R's oriental philosophy

wake up early in the morning. love it like this, dark and silent. the light slowly breaking. the floor still cold, bare, reassuringly solid. the rich patterns of the 'Caucasian' carpet quite mystical. objects half-visible. light the fires. as if on the first day. warmth holds things together. the soft crumpled blankets still outline a human figure-me-even when I'm not there, but simply looking at this second version.

but you're never half-asleep: always fully 'there', or not at all. time to take off your protestant hat. make porridge, swirl it around until it's the right consistency. not too much, not too little. think about it.

your hand nearly freezes as it tries to cut the butter (which has been left in the freezer for some odd reason). but you are grateful nevertheless. and eventually it will melt. such is its nature. Descartes. it nearly burns. which is beautiful. you can't think of anything spiritual. Keynes was right: One cannot enjoy good states of mind unless things work.

these lines greatly impressed you, so much so that you closed the book after reading them, so as to not let them escape:

"there are some ends belonging to human life in general rather than to particular skills such as medicine, boatbuilding [Homer?, ends having to do with such matters as friendship, marriage, the bringing up of children, or the choice of ways of life; and it seems that knowledge of how to act well in these matters belong to some people but not to others."

thought I'd tell R of this, to see what she says. but, fingers in mouth, she was dreaming up her own philosophy (so like her!).

what is important in life, she said, is to laugh, smile, sleep, play, make other people happy.

that doesn't seem like an awful lot, darling R! I mean, that seems natural, obvious, almost.

Oh, I don't know, she mumbled, there are many little acts one must think about, cultivate, and instinctively do before we become human or even talk of goodness or 'nature'. small fires are a great civilizing force, wouldn't you agree?

~~~

the flight was canceled but R was unphased by it all and even pretended that she didn't know. "do they have fires in London?" she asked, cheekily.

It makes the most telling difference whether a thinker has a personal relationship to his problems and finds in them his destiny, his distress, and his greatest happiness, or an 'impersonal' one, meaning he is only able to touch them with the antennae of cold, curious thought.