This is a sensitive and vulnerable post, Ben. A fine and touching read for my Sunday morning. Thank you.
As I was reading your account of your conversation with your son, I flashed on Robin Williams's humorous recounting of such conversations with his own son, where he amplified the parental feeling of uncomfortable ignorance in the face of childhood philosophical questions for comedic effect:
"Daddy, why is the sky blue?"
"Well, because of the atmosphere."
"Why is there atmosphere?"
"Well, because we need to breathe."
"Why do we breathe?"
(Yelling): "What the *+%# do you want to know!? A month ago you were sitting in your own poop, and now you're Carl Sagan? Are you Buddha? Go ask your mother, she knows everything!"
This is a question that I’m asking myself every so often. It’s also a very personal one. And what’s unsettling is that we’ll probably never find the answer to it.
Somehow the idea of God and death are related, as it’s probably in those moments, when we feel the dark presence of the grim reaper that we need that hint of light in our lives. The hope. The salvation.
This is a sensitive and vulnerable post, Ben. A fine and touching read for my Sunday morning. Thank you.
As I was reading your account of your conversation with your son, I flashed on Robin Williams's humorous recounting of such conversations with his own son, where he amplified the parental feeling of uncomfortable ignorance in the face of childhood philosophical questions for comedic effect:
"Daddy, why is the sky blue?"
"Well, because of the atmosphere."
"Why is there atmosphere?"
"Well, because we need to breathe."
"Why do we breathe?"
(Yelling): "What the *+%# do you want to know!? A month ago you were sitting in your own poop, and now you're Carl Sagan? Are you Buddha? Go ask your mother, she knows everything!"
I look forward to reading your McLuhan article.
Williams was a genius. You could feel the metaphysics (sometimes despair) behind his antic manner.
Definitely. That quality lent such poignancy to his career. And of course it especially resonates in a sad way in light of his endpoint.
This is a question that I’m asking myself every so often. It’s also a very personal one. And what’s unsettling is that we’ll probably never find the answer to it.
Somehow the idea of God and death are related, as it’s probably in those moments, when we feel the dark presence of the grim reaper that we need that hint of light in our lives. The hope. The salvation.
Creation and destruction go together in our minds and in reality