Zen and the Art of Do, There is No Try
I've been spending an hour or two on this blog now every night for several months. I enjoy it, but it also takes a ton of time and at times I consider taking a break. Ray Bradbury has some advice though, from Zen and the Art of Writing.
"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you."
He left us on this day in 2012, 10 years ago today, and I'm taking that advice!
June 5, 2022
...
Ty Helbach Photography
Mojave Desert, California, Route 66
...
I took Gretel and Zuzu to the DC zoo today. Gretel said the strangest thing when she saw the tentacled snakes... "I know about them. That's the snake that can tell the future." I was wondering what on earth she was talking about but she explained... we saw a documentary where they catch fish by knowing which way they are going to turn next. Even though they are just picking up clues we can't see... that really IS telling the future, isn't it? We don't frame it that way, but we are telling the future all day, every day. If I decide to punch someone in the face I can tell the future. They're going to be mad!
June 5, 2021
...
A government gun buyback might incentivize junkies to clean the guns out of the drug trade. That's what I call killing one bird with one stone. We can worry about the other bird later.
...
Emil Cioran- "The street is more reassuring, you think less about yourself there, there everything weakens and wilts, beginning with your own confusion."
...
Thoughts on Sam Harris's Making Sense podcast #202 with Andrew Yang.
Plato thought societies should be ruled by a Philosopher King. Of course he did, he was a philosopher. Maybe Mike Schmidt thinks we should be ruled by a Baseball Player King. I don't know, I think Plato is closer to the mark.
Abraham Lincoln was the closest we came. Thomas Jefferson too, but why didn't he free his slaves at the end if his life, as many slave owners did? Boggles one's mind.
Andrew Yang might be the closest we've come since them. I love the guy. I resist marching in lockstep but I can't think of anything substantive in this hour and a half that I disagree with. I think we really missed an opportunity.
Takeaways:
Everyone should spend some time thinking of the roll luck has played in their lives- upbringing, race, economic status... think about the businesses that have ended recently through no fault of the owner. Luck defines do much.
You need to hope for the best for everyone, even if it's out of pure self-interest, even if you're a psychopath. Even Ted Bundy would want a job so he can eat. People unaffected now could become affected.
Everybody's down on the post office because it can't pay its own bills... that is exactly what the federal government is for... paying for the services that we need/want that the market doesn't support. Think about the military. Imagine health care fitting into that model.
Yang's presidential run first gained traction after he was on Sam's podcast the first time. At one point all of his supporters were Sam Harris listeners.
Fantastic conversation.
...
This used to be my favorite Trump lie. After he arranged for a soldier's remains to be brought back from North Korea, he said that the soldier's parents came up to him and expressed how thankful they were. So... he didn't do the math... the soldier died in the Korean War, and his parents would likely be well over a hundred years old. Bringing back those remains is just a fundamentally good thing, and he could have left it at that, but he tacked this ridiculous lie on it, just cheapening the whole thing. Simply absurd!
I think my new favorite lie is that he was only inspecting the bunker... hahaha. Dude, we get it, there's violence raging right outside the door... just go to the bunker, we don't care. The fact that he had to lie about it illustrates how weak he thinks we would think he is, and critically- how much he cares about how weak he thinks that we think he looks. (Get it?) This incidentally makes it a perfectly ironic, self-fulfilling, weak-minded lie! In an attempt to look strong he looks even weaker than if he didn't lie in the first place.
June 5, 2020
...
Pundits should be replaced by comedians. If there's a political point to make, and it's made in the guise of a joke, and people laugh at the joke, they explicitly agree with the premise. There's no argument against a funny joke. It's like Wittgenstein said- a good philosophical paper could be written entirely out of jokes. Jokes are an underused for of communication.
Chris Rock: Bad apple? That’s a lovely name for murderer. That almost sounds nice. I’ve had a bad apple. It was tart, but it didn’t choke me out. Here’s the thing. Here’s the thing. I know being a cop is hard. I know that shit’s dangerous. I know it is, okay? But some jobs can’t have bad apples. Some jobs, everybody gotta be good. Like … pilots. Ya know, American Airlines can’t be like, 'Most of our pilots like to land. We just got a few bad apples that like to crash into mountains. Please bear with us.'"
...
You can't play The Rolling Stones' She's A Rainbow on a car commercial! The holy cannot become commonplace or it loses the thing that makes it holy. Huxley said that the only thing we haven't succeeded in completely vulgarizing is death, and I believe that a little more each day.
June 5, 2018
...
