Tim Hollo

Here are some wandering wonderings on the echoing implications of our relationship with death

There’s a trigger warning on this one
#mushrooms #fungi #death #epstein #transformation #Arendt

https://in-between-days.ghost.io/on-mushrooms-death-transformation-and-epstein/?ref=in-between-days-newsletter

On mushrooms, death, transformation... and Epstein

Wonderings on the echoing implications of our relationship with death When I die, compost me. Put me under a tree - a snow gum, if possible - and let it feed. Let the mushrooms and their mycelia unmake me into morsels, into molecules becoming free to become something otherwise. Consider

In Between Days
Feb 25 at 12:19amWeb
Show threadthe roamerFeb 25

@timhollo

Those are powerful thoughts and images. I shall take time to re-read and reflect.

Composition / making is twinned with decomposition / unmaking, and blocking out the decomposition side paralyses us. The Epstein class are the pathological expression of this denial, and we can only fight them by recognising the healing and growth-giving power of loss and and loss-integrating renewal.

I love how you link these strands to Hannah Arendt's analyses. (She is the most under-rated political/social thinker of the mid 20th century.)

(There are resonances with the I Ching and the Tao Te Ching too!)

#decomposition #fungi #death #DeathDenial #HannahArendt #Epstein

Show threadthe roamerFeb 25

@timhollo

And your post made me revisit Goethe's poem Selige Sehnsucht, about death and re-birth.

A while ago I tried my clumsy hand at a very free translation of the final verse, here:

https://mastodonapp.uk/@the_roamer/112665864578987364

the roamer (@[email protected])

And if this One Thing you don't possess, // This: Vanish and Become! // Then you are just a muted guest, // On our lightless earth. Und solang du das nicht hast, // Dieses: Stirb und werde! // Bist Du nur ein trüber Gast // Auf der dunklen Erde. JW Goethe, Selige Sehnsucht, from West-östlicher Divan, 1814. #Goethe #StirbUndWerde #Phoenix #metamorphosis #Tao #poetry #humbleeffortsattranslation [My second attempt at translating this passage.]

Mastodon App UK
Show threadTim HolloFeb 25
@the_roamer I’ve never made the time to properly read Goethe. Must do so. And yes, Arendt is finally starting ti be recognised, I feel, but historically so under appreciated.
Show threadTim HolloFeb 25
@the_roamer and the Tao De Ching, too! I have a magnificent version translated / interpreted by Le Guin which I dip into frequently