La Bete courtesy of filmosphere.com

There was a table set forth and a chair;

For two will come to share,

But compromise shall not be there.

If only could there be a meeting of the minds,

And an understanding of their kinds,

As we follow their struggle through time.

A story of two extremes

Sets the stage for the coming scenes

As a ghostly guide becomes the mean.

The conflict begins with the play of words,

From their hearts soundings, it can be heard,

Two different thoughts from two different birds.

From the contrast of black and white,

I see the essence of day and night,

I understand the underlying fight.

This is a universal reflection of life,

As actors play actors in strife.

One representing a well known and established existence,

And the other looked upon as an unknown, resistance.

Both governed by a higher authority which is never seen,

And aided/hindered by a ghostly mean.

A twofold message was all too clear,

At first of an isolated, but soon to be used a wheelchair.

A crippling effect had been shown by the separation,

As well as... one extremes limitation.

On one side, we have structure, restriction, and refinement

Accompanied by conscience and a desire.

On the other side, we have a boundless,

Restless and careless ever-growing fire.

Amidst the extremes unforeseen

is the combination- the mean.

It appears that the conflict is over communication,

Showing how we continue to undermine our relations.

But at the heat of the battle, we must hold our defense

And pay tribute and reverence to our Prince.  

During my studies in the early 1990s, I took a course in theatre and as extra credit for the course, I wrote the above poem to describe one of the plays we performed.  The play’s setting 17th century France.  I used the French word, ‘La Bete,’ to mean the wager, and discovered the real meaning, the beast, was more appropriate. 

My note states, “The title literally asks the question will we learn to see all sides and communicate freely among ourselves.”  God, the ghostly means communicates with us through boundaries, language, and numbers.  Our stories are the way we communicate with each other. 

I realized today, I’ve demonstrated in my own personal journey the very words of Cicero.  Especially, the last lines, “For once we learn that we are equipped by nature for acquiring wisdom, and we sense that the mind, as sort of image of the gods, is worthy of care and cultivation.”  Thus, confirming in my mind, we all have the ability to join the two extremes and find peace in the land. 

 “let these truths be self-evident…”

Roman philosophy conceived natura, the nature of things, as present-at-hand and readily available to easy philosophic contemplation and the formulation of ethical doctrines.  It thereby failed to renew the vibrant amplitude of the Greek physis, which embraces the emergence and coming-to-be of things no less than their distinct standing-forth in full presence before the mind's eye. The Roman narrowing of nature, therefore, prepared the way for the modern view of beings as mere disposable resources, easily accessible to human projects and manipulation.

...By tremendous efforts Greek philosophy had achieved its insight into the distinction between and yet necessary belonging-together of nature and convention, being and appearance, truth, and opinion, an insight anticipated in the dark lyrics of the pre-Socratic thinkers and given its consummate expression in the works of Plato and Aristotle. But now, in the moribund Roman republic, this grasp upon the tense unity of nature and convention was forgotten by politicians unformed by philosophy and philosophers disdainful of politics.  ...Cicero strove to reyoke the sundered pair.

Poetry and law (the law has taken in a wide sense, as the Greek nomos, to include custom and tradition) appear to immortalize the transient or even to bring non-being into being by touching our minds and memories through words.  If philosophy, which strives uncompromisingly to unveil the true nature of things, is the antithesis of poetry, it would likewise seem to be the enemy of the traditions and beliefs on which law depends and which in some measure law is.  

The beginning of Cicero's laws unobtrusively questions whether law contains any truth whatever. Law, like poetry, maybe nothing more than a fiction that furnishes pleasure by establishing trust in eternally binding precepts and practices.  Cicero forestalls this positivist inference by drawing a distinction between two senses of the word law: the popular sense, according to which law is "that which sanctions in writing whatever it wishes, either by commanding or prohibiting," and the more learned sense, derived from nature itself, according to which law is 

"the mind and reason of the prudent man."    

...Law is natural in the same way that reason is natural, as a gift of nature bestowed on every human being.  But only in the prudent man, whose reason is developed as far as it can be, does reason become "correct," and so only his commands and prohibitions are truly "law."  ...Even if complete knowledge of good is unavailable, as Cicero's skepticism implies, we may infer that an approximation to wisdom is accessible through the assiduous exercise of understanding. Cicero's final peroration to Book I paints a picture of perfect wisdom that can be a standard, even if unattained, of human striving.  Self-knowledge is the key.  For once we learn that we are equipped by nature for acquiring wisdom, and we sense that the mind, as a sort of image of the gods, is worthy of care and cultivation.

3rd Dog

p.s. When I first started learning and earning in the crypto world, I found links people shared to be very helpful.  I hope these links will be helpful to you as well.  It's a win-win situation for everyone participating.    

Brave Browser - Privacy-Focused Product 2019 Golden Kitty Awards

Try Brave Browser today just click the link https://brave.com/?ref=scr425

Earn up to 8.6 APY on Your crypto:  https://blockfi.com/?ref=e4707d93

Coinbase invite: https://www.coinbase.com/join/malone_rg

EOS invite: https://coinbase.com/earn/eos/invite/8rq0dxjn

XLM invite: https://coinbase.com/earn/xlm/invite/n18yd5th

OXT invite:  https://coinbase.com/earn/oxt/invite/5896nvrc

Ledger 20% discount code http://ledger.refr.cc/betsym