“Random thoughts”: An exercise in unconscious association

Waiting room, Sigmund Freud’s House, Vienna

Do dead people require an explanation? They’re a fact of life, especially these days. When was the last time you looked at graphic but tasteful photos of people who died in violent or unknown circumstances? I, for one, usually make an effort to avoid images of this sort, due to their general unpleasantness and tendency to engender other unsavory and morbid curiosities. It seems that my mind has a mind of its own, however, and I thus I make no apologies for its idiosyncrasies or involuntary hostilities. What’s the point?

It’s Passover (still); called such because in the olden days God, in His/Her/Its infinite wisdom, sent to Egypt the Angel of Death, who allegedly passed over the houses of Hebrew slaves while slaughtering all the firstborn gentile males (cattle, men). Incidentally, this carnage was the culmination of nine other catastrophes that included but were not limited to massive outbreaks of boils and lice, and rivers of blood.

In modern times, we Hebes, wanna-be-Hebes, Hebes-in-training, and curious onlookers are expected to keep these grisly and depressing images in mind while ritually consuming the required mouth-curdling "wine" and tasteless flatbread* of our ancestors in a yearly celebration of springtime, liberty, and the achievements of our glorious leaders. This practice simply confirms that, in the venerable words of my other God, “The goal of all life is death.” Or, in layman’s terms, Thanatos is the flip side of Eros.

In other relevant news, Gilbert Gottfried has just been named World’s Unsexiest Man.

Note that: 1) Gilbert Gottfried is Jewish; and 2) Gilbert Gottfried means, respectively, “bright promise” and “god peace,” in English and German. How do these facts relate to springtime ritual sacrifice, forgotten 19th century American poetry, or the Enlightenment philosophy of John Locke? More to the point, besides the Jewish thing and this post, what do Gilbert Gottfried and Sigmund Freud have in common? You make the call - I just write these things.


*followed, of course, by a delicious brisket