December 2021

Meister Eckhart

Wednesday December 01, 2021

Back to the numbers, 

not because of nostalgia 

(for that is nothing), 

but because it is something 

that he must fulfill for once.  

Thursday December 02, 2021

What is to be made 

of the fact that Protestants 

were initially 

responsible for reading 

the sacred texts critically?

Friday December 03, 2021

Having to meet them 

on a regular basis 

is the price he pays. 

At least it is physically 

distant and virtual now.

Saturday December 04, 2021

At least he removed 

himself from being the cause 

of actual harm. 

It took him fifty seven 

years to finally get it right. 

Sunday December 05, 2021

At most he reproved 

himself for being the cause 

of fictional charm. 

It has been fifty seven 

years and he still gets it wrong.

Monday December 06, 2021

He has learned enough

to hold his own with the wise, 

but pedestrian 

enough to know that there is 

something more primordial.  

Tuesday December 07 2021

Whither privacy?

It withers on the modern

vine of space and time. 

Even the ontology 

of the ancients can't stop it. 

Wednesday December 08, 2021

His kind of people 

are in the minority. 

They’re a dying breed. 

Rather than fight a losing 

battle, he chose to retreat.  

Thursday December 09, 2021

Is it almost bliss 

now that he missed this speeding 

bullet beside him? 

Like that one, brief, and shining

slug, it too is magical. 

Friday December 10, 2021

Jackie O "hauled ass

to save ass" in the limo. 

She was not trying 

to reach for her husband's brain

(at least Lenny Bruce says so). 

Saturday December 11, 2021

Not everything needs 

to be completely scheduled. 

He wants to keep it 

naturally spontaneous

without ending without it. 

Sunday December 12, 2021

All he needs to do 

is continue to fight the

hermit's nemesis.

The sons of Saint Anthony

are the only ones who know. 

Monday December 13, 2021

It is cold comfort 

knowing it is over, but 

comfort nonetheless. 

Unless he hears otherwise, 

he’ll be wise to let it go.  

Tuesday December 14, 2021

Communication

breakdown always makes him feel

lost in translation.

Technology will never 

circumvent intimacy. 

Wednesday December 15, 2021

Synchronicity

is a key that secretly

opens Hamlet's door:

there are more things in heaven

and in earth than we can dream. 

Thursday December 16, 2021

They are falling off

like scattered dead flies upon

an old window sill.

They flew in but could not fly

out, despite how hard they tried. 

Friday December 17, 2021

Bruno of Cologne:

the great Carthusian saint

whose order contains 

monks of the highest rank of

whom the world is not worthy.

Saturday December 18, 2021

This time the visit 

was as joyful as it was 

neatly nostalgic. 

A good time was had by all, 

at least among the remnant. 

Sunday December 19, 2021

The old suspicions 

are rearing their heads again. 

And what if they're true? 

A man can avoid ruptures

by refraining relations. 

Monday December 20, 2021

All of a sudden

it's "Boom Boom (Out Go The Lights)."

It's only one room. 

Begrudgingly, he must find

the in-house electrician. 

Tuesday December 21, 2021

He does not trust them

as a breed, nor does he need

to put up with their

subjugating subterfuge.

His kind have left them behind. 

Wednesday December 22, 2021

The sixty second

chapter of the ninth book from

the ancient statues

contains the prohibition

describing him and his kind. 

Thursday December 23, 2021

He has had enough 

of their primitive mating 

rituals designed 

to ensure that they never 

have to haul ass to save sass. 

Friday December 24, 2021

He always singles 

out sections signifying 

silent seclusion 

for all aspects of his life, 

both sacred and secular. 

Saturday December 25, 2021

He found it painful

to permanently delete

those lovely files.

But the (silent) writing is

on the wall for him today. 

...

November 2021

([{//<H>e\\r}mit]age)

Monday November 01, 2021

Anthony The Great 

was a saint and a layman. 

He is the father 

of hermits and monks alike. 

Thank you, Athanasius.

Tuesday November 02, 2021

Asceticism 

provides the basis for his 

aestheticism. 

Less is always more in life

as it is in haute couture.

Wednesday November 03, 2021

"Press any button  

to continue" sinking deep 

into distraction. 

The only game worth playing

contains candles and levels. 

Thursday November 04, 2021

His old ambitions 

have been prayerfully muted 

to the point where he 

no longer is interested 

in pursuing them further. 

Friday November 05, 2021

It was an insult 

to have made it there on time 

only to be stood 

up while waiting in the car 

on the side of the highway.  

Saturday November 06, 2021

He has had enough 

of all the propaganda 

poisoning the world. 

Even though he’s not of it, 

he must still live within it. 

Sunday November 07, 2021

The more that he hears

about the corruption in

the institutions

of the world, the less likely

he is to remain in them. 

Monday November 08, 2021

Can he lovingly

conceive of sharing his life

with someone again?

He's lived through so much of it.

Miracles are possible. 

Tuesday November 09, 2021

So much savagery 

textually documented. 

It’s a reminder 

that the most recent judgement

is simply one of many. 

Wednesday November 10, 2021

Twenty twenty two

is the year he will review

what is so new in

the nouvelle théologie,

Rahner most especially.

Thursday November 11, 2021

With his temperament 

he is able to survive 

within this culture 

of virtual suicide

by via negativa. 

Friday November 12, 2021

Deciding on three 

and then on four makes it more 

because it is less.  

For him this takes the guess work 

out of it entirely.

Saturday November 13, 2021

From the before time, 

when people, places, and things 

meant something different. 

There is no need to look back. 

That was then and this is now.  

Sunday November 14, 2021

Modern editing 

in the revised edition 

is a reminder 

of just how grammatically 

traditional he remains.

Monday November 15, 2021

“...Hermit and Meister...” 

is his way of giving thanks 

and asking for help 

from a saint and a layman. 

Working it out never ends. 

