Nietzsche Saves

In the beginning, the elohim created skies and earth. 

Welcome back.  I hope you are in a time in your life when you feel fully blessed.  

I just heard an owl call out.  It is so early in the morning now.

 My daily perambulation against this morning's stiff, cold wind that nibbled through my layered attire has passed.  I sit in a warm room with only the sound of a clock ticking and my keyboard tapping.  It soothes me.

I am here feeling such joy at being alive.  Despite my job that would wither away lesser mortals, I do feel fully blessed this morning, for I dwell with my greatest loves.  

My greatest love stirs, having been awakened by our moaning cat.  She and I will settle into our morning routine of coffee drinking, breakfast preparing, newspaper reading, and eggs.  

My other love, confirmed by my greatest love, is Being alive in life through any manifestation of love--for my love is Love who also stirs in the cold wind, moves in the night sky, the twittering earth, and the raccoon couple I saw scampering across the street where the seam between lamplight and nighttime stretched over pavement and grass.

Sometimes any singular life, such as mine is, surrounded by a world's woe, must name those spaces where Love dwells.  Our most profound experience of what we call eternity occurs there.

This morning, before I heard the owl, I had been thinking about Frederick Nietzsche and how my faith owes a tremendous debt to his writings.  

Anyone who reads his books knows what it means when someone says they have fallen under his spell at least once in their lives.  

I was such a one.  It is rare that I am utterly surprised by a writer.  Nietzsche wrapped my mind around his prose for a few years.  I read most of his books, and I read other writers searching to gain insight in what the heck Nietzsche meant.  

I sought a system where there was none.  Nietzsche expressed spontaneous insight in a time when the Europe was casting off all sky gods.

Here in the United States, more of us are just beginning to catch up.  When was the last time you saw a NFL player score a touchdown and point upwards in celebration?

Today, Nietzsche would be drowned out except among intellectuals.  His writings are for our generation and others in the future.  

I was so under his spell that when I was in seminary, I wore a shirt to class that said: NIETSCHE SAVES.  

A friend from Chattanooga, who made t-shirts, misspelled his name.  I wore the shirt anyway as a joke.  No one at seminary noticed, or if they did, no one said anything.

I was proud to be the only Tennessean attending this Southern Baptist seminary in Marin County.  Nearly everybody else was from Texas.  I regret that I did not represent myself better academically.  I was a country boy dropped into the biggest city I had ever seen.  I sought adventures rather than good grades.  

This was the year 1983 when A Clean and Well Lighted Place bookstore in Larkspur Landing, CA sold black hats with author's names emblazoned in gold letters.  Naturally, I snatched up the one with Nietzsche's name and wore it on campus.

I laugh at myself when I recall my seminary days.  I lived richly, thought myself to be quite the theological overman, and I met wonderful people.

The campus was ethereal in its loveliness.  Many nights I sat on Chapel Hill and stared at San Francisco glittering across the bay.  Being-Itself smothered me there and managed to somehow cram itself into this memory that makes my heart race to recall it.

Next time, I will write about how Nietzsche saves.

Blessings...