REPUBLIC OF LETTERS: Stuff from the ethereal mailbag. Thanks to all who have written, including those to whom I still owe replies….

From James A., and from weeks and weeks ago, sorry!:

…Re: year-old comments on Theology of the Body seminar that you linked t’other day: ‘All the platypus has to do to fulfill its telos is, like, be its weird-ass mammal egg-laying self, whereas humans can’t get away with just being “human, all-too-human.” We actually have a task which we can either accept or refuse.’

This reminded me a lot of Epictetus the Stoic’s comments on praising God (from the Moral Discourses of Epictetus): ‘For what else can I do, a lame old man, than sing hymns to God? If then I was a nightingale, I would do the part of a nightingale; if I were a swan, I would do like a swan. But now I am a rational creature, and I ought to praise God. This is my work; I do it, nor will I desert this post, so long as I am allowed to keep it, and I exhort you to join in this same song.’

A reader who may want anonymity, on the missing pants:

…[W]hy hasn’t the judge hearing the case found a way to dismiss it? If I were the judge (or the clerk) on this case, I would be working feverishly to see if the law allowed me to somehow cap the amount of damages or dismiss the whole thing. Maybe the lawyer — who is an administrative law judge, by the way — could be given onerous sanctions.

From Bill Loughlin, on Dali:

Until a year or two ago I just thoght Dali … was just another self-
indulgent artist. Then while I was in St Petersburg FL my wife and I went to the Dali museum there. Now, having seen a broad spectrum of his work, and learned so much more about him, I think he is one of the great artists of history. His religious works are incredible, reminiscent of El Greco, and have to be seen in person to be appreciated–you could never see everything in one of his huge canvases by looking at it in a book or online. He converted from atheism and communism rather late in life, and it really seemed to cause a creative explosion.

Now I have to figure out how much to save to be able to buy an edition…