Monthly Archives: December 2006

On Heidegger

“Intro­duc­tion to meta­physics” accord­ingly means: lead­ing into the ask­ing of the fun­da­men­tal ques­tion. But ques­tions, and above all fun­da­men­tal ques­tions, do not sim­ply occur like stones and water. Ques­tions are not given like shoes, clothes, or books. Ques­tions are as they are actu­ally asked, and this is the only way in which they are. Thus …

December 31, 2006 – 1:10 pm | By ashok | Posted in philosophy | Tagged | Comments (0)

Vision (a poem)

for Pam Jaska, because she asked. Merry Christ­mas. Some­times, near­ing twi­light,the blue sky shim­mers.And I imag­ine wear­ingthat dress elec­tric,charg­ing through the king’s men,their con­sorts drop­ping tearsinto glasses of cham­pagne. The blue light never drown­sthose golden bub­bles, though. Some­times, dur­ing the day,the sky is clear, the sun shines.And an old man sits under a tree­and draws …

December 30, 2006 – 1:08 pm | By ashok | Posted in poetry | Comments (0)

Ranting About Despair

And yet, we are each touched once, maybe even now and then, by the con­cealed power of this ques­tion [“Why are there beings at all instead of noth­ing?”], with­out prop­erly grasp­ing what is hap­pen­ing to us. In great despair, for exam­ple, when all weight tends to dwin­dle away from things and the sense of things …

December 29, 2006 – 11:42 am | By ashok | Posted in personal, philosophy | Tagged | Comments (0)

Home

1. I eat very well at home. (It should be noted that for Mon­tesquieu, the most despotic coun­tries seem to be the ones with the best cui­sine: China, India and, by implied argu­ment, France are all cited as being tyran­ni­cal or tend­ing towards tyranny.) 2. It feels comfy. (Been very dili­gent with Aris­to­tle this past week, despite …

December 22, 2006 – 4:10 pm | By ashok | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (1)

Baltimore

There is some­thing pecu­liar about a city where the Cen­ter — there is a Basil­ica and a Wash­ing­ton Mon­u­ment there — and the Har­bor are the only places one can walk. What is pecu­liar is not the crime; crime has existed in all ages. It is the lim­i­ta­tion of motion caused by the crime. One can …

December 18, 2006 – 6:30 pm | By ashok | Posted in personal | Comments (0)