Tuesday November 16, 2021

That he is so old 

comes as a periodic 

shock to his system. 

It is best to pass the torch 

to the youngsters and retreat.  

Wednesday November 17, 2021

Lost in these last days 

with neither intuition

nor institution

to turn to for instruction.

There is nothing left for him. 

Thursday November 18, 2021

His socializing

got the most of him again.

He should know better

than to be a vomiting

dog consuming his sickness.

Friday November 19, 2021

Twenty nine years young,

among the other Lakeview

clientele today.

Sitting, eating, and talking

all of it out together. 

Saturday November 20, 2021

Empiricism,

semantics, ontology,

and toleration:

while clever, this will never

be fundamental enough.

Sunday November 21, 2021

From five to fifty: 

he knew what he was doing. 

In turn, for forty 

five years he went from being 

done with the raven to Brahms.

Monday November 22, 2021

The mortuary’s  

assistant reminded him 

of his grandfather’s 

old modus operandi. 

No need to revisit it. 

Tuesday November 23, 2021

He stays far away

from the evil industry

the older he gets.

To remain on the right side

of that history is wise.

Wednesday November 24, 2021

Today of all days 

he hears from a dear archetype. 

They cannot resist

being drawn to the Sigma. 

This is neither here nor there.  

Thursday November 25, 2021

He was kind enough 

to respond the way he did, 

but was cool enough 

not to confirm preconceived 

personal expectations.

Friday November 26, 2021

He simply cannot

minimize his history

in philosophy.

Being forgetful about 

Being will be the result. 

Saturday November 27, 2021

Seeing him sit there

without a bell of his own

to ring in response

to those who truly love him.

His two blue eyes are enough. 

Sunday November 28, 2021

It has been disclosed:

three hundred and thirty three

is Revelation

(as if he needed yet but

another confirmation). 

Monday November 29, 2021

He will never leave 

his own clean well-lighted place. 

The society 

writer is forced to stay put, 

so with him he will remain. 

Tuesday November 30, 2021

Reiteration:

it's not just Karl Rahner

that is of interest.

He just happens to be the

most obvious example. 

Stuttering The Unutterable

Karl Rahner, S.J.

"There is a thinking more rigorous than the conceptual."
(Martin Heidegger)

Martin Heidegger's 1966 essay "The End of Philosophy and the Task of Thinking" creates a "clearing" (Lichtung) that does not conceive of thinking as merely the utilitarian activity of asking a question and receiving an "answer" (a "propositional statement about a matter at stake," as Heidegger puts it). Thinking performs this task, to be sure, but should not be understood as limited to it. Heidegger was not a pragmatist.

Heidegger wrote this essay as part of his career-spanning attempt to understand the "cardinal problem" that he originally presented in his first and best known 1927 book Sein Und Zeit (Being And Time): the question of the meaning of Being in general. Beginning in 1930 and continuing to his death in 1976, Heidegger attempts to begin at the beginning again (and again) to phenomenologically examine this problem ("To the things themselves!") by turning the "task of thinking" from interrogating the metaphysics destructured in Being And Time, to inhabiting the poetics demarcated in his later 1972 collection of essays On Time And Being (in which "The End of Philosophy and the Task of Thinking" was published). 

On Time And Being

As a modern commentary on the ancient claim made by Heraclitus that "all is flux," what distinguishes Sein Und Zeit in the history of Western philosophy is the emphasis that it places on the word all. For Dasein (human beings for whom Being is an issue), to be-in-the-world (being) is to continually become in a world of constant change, a world that is both grounded in primordial-temporality (time) and experienced as the indefinitely continued progress-of-events (history). So, for Dasein to be-in-the-world is for Dasein to be-in-history (and no where else). This is true of all that is (without exception). Michel Foucault's important insight that we are all "historically condemned to history" is nothing but a footnote to Heidegger.

Sein Und Zeit presents the Being of this "condemnation" as the ground ("ἀρχής, αἴτιον, principle") for "the ontic causation of the actual, the transcendental making possible of the objectivity of objects, the dialectical mediation of the movement of absolute spirit and of the historical process of production, and the will to power positing values." Those who have read their philosophy know that this is Heidegger's way of name-dropping. Plato ("transcendental making"), Aristotle ("ontic causation"), Hegel ("dialectical mediation"), Marx ("historical process of production"), and Nietzsche ("the will to power") all find their respective place in this history of ontology. "Nietzsche's thought," Heidegger writes, "like all Western thought since Plato, is metaphysics."

Sein Und Zeit

Heidegger reiterates in his 1966 essay that to focus thinking on what gets grounded ("the ontology of the ancients") to the exclusion of the ontological grounding ground must be abandoned because of its disastrous consequences: it perpetuates the history of the forgetfulness (if not the complete oblivion) of Being by not considering Time as its only hermeneutical horizon (working out the temporality of being phenomenologically). In fact, by the time the essay was published Sein was a term Heidegger no longer liked to use precisely because of its ontic residue. He said that it had only been a "preliminary word" in the development of his thought.

Heidegger's "turn" (Kehre) here away from thinking as doing toward thinking as dwelling (Gelassenheit) informs his suggestion that the present age in which we "do our thinking" is the beginning of the end of Western philosophy. Insofar as we move away from thinking about Being toward being grasped by Being, Heidegger's philosophy should be understood as both a product of, and a contribution toward, the beginning of this end. 

Richard Rorty's response here that "Heideggerese is only Heidegger's gift to us, not Being's gift to Heidegger," is a pragmatic variant of this present age. It is what Blessed John Henry Newman once called a "notional apprehension" (a second-hand manipulation of words), as opposed to a "real apprehension" (a first-hand phenomenological encounter). Rorty could easily respond to this (in good Jamesian fashion) by asking whether there is "a difference that makes some difference" between Newman's "notional" and "real" apprehensions; and if not, then so much the better for our pragmatic age. Heidegger, however, was not a pragmatist precisely because he was not a modernist. 

