I was going through old emails and found a few from Charles Warman and decided to do a search for him. Looks like he passed from this earth October of 2015.
I helped Charles make his web site, The Third Organon. He was filled with love, life and we would talk about philosophy.
Here’s some great emails he sent me in 2010:
Hi James.
Any child with the name of Emmitt Jameson O’Louglin
will surely triumph in this life.
The photographs are touching. How blessed you are
and how blessed you know yourself to be. I’m led to
believe that God chose you and your wife to be the
special persons that your children need because you
have risen to the challenge (as He knew you would).
In doing so, James, you hearten and inspire lesser
persons to do those lesser tasks He has assigned
them, knowing beforehand, of course that these
lesser challenges may be all they can handle.
I hope you do not think it is presumptuous of me
to say what I believe to be true. We will always
be good friends. At least I hope that you will see
me as a candidate for such a level of friendship.
Time will tell. I believe it will affirm my judgment.
My maternal grandmother came from County Cork,
and lived to be 92.
You will appreciate this about her.
She loved a small bucket of beer of an evening,
but my mother did not want her to do so, for
reasons she never disclosed.
Thus Grandman enlisted me in an ongoing
conspiracy to get beer for her from the bar
next door, without Mom knowing what the
hell was going on. Grandma lived on the
second floor of our home. When she wished
to engage me to get her bucket of beer filled
with suds, she’d summon me in a stage
whisper from the top of the stairs: CHARLES,
COME UPSTAIRS, I WANT TO SEE YOU.
She’d give me a dime, I’d descend the stairs
as quietly as a young chid/older child/
adolescent (this was a conspiracy that lasted
for maybe a decade and a half) could, open
the door to the side yard, and dash to Nieman’s
Cafe for a fill-up. The bucket filled, I’d ascend
the stairs as silently as I had descended them.
When I reached Grandma with her bucket of
beer, she’d happily pull on a lobe of my ear
and say these inscrutable words: Ah Charles,
you’re a bully boy with a glass eye!
So the ritual went for many years, from about
1932 to 1942.
I neglected to point out why I loved this duty,
When I reached the landing halfway to her
rooms, I volunteered (never was asked) to
be her beer-taster, faithfully quaffing a bit
of beer to make certain it was safe for her
to consume!
Will be in touch, James.
Charlie
//////
Hi James,
Since you minored in philosophy at Miami, and
obviously are endowed with smarts, I hope that
you will share your thinking with me about materials
I send for the website.
I hope, too, that we can exchange views on
philosophers.
To initiate a discussion I’ll share some thoughts
about those philosophers I regard as the best or
the worst. (I recognize it may be some time before
you respond.) This will be my only reference to
philosophers. The next will be yours.
The best: Aristotle, the philosophical realist
extraordinaire. The best thinking that helped
me to prepare to be a teacher came from him.
The worst: (difficult to choose as there are so
many “worthy” candidates) David Hume. That
Hume could be named the greatest canglophone
philosopher merely serves as a datum of the
lowly state left in English philosophy after Hume
reviewed his own work in order to win attention
for it.
(His “proof” that miracles are impossible stands
as an indictment of his thinking. His premise is
his conclusion in slightly different dress. He thus gave
us one of the best-ever examples of circular
reasoning. But what else could we expect from a
celebrity-seeking, not truth-seeking, observer
or humanity and reality, to both of which he was
blinded by his atheism.)
//////
Salud Jaime,
After meeting you and discussing matters of mutual
interest, familial and intellectual, I am led to believe
that there are three children of the ‘loughlin clan
in these precincts who are blessed to have the
father they have.
You are kinder and more charitable than you can
realize. How forbearing you were yesterday to listen
to my interminable blather — and again today —
especially when you have tons of work to do. I hope
that you will forgive me for both intrusions of your time.
How difficult must be your task after your workday
has ended and your true labor of love begins. But
from what I have learned about the senior O-loughlin
he will be more than equal to the challenge — be-
cause he has character.
It troubles me greatly, James, that one of your
children has the disability you described. What
comes to my mind is the belief that God never
assigns challenges greater than our capacity
to handle them.
I hope that the Mind & the Brain may help you
better understand your child’s impairment.
Perhaps you will gain insights that you now
need and that have been beyond your reach
till now.
It was my pleasure to meet you. I look forward
to working with you on The Third Organon.com.
God bless you and yours.
Charles Warman
