In ancient Classical Greek texts, Socrates refers to the spiritual "trail"
that he followed. How he discovers this trail, why it was concealed,
and how it can teach us to be brave, beautiful, ethical, and very happy
will be revealed in the twenty-four chapters of
CONTEMPLATING SOCRATES.

16 October 2006

I have been away a long time. My friend Jeannette said, "Ah, there is a season for everything," but consoling as this was to me, it is not much consolation to a reader left high and dry.

All year long, and most intensely during these last months, I have been working on a website called Brits At Their Best. Certainly Brits at their worst have been fairly thoroughly described, so I and a friend, David Abbott, thought we would try to describe the Brits who had inspired us, made us laugh, or even filled us with courage, for intrepid Brits, working and dying in a tradition strongly shaped by Socrates, Aristotle, and Judeo-Christianity, have made wonderful contributions to freedom and representative government.

We hope we also offer insights into gardens,writers, artists, heroes, inventors, and sports. You can find us here »

Meanwhile, I have decided that Socrates needs a complete rewrite. I trust I will be back.

I hope this finds you full of hope. Blessings!

Here is the link to the Brits:

britsattheirbest.com >

4 May 2006

Like everyone who contemplates, I find my mind wanders, and when it does, I am likely to be thinking of a job that needs doing or a bill I am supposed to pay. When his mind wanders, Socrates, being Socrates, thinks about the problems of establishing moral truth. Recently I found his thoughts in this chapter helpful in understanding our chaotic political life, and in making sense of a personal problem.

Chapter 13, Making Contact, invites you into the contemplative experience as I believe Socrates experienced it. I am sure it is an experience others have shared. And I am pretty sure that by following the steps I have described in the preceding chapters you can share Socrates' contemplative experience in MAKING CONTACT.

In the end the contemplative experience speaks to us without words.

May this find you well.

7 April 2006

I have not been able to keep my promise to put up a new chapter every week. It has been almost a month, and if you have lost interest in the story, I can well understand, but oh, please, do give the story a chance. Socrates is learning about the footsteps of God, but he is just as uninclined to walk in them as I was for such a long time in my life. In Chapter 12 he learns more than he ever dreamed he would know. It may sound quite strange, but there is a deep connection between contemplation and the love of a dog. . .BY THE DOG INTO THE LIGHT AGAIN »

8 March 2006

At last, Chapter 11 is up. Socrates is still searching for the extraordinary presence he experienced in Chapter 10. He is beginning to understand the true meaning of freedom as well.

11 February 2006

The opinionjournal injects Socrates into what they call "the cartoon conflagration":

The Western philosophical tradition is founded on the belief that the execution of Socrates for blaspheming the gods of Athens was an injustice. When British Muslims carry placards reading "Butcher those who mock Islam," they are making their differences with that tradition depressingly plain.

... There's a lesson in this for those who would have us believe that what this cartoon conflagration represents is a conflict of civilizations. There is a conflict all right, not between civilizations, but within one, and it pits those who would make Islam barbaric and those who would keep it civilized. In that struggle, the heirs of Socrates and the heirs of al-Farabi must make common cause.

What Socrates has to say is not exactly what rational secularists think. To read the whole article: http://www.opinionjournal.com/weekend/hottopic/?id=110007956

7 February 2006

In the next chapter, INTO THE LIGHT » Socrates meets head on the grisly myth of the House of Atreus. This myth embodies in harrowing detail the code of blood revenge – an ancient code with ghastly consequences today. Socrates' challenge is to understand the myth's meaning for his life, and to find the light, where there are no stones.

Plato's SYMPOSIUM suggests that Socrates learns about the light from Diotima, and experiences one of the first guided visualizations in recorded history.

It's a strange combination, you may think – the House of Atreus and a mystical experience. I hope that as this story unfolds we will see how momentous this experience is for Socrates personally, and for civilization. INTO THE LIGHT »

And see Patricia's response to Chapter 10 in Comments and Ideas. I wasn't sure who wanted their comments published before. I'm getting some wonderful ones, and they're going up.

24 January 2006

It has been several weeks since I last posted, but Chapter 9 is now up.

I have rejoiced at a wedding and been grieved by a death. I have had the joy of correspondence with my cousin Rick and with a stranger, who sent the inspiring message to "go deeper". I hope that I will.

In another vein, my aunt Rita has pointed out a logical inconsistency in Chapter 4. I assured her I was merely quoting Plato, but she cut me no slack, so I have introduced a "correction." Also at Rita's suggestion I have tried to evoke the strength of Socrates' desire and why it is a matter of life and death to him to understand arete´. You see how wonderful and implacable an aunt can be! The result, as you have already guessed, is that this is a work in progress, and I am more than ever indebted to my readers. I hope you will find some interest in this new chapter, where Socrates hammers the stones: CHAPTER NINE »

5 January 2006

Yesterday I sat down with Maggi White, who hosts OPB's Golden Hours Radio at www.opb.org/programs/streams/ Maggi has, as she says, an eclectic range of programming. I was preceded by an expert on vegetarian cooking, so there is lots going on, all mediated by Maggi's intelligent curiousity.