In the light of this further turn away from the ontic residue of Being, and in the wake of his continued attempt to break through the conceptual surface of this history of forgetfulness, Heidegger is led to ask the following question: "What task is reserved for thinking at the end of philosophy?" (and by "end" he means termination, not telos). 

Heidegger never directly answered this question. However, he provided some indirect hints for those who would walk down the same path after him. He did this, in part, by describing "Being's poem" (Dasein) as the beings through which Being reveals (unconceals) itself. Dasein's role in this poetic disclosure is to create a clearing to simply let Being be in its finitude as a "call" to Dasein. In turn, Dasein responds to this call by shepherding the Being within human beings through acquiescing to Being-as-revelation. This Eckhart-like "potential receptivity" is what Heidegger refers to as "foundational thought."

Martin Heidegger

Karl Rahner's 1966 essay "Theology and Anthropology" encaptulates the transcendental basis for his theological answer to this philosophical question. It is not without significance that this essay was published in the same year as "The End of Philosophy and the Task of Thinking," precisely because it is the product of having walked down the same path after Heidegger, whom he not only called his "one and only teacher" and "master," but who also claimed that "present-day Catholic theology...is inconceivable without Martin Heidegger."

It is important to point out here that Heidegger neither broke with the Catholic faith and worldview of his youth, nor abandoned the Catholic church (his philosophical and political history notwithstanding). He even went so far as to tell a personal confidant near the end of his life: "Ich bin niemals aus der Kirche getretten." Rahner obviously knew whom he was following, and his answer is not only informed by his history with Heidegger, but it also assumes what he thinks is the one thing that Heidegger's history has taught each and everyone of us: "that everywhere and in everything we can and must seek out that unutterable mystery which disposes over us, even though we can hardly name it with words." 

While Heidegger has more than earned the philosophical luxury of abstaining from speech about this mystery by venturing "to step back out of philosophy into the thinking [dwelling] of Being," Rahner has the theological responsibility to utter (if not stutter) speech about it, especially since "the hesitant caution of philosophy cannot become a substitute for risking an understanding of existence which is always prior to philosophy." If theology is defined as the apophatic impossible possibility ("gesticulating with words," as Wittgenstein once put it), then Rahner is in the best position to answer his master's question given his duty as a Catholic and his ability as a theologian to gently and reverently gesticulate a thematic account of the hope that is within him (1 Pet. 3:15), knowing that "our human words always fall short of the mystery of God" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 42).

Rahner's apologia for both seeking and daring to hardly name this disposed "holy mystery" begins with his theological interpretation of the philosophical tradition that informs Heidegger's work. And like all good Thomistic theology (transcendental or otherwise), it begins with Aristotle.

Ludwig Feuerbach

Aristotle's Metaphysics makes Ludwig Feuerbach's The Essence Of Christianity possible. When Feuerbach states that he differs from those philosophers "who pluck out their eyes that they may see better; for my thought I require the senses, especially sight," he is echoing Aristotle: "All men by nature desire to know. An indication of this is the delight we take in our senses; for even apart from their usefulness they are loved for themselves; and above all others the sense of sight. For not only with a view to action, but even when we are not going to do anything, we prefer seeing (one might say) to everything else." 

To therefore claim with Feuerbach that "theology is anthropology" is simply another way of saying with Aristotle that the essence of a thing is found in the form of the thing itself (and not merely in its matter): the form of the eye is seeing (one might say). It therefore turns out that not all philosophy is but footnotes to Plato. Feuerbach’s Essence is the exceptional exception here, especially since it provides the reason why Heidegger states in 1927 that you cannot ask the question of the meaning of Being without human beings: "In so far as Being constitutes what is asked about, and "Being" means the Being of entities, then entities themselves turn out to be what is interrogated." There is no Sein without Dasein.

Rahner appropriates his master's insight here by arguing that to carry out Feuerbach's program of reformulating dogmatic theology into theological anthropology does not necessarily mean that God gets atheistically reduced to man, since man is "the place where mystery is inscribed in the world" precisely because he is "the subject of unlimited transcendence, as the event of God's absolute and radical self-communication." In response to what Francis S. Fiorenza calls the "Kantian Problematic" (Kant's critique of both the transcendental ideal and the conceivability of an absolute necessary being), Rahner's interpretation and appropriation of Summa Theologiae, I, q. 84, art. 7 in his 1939 Geist in Welt provides the philosophical basis for this transcendental conclusion. 

Geist in Welt

It is possible to conclude otherwise. Karl Barth certainly did. But his reductive response to Feuerbach very well might be the result of a brand of Manichaeism produced through a thoroughly Protestant reading of Augustine (if anyone knows for sure it would be Hans Urs von Balthasar). For Rahner, to reject Feuerbach's reformulation as a false start is to forget about the only Aristotelian way to answer Heidegger's question: "As soon as man is understood as that being which has absolute transcendence toward God (and it is surely obvious that he is such), then anthropocentricity and theocentricity in theology are not contradictories but strictly one and the same thing seen from two difference aspects, and each aspect is unintelligible without the other."

"The Christian of the future," Rahner writes, "will be a mystic or not exist at all." This hints at how, in response to "a genuine experience of God emerging from the very heart of our existence,"  we must seek out that unutterable mystery which disposes over us (especially after philosophy has died the death of a million Heideggerian words). Being "historically condemned to history" brings into very clear relief the fact that seeking and speaking this out is done within a dynamic integration between two imperatives: "If we fail either to preserve or to change," Rahner writes, "we should betray the truth, either by falling into error or by failing to make the truth our own in a really existential way." There is no truthful doctrine without thoughtful development.

In the end, the task that is reserved for thinking within the midst of Rahner's Vorgriff is as revealing as it is rigorous: to silently dwell within the inscribed mystery of being-in-the-world during our own time and place (Being-as-revelation), while bearing sacramental witness to this preconceptual awareness (beings-as-shepherds) through stuttering the unutterable Word to a very forgetful world (Exodus 4:10).

