[Image: Senecio, by Paul Klee. 1922; watercolor, pen and ink. This work seems to have drawn an interesting range of interpretations. Sometimes it’s described as just a mask, or a mask-like representation of a human head; it’s apparently referred to sometimes by the alternate title Head of a Man Going Senile; and Wikipedia notes that Senecio is the scientific name for a genus of the daisy family and is Latin for, simply, “old man.” For a fairly exhaustive rumination about it, see this book (starting at the page to which that link takes you). Note that the “about this book” description of the book says, in part, that it “reveal[s] the importance of metaphysics in everyday life through a disclosure of the grounding principles that inform the bureaucratic approach to human predicaments” — so, brace yourself accordingly.]
From whiskey river’s commonplace book:
Individuality
Individuality?
is not of the substance of elements.
It is an organism, indivisibly
occupied
by elementary objects of a divergent character:
if you
were to attempt division, these parts
would die.Myself,
for instance: an entire dramatic company.Enter an ancestor, prophetic;
enter a hero, brutal
a rake, alcoholic, to argue
with a learned professor.
A lyrical beauty, rolling her eyes
heavenward, a case
of chronic infatuation —
enter a heavy father,
to take care of that.
enter a liberal uncle — to arbitrate….
Aunt Chatterbox gossiping in a corner.
Chambermaid Lewdie, giggling.And I, watching it all,
astonishment in my eyes.
Poised, in my left hand
a sharpened pencil.A pregnant woman!, a mother
is planning
her entrance —
Shushhh! you
don’t belong here
you
are divisible!
She fades.
(Paul Klee [source])
…and (in somewhat different words):
While I was at UCLA, D.T. Suzuki (the famous Zen scholar, writer, master, etc.) came to visit. They set up the Regents auditorium for him. So we were all there, the audience all excited, and out came the head of the Oriental department. The audience all quieted down. The [department] head introduced [him]: “Here is D.T. Suzuki, world class Zen scholar, writer, master, etc. Here he is!”
We all sat in silence. This little guy comes out to the mike. Adjusts a pair of glasses. This is him, we’ve seen pictures of him before, but he looks smaller and etc. He reaches out and taps the mike.
A hollow ping sounds though the hall. He says, “Zen Buddhism, very hard understand. Thank you,” and walks off stage.
The audience went crazy! There was a mad struggle backstage, and then the head led Suzuki back out, a couple of the department professors with him. They set up some chairs, sat Suzuki down and asked him questions for an hour so everyone would be satisfied.
But I can still hear his voice: “Zen Buddhism, Very hard understand…”
(Jonathan Greenlee [source])
