Hi Selma,
A few thoughts:
I can't re-member exactly when I first had this thought: 'there is only
the "now"'. And I also can't re-member (do we need language to
're-member'? Is that why we can't re-member stuff that we did when we
were 6 weeks or 6 months old? or in old age as words just don't show up
when needed!) when I first heard this quote by Einstein talking about a
recently departed friend:
"Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That
means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the
distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly
persistent illusion."
I believe the physicists came to this insight long after the ancients
did.
I re-member my father talking about how the concept of time changes as a
person's age increases. Time speeds up.
Chaos and wilderness connect in my mind. What feels foreign seems
chaotic (unpredictable) to some. Some city folk describe forests as
wilderness (unpredictable).
This writing kept me in the moment; so does being caught up in a story,
film, play, teaching, music, conversation - anything that allows me to
forget about time. (time disappears)
Take care,
Brian
> Hi Brian,
>
> Well then, let me ask you and the list if you think there is any value
> for
> understanding our lives and culture in discussing the issues of
>
> 'being in the moment', not instead of but in addition to using our
> rational
> minds at other times and incorporating what we may have learned while
> we
> were 'in the moment'
>
> the idea that what appears to be chaos has an underlying order that
> may
> appear if we can be open to those possibilities; being open to those
> possibilities may necessitate a combination of 'being in the moment'
> and
> using our rational minds
>
> are there similarities and differences and connections to be made
> between
> the interaction between human being(s) and the interaction between
> human
> being(s) and nature, art, science, etc What are the different
> dimensions of
> 'being' that exist when we are thinking or just totally involved in
> the
> 'meeting of another's eyes'. There is clear evidence that brain waves
> change
> dramatically when people are totally involved say, in listening to
> music,
> making love, painting a picture, e.g., on the one hand, and thinking
> about
> things on the other hand. I'm not talking here just about the
> differences
> between emotion and thinking. I don't mean to be condescending, but I
> suspect there are only a few on this list that will be able to
> distinguish
> between emotion and what I am talking about.
>
> I've said this before- if we don't deal with some of these basic
> issues
> about human life and culture, the rest of the conversation just goes
> around
> in circles.
>
> For example: the way humans 'meet' each other varies enormously by
> culture:
> in cultures where 'being' is valued, people 'meet' and connect very
> differently. This had been more than alluded to in some of the posts
> here,
> especially by Ray.
>
> Do you think a discussion of the way people 'connect' and how this
> comes out
> of culture and reinforces it would be helpful in our understanding of
> what
> kind of a society we might want to try to imagine for the future?
>
> Selma
> Hi Brian,
>
> Well then, let me ask you and the list if you think there is any value
> for
> understanding our lives and culture in discussing the issues of
>
> 'being in the moment', not instead of but in addition to using our
> rational
> minds at other times and incorporating what we may have learned while
> we
> were 'in the moment'
>
> the idea that what appears to be chaos has an underlying order that
> may
> appear if we can be open to those possibilities; being open to those
> possibilities may necessitate a combination of 'being in the moment'
> and
> using our rational minds
>
> are there similarities and differences and connections to be made
> between
> the interaction between human being(s) and the interaction between
> human
> being(s) and nature, art, science, etc What are the different
> dimensions of
> 'being' that exist when we are thinking or just totally involved in
> the
> 'meeting of another's eyes'. There is clear evidence that brain waves
> change
> dramatically when people are totally involved say, in listening to
> music,
> making love, painting a picture, e.g., on the one hand, and thinking
> about
> things on the other hand. I'm not talking here just about the
> differences
> between emotion and thinking. I don't mean to be condescending, but I
> suspect there are only a few on this list that will be able to
> distinguish
> between emotion and what I am talking about.
>
> I've said this before- if we don't deal with some of these basic
> issues
> about human life and culture, the rest of the conversation just goes
> around
> in circles.
>
> For example: the way humans 'meet' each other varies enormously by
> culture:
> in cultures where 'being' is valued, people 'meet' and connect very
> differently. This had been more than alluded to in some of the posts
> here,
> especially by Ray.
>
> Do you think a discussion of the way people 'connect' and how this
> comes out
> of culture and reinforces it would be helpful in our understanding of
> what
> kind of a society we might want to try to imagine for the future?
>
> Selma
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "mcandreb" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: "Selma Singer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Brian McAndrews"
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Sunday, December 22, 2002 5:25 AM
> Subject: Re: [Futurework] Re: Not ideological (was More crap again)
>
>
> > Hi Selma,
> > Wittgenstein is behind Shotter. You need to get to know him. His
> life
> > must be appreciated in order to understand his writing. Ray Monk's
> > biography "Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius" will do this
> splendidly:
> >
> > From The Times Literary Supplement
> > This is a very satisfying philosophical Life. When I read Bruce
> Duffy's
> > excellent novel, The World as I Found It {BRD 1989}, I was convinced
> > that onlya novel could do justice to this exemplary, almost awesome
> > life, with its fierce moral beauty and relentless artistic drive. I
> now
> > no longer believe that. There is no substitute for unflinching
> truth.
> > Ray Monk's biography is a contribution not only to our understanding
> of
> > Wittgenstein as philosopher and as person, but of philosophy as
> finally
> > confessional when it is truly great.
> >
> > Take care,
> > Brian
> >
> > > Brian,
> > >
> > > Another thinker we both admire! Although I am most familiar with
> him
> > > through
> > > his home page and the relationship of his work to The Sociology of
> > > Culture.
> > > I haven't yet had a chance to read anything of his except what's
> on
> > > his web
> > > site but I did thoroughly enjoy reading this.I have a couple of
> > > questions
> > > about how one might interpret some of what he said and you may
> just
> > > want to
> > > tell me to read the rest of his stuff to get answers, and that's
> fine
> > > but
> > > this article did generate, for me, questions about the
> relationship of
> > > what
> > > he is saying to
> > >
> > > the Buddhist idea of 'being in the moment"
> > >
> > > Chaos theory- there is a paragraph in which it appears that he is
> > > saying
> > > that by 'paying attention' to the moment, which may seem to be
> without
> > > order, eventually the order appears.
> > >
> > > And I suspect he might be using the 'meeting of a stranger's eyes'
> as
> > > a
> > > metaphor for any situation where we have contact with 'other'
> which
> > > would
> > > include long and intimate conversations, listening to music,
> enjoying
> > > and/or
> > > participating in other art forms, doing mathematics.
> > >
> > > Selma
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
>
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