French horn

A few days ago, I played my CD of Barry Tuckwell playing the French horn.  My wife played the French horn throughout high school.  I have only played the snare drum in a drum and bugle corps.  No need with such a drum to be able to detect small differences between notes.  No need to be able to find a given note in my head amidst other instruments playing other music around me, as tympani drummers do.

I wondered what a French horn costs.  We looked them up and found prices from $2000 to $14,000.  I know any instrument can be very expensive, even though students can sometimes borrow or rent a given instrument from the school's collection or from a music store.  

When I think of the discipline, the practice, the blending of a musician and the instrument, I am in awe.  Our local university is a center of Suzuki method, the Japanese violinist who created the slow, steady, loving relation between a very young student, maybe 4 or 5 years old, the child's mother or father and a violin.  Our campus lawns are doted with little kids and some older, more expert students, playing their assignments for the parents during the last weeks of the summer session.  

Lessons are also offered in piano, harp and maybe other instruments.  The violin curriculum always starts with "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and so that music gets played all over the place.

For anyone today, the music once played and maybe heard again, the relations with teachers and those who play beside you, are part of us and can always elicit old feelings and new energies.

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Cultures

I am closing in on the end of Dr. Jason Satterfield's Great Course on mind-body medicine.  He has quoted the idea that the 21st century focus in medicine is the psychology and social/cultural surroundings of a given patient.  Taking into consideration the mind state and the cultural surroundings has enthusiastic support and to some, promises to improve medicine, maybe as much as antibiotics did in the 20th century.

As the same time, I am reading Christine Kenneally's "The Invisible History of the Human Race."  Much of the first part of the book is about genealogy and the study and charting of a person's ancestors.  After getting a dose of the importance of one's social connections from parents and friends to the regional and national character one grew up in from Satterfield, this passage from Kenneally's very fine book stood out:

Yet as Fernandez and Fogli point out, markets have a fundamental relationship with beliefs. A culture's belief about the permissibility of selling another human being as chattel will affect whether it has a slave trade and how widely it operates. The belief that it's good for women to work outside the home will affect the size of the workforce. Since their research was published, Wantchekon said, the dismissal of culture as a factor in studying economics has changed: "' Culture' was no longer a dirty word."

Kenneally, Christine (2014-10-09). The Invisible History of the Human Race: How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures (Kindle Locations 2541-2544). Penguin Group US. Kindle Edition.

There are many ways to characterize this age's interest in science but one is simply the gathering of evidence.  Physical scientists are quite aware of the difficulty of getting measurements of human variables such as temperament or mood but prosecutors and defense attorneys over the centuries have sometimes done a very persuasive job of depicting moods and motives.  People such as Douglas Hubbard in his "How to Measure Anything" and the book I loved 40 years ago in grad school "Unobtrusive Measures in the Social Sciences" attest to the steady effort to see more clearly into humans and their lives.

The highly regarded book by T.R. Reid, "The Healing of America", makes clear the strong and varied impact cultures can have on what people learn they are supposed to do and to feel about health and ailments.

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Oranges

When I was a kid, I sometimes got a tangerine in my Christmas stocking.  I didn't know the difference between a tangerine and an orange.  I didn't understand why I got a piece of rather uninteresting fruit.  I did understand the idea of asking for something I coveted and I did understand that people who loved me would get things I said I wanted and some things I hadn't mentioned but seemed likely to be fun for me.  I hadn't asked for a tangerine and it ranked below new clothes as fun or pleasure.

Over the years, this has changed.  I still prefer a good, juicy orange to a tangerine but they can both be genuine pleasures.  When visiting various places in England, I learned that some estates had sections of the building or free-standing greenhouses that were "orangeries".  Oranges in large orchards in Florida have been a sign of a different climate since college.  Between growing up where oranges would not grow outdoors and seeing that wealthy people built separate facilities for oranges, I grasped the idea that oranges were not like apples which could grow in many places I was part of.

