Shallow Thoughts about Deep Things
Auguste Rodin, Le Penseur
(Image from Wikipedia)
I was cleaning the bathroom the other day and had just flushed the toilet as part of that process and was reaching up to take something from the medicine cabinet when the back of my thumb accidentally tipped over a small bottle of isopropyl alcohol, which fell flipping its merry way down into the toliet bowl before I could snatch it from its fall and disappeared with the flushing water into the pipe as my hand went clutching after it.
Too late.
There I stooped, fingers fumbling in the cold water of the toilet's throat as if hoping to trigger a gag reflex that would spew the bottle back up.
I felt 'stoopid'.
But was I stupid? Or just careless? Why 'just' careless? Isn't carelessness a result of stupidity? Lack of forethought? Why hadn't I lowered the toilet cover first? Not to do so was stupid of me. Wasn't it?
The philosopher Colin McGinn holds that "stupidity is an objective trait," in which case I had just revealed something objectively true about myself.
How depressing.
Although McGinn assures us that "Stupidity . . . refers especially to the opinions and utterances of people who should know better" -- and I wasn't expressing anything in words -- "actions speak louder than words" (says the aphorism). My actions had just spoken.
McGinn consoles me in conceding that "Maybe we all are stupid sometimes" -- then immediately withdraws that small consolation of philosophy by noting that "some people are stupid a lot of the time." What if I'm one of those people?
But would I be reflecting on all this if I truly were? I wondered . . . and got up from my stooped position.
Labels: Colin McGinn, Philosophy, Toilet Humor
posted by Horace Jeffery Hodges @ 4:30 AM
17 comments
17 Comments:
Not that you are. Coming from one who is, I consider, if you remodel and replace the standard Americanized "sit-down" with the "squat" you'd have avoided the problem altogether.
"McGinn assures us that "Stupidity . . . refers especially to the opinions and utterances of people who should know better" -- and I wasn't expressing anything in words -- "actions speak louder than words" (says the aphorism). My actions had just spoken.
Occasionally the best among you (notice: I do not include myself in the first regard-however in the second, well...) type too fast and may therefore blame it on sticky keys [Of course in a postscript: explaining that the spouse spilled his/her wine].
Of course it's a bit too late for you, but I explain my doofusses as being an uneducated, occasionally drunk commentor.
However a "squat" type would serve a scholar well. So long as its not the squat bidet'.
However keep one bottle of isopropyl nearby-prior to typing your entry.
Now stupidity does differ from utterances in some qualitative degree don't they? At least in some general sense?
JK
I meant to say, "Stoopid opinions and stoopid utterances."
Whether one does both or either is qualitaive depending on whether it is the latter or the former?
So long as they do not express themselves in the same paragraph?
JK
One could utter some stupid remark even if one is generally thoughtful, and one could do some stupid thing even if one is generally mindful.
So . . . there are distinctions, as McGinn himself notes.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
I did it again, I got my comeuppance prior to erasing my previous mistake (giving you time) and replacing "expressing" with "relieving" in the same paragraph.
I know. You being the perfessional essay grader, I'd be certain to see red ink.
JK
You are just clumsy, as I was, when I changed the toilet paper as the toilet was flushing and the holder slipedh out of my hand...
Just luck, JK.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
Hathor, I am clumsy, but that ought to be sufficient reason for me to lower the toilet cover before attempting anything that involves moving small objects in the vicinity of the toilet.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
Jeffery,
I think hathor was speaking toward me.
However!
If your scholarly self accepts, whom am I to deny?
JK
Probably, we both are.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
Oh,
Anyway-I sent a pic to forward.
If you know the proper address. I've tried before but it requires a 300 character minimum. I can't do that unless there's a deadline.
JK
Consider it sent.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
My momma always told me, stooped is as stooped does.
Stand up straight!
But then . . . I'll never get the bottle of rubbing alcohol out of the toilet.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
When all else fails..........call a plumber. And remember, "money talks."
Cran
Well, that bottle is long gone, Uncle Cran. I'd need an undercity spelunker to find it now, and we'd be talking a lot of money talking for that.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
Well, philosophical meanderings are more fun than practical applications anyway. It sounded like maybe it was stuck in the toilet........I had a lot of experience with that when our kids were small.....items from undies to toys, the list could go on.
Cran
I'd feared that myself, but after testing the waters, I found the current's flow to encounter no blockage.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
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