I must Tell My Friend Zarquil About This

Unplanned humor is usually the best. I was out with some friends last night watching the Perseid meteor shower, after reading a lot of #Meteorwatch Tweets during the day. One particularly keen astronomer (whom I follow) goes by the Twitter name "Zarquil".

Not everyone knows their way around the sky, and I had been pointing out some key spots to my friends: Perseus, the Great Dark Rift, star clusters in Sagittarius, and the center of the the galaxy. Just around midnight, we saw a couple of really bright fireballs, and I made the comment "I must tell my friend Zarquil about this". There was a moment of silence, while we all realized how odd that sounded. And then a bit of laughter when I explained it,

Memorial Service

It's strange how much we learn about someone at a memorial service. Really, we should all try to learn the things about others that will be written in their eulogies.

Refocus

I'm finding that I just can't stay on the same topic forever. You run out of things to say unless you maintain focus for more time than is really good for you. Also continually finding quotes to support one's thoughts takes time that might be used more productively.

One of the things I do is running, and another is crossfit. These are both useful in keeping me healthy and happy (I actually do experience "runner's high"), but they take up a lot of time. I may have to restructure my day to be more productive.

The Edge of the Unknown

“Running lets us rediscover what we knew as children: that being safe all the time isn’t very interesting. There are no air bags in our running shorts. We are vulnerable to the whim of fate and the blindness of serendipity. But we are not held hostage to fear. We boldly go where we know we belong. The fun is at the edge of the unknown.”

John “The Penguin” Bingham

For as far back as anyone can remember, young men have sought Adventure. They would go to sea, or head off into a new country as explorers or pioneers. They would face the dangers of the unknown in return for the rewards of interest and the chance to live heroically and boldly. Sometimes, we have to let go of our safety nets, and plunge into the Unknown.

Finding the Ideal

"I also acknowledge, along with William James, that even people engaged in repetitive, dreary, manual labor pursuits ... can still find significance in the doing - if they are linked with some great vision or ideal. These individuals, in spite of their location and circumstances, are able to display the traits of heroism, courage and strenuousness which James held so dear."

Douglas R. Hochstetler

This quote is from "Running and Philosophy", a collection of essays edited by Michael W. Austin. If you're a runner, then you should read this book. It has a lot to say about living a full, meaningful, authentic life. The thing now is to find the Ideal most meaningful to you.

Evgeny Morosov and Web 2.0

It was very instructive yesterday to do the talk on Diaries and Journals. People were much more interested in blogs and social networking than in traditional diaries. We are all strongly interested in what's new and transformative. It is also fascinating to realize that Twitter, LinkedIn, FaceBook and Blogs are the basis of what is being called Web 2.0.

Here's an interesting link on the impact of Social Networking: Evgeny Morozov

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPuAs5uysD8

The Great Project of Our Generation

" ... so the great project of our generation, it seems to me, is to build for the first time out of a global ethic and our global ability to organize and communicate, a truly global society."

Gordon Brown

"Wiring a Web for our Global Good"

You simply can't argue with Gordon Brown or the vision that he expresses at the TedGlobal 2009. This speech, is so full of heroic stories that it's hard to feel unmoved. I must look up the Rwanda Children's Museum, and the story of David.

Self-Transformation

"[Long distance runners'] ... quest for quest for authenticity - understanding and celebrating life in all its dimensions; freely choosing and pursuing projects that require creativity and require self-transformation; taking full responsibility for the persons they are becoming - scorns the values of the last men"

~ Raymond Angelo Bellioti

If you are going to write a running journal, you have to engage the senses: sunlight on water, trees beside the path, purple wildflowers, sweat stinging in your eyes, and the mute cameraderie of your runnig partners. Part of the reason we run is for the physical satisfaction of breathing deeply and the mental satisfaction of pushing our muscles to new heights of exertion.

But there is a deeper aspect. We run to forge a stronger body, to strengthen the will, to increase our physical and mental capacity to meet and overcome the challenges that life throws at us. To treansform ourselves in a positive way, and ascend a step toward a higher, more intense engagement in our lives.

Muddling Through

“I'm at my best in a messy, middle-of-the-road muddle.”

Harold Wilson

I have always felt that, for every problem that life presents us, there is a correct approach, and you should just learn to do things properly. But life isn’t like that at all: it mostly presents us with problems that, while simple and often mundane, are also frustratingly stubborn and simply not in our textbooks.

Yesterday, having been stranded without a vehicle, I had to pump up the tires on my daughter’s mountain bike to get where I needed to go for the day. But I had problems with the hand pump, and when I walked it to a mechanic for help, the tire valves turned out to be an unusual design: he couldn’t figure it out. Finally, I walked it a further kilometre to the Co-op, and spent a little time fiddling with the valves and re-trying the pump. Finally, something worked, and I was able to inflate the tires. The surprising thing is that, without any knowledge or expertise, I was able to solve the problem simply by staying at it and fumbling around with it.

Muddling through: the way life actually works.

The Guiding Ideas of the Ages

"Part of what [Tolkien] does in The Lord of the Rings is offer the fantasy that, in a time of tanks and machine guns, ancient languages and arcane history still matter, that without them, there is no hope for the final victory of the good. "

Joe Kraus

These words by Joe Kraus are a statement of where I would like to go, and of what seems to be out of sync in my life. I have studied engineering, and gone into industry, but it was the wrong path. By nature, I am much more inclined to the humanities, to philosophy and poetry and literature.

It surprises me. after all this time, to realize how deeply I have been affected by The Lord of the Rings. For years, I have down-played this, because there is something a little silly about taking a fantasy story about elves and wizards seriously. But there is much in this fiction (and the learning behind it) that is profound and valuable and useful. I`m still interested in Latin and (although I haven`t studied it) Greek. I`m fascinated by the old techniques of passing on lore through poems and stories. Even my interest in the old pre-metric ways of measurement seem to have arisen from Tolkien`s work.

It`s time now to admit this. I am not a captain of industry, forging a new world order or driving change through technology. I am a traditionalist and a philosopher, and I believe in the guiding ideas of the ages. The path in front of me is now a complete reversal of what it was: virtue ethics, philosophy, literature, religion, history, geography. It is time to return to the traditional path of wisdom.

Something Beyond

“Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.”

Ralph Walso Emerson

Google yesterday announced their plan to come up with a new Operating System, and although this is being treated with caution, it is a fresh and very bold idea: pc's that come with an operating system other than Windows.

Not a new idea of course and Linux has long been the operating system of choice for academics and software developers. But the idea is appealing, especially in the context of Net book computers. I can imagine going to Future Shop (or some other PC supplier) and seeing a row of PC's running Chrome instead of Windows. I've wondered for a long time why, when I buy a PC, I also buy Windows.

An interesting idea comes to mind. I have an old PC in the basement that stopped working, and I pulled the hard disk to save some photos. Suppose I could make it work again and simply put in a new, clean hard drive. Then, instead of Windows, I install Linux as the operating system. I would have a PC that runs UNIX in a native way - not dual boot and totally independent of Windows. It's probably doable, and might make an interesting project. It would also be a good way of evaluating the Chrome PC idea.

A Higher Standard

"Hold yourself to a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself and be lenient to everybody else."

~Henry Ward Beecher

Morale deteriorates when you have no worthwhile goals. There is a downward spiral: nothing really needs to be done so you do nothing. At the end of the day, you have done nothing, so your self-worth drops a notch. Tomorrow, there is still nothing to do, and you don't feel capable or worthy anyway.

There is only one remedy. Each day, I must get up, take a few breaths, and start in on something remarkable - something others may not have thought of or achieved. Today, I want to try out Google docs. A few of us in the community are asking others to proofread their documents. If we could share these out, we could do our markups directly on the Web. I will try this today.

Waking Up

"If you have walked all these days with closed ears and mind asleep, wake up now."

This morning, I am at work early and began the day in a much more active way than I have of late. It has been my habit to get up, make coffee and "wake up" by reading - usually some escapist novel or fantasy. But this morning, I woke up with a sore back and began the day with a few exercises.

The difference was dramatic. I could feel a succession of little jumps in mental clarity and a steady uptake of awareness that came with each repetition of a stretch. At the end of a minute or two, I was more awake than I normally am at the end of an hour of reading. And my mental state had switched from a kind of foggy grumpiness to a firm clarity and a desire for action. Now, at 6:00, I`m at work and already feeling that I have lost time. I think that part of what must be changed is my morning habit of waking up. It`s pleasant but self-indulgent, and sets the tone for the day.

The Magic of Unattainable Vistas

"Part of the atraction of the L.R. is I think due to the glimpses of a large history in the background; an attraction like that of viewing far off an unvisited island, or seeing the towers of a distant city gleaming in a sunlit mist. To go there is to destroy the magic, unless new, unattainable vistas are again revealed."



This quote from Tolkien (via Shippey) expresses something that I need to try for in this diary. It is the idea of pushing beyond the mundane, and not ony achieving something out of the ordinary, but of revealing thereby some new, unattainable vision in the distance. A diary like this must not only drive self-transformation, it must reveal new realms of possibility that this opens up. It must become something like Sigfried's Rhine Journey, moving along new roads and fields, but also showing glimpses of castles and towns on the heights. It must not only take the reader to a far country: it must show it must show the towers of the Hidden City beyond.

The Road to Middle Earth

I'm glad to have picked up "The Road to Middle Earth" again because Shippey has some very profound things to say about both "The Lord of the Rings" and heroism.

I have always been fascinated with Tolkien's book. I have always heard the horns of Elfland in it, and Shippey has correctly identified Elfland as the ancient world of heroic legend. And that world truly exists - or did exist. Tolkien's work gives us tantalizing glimpses of it, but it is recorded more fully in Old English literature and the Old Norse sagas.

In recent years, the belief has been growing on me that if we want to escape from the soullessness of modern life, we must look backward to the old, traditional, genuine beliefs that predate our modern, colourless, amoral values.

If we are truly to re-engage with our own lives, we must return to these older heroic attitudes and wear our loyalty lightly. We must look for the values within ourselves and allow them to spring from inside, from beliefs that burn at the centre of our beings. We cannot depend on a dead, codified, formalised system imposed and enforced from outside, but from living, incandescent values that shine through or actions and lives and personalities.

Thought Must Be Harder, Heart the Keener

There is an older woman I know whose husband passed on years ago. She is alone now, and if you talk to her, she will tell you that she must constantly battle with loneliness and a sense of futility. She does this by taking an active interest in the world and the people she meets every day. She writes articles for newsletters, introduces herself in groups, gets to know others, and genuinely cares about them. She's an inspiration to everyone who meets her. She shows us what it is to be live heroically.

As we grow older, we must continually intensify our beliefs and values. We must live our virtues honestly, fiercely, bravely, refusing to yield to any but the highest and best and deepest principles the world has to offer. This is not some abstract philosophical concept, but is the only thing that makes life worthwhile in the long run. If I were to adopt a motto for this journal. I would take it from the Battle of Maldon:


"Thought must be the harder, heart the keener, spirit must be greater as our strength wanes."

Looking at the Stars

The main function of a journal is to help us set our sights high - as high as we can see or dream or feel. If we don't. then then we risk the loss of idealism: the degeneration of our ambitions and goals from lofty to prosaic to venal. We must constantly fight this loss: we must live out our values; we must see the heroism of our neighbors; and when we're stuck in traffic on the way to work, we must see eternity in the sunrise, and remember that that is where we are really headed.