Category: Religion

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The Metaphysics of Food: Kitchen Scenes With Spinoza, Brillat-Savarin And Def Leppard.

A four-mile walk from Nacka to Kungsträdgården, brings me face to face with Joachim Beuckelaer’s Kitchen Scene With Christ in the House of Martha and Mary (1565) in the Nationalmuseum. Words are exchanged between us and a conversation about the metaphysics of food ensues. Examining the fundamental nature of reality, the relationship between mind and … Continue reading The Metaphysics of Food: Kitchen Scenes With Spinoza, Brillat-Savarin And Def Leppard.

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The Supernatural Terror Of Simone Weil As Fiona Apple Fetches The Bolt Cutters.

Man only escapes from the laws of this world in lightning flashes.  Instants where everything stands still, instants of contemplation, of pure intuition, of mental void, of acceptance of the moral void.  It is through such instants that he is capable of the supernatural.  (11) As I read through Simone Weil’s Gravity and Grace, first … Continue reading The Supernatural Terror Of Simone Weil As Fiona Apple Fetches The Bolt Cutters.

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Branches And Sky Unbecoming Or A Few Thoughts On Chaos.

I will tell you: one must have chaos in one, to give birth to a dancing star.  I tell you: you still have chaos in you.  (Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra, 46) χάος in Greek means “infinite space, the expanse” and the “nether abyss, infinite darkness,” also “unformed matter.”  In Hesiod‘s Theogony, we begin the … Continue reading Branches And Sky Unbecoming Or A Few Thoughts On Chaos.

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The World Is Weird.

The world is weird.  The sun spills light as though it has all the colors to burn what is dead and empty into luminous greens and yellows, while a pool of water adds its aesthetic by reflecting and shimmering the madness of light and color.  And all of this is made because the Netflix inside … Continue reading The World Is Weird.

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A Walk And A Reverie With Apples, Cheese And Cognac Or How To Embrace The Pandemic And Meet Pan.

How does a journey begin?  Well, with a walk.  A church and a cemetery affords the beginning.  Bare branches on the edge of spring with stubs of brown-green grass and a path of graded small stones.  An avenue of trees really, as we look down the path past grave markers and towards the dwellings of … Continue reading A Walk And A Reverie With Apples, Cheese And Cognac Or How To Embrace The Pandemic And Meet Pan.

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“I/Thou” Walking Into The World As Such With Simone Weil, Aldo Leopold, Wendell Berry And Thales While Listening to Sviatoslav Richter, Jeremy Denk And Igneous Rocks.

You could read the words of Simone Veil from Gravity and Grace, Let the soul of the man take the whole universe for its body.  Let its relation to the whole universe be like that of a collector to his collection, or one of the soldiers who died crying out “Long live the Emperor!” to … Continue reading “I/Thou” Walking Into The World As Such With Simone Weil, Aldo Leopold, Wendell Berry And Thales While Listening to Sviatoslav Richter, Jeremy Denk And Igneous Rocks.

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Some Thoughts About Volcanoes, Emily Dickinson, Peat And Burning-Places, Martin Heidegger At Home With Tools, And William Blake’s Marriage While Tool Breathes.

As I write this the Stromboli volcano off the coast of Sicily has been spewing smoke, gas, bits of the inner earth, molten material overall into the air and sea.  Columns and plumes of smoke, mushrooms and horses’ heads speak primal warnings to us that something from below has risen.  Reminders that under the appearances … Continue reading Some Thoughts About Volcanoes, Emily Dickinson, Peat And Burning-Places, Martin Heidegger At Home With Tools, And William Blake’s Marriage While Tool Breathes.

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A Conversation With Nick Cave In Stockholm. Raise Your Red Right Hand!

Tonight I’m going to attend a conversation with Nick Cave at the Cirkus Arena in Stockholm.  Well, me and hundreds of others. Läktare höger, row 6, seat 636.  Sixth row in the balcony to the right for a conversation.  What will we talk about?  Muddy-river preachers singing doom, while a woman in blue stockings walks … Continue reading A Conversation With Nick Cave In Stockholm. Raise Your Red Right Hand!

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Roasted Spring Lamb And Veg With Several Calls To The Suicide Prevention Hotline.

Five hours roasting at 150 Celsius or about 300 Fahrenheit and Maillard Reactions abound as lamb bone, flesh and skin browns, fat melts and a wondrous dark, umami aroma fills the kitchen and house.  Carbohydrate molecules and amino acids change and change in dry heat as colors and taste merge.  Fat molecules with the aid … Continue reading Roasted Spring Lamb And Veg With Several Calls To The Suicide Prevention Hotline.