My friend LL and I read from the chapter on Dionysus in Mythology by Edith Hamilton and discuss the god of wine, life, and death. Dionysus is quite feminine – followed by women and opposed by law-giving and -enforcing kings – and teaches liberation and compassion. From these we draw some comparisons with Buddha and Jesus. Dionysus also is a nearly-perfect analog with vino – the plant and cultivated drink – that which inspires poetry and crime – and I find the tragedy of that image moving. Finally, we discuss his worship in fields outside the city and most of all, the theater, through which he lives even to this day.

A case against positivity – in continuing the discussion about LL’s fear of losing her family and the idea of impermanence in life, we move on to ways to come to terms with this fact. We mention art and the country of Bhutan, a famously happy place rife with sculptures made of human ash and where death is meditated on daily. LL ends with reflections on the personal memory of her grandmother’s corpse.

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Negative virtues may help one be better and be less self-deceptive.

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The idea of impermanence seems obvious to me – look at history broadly, or look at life through a large lens, or through an individual one. But my mind revolts at this, and we suffer…

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Does accepting the truth of ever-present death help one embrace life? Comforted by the naturalness or universality of it.

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We discuss the temptation and even sick comfort of a fantasy of an artificial immortality in the movie Solaris. And AI as a complementary You. Plato, health, and maturity. The greedy beast within.

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I ask my friend what motivates her and she points to the eye of conscience or God. “Conscience,” after all, is constituted partially by knowledge.

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