Subject: Re: Not quite done
From: Ernst Meyer <ernstmeyer@earthlink.net>
To: Nikola Chubrich <nchubrich@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 06 Jan 2020 19:33:42 -0500

Nicola, I'm not sure I can "help" you "with this political project",
but the next time we have occasion to speak face to face, I will try to
tell you what I think and feel. Meanwhile I hope you are feeling
better.
EJM

On Mon, 2020-01-06 at 19:18 -0500, Nikola Chubrich wrote:
> Dear Dr. Meyer:
> 
> Forgive my leap into despair. I'm sleeping here with my parents,
> thank God, and we're working it out. They'll stay. I'll be alright. I
> hope you did not take this amiss.
> 
> That's the problem, perhaps: you wish to talk; sometimes I need
> someone to listen. I wish someone would help with this political
> project which seemed to have unfolded, but did not seem to have time.
> 
> On Mon, Jan 6, 2020 at 7:05 PM Ernst Meyer <ernstmeyer@earthlink.net>
> wrote:
> > Nicola
> > you write:
> > 
> > "It was a wonderful thing, so it seemed. I can write as fast as I
> > can
> > type, after: what was this: Socratic surgery. I thought I had some
> > ideas? Might they have mattered? It seems they did, to me. But I
> > offered to listen, and in the end I listened to nothing. Nobody
> > cares.
> > Parents are leaving Friday (no, Thursday). Immovable objects
> > everywhere. Kids sick on the couch, parents packing boxes full of
> > potato chips. One can't do anything against disinterest. Read the
> > papers today (glanced at them). Did I really have any ideas? I
> > can't
> > remember really. I've lost interest. 
> > 
> > I told Nathaniel some of the things I've learned, and he took care
> > to
> > remind me he's busy. I have come to share your fate. Nobody wants
> > to
> > talk to me.  
> > 
> > I reply:
> > 
> > It's true that "Nobody wants to talk to me."  but irrelevant
> > because I
> > find it much more satisfactory to talk than to listen. For these
> > reasons:
> > a) I'm deaf and can't understand
> > b) What others (except for Klemens and you might want to tell me is
> > likely to be so unuimportant as nogt to be worth listening to.
> > c) I like to do the talking.
> > d) It doesn't really matter whether anyone listens since no one
> > could
> > understand.
> > e) What I say to the void and to myself is very important (to me).
> > 
> > Saint John had it right. In the beginning was the Word, and the
> > Word
> > was with God, and the Word was God.
> > 
> > The Word, (or one of the Words,) that was in the begnning was
> > Time.  The word Time always is. It had no beginning, it will have
> > no
> > end, The word Time obtains its meaning from my subjective
> > experience of
> > Time.  Subjective Time is long, lengthy, extended, without obvious
> > beginning or end. Ich habe lange Weile, or Ich habe Langeweile, or
> > Ich
> > langweile mich, is to say in German, I am bored. The endless
> > stretch of
> > time is punctuated  by moments, instances of outward or inward
> > recognition (vision or intuition). One name for such moments is
> > Augenblicke (eye glances), They occur in the twinkling of an eye,
> > e.g.,
> > at the last trumpet.
> > 
> > Subjective time is unique to each individual one of us, as unique
> > as
> > any perception or feeling, as unique as hunger, pain, joy,
> > solitude,
> > loneliness.  Time becomes common by mathematization; it is not the
> > subjective experience of time which is common, but its being
> > counted as
> > seconds, days, years, millenia; its being measured as distances
> > traveled on foot, by horse, by jet, by rocket,  by sound, by light
> > ...  between two points in space, between two moments in time ...
> > 
> > Such as occurs between the "moment" when I "send" this letter, and
> > the
> > subsequent "moment" when I receive your reply
> > 
> > EJM
> > 
> > On Mon, 2020-01-06 at 17:52 -0500, Nikola Chubrich wrote:
> > > It was a wonderful thing, so it seemed. I can write as fast as I
> > can
> > > type, after: what was this: Socratic surgery. I thought I had
> > some
> > > ideas? Might they have mattered? It seems they did, to me. But I
> > > offered to listen, and in the end I listened to nothing. Nobody
> > > cares. Parents are leaving Friday (no, Thursday). Immovable
> > objects
> > > everywhere. Kids sick on the couch, parents packing boxes full of
> > > potato chips. One can't do anything against disinterest. Read the
> > > papers today (glanced at them). Did I really have any ideas? I
> > can't
> > > remember really. I've lost interest. 
> > > 
> > > I told Nathaniel some of the things I've learned, and he took
> > care to
> > > remind me he's busy. I have come to share your fate. Nobody wants
> > to
> > > talk to me.
> >