Hello Friends,
And just like that . . . it is July!
July has always been a special month for me because it is my birthday month. Accordingly, somehow July stands out as a bit less forgettable and a bit more purposive. It’s like I find myself invested in each day just a bit more than in other months.
I think this has less to do with the celebration of a birthday and more to do with the awareness of my own aging. This is the only month of the year that changes how I identify. In just a few weeks, I will never again be 46, and will become for the first time in my life, 47.
Strange.
It’s also the heart of the summer. Once we get to August we are quickly in back-to-school mode and then it’s off to the races until school gets out and I play Alice Cooper for my son and we dance together celebrating “no more pencils, no more books, no more teacher’s dirty looks.” But don’t blink because if you do then it is time to go buy school supplies and get back at it. Annnnnnd, as Vonnegut so aptly notes, “so it goes.”
But, right here where we find ourselves on July 1, we have the opportunity to make the most of the time we have. We do not need to be thinking about next summer because in July the next is now!
What will you do with this month? With this week? With this day?
For my part, I will be leaning as hard as I can into activities that are difficult at other times of year. Paddle-boarding in Lake Jocassee is much less fun when it is freezing. Trout fishing is far harder when chipping ice out of the eyelets on the rod. Cookouts are easiest when the fireflies help to light up the nights.
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From where I am to where you are, may we find adventure on the trails and good conversation waiting for us back at camp.
Wishing you a wonderful July,
Aaron
Campfire Philosophy Podcast -
TONIGHT (Monday, July 1, 7pm EST)
Tonight is the live launch of my new podcast/videocast “Campfire Philosophy”! It will be streaming live on my YouTube channel on Monday evenings at 7pm EST through July and August. Later each week the audio of the episode will be available on regular podcast streaming platforms (Spotify and Apple Music, etc.). But, let me encourage you to join the conversation live on YouTube so that you can be part of the discussion.
This first episode will be on “So What Even IS Philosophy of Religion, Anyway?” and will feature Kevin Carnahan (see also below under “Philosophers Worth Knowing About”), Kevin Schilbrack, and Christy Flanagan-Feddon.
We will be discussing the differences and distinctions between philosophy of religion, theology, religious studies, and religion. This podcast is not a typical interview format, but an engaging conversation like the kind you would have with friends sitting by the campfire after a long day on the trails.
Other episodes will be devoted to such issues as:
AI and Human Flourishing
Why Does Democracy Needs Disagreement?
Critical Theory 101
Why is Evil a Problem?
Much more!
Additionally, there will be entire bonus episodes only available for paid subscribers here on Substack (dealing with topics such as heavy metal and true success!). So, upgrade your subscription today so you get to be part of all of the fun!
Philosophers Worth Knowing About
One of my best friends in the world is Kevin Carnahan. We taught together at Hendrix College when we were both fresh out of graduate school. Since he will be joining me tonight on Campfire Philosophy, I figured that I would let you all know about his work and encourage you to follow him on his social media platforms.
Kevin is a Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Central Methodist University. He specializes in Christian Ethics, and in particular in just war theory. His books include:
From Presumption to Prudence in Just-War Rationality
A book on Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Ramsey
As well as a co-edited volume, Paradoxical Virtue: Reinhold Niebuhr and the Virtue Tradition
That said, although these books are amazing, they are also academic and expensive, sigh. So, rather than going out and buying copies (which I hope some of you will do), let me encourage you to check out this recent episode of Homebrewed Christianity that he did with our mutual friend, Tripp Fuller on “Moral Clarity and the Uneasy Conscience.”
Additionally, be sure to follow Kevin on TikTok (where he has over 40k followers!!!!)
Kevin is one of the best minds in the game thinking about the difficulty and yet importance of living virtuously. I can’t recommend his stuff highly enough!
(Oh, and just in case he reads this, I want him to know that I can still beat him in Walldyball!)
Let’s Think Together: Music Mondays (Free Edition)
As all of my paid subscribers know, every Monday I do a paid-post called “Music Mondays.” In those essays I think philosophically about artists, genres, melodies, rhythms, playlists, and other aspects of music. When I started doing Music Mondays posts I fully intended them to just be an occasional thing and yet I got so much positive feedback that they are now a staple of Philosophy in the Wild!
Since this Newsletter happens to hit the first of the month on a Monday, I decided to do a Music Mondays post here for everyone so that the free folks can get a taste of what the rest of us are thinking about each Monday. The way I see it, there are very few better ways to start off a week than thinking about the Wu-Tang, Dillinger Escape Plan, or Billy Joel. So, to you all, I hope you enjoy this!
Oh, also, just for this newsletter, I am making the comments function available to everyone! Normally it is reserved just for paid subscribers. So, be sure to hop in and join the conversation and think with us (if you enjoy it, consider upgrading your subscription and being part of the conversation all the time!).
Ok, so since this is for everyone I tried to find something a bit more universally accessible (as opposed to the extreme metal and political hip hop that I often think about, ha!). So, I am sure that you know this song. “I’m Gonna Be” by The Proclaimers:
Yep. THAT one.
And yeah if you are listening to it without singing “Da lat da (Da lat da), da lat da (Da lat da)” at the top of your lungs then I can only assume that you have no virtue and are probably a spy sent to destroy everything awesome.
In all seriousness, though, I love this track not only because of its infectious chorus, but also because of the central message it offers. For what it is worth, it is the same basic thesis that I offer in my own book Camping with Kierkegaard.
Here’s the simple idea of the song and also of my book: Life is not ultimately about being successful at your goals, but being faithful to the task of becoming the person you hope to have been.
Let’s see how this plays out in the track.
