A Cryptic Review

What is at stake in considering this article

is the matter of recovery from habitual,

persistent bouts of existential terror,

depression, and despair, to which we

are all subject. Professor McDermott

is addressing his own experience as

a recovering alcoholic, as well as the

implications and applications of

William James insights for the wide

variety of addiction afflictions and

clinical depressions that plague the

human mind. Speaking of his own

descent into this virtual hell, he

speaks of times when My world is

stripped of contours, edges, rivulets

... and above all, horizons. I am locked

up inside my sick soul, my addiction

and I experience the utter hopelessness

as earlier expressed (in the article) by

Leo Tolstoy ...  One can live only so

long as one is intoxicated, drunk with

life; but when one grows sober one

cannot fail to see that it is all a stupid

cheat. William James understands

Tolstoy to mean that Life had been

enchanting, it was now flat sober, more

than sober, dead. My understanding of

this dire situation is that we no longer

care for and about the things we care

for and about.

Nor should we assume that hitting

the bottom in this sense of radical

despair is limited to addicts or sensitive

literati.  A child of but ten years, dearly

beloved by me from his earliest days,

declared in a time of great frustration,

I wish I had never been born! It chilled

me to the depth of my being to hear that,

but it was an honest revelation of his despair

at the time.  Professor McDermott recounts

from the chapter The Sick Soul in James

classic work THE VARIETIES OF

RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE, the raft of

persons, from stations high and low, famous

and unsung ... each of which is riven with a

maddening, inner vapor that leaches into

every cranny of that person ... and James

gives us a startling text from Goethe,

 I will say nothing, he writes in 1824,

against the course of my existence. But

at bottom it has been nothing but pain and

burden, and I can affirm that during the

whole of my 75 years, I have not had four

weeks of genuine well-being. It is but the

perpetual rolling of a rock that must be

raised up again forever.

It brings up the biblical cry, Who shall

deliver us from the bondage of this death!

And for those who can be content with a

religious solution, of course, Christ is the

Answer, or Buddhism, Islam, et al. Others

mask the symptoms of despair and find

relief in anti-depressants, alcohol or

illegal substances. Some become obsessed

with video games and other forms of addictive

entertainment, or dependent relationships.

The essential dilemma remains: how to

maintain a wholesome, meaningful,

reasonably satisfying experience

as we proceed through life.

It seems to me that the insights

of William James, as highlighted

in this article, from his own troubled,

but ultimately successful life,

could only be helpful if

seriously considered.

By searching Google for the current

Summer/Fall issue of the

HARVARD DIVINITY BULLETIN,

the entire article can be found and downloaded.

THE TREE OF LIFE  

Rivers of life  

born of fire  

rooted in love.  

BJ

The emptiness is endless,

as Bob Dylan says

in his song, Mississippi.

A young military wife

explained to her husband

in an e-mail, shortly

before her death from

an oxycontin overdose,

that she was losing

the war against emptiness.

A 10 year old boy in Tampa

hanged himself in a closet

with a video game cord.

Casualties in the war

against emptiness.

To paraphrase FDR,

we have nothing to fear

but nothingness itself.

And I say to myself

constantly, Fear not.

Embrace the void.

Emptiness is the answer,

not the enemy.

Dont fight it,

expect it, accept it,

welcome it !

Make a medicine

of the illness,

the best, long-lasting

medicine of all --

emptiness itself !

More than

idealized realizations

are needed, though,

to overcome

the depression & despair

Kierkegaard called the sickness

unto death.

Whats required

for self-regeneration

is simply

the Zen of doing

-- breathing, moving

being engaged with

real people in

the real world --

thats what brings us

back to life again

and keeps us

going.

The 2011 CINEMA CIRCUS

at New College, Sarasota, Florida

Its a giant sheet show,

parallel carousels,

quintessential scenes,

including

Klaus Kinski in

Werner Herzogs

FITZCARRALDO

& NOSFERATU

a multiform wonder storm

a tent show revival

of cinematic

epiphanies !