Seize the day! If not now, WHEN?

Carpe means “pick, pluck, pluck off, gather”, but Horace uses the word to mean “enjoy, make use of.” In Horace, the phrase is part of the longer Carpe diem quam minime credula postero – “Seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the future”, and the ode says that the future is unknowable, and that instead one should scale back one’s hopes to a brief future, and drink one’s wine. This phrase is usually understood against Horace’s Epicurean background.

The phrase “And if not now, when?” (Pirkei Avoth 1:14) comes to us from Jewish Talmudic wisdom.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpe_diem

Handwriting On the Wall- Weighed & Wanting

diogr49: folks were chatting while you read but i let them be free

diogr49: and I noticed a few Amens

dio mio_2: i am nobody

diogr49: well, BUT, you were reading about a Somebody

dio mio_2: they let me pray the office in the different rooms

dio mio_2: yes

diogr49: but it is not good for me to be a Catholic Nazi

diogr49: ha ha

dio mio_2: its a big time right now fir us catholics

dio mio_2: catholic fascist?

diogr49: you know, strict,

diogr49: chastizing others

dio mio_2: i was chatised right of a big room once

diogr49: God moves whom He will and God is sufficient

dio mio_2: it was my loss

dio mio_2: sounds like st theresa of avila

diogr49: the more judgmental people are the more they seek to hide their own uncertainty

diogr49: in the final analysis, there IS no analysis; all is subjective

dio mio_2: but you dont have rules and norms law and order universal teaching where are you?

diogr49: everything stands or falls in the final I-Thou relationship

diogr49: well, the world is filled with laws as it is filled with transgressors

dio mio_2: the i thou relationship i havent hears that expression for many a year

diogr49: one cannot legislate morality

diogr49: it just popped into my head

diogr49: our minds can be conduits if we become quiet

dio mio_2: my father confessor talked of the i thou relationship

diogr49: like wi-fi routers or hot spots

dio mio_2: he was fransiscan

dio mio_2: whats a conduit socrates?

diogr49: Carl Rogers used an interesting technique, of serving as a MIRROR to the other

dio mio_2: please explain

diogr49: well, we cannot know what conducts us

diogr49: from the good treasury of the good heart the good person brings forth good things

dio mio_2: i see

diogr49: but we are judged by every word

diogr49: and presumably every thought

dio mio_2: it all become a bit much fo r us to bear

dio mio_2: scrupulosity is not good

diogr49: for there is only one “knower of the heart” as Prophet Samuel was informed when he was sent to find king David

diogr49: there is among the Greeks economia and akrivia or exactness

diogr49: so by strictness we do one thing, and by economy we tolerate other things

diogr49: things which deviate from strictness

dio mio_2: yes i suppose so

diogr49: so “If you would be PERFECT then go and do these most difficult things and take up your cross”

dio mio_2: i would not be perfect

diogr49: BUT if you would simply gain eternal life, then at least observe THESE things

dio mio_2: i will try

diogr49: ah, but Jesus said those words to one person, so, they must serve some purpose

diogr49: not to all, but to a few at least

dio mio_2: yes diogr

diogr49: one man wanted to follow the disciples but was gently turned away

diogr49: and the Spirit in Acts forbade preaching in a certain region during that season of time

diogr49: the sheep know their masters voice, but as the Greeks say, we are LOGIKA PROBATA (logical sheep) so we must listen and discern.. for faith comes by hearing (listening) and hearing by the Word

diogr49: and we pray that bishops RIGHTLY DIVIDE or interpret the word

dio mio_2: are you copying this from a book?

diogr49: but, we are all vessels of clay

diogr49: no, i speak from my thoughts extemporaneously

dio mio_2: gbu

dio mio_2: but you have so many thoughts

dio mio_2: is not one enough to ponder for a lifetime?

diogr49: if you read “The pilgrim” by an anonymous russian, who says the prayer of the heart, then you notice that the pilgrim internalizes the scriptures until it becomes his nature

diogr49: but you see i am a parrot whose cage has been in some interesting parlors

dio mio_2: ok

diogr49: so, i repeat what i have heard many times

dio mio_2: yes i am nothing but a clever monkey ot parrot myself

diogr49: but, through the alembic of my memory and personality, it is transformed and seems fresh

diogr49: Yeats prefaces all his poems with one line from Augustine

diogr49: Oh thou Beauty most ancient yet most fresh! Far and wide I did seek thee, and all along, Thou was withing

dio mio_2: very good

diogr49: in Euclidian geometry if point A is distance X from point B, then B is equally distance X from point A

diogr49: BUT in spiritual geometry, though we may be distant from the divinity, the divinity yet dwells within us, very near

diogr49: Paul said something like this

dio mio_2: gbu diog

diogr49: the ancient Greek prayer “O Thou who are everywere present and fillest all things COME AND ABIDE with in us”

dio mio_2: thankyu for a wounderful retreat

diogr49: how strange that we beckon that which is every where present to come and dwell within us

diogr49: but, you see, though we journey through many lands far and wide, we call only one place home

dio mio_2: i wish i had had time and no fear so i could have read and thought too

diogr49: so when the two apostles followed Jesus, and he showed them where he dwelled, the were quite amazed

diogr49: but why should they be amazed by a simple bed and table and chair

dio mio_2: i wish i had been to school

diogr49: but when Solomon completed the temple, he said “how can God, whom the universe cannot contain, dwell in this small temple

diogr49: Faith is a gift, given to each of us, as much as is necessary for the individual who has GIFTS DIFFERING… and from faith proceeds understanding, but only as much understanding as is necessary to be salvific

