June 21, 2010

  • Eulogy

    "The unexamined life is not worth living." --- Socrates

    Dearest, dearest, dearest Rachel,

    I'm sorry that I must delay a while before properly replying to your email, and not address it just yet.

    My high school Theory of Knowledge teacher died two days ago (Saturday). They found his body on Father's Day. It was the most amazing class I had all through high school. Mr. Digenova was one of those teachers that couldn't care less what other teachers thought of him, and did things that would have other teachers fearing for their jobs. For one thing, he fought with students about their religions. We studied philosophers and philosophies, and it was just like DS, exactly like DS, only more awesome because even DS didn't discuss religions directly. Mr. Digenova did address religions directly. Every year, he'd invite people from all different religions to talk to the class, and one of his speakers was always the guy in charge of the atheists association of Florida or something, and this lead atheist of Florida knew about every other religion as well as the religious people themselves, and his visit would invariably leave some of the more devout students crying each year.

    At the end, Mr. Digenova presented us all with a famous poem. I forget the exact words, and even the title, but I remember what it said. It said something to the effect of, I hope you come out of this with a little more knowledge than when you came in. I remember feeling like everything he tried to show us was lost on most of students, who simply memorized the stuff about hominid skulls and pre-Socratic philosophers, and then forgot them, and moved on, and never really understood that it was about a way of thinking and looking at the evidence presented by the world, and crafting thoughts and beliefs with the purpose of pursuing truth, not just defending preexisting beliefs.

    He always insisted that for all his talk of the trivialties of this world and the overarching importance of the otherworld, the afterlife world, Socrates was quite the drunkard. They'd be great company to get drunk. Plato's character Socrates believed that after he died, he'd be with the spirits of great thinkers from the past, and that together, they'd philosophize merrily about the hidden workings of the universe. That was around the time I started playing Kingdom of Loathing; my insane friends, the ones who happened to like Loathing humor, we'd spend nights debating life and religion and belief and love and everything. We fancied ourselves Philosophes, like the French Philosophes of the Enlightenment, and we named our in-game clan "The Philosophe Phaction." Or maybe I just fancied myself a Philosophe. And the character Socrates said, that was the best thing that could ever happen to someone, to spend eternity in philosophy with other great minds. He had a circle of friends with whom he debated philosophy, and they probably fancied themselves Philosophes as well, even if the concept of a philosophe didn't exist then.

    And so, Socrates welcomed his death and prepared to meet with ancient philosophers. Now wouldn't that be a great ending to the story? Mr. Digenova meets Plato and Socrates and the great thinkers of the past. And Aristotle. We never had time in a school year to go on past Plato, but it was clear Mr. Digenova wanted to. He'd always hint at Aristotle during lectures, and he had a poster of him in the room. And all the scientists and mathematicians and programmers and engineers as well, since they can all be traced back to philosophers. In the beginning, all scientists and mathematicians and etc branched from the earliest philosophers, so it's only fair that they be grouped into the category "great thinkers" as well. That's how a story would end. Mr. Digenova arrived at King Cross Station, where he was greeted by the Great Thinkers of the Past, and together they passed to the afterlife, where they all got drunk together and spent eternity unraveling the universe, and were happy for the rest of time doing what they loved most.

    Wouldn't that be a great ending? And how pleasant it must be to believe in an afterlife. How very pleasant, and carefree, and everything will work out ok in the end. But I cannot dishonor my great teacher by accepting what I'd like to believe, instead of what the universe has given me reason to believe. And so, there will be no happy ending, only a devastated family on Father's Day and untold masses of students who will never take this man's class, never see that beliefs are not immutable. He was 42 years old. Isn't that an ironically perfect time to go?

    http://dragcave.net/view/n/Digenova
    In honor and memory of and tribute to Mr. Digenova. RIP

    Peace, love, happiness,
    wobster109

    P.S. I think I'm going to copy the text of this directly, and upload to my blog. Hope you don't mind.