Notes - what is the metaphysics / The Flea / the day's done

         Mid-morning. You have been up, breakfast and the paper, and doing chores while thinking about a new radar detector to go with the new car. The other one is eight years old and you are sure there are updates on the technology. You are also thinking about Rich G. whose friend and colleague from the old Cincinnati Microwave died yesterday. You said, “I am sorry for your loss,” and while it is proper and adequate a statement as any in this context the words seem trite. – Amorella

         0951 hours.  It is the same with an “I’m sorry.” Such word choices are ‘all levelers’ and outside of a physical touch do not provide a sense of personal meaning. I do not express ‘levels’ well. It is a terrible thing when language is inadequate.

         You wonder if it is arrogant to feel that words can do better than they do and at the same time you jump to Heinlein’s Stranger In A Strange Land and the Martian word, “Grok”. A slice of the novel focused on just such a problem as well as the lack of translation from one intelligent species to another. – Amorella

         I think about the Dead in the story. Words are inadequate, even more so, and there is no sense of physical touch outside of memory. No smells/aromas, no sound, no sight other than dream-like sight, sound, touch, smell and taste exist. How can anyone be naked when another can see right through herorhim? I sometimes tell my muse that I would be as the air, and I think of Caesar’s last dissipating breath, as I’m sure it still is. We breathe the Living and the Dead into our lungs at this moment, do we not?

         In context this cannot be well argued. What is a used breath? When is it renewed? What is the physics of sharing air as fish share water? What is the metaphysics? Post. - Amorella

       1018 hours. John Donne’s “The Flea” comes to mind. Here it is from the Poetry Foundation dot org. What a wonderously fun poem this is.   

The Flea

BY John Donne

Mark but this flea, and mark in this,   

How little that which thou deniest me is;   

It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,

And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;   

Thou know’st that this cannot be said

A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead,

    Yet this enjoys before it woo,

    And pampered swells with one blood made of two,

    And this, alas, is more than we would do.

Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,

Where we almost, nay more than married are.   

This flea is you and I, and this

Our mariage bed, and marriage temple is;   

Though parents grudge, and you, w'are met,   

And cloistered in these living walls of jet.

    Though use make you apt to kill me,

    Let not to that, self-murder added be,

    And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.

Cruel and sudden, hast thou since

Purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence?   

Wherein could this flea guilty be,

Except in that drop which it sucked from thee?   

Yet thou triumph’st, and say'st that thou   

Find’st not thy self, nor me the weaker now;

    ’Tis true; then learn how false, fears be:

    Just so much honor, when thou yield’st to me,

    Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee.

***

        You had lunch at Smashburgers and are stopped at Kroger’s on Tylersville. Earlier you spent time researching radar detectors and were thinking of going wireless with the Escort Solo 3. What’s holding you back, boy? – Amorella

         1347 hours. Wire or batteries? Then, there is the price. I don’t want Carol’s dash to look cluttered. I’ll have to see how it is with the one we have plugged in. I like the straight wire rather than the landline curl. I don’t suppose we need one since the speed limit is up to 70 on the Interstate. Seventy-six/seventy-seven is my usual average speed on rural Interstates. We have gotten so used to having one though since the old days at Cincinnati Microwave. It is fun shopping for stuff that is not a necessity – less pressure and more time for debate.

         In these books that’s one of the beauties of being physically Dead. – Amorella

         I like that, Amorella. I guess that would be a beauty in its own way, especially if you had friends and family around.

         The Dead branch out, boy. There is nothing wrong with friends and family but having more friends and acquaintances doesn’t hurt either. Souls learn from hearts and minds. – Amorella

         1409 hours. What’s the curriculum?

         How the basic human condition alters immortality. – Amorella

         Mid-afternoon. You are at Barnes and Noble after filling up the Honda and stopping at Best Buy for a new radar detector. You wanted one with a straight cord and your practical side took over after looking at the four and five hundred dollar Escort models. A Cobra sat on the bottom shelve for sixty-three dollars and after noting it only has once less band than the more expensive models you choose one. Once at the register the clerk said that it was wrongly labeled and should have been ninety-nine. His manager said to sell it at the mislabeled price and you were feeling even better. – Amorella

         1541 hours. I am. I am happy my practical side (or gut feeling) was en vogue at the time. Before we left I checked my older model Cobra detector in the new car and found I could rig it up so the wire barely shows so it will not be a distraction. Now all I need is the accessory nonslip pad I saw at the Mr. Clean Car Wash to protect the dash and something to keep the wire taut below the chrome trim lead around and up to the top of the dash. This is part of the fun of a new vehicle. I think I bought the old Cobras new in 2005 when we bought the green Accord. Time to work on Dead 4.

         Alta’s southwest turkey soup for supper. You watched DVRed shows and spent time working on the clean, subtle wiring design for the dash for the radar detector. Time for bed, boy. Post. - Amorella