Spinoza

I was playing Scrabble with my dad while recouperating at the weekend; I find it more approachable than chess. During one particular game, I was struggling a bit when I found that I had SPINOZA. Naturally I didn't put it down but told my dad about it afterwards. My dad had never heard of him and imagined Spinoza to be a herb. All I knew was that he was a French philosopher. Looking him up in my dictionary of philosophy, I found that he was actually Dutch, not French, but couldn't concentrate enough to read the article properly.

Not very interesting, I know. But in class today, guess who the lecturer began speaking about? Apperently, it was Spinoza who pioneered the historical-critical method of biblical study in response to the way the church was abusing scripture to make it say whatever it wanted it to say.

The lecturer asked whether any of us had heard of Spinoza. Thankfully, the person sat next to me had come across him and wasn't afraid to say so, which saved me the embarrassment of trying to explain that I'd had him on my Scrabble rack just a couple of days ago.

The fly was still there when I left home this morning, it doesn't seem to have followed me.