For Fr. Michael Eades, Cong. Orat.

Sources

Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition. Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2019.

Aristotle. Selections. Hackett Publishing Company, 1995.

Bernard Lonergan. Insight. University of Toronto Press, 1992.

Edward Feser. Aristotle's Revenge. Editiones Scholasticae, 2019.

Hans Urs von Balthasar. The Theology of Karl Barth. Ignatius Press, 1992.

John Henry Newman. An Essay In Aid Of A Grammar Of Assent. Aeterna Press, 2014.

Karl Rahner. Foundations Of Christian Faith. Herder & Herder, 1982.

Karl Rahner. Spirit In The World. Continuum, 1994.

Karl Rahner. The Content Of Faith. Herder & Herder, 2016.

Ludwig Feuerbach. The Essence Of Christianity. Harper Torchbook, 1957.

Ludwig Wittgenstein. Culture And Value. University of Chicago Press, 1984.

Martin Heidegger. Basic Writings. Routledge, 1993.

Martin Heidegger. Being And Time. Blackwell, 1962.

Martin Heidegger. Heraclitus: The Inception of Occidental Thinking and Logic. Bloomsbury, 2018.

Martin Heidegger. On Time And Being. Harper & Row, 1972.

Meister Eckhart. The Complete Mystical Works Of Meister Eckhart. Herder & Herder, 2009.

Michel Foucault. The Archaeology of Knowledge. Pantheon, 1972.

Richard Rorty. "Wittgenstein, Heidegger, and the Reification of Language." Essays On Heidegger And Others. Cambridge University Press, 1991. 

Thomas Sheehan. Karl Rahner: The Philosophical Foundations. Ohio University Press, 1987.

Thomas Sheehan. "Rahner's Transcendental Project." The Cambridge Companion To Karl Rahner. Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Thomas Sheehan. "Reading a Life: Heidegger and Hard Times." The Cambridge Companion To Heidegger. Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Thomas Sheehan. "The Dream Of Karl Rahner." The New York Review Of Books, February 4, 1982.

Thomas Sheenan. "What If Heidegger Were A Phenomenologist?" The Cambridge Companion To Heidegger's Being And Time. Cambridge University Press, 2013. 

William J. Richardson. Heidegger: Through Phenomenology To Thought. Fordham University Press, 2003. 

William J. Richardson. "Heidegger And Theology." Theological Studies, February 01, 1965.

William James. Pragmatism. Dover Publications. 2018.

October 2021

Origins Always Remain One's Future

Friday October 01, 2021

"We all need to send"

him as much love as we can. 

A breath of spent air

is ringing inside his ears.

What a musical surprise.

Saturday October 02, 2021

He knows it is best

if he does not use the word

'Angel' subtly,

but there is obviously 

no problem mentioning it. 

Sunday October 03, 2021

He's interpreting

the interpretation of

interpretations.

Does this mean he is living

in a hermitic ghetto?

Monday October 04, 2021

There is something great

about this interior

truth he wrote about

from his early Catholic faith

to his Catholic funeral. 

Tuesday October 05, 2021

Near the end of life

he cryptically wrote that one’s

“origins always

remain one’s future” as a

way to honor the horror.

Wednesday October 06, 2021

He tries to honor

his mother on her birthday

by bringing tokens

of both love and gratitude

for all she has done for him.

Thursday October 07, 2021

Only one of three

took the time to wish her well.

Did the other two

simply forget about it?

Maybe they don’t care enough.

Friday October 08, 2021

Concerning fasting:

he is devoted to not 

eating but only

drinking during the morning.

This is a healthy first stop.

Saturday October 09, 2021

Over the past week

he has let this slightly slip

from his fingertips.

It was like the days of old

when he wrote the 300.

Sunday October 10, 2021

The paper he wrote

for dear Professor Williams

marked the beginning

of his apophatic end:

Sein Und Zeit as negation.

Monday October 11, 2021

And then once again

he is reminded of the

grammar of assent.

He is grateful he remains

just outside of the order.

Tuesday October 12, 2021

He simply cannot

avoid the sense that the sense

of Being And Time

is fully and completely

phenomenological. 

Wednesday October 13, 2021

It’s the beginning

of the end for him given

what he’s been given.

It’s a conscious decision.

He knows what he is doing. 

Thursday October 14, 2021

It will never be

the same for him now that he

has been physically

altered from without, and then

from within without recourse. 

Friday October 15, 2021

He's said it before

and he will say it again:

he is the Catholic 

superior to Dewey.

It's all about the English.

Saturday October 16, 2021

And then there were four,

and from that time forth there are 

no more and no less. 

For him less is so much more,

in reading and in writing. 

Sunday October 17, 2021

Once he enters through

the Oratorian doors

there is no return.

But that’s precisely the point:

in the world, but not of it. 

Monday October 18, 2021

He’s finally ready

to study modernity

after all these years.

His time in graduate school

was a prolegomena.

Tuesday October 19, 2021

He’s more mystical

than he previously thought.

In the bad old days

he was unable to know

it, let alone affirm it. 

Wednesday October 20, 2021

He is no scholar,

he is only a reader.

The point is to know

even as he’s fully known.

That is his raison d'être.

Thursday October 21, 2021

He knows where God wants

him to be, especially

given the image

of the Black Madonna that

was used for the rosary. 

Friday October 22, 2021

The early morning

interruptions to sleeping

patterns are almost

too much for him to process.

Then again, it could be worse.

Saturday October 23, 2021

His old Ludwig van

can do no wrong when it comes

to starring within

Kubrick’s notorious film. 

He overshadows it all. 

Sunday October 24, 2021

To read is one thing,

to meditate another.

The reading comes first,

and then the meditation.

This is all that’s required. 