Maggi's gift to me was giving me the time to articulate all I had seen and felt about Socrates and share it with her and her listeners. She asked some tough questions. She was particularly interested in whether I thought believing in God is necessary for a good and beautiful and happy life. I said I couldn't speak for anyone else. I could only speak for myself. For me the answer is yes. Yet what does believing in God really mean?

Marcus Borg and others tell us that our English word believe originally meant to hold dear. That's the kind of believing Socrates did. It took him awhile, but through his sanctuary experience and the years of plague and war that followed, he came to cherish God the way you or I cherish a friend. That's the real story in Contemplating Socrates, how that happened, and how his friendship with God gave him a transcendental courage.

4 January 2006

Not knowing him, but judging by the expression on his face, lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court to charges of conspiracy, tax evasion and mail fraud, is taking a painful look at his life right now. But perhaps this nadir of his fortunes is liberating, too. He is, we hope, going to speak the truth, and set himself free, and free us of some elected representatives who forgot they were in Congress to do their best for us. Jack Abramoff was carrying some heavy stones. The wonder is he managed to carry them so long. The pity is he ever picked them up in the first place. Old friends say Jack Abramoff began as an idealist. Tragically, for some reason he lost sight of the beauty of the teachings that give life.

Facing and naming the stones is the challenge for Socrates in Chapter 8. This is part of what he meant when he said, "Know thyself."

3 January 2006

I sometimes wonder what life would be like if everyone put down their stones – greed, trying to please, intellectual arrogance, envy, procrastination, addiction, sloth, boredom, narcissism, finding fault, impatience, rage, promising too much, giving too little. There are at least a hundred other stones. I know because I've carried most of them. This week, in Chapter 8, Socrates takes the Fourth Step on his spiritual trail, and tries to name his stones. Diotima tells him, "We cannot live the life we are called to live until we face the stones, and we will never really be happy until we put them down. You do not own the stones. It is probable you never wanted them. But you are carrying them, so it is your task to put them down." This is the challenge Socrates faces.

John Benson has contributed a photo for this chapter. Thank you, John.

Blessings in the New Year!

08 FOURTH STEP, NAMING THE STONES »

23 December 2005

Dear friends,

Chapter 7, Waiting on Mystery, is waiting for you.

16 December 2005

Dear friends,

I really can't say much about this chapter without giving it away. Suffice it to say, it is in this chapter that Socrates takes the second step on the trail.

2 December 2005

Dear friends,

The title of chapter 5, Are you really serious? is a question that can be heard several ways. Perhaps everyone has heard or asked the question darkly. I like to think of it being asked hopefully...

25 November 2005

Gina Bradford hopes that Contemplating Socrates will turn out to be historical fiction, which she loves to read. Perhaps! In Chapter 4, Meeting Diotima, Socrates explores what love desires. I hope you enjoy it.

16 November 2005

I sometimes wonder what American politics would be like if our elected representatives practiced Socratic elenchus. It is not that difficult to do, but it does require answering a series of questions briefly and truly and being able to face a conclusion. In Chapter 3 Socrates takes the first step on the trail by practicing elenchus. . . 03 THE FIRST STEP, ELENCHUS »

8 November 2005

The Oregon hills are misty with light as I post Chapter 2. In this chapter Socrates is looking for a friend, someone to stand beside him, and he is searching for the first step on the trail. . . 02 A SHOULDER TO LEAN ON »

You might like to head to Chapter 1 » if you have just arrived...

1 November 2005

Greetings! I'm so glad you're here. I wonder if you have the same slightly unenthusiastic feeling about Socrates that I had before I started reading about him in Classical Greek?

As I studied reports about Socrates in the language he spoke, I had the sensation I was meeting a stranger. This was not the irritating philosopher I remembered from humanities classes, which wrapped him in the toga he never wore. The Socrates I met in the classical texts dressed in a short tunic and cloak, was a battle-hardened soldier who defied tyrants, and a man who liked to party, though he could take or leave a drink. The father of three sons, he endured hardships that destroyed other men, and risked his life to oppose injustice. . .

I hope you'll check him out in 01 THE SEARCH »

Here in Oregon today the rain poured down with a sound like a waterfall, but it isn't wet and dark all over the world. It was sunny in New York and England, and the skies are clearing in Greece. . .

©2006 CATHERINE GLASS