El Himno de Andalucía (performed*) By Rocío Jurado
1 Quote
These early days of AI are already absurd. Humans, walking and talking bags of water and trace chemicals that we are, have managed to convince well-organized sand to pretend to think like us. We don’t know what will happen next, and what dangers and opportunities the next generations of AI will bring. But we do need to realize that trying to convince ourselves that AI is normal software will not protect us from disruption. Instead, it may make it harder for us to see what is coming.
In the same piece from which the quote is taken, Ethan Mollick reiterates the vital point that (generative) AI is still a relatively new tool(?) and we should be experimenting with it and learning how to use as much and as soon as possible.
What are days for?
Days are where we live.
They come, they wake us
Time and time over.
They are to be happy in:
Where can we live but days?
Ah, solving that question
Brings the priest and the doctor
In their long coats
Running over the fields.
Philip Larkin
1 Picture
A Sunny Day
1 Essay
In Praise of Shadows: Ancient Japanese Aesthetics and Why Every Technology Is a Technology of Thought
Although Tanizaki is writing at a time when a new wave of polymers was sweeping the industrialized West, he paints a subtler and more important contrast than that between the Western cult of synthetics and the Japanese preference for organic materials. This elegant osmosis of art and shadow, he argues, is to be found not only in what materials are used, but in how they are being used:
Wood finished in glistening black lacquer is the very best; but even unfinished wood, as it darkens and the grain grows more subtle with the years, acquires an inexplicable power to calm and sooth.
This temporal continuity of beauty, a counterpoint to the West’s neophilia, is central to Japanese aesthetics. Rather than fetishizing the new and shiny, the Japanese sensibility embraces the living legacy embedded in objects that have been used and loved for generations, seeing the process of aging as something that amplifies rather than muting the material’s inherent splendor. Luster becomes not an attractive quality but a symbol of shallowness, a vacant lack of history:
We find it hard to be really at home with things that shine and glitter. The Westerner uses silver and steel and nickel tableware, and polishes it to a fine brilliance, but we object to the practice… We begin to enjoy it only when the luster has worn off, when it has begun to take on a dark, smoky patina. Almost every householder has had to scold an insensitive maid who has polished away the tarnish so patiently waited for.
[…]
We do not dislike everything that shines, but we do prefer a pensive luster to a shallow brilliance, a murky light that, whether in a stone or an artifact, bespeaks a sheen of antiquity.
Tanizaki speaks affectionately of “the glow of grime,” which “comes of being touched over and over” — a record of the tactile love an object has acquired through being caressed by human hands again and again.
But nowhere does Tanizaki’s ode to shadows flow more melodically than in his writing about Japanese lacquerware:
Darkness is an indispensable element of the beauty of lacquerware… [Traditional lacquerware] was finished in black, brown, or red, colors built up of countless layers of darkness, the inevitable product of the darkness in which life was lived.
Maria Popova
This is essentially a Zuckerberg-Newport dichotomy rather than East Vs West. Don’t fear technology, leverage it but never lose sight and why you are using it. Furthermore make sure it is you that is using (controlling(?)) the technology not the reverse.
This essay also reminded me of:
Kintsugi is the Japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold — built on the idea that in embracing flaws and imperfections, you can create an even stronger, more beautiful piece of art.
There is beauty in use and wear and tear, rather than buying the best brand new thing. To misuse a term it is creative destruction but also rebirth. It is as if they are repairing their tools with the blood of a Phoenix and giving them a second life or more appropriately a new life. It is now a new thing. See the Ship of Theseus.
N.B. Harry Potter has taught us that Unicorn blood is silver, so by inference Phoenix blood is gold.
“Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for, I have grown not only gray, but almost blind in the service of my country.”
George Washington
1 Idea
Schulz’s Razor.:
“Do not attribute to group conspiracy, that which can be explained by cancellation anxiety.” From the outside, it might look like everyone is coordinating to push some ideology or movement.
h/t Chris Williamson
1 Poem
Say not the Struggle nought Availeth
Say not the struggle nought availeth,
The labour and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faints not, nor faileth,
And as things have been they remain.
