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“Mr. Lewis, where art thou?” writes Daniel Reich. “Been reading your blog for years now and it looks as though you have abandoned your post so to speak. Been a fan ever since I read Tribulation A book that gave me comfort gained from knowing that I wasn’t alone. I think you know what I mean. Please come back, Mr. Lewis. Let us bear witness to the unraveling together.”
First let me offer an apology to you, Mr. Reich, and to all the other regular readers of The Daily Impact. All seven of you. It is not polite to cut off an ongoing conversation without explanation, and I should have handled my absence with more respect for you. I shall try to explain.
Remember the old joke that asks, “How do you immobilize a centipede?” and answers, “By asking him which foot he leads with.” A similar thing applies to writers. How do you block them completely? Ask them “What is the point of writing this?” Whether administered by a malevolent onlooker or by the unwitting writer himself, the immediate effect of the question is paralysis.
That’s what I did to myself earlier this year, more or less in mid-sentence. And, not to quibble, Daniel, but I did not abandon my post. I have been sitting right here, watching my cursor blink, for two months, trying to answer the question.
Here’s what we never remember when we’re trying and failing to answer a question: usually, the problem is in the question. To illustrate, let me tell you about one of the few classes I took in college that proved to be of lasting value to me. It was an exercise in logic in which we were to envision a squirrel hunter who sees a squirrel on the opposite side of a nearby tree. The hunter, in order to get a clear shot at the squirrel, begins to circle the tree. But the squirrel, to prevent the hunter from getting a clear shot, moves around the tree to keep it between him and the hunter. When both the hunter and the squirrel have described a complete circle, here’s the question: Did the hunter go around the squirrel?
The point of the exercise is that the question cannot be answered because it is flawed. If you ask, did the hunter describe a circle with the squirrel at its center, the answer is easy — yes. If you ask, did the hunter go from the squirrel’s front, to his side, to his rear and other side and back to his front, the answer likewise is easy — no. The answer is easy because the question is well defined; use the sloppy version of the question and gridlock ensues.
“What is the point?” is not a well-formulated question. When I asked it again, I was seeing stories around the world that repeated themes and trends I had already written about many times. The slowing of world trade, the destruction of the oil industry, the continuing madness of financial “engineering,” the increasing destructiveness of climate change, and on, and on; all real, all familiar, all ignored by the leaders of our civilization. What’s the point of going on about it?
To question “the point” of any activity, to ask what is the meaning of life or effort or achievement or the lack of it, is to unleash in the world a question that is so hideously vague as to be capable of derailing the most well grounded of minds, let alone mine or yours. It depends upon what the meaning of “meaning” is. Even worse, such a question assumes that meaning can be not only understood, but conferred, by the people now in the conversation.
We worry that our lives turn out to be meaningful. As I have often put it, I would hate to reach the final act only to discover that I had been wasting my time. Who knows the universal definition of “wasting time?” Is eating a waste of time? Relaxing? Playing? Nor can anyone satisfactorily define the other side of the equation: the meaningful life. Is the life of a laborer, lived with decency and compassion, meaningful? Or must one win the Nobel Prize, cure cancer, and get elected President? Who decides?
We remember stories until we understand them, and all this time I have remembered, but not fully understood, the lesson of the squirrel. My endless attempts to assign meaning to my own life were as pointless (I eventually realized) as the sophomoric arguments about the squirrel; it was not the answer that needed to be refined, it was the question.
It is not given to us to know whether, or in what manner, our lives, or the activities of our lives, have meaning. As we do not confer life upon our self, so we are not the arbiter of its quality. Life is the meaning. Work is the point. And they continue as long as we have a pulse.
And so, Mr. Reich, my thanks to you for calling me back, away from the flawed and unanswerable questions, to duty and to life. Let us bear witness together, as best we can, and let the Giver of Life sort out what’s the point.
(If you see the centipede, just murmur “left, front,” and he’ll be fine, too.)