Monday October 25, 2021

It is not anger

that is the matter with him,

but rather whether

it ever gets to his lips. 

Silence keeps demons afraid. 

Tuesday October 26, 2021

It was much better

for the brother not to sell

the book he stole from

Abbot Anastasius.

He returned then retained it.

Wednesday October 27, 2021

He recognizes

and yet resists the present

papal occupant?

Even Heidegger's Rahner

cannot fully convince him. 

Thursday October 28, 2021

He is just ending 

the penultimate edits

to his essay on

the developmental task

of balancing becoming. 

Friday October 29, 2021

For the longest time

he wondered what the first H

would turn out to be.

‘To be’ eventually

turned out to be the last clue. 

Saturday October 30, 2021

If he did it would

begin the cycle again. 

And its end would be

worse than it was at the first.

There's only one worth trusting. 

Sunday October 31, 2021

It has come to this:

he is an apopha(n)tic 

sedevacantist. 

There is no one in the seat

to recognize and resist.

September 2021

RORtY

Wednesday September 01, 2021

The Lovecraftian 

world he has been wandering

within and without 

doubt has awakened his old

horror about the unknown.

Thursday September 02, 2021

Despite the chatter,

valour decides the matter

each and every time. 

The Carthusian motto

remains the same forever. 

Friday September 03, 2021

His trading style:

scalp the volatility

found in the New York

and the Tokyo markets

every minute by minute. 

Saturday September 04, 2021

Very soon he will

be entering into his

old virtual vow,

never to be actively

heard from (or about) again. 

Sunday September 05, 2021

He knew of it from

the moment of conception.

He won't deny it. 

It's part of his ancestry,

but not of his destiny.

Monday September 06, 2021

The truly naked

simplicity of Forex

consists in the fact

that it lacks indicators

(VPA to STV).

Tuesday September 07, 2021

With five little words

he could have raised the sleeping

giant once again,

only to have it relive

the relational ruin. 

Wednesday September 08, 2021

He paid nine dollars

to remain in the hanger

until it landed.

This was a small price to pay

to welcome them both back home. 

Thursday September 09, 2021

And then there were two

to manage the work of three,

or four, or five more.

Despite it being a part 

of the job, it's still thoughtless. 

Friday September 10, 2021

Simplicity is

the key as he continues

his disappearing

act while hiding in plain sight. 

He is no longer welcome.

Saturday September 11, 2021

Trading: the final

task that he will accomplish

before his precious

time and place cease to exist. 

He saved the best until last.

Sunday September 12, 2021

He quietly watched

it happen before him as

a fly on the wall

without anyone knowing. 

It's too torrid to transcribe.

Monday September 13, 2021

It has been scheduled

to occur in the evening

now that they are gone. 

He’s thankful that the market

is open twenty four five. 

Tuesday September 14, 2021

He was Professor

of Logic at the famous

University

of Science for sixty one

years before he was dismissed.

Wednesday September 15, 2021

The bloody visions

of his son in a stupor

woke him from his sleep.

For one, brief, frightful moment

he was convinced they were real.

Thursday September 16, 2021

To know something real. 

To reach out and to touch it,

like His hemmed garment.

Some people think that their lived

experience exhausts it.

Friday September 17, 2021

Generational

curses left their permanent

marks upon his life

from the time he was first born,

second born, and seen no more. 

Saturday September 18, 2021

Forty eight hours:

from Friday at seventeen

to two days later

at the same time he remains

as silent as the market.

Sunday September 19, 2021

One more from the road

puts mu back into Artis

as a way to say:

"I know he knew how many

sticks he held within his hands."

Monday September 20, 2021

Pragmatic reason

rears its instrumentalist

head as a method

to address this personal

issue that he is facing. 

Tuesday September 21, 2021

It has gone beyond

their social designation.

He has reached the point

where the mere presence of them

keeps him turning Japanese.

Wednesday September 22, 2021

Hikikomori

is alive and more than well

given the present

pandemic, especially

among those most predisposed.  

Thursday September 23, 2021

Even Blade Runner

contains the Egyptian eye.

It’s so obvious.

One beings to wonder whose

it is, and then that it is. 

Friday September 24, 2021

The shunning begins

all ready in his orbit.

It's so odious. 

They would rather not see him

than say they have not seen it.

Saturday September 25, 2021

There are just under

four months left before he must 

decide whether he

is going to learn a new

brand of quantum mechanics. 

Sunday September 26, 2021

Aquinas is great,

but the Areopagite 

is even greater.

He stopped writing the Summa

once he knew the Mystica.

Monday September 27, 2021

Precisely because 

of everything that's happened,

he's still devoted 

to actively affirming

the inner truth and greatness.

Tuesday September 28, 2021

Falling into place:

it's taken him many years

of sitting outside

the shadow to realize that 

"Egypt is man, and not God."

Wednesday September 29, 2021

From Platonism,

to Positivism, then

to Pragmatism:

RORtY is at the end of

his philosophical road. 

Thursday September 30, 2021

He was not planning

on disclosing his story

of how he got from

Zen to the financial desk

where he spent his honesty. 

August 2021

ROsaRY

Sunday August 01, 2021

While the world changes

from one ideology

to another one,

he both retreats and retrieves 

the statutes of the order. 

Monday August 02, 2021

He had a project

that kept him in seclusion

for the past ten years.

The product of his hard work

proves why he alone remains. 

Tuesday August 03, 2021

He has found a way

to be an artist and to

make a good living

by combining technical

and financial acumen. 

Wednesday August 04, 2021

The ghost of cambers

past haunted him subtly 

through the window frame.

The Wolf of Wall Street wedges

were clearly Romanian. 

Thursday August 05, 2021

For forex he is

almost naked with next to

know indicators.

Volume puts the less in his

less is more trade aesthetic.

Friday August 06, 2021

It has never been

as painful and as pointless

as it is today.

