[betty boop]

... when the student is ready, the teacher appears.... Nonlocal operators are always standing by, ready to assist you. For they literally have nothing better to do.

What a wonderful insight, dear Matchett-PI!

I can confirm that from where I sit ... I mean, the part about the "nonlocal operators" standing by to help.... (I call them "guardian angels.")

I was especially touched by Gagdad Bob's observation:

For to say "human" is to say "vertical." We became human when we entered the vertical; or, when the vertical descended into man. Either way, it is the vertical that not only makes a life worth leaving, but makes it possible to do so.

I so agree — with one qualification that I'll get to in a bit.

We became human when we became self-conscious. That's the first step up onto the vertical. For self-consciousness cannot be accounted for as the sum total of a "horizontal" process: It is not the sum or product of a series of antecedent material causes proceeding on an irreversible linear timeline.

Rather, it signals an entirely different order of Being in Nature.

My qualification would be this: The vertical is not only that which "makes a life worth leaving, but makes it possible to do so"; the vertical is also that which makes a life worth living, in the "here and now."

JMHO, FWIW.

Thank you so very much for this marvelous essay/post, dear brother in Christ Matchett-PI!

[betty boop]

P.S.:

Thank you kindly, dear Matchett-PI, for your kind words regarding my Mom! Truly, she is an extraordinary person, and is still going strong. Sometimes I wonder whether she has more energy than I have, in that little body of hers!

Thanks again dear brother in Christ!

[Alamo-Girl]

We became human when we became self-conscious. That's the first step up onto the vertical. For self-consciousness cannot be accounted for as the sum total of a "horizontal" process: It is not the sum or product of a series of antecedent material causes proceeding on an irreversible linear timeline.

Rather, it signals an entirely different order of Being in Nature.

Beautifully said, dearest sister in Christ, thank you!