dio mio_2: yes diog

diogr49: but you see, this is not me speaking, but centuries of tradition

diogr49: which i have simply internalized

dio mio_2: it is you speaking

diogr49: birds sing, but it is not their song they sing

diogr49: well, yes, it is words on a screen

diogr49: words are sounds

diogr49: simply sounds

dio mio_2: its effort and heart

dio mio_2: its a will to share

dio mio_2: its self realisation

dio mio_2: actualisation

diogr49: habits can be our best friends or our worst enemies

diogr49: exactly

dio mio_2: its evnegism

dio mio_2: evangelism

diogr49: we choose through our free will

diogr49: nothing may happen without the individuals freewill consent

dio mio_2: one must be able to have a freewill

dio mio_2: that is not always possible

diogr49: Kierkegaard pointed out that it was Abrahams will to choose to empower the voice he heard as Gods voice and not some idle imagining

dio mio_2: maybe he was right

diogr49: Samuel as a youth heard a voice, but only when instructed by that elderly high priest did Samuel understand how to respond to that voice

diogr49: Eli, i forgot the high priests name for a moment

dio mio_2: without knowledge we are nothing

dio mio_2: or at least less tha n it

diogr49: Samuel was consecrated as a prophet before his conception, when Hanna his mother was praying

diogr49: and Samuel was sent to rebuke and reform the wayward sons of Eli

diogr49: and yet, aged Eli, failing in eyesight, was the vessel which preserved the tradition to guide young Prophet Samuel, now to respond to God’s voice

diogr49: so, in that very drama we see the problem and the solution

dio mio_2: whats the time with you there diogr?

diogr49: the problem is our fallen earthen nature, yet we are vessels which transmit the solution to all future ages in the form of tradition

dio mio_2: would you pray the divine office with me?

dio mio_2: evening prayer?

dio mio_2: we could take it in turns

dio mio_2: each reading a psalm or canticle

diogr49: how would i bring up the text

dio mio_2: universalis.com

diogr49: yes i have mic, please give me link to reading

dio mio_2: vespers

diogr49: and instruct me when to read

dio mio_2: http://universalis.com/vespers.htm

diogr49: i was thinking of that verse, 2 or 3

dio mio_2: which was that dio?

diogr49: wherever 2 or 3 are gathered together

dio mio_2: you are something of a thinker which i am not!

diogr49: that is why 3 bishops are ideal to consecrate a new bishop, by akrivia exactness, but 2 are sufficient by economia

dio mio_2: ys that happens

diogr49: among the greeks and russian

dio mio_2: the greek and russian orthodox churches frighten me

dio mio_2: the universal does not

diogr49: what we do not know or understand frightens us

diogr49: we are frightened by the unknown

dio mio_2: yes true

dio mio_2: yes and by our own sin too

diogr49: and when we know all ways then we are at home and at peace with the world

diogr49: the truth is one, but the paths to it are many

dio mio_2: its most terrible to contemplate that our father in heaven saw us think and do our evil

dio mio_2: he was watching us

dio mio_2: that frightens me

diogr49: well, consider what it means to “hunger and thirst after righteousness”

dio mio_2: but e is ever merciful and loving

diogr49: normally we thirst long before we hunger

diogr49: yet, the bread is first, and THEN the wine

diogr49: only when flesh is pierced does blood flow

diogr49: and throughout the old and new testament, the phrase hunger and thirst appears NINE times

dio mio_2: ok

diogr49: but nine is a unique number, 2 times 9 is 18 but 8 plus 1 is nine

diogr49: 3 times 9 is 27 but seven plus 2 = 9

diogr49: so, 9 is like God… it mingles through the universe yet remains unchanged, untainted

dio mio_2: ok

diogr49: 9 is like God become man so that, as 4th cent. Athanasius said, man might become as God

diogr49: which is the divinization of mankind

diogr49: which is a Greek theme of the Christians of the first several centuries

diogr49: i was in a russian monastery and then a greek monastery in the 1970s

billy_b0777: dedication

diogr49: i was a novice for 13 months in the greek athonite monastery in brookline mass.

diogr49: nice

diogr49: may I have the link to Chrysostom’s homily, please

Reading From the Catecheses by Saint John Chrysostom, bishop
The power of Christ’s blood
If we wish to understand the power of Christ’s blood, we should go back to the ancient account of its prefiguration in Egypt. “Sacrifice a lamb without blemish,” commanded Moses, “and sprinkle its blood on your doors.” If we were to ask him what he meant, and how the blood of an irrational beast could possibly save men endowed with reason, his answer would be that the saving power lies not in the blood itself, but in the fact that it is a sign of the Lord’s blood. In those days, when the destroying angel saw the blood on the doors he did not dare to enter, so how much less will the devil approach now when he sees, not that figurative blood on the doors, but the true blood on the lips of believers, the doors of the temple of Christ.
If you desire further proof of the power of this blood, remember where it came from, how it ran down from the cross, flowing from the Master’s side. The gospel records that when Christ was dead, but still hung on the cross, a soldier came and pierced his side with a lance and immediately there poured out water and blood. Now the water was a symbol of baptism and the blood, of the holy Eucharist. The soldier pierced the Lord’s side, he breached the wall of the sacred temple, and I have found the treasure and made it my own. So also with the lamb: the Jews sacrificed the victim and I have been saved by it.
“There flowed from his side water and blood.” Beloved, do not pass over this mystery without thought; it has yet another hidden meaning, which I will explain to you. I said that water and blood symbolised baptism and the holy Eucharist. From these two sacraments the Church is born: from baptism, “the cleansing water that gives rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit,” and from the holy Eucharist. Since the symbols of baptism and the Eucharist flowed from his side, it was from his side that Christ fashioned the Church, as he had fashioned Eve from the side of Adam Moses gives a hint of this when he tells the story of the first man and makes him exclaim: “Bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh!” As God then took a rib from Adam’s side to fashion a woman, so Christ has given us blood and water from his side to fashion the Church. God took the rib when Adam was in a deep sleep, and in the same way Christ gave us the blood and the water after his own death.
Do you understand, then, how Christ has united his bride to himself and what food he gives us all to eat? By one and the same food we are both brought into being and nourished. As a woman nourishes her child with her own blood and milk, so does Christ unceasingly nourish with his own blood those to whom he himself has given life.
(end of homily)

