The Present

The world appears
immediately
in intuition.

Institutions are
the immediate
surface of history.

Our concepts determine the structure of our intuitions; they tell us what to make of the appearance of the world, what to think of appearances immediately. Intuitions are conceptual; they occasion the presence of things in experience.

Our emotions determine the texture of our institutions; they tell us what to make of the surfaces of history, who to feel for immediately. Institutions are emotional; they occasion the presence of people in experience.

The Arts

Painting is the art of seeing.
Music is the art of hearing...

Science is the art of knowing.
Politics is the art of ruling.
Poetry is the art of feeling.
Philosophy is the art of thinking.

It is okay to specialize.
It is okay to live artlessly.

A clearing is
to a tension

as a thought
to a feeling,

as a light
to a touch.

How do you have to live in order to discover a deep truth about the human condition?
Or is there some way to do it that doesn't require a change of lifestyle?

Socrates discovered the soul.
Jesus redeemed it.

Someone had to.

Let us consider the courage
of trees: to emerge, blind
from the seed, in the cold,
dark ground, seeking light,
laying down roots, and then
simply grow, and weather and
grow and be trampled and
grow and spring and fall and
grow and fire and lightning
and grow and night and day
and grow and wind and rain,
the centuries, standing, grown.

Rights are never simple facts.
It is never simply true
that you are free.

Truths are never simple acts.
It is never simply right to say
that this is so.