Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Strangeness in Paradise



This will be a strange post.



I do not know quite what to say or how to begin.



It is a time far in the past. I must close my eyes to remember. Of course, I cannot remember, but I can reflect. Of a time, in the old country, of dusty roads and crowded spaces. Of warm seas and fresh fruits, a man was measured by the number of olive trees, or was it dates? A minority lived in a foreign land that was theirs a millennium ago. They must assimilate, get along, speak the language, and they did.



A heavy barrel of flour at the bakery floor took four men to load and unload. But "Fat Simon" would heave one up by himself. "Fat Simon", Shishman See-mon, though I wonder if that is the correct translation. Fat is a poor description since while he was wide, it may better described as broad. Somewhat tall for the age, he had forearms the size of fire hoses and a chest like a gorilla. If you saw him from the back, you would see a wall. And a "hard man", described him as a "hard man"...



For a family that you must provide, you work 14 hours a day. A dry good shop, rises from nothing and you feed the children of your self. You provide for your wife, you establish a nice house. Maybe even a vacation to a lakeside house. You work hard. You do not dream. You just work hard, working hard is good. Then an official's son shows up with 2 body guards expecting a tribute, wanting to rape you of your hard earned labors. He tells you you better cooperate if you know what is good for you, and the henchmen lean in...



What would they expect of "Fat Simon"? as the blood boils up in his veins, his thinking processes focus, decision gates shut down and the attack instinct targets. Fat Simon grabs one body guard like a barrel of flour and throws him through the door. Then he takes the other and brings him outside and plants his face in the dirt street. The official's son says you will regret this...



And in this story the weasel has the power, and the weasel ultimately wins.









Friday, November 10, 2006

Variation on a hum



Perhaps there is no time like now, to reflect on Glenn Gould. A good friend of mine recently attended a piano concerto and remarked that she felt calmed, cleansed and refocused. Her mental energies were aligned and sharpened unexpectedly, I might add, since she is not a classical music junkie.



In this crazy time and period of uncertainty, when noise blasts our senses and we squander our values and civilization, we need the eccentricity and brilliance of Glenn Gould. I enjoyed the movie Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould but I think you need an understanding of Glenn Gould in order to fully appreciate it or desire for a glimpse into Gould's genius. For me, Gould combines the technique and art, with genuine inpspiration. The sounds he heard, the bathing of notes he swam in, he interpreted like Jimi Hendrix did for Rock. That is, Glenn transcended the pure or technical musical piece and reached into the metaphysical world where the music began.



Am I too dire, are the walls really crumbling? Do I long for my library, and comfortable chair, while pondering the Quest for Perfection? Once I did care about perfection, I cared or dared to ask "What is Best?" I considered my values and premises. Yet I have to ask, what happened? When Egypt's library burned, what did people do the next day?

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Humpty Dumpty

This is quite an interesting read:
Empire Falls: Politics & Power: vanityfair.com
and I find Niall Ferguson to have a lot of interesting, thoughtful views on history.

While "going soft" is one marker of an empire's decline, perhaps the heart of the fracture, the wrench in the machine, is the disconnect between the people and the policy. Between the publius and the empire. The premise of America, the roots of America are anti-empire and you cannot discount the inherent isolationist and ingenuous tendencies. Despite dalliances or illusions of empire, the United States of America, the underpinning of our country, is inherently anti-empire.

An empire, an imperial dynasty, must be willing to pay the price, and perhaps, more stridently, this implies that the empire must exact the price from other people. We are undoubtedly soft. Even our unparalleled military relax in air conditioning, enjoy video games, eat steak and ice cream (at least on good days), but they pack a terrific punch. Compare this to our often n-th world enemy, living on a bowl of rice a week, never seeing a dentist, drinking water that we wouldn't bathe in...but you cannot convince an empire or a to-be conquered people like this, that their life will be better after we show them our enlightened ways.

How many times do you bring, what is best for Carthage, to Carthage, before you sow the salt? So now we march in with our delusions of empire, but unwilling to spread the salt, and Hannibal will continue to smite us. Must we resort to Pyrrhus' tactics?

We have neither the stomach for Pyrrhus, nor the blood of Scipio Africanus.

Thus rather than dwell on empires and traditional notions of power, we, as a nation, should think in more dimensions and consider what is in our nature and what resonates with our fundamentals, such that we are a true national success.