diogr49: i just now realized

diogr49: Adam slept during creation of Eve

diogr49: Abraham was in trance before God came with vision

diogr49: and the apostles slept in Gethsemane while Christ worked part of the salvation

diogr49: so, three sleepings

dio mio_2: http://universalis.com/readings.htm

diogr49: and three marriages

diogr49: marriage of male and female

diogr49: marriage of God and chosen people

diogr49: Marriage of Christ and Church

dio mio_2: wow diogr

diogr49: interesting

dio mio_2: you are very thoughtful

dio mio_2: very good

Alert: fitzy5729 reddotted by: diogr49

diogr49: i suspect bad intentions

diogr49: in that fellow

diogr49: he wants to bait us

dio mio_2: we are all sinners

diogr49: and Paul says not to fall to vain disputation

dio mio_2: i am the worst here

diogr49: if he has internet, he can easily seek meanings

billy_b0777: well dont take bite

diogr49: so, he lies,

dio mio_2: good billy!

diogr49: i knows perfectly well how HE wants to understand it

billy_b0777: yep

dio mio_2: hi billy

diogr49: i might be a fool but i aint born yesterday

billy_b0777: now that is funny

dio mio_2: i continually get it all wrong

diogr49: the russians always have “fools for Christ” but this is rare among greeks

billy_b0777: who ???

diogr49: a fool for Christ is someone who crucifies themselves with foolishness for Christs sake

billy_b0777: please

diogr49: whenever one visits Russian monasteries, one will often see someone who is child like and cared for by monastery

diogr49: seemingly devoid of adult reason

diogr49: if you google on RUSSIAN “FOOL FOR CHRIST” you will find much

diogr49: i am sure

dio mio_2: i am staying with Rome and the west DIO

dio mio_2: gbu

diogr49: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foolishness_for_Christ

billy_b0777: good

diogr49: i have spent my life studying all world religions

dio mio_2: i have wasted my life

diogr49: but, even in waste, we spend

diogr49: we expend

dio mio_2: i am a beggar for gods help and mercy

dio mio_2: thats all i am really

dio mio_2: i am not much good to anyone

billy_b0777: good thing to me

diogr49: there is a story about a man in a flood, who climbed upon the roof and prayed for God’s help

diogr49: a boat came by, and offered him help but he said “i will wait for God”

diogr49: then a helicopter came, and offered him help, and he said I will wait for God

dio mio_2: yes thats a good story

diogr49: he finally died and came to heaven, and saw God and said, Why didnt you help me

diogr49: God said “I sent you a boat and a helicopter”

dio mio_2: poor me!

diogr49: we must be able to discern the help

diogr49: we may lead a horse to water but cannot force the horse to drink

dio mio_2: yes diogr

diogr49: Rumi said “seek THIRST for without thirst, water is of no value”

diogr49: so, i can say to you SEEK THIRST, but you must decide for yourself what is pure water, and what is muddy water

dio mio_2: diogr has been saying some great things

diogr49: pure water is never drawn from a broken cistern

diogr49: or well

diogr49: the early Greek bishops called a misguided pastor a broken cistern

diogr49: consider the 5 wise virgins and the 5 foolish

diogr49: they were ALL VIRGINS, all pure… purity is necessary but not sufficient

dio mio_2: we all live with that today

diogr49: the foolish lacked OIL, which in Greek is a pun on charity, works

catfishjim2000: were in the book that tell you diogr?

diogr49: oh, the Greeks have spoken of all this for centuries

catfishjim2000: as l have not come across it

dio mio_2: amazing diogr

catfishjim2000: have not

diogr49: in the Greek monasteries, these are old logs to the lumberjacks

dio mio_2: james diogr has lived in monesteries

diogr49: well, you might read the Philokalia

diogr49: the philokalia was composed by 70 authors from 3rd century to 11th century

catfishjim2000: l be too monesteries

diogr49: but the bulk is written by Maximos the Confessor

catfishjim2000: for a day

dio mio_2: i visited too james

diogr49: aha, but orthodox monasteries are a different world

dio mio_2: benedictine

dio mio_2: how so diogr?

catfishjim2000: its was very cold up there

diogr49: well, you must read the philokalia to begin to understand

catfishjim2000: l went in the december

diogr49: just as Protestants refuse to read the Apocrypha, and then complain that they do not understand

dio mio_2: i cant read with respect to you diogr

diogr49: Isaiah said “unless you believe, you shall not understand”

dio mio_2: i dont refuse its a matter of physcology problems

diogr49: i guarantee you that Chrysostom would drink from the well of the Philokalia

dio mio_2: i believe you

diogr49: and the monastics over the centuries drank from the well of Chrysostome

diogr49: i do not offer you poison

diogr49: but only you can take the medicine

diogr49: i would suggest to anyone that they acquire Jaroslav Pelikan’s 5 volume paperback history of development of Christian Doctrine

diogr49: he was a Yale Sterling professor of History

diogr49: he is quite readable for the layperson, and quite unbiased

diogr49: i mean, no hidden agendas

dio mio_2: i am staying with our bishop diogr lol

dio mio_2: i am a simple fool

catfishjim2000: well we be to church today

diogr49: i guarantee you that Pope Benedict has read all such things

diogr49: as well as Hans Kung

diogr49: but the choice will always be yours

dio mio_2: i dont want to get confused its all far too much for my tiny mind to imagine

catfishjim2000: ok

dio mio_2: i am in WALES

diogr49: my wife now gives me chores to do

diogr49: i will stay logged in

dio mio_2: diogr are you eastern orthodox

diogr49: i was Greek Orthodox for 20 years, and afraid of Catholicism, i looked at Hans Kungs books like vampire sees a cross

diogr49: you are a good man, and good men are hard to find

diogr49: maraming salamat po

dio mio_2: diogr49 do you go to a church now?