Hopefully he'll finally

come to His sinless senses.

Saturday August 07, 2021

His recent reply

was a weak ad hominem

attempt to respond

to the logical rigor

of his interlocutor. 

Sunday August 08, 2021

Philosophia

is not apologia, 

but agnosia.  

Not very many are called.

Even fewer are chosen.

Monday August 09, 2021

Oracles contain

the nomenclature of God,

no more and no less. 

Blessed be he who refrains

from naming any further. 

Tuesday August 10, 2021

He’s on the way out.

In the spirit of Merton’s

“...I am at an age

when men begin to get old...”

he quietly disappears.

Wednesday August 11, 2021

It is at the point

now that he needs to decide

what he's going to do

about herd mentality.

Othering is a real thing. 

Thursday August 12, 2021

It's out with the old,

but not yet in with the new

worldly ordering. 

It is only a matter

of time before he gets his. 

Friday August 13, 2021

It is happening

right before his very eyes:

muting von Mises. 

RORtY was right about it

being experimental. 

Saturday August 14, 2021

He is grateful that

Beato is a hero 

to many viewers

(whether they be musicians

or just those who love music). 

Sunday August 15, 2021

They are not his kind

despite their kindness to him,

whether feigned or not. 

He left their paganism

knowing he did not belong. 

Monday August 16, 2021

NA was chosen

because he was a hermit.

NASA was open

to the probability

that an extrovert would talk. 

Tuesday August 17, 2021

He is reducing

the people, places, and things

that are in his life

as he prepares for the end. 

It is a form of penance.

Wednesday August 18, 2021

Four at 8am,

and then four at 8pm. 

That covers the pairs

he is responsible for. 

To know him is to know them.  

Thursday August 19, 2021

His solo over

the bridge in James on Offramp

is one of a kind.

No one can keep up with him,

including the be-boppers. 

Friday August 20, 2021

Two balls and two strikes. 

It is almost a full count.

His latest at bat

will determine if he walks.

He does not want to swing out.

Saturday August 21, 2021

Insider trading

by the market makers is

the sine qua non

for every retail trader

to profit from price action.

Sunday August 22, 2021

He was listening

to Pat's 80/81

when a small sparrow

flew to his bedside window

and started chirping in tune. 

Monday August 23, 2021

It's a very strange

period that he is in.

It's all ritual.

His feelings do not matter.

In fact, he does not have them. 

Tuesday August 24, 2021

He has been prepared

to acquiesce and adhere

to the new order,

along with everyone else 

in this latest century. 

Wednesday August 25, 2021

He lacks the direct

calling and the special grace

required to live

as a Carthusian monk. 

He's a penitent hermit. 

Thursday August 26, 2021

Forty nine years young.

Their eight year difference is in

the ten year limit. 

He wishes he spoke Polish

as well as she speaks English. 

Friday August 27, 2021

There was no response.

This is a very sad thing.

He tends to be his

very own worst enemy. 

He needs saving from himself. 

Saturday August 28, 2021

Eschatology

is the key to conceding

to the enemy

during the apostasy.

It is a means to the end. 

Sunday August 29, 2021

He duly embraced

Grammatical Thomism

while reading RORtY.

He speaks of the divine like

Edith Stein and Wittgenstein. 

Monday August 30, 2021

The letters "sa" 

and "t" have turned out to be

doubly symbolic

of just how much he is loved. 

Lilies have nothing on him. 

Tuesday August 31, 2021

Ritualism

is his manner and matter

of fact from now on. 

This is not about Waters'

"softly spoken magic spells."

July 2021

Quantitative Pleasing

Thursday July 01, 2021

Working for three days

and then taking off four more

is the perfect start

to his retirement plan:

from FinTech into Forex.

Friday July 02, 2021

He was reminded

that it's still a contract job

that could get renewed,

despite knowing that it should.

Err on the side of caution.

Saturday July 03, 2021

The only hope left

is for the grammatical

instantiation

of his own apophatic

assertion and denial. 

Sunday July 04, 2021

It's time to move out

from under this proactive

protectivism. 

Given the anxiety,

there is no other option.

Monday July 05, 2021

The most important

practice he performs three times

each and every day

is to pray the mysteries.

Nothing else matters (as much).

Tuesday July 06, 2021

To do what he does

requires faith, hope, and love

for the ritual. 

The earlier the better,

just as long as it gets done. 

Wednesday July 07, 2021

Making connections 

with a chief technology

officer often

opens unofficial doors

that only the few walk through. 

Thursday July 08, 2021

The first financial

article he wrote was on

capital markets

and the conflict of interest

found inside of the Sell-Side.

Friday July 09, 2021

Every so often

he travels back to the year 

nineteen seventy

five to relive the wonder

of Carlton Fisk's walk off. 

Saturday July 10, 2021

Alberto Balsam

has been set to loop until

he can't stand the joy

of enjoying the genius

of Aphex Twin's genus. 

Sunday July 11, 2021

The apostolic

basis for his own practice

continues to be

the mystical no longer 

I modus operandi.

Monday July 12, 2021

don't stop being you

a voice of reason for me

i'll be that for you

in this world of unreason

something's rapping at my door...

Tuesday July 13, 2021

From saint Augustine

to Mary of Agreda:

Ciudad de Dios.

Where would we be without her

mystical bilocation?

Wednesday July 14, 2021

Their quantum trading

program might be the option

he needs to purchase

in order to regulate

his own foreign exchange rate. 

Thursday July 15, 2021

All of the type-As

always seem to gravitate

into his orbit.

His is a very open

and discretely closing h(ear)t. 

Friday July 16, 2021

He does not belong

among the younger cohort.

This is no surprise

since he’s exiting stage left. 

No more war stories to share.

Saturday July 17, 2021

It is now the time

when old men begin to stay

away from public

demonstration and discourse.

He had his time in the sun. 

