Everything that is of my kind, in nature and history,
speaks to me, praises me, spurs me on, comforts me - everything else I don't hear or forget right away.
We are always only in our own company.― Frederich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, note 166
How best should we interpret this? Tragically or triumphantly? To have this quoted boldly here may suggest the triumphal interpretation: that my kind is humankind and that all we have is each other. The tragic reading makes more sense to me: that, first and foremost, we are individuals, too often lost within ourselves. Our aim is to look onto reality with new eyes, to explore a set of truths our individuality blinds us to. In our increasingly complex world, the probability your neighbor appreciates the symmetrical rise in nuance is decreasing (let alone having the capacity/will; many are just surviving); who wishes to be lonely and with no neighbor? Bless the internet for giving everyone the opportunity to have an infinite set of neighbors.
Email me as you wish. I will do my best to reach back to you. I also respond to X dms too!
- alborz