We usually have a piece of fruit at lunch and a good orange is indeed a juicy pleasure.  Since we have to watch our blood sugar level, we don't drink orange juice around the house.  There was an article in the New Yorker recently about a solitary Russian lighthouse/weather station.  The place gets supplies once a year by ship.  One of the photos showed some oranges and explained that the seamen on the ship get an orange a week as a special treat.  If you want to visit a ship in the cold Arctic for a while, give "Polar Star" by Martin Cruz Smith a try.  You will be glad to get an exotic orange after a few chapters.

The blend of acids and sugars seems just about right for a pleasure.  Wrestlers and soccer players are sometimes given a section or two of orange to re-hydrate them after vigorous efforts.  Biting into a cold, sweet orange restores the fatigued and makes life seem good again.

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Back-ups and bargains

We have experienced one basic move and two house breakups.  For me, a basic move is moving a well-established house somewhere else.  A house breakup happens when the last member of a family moves out or away or dies.  If the house has been lived in for, say, 20 years or more, it can be very surprising how much stuff is crammed into the basement, the attic, the back closets and the garage.  Some garages have attics, too. Unless you have someone like Frau Doctor Kirby who has an itch every now and then to go through things, you can accumulate knicks, nicks, cracks and mysteries that later generations won't be able to identify.

Why cram stuff back there?  One reason is to have a backup.  The knapsack may develop a hole, you could run out of pencils and what will you do for chicken soup if the whole group stops by?  Another reason is research.  A friend tells me he likes Good Earth tea.  It sounds good and the next time I am in the store, I remember his comment and buy some, just to try it out.  I am not that crazy about it and one cup is enough to tell me I don't want more, just now.  It's not bad.  Maybe later.  A third reason is the noble concern for the economy and the future of the earth.  Why waste things?  Sure, the wheelbarrow has a torn front tire and is very difficult to use as it.  But a new tire and it will be good as new: less expense and less stuff thrown away.

If I were more of a self-revealing person, I would admit to a fourth and powerful reason: laziness.  But I am not so I won't mention that it is often easier to simply stash something in the back with a weak promise to remember to add it to the stuff going to St. Vinny's "later".  Even a totally trash item might need special handling, such as mercury batteries, computers or tv's.

A 5th reason is back-up back-ups.  You go to Big Lots or Sam's Club and they have walnuts on sale for 40 ¢ a lb., in 150 lb. sacks.  Man!  That is a lifetime supply!  Can't pass up something like that.  That would be wasteful.  So, get some of the super-super large double-double thick plastic bags, lug the walnuts into position and slide them into a protective bag.  Stash them in the back but not too far in the back.  That 2 lb. container will need refilling every so often so it is better if you can get to the supply.  "Course, later, it turns out that the nuts were a little too warm and the plastic helped moisture to condense and allow mildew to ruin 75% of the bargain.

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

some horrible, and then some lovely

I saw references to Christine Kenneally's "The Invisible History of the Human Race" that praised the book.  We have had our DNA analyzed by the Genographic Project of the National Geographic Society.  I read Brian Syke's "The Seven Sisters of Eve" and I recommend it for some perspective on the migration of humans from central Africa to all parts of the globe over the last 150,000 years or so.  When I saw Kenneally's book, I thought it might be a good addition to my understanding of how we got where we are.

It turns out to be a book about genealogy, the study of one's ancestors.  I am confident that as I get further into the book, the business of DNA will emerge but so far it is just about records of who married whom and how many children they had. Kenneally explains that family charts often seem innocuous or even boring, that they often seem to be motivated solely by the desire to find that a person had impressive forebearers.  However, in the late 1800's and on, various people got hold of the idea that some humans were more or less genetic trash who should not contribute to the human race.  You know where that idea can lead: extermination of the 'wrong' people.  When the 'wrong' people have babies, the resulting 'wrong' children can be mistreated in truly horrible ways.  Reading about it put me in a very down mood.

