed, 14 May 2008 22:03:28 +0000

But our minutes ARE ticking away, dear Farr. If we don’t hear them ticking, we’re living an illusion. Camus had the noblest and most moving description of this, in “The Myth of Sysiphus”. If we are sentient creatures, we know we must die, and that thought must be the basis for all our human actions. We must live bravely, facing the music of death, and carve out for ourselves some little niche of beauty before the Big Sleep.