diogr49: as Gen Douglas McArthur said “I shall return”

diogr49: i thought i was just in church with you, n’est pas?

diogr49: you and i are the church for a moment, no?

dio mio_2: diogr stop avoiding my question

diogr49: if the church is not you and i just now,… then where is it

diogr49: pride is a great enemy

dio mio_2: you are being devious

diogr49: and now, again, fear

dio mio_2: i am disapointed

diogr49: you desire disappointment… and we find what we seek

dio mio_2: its been great being with you diogr

dio mio_2: gbu

diogr49: the saint can see saintliness even in the worst sinner, but a sinner sees sinfulness even in the holiest of saints

dio mio_2: i am not looking for either in you

diogr49: you are trying to convince yourself

dio mio_2: i was only wondering if you were roman catholic

diogr49: because you are uncertain and afraid, that is my conjecture

dio mio_2: i am bt not concerning you

diogr49: but only you can know what is in your own heart, and it is not for me to inquire or understand

dio mio_2: ok

dio mio_2: lol

diogr49: you are so close, yet so far

dio mio_2: ok

diogr49: one never sees a smiling icon

dio mio_2: nice to meet you

dio mio_2:

dio mio_2: catfish why are you going to work in hpspital

diogr49: i speak of spiritual distance, not geometric

diogr49: the famous “handwriting on the wall” (mene mene shekel uparsin) “you have been weighed and found wanting”

dio mio_2: you are very knowledgeable and respectable diogr49

diogr49: but no one could understand until Daniel interpreted

diogr49: if i remember

diogr49: the handwriting was metaphorical, not literal

diogr49: Chrysostom was metaphorical, but modern denominations are literal

dio mio_2: mene mene shekel uparsin

diogr49: Bible based… but the first epistle was only written in 55ad, and the Gospels were not completed until 100ad

diogr49: so, where was the Bible based church for 30 years

diogr49: few people consider that

dio mio_2: in the memory

diogr49: tradition produces scripture, scripture does not produce tradition

Granite and Radon

I met an interesting person on Fulton Street today. We were both discussing the huge decorative rocks for the new park being constructed on Fulton between Cliff and Gold. I had assumed they are granite. We were discussing how and why radon is associated with granite. As fate and irony would have it, as soon as my new friend walked away, another fellow paused to look at the rocks who, it turns out is a geologist. He explained to me that granite often contains streaks of uranium and the decaying uranium is the source of the radon gas.

A Witness To Our Lives

Just this morning, I was thinking how odd it is that most of us feel incomplete unless we can put an experience or realization into words and share it with others. I marvel that their may have been hermit recluse types who lead a solitary interior life of the mind, and died leaving a trunk full of writings. Robert Ornstein speaks of T.W.I.T. (the Western intellectual tradition) to describe this show-and-tell need to verbalize, share and re-live. And yet, if this linguistic sharing were not part of our essential nature, then ideas would not be transmitted and reshaped. Then, there was that line from the movie “Shall We Dance” – “Everyone needs a witness to their life.”

+++

Last year I purchased my first MP3 and began downloading free public domain novels read aloud from librivox.org , one of which was Woolf’s Night and Day, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I saw some DVD movie about Woolf (I think it was called Hours, not certain) and it flashed back and forth between Woolf’s own live (and suicide) and four characters the future who are somehow touched by her writings. The special features had many interviews with Woolf scholars and also the elderly son of Virginia’s lesbian lover. The old man reminisced regarding his childhood recollections of Virginia. Whenever she saw the children, she spent a long time asking them to recount what it was like waking up that morning, how they felt, what they thought. And VIrginia did this to gather “copy” for her writing; much like Annie Proulx who will sit in cafes and taverns in Wyoming, jotting down the dialogue she overhears. I have a coffee-table sized encyclopedia of Woolf repleat with photos and trivia, as well as their encyclopedia on James Joyce.

++++

since 1998, the Internet (first with AOL dial up) was and still is my only access to any kind of adult intellectual discussion of the sort I grew to love and need during my college years. You are doing just FINE and you should say exactly what you feel and dont worry about one-upsmanship or slamming because no educated intellectual person is worth their salt if they cannot endure discourse with those who see differently, and we are all doomed to see differently because of the diversity of our experiences and our essential natures. The liveliness and growth in discussions and essay threads is a direct result of our constant thesis, antithesis and synthesis. Several times Plato likens the process of dialectic to a weavers loom with warp, woof, and weaving shuttle. It is only a tragically small minority of adults who even care enough about these things to discuss or argue. And even is some says something which another sees as outlandish, the other profits from their endeavor to google up a refutation. So, carry on! And kudos to you for having a fine mine which is in proper working order and is not in the morgue of 20 reality shows and Judge Judy.

