A passage from my good friend Frederick to start things off right

The first time I read Frederick Nietzsche was like somebody had FINALLY written something that spoke to my inner thoughts. After reading countless books, countless course material at UCSC, and countless magazines, etc. nothing had really moved me. When I first laid eyes on the first few chapters of my Nietzsche reader, it was like my inner voice finding itself manifested on paper...except articulated so much better and with punching wit and sarcasm. I attribute that very night in Santa Cruz lying on my bed after a very bad year in my life, as my turning point in my intellectual curiosity and a key forming point in my life. Like some of the other fine stimulants in life, legal and illegal, the first time is always the most eye opening and the best. Everything that comes after is always looking to duplicate that first "hit". I have tried and tried to achieve that with literature with mixed results. But nothing compares to the inner glow that felt the first time I read this. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did that first time. It still resonates with me down to the day. Enough blabbering....behold the passage that hooked me

What has until now been the greatest sin here on earth? Was it not the word of him who said: "Woe to them that laugh now!"

Did he himself find no cause for laughter on the earth? Then he sought badly. Even a child finds cause for it.

He did not love enough: Otherwise would he also have loved us, the laughing ones! But he hated and hooted us; wailing and teeth-gnashing did he promise us.

Must one then curse immediately, when one does not love? That seems to me in bad taste. Thus did he, however, this absolute one. He sprang from the crowd.

And he himself just did not love sufficiently; otherwise would he have raged less because people did not love him. Great love does not seek love -- it seeks more!

Go out of the way of all such absolute ones! They are a poor sickly type, a crowd-type: They look at this life with ill-will, they have an evil eye for this earth.

Go out of the way of all such absolute ones! They have heavy feet and sultry hearts -- they do not know how to dance. How could the earth be light to such ones!

17

Sinuously do all good things approach their goal. Like cats they curve their backs, they purr inwardly with their approaching happiness -- all good things laugh.

His step betrays whether a person already walks on his own path: Just see me walk! He, however, who comes close to his goal, dances.

And verily, a statue have I not become, nor yet do I stand there stiff, stupid and stony, like a pillar; I love fast racing.

And though there be on earth swamps and thick melancholy, he who has light feet runs even across the mud, and dances, as upon well-swept ice.

Lift up your hearts, my brothers, high, higher! And do not forget your legs! Lift up also your legs, you good dancers, and better still, stand upon your heads!

18

This crown of the laughter, this rose-garland crown: I myself have put on this crown, I myself have consecrated my laughter. No one else have I found today potent enough for this.

Zarathustra the dancer, Zarathustra the light one, who beckons with his wings, ready for flight, beckoning to all birds, ready and prepared -- a blissfully light-spirited one:

Zarathustra the soothsayer, Zarathustra the sooth-laugher, no impatient one, no absolute one, but one who loves leaps and somersaults; I myself have put on this crown!

19

Lift up your hearts, my brothers, high, higher! And do not forget your legs! Lift up also your legs, you good dancers, and better still if you stand upon your heads!

There are also heavy animals in a this state of happiness, there are thoroughly heavy-footed ones. Curiously do they exert themselves, like an elephant which endeavours to stand upon its head.

Better, however, to be foolish with happiness than foolish with misfortune, better to dance awkwardly than walk lamely. So learn, I pray you, my wisdom, you higher men: Even the worst thing has two good reverse sides...

...Even the worst thing has good dancing-legs: So learn, I pray you, you higher men, to put yourselves on your proper legs!

So unlearn, I pray you, the melancholy and all the crowd-sadness! Oh, how sad the buffoons of the crowd seem to me today! This today, however, is that of the crowd.

20

Be like the wind when it rushes forth from its mountain-caves: To its own piping will it dance; the seas tremble and leap under its footsteps.

That which gives wings to asses, that which milks the lionesses: Praised be that good, unruly spirit, which comes like a hurricane to all the present and to all the crowd --

That which is hostile to thistle-heads and puzzle-heads, and to all withered leaves and weeds: Praised be this wild, good, free spirit of the storm, which dances upon swamps and afflictions, as upon meadows!

That which hates the consumptive crowd-dogs, and all their ill-constituted, sullen brood: Praised be this spirit of all free spirits, the laughing storm, which blows dust into the eyes of all the dark-sighted and melancholic!

You higher men, the worst thing in you is that you have, none of you, learned to dance as you ought to dance -- to dance beyond yourselves! What does it matter that you have failed?

How many things are still possible! So learn to laugh beyond yourselves! Lift up your hearts, you good dancers, high! higher! And do not forget good laughter!

This crown of laughter, this rose-garland crown: to you, my brothers, do I cast this crown! Laughing have I consecrated: You higher men, learn, I pray you -- to laugh!