The Self-Apologizer Speaks: I'm sorry for saying what I shouldn't have said.
The Self-Defender Replies: Good God, man, did I just hear you right? Did you just say that you apologize for saying what we both meant? Take some testosterone, will you? Don't ever let me hear you apologizing for being who you are, and saying what you mean!
The Self-Apologizer Retaliates: Yeah, that's easy for you to say. But see what happens when I don't bite my tongue. We used to be on Easy Street making a nice, cool $50-$60,000 without too much effort -- and we had the whole morning and afternoon to create and build Hegel's Hotel...Now look at us ..we are lucky to find 5 minutes to write and both of us are looking for a new place to live because we can't pay our rent! So much for saying what we mean, and meaning what we say!! What do you have to say about that Mr. Testosterone?
The Self-Defender Strikes Back: Well, I'd rather be a man with no money, than have money and not be a man. So what do you have to say about that, Mr. Walking on Egg Shells...Assuming you are man enough to speak to me boldly and without stuttering!!
The Self-Apologizer Speaks Boldly: Yeah, well try this: The next time we have to speak to an employer about something we don't like, try sticking a sock in your mouth and count to 10...while I talk to him a little more carefully and diplomatically than we did the last time!!
The Self-Defender Still Hasn't Finished: Yeah, well 'Careful' is your Middle Name...and your whole existence...Have you ever even taken a risk? You're like the high school teenager who's back is plastered against the dance floor wall...In case you're too blind to see, there's never been any women that I can remember who's ever waled over to you to ask you to dance!! Who do you think gets us the action? You or me?
The Self-Apologizer Remembers: Well, that's not exactly true, back in our earlier days, there were a few women who made moves on us...There must have been something they liked...
The Self-Defender Laughs: Yeah, I remember...that's because they all knew that if they had to wait on you to move your feet and clear your vocal chords, they'd be 'Waiting For Godot'!! And besides, they were probably looking for me, not for you!!
The Self-Apologizer Retaliates: Well, where were you back then, Mr. Big Stuff? I don't remember you talking to me back then like you are now...
The Self-Defender Replies: Hmmm, Let's just say I was still evolving from your Chicken Space!!
The Self-Apologizer Still Has More Fire: Well, I wouldn't say that we are exactly 'evolving' right now...'Macho Man'....I would call this 'devolving'!!! Or regressing!! Pretty soon we'll both have regressed back to Cave Men and we will both be trying to catch our next dinner in the forest!!
The Self-Defender Shoots Back: Well, you just keep driving, keep your eyes on the road, and earning us a living, and I'll think up next what we are going to write on Hegel's Hotel!! We have to figure out how to be more than 'sheep in a herd'. You read Nietzsche, he was talking to you...You're afraid of your own shadow...You're too afraid to be anything but another sheep in the herd!!
The Self-Apologizer Is Not Through Yet: Well, I'd rather be a sheep in a herd rather than a goat jumping off a cliff...Right now, we're both looking at the bottom of the abyss looming closer and closer...So much for Nietzsche's 'Superman'!! You've already shown us that we can't fly....just fall like a rock!!!
The Self-Defender chimes in a little optimism: Well, we learned in Gestalt Therapy that 'everything is subject to change'....Hang in there dear boy...We just have to grab a hold of the abyss wall here and climb our way back -- back to the top of the cliff again...and try once again to fly!!!
The Self-Apologizer Gets His Last Word In: I'm getting too old for this. Can't we just find a nice middle class job again? Something that will house us and feed us for another 5 years...and give us time to write and have a bit of a life? I don't think either of us has to worry about after 60...because I don't think either of us is going to be around...just long enough to finish Hegel's Hotel....and maybe one day...if we're lucky...see Europe one more time...have a glass of red wine where Sartre sat in his favorite cafe...see where Diderot put together his colossal Enlightenment project, Encyclopedie...see where Rousseau lived in the forests of Switzerland... see where Kant walked by in Germany every day that people could set their watches by him...see where Hegel saw Napoleon on his white horse..."I saw the Spirit on his horse", wrote Hegel....see where Holderlin wrote his famous poetry and engaged in his scandalous love affair....see where Schelling lectured...visit where Spinoza lived in Holland...visit where David Hume and Adam Smith lived in Scotland...visit Aberdeen, Scotland...the European origins of my dad's side of the family..
The Self-Defender Cuts His Dialectic Partner Off: Enough!! I want to go there too...just as bad or worse than you do...but right now, just drive the limo and stop talking...We've got a lot of work ahead of us...and not much time to do it...
-- dgb, May 17th, 18th, 2010
-- David Gordon Bain
-- Dialectic Gap-Bridging Negotiations...
-- Are Still In Process....
