SERIOUS GRAVITY (A SANITY PRIMER)

  At the lecture from the previous day, the professor with the bow tie and the pointed loafers had said something to the effect of ...  " even granting for arguments sake - variables existing within the realm of appearances... liable to cause diverse perceptions and interpretations, and able to produce divergences in methodologies with regard to theories of knowledge currently in play, we arrive at a set of possibilities that can be mapped out comprehensively ..." That part which Q quoted verbatim in his mind was music to his ears -... The mapping out of possibilities to the nth degree... He seemed to have stumbled upon a kindred spirit... This professor had posited the A.M. as Absolute Mystery a.k.a. U.R for Ultimate Reality to cover all possible bases - pleasing to believers in God and non-believers alike... convenient for partisans of Natural Law, of Iron Fate, of Karma or Blind Chance, of Molecular Randomness, or Cosmic Evolution, of the Whimsicalities associated with Mul...

The flux of the mind continues - YES ... the feverish traffic of the brain, myself included ... we grant you this fact, Montaigne, so hold your horses - but also those deep obsessions - sources of continuity for me at least...  You have issues with Montaigne? The French guy?  Famous Skeptic, Stoic, Epicurean, nominal Catholic (very nominal and slack)... Inventor of the modern essay... All-around-"chill guy" -- Yes, yes, yes and more yes... He annoys you? Oh - he's so very relaxed all the time - isn't he? It's a pose you think? Well - how could it not be in part - writing during the wars of religion, living through the plague,  giving advice to kings, those episodes with kidney stones - and falling off his horse that one time - nearly died...  And? Oh - I don't know... the essays meander on for pages at a time...All those digressions - I have no idea what he's getting at half the time... So what is it? Well - he's the first hippie (philosopher) for star...