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Saturday, December 13, 2014

Old Dogs, New Tricks

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

← William Wordsworth

Related source » Maverick Philosopher: Old Man, Happy Man: 'via Blog this'
[This related source is recommended in its entirety.]

“You are free to be yourself and live beyond comparisons with others. You can enjoy the social without being oppressed by it. You understand the child's fathership of the man, and in some measure are able to undo it. You have survived those who would define you, and now you define yourself. And all of this without rancour or resentment. Defiant self-assertion gives way to benign indifference, Angst to Gelassenheit [fear to serenity].” [emphasis added]
— Bill Vallicella, December 13, 2014 (maverickphilosopher.typepad.com)


Perhaps Bill (Vallicella) is right — so long as you are long enough in the tooth, and marooned on Selkirk's island. If, however, either condition does not (yet) apply, it seems to me one must rely on "[sufficient] measure [of ability] to undo [the child's fathership of the man]".

To be marooned, and old to boot, is a dreadful scenario to entertain.

Post 2,495 Old Dogs, New Tricks

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