Monday, August 17
Oregon Health Authority: deaths 388 (+0)
M has reached page 140 of Phenomenology of Perception. Things are heating up.
“Insofar as I have a body through which I act in the world, space and time are not, for me, a collection of adjacent points nor are they a limitless number of relations synthesized by my consciousness…I am not in space and time, nor do I conceive space and time; I belong to them, my body combines with them and includes them.”
Tuesday, August 18
Oregon Health Authority: deaths 397 (+9) cases 23,676 (+414)
Here’s another passage from Phenomenology of Perception, this from page 142. In it, the word ‘motility’ refers to our ability to move. If we see a friend across the way, we can move our arm and wave a greeting. If we see a piece of pie before us, we can reach for a fork. If we are otherwise paralyzed, we can move our eyeballs. The quote within the quote is from A. A. Grunbaum, Aphasie und Motorik, 1930.
“(Space)…is already built into my bodily structure, and is its inseparable correlative. ‘Already motility, in is pure state, possesses the basic power of giving a meaning.’ Even if, subsequently, thought and the perception of space are freed from motility and spatial being, for us to be able to conceive space, it is in the first place necessary that we should have been thrust into it by our body…”
Earlier in Phenomenology of Perception, Merleau-Ponty has suggested that it is not our ability to think that makes us sure we exist. Instead he says (if I’m getting this right) that it is our ability to make movements that defines the reality of the space in which we find ourselves. “I think, therefore I am” is fine, but thinking actually comes later. So if we’re serious about understanding this (rather ridiculous) stuff, we’d do better to start with “I can, therefore I am” or “I move, therefore I am.”
Wednesday, August 19
Oregon Health Authority: deaths 408 (+11) cases 23,870 (+194)
The Democratic National Convention is going on this week. On Monday we heard Bernie Sanders–sharp and on point–and Michelle Obama–tough and moving though a little overlong. The highlight for many was this passage from the former first lady: “Donald Trump is…clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. (sigh) It is what it is.” On Wednesday Kamala Harris made a strong impression and Barack Obama took his turn, praising Biden and saying that the current president “hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t.” Joe Biden’s speech on Thursday seems to have been generally well-received, with one Fox News commentator calling it a “home run.”
Thursday, August 20
Oregon Health Authority: deaths 412 (+4) cases 24,165(+295)
We’ve realized that we have been socializing quite a lot lately, maybe too much. We generally meet our friends outside, we have an arsenal of masks, and of course we try to be careful. Still, perhaps we are not minimizing risk as much as we ought. We heard an amusing story from another couple. It seems there was an intervention of sorts in their family, with both of their grown sons taking it in turn to tell them that they were going out far too much and urging them to act more responsibly. The parents replied “But we’re only doing what all our friends do…”
For safety in socializing, hiking seems like a good idea, but of course everyone in the world has the same idea, so the good places are jammed. For example, today we went with B and B to Silver Falls. It was nice, but it was on the crowded side and we had to wear our masks pretty much the whole time. For our next outing, we’re going to seek out some not so good place and see how that goes.
Friday, August 21
Oregon Health Authority: deaths 414 (+2) cases 24,421 (+256)
Both M and E did some watering this morning and then their paths diverged. M got down to work on the Diary while E went off to drink champagne (at 10:30 in the morning!) with her friend P who is celebrating the seventh anniversary of her arrival in Corvallis. M is thinking that maybe he should go to the kitchen and drink a glass of V-8 juice just to help maintain the overall balance of nature.
Instead he reads Chap. 5 of Part 1 of Phenomenology of Perception, which is titled “The Body in its Sexual Being.” Sounds interesting, eh? But Chapter 5 is tough sledding, eighteen pages of highly abstract generalities in which a single paragraph can go on for more than four pages. It has a kind of beauty and you could almost say that it has some kind of meaning, but it is hard to read and incredibly boring. Here’s one of the juicier parts:
Understood in this way, the relation of expression to thing expressed, or of sign to meaning, is not a one-way relationship like that between original text and translation. Neither body nor existence can be regarded as the original of the human being, since they presuppose each other, and because the body is solidified or generalized existence, and existence is a perpetual incarnation.
This is language of a very high level, way up there where there’s hardly any oxygen. Consequently, there isn’t one living, breathing word in the whole passage. They’ve all died.
Saturday, August 22
Oregon Health Authority: deaths 417 (+3) cases 24,710 (+289)
After a quiet Friday, E and M both attacked the garden this morning. E picked some delicious late raspberries and then gathered rhubarb for stewing and apples for sauce making. M picked blackberries for breakfast and later did edging and weeding on the west side of the garage, any area that receives only sporadic attention and nary a drop of watering. These August days continue warm, mostly sunny with highs in the 80’s and cool nights. The days are noticeably shorter as the weeks seem to fly away. Tonight there is a sliver of a moon.
Sunday, August 23
Oregon Health Authority: deaths 417 (+0) cases 24,937 (+227)
Time for a new Oregon pandemic curve chart. Thankfully, the sharply increasing trend that we saw in July and early August has not continued. Instead, average deaths per day have dropped by about a third, from 5.5 to 3.5.