Sunday July 18, 2021

He is half way through

and realizes the year

is about the three

dimensional approach to

trading FX in Q4. 

Monday July 19, 2021

He sees what the See

has done as one more step to

elimination.

Western Civilization?

Alien Isolation. 

Tuesday July 20, 2021

The dream was better

than his lived experience.

These visions visit

him when he’s vulnerable

and fully susceptible. 

Wednesday July 21, 2021

He's slowly gaining

a reputation as a 

capital markets

expert through his written work.

It's not true, but it's useful. 

Thursday July 22, 2021

The art of the trade

has made technical scalpers

intuitively

aware of the aesthetic

mystery of chart reading. 

Friday July 23, 2021

Day trading took him

from BBT to QT

and then to NF.

He's being led to begin

at the beginning again.

Saturday July 24, 2021

The old solution

to the new viral problem

is to disappear

and to never rear his head

in public ever again. 

Sunday July 25, 2021

Physical distance

was a harbinger of things

to come upon him.

At the time he did not know

it's full extent (but He did). 

Monday July 26, 2021

ST is a long

and necessary project

that he projected

into the future without

understanding its value.

Tuesday July 27, 2021

He is controlling

the controllers even though

it seems otherwise

given the constant chaos

characterizing our time.

Wednesday July 28, 2021

The sum of his words

is nothing but: He is all. 

Get out of the way

and let Him speak for Himself.

He is more than capable.

Thursday July 29, 2021

From Father Louis

to Saint Louis de Montfort:

Saint Agnes revealed. 

He has always been living

in Her mystical city.

Friday July 30, 2021

Back to the office

dressed in autumn attire:

dark green and jet black.

He set up shop to the right

on the last row at the back.

Saturday July 31, 2021

Their planned lockdown worked:

the less than great outdoors is

what you must pass through

to get from your furnished suite

to your chauffeured limousine.

June 2021

Bill Evans

Tuesday June 01, 2021

The muted laughter,

almost uncontrollable

between both of them,

marked the very beginning

of their market word making.

Wednesday June 02, 2021

He listened closely

to her wise intuition

and decided not

to act out of frustration.

His reaction was timely. 

Thursday June 03, 2021

The Village Vanguard

recording is in his ears

after all these years. 

His life may be the slowest

suicide in history. 

Friday June 04, 2021

It is a sickness

that turns all the more severe

the more he draws near.

His civility will be

the inevitable cure.

Saturday June 05, 2021

Sharing the news is

a necessary evil.

But now it is done. 

All that's left for him to do

is coast to the finish line. 

Sunday June 06, 2021

"... (for instance, trying

to make a go of it as

a Carthusian)."

Merton's parenthetical

is another reminder. 

Monday June 07, 2021

He is finishing

the calls that he has to make

just before he leaves

for the penultimate time.

Not a bang, nor a whimper. 

Tuesday June 08, 2021

One last team meeting

to discuss his departure,

and then it is done. 

Being more conspicuous

by his absence is easy. 

Wednesday June 09, 2021

Butchering silence

is his MO from now on.

No more concessions,

despite the accusations,

and despite the relations.

Thursday June 10, 2021

He knows what to do:

"Go and sin no more" (amen).

This disappearing

act began so many years

ago when only God knew. 

Friday June 11, 2021

The foreign exchange

is rearing its head again

through her VPA.

He will stay within this class

and learn as much as he can. 

Saturday June 12, 2021

Study through the doubt

about entering this trade

after it was made

abundantly clear here that

this man is on the downside.

Sunday June 13, 2021

Two more weeks to go

before his risk management

starts paying the rent.

He has until the year's end

to extend Q4's contract. 

Monday June 14, 2021

He didn't expect

to be curtly reminded

that the team meeting

was already underway,

and that he needs to attend.

Tuesday June 15, 2021

It begins and ends

inside of the Great White North.

He went East, then West,

then ended up facing South.

He did not cross the border. 

Wednesday June 16, 2021

Two more days before

the beginning of the end

begins once again.

His power of attorney

is being put to good use.

Thursday June 17, 2021

As he expected,

tomorrow might be a long 

day at the office.

If so, then at least he will

stay late volitionally. 

Friday June 18, 2021

Two weeks and all's well.

It was very hard to tell

(at the time) whether

his penultimate last day

would match his very last day. 

Saturday June 19, 2021

His head was aching

when he woke up this morning.

He took his six pills

and drank his instant coffee.

And then the pain disappeared. 

Sunday June 20, 2021

It is about time

he wrote about a topic

he personally

identified with and knew.

In this way he’s being true.

Monday June 21, 2021

Swinging currencies

and scalping stocks is his trade.

If he had to choose

between one or the other,

then to swing would be his thing. 

Tuesday June 22, 2021

The sun is setting

on the day that's been his life.

Time to retire. 

He once grew up like the grass.

Now he is dry and withered.

Wednesday June 23, 2021

The world is moving

to the left while he rightly

remains left behind.

His father was right to loathe

Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

Thursday June 24, 2021

Better call either

King Saul or the apostle

Paul (Saul of Tarsus).

Why choose better over best?

And the rest was herstory.

Friday June 25, 2021

His friendship down South

is somewhat unexpected,

but very welcomed

at a time when he cannot

converse with anyone else.

Saturday June 26, 2021

And then there were four

for a second time within

the space of two weeks.

He knows he's responsible

for their future well being.

Sunday June 27, 2021

Internal bleeding

is probably the reason

for the pain he feels.

He could relieve the pressure,

but he hopes it heals itself.

Monday June 28, 2021

External bleeding

is certainly the reason

for the peace he feels.

The pressure relieved itself,

because of what he had hoped.

Tuesday June 29, 2021

It's just a matter

of silently fitting in

and doing his job. 

He is grateful for the work.

All he wants is a routine.

Wednesday June 30, 2021

How will Studio

make him a better Forex

intraday trader?