If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;
It may be, in yon smoke concealed,
Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers,
And, but for you, possess the field.
For while the tired waves, vainly breaking
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the main.
And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light,
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly,
But westward, look, the land is bright.
Arthur Hugh Clough
1 Picture
The FInding of Moses
1 Essay
A Conversation About “Intellectual Teachers” with Ben Riley
Ben: See, I knew you were the right teacher to ask about this. And I think you’ve made an important distinction among two types of “teaching intellectualism,” which pose related but somewhat distinct challenges.
The question of “how should I, a teacher, teach Johnny, this particular student” strikes me as essentially an engineering question. I’ve discovered the hard way that teachers hate the metaphor of “learning engineering,” yet it strikes me as apt — when teachers design a lesson or task for their students, they are trying to get them (the students) to think about something they otherwise might not be inclined to think about. Students are puzzles, and while they can never be fully solved, I think there are ways in which we can help teachers get better at “engineering” experiences that will help Johnny and his classmates learn.
You are right that we rarely give teachers formal ideas about what students are like, but this is where cognitive science can be helpful, right? We could make sure that teachers have at least a basic understanding of how our minds work, and then use that as the foundation for exploring questions about what to do with that knowledge in a teaching context. While we can’t just snap our fingers to make that happen, I at least see a roadmap to get there, and indeed, that’s the work we do at the organization I founded.
Which brings me to your second aspect of teaching as an intellectual craft. What I hear you saying is there’s a big gap right now between the largely theoretical knowledge produced by university professors and such, and the sorts of questions that might only be visible to people who actually spend most of their days with children. Unfortunately, as you hint at, there is no obvious path to make that more valued. I feel like periodically the idea of “teacher-researcher” floats around but never goes very far. The incentives just don’t exist. We could mount a policy push to create them, but that seems like a hard slog.
Here is a short essay I wrote on the idea that an Australia-style deal constituted the same thing as a no-deal with the EU or not. Hopefully, it’s not too heavy and can be read by a wide audience. I hope you learn something from this essay and if you disagree with anything or find any errors, I would be delighted to hear them, nevertheless onto the essay.
A trade deal is an agreement between two or more countries to trade with one another. An agreement between two nations is called a bilateral agreement and it is called a multilateral agreement when there are more than two parties. China-European Union (EU) is a bilateral agreement. North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is a multilateral agreement. These agreements help overcome barriers to trade, tariffs, and non-tariff barriers. Reciprocity is a key foundation in all trade agreements. Both parties should aim to maximise the benefits they receive but not forget the other must also benefit otherwise they may not agree to the arrangement. Trade deals offer many benefits such as receiving goods or services they need or have them provided at a cheaper price.
No-deal is synonymous with World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms. Therefore, no-deal means no free trade deal. A Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is not necessary to trade with another nation, but it can ease the process. Trade without an FTA uses WTO terms. No-deal often has negative connotations; this may be because WTO terms do not satisfy some states. The unsatisfied state will then begin free trade negotiations to escape WTO terms. The WTO website states “it is sometimes described as a free trade organisation” [WTO] (2002). However, this is inaccurate as it allows tariffs and other protectionist measures. This suggests that FTA are preferable and necessary to reduce trade barriers and to be considered a deal. This means that WTO terms are equivalent to the phrase no-deal. However, there can be deals in policies other than the economy such as energy or research and innovation.
Australia does not currently have an FTA with the EU. They did begin negotiations for one in 2018. This does not mean Australia does not trade with the EU, but most of it is subject to WTO terms. Australia does have agreements with the EU which handle trade but not an FTA. The EU and Australia also have agreements that cover many other policies. The relationships current foundation is the partnership framework 2008. It was further developed in 2017 but has not been ratified. It is referred to as the EU-Australia Framework agreement. Other important agreements to note are the wine agreement, the mutual recognition agreement (MRA) and the passenger name records.
