Language & Worldview

The idea surfaces from time to time that language shapes psychology and worldview, rather than the reverse. I'm inclined to think this is an overestimation based on misapprehension of how language speakers perceive units of meaning. A simple example provides insight:

What does he look like?

To native speakers and to advanced second language learners, this phrase only means what physical features and attributes does he have. It is not a request for a comparison. Yet, this is a point of confusion for beginning English learners. Because, when read literally, it is a request for a comparison. So, they often--quite naturally--respond accordingly: "He looks like a bear."

This isn't to say that a comparison isn't within the set of possible answers. To be sure, comparison is one means of describing physical attributes and features. But this is different than thinking that the question requires a comparison as an answer or is limited to comparisons as answers, a word-by-word reading of which it would be logical to conclude. 

In other words, the whole phrase is 'chunked', as it were, to consist of meaning quite different than the sum of its parts, just as, at some point when learning to read, you stop noticing the silent 'k' in words like 'knife' and 'knee' and 'chunk' all of the letters in your mind as a single unit of sound.

A language-shapes-psychology approach might overparse this to conclude that English speakers, at some subconscious level, are engaging in a comparison, and that comparisons are an accentuated element of an English language-shaped view of the world. Based on the above, I would hesitate to conclude such a thing.

Epictetus & Elizabeth Carter

This is said to be a painting of eighteenth century classicist Elizabeth Carter as Minerva, the goddess of wisdom. I understand the passages below from Epictetus to be from her 1758 translation. She was born in 1717 and died in 1806. Both the photo of the painting and the text are in the public domain. I happened upon the photo in Wikipedia while searching for the source of this translation to see if it would be okay if I reproduced it here. It was a nice discovery! 

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From The Handbook:

30. [...] Are you naturally entitled to a good father? No, only to a father. Is a brother unjust? Well, keep your own situation towards him. Consider not what he does, but what you are to do to keep your own faculty of choice in a state conformable to nature. For another will not hurt you unless you please. You will then be hurt when you think you are hurt.

31. Be assured that the essential property of piety toward the gods is to form right opinions concerning them--as existing and as governing the universe with goodness and justice. And fix yourself in this resolution, to obey them and yield to them and willingly follow them in all events as produced by the most perfect understanding. For thus, you will never find fault with the gods, nor accuse them as neglecting you, and it is not possible for this to be effected any other way than by withdrawing yourself from things not in our control and placing good or evil in those only which are. For if you suppose any of the things not in our control to be either good or evil, when you are disappointed of what you wish, or incur what you would avoid, you must necessarily find fault with and blame the authors. For every animal is naturally formed to fly, and abhor things that appear hurtful and the causes of them, and to pursue and admire those which seem beneficial, and the causes of them. It is impractical then, that one who supposes himself to be hurt should be happy about the person who, he thinks, hurts him, just as it is impossible to be happy about the hurt itself. Hence, also, the father is reviled by the son when he does not impart to him the things which he takes to be good. And supposing empire to be a good made Polynices and Eteocles mutually enemies.  On this account the husbandman, the sailor, the merchant, on this account those who lose wives and children, revile the gods. For where interest is, there too is piety placed. So that, whoever is careful to regulate his desires and aversions as he ought, is, by the very same means, careful of piety likewise. But it is also incumbent on everyone to offer libations, and sacrifices, and first fruits, conformably to the customs of his country, with purity, and not in a slovenly manner, nor negligently, nor sparingly, nor beyond his ability.

48. The condition and characteristic of a vulgar person is, that he never expects either benefit or hurt from himself, but from externals. The condition and characteristic of a philosopher is, that he expects all hurt and benefit from himself. The marks of a proficient are, that he censures no one, praises no one, blames no one, accuses no one, says nothing concerning himself as being anybody, or knowing anything: when he is, in any instance hindered or restrained, he accuses himself; and, if he is praised, he secretly laughs at the person who praises him; and if he is censured, he makes no defense. But he goes about with the caution of sick or injured people, dreading to move anything that is set right, before it is perfectly fixed. He suppresses all desire in himself; he transfers his aversion to those things only which thwart the proper use of our own faculty of choice; the exertion of his active powers toward anything is very gentle; if he appears stupid or ignorant, he does not care, and, in a word, he watches himself as an enemy and one in ambush.

Prayer to Whatever God There Be

Pictures of 'Incan mummies' frequently surface on the Internet. One appeared in my Facebook newsfeed today. Their features are well preserved and it is easy to imagine what they might have looked like when alive. Who were they? What did they dream about? What did they hope for? What made them feel humor or sadness? What manifestation of person was this?

I don't see that their bodies were treated badly. But one, for example, was locked in storage at a museum for a century: They seem not to have a spiritual safe harbor. 

I will try to be their spiritual safe harbor today. 

