our mutual self-deceit

I am reading 

    "From Hegel to Nietzsche; 

    German Spirit 

    During the r9th Century." 

The elevator operator 

is reading 

    "Christ 

    and Redemption of the Human 

    Spirit." 

Sequestered in the Swiss Alps 

a year before Heidegger was born 

Nietzsche wrote: 

    "The highest concepts" 

    of Western Metaphysics 

    are nothing more than 

    "the last wisps of evaporating 

    reality." 

Panhandling around the gates 

of Jerusalem 

2000 years before Heidegger was born 

Christ said: 

    "Turn the other" 

    evaporating 

    "cheek." 

But neither the elevator operator 

nor I 

empathize that we are terrified to face 

a world of ceaseless change 

and eternal Becoming. 

Eternal Becoming Gone. 

And so 

both of us eye the other's book 

with civilized smugness 

absolutely convinced 

of our individual approach— 

its Spirit of correctness. 

Perhaps the most that can be said for me 

is I 

armed with the knowledge of our mutual 

self-deceit 

can be less smug than he 

If I want to 

which 

I don't. 

 

[Barbara Barg {1947-2018} 'Useless Knowledge', from American Poets Say Goodbye to the 20th Century]