CL Pauwels at Large

Philosophy and trains and literary travel and did I mention philosophy? Eric Weiner’s travels in The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers not only motivated me to schedule a train trip for our 45^th anniversary last September, his philosophical musings brought me back to a lapsed love of reading – and sharing – deep thoughts that don’t get drowned out by the crisis du jour.

During his journey from Kiato to Athens (Socrates), DC to Boston (Thoreau), Bordeaux to Paris (Beauvoir), and more, Weiner discusses fourteen well-known and some not-so-known philosophers. Each thinker is paired with a method of being and perceiving – seeing, coping, being kind, listening, etc., during a train trip to their part of the world, and the travel time gives Weiner and his reader quiet moments to think. He weaves together bumps along the way – particularly when his teenaged daughter joins him – with various schools of thought and somehow it all makes sense.

I’d recently finished the wonderful Montaigne in Barn Boots (more on that one in another post), so it was heartening to hear Weiner appreciates Montaigne’s essays as much as I do: “Like me, Montaigne is restless in mind and body. Like me, he enjoys traveling but enjoys coming home more. Like me, he is a compulsive underliner and annotator…he engages with the world but periodically [often!] has a strong, almost irresistible need to flee it…he is moody…he is uncomfortable writing about himself but does so anyway” (270-271).

When the chaos of a too-peopley life overwhelms, it’s wonderful to settle into my grandma’s rocker with a cup of tea to recharge with a good book. “We can fool the world, we outgoing introverts, but at a personal cost. All this feigned extroverting drains us. Exhausts us” (273).

Weiner echoes Thoreau, with a relatable twist: “That’s the thing about lives of quiet desperation. They’re only quiet on the outside” (55). It’s nice to quiet – or at least contain – the despair inside with thoughtful works like this.