I’ve been thinking about Kant’s antinomies of pure reason, and it struck me that there are also antinomies of pure life (or whatever one chooses to call them). Those dichotomies we face again and again, whenever reflection turns to what’s behind and what lies ahead.

To settle down or to wander? To have or to be? To stay or to leave?

And in the spirit of naming recurring human experiences that lack names, I coined the term dilemmantra, which, as it’s easy to guess, is a dilemma repeating itself in the mind like a mantra.

I also imagined dilemmantras as a literary form: verses folding into an infinite, incantation-like loop. The first one is inspired by Gregory Alan Isakov’s Dandelion Wine:

dilemmantra #1

fall
found me dazed in the field
"should I pack up the dust
of all that I own?"
and roll out when the last leaves
fall
found me dazed in the field
“should I pack up the dust
of all that I own?”
and roll out when last leaves
fall
found me dazed in the field
"should I…

ad infinitum ad nauseam