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Speaking of narrative style and dialogue, I met a fellow in high school years ago who was very active in the online-literature.com/forums . He sent me a short story which showed real skill in dialogue. When he was in college we reconnected and he sent me some writing. Every other word in every other sentence was the F word or the S word. I could not even bring myself to reply. It not that I am a prude. There is a side to me that is filthier than anyone could possibly imagine, but I don’t care to express it in writing. There is some British poet laureate whose most famous poem uses the F word FOUR times in the first stanza. There are some SJC graduates who think he is fabulous. I find that pathetic. When I started writing at age 12, I realized that I could easily write in that fashion, but I did not see Hemingway doing it, or any number of other writers, so I trained and conditioned myself to write and think as they did.

Woolf’s woman’s liberation essay “A Room of Ones Own is so fabulous! Every time I meet a young woman who seems at all readerly, I urge her to read that essay. Often when filling out forms in hospitals, people do not understand why my wife and I have different names. Sometimes I explain to them that a wife is not a dog. When you acquire a dog or cat, you give it some name. A wife is a person who already has a perfectly good name. And we live in a society where divorce and remarriage is the rule rather than the exception. Hence I think the whole practice is barbaric, antiquated and patriarchal, which smacks of chattel ownership.

What is your favorite culture?

A Peace Corps worker in Senegal writes:

OK, America. I miss your Mexican food, your aquariums, and your bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables. But really? Your education culture makes me want to puke way more than most Senegaleses food. And that’s saying something.

I reply:

It is rare in a nation of scorpions that one or two suddenly look in the mirror and say “hey, I’m a scorpion! Eww, that’s DISGUSTING.” It is more natural for a nation of scorpions to pray to their scorpion God, and hope that as good scorpions, they will one day make it into scorpion heaven.”

Ah, but, I have said too much.

Speaking of puking, how is the diarrhea going (no pun intended.)… See More

A PBS news bite on India stated that the undernourishment problem there is greater than in sub-Saharan African nations. I just noticed in Obama’s Nobel speech that he mentions something about “billions being lifted out of poverty.”

I like Obama (he is only half scorpion, you know…)

Someone else asks me what my favorite nation or culture.

I reply:

Off hand, I would say Antarctica, a continent of scientists and soldiers. It don’t get any better than that! Only problem is, it is melting. The scorpions are making it melt. Did you ever hear that old, old saying “the only good Indian is a dead Indian?” That’s what the scorpion invaders said about the REAL Americans, the Native Americans. How many thousands of years did they live out their lives hunting and gathering? Not that they were angels. They captured and tortured each other. The Neanderthal lived that way for 400,000 years (longer than Homo Sapiens has been around). Now are you going to tell me they weren’t living according to God’s will; that God was not happy with that, and God just waited around, biding his time, until alphabets were invented, so that God could anonymously dictate the way everything REALLY OUGHT to be, and have it written down in books. Then God waited around for the Renaissance, and Galileo, and then the Industrial Revolution? So God made all those dinosaurs, so they would turn into oil and coal, so that man could become TRULY HUMAN, truly civilized and begin burning fossil fuels in factories. And then God waited until Dustin Hoffman starred in “The Graduate”, and that party scene where the business man said “Plastics! The future is in plastics!” Now, the Pacific ocean is a soup of plastics which will never bio-degrade. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that in 10,000 years, humans will be extinct. Yes-sir-ree-bob, the only good scorpion is a dead scorpion! They do say the cockroach will survive a nuclear attack. Perhaps the cockroach is the “chosen people?”

Indonesian Questions Obama’s Carrot & Stick tactics

I have met a very interesting young man in Indonesia through my on line presence in Ubuntu IRC chat at the irc.ubuntu.com server (using the irc client Konversation.)

He has asked me to comment, as an American, regarding how I perceive Obama’s foreign policy. I am starting this thread here, so I may email to him the link. I shall be adding to this thread my thoughts over the next day or so. I clearly have in mind certain opinions, but the mind thinks at lightening speed, in a gestalt fashion (many things at once), and it takes time to project the multidimensional nature of thought into a linear expository expression. So I shall post this for now, and make various social networks such as Facebook and Plurk aware of its presence, and then begin to add my thoughts and impressions in a fashion which I hope will be fair to the European and most especially the far East point of view, and yet accurate with regard to America past and present, and the circumstances which Barack Obama reluctantly has inherited.

It is ironic that I should be approached today by an Indonesian when last night I watched a long documentary, hosted by Daljit Dhaliwal, on the huge health problem caused in Indonesia by the American controlled cigarette industry.

I have always admired Indonesia for being the largest Islamic democracy in the world (if I am not mistaken) and for having a fairly open-minded secular view. I am told that honor killings, so common in Pakistan and even in India among certain Hindus, are unknown in Indonesia. A year ago I read that the mullahs in Indonesia were composing a fatwah against smoking as being haram (forbidden). By the way, I also admire Tunesia (another Islamic nation) which has a zero tolerance policy towards honor killings. Furthermore, I want to mention that Morocco was the very first nation to sign a treaty of friendship with America after the war of independence (a treaty which is still in effect today). Morocco instituted a religious training program for women who work with the mullahs around the country to guard against overly extremist teachings which might lean towards terrorism. I also greatly admire Kemal Attaturk for his efforts to modernize Turkey and wean it from the ways of the Ottoman empire (that sick man of Europe). I am saying all these things to express the many ways in which Islamic societies have succeeded in achieving a secular moderate form which is tolerant of minority diversity. I do realize that Indonesia is not without its problems of friction with its Christian minorities. I think it is very important for non-Muslims to constantly remind themselves of all the moderate and congenial forms which Islam has assumed over the centuries. And conversely, I shall attempt to summarize some of America’s short-comings in order to be fair and honest. And it is important for Europe, the Middle East and the Far East to remind themselves of all the many good points about America. Both sides have made the grave mistake of demonizing each other at points, and stereotyping and profiling, but we must not continue in this path or it will only lead to more violence.

If both sides are to achieve balance and harmony, and the world is very much divided right now into two “camps”, then each side must do its utmost to praise it’s opponent for all the good points and to confess its own shortcomings.

“Carrot and Stick” are the exact words which my Indonesia friend used. My Filipina wife asked me exactly what is mean by “Carrot and Stick.” I explained that there are old jokes and cartoons about people who want to motivate a simple-minded mule or donkey harnessed to a cart, and so they tie a carrot to a stick, and hold it just beyond the animal’s reach, and so the gullible creature struggles forward, hoping to approach the carrot, but of course never makes any progress and most likely never even gets to eat the carrot. Over the years, a different notion of stick has crept in; the notion of “speak softly and carry a big stick.” So, a carrot and stick policy means that if you do what we want we shall reward you, but if you dont cooperate, then we shall hurt you.

Our very next task is to avail ourselves of google search and find out just what the rest of the world is saying about America’s carrot and stick policy, since we are so wrapped up in what our media considers important that we are often unaware of what the rest of the world thinks or feels.

We find references to a carrot and stick policy with regard to many nations:

Darfur

Iran

American Hedge Funds

Pakistan

North Korea

US Health Care

Afghanistan

Cuba

Child Support

Nutrition

Employee Motivation

Housing

WELL, I could perhaps go on and on. Google yields a total of 800 results on a search of OBAMA CARROT AND STICK.

I really had no idea what I would find out from this search but it seems that I have stumbled across a veritable forest of carrots and sticks! Poor Barack is beginning to resemble Bugs Bunny, and I suppose all the groups who have a gripe with Obama are beginning to resemble Elmer Fudd.

Now if I make some joke about “slap stick comedy” (carrot stick slap) you will rightly accuse me of being too corny (carrot, corn).

I am not trying to make light of my Indonesian friend’s important question, but there is an amusing side to all this which is quite unexpected.

We all realize that at the heart of all discord lies two sides with conflicting interests. Peaceful solutions always involve negotiations which we hope will ultimately resolve into what is regarded by both sides as a “win-win” situation where each side maximizes its gains and minimizes loss. Of course, the non-peaceful approach is war, where both sides suffer death and destruction, and the winner takes all. So, at the heart of any negotiation is what may be viewed as “carrots and sticks.”

The entire world is driven by media spin and rhetoric of buzz-words
and buzz terms. “Carrots and Sticks” is but one buzz-term. If you will pardon another pun, whenever our knee-jerk reaction leads us to trot out buzz terms, then we are starting out with a tremendous CHIP (get it, stick, wood, chip) on our shoulders.

At first, I did not know which country my IRC friend was from, but I guessed India, because he was very formal and polite. He begged my pardon for sending me a private message, and then he addressed me as “Sir”. Only young people from India, or Malaysia or Indonesia will be this polite to their elders. And everyone in IRC knows my full name, knows that I am age 60, which astounds then, for they do not encounter anyone as ancient as 60 in IRC. My friend was very timid and hesitant to ask me his question, for he feared I might be defensive of America and my President. He does not realize that being a white American, I have a great deal of contempt for the bad things I see in American history, and the evil I see from centuries of white European Christian colonial aggression, slavery, exploitation and genocide.

One college student in India once mentioned Che Guevara to me, and assumed that as an American I must hate Che Guevara. I explained to him that actually Americans admire bandit revolutionary types like Che Guevara. We wear Che Guevara tee-shirts, and see such a persona as similar to our John Wayne types. We also very much admire India’s Pulan Devi (the woman bandito who could never be captured by India’s government). The student in India was shocked that I knew about Pulan Devi, and was not so pleased that I admire her and rubbed his nose in his own nation’s dark side.

When I learned that my new friend is from Indonesia, I mentioned that his language is Bahasa Indonesia, and that Bahasa shares the same root as Bhasa Braj which is the language of Vrindavan in which the Asta Chapp poets of the 13th century composed. He was somewhat surprised and perhaps embarrassed that I knew some things about his culture of which he is unaware.

I did not mention to him Bhoomi Putra (son’s of the soil), also spelled Bhumi. If you google on this term you will mostly find
links about Indonesia’s highest award. But, Bhumi Putra has a different meaning. I met a Chinese minority from Indonesia, and I mentioned Bhumi Putra, and he spat and said “no good.” If someone is born in Indonesia but is not Muslim, their rights are somewhat limited. But, if they CONVERT to Islam, THEN they become Bhumi Putra, and have special rights and perhaps even receive some land. Perhaps I am confusing Bhumi Putra with Malaysia

As I search, I find that only Malaysia is in the news for Bhumi Putra discrimination in their constitution, but certainly such sentiments must be active in Indonesia as well.

Now, I am not trying to make light of the “carrot and stick” question. I am not trying to make Indonesians and Malaysians feel bad. And I am not trying to make Americans look good.

Let us look at Barack Obama for a moment. His mother was Caucasian. His father was African. Genetically, Barack COULD have come out looking white as wonder bread, white as me. If Barack had been born with white skin, Americans would have seen him in a very different light, because Americans are basically stupid. Most of humanity is basically stupid. A white looking Barack would be just as Negro (half Negro to be precise) as a dark skinned Obama. But the American public would have had a harder time seeing his election as a first for Negroes. I only mention this to underscore the low common denominator of mentality which makes this political world of our go ’round.

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Sunday afternoon, day 2 of this blog, Dec 27, 2009

I was pleased to find that my new friend, Giri Alam, has added me to Facebook, so now we may get to know one another better and peer through the blog portal into the world of America and the world of Indonesia, through an old man’s eyes, and a young man’s eyes.

