The Vancouver Chat (Reboot!)

This meetup is hosted by Wisdom and Woe. For more details and to sign up for this event, go to: https://www.meetup.com/wisdom-and-woe/events/303553350

The Book of Jonah is one of the most recognizable, most curious, and most strangely compelling in the Bible. For centuries, it has inspired sermons, art, literature, music, and debate (including debate about whether the story is history, parable, allegory, or satire). Despite its familiarity and antiquity, it is filled with surprises and themes that are still relevant.

As sacred text, it serves as a source of revelation and wisdom about the divine. But Jonah is a paradoxical figure: he is a prophet almost without a message and nearly lacking the courage to convey it. And the Book's brevity--"one of the smallest strands in the mighty cable of the Scriptures"--belies its rapid shifts in scene and plethora of challenges to the hero. Besides the famous "great fish" (or whale, in fact a small part of the narrative) it features storms and sailors, rebellion and rescue, preaching and protest, and a miraculous plant and miraculous worms that devour it.

Wisdom and Woe is a philosophy and literature discussion group dedicated to exploring the world, work, life, and times of Herman Melville and the 19th century Romantic movement. The group is free and open to anybody with an interest in learning and growing by "diving deeper" into "time and eternity, things of this world and of the next, and books, and publishers, and all possible and impossible matters."

This is a series of meetups hosted by the Toronto Philosophy Meetup to discuss the rich tradition of classical Chinese poetry. At this 9th meetup (March 8), we'll begin by live reading (in English translation, and optionally in Chinese) the poems by Tao Qian or 陶潛 (365–427 CE) contained in Michael Fuller's An Introduction to Chinese Poetry: From the Canon of Poetry to the Lyrics of the Song Dynasty (2018, Harvard University Press).

I'll have the text displayed on Zoom's screen share and there will be plenty of time for discussion and reflection. Various translations of the texts will be available on the main event page – https://www.meetup.com/the-toronto-philosophy-meetup/events/313510182/

Check our our calendar for daily philosophy events, talks, and discussions – https://www.meetup.com/the-toronto-philosophy-meetup/events/calendar/

Poems from the Book of Songs / 詩經 (1046–771 BC) we've previously discussed:

• 1. The Ospreys Cry / 關雎
• 6. The Heavy Hanging Peach Tree / 桃之夭
• 21. Little Stars / 小星
• 23. In the Wilds There is a Dead Doe / 野有死麕
• 26. The Cypress Boat / 柏舟
• 31. Beating the Drums / 擊鼓
• 32. A Gentle Wind / 凱風
• 48. Among the Mulberries / 桑中
• 49. Quails Hopping All About / 鶉之奔奔
• 54. Gallop / 載馳
• 58. A Simple Peasant / 氓
• 64. A Quince / 木瓜
• 66. My Lord is on the March / 君子于役
• 70. The Gingerly Hare / 兔爰
• 71. The Creeper Vines / 葛藟
• 73. A Great Carriage / 大車
• 75. The Black Jacket / 緇衣
• 77. Shu is on the Hunt / 叔于田
• 78. Shu in the Hunting Fields / 大叔于田
• 81. Along the High Road / 遵大路
• 82. The Lady Says the Cock Has Crowed / 女曰雞鳴
• 92. The Rising Waters / 揚之水
• 93. Going Outside the Eastern Gate / 出其東門
• 94. In the Wilds Were Twining Tendrils / 野有蔓草
• 95. The Zhen and Wei / 溱洧
• 96. The Cock Crows / 雞鳴
• 97. Splendid / 還
• 110. Going Up the Wooded Hills / 陟岵
• 120. The Lambswool Coat / 羔裘
• 131. Yellow Bird / 黃鳥
• 147. A Plain Cap / 素冠
• 156. Eastern Mountains / 東山

This meetup is hosted by Wisdom and Woe. For more details and to sign up for this event, go to: https://www.meetup.com/wisdom-and-woe/events/297429753

St. John of the Cross (1542-1591) was a 16th-century Spanish mystic and poet, ranked among such great intellectual and philosophical theologians such as St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. After 1567, when he joined with Teresa of Ávila to institute reforms in the Carmelite order, opponents of the reform had him arrested, imprisoned, and subjected to public floggings. His ordeal lasted for nine months, but it provided the foundational experience for much of his subsequent poetry and spiritual writings.

"The Dark Night" ("Noche Oscura," c. 1577) is his poem and commentary of the same name, a masterpiece of mystical Christian literature. He coined the term "the dark night" to describe a painful series of purifications on the spiritual journey towards union with God. In the first phase (the night of sense), the soul begins to practice self-denial and detachment from worldly desires. In the second phase (the night of spirit), the divine light reveals the soul's own imperfections and sins. During this process, the soul suffers great anguish, feeling abandoned and forsaken, but perseverance promises an ultimate revelation of peace, love, and knowledge of God.

The writings of St. John have influenced centuries of theologians, philosophers, artists, poets, and psychologists. The concept of "the dark night" has been adopted to mean an intense period of personal crisis, emotional hardship, and/or deep introspection. Joseph Campbell states "The dark night of the soul comes just before revelation. When everything is lost, and all seems darkness, then comes the new life and all that is needed." Night-evoking places--e.g., the abyss, a cave, prison, or belly of the whale--are regarded as both tomb and womb, death and renewal, on the way through Campbell's hero's journey.

Wisdom and Woe is a philosophy and literature discussion group dedicated to exploring the world, work, life, and times of Herman Melville and the 19th century Romantic movement. The group is free and open to anybody with an interest in learning and growing by "diving deeper" into "time and eternity, things of this world and of the next, and books, and publishers, and all possible and impossible matters."

IMPORTANT NOTICE:
To be the speaking participant you must RSVP via Calendly.
The link to my Calendly calendar is available in my Egora profile:
http://egora-ilp.org/philosopher/Cezary_Jurewicz

All others are welcome to join to listen, use the chat, use the breakout rooms, and comment at the end.

About Citizen Office Hours:
If the Citizen is to be the highest authority in democracy, should we not have office hours to make ourselves available and accountable to our fellow citizens? The answer is YES – yes, we should.

Also, in democracy, there is no power without responsibility. If the citizens do not accept the responsibility of being citizens, then we do not really have any power – the power we might think we have is illusory. Therefore, all responsible citizens should make themselves available at their own "Citizen Office Hours" to build our democratic power through collaboration.

This event is a publication of my Citizen Office Hours. I am making myself available to discuss any of my or your ideas published in Egora. Egora is a platform for efficiently developing and effectively sharing our political philosophies with each other. Please be already registered for Egora before our meeting and at least somewhat familiar with my Ideological Profile so we can have a proper and thorough discussion. If you share your Ideological Profile in the comments in advance, i will take some time to study it before our meeting (ideally, the audience will do so too). Here is the link to my profile again:
http://egora-ilp.org/philosopher/Cezary_Jurewicz