Learning to Fly

Now consider the tortoise and the eagle.
  The tortoise is a ground-living creature. It is impossible to live closer to the ground without being under it. Its horizons are a few inches away. It has about as good a turn of speed as you need to hunt down a lettuce. It has survived while the rest of evolution has flowed past by being, on the whole, no threat to anyone and too much trouble to eat.
  And the there is the eagle. A creature of the air and high places, whose horizons go all the way to the edge of the world. Eyesight keen enough to spot the rustle of some small and squeaky creature half a mile away. All power, all control. Lightning death on wings. Talons and claws enough to make a meal of anything smaller than it is and at least take a hurried snack out of anything bigger.
  And yet the eagle will sit for hours on the crag and survey the kingdoms of the world until it spots a distant movement and then it will focus, focus, focus on the small shell wobbling among the bushes down there on the desert. And it will leap...
  And a minute later the tortoise finds the world dropping away from it. And it sees the world for the first time, no longer one inch from the ground but five hundred feet above it, and it thinks: what a great friend I have in the eagle.
  And then the eagle lets go.
  And almost always the tortoise plunges to its death.  Everyone knows why the tortoise does this. Gravity is a habit that is hard to shake off. No one knows why the eagle does this. There’s good eating on a tortoise but, considering the effort involved, there’s much better eating on practically anything else. It’s simply the delight of eagles to torment tortoises.
  But of course, what the eagle does not realize is that it is participating in a very crude form of natural selection.
  One day a tortoise will learn how to fly.

Terry Pratchett, Small Gods

http://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/

http://www.sfsite.com/~silverag/smallgods.html
http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/small-gods.html
BBC radio play - http://youtu.be/NCgv2aeFiKw

Culture Is Extraordinary

The highly controversial Woodwards project

The Pantages Theatre, being demolished for Condos

“I always feel uncomfortable when people speak about ordinary mortals because I've never met an ordinary man, woman or child.” ― Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

Twice a week I get the opportunity to travel by transit from the Downtown Eastside (DTES) to the main campus of the University of British Columbia. It is an interesting journey, from one extraordinary neighbourhood to another, while traversing the ordinary. While I do believe Vancouver to be an amazing and unique city, it is mostly full of so-called ‘ordinary’ people living ordinary lives, living in ordinary neighbourhoods (where every single house costs over a million dollars!).

There are however, a few neighbourhoods which are not-so-ordinary. The DTES is one of them. UBC would be another. At UBC, this extraodinariness is fully embraced and promoted - across the globe! In the DTES, the flavor of the extraordinariness is not so loudly heralded. Both neighbourhoods are seeing considerable amounts of money being spent on renewal with various constructions sites visible throughout the community. At UBC this is driven by the need to maintain this extraordinary flavor, to ensure their place on the world stage as a place of innovation and discovery, as a place where culture is defined, discovered and disseminated. In the DTES these expenditures seem to many to be driven by the need to transform, comodify, and suppress this flavor. It seems to be a little known facet of the eastside that what makes it such a great community is that is has an authentic (or real) culture all it’s own (which is why it is so easy to sell condos down here, plus the ‘undesirables’ keep property values a little more reasonable). It’s not just the down-and-out junkie that finds the DTES a comfortable place to live.

Many ordinary people find themselves drawn to these neighbourhoods, and by living there, become EXTRAORDINARY. Someone who is a student (or faculty member) at UBC is no ordinary Vancouverite, British Columbian or Canadian. They are a member of one of the most prestigious, hardest to get into, schools in Canada (the world even). Most such people are quite proud of this fact, and are rarely shy or ashamed to wear various symbols announcing to the world their status as extraordinary. Their friends and family are usually just as proud and more than willing to tell all who will listen about their extraordinary friend or family member who lives on the cultural edge. Those who live in the DTES are also extraordinary, whether they ended up there by choice as a homeowner, or as a result of poverty and addiction. Those who end up here by choice are generally more proud of their status. By choosing to live here, they are able to proclaim that they are less conformist, more independent and more willing to strike out on their own. They are more alive to culture, and generally get to be a bigger part in defining it. Those who end up here out of necessity, are rarely held in much esteem or regard, and are often shunned and ostricized. And yet they are important to our society and culture. Without them, the DTES wouldn’t really exist, it would just be part of the downtown, and Gastown and Chinatown would have been modernized and gentrified long ago. The Eastside, I would argue, has more living culture than any other neighbourhood (although the same could be said about the Drive, but I consider the Drive part of East Van). The culture here, is born here, not imported. It is not critiqued and analysed to death here. It is created and performed here. The analyzing and critiquing is done elsewhere, by others.

