Who are we?

Philosophers!

What do we want!!!

What do we want???

Where are we?

What does it mean?

Who am I?

Welcome to the inside of my mind.

It’s a gift, they say.

I guess so.

Sometimes it seems like a deficiency. Shouldn’t I be comfortable thundering out my reactions to important events?

It’s not that I lack opinions. It’s more that I’m painfully aware of how little I know.

Once in while, I’d like to hear a divine voice saying, “Believe this!” A voice loud as thunder. Like God’s voice at Mt. Sinai, summarizing right and wrong in no uncertain terms.

God’s voice just doesn’t show up that way in my life.

There’s no thunder. Just a gradual shift in perception, and an emergent interpretation.

Torah says it well. At Mt. Sinai, “all the people saw the sounds” (Ex. 20:15). Sounds triggered their visual experiences — a rare but not impossible neurological event. With heightened senses, they saw previously hidden dimensions of reality.

That’s how it works for me. Suddenly I see a perspective I’ve never seen.

But understanding what I’ve seen may take some time — some waiting, watching, and listening time.

Once again, Torah says it well. Seeking God, the prophet Elijah waits in a cave at Sinai.  A stormy wind blows by, but God is not in the wind. Some time after the wind, the earth shakes, but God is not in the earthquake. Next comes a fire; but God is not in the fire. Finally, after the fire, a still small voice. In that voice, God speaks to Elijah (I Kings 19:11-13).

This two-part process is a philosopher’s way. In one amazing second, we might download a new vision of reality. And, over the course of a lifetime, we might explore its logical implications.

We’re creative. And we’re cautious.

So the world of political campaigning looks very strange to us.

Moments after a newsworthy event, politicians thunder. It seems they need neither insight nor analysis. Instantly they know: their position was verified and their opponent’s falsified.

How could they know? They haven’t completed either of the two steps.

From a philosophical perspective, they don’t know. They only have opinions. And, to keep up in the relentless electoral quest, they have to opine quickly. Ambition, not reason, drives their opinions — or so the great philosopher Plato would say.

Of course, it takes many kinds of people to “make the world go around.” And the world would go slowly indeed if philosophical thinking alone drove it.

But couldn’t we all slow down to think just a bit more? To listen for the still small voice? And to truly see anew?

Image: 9gag.com