There’s a rumor that one can find comfort in thinking about thinking.  I think that misses the point.. maybe?

Consolation of Philosophy
by Michael Romani

To think on actively thinking
Isn't meant to make one more calm
But to bring one to the brink
It's to make one well; not act as a balm

Certainly, there's a consolation to philosophy
This is especially true for those seeking solace not apathy
But, it's hardly a monograph for a happy life
More than once leading to less peace and more strife

Nietzsche sought less to instruct than to terrify
Insisting that we become who we are in reply
Delivering an electric jolt to our souls
We are to learn who we are and fulfill that role

Life and love regarded as challenges not balms
Serving as a modern day sort of Psalms
The idea of decadence gives birth to tragedy
But in mankind's foolishness, it is mistaken for comedy

The suffering of overabundance is a neuroses of health
Where life comes too hard and richly gives its wealth
We need an antidote to the doldrums of too much sanity
It comes as a cure for our maladjusted vanity

There we stand in the blur of primordial shadow
Offering thanks to the Dionysian and the Apollo
Ricocheting from one to another sort of extreme
As indulgent spirits dull the fin de siècle dreams

These are the journeys taken to prove we're not asleep
Is it any wonder that that even the willows weep?
We are seduced through this need and will to power
Yet, still believe this makes up our finest hour

We must steel ourselves to comfort's imperative
Growing stronger instead through hardship's declaratives
In doing this, we then somehow learn how to endure
And in so doing, we find life's much needed cure

(c) September 25, 2018  Michael Romani
All Rights Reserved