Seamus Heaney, "Lightenings i"

Hi all –

Nowadays, I feel the challenge is to do the work while not punishing yourself for doing the work. The latter dominates many of us: think about the piles of unread books, pages of notes which make little sense, the guilt of failed or incomplete projects. I've seen quite a few paralyze themselves. They earnestly tried to do something, it didn't turn into what they expected, and trying again is a no. I knew a group which met regularly to celebrate how they refused to extend themselves. They weren't exactly lazy–they'd do what they were most comfortable with–but anything beyond that, anything which could get them past less than ideal situations, no.

I'm thinking of resolutions less as a checklist and more a guideline for figuring out what I want. I'm not saying don't do what's on your checklists–I have required meetings and doctor's appointments the next few days–but recognize invitations for reflection on the goals themselves. Last year around this time, I wrote about the various projects I was working on. I'd like to put them down again and see how things have changed:

• Heidegger and Antigone: the readings and notes about this topic turned into a paper for NPSA. I'm hoping to have it published, but it looms larger than that in my current thinking. I'm wondering what a serious liberal nationalism may look like, one which puts us in the mode of expanding rights and doing more for each other. One which can start with indignation but quickly becomes much more productive, possibly transcending itself.
• Notes on Spinoza's Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect: I forgot I did a close read of this text and wrote extensive notes. I should revisit them soon because I remember thinking I learned something deep. Spinoza, it seems to me, is very much responding to Descartes. He's worried about the sterility of the method tied to "I think, therefore I am." I believe he sees that introspection can be narrowing exactly when you need it to be affirming as well as imaginative. Realizing now, saying this aloud, that this isn't divorced from the problem of what we want citizens to be.
• Witold Gombrowicz's A Guide to Philosophy in Six Hours and Fifteen Minutes: this hasn't turned into anything specific yet. At some point, I should go back and really pay attention to his takes on Heidegger and Nietzsche. They can be useful for framing my own thoughts.
• "A paper on Nietzsche and rights is outstanding and needs to be completed:" this still requires attention. To be sure, my thoughts from the paper are merging with the scattered notes I have for a book project.
• "A paper on Plato and democracy for an edited volume:" this got done. The paper is good, but I'm not sure it will be published. Some of the ideas in the paper, in embryonic form, are in "On Plato's Cave."
• "I have some notes for a book length project:" I have more! Did a bunch of reading and note-taking. Honestly, I just need to write it.

I always worry 1) I'm not productive enough. Look at everyone else with papers and books and smart things to say! Am I actually developing an expertise? 2) I'm not doing enough for others. And now that I'm looking at the above list, realizing that I got 2 papers done, read deeply and well, and did a few other things which helped build community, I know I have to move forward and bring what I've done into what I'm doing. It's less "get this thing done," and more "keep deepening the dialogue about what matters." You do the research not to be right, but to open doors for everyone. Some of those doors appear to lead to trivial and useless places, but it isn't up to me to judge beforehand where they go. I'm more grateful than ever for media which treats me like an adult as opposed to trying to impress me with the guise of a perfect, accomplished work of literature.

That having been said, I do want to read this incredible poem by Seamus Heaney with you. I've read it for years, but now I do have a question on my mind, one not disconnected from the above musings. Why do we need new beginnings? Why do we need to feel like we're starting something new, even in the midst of doing the work?

Seamus Heaney, "Lightenings i"

Heaney takes us on a walk. It is no ordinary walk. He starts with a phrase which, in two words, evokes our life flashing before our eyes in the best way: "Shifting brilliancies." For a moment, we experience a variety of beautiful, overpowering things. For a moment, we have everything we seek. Insights, control, a sense of order, confidence…

Lightenings i (from Poetry)
Seamus Heaney
  
Shifting brilliancies. Then winter light
In a doorway, and on the stone doorstep
A beggar shivering in silhouette.

So the particular judgement might be set:
Bare wallstead and a cold hearth rained into—
Bright puddle where the soul-free cloud-life roams.

And after the commanded journey, what?
Nothing magnificent, nothing unknown.
A gazing out from far away, alone.

And it is not particular at all,
Just old truth dawning: there is no next-time-round.
Unroofed scope. Knowledge-freshening wind.

Suddenly, “then winter light / In a doorway, and on the stone doorstep / A beggar shivering in silhouette.” A shift of light, a turn to reality. The winter light illumines what endures, “a beggar shivering in silhouette.” Not only does this end the reverie, but it forces the heights of shifting brilliancies down to earth. The beggar in silhouette is not seen directly. He’s beyond a doorway and must be ascended to. Truth is heavenly, dazzling, blinding: the beggar resides in a shrine of sorts. Mysteries are all we have.

Heaney's poem, I believe, can be placed in the "wanderer" genre. Whether we speak of the haiku masters or Goethe, there are a number of works dedicated to the idea that to leave civilization, to go out into nature, is the only way to encounter the truth of oneself. And so this poem started with the wanderer nearly seeing everything, then being rapidly forced to confront the actual planet they live on. Maybe this clarifies my question about new beginnings. Any time you have an insight, you are not simply completing a theory or an argument. You are proceeding anew from the very beginning, wondering if everything has changed.

Our wanderer realizes the danger of dreaming. A particular judgement will be set if one continually searches for some secret happiness, ignoring the suffering in front of them. Yet, at the same time: you're not allowed to think, to look for your own answers? The solution must involve some sort of identification with the beggar. This is complicated. We are not limited by "[b]are wallstead and a cold hearth rained into— / Bright puddle where the soul-free cloud-life roams." This judges us; it is the beggar's only possession.

We must assert our common humanity, and this leads to seeing our own freedom as an illusion. Only cloud-life is soul-free, unconstrained by necessities.

The rest of the poem wrestles with a beggar’s desperation. You get the distinct feeling our wanderer-speaker wants to be far more serious about life. They openly question the purpose of attempting to wander:

And after the commanded journey, what?
Nothing magnificent, nothing unknown.
A gazing out from far away, alone.

The questioning of “the commanded journey” makes them aware of their futility (“Nothing magnificent”) as well as what they already possess (“nothing unknown”). Without neglecting the ills of poverty and fortune, they can see where they stand: “gazing out from far away, alone.” To have nothing and know you have nothing stands as precondition to a genuinely universal perspective.

“…It is not particular at all / Just old truth dawning.” If insights were ecstatic before, this one, “old truth dawning,” depends on sobriety. We have traveled quite a bit in these few lines, from joy in revelation to the shock of failure, poverty, and death. Taking a harsher perspective brings one closer to the beggar and enables the possibility of true human freedom. The “unroofed scope” and “knowledge-freshening wind” which end the lyric only come about by pushing oneself to see and not being willfully blind. A sense of duty remains. You could say it is to rebuild the house, to uplift the poor. The needs of the world, for this moment, correspond with intellectual growth, an inward search.