He Was A Man You Ought To Have Known

In the last good movie but one, A Knight's Tale, a poor herald announces one of the competitors to the joust.
My Lord, the Count Adehmar, Son of Phillip DeVitry, son of Gilles... er... Master of the Free Companies, defender of his enormous manhood, a shining example of chivalry and champagne.
But the father of the man he announced was a real man, one worthy of your knowledge.

He, said to be the greatest philosopher of his age, wrote this:



Most likely he wasn't the greatest philosopher of that age, which produced many great names. But what have you done?

3 comments:

Eric Blair said...

Not really good form to remind people of their insignificance, Grim.



Grim said...

I certainly meant no offense, though it is good to be challenged to make the most of the time you have left. We need reminders like that. It's easy to be lulled into letting the days rush by, enough to do just to keep afloat: but you need to strive to leave something that lasts, whether a song or a book, or something you built with your hands. If you do more, good.

douglas said...

Is it enough to affect the lives of those around you, or must there be some tangible (exluding the production of the physical aspect of your offspring) object left to satisfy this idea of leaving something that lasts? Are ideas of any meaning without being recorded? Where would Socrates be if not for Plato and a few others writing about him and his ideas?

I think this question was fertilized by your comment in Eric Hines's link back to his old post about the lawn mower, and the ontological question of Bthun's father's axe which had the head replaced at one point and the handle at another- yet was still 'Dad's' axe.

Made me first think of the Ise shrine in Japan, which is rebuilt on adjacent plots every twenty years (alternating back and forth).
Curiously, a quick google search while verifying that, got me a result which had in the teaser "...the same ax twice...". Hmmm, I'll have to read that a little later- seems to apply here.