Things can also be quite nasty for you if you are part of the opposite group, not genetic trash but genetic treasure.  You are enjoined, "encouraged" for the good of all, to have as many babies as possible, whether you want to or not. Since we don't really know who is better and who is worse (how could we if we don't know what is happening or going to happen), things get murky.  When humans get confused, they often redouble their efforts, seemingly in the belief that trying harder will eventually straighten things out. The production of children of the right sort may involve rape, desertion of children and warehousing of children, which of course results in rotten parenting of children or actual mistreatment of them.

Lynn advised taking a break from the book so I switched to "The Trauma of Everyday Life" by Dr. Mark Epstein.  There I read the lovely hypothesis that part of the reason meditation does such great things for the mind is that meditating holds the mind in a sort of loving, steady acceptance that duplicates what a loving and skillful mother does for a child.  So, bingo!  Those suffering souls who for whatever reason were deprived of a good mother's love can give themselves love, warmth and nurturance through meditation.  It is a wonderful idea.

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Hopes for the glow and serenity

Hope you have a happy Christmas Day with the glow of happiness warming you and those you love, and a serene and beautiful 2015!  Well, an unrelenting year of serenity and beauty might be a bit much.  But then, these wishes don't usually get fulfilled entirely, anyhow.  You should probably be prepared for some jolts of excitement and confusion here and there.  Maybe just enough to underline the beauty and serenity and make them stand out.

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Some of the things she has been doing for the last 70 years

acrobat - was doing twists and turns while I was learning to stand on one foot

2nd grade teacher - began teaching in 1970 on western edge of small Wisconsin paper-making town

cook - excellent cook from first days of our marriage to yesterday.  Hypnotic desserts and casseroles

curriculum chair for LIFE - nerve center for ideas and program plans, lots of meetings and emails

dancer - has performed in public many times, ran me around the dance floor

daughter - took care of her aging mother while living 170 miles away in another state, legal issues

driver - carts people and goods around locale, state, country

evaluator - campus and other projects evaluator

family charity officer - I didn't know when I started asking the tender hearted but penny-conscious member of our  team to dole out charity funds that it would be the most onerous of her roles, too much paper each day

founder of local NAMI - families of mentally ill unite and she founded the local chapter

French horn player - throughout high school.  We just priced them at $2-14 thousand

gamer: Words with Friends, Scramble, computer solitaire, chess

gardener - raises vegetables, creates and maintains flower beds

Girl Scout leader

grandmother - maintains contacts with two granddaughters and their families

greatgrandmother - despite her own aging, is close to 2 lively greatgrandsons and 2 perky, smart greatgranddaughters

historian - knows history of our marriage, her family, wrote "Who We Came From"

Hospice worker - cared for 6 different Hospice patients

interior decorator - laid out design of rooms, painted them, found and conferred with upholsterers, rug and flooring firms

jeweler - made and sold jewelry

knitter - sweaters and scarves

landscaper- laid out our grounds, trees and beds.  Oversaw prairie and fought invasive species for years

launderer - does the laundry each week

lecturer - gave professional presentations in New Orleans, taught classes on several campuses, older adults

librarian - school, local and campus libraries

Lutheran - 40 years

Meals on Wheels - driver

mother- of two daughters, one mentally ill who died of brain cancer

painter - we have several paintings on our walls by her

photographer - several cameras, several courses, Facebook and other displays

pianist - plays at home, since high school

poet - some moving poems online and elsewhere

potter - has home studio, sold several pieces

professor - PhD at age 54, faculty at several schools, taught computer and Audio-visual classes

Quaker - local, state and regional contributions

seamstress - made wedding dresses, children's clothes

sister - close to her brother

sister-in-law - friends with sisters in law

skater - roller (got street skates for 60th birthday by request, ice skater, circles husband on ice)

technician - responsible for computers and A-V equipment in school, has master's in AV methods

tennis player - 3.5 level player, went to state tournament several times

web master - professional and amateur, got me started

writer - dissertation, family history, blogger

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Faster can also be better

It is understandable why people respect age.  The more we learn about the universe, the easier it is to see our lives as brief, to see time as both an important measure and our mortal enemy.  Steady practice, tenacity, dedicated application and such words all give a picture of dedication and commitment, continued work and attention over time