Australia has been in conversation with the EU since the ’60s, in large part because of the United Kingdom (UK). At the beginning of the EU and Australia’s relationship, the UK was heavily involved, as it was one of Australia’s main allies during the second world war and the commonwealth. However, Australia principally had little interest in the EU due to the influence of a long-standing relationship with the UK and the UK’s Euroscepticism (Murray, 2015). Australia was part of the British empire and enjoyed a stable and prosperous period with the 1932 Ottawa agreement (Puig, G. 2018). Therefore, it did not need to interact with the EU, but the UK was the principal reason that Australia embarked on a relationship with other countries across the world and eventually the EU. The UK joined the EEC in 1973, and preferential trade with Australia ended, which Australia viewed as a betrayal (Puig, G. 2018). Australia’s main objection to the EEC, at that time, was their CAP or common agricultural policy and relates to rules around agriculture. There were many well-founded reasons for this including agriculture being idealised in Australia and because Australia was a large food and agricultural exporter. “40% of its export earnings derived from agriculture” (Murray, 2015). Australia went on to develop strict rules for agriculture and manufacturing. These still create friction in their trade talks today.
The Australian government introduced more flexible trade policy positions in the 1980s which made its relationship with EEC more practical and productive. Furthermore, both parties signed the Kerin Andriessen agreement which stopped EEC beef subsidies to Australia’s primary markets like Asia. Australia also set up the Cairns Group of Fair Trading Nations to improve market access for agriculture exports. Europe’s attitude had also changed which saw free trade principles promoted. In the following years, we saw the success of the Uruguay round of trade talks which later became the WTO. The Cairns-group later led negotiations with the EU for an agriculture WTO agreement. The Cairns-group strategy even led to several diplomatic bilateral agreements established after the Uruguay round. These include the wine agreement and the MRA. However, the key agreement to emerge was the framework agreement which officially recognises the relationship among other things. Australia signed many FTA, and the EU reformed its commercial policy in the treaty of Lisbon to achieve the same thing (Puig, G. 2018). This created a path for both parties to negotiate an FTA today.
Some politicians have used the term to discuss using Australia’s immigration policy. They use a points-based system in Australia. The UK government may try to copy this system with an Australia style. A (UK) government spokesperson was quoted saying “An Australia style deal would give us full control over our laws, our rules and our fishing waters, as well as the freedom to strike free trade agreements with other countries around the world.” (Kaye, 2020). This suggests the government views Australia style as more than its trade with the EU. It may pursue full control of its borders, fisheries, and legal system. The government will also negotiate trade policy, however, has been vague on the details. The UK may pursue an agreement for a specific good or service like the Australia wine agreement, or it could pursue an FTA while negotiating other policies. However, one thing is clear, the rhetoric of the UK government and its politicians place national sovereignty over an FTA with the EU.
The government seems to be the only entity claiming an Australia style is a deal. Boris Johnson said, “arrangements more like Australia’s based on simple principles of global free trade” Guardian News (2018). He only mentions trade but leaves out the agreements that cover a wide range of policies Australia have with the EU. Also, when he refers to ‘principles of global free trade’ it sounds like a synonym for WTO terms. However, WTO terms are not free trade and WTO is not a free trade organisation. Boris Johnson seems to be stating that an Australian style deal is just trading on WTO terms with the EU. If this is an Australian style it is easier to copy than an FTA that another country does not have. It would also be difficult to replicate given Australia’s trade with the EU differs from UK-EU in the amount of trade and the types of goods and services traded. EU accounts for 11% of Australia’s good and 19% of its services trade. UK-EU trade is about six times larger. Australia’s primary exports are raw materials, whereas UK exports are more varied like cars, food products, and pharmaceuticals, which are much more regulated and face tariffs in a no-deal but would also be subject to non-tariff barriers (Bevington, 2020).
