Today the temperature should rise a bit to around -10dC, cold enough for now, but the sun is often a welcome cheer leader in this part of the country. Later today coffee with Elisabeth and then some lunch with Don, both at the Kingsland market. I may buy some potatoes there and will take an other look at the pricey moccasins there.

Remembrance day, the 11th, I spent reading the weekend Globe’s essay on that topic and had a long related conversation with Els, who knows that tradition from her time as an au-pair in England, back in ca 1960/1. And I told her about the play ‘Liberation Days’ that Theatre Calgary put on, neglected to tell her about her flag being shown of with the cast.

Yesterday I met Laddie for brunch at the ‘All day breakfast’ along Edmonton trail, which took care of most of the morning. Our conversation spun out once we discovered our mutual interests in Northern Ontario, military history and family life! He is a house grandfather to his son here and is daughter back home, which is very different from me!

Last night’s session with Herman on ‘Cosmic Consciousness’ started almost twenty minutes late, with about three people missing. The discussion remained limited to dreams, but was worthwhile. Herman also suggested some themes for a winter course, but I was not really counting on one. It also appears that several people will be south during that time, so we’ll have to see.

The last few days I have been busy with the subject of ‘tolerance’, but am not able to bring much focus to it. Yesterday I kept returning to the inclusion of all that happens and exists in Existence Divine. The comprehensive nature of this concepts makes it necessary to make a place for the unacceptable in human existence.

As conscious humans we like to order our world using good and evil as criterion, with the result that evil is fought and controlled, but not well understood as to why it is there in the first place. Yet since the rules of ethics about good and evil are culture based, that makes evil as significant as good.

Yet since the rules of ethics about good and evil are culture based, that makes evil as significant as good.

This led me to conclude that within Existence Divine we need to learn to interpret the significance of good versus evil and understand their mutual arising. In short, good and evil may no longer be adequate as criteria by which to evaluate human behaviour, because all that exists and occurs has to be accepted as valid within Existence Divine.

The consideration that something different from good and evil as a sufficient guide would have to be found, made me recall the title of Nietzsche’s work ’Beyond Good and Evil’, which was published towards the end of his life, 1847-1900.

I have read a bit about Nietzsche, but he is an author and thinker I approach with considerable prudence. However, the mentioned title remained in my attention and consequently read about his thought and work in some of my references.

Even a cursory reading makes clear that Nietzsche rejects much if not all of the values that come from the handed down traditions of humankind. In doing so his belief framework becomes a leap into the future without reference to the past, precluding any testing of the newly discovered insights, aspirations and guidelines.

My own approach has been and is that the handed down traditions need to be referenced, informing our belief frameworks and actions in the present. We add to what we were taught, but we do not discard it. This is the way the process of evolution seeks out the most efficient adaptation. It would be foolhardy to ignore this process until it is better understood as to its operative mechanisms.

I see Nietzsche as a herald of the modern artists such as Picasso. They too abandoned later on the traditional rules of composition and confronted post WW-One society with its broken belief and value framework that Nietzsche discerned earlier during his life time.

What to replace it with became and still is the question today. So, we may ask, given that we retain our human traditions as hard earned treasures, what is it that Nietzsche attempts to show us with his notion of going ‘beyond good and evil’?

To answer this question I’ll need to peruse this topic a little more and explore the extension of the ideas of good and evil in such a way that adds to the differentiating powers of this basic pair and possibly give us tools to order the full range of the human experience in the totality of existence, a mystery knowable, but not comprehendible.
<10:16am and 11:56am after edits and phone calls.