Dinner with the Reese's
There was no chocolate or peanut butter involved.
It was invitingly comfortable at their apartment. David made the comment that it was as if we had picked up in the middle of the same conversation we were having 8 years ago. He was absolutely right.
There’s something absolutely companionable to being with such a good, old friend. At this point in my life, the farthest I go back with anyone who isn’t a family member is ten years; I take that back: I’ve actually known Allen for 14 years. Still, even that length of time is not even half my life, and I’m still young enough that the simple fact that I have no friends I keep in contact with from my highschool days means that even old friends are relatively new ones.
Still, the quality of the friendship is worth commenting on, being a significant factor. There was this joke about me and David and James: I was the exact same person as David, and I was also the exact same person as James, which was ironic since David and James were nothing alike. (Chad might have commented something like: That’s because I, like (was it Walt Whitman?) contain multitudes.) It was… exactly like old times. Just hanging out with a good friend and an intellectual peer.
Also, it was wonderful meeting Leigh again. I know that she and I met before they were married, sometime roundish of 8 years ago, but I met her at most a handful of times, whereas I had known David for at least 3 or 4 years. Still, I got along wonderfully with her, as well, as if she and I were old friends, too. And (and apparently this seems to be a theme with friends of David’s who meet her) we were able to bond over cooking! And of course, I’m looking forward to introducing her to both Alton Brown and Penzeys Spices!
I gave David my pitch and explained to him in greater depth my philosophical theses on Differential Ontology. He’s not convinced I’m right, but he’s not convinced I’m wrong, either: he did concede that my demonstrating its applicability to other, philosophically abstruse areas (which, unfortunately, he isn’t in a position to fully appreciate, given that he’s not a professional philosopher) did make it’s the prospects of its applicability in political thought more sanguine. And he had some excellent suggestions for practical, viable political action, thinking in terms of operations, that I would be hopelessly out of touch to put together. There’s a potential for a good, complimentary team here, and just how much of an abstract, impractical theoretician I am at heart was rather forcefully drilled into my head by our conversation and our completely different tacks to approaching DO as an intellectual project with actual application potential. So, maybe I’ll actually pull of my dreams after all, neh?
Anyway, it was a very pleasant evening, after which I went and heard another old friend of mine play in a band doing reggae in a dive in Southside. Eventful evening, and I’ve even done some disserting. But it is not 6 AM and I must call it a night and retire.
Update: David's take on the evening can be found here.
It was invitingly comfortable at their apartment. David made the comment that it was as if we had picked up in the middle of the same conversation we were having 8 years ago. He was absolutely right.
There’s something absolutely companionable to being with such a good, old friend. At this point in my life, the farthest I go back with anyone who isn’t a family member is ten years; I take that back: I’ve actually known Allen for 14 years. Still, even that length of time is not even half my life, and I’m still young enough that the simple fact that I have no friends I keep in contact with from my highschool days means that even old friends are relatively new ones.
Still, the quality of the friendship is worth commenting on, being a significant factor. There was this joke about me and David and James: I was the exact same person as David, and I was also the exact same person as James, which was ironic since David and James were nothing alike. (Chad might have commented something like: That’s because I, like (was it Walt Whitman?) contain multitudes.) It was… exactly like old times. Just hanging out with a good friend and an intellectual peer.
Also, it was wonderful meeting Leigh again. I know that she and I met before they were married, sometime roundish of 8 years ago, but I met her at most a handful of times, whereas I had known David for at least 3 or 4 years. Still, I got along wonderfully with her, as well, as if she and I were old friends, too. And (and apparently this seems to be a theme with friends of David’s who meet her) we were able to bond over cooking! And of course, I’m looking forward to introducing her to both Alton Brown and Penzeys Spices!
I gave David my pitch and explained to him in greater depth my philosophical theses on Differential Ontology. He’s not convinced I’m right, but he’s not convinced I’m wrong, either: he did concede that my demonstrating its applicability to other, philosophically abstruse areas (which, unfortunately, he isn’t in a position to fully appreciate, given that he’s not a professional philosopher) did make it’s the prospects of its applicability in political thought more sanguine. And he had some excellent suggestions for practical, viable political action, thinking in terms of operations, that I would be hopelessly out of touch to put together. There’s a potential for a good, complimentary team here, and just how much of an abstract, impractical theoretician I am at heart was rather forcefully drilled into my head by our conversation and our completely different tacks to approaching DO as an intellectual project with actual application potential. So, maybe I’ll actually pull of my dreams after all, neh?
Anyway, it was a very pleasant evening, after which I went and heard another old friend of mine play in a band doing reggae in a dive in Southside. Eventful evening, and I’ve even done some disserting. But it is not 6 AM and I must call it a night and retire.
Update: David's take on the evening can be found here.
posted by Jonathan at 6:01 AM
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