An Australia style deal is unlikely to bear any resemblance to Australia’s current deal with the EU. This is due to geographical differences, trade, and history. The UK has a much longer history with the EU and its members, given that it was a member for 40 years and has always been a European country. It has strong historical and cultural ties with the other European countries. Its economies are much more interconnected and have established a strong diplomatic relationship. The amount of trade they do will be very different to Australia, as UK exports to the EU account for 43% of all UK exports and UK imports from the EU account for 52% of all UK imports (Ward, 2020). This means that they will still trade with each other, but this says nothing about reducing any trade barriers. Neither side will want that but at what cost. The UK may sacrifice its original plan for fisheries to avoid any trade barriers. An Australia style deal may also be different in practice due to geographical distances of the UK and Australia. The UK is a next-door neighbour to the EU whereas Australia is much further away. This will affect a lot of the trade and types of goods traded especially since the UK and Australia have such different economies. The UK may also sacrifice some of its fisheries to access smaller arrangements, similar to Australia’s and the EUs, like scientific projects or aviation. The EU may also want to sign some smaller deals such as security and safe nuclear power use to ensure the UK remains as an ally given their shared history and close locations. Whatever the result, the Australia style has always been a secondary option to the Canada style. Consequently, this means that it is difficult to predict what an Australian style deal will look like in practice.
Overall, it is hard to claim that Australia style does not mean no-deal given the evidence. This is because no-deal often only refers to whether an FTA is signed or not. It gives little thought to any other policy agreements or deals. Also, the UK government never mentioned trying to sign similar agreements. It only discussed trade, fisheries, borders, and the legal system. The EU does not have any control over Australia’s fisheries, borders or legal system and has no agreements about them. Therefore, this reinforces the idea that Australia style means no-deal as the EU and Australia trade on WTO terms except for wine. WTO terms are synonymous with no-deal. Also, Australia and the EU are still negotiating an FTA but have not signed one.
Introduction: Australia, the European Union and the New Trade Agenda. (2017). In Elijah A., Kenyon D., Hussey K., & Van der Eng P. (Eds.), Australia, the European Union and the New Trade Agenda (pp. 1-16). Australia: ANU Press. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1sq5ttx.6
Matera, M., & Murray, P. (2018). Australia’s relationship with the European Union: from conflict to cooperation. Australian Journal Of International Affairs, 72(3), 179-193. https://doi.org/10.1080/10357718.2018.1453475
McKenzie, L. (2018). Overcoming legacies of foreign policy (dis)interests in the negotiation of the European Union–Australia free trade agreement. Australian Journal Of International Affairs, 72(3), 255-271. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/10357718.2018.1453480
Murray, P. (2015). EU–Australia relations: a strategic partnership in all but name?. Cambridge Review Of International Affairs, 29(1), 171-191. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/09557571.2015.1015487
Puig, G. (2018). Australia and the European Union: A Brief Commercial History. In Drake-Brockman J. & Messerlin P. (Eds.), Potential Benefits of an Australia-EU Free Trade Agreement: Key Issues and Options (pp. 3-8). South Australia: University of Adelaide Press. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv9hj94m.8
Yencken, E. (2018). From the Common Agricultural Policy to the Eurozone Crisis: Bilateral Disputes in the Australia–EU Relationship. The Round Table, 107(5), 585-600. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/00358533.2018.1527519
Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow up to Be Cowboys By Waylon Jennings
1 Quote
I LOVE power. But I love it as an artist. I love it as a musician loves his violin, to draw out its sounds and chords and harmonies.
Napoleon
1 Idea
Thought-terminating cliché
Rational Wiki defines it as:
A thought-terminating cliché is a saying, often a tautology, that is repeated in order to relieve the stress of cognitive dissonance by avoiding all further consideration of a matter.
For example:
The Lord works in mysterious ways. – Stop thinking about facts or events that directly contradict your theology.
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
Joyce Kilmer
1 Picture
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte By Georges Seurat, 1884-1886
1 Essay
How Slave Morality Won
This essay gives a brief description of master and slave morality. It goes on to show how slave morality is similar to the Ouroboros and the only thing that seems able to usurp slave morality is more slave morality.
While it suggests the two moralities can oscillate depending on certain societal conditions it doesn’t seem to accept that master morality has an easy path back.
As a result, what we perceive as morally just is likely whatever optimizes for one of those aims. We deny this, of course, often because we are oblivious to it ourselves. Morality often conceals self-interested motivations, even to ourselves.
Nietszche held that people’s moral claims are often reflections of their own unconscious drives. Someone might promote Master Morality when they’re the strong one, and Slave Morality when they’re the weaker one.
In other words, people tend to adopt Master Morality when it suits them and Slave Morality when it suits them. Societies do the same thing.