Nothing like getting blasted in the face with a racquetball to help remind you that you're still alive.
June 5, 2014
...
I was just 83 points down in a Scrabble game and played DIOCESE for 96. The O made ABO, the C made MIC, the E made RE and the S made FEUDS. Yes friends, I'm going to brag that one, and I hope you would too. (Sorry to any Australian aborigines who might be reading this.)
June 5, 2013
...
Clarke Kant- "In (Various) God(s) We Trust (or not, depending)"
...
Apparently my standard of living has increased. I just some New Balance sneakers from Sports Authority rather than Athletechs or EZ Striders that I usually buy from KMart.
June 5, 2010
...
Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, started a ten-month run in the National Era abolitionist newspaper on this day in 1951.
...
On this day in 1956, Elvis Presley introduced his new single, "Hound Dog", on The Milton Berle Show. Berle wanted him to lose the guitar so the audience would go berserk. The audience did not go berserk. The entire country went berserk.
...
Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan on this day in 1968. Unfathomable. Imagine him beating Nixon in the general election. I'd love to see how different we'd be today if not for that cowardly act. Consider a major negative act like that in comparison to his incrementalist philosophy:
"Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
...
Contrary to that philosophy, on this day in 1989 – the Tank Man halted the progress of a column of advancing tanks for over half an hour after the Tiananmen Square protests. Who was he? What a great modern mystery. One day we'll know.
Meanwhile, in America, Bo Jackson made a perfect throw.
https://fb.watch/lj0cg0G5vk/?mibextid=irwG9G
...
The best interviewer of his generation, Bill Moyers, was born on this day in 1934. He was also LBJ's press secretary, somehow. Here's a good, brief article on entertainment substituting for news, The Winchell Effect. I know, I know, BORING.
http://billmoyers.com/story/donald-trump-and-the-walter-winchell-effect/#.V1SX26qy-Gk.facebook
...
Fat fuck Jeff Garlin was born fat on this day in 1962.
...
Other notable birthdays- philosopher Pierre Jean George Cabanis (1757), Pat Garrett (1850), John Maynard Keynes (1883), Richard Scarry (1919), Spalding Gray (1941), Mark Wahlberg (1971)
...
Stephen Crane left us on this day in 1900 at the age of 28. From The Red Badge of Courage:
"But he said, in substance, to himself that if the earth and moon were about to clash, many persons would doubtless plan to get upon the roofs to witness the collision."
...
The short story writer, O. Henry, left us on this day in 1910.
"Each of us, when our day's work is done, must seek our ideal, whether it be love or pinochle or lobster à la Newburg, or the sweet silence of the musty bookshelves."
...
Conway Twitty left us on this day in 1993. He's either in heaven, or making believe is all we can do.
...
Dee Dee Ramone left us on this day in 2002.
"If you think you can, well come on man
I was a Green Beret in Vietnam
No more of your fairy stories
'Cause I got my other worries
Fifty-third and third standing on the street
Fifty-third and third I'm tryin' to turn a trick
Fifty-third and third you're the one they never pick
Fifty-third and third don't it make you feel sick?"
...
Ronald "Ketchup Is a Vegetable" Reagan, died on this day in 2004, ironically after becoming a vegetable himself. He oversaw a real degradation of our politics, the belief that government can't help us. "We, the People," was lost, and with it the belief that we could help ourselves through our own government's policies.
...
Bradbury again- "You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them."
...
If you help me put in two air conditioners I'll reward you with a bag of vegetables, a quart of maple syrup, a glass of grape fanta, and real life friendship.
June 5, 2010
...
The Hill- UN wants ‘immediate halt’ to separation of migrant families in US.
Seems like we'd have some law against cruel and unusual punishment, doesn't it? A thousand years from now I hope this is how the president is remembered. (But hey, unemployment is a percentage point better than the last guy!)
June 5, 2018
...
The Onion: 8.4 Million New Yorkers Suddenly Realize New York City A Horrible Place To Live
"Other incidents that prompted citizens to pick up and leave included the sight of garbage bags stacked 5 feet high on the sidewalk; the realization that being alone among millions of anonymous people is actually quite horrifying; a blaring siren that droned on and fucking on; muddy, refuse-filled puddles that have inexplicably not dried in three years; the thought of growing into a person whose meanness and cynicism is cloaked in a kind of holier-than-thou brand of sarcasm that the rest of the world finds nauseating; and all the goddamn people."
...
