Life On A B-I7

Is it possible the winds of political fortune can shift in a moments notice and deny your your most basic freedom:

Yes,

Meditate on that. Cherish the freedom that you have.

“I hold the following truth to be self-evident:”

Philosophy is not an idle pursuit. It is key to teaching us how to live a good life. Everyone should be a philosopher. If that were the case, the world would be a better place.

We don’t own anything. We don’t own a house, we just live there while the bank lets us make payments on the mortgage. Even those things that are not mortgaged, the things we think we own, are not really ours. They can be lost or taken away at any time. It is best not to get attached to these things. Attachment prevents us from becoming our best selves.

It is wise and good to meditate on our mortality. This will tell us what is important and what we need to be focusing on. Meditation on death will have a profound influence on what we do, say, and think — for the positive.

The old cliche, “Live each day as if it were your last” was probably stolen from Seneca. For the sake of clarity, this does not mean party like there is no tomorrow, this means get your affairs in order to the best of your ability. Don’t put off important tasks that are weighing on you.

What could be better than cheerful and self-composed?

The Stoics referred to reason as Logos.” That is the guiding principle of the world. Even being cheerful and self-composed, there is no guarantee we will always get what we want. Likely not. We should be prepared for the outcome we least anticipate.

If you are Stoic, you believe that whatever happens, you are going to be okay. That’s a tough one to believe, given the times we are living in, but hasn’t this always been the case? Our President recently threatened genocide against a nation of people with different skin color than his. All the Stoic advice I have been able to absorb does little to ease my angst over this proclamation…

I suppose the answer is that the Stoics believed that everyone that lacked virtue was insane. In that case, insanity covers a broader spectrum of leadership than I had previously considered.

Do not look for other people to do the things you should be doing. When a student is failing, the blame falls on the teacher. This is how we should look at all the events in our life. We have responsibility for most of what affects us. We need to accept that.

Information overload sucks. One thing the ancient Stoics did not have to deal with was FOX News, CNN, Instagram, X, pick your poison.

Remember this:

We can’t completely ignore what is going on around us, but we can control our reaction to those things.

When we measure things — including ourselves against others — we only make acceptance of things more difficult.

Is it better to live in luxury or live like a common man? The danger with living in luxury is that it destroys your soul. Money does the same thing. Am I saying this because I do not have that luxury myself? Look around you. Do the wealthy have a soul? Some maybe. Look closely, most have sold theirs to procure more luxury, more power, more money. That is not the way.

Let go of what is not yours. What has been given to you is not yours forever, it is yours for now only. Cherish it. This will allow you to look at it with truly appreciative eyes.

Attachment causes unhappiness. That is all that needs to be said. Since I’m the sort that can’t stop after a single sentence consider this: Attachment is what makes it hard for us to accept change. Don’t be like the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland running faster and faster to stay in the same place…

Here is a Zen master story that fits beautifully into Stoic philosophy.

A Zen master once had a beautiful glass cup. He told people that complemented him on its beauty that it was already broken. One day it did break, his response: “Of course.”

Don’t become attached.

The Power of faith is nobler than the power of doubt.

–Harriet Beecher Stowe

Faith leads to action. Doubt leads to inaction. It is better to act and move humanity forward than it is to doubt and hold humanity back.

Life is a verb, not a noun. Life is living, living is doing, life is that which is done.

–Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Get out there and do something!

Kaplan is a Science Reporter for The Economist. You wouldn’t think of that publication as a powerhouse of science reporting, but in fact it is. (I need to look into it more closely for that reason.) This is an interesting and important read because Kaplan points out how science has been influenced by money, greed and politics since science was “invented.” He gives many examples from history to highlight his point, and they are all fascinating.

His point is well made. He goes on to propose that we need to consider fundamental changes in how science is “done.” It needs to involve more peer participation with less emphasis on peer reviewed publication and citation. This is one of the avenues that prevents new science from gaining traction. He also makes a strong case for more funding of basic research, not less. We currently are in a period of deep cuts to basic research. Institutions like NIH are seeing a reduction in budget in the range of 30%. This does not bode well for the future of solving humanities pressing energy and environmental challenges. It is going to take solutions from science, basic research being fundamental, to solve these sorts of pressing issues.

The Guest Cat a delightful novel. This is my second time reading it and I thoroughly enjoyed it again. The author is an accomplished poet and the book reads like a beautiful long-form prose poem. The imagery pulls you into the story. Even though the subject the novel deals with is one of sorry and grief, the story is also uplifting. I admire what I think is the author’s message, that beauty stays with us even after the source of that beauty has left us — all we need to do to hold on to it and not let it go is to remember it, and cherish the memory.

As a cat lover myself, with a cat that graces me with his presence every day, this story found a special place in my heart.

This is a must read. Weissmann provides a workable solution that would go a long way towards solving for the long-term stability and preservation of Democracy.

Even though this book is about the law, it is readable. The history lessons that Weissmann leans on are not just instructive, they provide a clear path forward as well.

If you are concerned about our future as a nation and a political species, please read this book.

Sir Patrick Steward has past away. We are all less in a small way now that he is no longer among us. He will be missed. He showed us the path in so many ways, so many times. Not just as a Star Fleet Captain, but as a member of the human race. Here is one of my favorite lessons…

“Mister Worf, villains who twirl their mustaches are easy to spot. Those who clothe themselves in good deeds are well camouflaged.”

This scene from a STNG episode is enlightening. We are suffering from this very affliction today. We are being led by a man and a party that is pretending to do good deeds. In reality, what they are doing is anything but good. Still, they have many people confused because all those people are paying attention to are the words that are spoken, not the actions that contradict the words.

I’m taking a “Writing is Fun” class at my local Senior Center. The first assignment was to write a story in five paragraphs. I recently saw a headline about a man that was about to finish the trek of a lifetime. He made it his goal to walk around the world, some 31,000 miles. It took him over 20 years. He will be arriving at his Mother’s home in Great Britain sometime next week. I chose his adventure as the inspiration for this writing challenge. This is fictional material based on a news headline…

Mr. Wilson Goes For a Walk

Mr. Wilson reached the rank of Warrant Officer Class One in the British Army Paratroopers. He served with distinction and was highly decorated. Being a Paratrooper was his life. He served for 20 years and never experienced a moment of boredom.

When he turned 38 years old, he was forced to retire. He hadn’t prepared for this eventuality and wasn’t sure what he was going to do with himself. Jumping out of airplanes was in his blood. He knew that living a life without excitement was the last thing he wanted to do.

After returning home he looked for work to fill his days. Nothing seemed to fit him. He found a job as a sales associate in a sporting goods store. He was good with people, they loved listening to his stories, but every day after work he returned home and found himself feeling unfulfilled.

He quit his job and every day for the next month he spent his waking hours walking around town. He found himself tracing the same route around town over and over again. He knew his life lacked the adventure he desperately craved.

After a month of walking around town, he realized he was going nowhere… literally. That’s when he decided he would take up walking with a purpose. He would leave his hometown and not return until he had walked around the world.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

—George Santayana

Does no one remember the fall of Rome? A nation cannot survive when its leaders look only toward self-enrichment and glorification rather than seeking to lead wisely. Nor can a nation survive when its electorate votes only for its self-interest and not for the interest of the body politic as a whole.

Truth is such a rare thing, it is delightful to tell it.

–Emily Dickinson

This quote is from the letters of Emily Dickinson to Thomas Wentworth Higginson (August 16, 1870). Besides this notion being an important theme in Dickinson’s work, the quote feels especially relevant today. We have entered a period in history where truth is treated more like a commodity than it is a standard to be upheld for its own sake. When I say commodity, what I mean is something that is sold to us, not necessarily for its own sake, but for the sake of achieving some selfish goal on the behalf of the purveyor. In other words, truth has often become something akin to “fake news,” to quote a famous practitioner.

In November, I am starting a new project, “50 Quotes.”

All of the quotes will be from female authors, poets and novelists. The quotes I have chosen could have come from a man or a woman. Which gender you imagine wrote the quote will largely come down to the voice you hear when reading the quote and (what I imagine to be) your perception of the differences between men and women.

For the record, I don’t think there is any difference between the male brain and the female brain. I think the difference is largely one of our own experience and the influence of society on our view of one another. My suggestion is to try and hear both voices when reading these quotes.

I intend to follow each quote with a brief personal reflection. I don’t dare call these reflections a commentary, that would be too presumptuous. After all, my lifetime experience is not in the arts. That doesn’t stop me from admiring all of these thoughts, and finding them instructional and even motivating.

I hope you enjoy them. I’m placing them here so I can enjoy them now, and for years to come.

Yesterday I passed my IPTPA Pickleball Test for Level 3.5 certification. The IPTPA levels range from 2.0/2.5 to 5.0. 5.0 is considered Professional, 3.5 is considered “Upper Intermediate.” To obtain a rating of 3.5 you have to achieve a score of 80 out of 120 in a skills assessment and a minimum score of 23 points out of a possible 33 points in live play against a 3.5+ opponent. I scored 96 and 24 respectively. I passed the skills easily. The live play is a bit more challenging because there is pressure involved.

In the live play, I fell behind in the first of 3 games scoring only 5 points. By the time I got to the third game, I needed 11 points to pass. (Each game is played to 11.) I scored 11. It was quite the nail-biter. A lot like a goal line stand to win that game with only seconds remaining on the clock - a similar feeling.

Two days prior to my test day, I took a bad fall on the court. I landed on my head. Play stopped and everyone gathered around to see if I was all right. I’m fine. The owner of the club drove me home. (They are wonderful people.) I took it easy the next day but I have quite the abrasion on my forehead and gash above my right eye. I always wear safety glasses, I was chasing down a lob and I went down landing right on my safety glasses. I was playing against 3.5s and 4.0s, trying to show I belonged. I learned a valuable lesson, going back for a lob is fine, sometimes you have to, but don’t combine that with reaching out beyond your balance point. I’m won’t let that happen again.

Last night I played in a masquerade pickleball tournament. I dressed as a cyclist (not a huge stretch). Part of my costume was my bicycling helmet. I’m sure I will get plenty of comments (and laughs) like, “you should wear that helmet all the time!”

Maybe I should…