Henry Miller, Socrates, Winnie the Pooh, implausibility, sense, wisdom, and knowing nothing

excerpted from THE WAY OF WONDER: a return to the mystery of ourselves, by Jack Haas

“The unintelligibility somehow makes profound sense.”

Henry Miller.

           Somehow, it makes sense. And yet we do not know how. And we should not ask, for that was our mistake in the first place. No, we should be wise enough now simply to accept the implausibility of life, and neither retreat from it, nor try to solve it, but instead to sit back …and enjoy!

Lispector declared of her character again, “...[he] was wise enough not to know- and wise enough not to question, because he was a wise man now.”

            We must learn again to understand with the mind of a person who knows that they do not understand; we must understand not‑understanding, and then endure existing without a ‘why?’, without attempting a subterfuge around this.

“All I know is that I know nothing.”

Socrates

Life lies waiting for us, and it is only the loss of our minds away. But we shall leave that for the next chapter. Let us end this one as we began, with Winnie the Pooh:

“On Monday, when the sun is hot,

I wonder to myself a lot:

‘Now is it true, or is it not,

That what is which and which is what?’

On Tuesday, when it hails and snows,

The feeling in me grows and grows

That hardly anybody knows

If those are these or these are those.

On Wednesday, when the sky is blue,

And I have nothing else to do,

I sometimes wonder if it’s true

That who is what and what is who.”

excerpted from:

THE WAY OF WONDER: a return to the mystery of ourselves

by Jack Haas

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Mystical books, visionary art, and fine art photography by Jack Haas