Note that police can achieve there own objectives in better ways. Even if only out of pure self-interest, these 6 proven strategies should be adopted- accountability, tracking, federal oversight, use of force rules, demilititarization, non-police responders. They are not perfect solutions... there ARE NO perfect solutions... but they help.
June 5, 2020
https://www.businessinsider.com/research-based-methods-of-reducing-police-violence-2020-6
...
Washington Post, June 5, 2020- 57 Buffalo officers resign from special squad over suspension of two who shoved 75-year-old
Terrible story, the man is in serious but stable condition. But don't let the state of the modern world get you down. Would you rather live any other time? For instance, would you prefer to live in a time without ubiquitous cell phone cameras? If we were, those officers would not currently be suspended without pay. I wouldn't even choose to live four years ago. These abuses have been going on for a long time, and if we are indeed a government of the people, we are responsible for not doing enough to stop them. Remember those pipeline protesters who were roughed up when Obama was president? We have a chance to do something that could be remembered for all-time. We've all been complicit to varying degrees, but it's like MLK said, "the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice." Great time to be alive!
Jun 5, 2020
...
16 Cognitive Distortions, Positive Psychology, by Courtney Ackerman
14. Fallacy of Change
Another ‘fallacy’ distortion involves expecting others to change if we pressure or encourage them enough. This distortion is usually accompanied by a belief that our happiness and success rests on other people, leading us to believe that forcing those around us to change is the only way to get what we want.
A man who thinks “If I just encourage my wife to stop doing the things that irritate me, I can be a better husband and a happier person” is exhibiting the fallacy of change.
...
Untranslatable words:
Kummerspeck- the weight a person gains during a period of overeating due to unhappiness, depression, grief, or other emotional condition.
It literally it means 'grief bacon'.
From German.
...
Indiewire- Ethan Hawke’s Story About Shooting ‘Before Midnight’ Reveals the Movie’s ‘Mission’
Well that goal was certainly accomplished! I'm ten times overdue to see each of those films again.
https://www.indiewire.com/2021/06/ethan-hawkes-story-about-shooting-before-midnight-reveals-the-movies-mission-watch-1234642655/
June 5, 2021
...
You Are Not So Smart- The Illusion of Asymmetric Insight
Very interesting psychological phenomenon.
https://youarenotsosmart.com/2011/08/21/the-illusion-of-asymmetric-insight/
June 5, 2016
...
New York Magazine- Trump Unable to Remember Words to ‘God Bless America’ at Fake Fan Rally
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/06/trump-forgets-words-to-god-bless-america-at-fake-fan-rally.html
Just so much recognition of nonsense packed into such a short article, haha. One paragraph:
For such a brief statement, this contains an impressive quantity of evasions. First, the protests are not directed at the anthem but at police brutality, using the anthem as a point of demonstration. Second, the national anthem is an expression of patriotism, not support for the armed forces in particular. And third, even if Sanders was correct about both of the above points, once she has conceded that the issue is about a point of view — respecting the armed forces — then she has subverted her claim that it isn’t about free speech. Respecting the armed forces is also a point of view. She is demanding that players obey that view. Obviously, nobody who is trying to prevent free speech thinks what they’re doing is about free speech. They think it’s about the beliefs they’re trying to compel.
June 5, 2018
...
Woody Guthrie- All You Fascists Bound To Lose
Remember a time, not so long ago, when everybody was anti-fascist? Now the anti-fascists get a bad rap. It's like they are anti-"very fine people."
https://youtu.be/VwcKwGS7OSQ
June 5, 2020
...
...
Albert Einstein- "Although I am a typical loner in my daily life, my awareness of belonging to the invisible community of those who strive for truth, beauty, and justice has prevented me from feelings of isolation."
...
Marcus Aurelius- "Tranquility is nothing else than the good ordering of the mind."
...
Bukowski, channeling Yoda- “If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind…You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter.”
...
Dylan:
While some on principles baptized
To strict party platform ties
Social clubs in drag disguise
Outsiders they can freely criticize
Tell nothing except who to idolize
And then say God bless him
...
Larry McMurtry- The earth is mostly just a boneyard. But pretty in the sunlight.
...
Stephen Fry, I Saw Hate In a Graveyard, The Guardian, June 5, 2005:
It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by that.' As if that gives them certain rights. It's actually nothing more... than a whine. 'I find that offensive.' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that.' Well, so fucking what."
...
Hmmm, how should I send this. Let me think. Let me think. Oh, I know, another Bradbury quote:
"Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't "try" to do things. You simply "must" do things."
Comments
Post a Comment