At the table of the 21st Century.

When Hegel saw Napoleon victoriously entering Jena on a horse, he thought: "I'm seeing the world's soul on horseback." In this picture (President Barack Obama and President Hu Jintao), we this same spirit (geist) at a dinner table. My geist, however, is not the same as Hegel's. His spirit had a plan; mine has no plan or clue. It's appearance and much of its progress is accidental and entirely immanent. There is nothing beyond or below or inside the events of the world. With indirection the secular soul finds direction.