Just the other day, I first met the word "McMindfulness", a take-off on the term "McMansion".  You may know that a McMansion is an overly large, overly expensive house, typically with a mortgage that is too large for the inhabitants to comfortably pay. I thought the Wikipedia synonyms for a McMansion were interesting:

The neologism "McMansion" seems to have been coined sometime in the early 1980s.[2] It appeared in the Los Angeles Times in 1990[3][4] and the New York Times in 1998.[5] Related terms include "Persian palace",[6] "garage Mahal", "starter castle", and "Hummer house."[7] Marketing parlance often uses the term tract "mansions" or executive homes. An example of a McWord, "McMansion" associates the generic quality of these luxury homes with that of mass-produced fast food by evoking the McDonald's restaurant chain.[8]

As the rather stilted language says, McDonald's fast food, "McMansions" and "McMindfulness" are perjoratives implying something of low quality and cheap fast construction.  Those who have trained long and hard as meditators, especially those of the Soto school of Japanese Zen can take it as a given that anything American and easier in any way has to be inferior, flimsy and low quality.

From the little bit of knowledge of Zen schools I have gotten from my favorite Kindle comic book ["graphic novel"], the Soto school emphasizes years of training in a crosslegged or kneeling position, working with the mind to quiet it.  The Rinzai school feels that sudden and immediate insight into the reality of life is possible.  However, in what seems to me a typical example of a male need for excitement and some sort of rigor, the Rinzai may try to jolt a practitioner into facing life as it is through the use of a blow to the body, the shoulder or a twist of the nose.

When you couple very natural suspicion of something shorter and easier with the emerging Western research that awareness of one's own mind can assist with facing nearly any use of the mind, better cooperation between one's thoughts and one's emotions and healthier, happier living, the term McMindfulness can also assist those wary of short-order fast but inferior versions of anything. Whatever this meditation and mindfulness stuff is, it has to be a come-on, a sham.  

It isn't. It is inexpensive and easy but you have to work 5-10 minutes a day at it. Try it yourself.  Get used to it and see if it is very valuable.  You can be male or female, Nordic or Asian.  It may help if you are over 40 years old.

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Hooray for the analemma!

The winter solstice is today.  Today is the day that officially begins the winter season but more optimistically, today is the day when days cease their shortening and allow nights to shorten instead.  The path that the sun makes with its directly overhead position is the "analemma".  The path is a kind of figure 8 and its usual graphic representation appears on many globes of the earth, usually out in the Pacific ocean.

The winter solstice can be a big deal if you worry that the lowering sun might sink below the horizon permanently.  Then, where would we be?  No sunlight, no plants, no food and plenty of cold and colder.  It is true that the deeper cold has yet to show up and it probably will.  But just as robins, daffodils and leaves on the trees are signs of coming warmth, the winter solstice tells us that  the process of lengthening darkness has ended and longer days with shorter nights will now begin.

All the details are worked out and they can be rather complex.  Here is the Wikipedia on the "analemma":

None of these points is exactly at one of the ends of the analemma, where the Sun is at a solstice. As seen from north-mid-temperate latitudes, as the diagram shows, the earliest sunset occurs some time before the December solstice - typically a week or two before it - and the latest sunrise happens a week or two after the solstice. Thus, the darkest evening occurs in early to mid-December, but the mornings keep getting darker until about the New Year.

To me, the main point is that things are on the upswing.  If you want to, you can start to mourn a type of downturn starting at the summer solstice, when the days begin shortening again.

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

A word

I first heard something like "May I have a word?" in British shows, I think.  That utterance clearly meant to convey about the same thing as "I would like a private word" and "Could we talk some place in private?"  When a person in authority says that to me, I might prepare to hear bad news or a negative comment about my behavior or next year's budget. I am intrigued to think how many different sorts of change may be produced by a quick comment.

