On beginning the sabbatical, almost

The books begin to pile up out here in the cabin. In another posting I’ll talk a bit about my cabin out here behind the house and in front of the fields alongside the woods, but right now I just want to note what the process seems to be as the sabbatical begins. I recognize the pattern. I become obsessed with doing and wondering what it is I should do. To be awarded the sabbatical in the first place, I made plans in a formal proposal, and I still have interests there, but not with the same direction I had when I made the proposal to the committee which awards sabbaticals for good proposals. I’ve read a few more books and had a few more thoughts.

So, sitting on the table at this moment, is Spinoza’s Ethics. You might remember I wrote about Spinoza back in March, 2005. I have just finished Stuart Hampshire's book, Spinoza and Spinozism. I have ordered another book about Baruch Spinoza by Steven Nadler from Barnes & Noble.com. It should arrive tomorrow. I have a large book called The Embarrassment of Riches by Simon Schama. If I’m going to study Spinoza, a 17th century Dutch philosopher, I should read about 17th century Dutch society. I think. I have a copy of Sherman Paul’s intellectual biography of Henry David Thoreau (which I read twenty or so years ago) entitled The Shores of America. I have ordered another biography of Henry David Thoreau, because in my mind there is a connection between he and Spinoza. And besides, they both died at forty four years of age. While I was at Barnes and Noble I saw a new biography of the Peabody sisters--more of them later. I bought the book. And a book by Edward Emerson about Thoreau written by his young friend--Edward, I presume. Of course, on the table there is works of John Dewey and Mordecai Kaplan, philosophers I intended originally to study on my sabbatical. Also lying about is a book about Israel Salanter, the founder of the musar movement in Judaism. And I am presently reading Susan Sontag’s novel, In America and The Dialectical Imagination: A History of the Frankfurt School and the Institute of Social Research, 1923-1950, by Martin Jay.

And so, soon, though I don’t know exactly when, I will focus somewhere and on something, and I will begin to take my Sabbatical rest. In the meantime, the books pile up, and there is less room to sit and read out here.