From the Diary: On Schopenhauer, Pride, and Absurd Thoughts
Not every thought arrives polished and structured. Sometimes, the most telling insights are the ones captured in the chaotic stream of a single moment. I was looking through some recent diary entries and found one that felt too absurd not to share. It's a raw snapshot of an afternoon at a café, wrestling with Schopenhauer while a queer festival unfolds in the background.
So, think of this less as a formal post and more as a direct excerpt, an unfiltered look at the strange collision of philosophy, personal observation, and the sudden, inexplicable thought of an elephant.
I'm sitting here at Friedensplatz right now. There's a queer festival going on the square, which is super cool. I'm just sitting here at L'Osteria, ordered an espresso, will get a shandy in a bit, and I'm reading Schopenhauer. The scene could only get more absurd if an elephant were licking my feet at the same time 😁
That's a weird image 🤔 I'm picturing the elephant right now and the people, the looks on their faces. I wonder if the staff would say, "Dogs allowed, but no elephants"? I'd love to try it out. You could just bring a small one, you know, the kind they once managed to stuff into the suspended monorail.
I wonder if the animal rights activists would be up in arms again? For sure! "You can't do that!!!" Keeping elephants in captivity is fine, but having one lick my feet is not okay? If we're holding animals captive for us to look at, then one of them can also lick my feet, I mean, where do we draw the line??
Or would factions form? Animal rights activists who tolerate elephant foot-licking versus those who don't and are against my stance. And just like that, the focus has shifted. Now it's no longer about whether it's okay to keep elephants in captivity. The public discourse is only about whether it's okay to have your feet licked by an elephant or not. The fundamental question of whether keeping them at all is okay gets pushed into the background.
I mean, don't get me wrong, neither the captivity nor the foot-licking is okay. But that's not the point. The point is the shifting of focus, because originally, it was about whether people would look at me funny if I showed up here with the elephant. Without the elephant, I'm not really conspicuous. Quite the opposite: today I'm dressed conspicuously inconspicuously. I'm wearing my plaid grandpa-style pants, my "Die Ärzte" shirt, my fanny pack, my current shoes, and when I'm walking, I also have my backpack on and camera around my neck.
New today are two wristbands: "FUCK AFD" and "Against Sexism Everywhere." I felt my arm was relatively bare, it was missing an eye-catcher. Now it's there. I'll probably use the "überall" (everywhere) as a 7 for my next numbers-post. I don't know what that will be yet, but the word "überall" will probably serve as the hook. It describes everything pretty well and is also somehow very comprehensive.
My shandy just arrived. I drank my first espresso here some days ago when they claimed to have the best espresso in town. That made me curious enough to check espressos from other places for comparison. So far I've tried one from Extrablatt Dortmund and, I'm sorry to say, it was worse. I have to smile when I think of that place, one of the waitresses there always has such a beautiful smile. It really warms my heart. xD
Now I'll drink my shandy in peace. I just felt it was time to write something. Schopenhauer wasn't really hitting the spot, in a café with the CSD Dortmund in the background.
I heard over the speakers it's apparently the CSD, which explains all the confetti in the streets. There was a parade, but I unfortunately missed it. Bummer. They had already set up a lot of stuff here yesterday, now I know why. As soon as I finish my shandy, I'll head back to the hostel and see if and how I'll post this. Plus, I still need to book another week at the hostel.