And thank you so much for contacting me in Ubuntu IRC and asking me this very interesting question. I am just having my Sunday late morning coffee, and thinking about what I want to add to that post.

Part of my efforts in that post will be to paint a picture of how I imagine Europe, South America and Asia view America and also now America sees itself, its self-interest, and the rest of the world.

When I first searched on “carrot and stick” I did not realize how WIDE SPREAD that phrase is, both abroad and at home. I think this demonstrates a world-wide reluctance to admit that there MUST be compromise on each side of each issue, whether political, economic or religious. We must not resent the very process itself of peaceful negotiation because none of us can have our cake and eat it too (as the old saying goes.) Whenever diplomacy and arbitration fails, the next step is violence whether in a formal declared act of war, or guerrilla tactics, or individual acts of terrorism.

I shall now paste this very post at the bottom of my blog and try to add thoughts throughout the day.

Marshall McLuhan coined the term “global village” sometime in the 1960s long before anyone ever dreamed of things like IRC (the first chat program, developed in Oulu, Finland, or the Internet.

Now we see how easy it is for two people of vastly separated geographically and in age and culture to become friends.

OK…. HERE IS THE BIG QUESTION! IS THERE SOME WAY, ANY WAY FOR ALL THE OPPOSING SIDES, Muslim, Jew, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Communist, Capitalist, Industrialist, Farmer, etc to find compromises which allows us all a measure of freedom to live as we see fit without threatening one another?

I am going to introduce a term which some of you may have seen and for others it will be a new concept. The term is MEME.

Not only do we live in an electronic village where people living at opposite sides of the globe may be friends, but we share a body of knowledge which we may search and link to at will, which some years ago I began to call META-MIND, when I said “Internet is metamind”. All I need to do is throw a handful of links at you like so much pixie dust from Tinkerbell in a fairy tale, and suddenly, your mind has wrapped or grokked around something totally new and different.

Now, why should it be necessary for me to throw the pixie dust of all these links at you (all of you) and hope that you GROK them? What could any of this possibly have to do with the simpler question of what I as an American think of Barack Obama’s “carrot and stick” policies?

Well, it has something to do with a term called “illation” which was coined by Cardinal Newman, who left the Anglican Church of England and became a high ranking Bishop in the Roman Catholic Church.

Let us look at a brief excerpt from Cardinal Newman’s writings:

WE are in a world of facts, and we use them; for there is nothing else to use. We do not quarrel with them, but we take them as they are, and avail ourselves of what they can do for us. It would be out of place to demand of fire, water, earth, and air their credentials, so to say, for acting upon us, or ministering to us. We call them elements, and turn them to account, and make the most of them. We speculate on them at our leisure. But what we are still less able to doubt about or annul, at our leisure or not, is that which is at once their counterpart and their witness, I mean, ourselves. We are conscious of the objects of external nature, and we reflect and act upon them, and this consciousness, reflection, and action we call our rationality. And as we use the (so called) elements without first criticizing what we have no command over, so is it much more unmeaning in us to criticize or find fault with our own nature, which is nothing else than we ourselves, instead of using it according to the use of which it ordinarily admits. Our being, with its faculties, mind and body, is a fact not admitting of question, all things being of necessity referred to it, not it to other things.

…
As I now write about “illation” and “groking” to answer my Indonesian friend’s question about “carrot and stick” policy, and now quote from Newman’s “Grammar of Assent” (with the intention of dragging into all this the Jain concept of Anekantavada), why is it that thoughts of Bonhoeffer’s “Cost of Discipleship” (seemingly so unrelated) suddenly enter my mind?

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Sorry for being away from this complex issue for so long, but I had to post many things in a Facebook thread discussion on Aquinas, Iranaeus and Christianity vs. modern humanism, with special reference to Hans Kung’s “On Being Christian”.

If you were to ask me the worst thing that America has done to Indonesia, and the nicest thing they have done FOR Indonesia, I would have to say, off the top of my head, that the worst thing is the Philip Morris Tobacco company using Indonesia to promote smoking especially among teenagers, and the best thing is that America and the WHO (World Health Organization) REALIZES what a terrible thing it has done, and has tried to get Indonesia to sign an agreement that would make life for tobacco companies more difficult.

If you were to ask me regarding the worst things that America has done in its history, I would have to answer the enslavement genocide of native Americans, the enslavement of Africans, and colonial aggression against Hawaii, the Philippines, and various Caribbean Central and South American nations under various guises and euphemisms of liberation and economic aid.

If you were to ask me the best things that America has given to the world, I would have to say the notion of a Constitution and constitutional law (and slowly but surely, International Law) and some genuine concern for human rights even in places that do not contain oil (although the mercy and justice of liberation is far swifter in oil bearing nations).

In order for you to understand MY view of things, you must in some sense BECOME me, and see what I have seen, and know what I know after the fashion that I know it. This is why I mention Cardinal Newman’s Illation in his Grammar of Conviction which is simply to say that we arrive at our convictions and certainties after years and years of very small experiences and observations which add up to the person that we are.

If you happen to be, say Ibn Khaldun of 14th century Tunisia then that constellation of experiences causes you to see the truth of reality in one way.

Anekantavada is an ancient Jain philosophical concept which fits right in with Cardinal Newman’s illation.

It refers to the principles of pluralism and multiplicity of viewpoints, the notion that truth and reality are perceived differently from diverse points of view, and that no single point of view is the complete truth.

So, you see, I am quite un-American to the degree that I see McCain’s brand of patriotism as monstrous. And I am quite Socratic to the degree that I see myself as a “citizen of the world” (and how large was the known world when Socrates allegedly said that, since the total human population in 400 b.c.e. is estimated to be only 6 million, and not todays 6.7 billion.)

