Of E-Mail and Doing Nothing

Dolce far nienteI do appreciate e-mail, and I consider it rude not to respond; but lack of time and energy in synergy with congenital inefficiency conspire to make it difficult for me to answer everything. I am also temperamentally disinclined to acquiesce in mindless American hyper-kineticism, in accordance with the Italian saying:

Dolce far niente

Sweet to do nothing

which saying, were it not for the inefficiency lately mentioned, would have been by now inscribed above my stoa. My paternal grandfather had it emblazoned on his pergola, and more 'nothing' transpires on my stoa than ever did beneath his pergola.

So time each day must be devoted to 'doing nothing': meditating, traipsing around in the local mountains, contemplating sunrises and moonsets, sunsets and moonrises, and taking naps, naps punctuated on one end by bed-reading and on the other by yet more coffee-drinking.

Without a sizeable admixture of such 'nothing' I cannot see how a life would be worth living.

Happy Thanksgiving

To all Stateside readers, and best wishes of the season to the rest of you.  Let's make it a politics-free day, shall we? I'll do my best, and you do yours.

I am indeed grateful for your readership!

If you care to read my Thanksgiving homilies and such, go here.

Facebook Update

Some of you have messaged me to say that you are unable to send me a FB friend request.  That was my fault. I had the software set to accept friend requests only from friends of friends. I have fixed that. You should be able to get through now.

I apologize if I don't get around to responding to all your kind messages. There is only so much time . . . .

Note to Correspondents

Please don't take it amiss if I fail to respond to your missives or do so in a cursory manner. I must be selective. 

Philosophia longa, vita brevis.

The clock is running, and I have a lot to finish before the flag falls.

The Big Unplug 2018

The 2018 Big Unplug starts now.

I hope to be back in about three weeks. I will be incommunicado during this period so please don't send me any e-mail or leave any comments.

Bang on the link below for a little of the 'theory' of the Big Unplug.

Sick of politics? Take a gander at Maverick Philosopher: Strictly Philosophical.  

All the best to my readers!

UnpluggedImage credit

From the Pretty to the Pedestrian

Philippa Foot's maiden name was 'Bosanquet.' Her grounding of the normative in the natural, however, is decidedly Aristotelian, and thus peripatetic, and therefore pedestrian, in keeping with her married name.

Running with the pun, my Foot notes are accessible here.