Thanks Hal, I do enjoy your substack postings. They are marvellous triggers for endless ruminating - very useful when you have dogs to walk, meals to cook, floors to clean. I thank you especially for reminding me of the habit I developed in our current tricky era for inventing my own T-shirt slogans e.g. 'Proud Snowflake' 'Woke Me Up Before I Go-Go (Nuts).' Stuff like that. Very enjoyable, a kind of protest but pretty spineless. I never printed one out and walked the streets wearing it. No doubt I feared being a laughing stock rather than an object of interest to security services. When I read the "Question Everything" on your T-shirt I thought what if I question that? So off the ruminations (dog walking, floor mopping) trundled till I reached a point where I remembered something Gregory Bateson (all round brilliant British egghead married to Margaret Mead, died 1980) said to his daughter when she complained about his view that the universe/existence whatever did not have a purpose and did not need one. He said "When you're in love do you ask why?" Question: does there come a point where for something significant and possibly beautiful to be the questions have to stop?
Thanks for this very thoughtful comment. Your closing questions are such good ones. Bateson's question to his daughter (Mary Catherine, perhaps?) has given me pause as well. I shall be ruminating about your question! I don't have dogs to walk at the moment, and the cats will have nothing of being walked, but I will tune in to those moments that allow the questioning of questioning to blossom.
Thanks Hal, I do enjoy your substack postings. They are marvellous triggers for endless ruminating - very useful when you have dogs to walk, meals to cook, floors to clean. I thank you especially for reminding me of the habit I developed in our current tricky era for inventing my own T-shirt slogans e.g. 'Proud Snowflake' 'Woke Me Up Before I Go-Go (Nuts).' Stuff like that. Very enjoyable, a kind of protest but pretty spineless. I never printed one out and walked the streets wearing it. No doubt I feared being a laughing stock rather than an object of interest to security services. When I read the "Question Everything" on your T-shirt I thought what if I question that? So off the ruminations (dog walking, floor mopping) trundled till I reached a point where I remembered something Gregory Bateson (all round brilliant British egghead married to Margaret Mead, died 1980) said to his daughter when she complained about his view that the universe/existence whatever did not have a purpose and did not need one. He said "When you're in love do you ask why?" Question: does there come a point where for something significant and possibly beautiful to be the questions have to stop?
Dear Richard,
Thanks for this very thoughtful comment. Your closing questions are such good ones. Bateson's question to his daughter (Mary Catherine, perhaps?) has given me pause as well. I shall be ruminating about your question! I don't have dogs to walk at the moment, and the cats will have nothing of being walked, but I will tune in to those moments that allow the questioning of questioning to blossom.