July 30, 2026

Want It Twice

All joy wants eternity—wants deep, deep eternity!

This line comes from "The Drunken Song," sung near the end of Thus Spoke Zarathustra during a midnight gathering of Zarathustra's animals and the higher men who have followed him into the mountains. Nietzsche wrote this book while in physical pain and near-total isolation, yet it became his most exuberant work, building toward the idea that a person could love life enough to will its exact return, moment for moment. The passage argues that real joy is never isolated—if you have ever wanted one thing twice, you have secretly wanted everything to come back, sorrow included. It matters this morning because it treats joy not as a quick escape from the day but as something worth wanting in full, again and again.