The famous Solomon Asch experiments had several people each say aloud which of several lines is shortest.  All of them are part of the experimental setup except one who is a genuine subject.  There was a tendency for the subject to agree with the others, despite the fact that the others were calling out the wrong answer.  I always wanted to try to have a word with the experimental subject just before the experiment.  I thought if I whispered something like "Don't fall for it", this supposedly deep-seated human tendency to conform would be overridden.

Whether it is the single word "Duck!" or a command like "Don't drink that potion!", a single utterance can drastically change a person's behavior.  When I was growing up, no one told me to pay no attention except my mother.  When she told me to pay no attention to someone or something, I think I did a pretty good job immediately at having the person or event cease to exist.  If you had watched a tape, you would have been able to deduce I was consciously avoiding attending but I practiced giving no clear sign of studiously avoiding paying attention.

A single utterance (Want to have dinner together?  Will you lend me $10  Don't look now.) can very powerfully change a situation and fast.  I realize birds can all fly off in a moment and deer can be warned with a snort so we are not alone.  But I bet we are the champs at using a single word to change things.

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Watching the show

It is true that you can find dozens of ways to quiet your mind.  Knitting, reading, and prayer all work.  Progressive relaxation where you focus on your toes and feet, your lower legs and right up to the top of your head works and is interesting.  Putting your attention on each part of your body is good for your body and your mind, too.  However, those activities can all be done in a way that is good for all of you but does not train your awareness of your attention.

Training for awareness of your attention is a sort of meta-training, since your attention is itself the focus of your thinking.  Where you put your attention matters.  Dr. Michael Merzenich showed that doing something attentively and not attentively differ and that attention matters.  You have an extra tool, an overview of yourself if you can learn to note what you are attending to.  We have both conscious attention, as when we ponder the next move in a chess game and attention from an external stimulus, as when we look up to see who just came in the cafe.

Our mind itself is always re-focusing on something new.  Think about your ankle.  You may not want to.  See? You jumped from whatever your first reaction to "think about your ankle" was to thinking you didn't want to think about your ankle.  Maybe you remembered injuring your ankle or being aware of the beauty of your ankles.  Our minds are association machines and we can associate one thing with others all day.  But with training, we can become more aware of our focus.  We become more able to see the tricks, omissions and commissions we commit with our minds.

The first step is concentration.  We concentrate on a spot or on our breath.  Why?  So we have a chance to catch our minds with they go off in a story about how cute the neighbor's dog is or whatever.  Concentrating on a spot or on our breath can be a challenge.  We quickly decide it is soooooooo boring.  We try to concentrate for 5 minutes and it feels like 5 hours.  But over time, the quiet, the relaxation and the comfort of our own honest, full company with ourselves becomes a pleasant place to be.  We try to do 5-10 minutes every day for 6 months.  We do enough that we begin to notice our minds when we are not practicing.

At some point, we may get to where we drop the focus of a spot to look at or our breath and just sit letting the mind display its wants and themes.  We might get to the point where we watch our mind play its programs as a tv plays.  We might get so that we see how multiple, how nutty, how colorful, how primitive, how fleeting, how colorful our thoughts are.

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Elvis-Ish

Our local children's book store is run by an energetic woman and her husband.  She is truly an expert in children's books, which can be remarkable pieces of writing and art.  She gave us a presentation a couple of weeks ago and went through quite a few books that might be good gifts for children.  She gives a short synopsis of each book.

Two of them caught my attention.  The more meaningful one is "Ish" by Peter H. Reynolds.  Ramon loves to draw but is downhearted about the lack of realism in his art until his little sister says that his flower vase drawing looks "vase-ish".  The book will only download to an iPad or Kindle Fire.

The other book is very well written.  It is Elvis and the Underdogs by Jenny Lee and Kelly Light.  It is a fun read and I have given it to a couple of adults.  A 4th grade boy with medical problems gets a guard dog by mistake that was in training for 2 years to be the President's dog.  The dog is a 150 lb. Newfoundland and is smarter than you and me.  

