{"id":54,"date":"2025-08-05T16:40:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T16:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2025\/08\/05\/the-mark-you-make\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T16:40:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T16:40:22","slug":"the-mark-you-make","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2025\/08\/05\/the-mark-you-make\/","title":{"rendered":"<i> Wer schreibt, der bleibt <\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 14pt;\">I fondly recall my late German neighbor, G\u00fcnter Scheer, from whom I learned this expression.&#0160; &#0160;&quot;He who writes, remains.&quot;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-content\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<div class=\"entry-body\">\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 14pt;\">But for how long? Any mark you make will in the end be unmade by time, in time, for all time. We do not write in indelible ink. Old Will said it well:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 14pt;\">We are such stuff \/ As dreams are made on, and our little life \/ Is rounded with a sleep. (Prospero in <em>The Tempest<\/em>)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 14pt;\">Heraclitus of Ephesus famously wept over the impermanence of things and the vanity of existence as did a certain latter-day Heraclitean. &quot;I am grieved by the transitoriness of things,&quot; wrote Friedrich Nietzsche in a letter to <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Franz_Overbeck\">Franz Overbeck<\/a>, dated 24 March 1887.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 14pt;\"> <a class=\"asset-img-link\" href=\"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.typepad.com\/.a\/6a010535ce1cf6970c02c8d3d9dcb4200c-pi\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Heraclitus Weeping\" class=\"asset  asset-image at-xid-6a010535ce1cf6970c02c8d3d9dcb4200c img-responsive\" src=\"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.typepad.com\/.a\/6a010535ce1cf6970c02c8d3d9dcb4200c-500wi\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"Heraclitus Weeping\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 14pt;\"><em>Addendum<\/em> (8\/9\/2025):<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino;\">I<\/span><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 13pt;\">n a letter from 1881, Nietzsche wrote to Overbeck:<\/span><\/p>\n<dl>\n<dd><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 13pt;\">My dear friend, what is this our life? A boat that swims in the sea, and all one knows for certain about it is that one day it will capsize. Here we are, two good old boats that have been faithful neighbors, and above all your hand has done its best to keep me from &#39;capsizing&#39;! Let us then continue our voyage &#8212; each for the other&#39;s sake, for a long time yet, a long time! We should miss each other so much! Tolerably calm seas and good winds and above all sun &#8212; what I wish for myself, I wish for you, too, and am sorry that my gratitude can find expression only in such a wish and has no influence at all on wind or weather.<sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Franz_Overbeck#cite_note-1\"><span class=\"cite-bracket\">[<\/span>1<span class=\"cite-bracket\">]<\/span><\/a><\/sup><\/span><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 13pt;\"><sup class=\"reference\"><span class=\"cite-bracket\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Franz_Overbeck\">From<\/a> <em>Wikipedia<\/em>.<\/span><\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I fondly recall my late German neighbor, G\u00fcnter Scheer, from whom I learned this expression.&#0160; &#0160;&quot;He who writes, remains.&quot; But for how long? Any mark you make will in the end be unmade by time, in time, for all time. We do not write in indelible ink. Old Will said it well: We are such &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2025\/08\/05\/the-mark-you-make\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;<i> Wer schreibt, der bleibt <\/i>&#8220;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,75,76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-heraclitus","category-impermanence","category-nietzsche"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}