{"id":16687,"date":"2025-11-10T12:13:45","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T11:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dirkvanbabylon.com\/?p=16687"},"modified":"2026-07-23T04:36:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T02:36:50","slug":"vegetable-salad-series-2-the-onion-speaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dirkvanbabylon.com\/en\/chris-stage\/vegetable-salad-series-2-the-onion-speaks\/","title":{"rendered":"Vegetable Salad Series 2: The Onion Speaks"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><b><i>Red Onions<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I am the finest metaphor<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for people growing old.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Across all Germany you&#8217;ll find me<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">crowning church towers, proud and bold.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I make an excellent metaphor<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for the layered human soul,<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and I can also stand<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for complexity made whole\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the living face of systems,<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">with all their nested art.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Peel away my skins, one by one,<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and in time you&#8217;ll reach my heart,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">my core, which bears the name <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mamushka<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> too.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I only hope it won&#8217;t upset you<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that, when you peel me,<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">you&#8217;ll soon be weeping too.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Red Onions I am the finest metaphor for people growing old. Across all Germany you&#8217;ll find me crowning church towers, proud and bold. I make an <a href=\"https:\/\/dirkvanbabylon.com\/en\/chris-stage\/vegetable-salad-series-2-the-onion-speaks\/\" class=\"more-link\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":15630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[177,179],"tags":[160],"class_list":["post-16687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chris-stage","category-moctines","tag-chris-coolsma-en","authors-chris-coolsma"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Vegetable Salad Series 2: The Onion Speaks - dirk van babylon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dirkvanbabylon.com\/en\/chris-stage\/vegetable-salad-series-2-the-onion-speaks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vegetable Salad Series 2: The Onion Speaks - dirk van babylon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Red Onions I am the finest metaphor for people growing old. Across all Germany you&#8217;ll find me crowning church towers, proud and bold. 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He studied German language and culture, specializing in linguistics and economics at the universities of Strasbourg, Berlin, and Lille. After a first career in marketing for the luxury hospitality sector in Brussels and London, he transitioned to teaching. He became a German teacher and an International Baccalaureate instructor of German and French at international schools in Asia\u2014in Beijing, Hanoi, Manila, and Kuala Lumpur. He then devoted nine years to private research in a variety of fields, culminating in the publication of a series of books. Olivier has been fascinated his whole life by the Far East and the contrasting philosophical intuitions it evokes. His focus gradually shifted from personal and intimate encounters, over language and culture to the deeper mechanisms of epistemology. During his years in Asia, he encountered Eastern thought, which prompted him to intensively investigate the structural differences in how civilizations perceive knowledge, value, and reality. 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This experiential foundation sparked systematic inquiry into the mechanics of epistemology, leading to investigation of how different civilizations construct and validate knowledge. The author's multilingual background enabled access to primary sources across traditions, while his economic training provided analytical tools for examining the practical implications of philosophical divergence. Key intellectual influences emerged through engagement with overlooked thinkers: Hans F\u00fcrstenberg's dialectical vision of the 21st century revealed possibilities for synthesis beyond binary opposition; Iain McGilchrist's hemispheric analysis provided neurological grounding for civilizational differences; Ernst Bloch's metaphorical interpretation of religion suggested pathways beyond literal dogmatism. Paul Mus's cross-cultural mediation and Albert Schweitzer's universal ethics demonstrated practical applications of philosophical integration. 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