​

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​Inspired by both books, I present my attempt to use the app "Skitch" to make an Elvis-ish drawing of the famous singer:

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Act now!

​"Act now!" is not the same call of warning that you hear in the workplace.  That one is "Act busy!" The theory is that if the boss comes around, one is safer looking busy, engaged, as if one is making an important contribution to the enterprise.

No, "Act now!" is screamed from advertisements, especially from stores trying desperately to sell 3 times as much during this holiday season as they sold last year.

When I get told to "Act now!", I don't fool around.  I act immediately.  I have gotten so many injunctions, commands, demands, offers and orders to ACT NOW that I am exhausted.  I cannot act at all for a while.  Please wait until my glycogen reserves replenish and my muscles stop aching.  I need to relax my blood vessels, gain some body warmth, consume some calories and take a nap.  Call me later with the next thrilling offer at unbelieveable prices that will only be in effect for the short time I have in which I must ACT NOW!

Schools from kindergarten to graduate school are often admonished to teach critical thinking.  The basis of critical thinking is doubt.  One needs to ponder.  And for goodness sake, think twice.  Since there is a lot of baloney in the world, maybe an extra amount in the USA, it makes sense to try and prepare students to ask about the evidence behind assertions.  The old parental approach "Because I said so and I am the parent!" asks for recognition of authority and power.  You know the bit: "As long as you eat in our kitchen, you will abide by our rules!"

A while back, we saw science occasionally turn on itself, change its mind, reverse an opinion.  But as the business and manufacturing worlds picked up more players, it became clearer that competitors would tend to find ways to copy or surpass products very quickly.  So, innovation and change became more and more typical as efforts surged to hold on to commercial leads and rankings.  Maybe I am urged to Act Now! because by tomorrow, it will be clear that the hot deal of today is already obsolete.  Tomorrow, I may find that the model selling today at a low, low price is out of date, is being unloaded in an attempt to get at least some money out of that inventory.

I am beginning to suspect that if I Act Now!, I will regret doing so soon after.  I think when I recover my energy, I will make a concentrated effort to act later, and only then if I still find an action that seems worthwhile.​

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Painful but ordinary

Dictionaries and definitions can be so calming.  They assist with what "The Trauma of Everyday Life" is about: seeing that many things that annoy or frighten us are normal parts of life.  When you read definitions of what is bugging you, you realize the source of annoyance or fear exists but it isn't all that rare and its visit to you is not personal, just business as usual.

Dr. Mark Epstein writes in his The Trauma of Everyday Life:

This attitude toward trauma is at the heart of the Buddha's teaching, although it is often overlooked in the rush to embrace the inner peace that his teachings also promised. But inner peace is actually predicated upon a realistic approach to the uncertainties and fears that pervade our lives. Western psychology often teaches that if we understand the cause of a given trauma we can move past it, returning to the steady state we imagine is normal. Many who are drawn to Eastern practices hope that they can achieve their own steady state. They use religious techniques to quiet their minds in the hope of rising above the intolerable feelings that life evokes. Both strategies, at their core , seek to escape from trauma, once and for all. But trauma is all pervasive. It does not go away. It continues to reassert itself as life unfolds. The Buddha taught that a realistic view makes all the difference. If one can treat trauma as a fact and not as a failing, one has the chance to learn from the inevitable slings and arrows that come one's way. Meditation makes profound use of this philosophy, but its utility is not limited to meditation. As my patient realized when grappling with his diagnosis, the traumas of everyday life, if they do not destroy us, become bearable, even illuminating, when we learn to relate to them differently.