The book, The Sovereign Individual, talks about the logic of technology determining the logic of violence: “When individual protection is hard, we rely on others to protect us—governments for example protect us externally with the military and internally with the police. When technology makes protection easier, we rely less on the government to serve that existential role, which leaves governments with less power as a result. “
This same thinking applies to Master Morality and Slave Morality too.
Indeed. Master morality is appealing to leaders — that’s why powerful people tend to be more right wing or Master Morality oriented — because of course people at the top of the hierarchy are going to believe in hierarchy.
Conversely, slave morality appeals to everyone else. Slave morality says hierarchy is bad and we should be more egalitarian. In fact the lower on the totem pole you are, the more pure you are. That’s of course going to appeal to people who are lower in the hierarchy.
So, what changed? Why did slave morality win? Two reasons: the evolution of warfare and governance.
Victorian Newspaper Seller Offering, by Mary Evans, 2018
1 Song
Sunshine of Your Love By Cream
1 Quote
Each thing is defined by its end. Therefore it is for a noble end that the brave man endures and acts as courage directs.
Aristotle
1 Idea
People who do more, do more.
I hope you savour this rather subtle piece of antanaclasis.
1 Poem
Ode to the West Wind By Percy Bysshe Shelley
I
O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,
Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,
Each like a corpse within its grave, until
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow
Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill
(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
With living hues and odours plain and hill:
Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh hear!
II
Thou on whose stream, mid the steep sky's commotion,
Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed,
Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean,
Angels of rain and lightning: there are spread
On the blue surface of thine aëry surge,
Like the bright hair uplifted from the head
Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge
Of the horizon to the zenith's height,
The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge
Of the dying year, to which this closing night
Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre,
Vaulted with all thy congregated might
Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere
Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: oh hear!
III
Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams
The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,
Lull'd by the coil of his crystalline streams,
Beside a pumice isle in Baiae's bay,
And saw in sleep old palaces and towers
Quivering within the wave's intenser day,
All overgrown with azure moss and flowers
So sweet, the sense faints picturing them! Thou
For whose path the Atlantic's level powers
Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below
The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear
The sapless foliage of the ocean, know
Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear,
And tremble and despoil themselves: oh hear!
IV
If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;
If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;
A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share
The impulse of thy strength, only less free
Than thou, O uncontrollable! If even
I were as in my boyhood, and could be
The comrade of thy wanderings over Heaven,
As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed
Scarce seem'd a vision; I would ne'er have striven
As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!
A heavy weight of hours has chain'd and bow'd
One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.
V
Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:
What if my leaves are falling like its own!
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies
Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone,
Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,
My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!
Drive my dead thoughts over the universe
Like wither'd leaves to quicken a new birth!
And, by the incantation of this verse,
Scatter, as from an unextinguish'd hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawaken'd earth
The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
1 Picture
Fray Jerónimo Pérez By Francisco de Zurbarán, 1628
Fray Jerónimo Pérez (Friar Jerónimo Pérez) By Francisco de Zurbarán, 1628
1 Essay
How John Stuart Mill Got Over His Existential Crisis, and You Can Too! By Brett and Kate Mckay
What began as a general sense of listlessness turned into a full-blown existential crisis when Mill found himself thinking through a penetrating question:
Suppose that all your objects in life were realized; that all the changes in institutions and opinions which you are looking forward to, could be completely effected at this very instant: would this be a great joy and happiness to you?’ And an irrepressible self-consciousness distinctly answered, ‘No!’ At this my heart sank within me: the whole foundation on which my life was constructed fell down. All my happiness was to have been found in the continual pursuit of this end. The end had ceased to charm, and how could there ever again be any interest in the means? I seemed to have nothing left to live for.
Mill had supposed that if he accomplished his goals of advancing the social issues he believed in, he would find happiness. But he realized that even if he attained all his aims, he still wouldn’t be happy.
He was bumping up against one of life’s great paradoxes: the more you make happiness your primary goal, the less likely you are to achieve happiness.
This led to a fundamental and lasting change in Mill’s thinking:
I now thought that this end [happiness] was only to be attained by not making it the direct end. Those only are happy (I thought) who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness . . . Aiming thus at something else, they find happiness by the way.
Once Mill realized making happiness his primary goal in life wouldn’t make him happy and could actually just be making him miserable, he found the key to unlocking his existential crisis.
Telic vs Atelic Goals
So what specifically got John Stuart Mill out of his funk?
Reading the poetry of William Wordsworth.
But here’s the thing: Mill didn’t pick up Wordsworth thinking, “If I read this guy, it will make me feel better.” There was no specific aim or intention behind it. He was reading based on what Emerson called Whim with a capital W. As Mill wrote:
I took up the collection of his poems from curiosity, with no expectation of mental relief from it, though I had before resorted to poetry with that hope. . . . I had looked into The Excursion two or three years before, and found little in it; and I should probably have found as little, had I read it at this time. But the miscellaneous poems . . . proved to be the precise thing for my mental wants at that particular juncture.
For the first time in John Stuart Mill’s young life, he was doing something not for the sake of the bigger goal of being happy.
And he discovered that made him happy.
[….]
That’s what John Stuart Mill realized when he fell into his deep funk and asked himself if he’d be happy if he achieved all of his reform goals; their completion might have made him happy for a moment . . . but then what?
Focusing exclusively on telic activities gets you stuck on an endless, existentially empty wheel.
Atelic activities are the opposite of telic activities. They don’t have an end in mind. They don’t have a finish line. You can never exhaust them. You can do them as much as you want, and you’re never done with them.
Walking (for the heck of it), socializing (simply for enjoyment), and reading (for pleasure alone) are examples of atelic activities. You don’t do them as a means towards getting something else; they’re done for their own sake.
For John Stuart Mill, reading the poetry of Wordsworth was his atelic activity. He noted that Wordsworth wasn’t considered one of the great poets, but it didn’t matter. Mill’s goal wasn’t to read what the critics thought were the great poets. He just enjoyed reading Wordsworth. Wordsworth spoke to him:
What made Wordsworth’s poems a medicine for my state of mind, was that they expressed, not mere outward beauty, but states of feeling, and of thought coloured by feeling, under the excitement of beauty. They seemed to be the very culture of the feelings, which I was in quest of. In them I seemed to draw from a source of inward joy, of sympathetic and imaginative pleasure, which could be shared in by all human beings; which had no connection with struggle or imperfection, but would be made richer by every improvement in the physical or social condition of mankind. From them I seemed to learn what would be the perennial sources of happiness, when all the greater evils of life shall have been removed. And I felt myself at once better and happier as I came under their influence. The result was that I gradually, but completely, emerged from my habitual depression.
Every man is a divinity in disguise, a god playing the fool. It seems as if heaven had sent its insane angels into our world as to an asylum. And here they will break out into their native music, and utter at intervals the words they have heard in heaven; then the mad fit returns, and they mope and wallow like dogs!
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1 Idea
In stressful situations, people generally have a poor theory of mind. Usually it is strangers that know what you need better than your close companions do. One reason for this is that one does not communicate as clearly as one could when in a stressful situation, leading to misunderstandings. Strangers are a level removed and can view your situation with a level of objectivity.
How can you bring that level of objectivity to yourself and companions in those less than tranquil events.
audentis fortuna iuvat
Virgil
1 Poem
A Slash of Blue By Emily Dickinson
A slash of Blue—
A sweep of Gray—
Some scarlet patches on the way,
Compose an Evening Sky—
A little purple—slipped between—
Some Ruby Trousers hurried on—
A Wave of Gold—
A Bank of Day—
This just makes out the Morning Sky.
Emily Dickinson
1 Picture
Mujeres en la Ventana By Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
(Dos) mujeres en la ventana/ (Two) women at the window By Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, 1665-75
1 Essay
The Allure of Narcissistic Spirituality By Rabbi Alan Lurie
While complaining about others and shaming a rule-breaker at an event intended to teach equanimity is — like the story in the beginning of this blog — ironic, it teaches an important warning: The desire to control others in order to create a “perfect” environment that nurtures our sensitivities is a calling card of spiritual narcissism. It is not a spiritual feat to feel equanimity only when everything is going exactly as one would like. True spirituality takes place in the holy messiness of the world, in open-hearted relationship with others, and in a kind smile to one who accidentally stepped on your foot. In that moment of connection, one can clearly see that the annoyances and upsets are actually wake up calls pulling us out of our self-involvement and in to relationship.