Prayer said and offering made to whatever god there be, whether Incan proper, or god of a neighboring ethnic group, whether male or female, that they may have peace, comfort, and rest. If not, or if the prayer was not heard, then the same prayer to Mother Vesta. 

Without realizing it, I made a very appropriate offering: four squares of chocolate. The cacao tree is said to have originated in the Andes. 

Piety

I see below, re-reading my previous post, that I used "adult" as a sort of stand-in word for "responsible non-belief". That's kind of revealing and indicates my starting point when thinking about the nature of reality.  

At this age, I believe I understand the enduring value of piety. I believe I did so when I was younger as well. But I viewed things through the worldview of a single religion, a religion which asserted a sole claim on truth. The worldview thus even extended to nonbelief, for 'not to believe' meant not to believe in that particular religion. I bought into this framework, and that made things complicated.

Belief can still be irresponsible. Especially where it's the basis of action involving other people not warranted given the level of uncertainty inherent to it. 

I understand that 'piety' and 'nonbelief' are not symmetrical antonyms. 

Untitled

Morning prayers said and offering to Vesta, for this country, my home country, my family, my coworkers, and all people.

Numen & Natural Selection

One might offer a rather straightforward explanation for the sense of the numinous that can arise in natural places, or any sense anywhere of something being present that isn't. Just as the brain massively overcompensates vis-a-vis sexual urges and the amount of sex required to make a new person (one presumes as a way of guaranteeing reproduction, come what exigent circumstances may), so too, to guarantee physical survival in a world filled with stealthy human and nonhuman predators, the brain may have been selected to overinterpret the presence of other beings from slight nuanced changes in sensory input. After all, when it comes to things like fire safety, assuming a certain level of unknowability and uncertainty, do we prefer our children to overcompensate or undercompensate? 

A counterargument could be that if the undercorrecting nonheightened state of awareness leads to more death (by prehistoric megafauna!), it is arguably a less reliable interface with material reality. The healthy adult mind at rest is often cited as the best perspective for sound decision-making. This may be true as far as conventional decisions and conventional life are concerned. Yet, it is the conventional adult mind state that may be most deeply trapped in illusion, the one that credulously buys into the perspective that comes from the plane of reality into which it is embedded. As the zen koan goes, what was your face before you were born?

I have no solution.

The Numen of Hedgerows Lost in Time

Numen: (noun) A spiritual force or influence often identified with a natural object, phenomenon, or place. (Plural: numina.) (Source: Merriam-Webster online dictionary.)

Our defunct farm growing up was abutted to the south by another defunct farm. Beyond this--if one were to cross over this neighboring farm--there was another defunct farm. On the other side of the wooded ridge was yet another. At the edge of the furthest field, woods stretched for half a mile past the property line. Across the road was an undeveloped county park encompassing a small mountain. Altogether this made for hundreds of acres of fields and woods around our house. 

The area was large but the fields themselves were not. They had been cleared in the eighteenth century. They were cozy and old on North American time scales. There was a shady sunken dirt lane. There were sections of woods with heavy trees that were reputed to be virgin eastern forest. There were oak trees, maple trees, ash, beech, and tulip. In the unmown fields, there were Queen Anne's lace, goldenrod, purple loosestrife, daisies, buttercups, and violets. The fields and woods would cast a changing mood. Now and then a hint of medieval Europe. Sometimes colonial American. Other times pre-colonial American.

The fields had hedgerows between them. The hedgerows had begun life as stonerows--long rows of stones that had been carried to and piled along the edges, when the fields had been under cultivation. Cherry trees, bittersweet vines, raspberry bushes, and other plants could not grow out of the stone pile--it being too deep with stone--but they grew up all along the edges, forming an often impenetrable wall of vegetation on both sides, with a hollow center, a kind of arched natural hallway or tunnel running the length of each side of the field. 

The fields each had a different name and character, and the hedgerows were the boundary between them. In many places, the hedgerows were the property line itself. On walks, or on rides on a tractor or other vehicle, often the most thrilling part was where the farm road passed between fields, because it was there that you would go under the arch of tree limbs and sweep out the other side into a completely different vista. 

Sometimes we ventured into the hedgerows to play. Later, when we were older, it became necessary to enter them to post no hunting signs. This would be in September, before the start of hunting season, with the throbbing green of summer subsiding and the foliage showing hints of auburn and amber.

Inside the hedgerows, there was a distinctly otherworldly feel: Cooler and darker, but without the contrasting light and shadow of the open field. The visible would be reduced to a single dimension--the tunnel of trunk, plant, and stone in one direction, looking one way; the tunnel of trunk, plant, and stone in the opposite direction, looking the other way. You'd feel awe to be in such natural architecture, but slightly unnerved, as when you are supposedly alone in a large building, but have the persistent sense that someone else is there. 

