My Tuesday adventure has come to an end for another
year. No more early morning flights, no
M60 bus to Columbia, no lunches with Todd at Wu Nussbaum. At the very end of the last class, I said
this:
And so the semester ends.
For you, this is just one of three or four or five courses you are
taking, and already you are registered for next semester’s courses. But for me, the two hours I spend with you
are the high point of my week. As I was
reflecting on this fact, I recalled a passage in Chapter One of Capital which you may have missed, because
it is in a footnote. Marx writes, “Such
expressions of relations in general, called by
Hegel reflex categories, form a very curious class. For instance,
one man is king only because other men stand in the relation of subjects to
him. They, on the contrary, imagine that they are subjects because he is king.” You think of yourselves as students because
Todd and I are professors. But in fact
we are only professors because you are willing to be our students. So as you go off to write your final papers,
I should like to thank you for giving this old philosopher another opportunity
to be a professor.
That's really quite moving. I've never had a professor who thanked us for giving them an opportunity to be a professor nor a doctor who thanked their patients for giving them the opportunity to be a doctor.
ReplyDeleteGratitude is one of the noblest and one of the scarcest human traits.
Thank you for creating this space for us to comment in.
I recall a friend years ago telling me that Johnny Carson (then host of the Late Show) had saved more people from suicide than all the hotlines. I didn't understand him at the time, especially because I had a completely negative opinion of Johnny Carson and of TV in general. While I can't say that your blog has directly saved me from suicide, there are days where it's added a grain of meaning to my life when there were no others.
Thank you. That makes it all worthwhile.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBeautifully put.
ReplyDeleteNP
Dear Professor,
ReplyDeleteI regularly read a dozen blogs along with the comments. There is no doubt that you are the luckiest in having Mr Wallerstein as a regular commenter. I hope you would not mind my saying that many times your essay is incomplete without his response.
Amarnath,
ReplyDeleteIf I may quote Professor Wolff above, thank you, that makes it all worthwhile.
Really, thank you very much.
Professor, I would like to echo the comments in this thread. Your blog posts (and YouTube lectures) are bright stars in an increasingly dim sky. I only wish that I could have been lucky enough to take a class taught by you in person, at some point in my life!
ReplyDeleteAnd s. Wallerstein, I would like to echo Amarnath: I always find your comments worthwhile, and they add much to my enjoyment of the good Professor's blog.
Dude Diogenes,
ReplyDeleteThank you too.