rattus rattus’ blog

Or: Are we free to be free?
Or: The tyranny of the liberty of meaning.

We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name — liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names — liberty and tyranny.

— The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume VII, “Address at Sanitary Fair, Baltimore, Maryland” (April 18, 1864), p. 301-302; quoted from A collection of Abraham Lincoln Quotes by Roger Norton.

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A friend replied with the following statement — and only this statement — to a postcard I had sent:

For me, this simply is not enough.

I assume that when he wrote it, or at least shortly before, the statement was true. Or believed to be true. And whatever he is referring to, it made him write this very reply.
This simply is quite something. Let alone a hell of a lot.

And it could not be unless the statement was a lie. Simply a lie.
Thanks my friend.

[Ratta asserting her colorfulness.]

[Guest post by our dear reader and frequent commenter bb, in reply to To my friends]

Whenever I meet ‘black-and-white’ people (I call b&w those who part the world in what’s right=white and what’s wrong=black and don’t allow anything in between), I always have this kind of choking feeling — as if I was in a crowded elevator, with a horrible, tight dress my grandmother bought and obliged me to wear, going to some annoying 10th degree relatives dinner where everybody will inquire and argue about my empty love life. Ok, maybe I’ve a little bit overstated it, but not that much! However, I really feel compassion for this kind of people, who miss all the wonderful colors (and nuances!) between b and w …

Let me explain how this is pictured into my mind. The b and the w are just the extreme points of a straight line (maybe infinite), and anything in life is something (or everything) in between. Maybe everyone has different b and w points, and maybe what’s red for me is green for you (and this adds to the fun!), but the point is that there are infinitely many colors of life. And, I guess, two people feeling a great agreement, are lying on the same color, right on the same moment.

But now I discover something worse than b&w people, which is, b=w people! Or, everything is equal to nothing, wrong is equal to right, good is equal to bad. Aargh! Yes, you don’t need to be a mathematician to see what the result is: If the extreme points of a line coincide, then the line is just a point: No colors at all! How could I survive in a world without colors!? And, don’t you just try to drop the extremes and keep what’s in between! Because in this case, all what is in between exists just as (linear;) combination of the extremes. If there are no b and w, there is nothing at all! :-(

So, you need your reference points, your right and your wrong, so that you can choose. And, when you know you can choose to choose right, choose to choose wrong, or choose anything in between and change your position in the line as fast as you can, anyway you always choose. And this is the enjoyment of all the colors of life. If I look back to all my experiences (that I love to call the adventures of my life), I realize that I enjoyed more those I put in their right color. I enjoyed the white of being useful for a friend, I enjoyed the blue of stealing sunflowers to eat the seeds, I enjoyed the red of living my passions, I enjoyed the green and the yellow and the orange (oh, may I suggest you the orange …), and each in a wonderfully different way!

I wish you to see your b and your w, and to enjoy both, and everything in between.

BTW, to whom it may concern, I’m on the orange now: come here and make love with me! ;-)

[/Guest post by our dear reader and frequent commenter bb, in reply to To my friends]

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