On! On! Pozzo saith

I thought about starting this blog with a bibliography but it got to be much too long. Nonetheless it should be said that there were numerous inspirations for me to start writing online. For my 60th birthday I received the gift of many books, very appropriately for a bibliophile who has a book under his arm almost always. Anyway, I would like to knowledge and recommend without reservation the following list:

Theater and Identity in Imperial Russia, by Catherine A. Schuler better-known as my sister. This is somewhat of a sequel to her first book, Women in Russian Theater. Although these are academic books, I have found many parallels to our own culture in the times to which she refers. She teaches at University of Maryland.

Making the Good Life Last, by Michael A. Schuler, also known as my brother, which is somewhat like an extended essay on various aspects of sustainability. He is the senior pastor at First Unitarian-Universalist in Madison Wisconsin, a very large congregation. He has also directed a large addition to the Frank Lloyd Wright original building, meticulously designed to be very green but also blend into the original design. Well done!

My parents, CW Schuler and Nancy Schuler have also contributed, once again, to my reading list. My father sent me "Armageddon", by Max Hastings which is a detailed recounting of the last year of World War II, in which he actually participated in eastern Germany and Czechoslovakia. He has also written, "Winner Take All,"a novel about this era and this location, in a true existentialist style. My mother sent me something, "and now for something completely different," from a more female perspective which is a new and excellent biography of Flannery O'Connor, entitled, simply, "Flannery". I have read all of Flannery's stories and whatever letters in prose I could find and the reader will probably see various references" pertaining to her works in future posts


My Wonderful Wife, Flo, got me, at the suggestion of my wonderful daughter-in-law, Grace, a book which Grace read under the tutelage of a Kierkegaard scholar; this would be . "Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing" (I must add that Dragonspeak really did not want to do this title. Go figure!)The title pretty much says it all however I am finding this to be a good book to read along with "The Sickness unto Death" by the same author. More about Kierkegaard as we go along but this is an author that I found incomprehensible in college.

I would be remiss to fail to mention the work of another family member, Daniel William Schuler who self published, by hand, with artwork, a collection of his poetry from college days, "Out of the Mouths of Dragons" you will not find this on Google or Amazon.com but it certainly is available by request!

Still another family member has a thesis on Augustine and his influence on W.H. Auden. This would be Stephen Schuler and he is currently seeking a publisher. Hopefully that will become available in the near future. I will also be making references to this work or at least the concepts therein. The frequent references to various kinds of dualisms is probably going to be an emerging theme of bassocontinuo.

Just an additional thought: the basso continuo line often makes very little sense and is not always pleasing to the ear, by itself. Practicing this line, for instance a bass or tenor line on the recorder, is always more difficult and less satisfying than playing the melody. The song is ended but the melody goes on; but the basso continuo does not continue on, it just ends, and very few people can remember it except for possibly professional musicians. I would say that if this blog seems discordant please recall that there is a melody, which I can hear, but others may not. If you like, provide your own melody line! There are endless possibilities. At times I might sound like Pascal and at other times like Bozo the clown but once again, Patience! Patience is one of the four cardinal virtues of sustainability, according to my brother's book. The other three are, practicing prudence, paying attention, and staying put. I certainly am in favor of all four! These basso continuo lines, however, do not play well in the cinema etc. but then again, entertainment is or should be a smaller part of our life than some of these "boring" matters which should be of critical interest/crucial concern. More on all of this to follow, of course. Thank you for reading this and your input is solicited.

"Hell is other people." Jean Paul Sartre

"Hell is the loss of the ability to love." Dostoyevsky

Fables for Our Time, "The Bear Who Let It Alone", James Thurber

"In the woods of the Far West there once lived a brown bear who could take it or let it alone.he would go into a bar where they sold mead, a fermented drink made of honey, and he would just have two drinks.then he would put some money on the bar and say,' See what the Bears in the back room will have,'and he would go home. But finally he took to drinking by himself most of the day. He would reel home at night, knock over the umbrella stand, knock down the bridge lamps, and ram his elbows through the windows. Then he would collapse on the floor and lie there until he went to sleep. His wife was greatly distressed and his children were very frightened."

"At length the bear saw the error of his ways and began to reform. In the end he became a famous teetotaler and a persistent temperance lecturer. He would tell everybody that came to his house about the awful effects of drink, and he would boast about how strong and well he had become since he gave up touching the stuff. To demonstrate this, you would stand on his head and on his hands and he would turn cartwheels in the house, knocking over the umbrella stand, kicking down the bridge lamps, and ramming his elbows through the windows. Then he would lie down on the floor, tired by his healthful exercise, and go to sleep. His wife was greatly distressed and his children were very frightened. "

"Moral: You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward."

Commentary: this might be called, "The Pharisee/Sadducee Complex" I include this because I have extensive experience with both sides of the coin. I hope to turn this coin into the Bank in exchange for some foreign-currency of the alien type. This will become clearer, I hope, in the future commentaries/exchanges.Meantime,"Render unto Caesar.............."