Starter 1.17:
Interpret the song and react. What intellectual and/or emotional impact do the lyrics and music have on you? (philosophically speaking…)
Ticking away, the moments that make up a dull day
Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lieing in the sunshine
Staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long
And there is time to kill today
And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun
And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
And racing around, to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death
Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught, or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time has come, the song is over
Thought I'd something more to say
(Breathe Reprise)
Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
When I come home cold and tired
It's good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away, across the fields
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
to hear the softly spoken magic spell....
Pair share: DanIsNotonFire
- What do you think existentialism is at this point?
- Did DanIsNotOnFire terrify you? How are you feeling about studying this topic? Are you worried you might spill milk all over the counter while making cereal one morning? If so, there’s no use crying over spilt milk.
Reading: Chapter 28: “The Meaning of Life” Richard Taylor
Journal 1.17: Reactions to Taylor
After reading, react to the ideas in the text.
- Can you make any intertextual connections between this reading, the myth of Sisyphus, Dan's video, and/or the Pink Floyd song? Draw conclusions about both texts and any common threads of meaning you might see.
- What do you think about Taylor’s claim that “The meaning of life is from within us, it is not bestowed from without, and it far exceeds in both its beauty and permanence any heaven of which men have ever dreamed or yearned for.”