More Nietzsche

It's late in the evening (I'm hearing Paul Simon sing it when I say that), and this is a crime known as WWI (writing while intoxicated). I've been out with S2, sowing the universe with stories over G&Ts at a neighborhood pub, and I'm too intoxicated to sleep. ... In fact, I could fall into a slumber in this state, but it wouldn't be a good one, and I'd wake with some kind of problem as a result. So I'm invoking Thor's cure: Stay awake long enough to take two OTC pain killers and drink two glasses of water. In the meantime, I'm killing time listening to some music on the computer and engaging in reckless WWI.

I read this recently, and I'm posting it with a little nod to Dr. M:

"Delight in blindness. -- 'My thoughts,' said the wanderer to his shadow, 'should show me where I stand; but they should not betray me where I am going. I love my ignorance of the future and do not wish to perish of impatience and of tasting promised things ahead of time.' "

It's the second annoying Nietzsche quote I've posted (from the same book) on the same day, although it's technically Sunday now. This is aphorism #287. Now, anyone who's read "The Gay Science" knows what a crackup (and anachronistic German) Nietzsche can be. But I gotta respect the guy for the useful things he penned. And this is one of them.

Why should we know the future? If I had my hand around every blessed moment before it happened, I should think myself bored. Terribly bored. So I'm dedicated to embracing the thrill of the unknown, the life less-planned, the exquisite tension of wondering what's next without demanding an answer.

I was waxing philosophic -- only slightly so -- about this with Dr. M the other day, and I simply must stress (to myself, to anyone who will listen) that it's a liberating spot from which to approach life. As we can't know the future, why should I spend my precious present trying to figure out what's next?

On a totally random note (because I am WWI...), to S2, I say this: You and I are from the same planet. Our sisters are crazy. Our mothers are in la-la land. But how wonderful for both of us that we persist and still manage to live joyfully. What creates women like us? Magic beans? ... Personally, I vote for the the ability to laugh at ourselves, at the world and at our position in time itself. (Why am I in this corner of the universe, at this place in all the eternity that proceeded me and will follow me? Ah! Don't ask WHY! ... "But it's not this random life only, throwing its sensual astonishments upside down on the back of my eyeballs...." Here is that tension between wanting meaning and knowing there is none. Best to just enjoy what we've got in The Now, eh?) Thank you for the grand time. I really needed that tonight.

With that, I have finished my second glass of water and now conclude my WWI. I bid you all a good-night. ;-}