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Jack Barron's avatar

I find this troubling, somehow. I'm probably misreading it. It makes me think of this Krishnamurti quote that follows me around: Thought cannot solve any human problem because thought itself is the problem.

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David Benjamin Blower's avatar

Yes, I have loved Adorno since university, and it is quite true that he is an extremely thinkish sort of thinker. Without wanting to presume too much about what troubles you, I have found myself exploring a disquiet of my own that seems to be almost intrinsic to messianism; there's a kind of longing across time and a revolt against the present; a restlessness. It costs me a kind of simplicity of being. But to refuse the longing costs other things. This might be quite different to what you had in mind though. Apologies if I've taken the reflection elsewere.

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Jack Barron's avatar

I don’t think I could have ever articulated that disquiet so thoughtfully and with such beauty, but that certainly has something to do with my trouble. My response, I think, was more visceral- the dissonance between “thinking” and “redemption” was enough to make me uneasy, suspicious. But yes, “longing across time.” I think that doesn’t apply to me any more and then I find myself weeping at acts of kindness or bravery -”redemptive” acts, so…

I haven’t mentioned it but once before, but in every one of our brief chats, you will say some poetic thing and within moments, it will be mirrored- in language or in concept- in some wildly different context. I’m reading Knaussgard’s The Wolves of Eternity, which is already filled with strange personal synchronicities, but no sooner had I read your comment about “longing across time” than he writes about “longing” in similar ways. That usually means I need to pay attention.

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Jack Barron's avatar

I'm laughing because I'm dancing to a David Benjamin Blower record! And practically sobbing at the beauty of the last song.

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Roger  Haydon Mitchell's avatar

Thanks for finding light we need!

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Duncan Jones's avatar

He's creating some space where he can sit beside his old friend, Walter, a means of remembering WB's future.

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Leon Rajesh's avatar

Whilst reading your pieces, I feel as though I’m having a conversation in some other realm; as though the little light that runs through all the darkness is being sensed by others too, and I feel less alone.

Thank you, DBB!

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David Benjamin Blower's avatar

How wonderful, thank you so much for saying Leon. Blessings 🙏🏻

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Christopher Brown's avatar

Conditional to Unconditional our life’s work

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LeeCooper's avatar

Whoa. I actually find so little light here, as the view in my headlamp, my redemptive imagining, is so distorted by experience and longing. And yet! I completely trust that longing, in the visceral "felt contact" which must at some level/times be leaning into the unconditional, tribeless, redemptive story. Always full of self doubt and a personality causing further brokeness. I don't carry texts with me, but distorted experience. Yet this writing does, as Leon expressed, invite me into some other realm. What I can't see/comprehend fills me with hope. My Gandalf quote is 'Who knows? ' "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us." That I believe that 'time' is eternal, past, present and future, instills more hope, but not necessarily more light.

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