Seneca captures an analogous feeling where the wooded environment is more majestic, in Letter 41:

If ever you have come upon a grove that is full of ancient trees which have grown to an unusual height, shutting out a view of the sky by a veil of pleached and interwining branches, then the loftiness of the forest, the seclusion of the spot, and your marvel at the thick unbroken shade in the midst of the open spaces, will prove to you the presence of deity.

There is deity in hedgerows, too. February 23rd was Terminalia, for Terminus, the god of boundaries. Ovid, in Fasti Book II, describes Terminus and Terminalia:

When night has passed, let the god be celebrated / With customary honor, who separates the fields with his sign. / Terminus, whether a stone or a stump buried in the earth, / You have been a god since ancient times. / You are crowned from either side by two landowners, / Who bring two garlands and two cakes in offering. / An altar's made: here the farmer's wife herself / Brings coals from the warm hearth on a broken pot. / The old man cuts wood and piles the logs with skill, / And works at setting branches in the solid earth. / Then he nurses the first flames with dry bark, / While a boy stands by and holds a wide basket. / When he's thrown grain three times into the fire / The little daughter offers the sliced honeycombs. / Others carry wine: part of each is offered to the flames: / The crowd, dressed in white, watch silently. / ... Neighbors gather sincerely, and hold a feast, / And sing your praises sacred Terminus: / 'You set bounds to peoples, cities, great kingdoms; / Without you every field would be disputed. / You curry no favor: you aren't bribed with gold, / Guarding the land entrusted to you in good faith.'

(It is interesting to note here that the fire is the means through which the offering reaches Terminus. This recalls the function of Agni (as in 'ignition'), Vesta's Hindu counterpart. 

The fields and woods where I grew up have long since been replaced by houses, roads, and lawns. The developers didn't even track the pre-existing geography--human or natural. They imposed their own. Paved roads ignored the farm road's hedgerow arch, instead cutting straight through the center. (I was there the day one large yellow machine started bashing away on the other side of one of the hedgerows, where the new road would go. At first I didn't even realize what it was doing.) Hill and landform were themselves reshaped. Instead of marking a boundary--the last I saw of them, after the houses had gone up--the remaining parts of hedgerow looked more like odd peninsulas of tree, protruding outward to awkward purpose, unfinished business not matched up with the new landscape.  Or if by chance conforming to the new pattern, just waste-like places, where blowing detritus would collect, subsidiary to the more important yards, driveways, and homes.

Change is inevitable, and my hedgerows are now lost in the past, lost in time. 

Ovid's Prayer to Vesta

From Fasti, Book VI, June 9th, the Vestalia:

Vesta, favor me! ... I was rapt in prayer: I felt the heavenly deity ... And the happy earth shone with radiant light.

Caristia

Ovid, in Fasti, describes the holiday of Caristia, a holiday to celebrate living family members on February 22nd, following Parentalia, a long holiday for deceased family members. 

There are some interesting things of note: (1) The reference point for the family gathering is the family gods. (2) It is virtuous to burn incense and offer food to the family gods. (3) Ovid, if he's not being sarcastic, thinks that the goddess Concordia is present at Caristia. 

The next day has its name, Caristia, from our dear (cari) kin, / When a throng of relations gathers to the family gods. It's surely pleasant to turn our faces to the living, / Once away from relatives who have perished, / And after so many lost, to see those of our blood / Who remain, and count the degrees of kinship. / Let the innocent come: impious brother be far, / Far from here, and the mother harsh to her children, / He whose father's too long-lived, who weighs his mother's years, / The cruel mother-in-law who crushes the daughter-in-law she hates. / Be absent Tantalides, Atreus, Thyestes: and Medea, Jason's wife: / Ino who gave parched seeds to the farmers: / And Procne, her sister, Philomela, and Tereus cruel to both, / And whoever has gathered wealthy by wickedness. / Virtuous ones, burn incense to the gods of the family, / (Gentle Concord is said to be there on this day above all) / And offer food, so the robed Lares may feed from the dish / Granted to them as a mark of esteem, that pleases them. / Then when moist night invites us to calm slumber, / Fill the wine-cup full, for the prayer, and say: 'Health, health to you, worthy Casar, Father of the Country!' / And let there be pleasant speech at the pouring of the wine.

Translated by A.S. Kline and reprinted with permission. Original here. 

Lewis v. Forsberg (Wyoming 2014)

Facts: There were four entities. Lewis Holding was a trucking business in Wyoming. Lexington was an insurance company. NTA was an insurance adjuster that provided insurance adjusting services for Lexington. Forsberg was the insurance agency that helped Lewis buy insurance from Lexington. In 2010, one of Lewis's trailers partially turned over and its back wheels lifted off the ground. Lewis filed an insurance claim. Lexington paid. In 2011, another trailer was damaged. It did not turn over and its wheels did not leave the ground. Lewis filed an insurance claim again. NTA examined the incident. NTA concluded that the 2011 incident was due to mechanical failure or improper welding, not covered by the policy. Lexington did not pay. 

