Heidegger

From: GEVANS613 at aol.com
To: heidegger at soca.ecu.edu.au
Subject: Re: NOTHING IS NEXT TO DEATH & TRUTH & GOD & THE ABSOLUTE
Date: Sun, Dec 31, 2006, 1:42 am

And when I hear the name Heidegger, I reach for my axe. He may have
swiped it

–John McCarthey

Ah, but when I hear Heidegger, I reach for my Mahler, my Rilke, my
Heraclitus… a chorus singing the music of the spheres: much more fun.

–michaelP

That’s kind of sad Peep which is understandable if you are reading a
mournful Heidegger. It gets to me that there is so little humor in Heidegger
if not little gratitude. If there was more gratitude that would make us
reach for say Mozart! or mid tempo jazz with afro-latin rhythms to lighten
things up so that they are not so grave and serious and more like the
escaping gas of champagne after a pressure cooker. The combination of fire
and water also brings dancing energy do to the elective chemistry that
happens. Do you think he shows that he is glad to be alive? I wonder.
Sometimes he brings us to see that attitude or disposition where we approach
the things themselves with wonder in our eyes as if they were a new gift and
a blessing but more often he expresses a lot of pessimistic sadness.

I am really impressed by the book of Andre Comte-Sponville on the Virtues
that I mentioned. He describes gratitude as a Mozartian virtue “… not just
because Mozart inspires it in us but because he celebrates it and incarnates
it, becasue he carries within him this joy, this boundless gratitude for who
knows what– for all and everything– this generosity of gratitude.”
Gratitude doesn’t give but expresses thanks for what it has received
acknowledging a debt or a gift and a blessing which is what the egoist can’t
do. It’s a joy of memory he writes and not of the imagination, hope or a
future life. This is guy’s thinking is so good. I haven’t learnt so much and
new things from a book in a long time. He writes, “… what we read in
Spinoza’s Ethics we can also hear in music; best of all, it seems to me, in
the works of Bach and Mozart (in Haydn what we have here is more of the
order of politeness and generosity, in Beethoven courage, in Schubert
gentleness, in Brahms fidelity).” In a way he says no man is a cause of
himself which is why we are “grateful for grace, and first of all those who
reveal it to us by celebrating it.” I suppose one could add that grace as
mercy dissolves the cold hardness in us that makes us a proud egoist and
troubles our mind with unceasing activity that is unable to cooperate and so
give thanks not to mention that it is unable to stop and become more like a
pond or lake that draws people closer to reflection on the richness of the
passing moment good or bad. Gratitude is the kind of virtue (capacity or
power) or disposition where we say, “this is good enough” or more graciously
“this is more than enough, here, my friend, enjoy!”. Where are you going?
What is the rush? Sit down, it is good that you are! enjoy!

Happy New year L.

Cheers,
Tympan

Posted on Sunday, December 31st, 2006 at 8:20 pm
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