"Startled dismay" is to be in front of a worthy failure. It is to see the failure as failure no matter how shaking or disappointing it may be. If modern philosophy, starting with Descartes, begins with doubting everything that can be doubted (De omnibus dubitandum est) and proceeds to building from ground zero another castle, a new one now founded on solid ground (ego cogito) until it reach its towering height (Hegel), the "other" beginning begins not by leaving the destruction (the failed building), but--as difficult as it may be--by staying in the ruins of those very stones.

¶ 4:34 PM