Philosophy of the last day of classes. (5.2010;5.2012;5.2014;05.04.2015;04.27.2017) minor edits 12.07.2017 4.19 PM, 04.24.2019 8.49 AM., 12.05.2019 05.03.2020

Wikipedia 05.04.2015 10.57 AM - Christian eschatology is a major branch of study within Christian theology. Eschatology, from two Greek words meaning "last" (ἔσχατος) and "study" (-λογία), is the study of 'end things', whether the end of an individual life, the end of the age, the end of the world and the nature of the Kingdom of God.

Last day of classes

Significance of the edges and borderland times and spaces; ceremonial rite

Τ’s relief at being in his last class

Φ’s burning of her note cards; graduation parties, farewells

begin with review of with Kafka's "My Destination" {note 2019.04 did with packing}

"I gave orders for my horse to be brought round from the stable.  The servant did not understand me.  I myself went to the stable, saddled my horse and mounted.  In the distance I heard a bugle call, I asked him what this meant.  He knew nothing and had heard nothing.  At the gate he stopped me, asking: “Where are you riding to, master?”  “I don’t know, “I said, “only away from here, away from here.  Always away from here, only by doing so can I reach my destination.”  “And so you know your destination?” he asked.  “Yes,” I answered, “didn’t I say so?  Away-From-Here, that is my destination.”  “You have no provisions with you,” he said.*  “I need none,” I said, “the journey is so long that I will die of hunger if I don’t get anything on the way.  No provisions can save me.  For it is, fortunately, a truly immense journey.”

*[It should be noted that as in the tales of Lois McMaster Bujold (Mirror Dance) and Nasrudin, where it turns out that the smuggler whose horse drawn cart was unsuccessfully searched for contraband as he repeatedly crossed the border was actually smuggling horses (or donkeys in some versions of the Nasrudin story),  a person riding a horse is not travelling with nothing, but rather has a vehicle that helps them make the journey. ]

From Franz Kafka, Parables and Paradoxes (NY: Schocken Books, 1975) p. 189

The writer Russell Letson thanking Dr. Neil Novelli and Father Tom Kent’s (with his tools for each student’s toolbox) for the tools and teachings Letson learned that helped him on his way.

Beginnings and Endings

G .Dead “first days are the hardest days. . . ”  “sometimes the light’s all shining on me . . .”

Issues of Perspective

post-partum  / dissertation done depression  / consolation and desolation

I Ching difficulty at the beginning and after completion; Lau Tzu on; S’s class that all got incompletes because not done yet [when the job is done- TTC IX; / ]Not done yet + enduring possibility of redemption.

A way can include its ends without being its ends. 

Ends as commencement / beginnings:

Legend/story (from George Leonard’s book Mastery, p. 175-176) of Kano’s (Kanō Jigorō (嘉納 治五郎^?, 28 October 1860 – 4 May 1938)) requesting a white belt for his burial.

[Mastery and beginning with the ability to be mistaken again like Betty Kagan when she learned Hebrew one summer by engaging immediately and being willing to make mistakes.]