Apropos of Seanchan's discussion, I would add from the Scottish Enlightenment, works of a fellow named Campbell--
"To live in hearts we love is not to die."
I have passed this on to several friends in recent years and they seemed to find it quite helpful.
This process of transforming archaic metaphors and revised historical narratives, seems to me very important. This week with Passover and Easter is a good illustration. I know that I found this past Christmas very trying. A couple of services left me in the same state as a confusing movie, like the one Marcella and I walked out on last week at the Tiburon International Film Festival. Had to drink a can of ginger ale to recover.
We are going to a Seder tonight. I thought I would raise the same question I raised last week about the Global Jewish Community support of settlements in Palestine. Mark's comment about the implications once there is a Palestinian state was very helpful. I enjoyed the Jewish Community Center twice this week--a real first.
The momentum of our March>April dialogue has meant a great deal to me, since Seanchan kicked it off with the session on imagination. Last week's session bubbled in my imagination all week. I thought Rob's combining historical reflection with our personal efforts was particularly useful.
Look forward to today.
--Malcolm
Have no idea how "past" got in there--seem to have missed the chance to edit. Worse things have happened to me lately.
ReplyDelete--MMcA
works should be words--wish I could have edited.
ReplyDelete--MMcA
David Hume and Campbell did not agree with each other on the issue of miracles and many other things. Personally, I am on David's side.
ReplyDelete“To live in hearts we love is not to die.” Is an interesting idea. If we are living in the hearts we love and we are not yet dead, does that mean that we are living two lives? If that is so, then you must be living many lives.
For those of you who don't know (I didn't) The fellow referenced above is the Scottish poet Thomas Campbell (July 27, 1777 – June 15, 1844).
ReplyDeleteYou can find his poems, including 'Hallowed Ground' referenced above via archive.org [http://www.archive.org/stream/poemsofthomascam00campiala/poemsofthomascam00campiala_djvu.txt].
Damn! I though it was George Campbell (December 25, 1719 – April 6, 1796). Oooops. Just another benefit of a little knowledge going a long way.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned this in the meeting today, and there was an anecdote I wanted to relate but didn't get to. It was this:
ReplyDeleteSomeone once asked the cybernetic anthropologist Gregory Bateson what he thought would happen to his mind when he died. Largely considered a champion of secular thinking at the time, his answer may have came as a surprise to many: "If my works have been read and understood, then the most important parts of my mind will remain immanent in the world."
Mark today asked the question of what happens after death. In addition to the examples he gave of passing on one's DNA, and the effects of one's actions rippling through the future, I added the persistence of stories. If I teach a child that 2+2=4 through demonstrating the commutative principle with my fingers, then that knowledge will live on long after my fingers have returned to dust. Where does that 2+2=4 exist? Stories persist as cultural echoes.
I suspect that in addition to matter and energy, there is also information in the universe, something with an ontological status just as sure as those other two...