[NOTE TO COMMENTERS: I want you to know that I have been deeply moved by your responses to this piece; by your expressions of concern, appreciation and support, and especially by the indications you have given that these musings have value and usefulness in your lives. Know that I have received, and am grateful for, your message to me, which, in the aggregate, I take to be: Stop whining and get back to work. — Tom Lewis]
You have i am sure more than 7 followers ,I know because i am guilty about reading your excellent blog religiously yet never commenting (well maybe once) I think i can speak for all who follow you sir that as much as you were missed we were also worried about you ,please keep writing it makes the world at least seem saner while I read your thoughts on so much insanity . Thank you for returning!
Someone once said, when the world no longer makes sense, make sense where you are. I will try. Thanks for good thoughts.
I too have been following your blog but have not, until now, posted a comment. It is so refreshing to find others who have pondered the workings of these various systems. Welcome back!
Great to hear from you again, Tom. I have looked every day. Some people, like you, just have the knack of expressing things in a way that is simultaneously condemnatory and uplifting. It makes us feel better.
Glad you are back. You were missed.
Thank you, Melissa.
I have clicked on this site everyday hoping for another article. Thanks for writing. You are an intelligent voice with dry humor, such that is absent on almost all of the rest of the internet.
I shall try to make sure that you never click in vain. Wait, isn’t there a song….
I also love listening in on your thoughts… Write on.
Thanks Mike, it means a lot to have a ghost on my side.
From The Donald to the latest Saudi (sell off the Dollar) scandal one would have thought there would be squirrels all the way down to be written about?
No shortage of squirrels. One simply has to decide how to get around them.
Your sound comments on what is really happening to our civilization will help smart people to make sound decisions about home to cope with the inevitable powering down.
Another good reason to carry on. Thanks.
Thanks for writing this blog Mr Lewis, I really enjoy reading your thoughts and appreciate your humour.
Lincoln got in trouble once because someone heard him laughing with a telegrapher in the War Department late at night when casualty lists from the latest battle were coming in. An insult to the troops, it was claimed. You don’t understand, Lincoln said. I have to laugh to keep from crying.
Thanks for your good thoughts.
I missed your context and commentary, Tom. I understand your block though. I have been writing on a blog with some close friends for a few years and we like to address present-day issues through the perspective of our healing work. We talk about Collapse often and were actually really inspired by your book Tribulations. We felt moved to take action and to get our own homestead/sanctuary going. We have all felt the same way about writing to what seems to be a big black hole at times, where people would rather pay attention to the big ol’ smokescreens that are the major components of daily North American life, than to feel the truth of who they are and the times we are living in.
March on, we must! As everyone seems to be saying to you now in the comments, your work is not going unheard and your impact (so to speak) is, in fact, powerful. :)
March on, we will. Thanks and good luck with the Sanctuary.
Fabulous series
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox8XlcUppbo – Wisdom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ebt0X5ybm9Y – the Meaning of Life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=jQOfbObFOCw – Camus
Brilliant!–And thank you very much-in helping me-and probably many others-in pondering, angsting, worrying about the meaning of our lives.!
The questions have been flawed. YES!!!
I’m glad you are back. I’ve missed your insights and comments.
Thank you.
There is great comfort in the shared gentle expression of a wise, awakened, and empathetic soul.
Today it is I who am being comforted. Thank you.
Hello Tom, Even though i have the benefit of your remarks when I can make it to the Augusta Sustainability meetings – the well-writen and meaningful posts are the material I can share with friends. Many of them have become every-week readers, too. Thanks for all the previous words/ideas – looking forward to the icontinuation of same. We need your obseravions.
You do me great honor. Thank you.
Tom, I have missed your thought-provoking commentary even though I sometimes did not fully get where you were going. Glad you are back. How is that lovely lady whose questionable choice in companions keeps her with you?
Thanks old friend, let’s catch up. The lovely lady is still questionable.
You were definitely missed, and I am glad to read your thoughtful post. Life demands we live it, writing demands we write it, and cheesecake demands we eat it. Welcome back, have a bite. :)
Don’t mind if I do. Thanks for filling out the Trilogy of Essential Rules. I had forgot about the cheesecake.
