The Personal re the Political
Someone , I think it was Nietzche, who is said to have lost his sanity when witnessing someone flogging an old horse, said something like: in the face of unending absurdity, what can one do save to take life as an aesthetic phenomena? I took this to mean that in order to keep sane you had to either try to interpret and ‘take’ the absurdity somehow aesthetically – think you are in a play because you are anyway – to riff off Lennon, or, because interpretating maneuver failed repeatedly, when the. world is driving you nuts, Retreat, Rest, and Regroup from reality and vacation in, music, painting, sculpture, literature…. Go on a walk to a museum, or read a good book.
Since a week before the election of Unmentionable, I have taken Uncle Freddie’s advice and taken refuge in the works of two previously unknown authors strongly recommended when self-medication is needed: Terry Pratchett and Lyndsay Faye. And more recently, I reread my friend Lou’s Taxi Tales and watched the video below a dozen times.
What, dear friends, led me to these sources of sanity? Dear friends.
Every year my friend Lou culls his thousands of photos and sends out his favorites. Also recommended is his book Taxi Tales and his website: