Books

Take A Walk

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Dr. Quigley quotes Robinson Jeffers, “…take a walk, for instance, and admire the landscape: that is better than killing one’s brother in war or trying to be superior to one’s neighbor in time of peace. We could dig our gardens…We could, according to our abilities, give ourselves to science or art; not to impress somebody, but for the love of the beauty each discloses. We could even be quiet occasionally…”

Better than killing, so many alternatives. I chose writing. But still something needs to get me out of the chair. Used to be handball, tennis, baseball, now I do as Jeffers suggests. I take a walk. 

Oscar Who?

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Oscar Levant said to George Gershwin, “Tell me George, if you had to do it all over again, would you fall in love with yourself?”

It must feel good. Who am I kidding, it does feel good. Don’t all of us fall in love with ourselves at least once?

When does this become  a bad thing? Ever? I suspect if done in excess it would be a problem. A constant demonstration of it and we would appear selfish. When is confidence self love? Can we be confident without falling in love with ourselves?

At least with Gershwin, the result is that most of us know who he is. But who is Oscar Levant?

Getting Ready for Dr. Peter Quigley

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Dr. Quigley in his book Housing the Environmental Imagination, quotes Thoreau, “We are wont to see our dooryard as a part of the earth’s surface.”

I surely do, it is why I offer up so many photos of the view from my office. I used to think that my dooryard could be anywhere. My first apartment was as a studio.. I knew from the get go that it wasn’t large enough. I needed more than a dorm room.

The good news is the studio had a huge balcony on which I could grill. I had learned from a friend known as the “food scientist” that eating like a king at breakfast and a pauper at night could enable me to lose weight.

First thing in the morning, I grilled either pork chops, lamb chops or steak and added it to three eggs, bacon and toast. I surely made my dooryard as part of the earth’s surface just by the animals I brought there albeit they had already been butchered.  I don’t remember if I lost weight.

Not sure I can tell that story with any success when I meet Dr. Quigley for dinner next week, but I surely enjoyed the memory his book provided.

 

Listening

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I didn’t bother to look back at my other posts to see if I have used this heading before. Listening, I think it is the most important contributor to healing our world. I also believe it has to start long before the listening of diplomacy. Listening at a diplomatic level is as essential as an other listening, but at that level the stress is so high that the risk of failure is much greater.

Robert Johnson in his book Owning Your Own Shadow writes, “You can give another person a precious gift if you will allow them to talk without contaminating their speech with your own material.”

Less of us can be a very good thing, but we must remain present.

Needless Worries?

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The Tree, we are going to try and save the tree!!! Hurrah!

Amazon Gift Certificates – a few kind and thoughtful folks gave me gift certificates for having received a Master’s Degree. I cashed in one this week knowing I had missed our monthly grocery delivery. Immediately I worried whether or not I would find enough books to buy before next month’s grocery shipment at the end of June.  I didn’t want to waste the gift certificate on toothpaste and coffee.

Good news! I bought two books today. Is it June yet?

Miscellaneous Meme

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From the anthology Biopoetics it reads, “The eye of the octopus is amazingly similar to the eye of a human yet rose independently in evolution.”

Richard Dawkins invented the word “meme” and in his book The Selfish Gene he offers examples; tunes, catch-phrases, ways of making pots or of building arches, but not octopuses. Something of comfort about that natural exclusion.

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Urstoff

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If you speak German, then you know the meaning of the word “urstoff”. You might also quarrel with the definition I list. I understand  urstoff as the primary stuff of the universe. Stuff that has persisted and undergone change.

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