Pour vous, mes amie!
It’s lovely to see you again, my friend. Walk along with me to the next bend.! :)
Many “happy” returns as we all find ourselves on the Threshold of a Dream, however dark and unwanted it may be. Your perspicacious lucidity HAS been missed, not to mention, or slight, the substantive insights of others drawn to your flame.
I never thought of my liquidity as being parsimonious, but I am immensely flattered….thank you
I check here almost everyday. Recently, I’ve been experiencing a twinge while waiting for the page to load, wondering if this will be the day that some beloved family member or friend announces you have a terminal and debilitating illness or that you have left us. I’m glad that’s not the case.
I was considering laying out a $10 explanation, featuring all my accumulated knowledge of human behaviour and psychology, etc, for why it matters that you continue to write. It matters to your readers that you do, but the reason why doesn’t – not really.
$10? What do you take us for? We want to $20 version.
I get it, actually, and I’m grateful that you weighed in.
When I noticed for how long there had been no new articles here, I actually started getting a bit concerned about what might have happened. Glad to know Mr Lewis is still active and well. (Not that we can expect that many of us to remain active and well for long anymore, given the big sh*thole towards which we’re all now drifting… Sigh…)
The above article does present an interesting question: what point there is in going on anymore with anything (such as this blog), given that big sh*thole. My own response is largely religious (or philosophical if one prefers; I have my own definition for these words): if we make the wrong choices, we suffer the consequences, but at the end of the darkness, a new dawn always arises. If not on this planet, then on another. Life goes on. It must.
And if I see myself, not as that pathetic speck of foam, but as the roaring ocean itself, then I am beyond birth and death.
Towards the end of the first movement of Debussy’s La Mer (‘De l’aube a midi sur la mer’), the sun climbs to its zenith, an emperor of light ascending his throne and declaring his triumph in a deafening fortissimo. Most heartening music ever.
It’s good to hear from you as well. I recall inquiring as to your welfare after you had been absent from these pages for a while. I figured you’d understand.
Ah – THERE you are Mr. Lewis. i’ll admit that I missed your potent commentary on ‘things as they are’ and look forward (now) to whatever you have to say (even if it’s ‘nothing’ and why that’s the case). I too checked almost every day (and wondered how to get in touch with you when all the essay comments were closed).
Well, all that aside, it’s comforting to know that you’re still among us. I consider your absence to be a kind of re-charging, like a battery.
As for meaning – I don’t think there is any beside the doing of whatever it is we’re occupied by for whatever amount of time, since we know so little about any of it: like what are thoughts and where do they come from(?), what is consciousness and how does it arise (or is it in all animate beings?) and other questions we’ve all contemplated throughout our long, strange journeys in this manifestation of reality.
I haven’t found any answers except the ones that can’t be put into words but are experienced – such as when planting flowers or vegetables, when our intent and emotions are so subtle as to be whispers and the task itself is the answer.
Thanks (for being) and welcome back.
Someone said once, on the day the world comes to an end, I hope to plant a tree. Thanks for the good thoughts and welcome back to you, too.
Tom – thank you for all that you have written and it’s good to see you are alive and well. I share your concerns about our future and the intentional ignorance of our so-called leaders. There is really no excuse for their dismal incompetence. Please continue to share your thoughts with me and the other six readers. Russ Day
Okay, on one condition: I want their names.
Mr. Lewis,
I share in the existential angst you so eloquently describe. I find your statement concerning meaning to be of the utmost significance, with much to ponder.
I have become one of your 7 readers because you offer a view of current events that is both approachable and resolute. I am glad you have emerged from the dark night, I do believe this is a step our entire race is going to have to take.
Nice to C U back in the saddle Tom. I’ll catch up with cross posting your blogs over the next couple of weeks.
RE
I was honored to be one of seven (thousand or so) who was checking weekly for an update. I so get the need to breathe and take space. I hope you fully took in the rest and all the missing of you Tom. Big Thanks!