The next Supreme Court pick

I woke the other morning with the thought that sleep is our most natural state, and that wakefulness is the deconstruction of sleep.

This happened the day after I had a strong moment while sitting on a bench at the mall watching children "play" on a "playground" there, their parents half-watching them while talking amongst themselves, and seeing that everyone there looked like everyone else, that the parents had truly engaged in the activity of replacing themselves and were, in effect, watching themselves play. When I saw the parents this way it didn't matter that they voted for Trump, made poor choices in food and love, and had never read Rabelais.

I'm finally facing it, that I'm not very enlightened, I'm only enlightened to the degree that I know I'm not enlightened, which is possibly more enlightened than many of the people who consider themselves enlightened are enlightened, but possibily less enlightened than they are as well.

"I like philosophy but it makes me think too much", a woman named Pam said at dinner the other night. I said, "did Pam say that or Mark Twain?" The other woman at dinner objected to my question, thinking it demeaned Pam. I took exception, thinking that the question I'd asked was a compliment to Pam, in effect putting her in the company of Twain, a great wit, whether it was original to Pam or not. It turns out that what Pam said about her relationship to philosophy was entirely original to Pam.

It's so much more satisfying to me to think negatively than positively. When I think negatively interesting things happen; it's like I'm actually thinking.