It opens with the following verse:
When I wake up, well, I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the man who wakes up next to you
When I go out, yeah, I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the man who goes along with you
If I get drunk, well, I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the man who gets drunk next to you
And if I haver, hey, I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the man who's havering to you
So first off, I had to google “haver” - it turns out it is Scottish for talking nonsense. As Biggie would say, “if you don’t know, now you know.”
In this verse we see a man declaring his devotion and love to someone. In an almost Augustinian way, he positions his identity in relation to this object of his devotion. The beloved is definitional of his time and energy and existential orientation . . . even to the point of being the only person with whom he wants to “haver”! ha.
The second verse just reiterates the centrality of the beloved to the life of the lover. In this case we now see him moving from the sphere of the personal (verse 1) to the sphere of the public (verse 2):
When I'm working, yes, I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the man who's working hard for you
And when the money comes in for the work I do
I'll pass almost every penny on to you
When I come home (When I come home), oh, I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the man who comes back home to you
And if I grow old, well, I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the man who's growing old with you
Here we see him continue to ground the beloved as the motivational energy that keeps him working, engaging in economic habituation, and pushing him forward through his working years all the way through to retirement. In essence, we see him articulate the beloved as the gravity that facilitates his existential movement. Everything he does, he does out of this particular love.
In my existential terminology, I would suggest that he is oriented so completely toward the beloved because he has decided that the beloved is what is worthy of his finitude. From waking up to growing old, the beloved is what conveys meaning upon all the mundane realities that so often consume the human condition.
Now, it might seem that this guy has gone nuts. One might suggest that he is not in a healthy relationship that appreciates boundaries and autonomy. Indeed, perhaps in the vein of The Police’s “Every Breath You Take,” this song could be read as really about a stalker who can’t ever let go of the obsession with this other person.
I get such objections and I think that they are important philosophical reminders that whereas love ought to ground our actions in meaningful ways, it can often overwhelm our good judgment. Moreover, it is crucial never to confuse appropriate desire with possessive obtainment.
It is this last distinction that I think is crucial in the distinction between success as a problematic idol and faithfulness as an existential task. Far too often being successful is a matter of obtaining some external object and “owning it” - in both economic and competitive senses. Such a notion, though, can quickly lead to a dangerous sense of self-worth as only possible in light of the achievements garnered in one’s life. The degrees, the cars, the bank accounts, the medals, and in this case, the beloved.
Notice, though, that if our lives are defined by success, they are likely to be wrecked by failure.
It is here that I think the song by the Proclaimers avoids the possible objections to it. Rather than this guy being possessive of the beloved, he is instead naming the beloved as worthy of his investment and time and attention. It is not that he is important if he “gets” the beloved, but instead his hope is to become the sort of person who is worthy of the beloved’s own love. In this way, I think that this song is about faithfulness - tireless risk in a direction that one deems worthwhile.
The chorus is where this faithfulness becomes most profoundly visible:
But I would walk five hundred miles
And I would walk five hundred more
Just to be the man who walked a thousand miles
To fall down at your door
What’s going on here? A few questions immediately push their way to the front of the line:
Can’t the guy call an Uber? Doesn’t he even have a bike? Why all the walking?
If the beloved lives 1,000 miles away, how can he plausibly wake up, come home, go to work, grow old, and faver with the beloved in the first place? And, maybe just pick up a phone before setting out on what is likely a multiple month walk?!
Such pressing questions notwithstanding, what I love about this chorus is that it is hyperbolically insistent. He would walk 1,000 miles for the beloved. This illustrates his assessment of the value of the relationship with the beloved and its importance to his own sense of self and virtuous becoming. But, then look . . . what does he name as his “goal”?
On a success model we would expect it these lyrics to look more like some other famous songs:
“I would walk five hundred more, just to kiss you” (Sixpence None The Richer).
Or maybe “I would walk five hundred more to hold your hand” (Beatles).
Perhaps even “I would walk five hundred more to watch Breakfast at Tiffany’s together” (Deep Blue Something).
But none of these are what we get from The Proclaimers. Instead he does all of this “just to be the man who would walk 1,000 miles to fall down at your door.”
Talk about anticlimactic. Worst movie ending ever!
John Cusack holding the boombox over his head is much more compelling than just walking up to the door and falling down in exhaustion. Fade to black.
Aaaaaaannnnndddd scene.
What?!
Why does the song offer this particular outcome as the ultimate goal? I think it is because the guy is not defined by possessing the beloved (success), but by becoming the sort of person who appropriately orients himself toward what he takes to matter . . . come what may. Maybe he goes in. Maybe the beloved rejects him. Maybe he falls down at the wrong door because he confused “St.” with “Ave.” None of that really matters.
What does matter is his subjective commitment to becoming someone he can be ok with having been. It was not about getting the beloved, but about not giving up in the striving.
Faithfulness is like that - it might lead to some successes, but they don’t define you.
So, there we leave this tired man. There at the door of his beloved. What are we to make of him? Is he successful? We don’t know. And it is important that we do not - otherwise, we would be tempted to let the outcome define the investment. But that is what the song does not leave open to us. Importantly, neither does life itself.
What matters is that he kept walking. That we keep walking.
So, like Sisyphus at the base of the mountain, I contend that we must imagine this guy happy. Tired, yes, but happy. He has lived the life he thought worth living. It is hard to imagine asking for more.
Ask yourself, who are YOU gonna be?
Thanks so much for walking a few miles more with me and talking along the way. Let’s think together about these ideas. Drop a comment and let me know how you strive to live a life of faithfulness. What do you take to be worthy of your finitude?
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