The universe is made of stories, not of atoms. Muriel Rukeyser
Archive for the ‘Existence’ Category
Material Cause
Posted in Existence, Imagination, Life, Poetry on November 26, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Is Existence “Necessary”?
Posted in Existence on August 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
It is not “necessary” that we exist. Yet, we do exist. We exist for a reason not rooted in determinism. The fact that we exist but need not exist expresses the most profound things about us. It implies that we exist because of a choice, a love, a freedom grounded in what is beyond necessity. [...]
The Life of Health
Posted in Existence, Health, Life on August 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
What do we “do” when we are healthy, when we are no longer concerned about our health and how to recover or preserve it? When we are not confined to a hospital, what is to occupy us? If we are made to be healthy, what is the activity of health? What is the life of [...]
To “choose to live by bread alone”
Posted in Existence, Philosophy/Theology, Thinking on August 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Paradoxically, the elevation of political or economic things to the center of human attention – one of the great temptations of the contemporary religious mind – corrupts not only the higher things, but also economic and political things by causing us to expect something from them that they cannot yield. Many a poor man has [...]
“The risk of human existence”
Posted in Existence, Freedom, Goodness on August 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The drama of human existence, however, has to do with what a man, among his fellows, does with his given existence, because he can both know and rule himself in a curious freedom that enables him also to reject and revolt against what he is. The human good includes the ability to choose the human [...]
The Most Serious Question
Posted in Existence, Life, Philosophy/Theology, War on August 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The most serious question we can confront, the most dangerous one, however, is not what we would do in war, but what we would do in peace. The real “war” only begins when the wars of battle are over. . . . Plato was almost the first to realize that the activities of joy are [...]
“The orange peel hung on God’s chandelier”
Posted in Existence, God, Life on July 28, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
That, you know, is why the world exists at all. It remains outside the cosmic garbage can of nothingness, not because it is such a solemn necessity that nobody can get rid of it, but because it is the orange peel hung on God’s chandelier, the wishbone in His kitchen closet. He likes it; therefore, [...]
