Sam + Bertrand Russell 4EVER (heart)

As I delve into Bertrand Russell's The Problems of Philosophy, I am reminded of how I fall in love with Bertrand Russell all over again each time I read him.  I thought I'd share our (light-hearted and facetious) love story.

I first met Bertrand through our mutual friend Ayn Rand.  I love to investigate philosophers' interests and influences, and thus, we first made acquaintance.  It was a brief and casual fling - I read a few pages on general logic and left him with a pleasant and satisfied feeling in my heart.  I knew that if we happened to find each other in the same place, I'd be pleased to pass the time with him once again.

A few years later, as I eagerly devoured Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, I was introduced to Bertrand in a new and fascinating light as I learned of his "teapot."  Over a cup of his mystical brew, he illustrated his atheism in bold and brilliant strokes.  I was dazzled and delighted; the stars that were the backdrop of his explanation of unbelief became stardust twinkling in my eyes.  I read so much, we shared so much, and I felt as if he was articulating the bleary yearnings of my young and inexperienced heart.  I learned from him; he made me laugh.  We explored passions and religions together, and came to conclusions about our reasons for not being Christians.

Sadly, however, as things often happen the the realm of love, we drifted apart.  After hashing through our shared atheism, did we really have much left in common?  I couldn't understand his devotion to mathematics.  And in the mean time some other philosophers caught my eye.  Our second matchmaker, Dawkins himself, with his Scarlet Letter, was alluring.  And his friends, the other three horsemen, were so inviting with their modern existences... Bertrand and I spent less and less time together, until it quietly became none.

I spent a year or two learning, growing, and developing on my own.  I encountered a multitude of others' ideas that served as guides to clearing the brush and beginning to build a path of ideas all my own.  With my slightly strengthened identity, I began to share my views with the world, sometimes even on my T-shirts.  While sifting through pages of websites of philosophy-themed clothes, a tiny red teapot caught my eye.  My smile brightened as memories came flooding back.  "Oh, how joyfully I shared in Bertrand's revelations then!" I thought.  The sparkle returned to my eyes, my heart fluttered.  Soon, I was wearing his celestial teapot, placed so thoughtfully between Earth and Mars, proudly over my heart as a badge of honor we both shared.  We  may not have been spending time together then, but I thought of him often.

It was only last week that I traced my fingertips over the faded screen printed mystical china piece and thought, "My friend, it has been too long..."  I pulled out my Kindle and typed his name for the first time in a long while and chose a new title: The Problems of Philosophy. It only took a page for us to pick up where we left off.  I was immediately the starry-eyed student in our private classroom, and he so eloquently lectured to my eager ears.  His writing was always so remarkably clear and crisp to me that I felt as if we were enjoying a personal lesson.  Once again, I find myself hanging on his every intriguing word, my heart leaping and falling in time with his own, enthralled and in love with my professor, Bertrand Russell.

S.A.M.