Ulysees By James Joyce

View from my bungalow 1990 Ubud Bali overlooking the bathing creek.

At the age of 24 I was asked by a young women what was philosophy of life. I had taken Philosophy 101 at university. I faintly recalled the professors' teaching, but I was stumped to find an answer. Nothing? Then I said, "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

The woman shook her head and said, "So you have none."

"No, I also believe in Live for Today," quoting the the 1968 title of the Grassroots hit. Was I troubled by my shallow replies. Yes, but throughout the years I strove for more understanding through Rilke, Taigu Ryokan, but not Joyce's Ulysses, although I carried a hardback edition during my numerous travels through Asia.

I finally abandoned it in Bali. At my favorite homestay with a western view of the volcano Gunung Batukaru. When I returned the following year, it was serving as a door stop and I realized that even the greatest meaning is irrelevant in the right circumstances. I took it to my room, planning to read the first page. It sat on my desk overlooking the Ubud River and the emerald rice fields stretching to a volcano. I laid my hands on the book. Osmosis failed to penetrate Joyce and I realized that I was traveling the world to open my senses.

To see, not look. To listen and not just hear. To feel to taste to breathe every fragrance and smells and nothing.

Always back to nothing, because it is everything.

As for Ulysees hrere's the first paragraph__

STATELY, PLUMP BUCK MULLIGAN CAME FROM THE STAIRHEAD, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A yellow dressing gown, ungirdled, was sustained gently-behind him by the mild morning air. He held the bowl aloft and intoned: -- Introibo ad altare Dei.

I translated this Latin phrase as 'introduce to the Altar of God' thanks to my studyoing Latin with the Sisters of St. Joseph and serving as an altar boy. Latin was my first second language in grammar and high school. Google translator correct my meaning to 'I will enter the altar of God.' The vowel at the ending of the first word 'Introibo' should have been a giveaway or indicium. I considered Joyce's writing this phrase as high-flouting intellectualism.

Samuel Butler in Canto I Hudibras, Part I (1663–1664) attacked the knowledge of Latin with the following quote.

“Beside, 't is known he could speak Greek, As naturally as pigs squeak; That Latin was no more difficile Than to a blackbird 't is to whistle.”

ie Speaking latin well is a sign that no one has to now everything.

Adn to misquote a later Samuel Butler, "Ita, bene Latine loqui signum est neminem omnia scire debere."