To Be or Not To Be

A little kingdom I possess,
Where thoughts and feelings dwell;
And very hard the task I find
Of governing it well.
~ Louisa May Alcott

...that more or less describes my situation!

~A Wise Man Said~

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
~ Aristotle
Friday, August 23, 2019
 
“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man” ~ Heraclitus

I cannot help marvelling at the profoundness of this idea that once presented to our mind almost transforms the way we think… about our ability to recreate moments, even the most simplest of moments. There is no way that any moment no matter how identical to any other moment can ever be experienced the same way…
I have felt a strange aversion to revisiting certain places where I had the best possible times of my life… and the aversion comes from this deep-seated feeling that I would be disappointed. I would not only be disappointed by my new experience not matching up to my older one but I am afraid that even my memories of the older experience would be tainted or tarnished by the new experience. I feel that the only way to hold on to those good memories is to let them remain as far as possible in the realm of the imagination. In this sense I guess I believe that one’s memories are a means of stepping into the same river again and again… and if it feels like the same river, then chances are that you’re the same man?
Wittgenstein called this quote a good example of a ‘language game’. Heraclitus uses the word ‘river’ which we usually understand as a monolithic body to actually intend ‘flowing water’; had he said no man ever steps into the same particles of water in the river twice for they would be different particles of water at another time, the quote wouldn’t have had any effect on us as it would then seem like an obvious fact. I think it’s quite interesting how language in this instance is not just a simple bearer of insight but actually produces the insight!

posted by Sylvia D'souza at 6:10 am 0 comments
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