When I first came upon the Buddha's teachings, I was young and not really thinking about illness or death. No one I knew had died, and I was struggling with my own issues of adolescence and young adulthood. Trauma, in the sense of confronting an actual or threatened death or serious injury (as the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders defines "trauma"), was not something I had to face directly. But there was another kind of trauma, developmental trauma, percolating under the surface of my experience . Developmental trauma occurs when "emotional pain cannot find a relational home in which it can be held." 1 In retrospect , I can see that this was the case for me. In my first encounters with Buddhism, I was trying to escape from emotional pain I did not really understand. But in order to practice the Buddha's teachings, I needed a realistic view. This meant accepting there was no escape. The most important spiritual experiences of my early exploration of Buddhism gave me such a view, although I have had to be reminded of it time and again as circumstances have evolved.

Epstein, Mark (2013-08-15). The Trauma of Everyday Life (pp. 3-4). Penguin Group US. Kindle Edition.

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Wishy-washing my opinion

This seems to be a time, especially in my country, where it is the fashion to hold opinions tightly.  But now that I think of it, it may be a time when it is easy to see or hear opinions being expressed strongly while the basic reasonableness of people hasn't changed.  Two different issues have been getting more wishy-washy in my mind.  I have read there is a tendency for humans to like certainty and to prefer to avoid uncertainty.  That is true for me: I like to feel that I know what I am doing and have already weighed the sides to a question.  

So, the recent article by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel called "Why I Hope to Die at 75" clicked when I read it.  It meshed with the book by Atul Gawande called "Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End".  It clicked with statistics about the cost to society of the last six months of life.  When I learned that Dr. Emanuel is 57 years old now, I did the typical sneer and said to myself that I would wait until he is 74 or 75 and see what he says then.  But a key fact was that I hadn't read his article.  Now I have and I am way more wishy-washy.  I can actually feel myself firming up in favor of the man's position, which is subtle, well-thought-out and well put.

That sort of mental movement has not occurred with my reading about the movement against the type font called "Comic Sans".  I see there are web sites called "You Are a Comic Sans Criminal" and "There Is Help Available for People Like You Who Use Comic Sans".  I wrote this blog post four years ago explaining that a friend who has had difficulty reading at times in her life told me that she found the font I use for this blog to be especially readable.  

I don't doubt that some people are sensitive to the font.  I have not read "Just My Type", one of several books on font design and typography.  I don't think it would take me long to get used to nearly any type face. I did have one idea for a font design.  My notion is that if the lettters are tall and skinny enough, they will be difficult to read.  Why would anyone want such a font when there are 622 in the basic version of Microsoft Word?  Not my problem.

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Zen stories

I don't know enough about Zen to know what is a genuine Zen story and what isn't.  In this time of increasing communication between previously more self-contained groups, stories and their pedigrees get all mixed up.  I like the story sometimes called "Maybe" and the story of the perfectly ripe and ready strawberry.  I have a new candidate, new to me anyhow for the group.

One time, when I looked up the Maybe story, I found claims that it was Chinese and that it was Jewish.  A farmer's horse runs away, neighbors commiserate: "Such bad luck", farmer opines "Maybe".  Horse returns and brings three wild horses with him.  "Such good luck." "Maybe". Events go up and go down for a while. Point is you can't tell until the end and it is never the end.

The strawberry story is claimed to be Zen (Japanese) and Indian.  Man is in bad situation, sees nasty tiger waiting on side of mountain path, turns to go back the other way and finds another tiger.  Looks up to see a vine he could use to climb the cliff but mice are nibbling the vine.  In one version, things are even worse 'cause angry bees are circling him. ready to sting.  Man spots fully ripe, perfect strawberry growing at his feet, plucks it, eats it, exclaiming "Delicious!"  Point is to savor what is good while you got the it.

I enjoy the graphic (comic book drawings) work called "Zen for Beginners" by Judith Blackstone & Zoran Josipovic but I can't find either of these helpful parables in it.

My suggestion for a new Zen story to add to the group came from a friend the other day.  Seems a man met another on the street and realized his friend looked sad and down.  "What's the matter?"  "Well, two days ago, I won the lottery." "Wow, that doesn't sound sad."  Well, yesterday, I got word that my uncle I never knew died and left me four million dollars."  "That doesn't sound bad. Why are you sad?"  "Well, nothing good has happened today."

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety