Tonight, I got together with my friend Samantha for an extended beer and chat session, the first one in quite a little while actually.   Samantha is a really bright person I met when Callie and I were on sort of a hiatus, for lack of a better word, and was close to dating when Callie and I got things worked out.  Obviously, that created a slightly awkward situation.  For whatever reason -- maybe the sheer awkward nature of it all -- we haven't seen a lot of each other since even though we made a commitment at the time to remain close friends.  Probably that distance was somewhat of a good thing for the time.

However, the countervailing notion is this:  I have desperately missed the core intellectual group of people that was around me in college, and later (but to a lesser extent) during graduate school.  I've vowed to rebuild such a core group.   My good friend Miss McCartney agreed with me a number of months ago that we needed to pursue such a thing, with some direction (i.e. topics for discussion, maybe reading, etc).  I think Samantha belongs in just such a group.  And maybe some of the Objectivist community here in town.  And so, I think the conclusion reached tonight is that it needs to be done.  And shall be!

Some topics to explore.... first, just returning to The Fountainhead for a discussion, because I recently reread it.  Second, to discuss in some detail the Kaplan book.  Third, to explore Samantha's notion that Objectivist psychology has a great deal in common with what she calls social Marxism (I prefer the ring of Marxian psychology -- am not so sure I will agree though!).  Fourth, to play with Nietzsche and Rand a bit.  After that, who knows?  But it seems like a plan.  Now it's time to overcome our inertia (my word of the day!) and move.

Most of the rest of the day was a blur.  I did good work in the office today, despite hearing of some sniping that probably originated precisely because I have been doing such nice work.  But I don't live to work -- at least not there.   I work to make possible discussions like tonight's, and the content of these pages, and the research and writing and other endeavors that are my intellectual existence.  

Copyright (c) 2000, Kevin L. Whited