- "Dying is the last of [Paul's] life's great escapades and the last he would want to undertake with ill-fitting spirits. In this way he aspires to be full of life more than anyone I know..." Does he have the right attitude? Is it possible to approach death as a great adventure, even if you don't have faith in a supernatural sequel? 89-90
- Have you heard of Orlando Cepeda? 92 (Just curious. He was a hero of mine at age 10--alongside Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock--when he led my favorite baseball team to a championship season in '67. Didn't know then that he'd ever be tainted by association with the drug trade. Is it best not to look too closely at our heroes? Should we teach our children to be wary of heroes in sports and entertainment? And more generally?)
- "That guy Engvall. How come he's Black? He's a dunce." 93 Why do you think Paul says this? Are you satisfied with Frank' response?
- "The winter can take a toll on you." 95 And yet, as George Santayana said: "To be interested in the changing seasons is, in this middling zone, a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring." Do you find winter a necessary and even ennobling season? Or would you flourish more in a tropical zone? And less literally, what (if any) important elements of life does winter symbolize for you?
- "Only full awareness of death makes one able to appreciate the fullness and mystery of being... Out in the gloom you usually find some lights on." 97 Do you agree?
- Do you miss the days "when jokes were legal"? 98 Do you share Frank's nostalgia for such jokes (or days)? 98
- Have you ever driven or ridden in a vehicle like the Windbreaker? Is it a practical mode of travel? Or is practicality beside the point? Why do you think Frank seeks a "Flying Dutchman affiliation" in his choice of transport with Paul? 99
- "An optimist, I've read, is a person who believes the inevitable is what's supposed to happen." 103 Or is it the other way around? By this definition, is Frank an optimist? Are you? Do you define optimism (and pessimism, and meliorism) differently? How is it possible to sustain optimism in the face of acknowledged human mortality?
- What do you think Frank would say about Bad Bunny's Superbowl performance? What do you say?
- "There is no was. There is only is." What did the "scrofulous old faker Faulkner" mean? Why is Frank so hostile to him? 104, 121 and passim. (The more familiar quote: “The past is never dead. It's not even past.”) And wasn't his Nobel speech marvelous?)
- What do you make of Frank's "needs" and "relationship" with Betty Tran, the massatherapist (who's working on her capstone, btw)? Is it a harmless fantasy, or even a constructive one?
- "It doesn't take much, it turns out, to improve one's attitude." 107 Has that been your experience?
- Should love and "much of life" be scare-quoted? 109
- Is Betty a meliorist? 110
- Are "three house moves the psychic equivalent of a death"? 111
- "All who wander are not lost." 113 Are Frank and Paul lost?
- Do you agree that "unexpected, unexplained feelings of well-being never be questioned"? 114
- Have you ever had a Proustian gustatory moment? 117
- Did you go to High School with a "certifiable female"? 118 Is there any excuse for people of Frank's age to long for attachment to women of High School age? Does that make him feel appropriately "still alive"? 119 Does it lend his life "authenticity"? 121 and passim
- Are men really "no longer allowed to say we simply like women? Is Frank a sexist? 122
- Is "the Michelangelo effect" a thing? 124
- Comment? "The closest anyone can go with us to death, the poet tells us, is not very damn close." 132 (Extra credit if you can identify the poet.)
- What do you think of Nietzsche's view of discourse and happiness? 134
- Comment?: "Not that anyone ever does die happy. The idea of choice in most things is of course a feathery lie of western philosophy." 144
- What does it mean to say "the business of business is always business"? 135
- [Twenty pages without questions from me...]
- Is "spiritual insulation from too much bad and too much good" another name for stoicism? Is it a wise approach to life? 157
- What do you think of Frank's views on aging? 159
- What do people misunderstand about the "symbolism" of confederate flags? 172
- Post any of your own comments or questions...
Monday, February 9, 2026
Questions FEB 10
Sunday, February 8, 2026
The magic of literature
"Literature is the art of discovering something extraordinary about ordinary people, and saying with ordinary words something extraordinary."
- Boris Pasternak
---
Literature doesn't shout.
It sits quietly in the light,
opens itself page by page,
and teaches us how ordinary lives
hold extraordinary depths.
A chair by the window.
A book left open.
Sunlight resting on words
that know more about us
than we ever admit.
This is the magic—
not escape from life,
but a deeper return to it.
https://www.threads.com/@litloverusha/post/DUd2j2cDQy5?xmt=AQF0OY3E3YpxSGiDY7zq7qlLbNeWtwCnbLpCMsyLEs5NEc0BbxGovhKvu1gqZJby1KeEJ710&slof=1
Phil.Oliver@mtsu.edu
👣Solvitur ambulando
💭Sapere aude
Saturday, February 7, 2026
My conversation about consciousness with ChatGPT
Read to the end to see what the machine has to say directly to YOU, MTSU students:
https://chatgpt.com/share/6987c5fe-caa4-8007-afad-db246c3c9755
Phil.Oliver@mtsu.edu
👣Solvitur ambulando
💭Sapere aude
Michael Pollan Says Humanity Is About to Undergo a Revolutionary Change
"…I've thought a lot about what good is it to think about consciousness, and I came to think that it's more important than ever. Scientists are now learning that more and more animals and creatures — going all the way down possibly to insects — are conscious. So that's one interesting issue: We're sharing consciousness with more creatures. And then the big threat is artificial intelligence and the effort to create a conscious A.I., which is going to be an enormous challenge to this question of what does it mean to be human. Is consciousness something that a machine can possess? Are we more like intelligent machines or conscious, feeling animals? Who are we? So I think we're approaching this kind of Copernican moment of redefinition.."
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/magazine/michael-pollan-interview.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
Phil.Oliver@mtsu.edu
👣Solvitur ambulando
💭Sapere aude
Thursday, February 5, 2026
As we were saying about “the sufficiency of the present moment”…
"…We live almost entirely in past and future tenses—replaying old conversations, planning future triumphs, worrying about potential catastrophes. The present moment becomes merely an annoying loading screen between memory and anticipation.
This temporal displacement profoundly affects our search for meaning. We've been conditioned to view purpose as something to be discovered in the future, as though there's a predetermined calling with our name on it waiting to be found. But spiritual traditions remind us that meaning isn't found—it's made. Purpose isn't discovered—it's cultivated in the present moment..."
https://open.substack.com/pub/robertwaldinger/p/beyond-the-scroll?r=35ogp&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay
Phil.Oliver@mtsu.edu
👣Solvitur ambulando
💭Sapere aude
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