An hour ago I was walking up and down the magazine section in a local bookstore, looking for the latest edition of the Economist magazine.
I didn’t find it.
I did see a copy of something called Hunter-Gatheress magazine. I’m serious. Talk about niche marketing. I’m sure there’s more to it than meets the eye, but I didn’t look at it - I just saw the title. (You know how I like to stand up for hunter-gatherers, so, naturally, the words jumped out at me.)
Well, I started thinking again about “ancient man” and how dismissive we can be of those who lived millenia before us.
I’m not headed down that path tonight. But I will say that just because people of a given time did not have the technological accomplishments that we have (which, by the way, I sum up as: electricity) doesn’t mean that they spoke in inarticulate grunts and struggled to draw even rudimentary inferences. Not at all.
Throughout the ages, men have asked the same questions and wrestled with the same mysteries, and, in reading what they had to say, I feel connected to all that came before me.
I read a book several years ago entitled A War Like No Other by Victor Davis Hanson. It’s a chronicle of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. It seemed so relevant to today – to our times. Perhaps that is because, ultimately, the issues, the conflicts, and the motives are common to all times. They are common to the human condition.
More recently, I’ve been thinking about reading (well, finishing) Plato’s Republic. It seems like a timely choice.
I decided, though, to begin with a book entitled The Presocratics by Philip Wheelwright, believing that Plato will make more sense to me now if I first build up a better understanding of Greek thought prior to Socrates. I’m only in chapter 1, but already I have had several “Ah!” moments.
Don’t get me wrong. I know that philosophy does not answer the most important questions. Nor does science. Nor does mathematics.
But we are rational creatures and we benefit from exposing our minds to things which are reasonable, beautiful, orderly, and true. It’s a better use of time than much of what we do each day. (If I want to see that which is irrational, ugly, chaotic, and false, I have but to turn on the television and listen to the pundits dispute with one another).
Put a little distance between yourself and the television/computer/internet every so often.
Take time to listen to the great pieces of music; view the great works of art; read the great works of poetry and other forms of literature; learn from fields like mathematics and philosophy the habits of clear definition and careful reasoning. It’s good to escape from technology sometimes and come back to terms with our humanity.
Play chess with a human being. Have coffee with a good friend. Spend an evening in conversation.
And, of course, look at the stars on a clear night.
