"The Long and Winding Road"

Like “Let the Sun Shine In,” “The Long and Winding Road” has been with me for a long time, but unlike Hair, it did not escape and hide from me for years. This is not a song I listened to constantly, but every time I hear it, I come close to tears. I find this song very aesthetic. It is soft and relaxing, the singer accompanied only by a couple instruments. The lyrics are also so moving:

The wild and windy night
That the rain washed away
Has left a pool of tears
Crying for the day.
Why leave me standing here?
Let me know the way

The winding road can be compared to many things, but for me it represents my life. What stage, you may ask? Well, I think all stages. I am a huge Beatles fan and could easily have picked any of their songs, but this one touches me in a way that I almost find indescribable. I have had a lot of dark days in my life, days where Hair’s sunshine could not even brighten them. This is a song that I can play and cry to and feel ok doing it. But I don’t cry because the song is sad; I cry because it has so much hope. The singer is longing to “know the way.” Is that not what we are all doing? We want to know where to go, and in a world that is full of seven billion winding roads intertwining with one another, it can be hard to follow your own path.

“The Long and Winding Road” is a later song of the Beatles, when John, Paul, George, and Ringo’s hair was long and disheveled. In the musical Hair, long locks symbolize rebellion, a deviation from the social norm. It’s a very anthropological musical, bursting with life and love, questions about the meaning of existence and calls for change. Both these artists and these songs have a plea in them, a plea for strength and direction, hope in a place where it’s so easy to get lost.

The Republic

It has been a while since I have blogged, but a lot has happened since the Hegel vs. Marx debate. We started reading The Republic. It is without question the oldest text I have ever read, but still surprisingly relevant to our life today.

Yes, the book has surprised me. It has frustrated and changed the way I view philosophy and government. I am really looking forward to tackling the question of philosophy of art.

Our imperfect society debates ended today. I am very proud of democracy. I feel like we put our best foot forward in a fierce and entertaining five-day debate. I was so nervous before we started, but now, looking back, I am satisfied with my performance.

Hegel

History is like a river, always moving but constant in purpose: to move forward. It evolves and progresses through the unfolding of the universal, absolute spirit of the world: the Weltgeist. Just like a river, history also has a set path, and a destination where the spirit becomes conscious of itself.

History is driven by ideas and the desire of freedom. We achieve this through dialectic progression. My dialectic is made up of three aspects: thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. Through the presentation of an idea, negation of that idea, and a compromise based on two negating ideas, history is able to move forward, society is able to grow stronger and ideas are able to supplant themselves. Examples: Protestant Reformation (thesis: autocratic Catholic Church, antithesis: Reformation based on freedom of the believer, synthesis: two branches of Christianity combining authority and freedom in new ways).

Every society is manifesting the spirit of the world as it continues along history’s arch. The duty of society is to embody and abet in the unfolding of the idea of freedom and societies bring contributions to human culture that together make up the realization of the absolute spirit in history. Look at the ideas of Plato or Socrates and their emphasis on the freedom of the mind. Look at the inventions by Gutenberg, the art of Michelangelo, the myths of the Greeks as parts of living culture. Look at the rise of modern constitutional states with their emphasis on the rights and freedom of citizens—Hegel’s Prussia and the US.

The spirit synthesizes knowledge and the freedom of humanity is increasingly realized through our recognition of each other as free and equal. This is how history moves—in a beautiful, deterministic, flowing manner. The world spirit is the sum of “human utterances” and “human reflections.” In the world spirit we recognize ourselves, and we realize that we are part of something truly great.

Sisterhood

I wish we didn't feel the pain. I wish we didn't welcome it.

I wish we could let it go. I wish we wanted to.

I wish for questions. I wish for answers.

I wish to be a part. I wish to be a whole.

But most of all I wish to be heard, to be recognized in your eyes, my companion, my friend, my sister.

We wish but we do not ask.

Instead we search, hand in hand, for the parts, wholes, questions, answers, pain, happiness, and recognition of our existence.

We search. We seek. We long to understand.

But the beauty lies in the fact that we don't.

Love

I love our philosophy class.

I just love it.

Eighteen

Eighteen.

I am eighteen today.

What does that even mean?

I'd like to know.

I know it's a number.

What is a number?

It brings order.

What is order?

It is meaning.

What is meaning?

It is chaos.

What is chaos?

It is beauty.

What is beauty?

It is love.

What is love?

Love is life.

Eighteen years of life.

Quote of the Week

"Life's but a walking shadow." - William Shakespeare, Macbeth