In Doubt We Trust

“It’s certainty that makes one mad, not doubt.”―Nietzsche, Ecce Homo

A hae ma doots! * And well I might

—necessity has doubt in sight;

I doubt myself, I doubt the times,

and soon will doubt these doubtful lines.

I doubt even my doubting, too:

self-doubt is always near about,

for like unto the green bay tree.

the irradicable wicked† flout

the quick and doubt the absent dead.

Neutrinos, archaea, ants, and apes,

the Alps, the Nile, the Milky Way,

Higgs' boson, ipse dixit, if I may,

though fleeting and not here to stay,

reflect—if not entirely, well and true,

questioned by the likes of you

—on physics' famous undead cat.

Epigraph: Friedrich Nietzsche, Ecce Homo: “Nicht der Zweifel, die Gewißheit ist das, was wahnsinnig macht.”

* “I have my doubts,” Scottish expression of skepticism.

† "I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree."—Psalm 37:35 (King James Version).

Thursday, April 10, 2025