The Return of Joe Lazarus Jr.

The following is an excerpt of a 15 November 2016 email exchange. 

Philosopher Charles Taylor teaches on secularization at the University of Tübingen, June 4, 2013.

Will:

Look who's back! 

It's Joe, aka Joe Lazarus, Jr! 

Say hello to the whole crew—Allison, aka The Critic; Liza, aka Leif Erikson's sister; Nick, aka Nick, Art, aka Arthur White and Carlton Farthington, and Max, aka Joe Lazari III-X.

Art:

JOE!!! YAY!!! IT'S JOE!!! HURRAY!!! JOE!!!

Max:

There is no curse after all!!!

Joe:

Damn good to be back. 

From the looks of it, not much has changed on our email thread since I left: careful meta-analyses of our methods and goals interspersed with allusions to abstruse Theorists with a capital T, both real and imagined. And then there's the Will/Plato vs. Art/Aristotle debate. Have the tables turned on that one? Three years ago, I thought Will was more the Aristotelian.   

One thing I frankly can't remember: which Joe Lazarus am I? Am I just Jr? Or Sr., as well? It looks like Max plays every human being I have contributed to producing, either as father, grand father, or great-grand father. Are we that far in the story?   

Also, as I recall, I was very much a lapsed Catholic for the majority of this narrative. At least, I remember the first blog post I wrote was about my anger over the spiritual bankruptcy of both my biological mother and of Holy Mother Church. I was bitter, but I can't recall why. Clearly I have a ton to catch up on. Will and Art, can you forward me some recent threads?   

At any rate, I do remember that my character was caught up in a kind of spiritual malaise, a kind of modern dark night of the soul for which dawn is not necessarily imminent. Did he return to Catholicism with Art? What brought him back, if so?   

I've been reading a ton of Charles Taylor, whose intellectual history of secularization is on point. Will be useful.   

Also, regarding the footage of our concert that you probably think is long gone. Well, it isn't. I told Will this, but I should say to Art and Max: I apologize for falling completely off the grid for a year or two, and taking the footage with me. I hit a few bumps in the road and resigned from life for a while. Interestingly, I did this only after I went East, to India. Didn't Art become reclusive after he went East? Or just insane? 

Anyway, I'm convinced I can salvage the majority of the footage we have from before. My attempt to make a documentary was a failure (after watching it, my film prof, a trusted friend, put her hand on my back and said, "You know, Joe, maybe you should stick with writing." I laughed, then cried a little). Then again, I can see now I really did not have enough material for a coherent narrative. Perhaps we can take up the documentary project again one day, or on and off through the years. 

Anyway, glad to be back on board.