It puts the economics

into his philosophy.

A Form Of Poetry

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Benediction Classics, 

Oxford

2017

"Philosophy ought really to be written only as a form of poetry." (Ludwig Wittgenstein)

Introduction

"No mind? No matter.

No matter, then never mind."

Bertrand's ancestry

animates Ludwig's regret:

Russell and Moore don't get it.

Preface

The Latin title

was written on the blackboard

(back when they used them).

He was not the only one 

aroused to do it better.

1. The World Is Everything That Is The Case

To be or not be

the case is not the question.

Being in the world

is not the answer either.

It's best to stick with the facts.

2. What Is The Case, The Fact, Is The Existence Of Atomic Facts

Despite what you do,

there is no picture that is

a priori true. 

What makes 'representation'

possible is not pictured. 

3. The Logical Picture Of The Facts Is The Thought

Logical syntax

is the early harbinger

of the later claim

that grammar tells us what kind

of object anything is. 

4. The Thought Is The Significant Proposition

All philosophy

consists in Russellian

critique of language.

This critical beginning

ends in practical silence.

5. Propositions Are Truth-Functions Of Elementary Propositions

Metaphysical

subjectivity merely

limits the meaning

of the psychological.

Pure realism makes sense. 

6. The General Form Of A Truth-Function Is [p, ξ, N(ξ)]

This philosophy

is simply nonsensical. 

Resolute reading

requires austerity,

humility, and humor. 

7. Whereof One Cannot Speak, Thereof One Must Be Silent

"Either let your speech

be better than silence, or

simply be silent."

So says Dionysius

the old Areopagite.

“Now that my ladder's gone 

I must lie down where all the ladders start 

In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart.” 

(W.B. Yeats) 

May 2021

Saturday May 01, 2021

Closing the circle

before returning back to

where it all began

for him nine long years ago.

It's nothing but scalping now. 

Sunday May 02, 2021

This ancient terrain

must be completely traversed

before it can be

finally reversed, restored,

and respectfully ignored.

Monday May 03, 2021

Three intimate words

was all he wrote after the

cellular silence

ended the five hour call.

All for one and none for all. 

Tuesday May 04, 2021

The anxiety

of waiting to hear the worst

news conceivable

brought him to his trembling knees.

It is what it is, and was. 

Wednesday May 05, 2021

Ave María.

He prays to her in Latin.

It is the grammar,

despite what the modernists

say about his tradition. 

Thursday May 06, 2021

Dirty projections.

The sum and substance of it.

It has been confirmed. 

How will he ever get free?

He shall see what he has seen. 

Friday May 07, 2021

He has always been

open to what must be done.

This comes from beyond. 

The present circumstances

are a kind confirmation.

Saturday May 08, 2021

This time it's different

because of the kind warning

he rightly received

that simply could be neither

missed nor misinterpreted.

Sunday May 09, 2021

Why has it taken

until this penultimate

praxeological

period of his own life

to scalp stocks for his supper?

Monday May 10, 2021

His plan is in place,

but he is wondering if

the timeline must be

more aggressive than it is.

The malaise is setting in. 

Tuesday May 11, 2021

It’s double duty

for him for now for a short

period of time.

If he extends it further,

things will get complicated.

Wednesday May 12, 2021

Reading a textbook

at this late stage of his life

is more than enough

indication that he’s on

the correct trajectory.

Thursday May 13, 2021

He feels the conflict

coming in waves upon waves

of emotional

complexity and concern. 

This always works itself out. 

Friday May 14, 2021

Leave it alone long

enough and it will implode

from within without

any active abstention.

Reaction is his action. 

Saturday May 15, 2021

He has been given

a third opportunity

to live clean again. 

The way that he will seize it

fits both the crime and the time.

Sunday May 16, 2021

This morning it is 

better, the cold and wind cleared

the air, but it is 

a yearly phenomena

every winter after fall. 

Monday May 17, 2021

Humility comes

before all fallible acts

of his omission

can be fully forgiven. 

It is time to disappear.

Tuesday May 18, 2021

Q4 say no more,

despite knowing that it will

be fully disclosed.

He has never been employed

for more than three to five years. 

Wednesday May 19, 2021

The maliciousness

was spewed forth in furious

fashion once again.

This is the last reminder

he will need to not relate.

Thursday May 20, 2021

Ernest Hemingway

published a book entitled 

Men Without Women.

It’s a collection of short

stories about long topics.

Friday May 21, 2021

After having faced

the onslaught of emotion

he receives a note

that attempts to justify

it as in line with nature. 

Saturday May 22, 2021

Just what is the point

of him watching a movie

about a man who

suffers from an addiction?

It is a shame it was sent.

Sunday May 23, 2021

His apophatic

reading of Vatican II

does not change a thing. 

It just confirms everything

that he has always unknown. 

Monday May 24, 2021

John Henry Newman

is what he always wanted

John Dewey to be

for him and his profession. 

Both of them wrote in English. 

Tuesday May 25, 2021

John Henry Newman

was a theological

Oratorian. 

He is also one of four

patron saints he petitioned. 

Wednesday May 26, 2021

He has no patience

for the administrative

minutiae he deals

with on a daily basis.

It thoroughly exhausts him.

Thursday May 27, 2021

Finally some relief

from the constant drudgery:

Q4 wants some more.

The hiring ritual

must be endured once again.

Friday May 28, 2021

The cool air blowing

down on the top of his head

is a comforting

reminder that patience wins

out at the end of the day. 

Saturday May 29, 2021

It was the last straw:

he presented it as a

recommendation,

but it most definitely 

was intended as a threat. 

Sunday May 30, 2021

On his thirty fourth

wedding anniversary

he soon realized

her loose end was finally tied

(precisely because he tried).

Monday May 31, 2021

When he heard her talk

about tying up loose ends

he knew it was through. 

This confirms what he once wrote:

"It's nothing but scalping now."