Prohibition is Not the Point

Notes Toward Wanting Something Worth Wanting

σωφρονεῖν ἀρετὴ μεγίστη, καὶ σοφίη ἀληθέα λέγειν καὶ ποιεῖν κατὰ φύσιν ἐπαίοντας

Sophrosyne is the greatest virtue, and wisdom is speaking and acting the truth, paying heed to the nature of things — Heraclitus

[in] the Gorgias, ... sophrosyne is identified with the principle of order (kosmos) which holds together earth and heaven ... and [in] the Republic ... sophrosyne in the soul and State is compared to a harmony 'sounding the same note in perfect unison throughout the whole' and to a symphônia of the naturally inferior and the naturally superior on the question of which should rule. (North)¹

This is the world in which we with ADHD sit

“tending too easily toward fantasy.”

Each utterance triggering a whirlpool of significance,

You are not only You, but your mother

and hers, and their nations of origin,

their class and their politics —

an identity of voting records and the math, the math

we use as metric in an attempt to understand.

Let’s get under the hood. What hurts

the most, and what behaviors have you developed

in order to cope? Where do you lash out,

ignore, evade, manipulate? The answer is not

a solution — unless you mean some sort of fluid

which can encapsulate the entire situation

and, in doing so, quiet it.

But stasis is not an option. Not

while alive. Not

when one is not hermetic in some cave

in the Himalayas. This

is moving — the same movement which characterized

the most dominant arts

of the Twentieth Century. This

is Us. And without it,

We are nothing.

sophrosyne (n.)

"the quality of wise moderation;" 1889, a Greek word in English, from Greek sōphrosynē, "prudence, moderation in desires, discretion, temperance," from sōphrōn "of sound mind, prudent, temperate" (see Sophronia).

Entries linking to sophrosyne

Sophronia 

fem. proper name, from Greek sōphrōnia, from sōphrōn (genitive sōphrōnos) "discreet, prudent, sensible, having control over sensual desires, moderate, chaste," etymologically "of sound mind," from sōs "safe, sound, whole," which is of unknown origin, + phrēn "heart, mind" (see phreno-). etymonline.com

1. North, Helen. SOPHROSYNE: Self-Knowledge and Self-Restraint in Greek Literature. (Cornell Studies in Classical Philology Volume XXXV.) Cornell University Press. Ithaca, New York. 1966.