To Western Michigan readers:
I will be speaking at 10 a.m. this Sunday, October 26, at C3 Exchange, a well-known Sunday alternative that meets in the Grand Haven Community Center, 412 Columbus @ Fifth. Topic: "Beware the Believer."


Aristotle and Auden at the Grocery Store

Harry T. Cook

By
Harry T. Cook
10/24/14

 

His name is Joe, and he has worked at a family-owned supermarket in our city -- a near-in suburb of Detroit -- for at least the 27 years we have shopped there.

 

Mostly we have encountered him in the produce, dairy and frozen food sections. Also in our local library at occasional used book sales.

 

One can inquire of him about the state of the rutabagas or the availability of a particular brand of yogurt. Also he will be glad to talk with you about philosophy or literature as well.

 

Yes, I said "philosophy or literature." He and I have had our own little post-graduate seminar going for years now.

 

On a recent trip to the market, I encountered Joe in the dairy section where we paused in the day's occupations to debate the controversial works of Martin Heidegger, in particular his Sein und Zeit, though our conversation was carried on in English. He followed me to the cashier's queue, where the subject of our exchange switched from philosophy to poetry.

Another shopper was standing nearby. I could tell that she was altogether curious about the earnest back-and-forth between this aging male shopper and the man in a store uniform. She edged closer -- close enough to hear Joe saying:

 

You, alone, alone, O imaginary song,
Are unable to say an existence is wrong,
And pour out your forgiveness like a wine.*

 

Then she heard me reply, "But listen to this." And I go on:

 

The Pilgrim Way has led to the Abyss.
Was it to meet such grinning evidence
We left our richly odoured ignorance?
Was the triumphant answer to be this?

The Pilgrim Way has led to the Abyss.**

 

All the while, Joe was arranging merchandise whilst I placed my groceries on the moving belt.

 

Finally, my fellow shopper shook her head in bemused wonderment and walked away, perhaps to find another, less talky checkout lane. She stopped just for a moment, though, and turned to see us still in conversation about whatever the hell it was she thought she'd heard.

 

She likely did not realize that we were reciting our own favorite passages of W.H. Auden's poetry. If she had known the poet and his verse, she no doubt would have thought it strange indeed that such a colloquy should occur among the ordinary purchase of ordinary groceries on an ordinary day.

 

Joe is usually at work when I stop at the market. He is, as a friend of mine would say, "a happy presence." We might hail one another with names of philosophers. I: "Hegel." He: "Kant." And so it goes as shoppers among us scratch their heads.

 

In an embarrassing senior moment during one discourse with Joe some months ago, I blanked in trying to recall the name of a Schoolman along with the proper term for his famous rule. I invoked the rule anyway in an altogether friendly argument over what I took to be Joe's far too complicated answer to a philosophical inquiry.  

 

Eventually, I took my groceries and left. After I had put several blocks between the market and my car, it came to me: "Ockham's Razor!" being the philosophical principle that when choosing among among different hypotheses to attempt explanation of a phenomenon, the one requiring the fewest assumptions should be selected.

 

I pulled over -- yes, I did, dear -- unpocketed my cell phone and dialed the number of the market. An assistant manager whom I happened to know answered. I asked if he would be so kind as to page Joe Pahl and tell him it's Ockham's Razor. "Hold on," he said with an audible sigh. Pretty soon I heard him announce over the store's speaker system, "Joe Pahl, Joe Pahl: Harry Cook wants you to know that it's somebody's razor."  

 

The prices are sometimes a bit higher at that market than at some of the bigger stores around, but knowing Joe Pahl and counting him as a friend and fellow inquirer in the world of philosophy and literature is more than reason enough to pay them.  

 

I like knowing that the intellectual life is not confined to book clubs and academe. I like knowing that learned persons can be found anywhere doing anything. It gives me hope that the netherworld of daytime television and talk radio will not necessarily define our age.

 

* from The Composer

** from For the Time Being

 

 


Copyright 2014 Harry T. Cook. All rights reserved. This article may not be used or reproduced without proper credit.
 


Readers Write
Re essay of 10/17/14 Religion and Regulation

 


John Bennison, Walnut Creek, California:

Your curiosity and basic observation of those who abhor government regulation, but willingly wrap themselves in a religious straight jacket, is well put. It seems to me all regulation - as with all religious affiliation - is arbitrary and self-selective. The common distinguishing factor is whether or not such self-imposed and selected regulation tilts towards the common good as well.

 

Karl Sandelin, Kalamazoo, Michigan:

Am grateful to share in your writings, and this one (on Regulation and Religion) for me was special, aside from the moral message.  It was very revealing of the writer's life of learning -- in addition to his knowledge of philosophy and spiritual beliefs -- it taught me much about the English language.  I find it amazing how I use words without reflecting on their roots.  When I do, my admiration for the development of the English language increases; how it is able to cope with changes in life on earth - a word that long ago was used describing the binding of a wound (a ligature today) now also helps us spiritually, a different binding in religion, a spiritual tie.

 

Tracey Martin, Southfield, Michigan:  

It has been said that the purpose of religion is the control of women. So is liberty for the ladies a reason why we're becoming an increasingly secularized state? Dumbfounding is the admission of (Iowa candidate for the U.S. Senate) Joni Ernst that her religion inspires her to favor personhood at conception. That's how her god wants her to regulate female behavior. And she'll apparently further infect that cruelty into the U.S. Senate, where Republicans want to regulate everything but restrictions on corporations, such as environmental protection by EPA. "Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air."

 

Marcia Marshall, Topeka, Kansas:

I'm new out here, but I see what you mean about regulation and religion. I see it here. The religious people deny the right of government to regulate anything and yet expect non-believers to accept regulation by what is for all intents and purposes church law.

 

Charles Douglas, London, Ontario:

It isn't only in the States that sentiment for religion and regulation, as you put it, are in conflict. Here across the lake from you it is the same. But it is your constitution that is supposedly so strong on separation of church and state. I agree with you that it is "odd."

 

Fred Fenton, Concord, California:

It is lack of government regulation that contributes to banking failures, tax loopholes, gun deaths, runaway prescription prices, inhumane treatment of undocumented people, rape of the environment, and many other ills government could control. Those who want to "get government off our backs" are foes of working people and the poor. They want to be unrestrained in their efforts to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of the rich.

 

Stephen Ross, Washington, D.C.:  

Here I am at the heart of the problem you so accurately described in your essay "Regulation and Religion." You make a good point which will be lost on the very types you wrote about, that is those who would regulate others but wish themselves to be left to do as they please. I think it is grist for the mill of good psychiatrist.

 

Alyce Breckenridge, Boulder, Colorado:  
I heard you speak out here about 10 years ago, and I remember you saying something akin to what you wrote this week in your essay about regulations and religion. I'm glad that you have revisited the subject because it is much of the moment. A lot is at stake in that regard in the election next month. 

What do you think?
I'd like to hear from you. E-mail your comments to me at [email protected].