2024 A+ Zettels

Metamorphic rocks embody the animate, resilient, creative nature of the solid Earth. For us mortal Earthlings, they speak of the possibility of reinvention, the beauty of transformation – and the ephemerality of any particular version of the world.

Roaming rocks: Metamorphic rocks are our emissaries from the deep, travelling to alien realms and reve... See more

In our Orthodox life, the center is found in the Eucharist, named from the simple Greek word for thanksgiving. St. Paul states the case quite succinctly: “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1Th 5:18).

An Avalanche of Kindness Fr. Stephen 11.28.2024

The trinity of beauty, goodness, and truth is best perceived through the lens of thanksgiving. It is at the center of noetic perception. It forms the greater part of the devotion that “lays up treasure in heaven” in the thankfulness of almsgiving.

An Avalanche of Kindness Fr. Stephen 11.28.2024

More than anything, Christ Crucified is a revelation to humanity that God is love. However, it teaches us that love is not coercive. The philosopher’s God is expected to selectively coerce, controlling evil and rewarding the good. The scandal of the Cross is that it reveals the weakness of God who, in love, suffers Himself and His creation to endur... See more

What if the psyche were a thing held in common? That is to say, what if our purchase on reality and the emergence of the self depended on human relationships and communities? From this perspective, the enclosure of the human psyche deprives us of a common world, which yields an experience of solidarity and belonging.

The Enclosure of the Human Psych... See more

And justice? Is justice possible under capitalism? Not according to three renown metaphysicians, to steal a quote from an ex-everything of mine:

(1) “There can never be justice on stolen land” (Krs-One)

(2) “All Property is Theft” (Proudhon)

(3) “Every man has a property in his own person” (Locke)

Therefore, the very existence of human beings and prope... See more

In the event, Mattei divides the common goods into 4 types, and each is argued to properly belong to everyone in a community, and not to a particular someone or company. To wit:

natural goods (water, air, the environment, etc.)

social goods (cultural goods, knowledge, historical memory, etc.)

material goods (public squares, public parks, gardens, etc.... See more

Mattei’s point ties in with the history of the commons, from Garrett Hardin’s famous article on The Tragedy of the Commons, often taken to be a rallying cry for privatisation (or, though it is rarely mentioned, for total government control), to its refutation by Elinor Ostrom (Mattei points out that Friedrich Engels had already demonstrated the fal... See more

Just as wandering a place after time away can stir memory through our legs, photographs can help us re-inscribe memory from our eyes into our imagination. Still, neither a picture nor a fairy-wren is a memory. ... [Photos and sensations] are tools for bringing memory to mind, for reviving the story of a place, or a time. When we isolate the photogr... See more