Are There Stop Signs on Route 1?

[FNHinVA]

Are you kidding?

"Are There Stop Signs on Route 1?" is a profound existential question.

And if they do exist, they carry a life-affirming message.

[MMMMMM]

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"Are There Stop Signs on Route 1?" is a profound existential question.


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Ok, I give up (and I just woke up).

Why is it profound?

[MMMMMM]

As the coffee kicks in, a couple of glimmerings.

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Here's one question that does have an answer.

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Suggesting a contrast with the other philosophical/religious questions posed on this forum.

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Rt. 1 runs from Maine to Florida, but has anyone ever seen a stop sign along the way?

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It has an answer, but depending on the amswer, the answer might not be knowable.

(By the way, the question also has a very nice koan-like ring to it.)

John is asking several things with this question:

1) Have any of us ever seen such a sign?

2) Have any of us known of such a sign (or lack thereof)?

3) If, somehow, we are able to find out that Rt. 1 has no stop signs anywhere along its length, what about in its past? "...has *anyone* *ever* seen...?"

What if Rt. 1 once had a stop sign somewhere along its length (perhaps during early stages of construction), but does not now have one? Could we find *that* out, for sure?

The question also suggests other less obvious things.

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Rt. 1 runs from Maine to Florida, but has anyone ever seen a stop sign along the way?


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The stream of philosophical inquiry is ongoing. Is there ever a stopping place along the way?

More later (maybe).

[John Cole]

M,

To paraphrase Thoreau (or maybe this is the exact quote?), "Heaven is above our heads and below our feet."

Emerson says, "I ask not for the great, the remote, the romantic; what is doing in Italy or Arabia; what is Greek art, or Provencal minstrelsy; I embrace the common, I explore and sit at the feet of the familiar, the low. Give me insight into to-day, and you may have the antique and future worlds. What would we really know the meaning of? The meal in the firkin; the milk in the pan; the ballad in the street; the news of the boat; the glance of the eye; the form and the gait of the body;--show me the ultimate reason of these matters; show me the sublime presence of the highest spiritual cause lurking, as always it does lurk, in these suburbs and extremities of nature; let me see every trifle bristling with the polarity that ranges it instantly on an eternal law; and the shop, the plough, and the ledger, referred to the like cause by which light undulates and poets sing;--and the world lies no longer a dull miscellany and lumber-room, but has form and order; there is no trifle; there is no puzzle; but one design unites and animates the farthest pinnacle and the lowest trench."

And Wordsworth, "You will find it here or nowhere."

[John Cole]

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Because you are insane my old friend.


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I think it's the condition of all of us with 2+2 member numbers under one thousand.

[Phat Mack]

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1) Have any of us ever seen such a sign?

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And if any of us had, who would register such a thing?

[Rick Nebiolo]

Zeno,

Great read, made our night [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

~ Rick