The Man who protected Horses

The Man who protected Horses
Nietzsche and Me

Fiction
Edward W Pritchard

He, Frederick Nietzsche, became known as a most famous philosopher after his death, and the image had been enhanced by the fact that he was out of it for the last ten years of his life, insane that is. It might have been the ultimate act of will, to retreat into his mind, and speak or write no more of timeless truths, to only fool his Mother and Sister, and no longer carry the burden of moving Mankind into Modernity.

The incident which triggered his transformation, was real, and actually occurred external of his mind, that which transformed his consciousness from being to non being was the sight of a soldier hitting and beating a horse with a stick. A metaphor perhaps for Nietzsche flaying at humanity with his writing, but also connected literally, because Nietzsche as a young soldier had once fell off his horse, or rather been thrown off and suffered every day thereafter severe pains is his back and side and, general bad health because of the fall.

The physical pain from the throw was intense and to relieve the pain and suffering of the injury to his back, Nietzsche began to walk about at length, and during the very long walks developed a very complex philosophy comparable in insightfulness to that of the Buddha and the truths he incubated were profound and disturbing, but unlike the Buddha's truth, Neitzsche's truths were difficult to read or hear and there was always an edge to what he had to say.

Later after he had written many contentious books he saw that soldier hitting a horse and his self retreated into his head, like an egg being pulled into a bottle in a science experiment, and although he could see and feel the world during those last ten years, he could no longer reach out, he had no will to power, and was unable to live dangerously. Mercifully, the physical pain to his back and side were lessened, although it was tiresome at times to deal with his Mother and sister, and endure the disingenuous schadenfreude of us, his public. For his sake hopefully, god choose not to condemn him to eternal re occurrence, at least not beyond those ten years he spent in his head.

in any event with Nietzsche in mind, here's an alternate look at our senility, or as it's now called Alzheimer's disease, or is it reality

The demise was quite gradual, forgetting, then confusion and then all was a blank.

Reality was the man had Alzheimer disease, or maybe he was no longer a child, but a citizen, dutiful and sometimes good,

but he was involved in an elaborate illusion in his head for the last ten years of his life, each day seemed like a real day, long if sad or pained, and short, too short if pleasurable, and there was a labyrinth of inter-actions intrigues, etc, just like life

he was born, had a childhood, become aware of his social responsibility, got married ,had kids and then one day, he seemed to always be in his job,, the days, were complex, but new and the interactions had a certain alienated majesty, as if he knew them all before, He practiced subjects he didn't actually know and was always winging it so to speak, trying to maintain order, sometimes wanting to do something meaningful, but usually just going to work so he could get money to make it so he could go to work again. He was usually alone of course, that was to be expected but there were interludes, or had been, but other than nostalgia there was no past, which had happened, it was, but was not real, and the future was real but hadn't happened and of course the present was just very specious, and it's reality couldn't be ascertained because it was the past when you took note of it.

The work world was always the same, slightly unfamiliar, but manageable most of the time, there was a sense of disbelief, unreality, but it was real and everything flowed naturally and especially time was reassuring, and there was the worry about money and the future, and time passing one by and lost opportunity, so one preserved, and the dreaded happening that would wipe everything out, or change everything, or even the test where one is tested once and for all, never happened. Each day there was a different experience to live through and a new cast of characters to interact with but you never got to know anyone, but it all seemed quite significant.

You were just here and it went on as usual. There was nothing to fear, but nothing too exciting to look forward to, and things were never going to be used up, or change. Maybe others had a plan to live by but maybe not, because it was impossible to really know those around you. If they had been lucky they got in a situation and stayed there for a long time, got up did the same thing every day, had a couple of days off, but had to get back Monday, once or twice a year it was longer. Then eventually we began to get sick, a demise began, gradual but inevitable, and one felt deep down its was preordained, But nothing could be preordained because it was gospel that individual initiative and will could overcome anything.

And then one day blissfully the ten years were up and you awoke to yourself falling and being far away. And your thought was you had always been very very happy.

Continue- continue continue...