The trip from the DTES to UBC, is a trip from the extraordinary, through the ordinary, into the extraordinary!
Ordinary:
1. of no special quality or interest; commonplace;unexceptional: One novel is brilliant, the other is decidedly ordinary; an ordinary person.
2. plain or undistinguished: ordinary clothes.
3. somewhat inferior or below average; mediocre.
4. customary; usual; normal: We plan to do the ordinary things this weekend.

Extraordinary:
1. beyond what is usual, ordinary, regular, or established: extraordinary costs.
2. exceptional in character, amount, extent, degree, etc.; noteworthy; remarkable: extraordinary speed; an extraordinary man.

Can Philosophy Cure Emotions

Can philosophy cure emotions? This is one very loaded question, and one for which philosophy exists in the first place. For many people (myself included), it is this exact question, or at the least, this type of question, that got them interested in philosophy in the first place. Many, many articles, essays and books have been devoted to this question. Careers and lives have even been spent in pursuit of the elusive answer to this question. The simple answer would: yes it’s possible. But what fun is that answer? I will instead dig into it a little bit and see what bones I can dig up, and see where the evidence leads me. If I am going to make a (brief) attempt at this question, the first thing that I must do is to define the question itself - which, for myself at least, is what philosophy is all about.

I am going to settle with a couple of easy, and fairly accepted, definitions of the word philosophy. Just defining what philosophy is has occupied many books and lifetimes, but for the most part this definition works fine for most people (and most dictionaries):

philosophy: the rational investigation of the truths and principles of being, knowledge, or conduct.

I myself am a little more preferential toward the following definition, since for me it needs to be practical, or else what good is it?

philosophy: a system of principles for guidance in practical affairs.

Taken together then, we must do the first part (rational investigation), to end up with the the second part (a system of principles). Philosophy is not something we can be given, but something we learn and build for ourselves. But that is for another essay....

And what can this practical system of principles do for us? They can provide us with a:

cure: a means of correcting or relieving anything that is troublesome or detrimental.

What is it they can correct?

emotion: an affective state of consciousness in which joy, sorrow, fear, hate, or the like, is experienced, as distinguished from cognitive and volitional states of consciousness.

Emotions are generally associated with agitation, and are often referred to as a “reaction” to something. They are commonly believed to be “triggered” by some external event. Emotions are something we “feel” internally, with our (mostly) conscious awareness - as opposed to something we feel with our external senses, such as texture or temperature. It is the uncomfortable emotions we are talking about here. Nobody is interested in a “cure” for joy or love.

Taken all together then, the question could be expanded to say:

Is it possible to come up with a practical system of life principles that allow us to correct or alleviate the uncomfortable and stressful internal feelings and reactions that arise throughout our day-to-day existence, often out of the blue and without rhyme or reason?

Taking a look at the self-help (and related topics) in any library or book store and it becomes immediately apparent that this is indeed an important issue for most people. Reading any religious text further confirms this. Our internal pain and suffering hurts so much more than anything that happens to our body. A man who comes up with a workable solution to dealing with this can have calenders reset to his birth!

