Heidegger – Grigori T. Cross

When asked about toes—this occurs much more often than you might think—I am reminded again of the way Martin Heidegger discussed the human perception of the hammer. He says more or less that we focus our thoughts on what it is the hammer is fixing rather than focusing on the hammer itself until or unless the hammer is broken and only then do we really see the hammer for the thatthere (I’m careful here not to say Dasein or use the word “object” simply because it wouldn’t be proper) it is. This comes to mind because I so often neglect my poor toes in my own thoughts unless something has gone wrong. It I stub one of them, if my boxers flip inside-out as I’m shaking it off my foot because it hooked my big toe, if I’m popping the joints, if any one of them snags some corner of the sock I’m putting on, I think of them and then they are nothing but a collection of tiny nuisances.

I am a human male. I suffered no birth defects that would affect my toes and I suffered no accident that would delete any of my digits from my body. I therefore have ten toes that help me balance and walk and dance, that let me wiggle them with joy even while giving it no thought at all, that help me do yoga and pushups, that remind me of my apely ancestors. I am grateful for them.

With care,

~ Grigori

“What word has all five vowels?”

Oneirocriticaustic: an adjectival portmanteau of “oneirocritica” and “caustic,” its first usage was in forums online featuring correspondence between prominent psychoanalysts such as Dalton Frumbo and Samuel Pochram.

Eunoia: a noun referring to a well mind or beautiful thinking.

Fleurosia: a floral state of Being (à la German philosopher Martin Heidegger), Germanic in meaning* but somehow both French and Greek in origin.

There are many words that fit the single criterion of having all five vowels; this list of three contains just one that can be found in a dictionary.

*German provides us with numerous words describing specific and peculiar phenomena. Instances include Schadenfreude—pleasure at another’s suffering—and Treppenwitz—the pick-up joke remembered only after the moment to use it has passed. German borrowed from other languages to create Fleurosia, but it can be properly understood only through the filter of an ontology like Heidegger’s.

With care,

~ Grigori