Neanderpundit

I have been told for years that I should have gout. I have been taking allopurinol for many years, though for the last six months I have not. I keep hearing “you should experience a flareup anytime now”

SO last friday night, when my right baby toe started to give me some grief, I thought, yeah, here it is. All that warning, and finally I’ve got it. I dragged out the Alopurinol, and hoped I’d caught it in time and didn’t need to spend three days on the john.

And then the wife catches me.

“You don’t have Gout, you have a shitty memory. You dropped a full frozen bottle of water on it last night, remember? ”

And of course she was correct.

I have been reading Mrs D for a long time, and while we sometimes disagree, we often agree. She posts about knowing the details, and how it sometimes ruins things for her.

I can understand that, you don’t need to know the name of a flower to appreciate it, nor the way a TV works to watch. (though, I do, at least in principle if not in detail)

heres’ the thing, at least for me: The complexity of the natural world AND the world of human interaction is what makes it beautiful to me. Knowing more about something doesn’t ruin it for me, it expands it. Here’s the classic example, as shared with me by my philosophy professor some years ago.

We were walking across the quad from the chapel to the school, in the rain. It was a slow, soft rain, and it was a bright day (residents of Northwest indiana will know what I mean, sunny showers are common)

The priest asked me if I’d ever seen a raindrop refract light, if I’d watched the trail of a raindrop on glass and seen it distort the image behind it. like a tiny lens

Of course I had, I responded. Everyone has.

He said “you see all the raindrops around you?”
“Yes.”
“the Creator of the Universe has painted the scene we are walking through, on each and every raindrop, from every conceivable angle, and nobody ever even sees all of those infinitely detailed masterpieces, painted with the original and most sophisticated paintbrushes, Light”

I was stunned.

And ever since I have looked for the hidden, because the hidden is often more exquisite by far than the visible.

George carlin is dead. Above is one of my favorite Carlin quotes.

Below is another:

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Some people see things that are and ask, Why? Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not? Some people have to go to work and don’t have time for all that