[I]t is better to rule over – be like a king in hell than to serve somebody as a slave in heaven.
Satan, Book II Paradise Lost By John Milton
1 Idea
Whether real or not, one way of exerting control or exerting effort for the perception of control, is to change how you speak. For example I get to do this is better than I have to do this.
Another example is saying This wasn’t a priority for me instead of saying I didnt have time.
Finally saying I chose/choose to do this rather than I had to do this.
1 Poem Sonnet
Sonnet 130: My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
William Shakespeare
1 Picture
La maja desnuda (The pretty naked one) By Francisco de Goya, 1800
The spiritual odyssey is not so, and even it — only vehicle. The metaphysical realist with an obvious passion for extremely condensed imagery, Montale was able to create his own poetic language through the imposition of, what he called “Avlico” — court, — on “prozaicheskiy”; language, which could also be defined as amaro stile nuovo (in contrast Dante formula, prevailed in the Italian poetry for more than six centuries). The most remarkable achievements of Montale, that he was able to get ahead, Despite the pressures dolce stile nuovo. In fact, not even trying to loosen the grip of, Montale constantly paraphrases the great Florentine, or refers to its imagery and vocabulary. The multiplicity of its allusions partly explains the accusations of ambiguity, that critics occasionally leveled against him. But references and paraphrases are a natural part of any civilized speech (free, or “freed” them it — only gestures), especially in the Italian cultural tradition. Michelangelo and Raphael, resulting in only these two examples, Both were avid interpreters “The divine Comedy”. One of the purposes of art — create debtors; paradox is, what, The more debt the artist, the richer.
[…]
Although useful, repetitive nature of rhyme scheme (as, however, any scheme) It creates the danger of exaggeration, not to mention the removal of the last of the reader. To prevent this, Montale often interleaves rhyme in a poem unrhymed. His opposition to the stylistic redundancy is of course as ethical, and aesthetic, proving, that the poem is a form of the closest possible interaction between ethics and aesthetics.
[…]
I went down, gave you a hand, at least one million stairways, and now, when you’re not here, at each step – emptiness. Nevertheless, our long journey was too short. My still lasts, although I no longer needed transplant, armor, traps, repentance of those, who believe, that really only visible to us. I went down a million stairs, gave you a hand, not because, four eyes, can, see better. I went through it with you, because he knew, that the two of us The only true pupils, although clouded, were you.
Hello lace-maker, what a joy it is to acquaint with you, do be so kind and sweet, for this ode is for you.
Hello sweet girl,
what troubles you?
what interest you?
you sew the dress,
you ne'er read the press.
Кружевница smile at me,
don't blush,
for that I suffer equally,
toy with your curls,
sweet girl,
with hair as fine as that lace,
Lace-maker, lace-maker,
make me some lace,
lace-maker, lace-maker,
don't make me brace,
with eyes like marbles of the sky,
with depths of Nietzschean abyss',
with darkness of the night sky,
with beauty beyond the cosmos.
Was this intelligent design?
Nay, this is courage,
to live so coy,
so gentle,
bring such joy to me,
this is the work of master,
to make a beauty,
that makes such beauty with her lace.
Twiddle your hair,
twiddle your fingers,
work and toil,
work ne'er to spoil,
come see me,
and rest those weary elbows.
A katana made from metals found in a 4 billion-year-old meteorite. It’s called the “The Sword of Heaven”.
Four week in, 28 poems in, I hope you’re enjoying it, I certainly am. It builds and builds but we must all fall to entropy as we look to close up this wonderful cultural experience and developmental challenge.
Here you can read week 1 poems: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.
Here you can read week 2 poems: 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14.
Here you can read week 3 poems: 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21.
Here you can read week 4 poems: 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, and 28.
Here we have the Katana,
Swift it cuts through his armour,
Cause and create much drama,
A 4 billion year old mourner.