The Formalizing of Dance and Bounded Poetry: On Death

Heard joke once: Man goes to school counselor. Says he’s depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain. Doctor says, ‘I know a good joke. Why is math the second cheapest department when all they need is a pencil, some paper and a trash can? The philosophy department doesn’t use a trash a can.’ Man bursts into tears. Says, ‘But counselor…I am a philosopher.’ Good joke. Everybody laughs. Roll on snare drum. Curtains.

• Roar Shack

A spirit dies with too much formalization.

To err is human. To demand perfection, is to act as a god that we are not.

To act a god is to put a target on our back. Everyone wants to take out grievances with god.

When a physical manifestation presents itself, the first instinct is to fall within its good grace.

The lack of validation makes us doubt. Am I wrong in the eyes of this god? Or is it the god that is wrong?

Who protects god but worshipers? What happens to heathens?

Formalization and bounding are things from math class. Like all things from math class, we can apply them unscathed to any other class except for philosophy.

What does the spirit of philosophy contain that the others don’t? Not just arrogance, but an attachment to everything.

What does it take to dance and do poetry? It doesn’t take formalizing (although it can be). What does it take to do philosophy?

Outside formalization, there is something. The current social waves of equality asks us to create a formalization for the unformed.

Identity is fluid. Subject to change. Subject to do differently. Because identity is part of the universe. It’s not petty, like our awareness. Identity is eternal.

Identity is not understood outside formalization, and most of the time the formalization is just done at the individual level. At times, the formalization maps through others. Groups become formalized, groups become an identity. Then the group vanishes but the identity remains.

The remains act as substance to create a formalization. But this creation is man-made, temporal, and subject to the torment of the eternal.