Using the first definition of philosophy, I cannot see how there is any way to deal with this without philosophy. Only through rational investigation of myself, my feelings, my thoughts and my actions - and most importantly my beliefs - will I have any real hope of self-directed growth and improvement. Otherwise it is all just random if I don’t play an active role in my own direction. This is the purpose of philosophy. The philosophers and other “lovers of knowledge” are still arguing over just what emotions are and how they work, so it is a complicated problem. I myself have yet to be convinced that emotions can be entirely tamed, but my own reactions to them can be softened, and the havoc they cause me can be mitigated. I would love to get to the point of one day waking up in the morning, and choosing for myself which emotions I will feel that day. In the mean time I just need to stay rational, and remember that my emotions are something that happen to me, but they are not ME. I may feel angry, but I am not anger. I am not sadness. I am not joy. I am just a person experiencing emotions. A human being emotional.

Through philosophy, through rational investigation of myself, I can come to the realization that emotions are something over which I have almost no control. I cannot banish them to some forgotten dimension, or unused corner of my mind. My only real hope is to acknowledge them and learn to deal with them. I cannot ever run away or hide from them. They are an intrinsic part of who and what I am. The Stoics taught that to avoid all the suffering we need only maintain a constant state of indifference and keep ourselves free of passion. Which to me sounds allot like what the Buddha preached about being free of desire. For most of us though, especially in this current time, this holds neither appeal nor practical application. How does one maintain indifference while holding your newborn child? Or at your own wedding? Or at a loved-one’s funeral? I’ve always thought the roller-coaster to be funner than the merry-go-round. The up’s and downs may be a bit scary, sometimes uncomfortable, but always funner!

I will get through it and live to see another day, and feel more feelings, if only I can stay calm, try to not get to hung up on myself, and just try to enjoy life by maintaining a philosophical perspective on things.

philosophical: rationally or sensibly calm, patient, or composed.

Miracles

I am again amazed
  By how it all works out
Making new connections
  Is what it's all about
Suffering all alone, and,
  I felt, completely friendless
The pain went on and on
  The misery was endless
Really, what was needed was
  For me to remove my mask
To get the help that I required
  All I had to do was ask
Finally I begin to get
  That anything is possible
And I finally start to grow
  Living in this daily miracle

The Deep

Every day I learn more
  More about who you are
What makes you tick
  And how you think
Every new facet fascinates me
  Pulls at my heart
Draws me into yours
  And binds me to you
I thirst for a deeper awareness
  I wish to drink of all of you
To experience you fully
  In all your manifestations
The deeper I drink
  The deeper I fall in
Yet I do not drown
  I breathe deeply, and rise

Jogging Through Stanley Park

Today I went on a nice little jog along the seawall and though Stanley Park, in the rain. I enjoyed the scenery so much I had to take pictures. I especially love the massive trees. It' hard to appreciate the proper scale in these pics, but some of these Cedars are well over ten or twelve feet in diameter. I love Vancouver.

Been A Long Time

 It's been way too long since I've posted here. I've been writing up a storm, but just haven't gotten around to uploading here. I've even contributed to an extensive project currently on exhibit at the VAG. Here's a link to the Final Exhibit.
And going full bore over at the Mash Pit. The real reason though is that I was slipping just a tad over the winter, falling into all sorts of old (and not-so-healthy) behaviours. Including getting loaded. It didn't get as ugly as it has in the past, but it wasn't really pretty either. So I have gone back to the drawing board and gotten the help that I need to get and stay healthy. Writing is part of that process for me, but unfortunately I don't get on the grid very much. There will be plenty of time for that later though so it is all good. It will be an interesting summer all around.....

Get on the Grid

This is something I wrote on FaceBook in response to some ideas on how to make the world a better, more just place to be human. A few people were advocating armed struggle while others advocated dismantling the Political Party system or encouraging people to drop off the grid.

Rioting would be fun (for a few minutes before the terror sets in) but in the end we would be left with a big mess, a big bill and a lot less freedom. As far as using 21st century technology to get off the grid, that's just silly, not to mention a bit of an oxymoron. But if you are bound and determined to get the hell out of Dodge then I say good riddance. Selfish quitters aren't likley to be much help in this struggle.

Being IS Meaning

"People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life... I think that what we're really seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonance within our innermost being and reality, so that we can actually feel the rapture of being alive." - Joseph Campbell

An atheist recently told me that he believed that Joseph Campbell was full of shit. That "the whole Hero of a Thousand Faces" thing was just coincidental, because we all enjoy a good storey, and a good storey requires a protagonist - a hero.

