A COSMOPOLITAN LAWYER: JUST SOME READINGS I HAVE ENJOYED LATELY

First, this blog replaces my previous blog, thecosmoplitanlawyerblogspot.com . Second, unlike that earlier blog, the present one is primarily meant as a record of my readings. It is not meant to suggest that others will be or should be interested in what I read. And third, in a sense, it is a public diary of one who is an alien in his own American culture. A person who feels at home just about anywhere, except in his birthplace . . . America.

Friday, January 29, 2016

"CLOUD OF UNKNOWING"

Unknown, The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Works , translated into Modern English with an introduction by Clifton Wolters (London & New York: Penguin Classics/Penguin Books, 1978) ("Do not think that because I call it a 'darkness' or a 'cloud' it is the sort of cloud you see in the sky, or a kind of darkness you know at home when the light is out. That kind of darkness or cloud you can picture in your mind's eye in the height of summer, just as in the depth of a winter's night you can picture a clear and shining light. I do not mean this at all. By 'darkness' I mean 'a lack of knowing'--just as anything that you do not know or may have forgotten may be said to be 'dark' to you, for you cannot see it with your inward eye. For this reason it is called 'cloud', not of the sky, of course, but 'of unknowing', a cloud of unknowing between you and your God." Id. at 66.).