One young, enthusiastic, rather ill-educated Republican boasted to me on Facebook that America is the BEST because Canada could not beat up Vermont, and Canada realizes this, and Vermont realizes this. How tragic that one should view the greatness of one’s nation and culture in terms of coercive destructive force!
Yet Putin of Russia glories in the fact that as a former KGB operative he can still beat people up in a martial arts competition.
I understand that Obama’s big sports accomplishment is in basketball, so he might out DUNK you but he would not dream of KERPLUKING you.

You see, the pen is mightier than the sword (and this we all agree) but shall the spoken and written word prove mightier than a marving nuclear warhead? This remains to be seen!

Social Networks, Google and Continuing Education

With the Internet, we can tap into each others stream of consciousness and with search engines we can explore anything in considerable depth in as little as an hour (because we are reading peoples recollections of digests of summaries, which may sound superficial but can really be quite deep.) This is why, when I add 20 friends a day and several of them ask if they know me, I think to myself “they really don’t GET it… you WANT to add people you DON’T know, to expand your mind.. what will you gain if your status about eating an apple or having irregularity is read by your grade school buddy across town and your cousin that you visit on Thanksgiving?

The Tools of Our Trade

My alumna who is a physician posted: heading to the country to meet with the contractor – sigh – and catch the first snow of the season on the drive back. The contractor is actually wonderful. It’s the DIAGNOSIS and recommended repairs that I dread.

I remarked:

I find it amusing that a physician should most naturally see the repair job as a “diagnosis.” When we work with hammers, we tend to see problems as nails. I think that was Abraham Maslow’s gem.

It is natural to see a house as “a person” and speak of a “diagnosis.” I will endeavor to find a youtube of that marvelous song from the 1950s “This Old House is a gitten ready to meet the saints.” Years ago, a teenage girl in India approached me for advice about a rather grave question in her life regarding her own sexual values, and we corresponded at length over a period of weeks on the matter. I made my points in terms of karma among other things, and at one point she sighed and said she did not care to hear advice couched in those terms. I explained to her that if she comes to a tailor with a garment problem, the tailor will speak to her in a language of needles and threads, but she has come to me with her problem, so it is quite natural that I speak in terms of the language of my trade and art.

Seeking new friends in social networks

I personally feel that the more friends we add, the more we have to gain, since we are eavesdropping so to speak on the thoughts and opinions of many diverse people around the nation, around the world, with gifts differing (as Paul said). How dreary to feel xenophobic, and think oneself “a very private person” and limit oneself to family and friends of childhood’s acquaintance. It seems to me that you know them well enough, and you should be interacting with them face to face, or via telephone, and not in this particular medium of social networking. Occasionally I meditate upon the several curious times in Plato’s dialogues where Socrates asserts that misanthropy (the contempt for our fellow beings) is closely connected with misology (a contempt for discourse). And this makes a great deal of sense, since if you detest the bulk of your fellow beings, the with whom, pray tell, will you converse. And if you do not regularly engage in the exercise of extemporaneous dialog, then however shall you exercise your mental faculties and be stimulated with new and perhaps innovative ideas (or at the very least, ideas new to thee, Miranda dear.)

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When I was a senior in high school, I needed to collect an enormous number of baby food jars for our biology class, where we did a LOT of dissection and handed in the organs for grading. A young mother of three children would generously supply me with the jars twice a week. I was very conscious of the fact that she was STARVED for adult intellectual stimulation. She was glad that I stayed with her and chatted for an hour or two about high school topics. I was alway a rather unusual child and adolescent. I would discourse much in the same manner as you see me post day to day. I preferred the company of adults, and especially teachers over children. My graduating high school class, unbeknownst to me, decided that I should be Class Philosopher, and informed me that I should come to have my photo taken. At the time I thought it was something of a lark on their point. Only later in life did it dawn upon me that I really was quite different and quite obsessed with philosophy. I still occasionally call my biology teacher, now long retired, and I mentioned this to him, and he said “Oh yes, you were the most philosophical of any class.” And it was that teacher, Edward Karoll who went out of his way to make me aware of SJC. Without his encouragement I would never have attended.

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We so often hear “use it or lose it” and though that is not always in reference to the intellect, it is certainly true that our minds need exercise. I know one fellow in his 80s who retired, and made it a point to do crossword puzzles each day, in the belief that such exercise wards off cognitive deterioration. I have had the Internet each day since 1998 as a medium for expression, and I dare say my writing style benefited from this constant exercise. I keep meaning to track down and read an essay that Sartre wrote on “why we write.”

Facebook discussion of Hans Kung

For the want of a nail, the horseshoe was lost. For the want of a horseshoe, the horse was lost. For the want of a horse, the battle was lost. For the want of a battle, the war was lost. For the want of a war, the Kingdom was lost (and all for the want of a nail). For the want of an “s” I stand corrected! Thank you Edward. Now, tell me, what are your thoughts, if any, regarding the life and writings of Hans Kung? I rather admire him for his courage to pursue his thoughts and risk retribution. And yet, I have come to admire the notion of a “magisterium” as a kind of necessary “noble lie” if one wishes to see any measure of the unity which Jesus prayed for in Gethsemane “may they be ONE even as you and I are one.”

——– my comment in IRC ##club-ubuntu at freenode.net

The irony is simply that, IF we attempt to DEFINE chaos, we cannot avoid our instinct to do so in terms of definition and order, and in so doing we impose order upon chaos, and hence it becomes slightly less chaotic, though every so Quixotic.

the first verse of Genesis mentions, in Hebrew “tohu va bohu” which is the darkness and void, the chaos… followed by the Vulgate Latin “FIAT lux” (from whence we get our expression “by FIAT”)