As for the Hero's storey, it is universal, but always "winning" is not (the happy ending is a recent thing, traditionally most tales did not end this way). The only "thing" that makes such coincidences "meaningless" is the person making the judgement - same for what makes anything meaningful. For myself, this whole conversation is a "meaningful coincidence". I could tell you that is a fact but I'd be full of shit. It is my opinion. I consciously choose to assume there is meaning, and then I find it! I could care less if somebody else feels they can convince me I am wrong. Such a person thinks life is meaningless so who gives a f@&k what they think since it's all pointless anyways. Arguing the meaning of life with someone who thinks it is meaningless is worse than pointless.

Bliss is God's kiss. It is not procrasturbation. It is the knowledge that all of creation IS praise worthy. To offer praise is to respectfully defer to and offer profound love and reverence. To be an atheist is to be unable to praise yourself. You really cannot praise anything else until you can. The beautiful miracle that is this reality we are experiencing is not all around you, it is you!

This is the manner in which I manipulate my perceptions, my beliefs. Which is preferable to having my perceptions manipulate me. I believe that I would like to live a meaningful, useful, productive and happy life. I do my utmost to root out any beliefs that aren't conducive to that. My time is precious. I don't believe in an after-life and believe reincarnation is irrelevant. I go on the assumption that this will be the only chance to exist I will ever have. I refuse to believe it's pointless. What would be the point of such a belief? Even if you are "right" you still have wasted your life. If you are unable to distinguish the dfference between you and your opinions (beliefs) then you feel driven to convince evreryone that YOU are not wrong, instead of just accepting that others can have different beliefs. Most people are unable to do this. Being able to weed out our beliefs is even harder and more rare. Most of us seem believe we don't believe much and believe we "know" lots.

That is what I choose to believe (at this time) and it works pretty good for me. I am very much happy and grateful to be alive. I have little interest in learning how to be angry, depressed or cynical. I am always glad to hear how others not only make it through life, but how others make life enjoyable.

"Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning." - Joseph Campbell

Graveyards

My first shift on my new schedule is nearly over. While I am just a little tired (it's 7:30am and I've been here since 8pm) I think I made the right call going for the switch. I caught up on a weeks worth of correspondence, got to organize my Youtube account, and even got this little post in. I believe this is going to work out at least as well as I hoped.

My natural cycle has always been that of a night owl. Now that I am embracing it instead of fighting it I feel I will be able to make a much more productive use of my time. And finally get in some decent writing here instead of these rather useless and irrelevant status updates that I've been doing lately. For now it's all about the process. Twelve hours with a connected Imac and not television with very little duties that require me to leave the office and I really do see allot getting done.

For now though, I can't wait to get home to bed!!

More Time

I am once again relearning how to best make use of my time. I have changed my work schedule. I will now be working weekend graveyards. I have come to accept that I am a night owl. So I finally decided to make the most of this. Working evening just wasn't the best schedule for me. I would sleep and work for 4 days a week and not get allot done. I'd get a bit of time at work for writing, but mostly on the Mash Pit. I would end up doing allot at work. Now though I will actually be able to write quite a bit more since the night shift has very little to do. Only working 3 days will also help. My days off will now be put to much better use.

I plan to join another Wing Chun club - a YKS club located a few blocks from home in China Town. This wasn't really possible on my old schedule. I am really looking forward to this. I have been suffering a lack of good training partners for awhile now. This will put an end to that minor prob. The gym will also be easier to squeeze into my daily/weekly routine as well.

Overall, I expect that my winter will be much more productive than my fall - which imho was already quite productive.

Time Flies

Hard to believe I haven't posted here in two weeks. I just keep getting further drawn into the Mash Pit and the world of Mashup - and loving it!. It doesn't help that I am currently "off-the-grid" outside of work. My phone is toast and my laptop is currently MIA. Which makes it challenging to continue operating three blogs! So I am likely dropped WebYes Prefferred, especially if I do not get another webOS device. More will be revealed. I will be posting here more regularly again real soon.