Procedural History: Lewis brought suit against Lexington, NTA, and Forsberg. Lewis claimed that (1) the damage was covered by the policy; and (2) that Lexington had breached the covenant of good faith and fair dealing. Lexington and NTA moved for summary judgment, arguing that the policy covered the 2010 incident because it was an 'upset', but not the 2011 incident, because the latter was due to wear and tear. Forsberg also moved for summary judgment, arguing that as it was not a party to the insurance contract between Lewis and Lexington, it had no liability to Lewis. The district court granted the defendants' motions for summary judgment. Lewis appeals.

Result: Summary judgment affirmed. The policy had a section describing what events would be covered. These included trailer upsets. The policy had a different section describing exclusions. These included mechanical failure and wear and tear. Lexington provided the report of an expert, which said the 2011 incident was due to improper welding techniques and mechanical failure. Lewis asserts that estoppel applies. Lewis says the 2011 incident was sufficiently similar to the 2010 incident, such that Lewis came to rely on the fact that Lexington would pay if such an incident were to occur again. Therefore, Lexington should be estopped from refusing to pay. Both federal law and Wyoming law reject the concept that estoppel applies in insurance contracts to extend coverage to events not expressly covered by the policy. An insurance agent is not liable to a plaintiff where it did not agree to assume liability, as Forsberg did not agree to do so here. There was no breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, which, in an insurance context, is (1) absence of a reasonable basis for denying benefits under a policy; and (2) knowledge or reckless disregard of a lack of a reasonable basis to deny benefits. Here, there was a reasonable basis to deny the claim, as the damage in the 2011 incident fell under the exclusions section of the policy.

The opinion can be read here. 

Celibacy for Vesta and the State

This book on celibacy has a chapter on the Cult of Vesta, starting on page 39.

Villa of the Mysteries

Archaeology Magazine describes conservation efforts at one of Pompeii's finest buildings, here.

Hughes v. Utah Labor Commission (Utah 2014)

Facts: Hughes General Contractors ("Hughes") were a general contractor. They oversaw a construction project at a high school. There were around 100 subcontractors. B.A. Robinson was one of the subcontractors. They performed masonry work. B.A. Robinson erected dangerous scaffolding. A Utah OSHA compliance officer gave a citation to B.A. Robinson. OSHA gave a citation also to Hughes under the "multi-employer worksite doctrine". Hughes had general supervisory authority over the construction site. 

Procedural History: Hughes challenged the citation. The citation was upheld by the administrative law judge. Hughes appealed to the Utah Labor Commission's Appeals Board. The Appeals Board also upheld the citation, and it upheld the "multi-employer worksite doctrine". Hughes then appealed to the Utah Court of Appeals, which 'certified' the case to the Utah Supreme Court for original review, as permitted to do so by Utah statute.

Result: Citation reversed. Multi-employer worksite doctrine rejected under Utah law. (a) The governing Utah OSHA provision described an employer and employee relationship; the duty to provide a safe workplace an obligation owed by an employer to an employee, not a third person. The statute gives a circular definition of an employer as one who employs an employee, and an employee as one who is employed by an employer. Where there is a circular definition of a word, a statute is understood to incorporate them as legal terms of art. An employer  is a legal term of art meaning having control over an employee, not control over a worksite. A general contractor is not an employer vis-a-vis the employees of its subcontractor. (b) Federal OSHA (the statute) is differently structured, such that it is reasonable to conclude that a duty to provide a safe workplace runs to non-employees, but that is not the case with Utah OSHA. The federal courts defer to administrative agency interpretations of ambiguity in federal statutes under Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 467 U.S. 837 (1984), in order to provide coherence  and uniformity where there could otherwise be circuit split, but that is not necessary in Utah, as there is only one appellate court. (c) The court recognizes that the cause of safety might be advanced by adopting the "multi-employer worksite doctrine", but here the language of the statute provides the resolution to the question, so the court will not attempt to infer legislative intent further by weighing the competing policy arguments made by the parties. 

The full opinion can be read here. 

Maria von Trapp

The BBC reports that Maria von Trapp, last surviving member of the von Trapp family, inspiration for The Sound of Music, passed away at the age of 99.

What sad news. I truly love The Sound of Music.

The Death Penalty, Clemency, and the Theology of Vesta

From the fact that condemned prisoners who by chance encountered a Vestal Virgin on their way to execution were pardoned, I understand forgiveness and clemency to be central elements of the cult of Vesta. 

I wouldn't advocate against the death penalty in a capacity as a religious believer. I would however allow this kind of prior meta-principle or meta-belief to inform a political worldview, a set of political beliefs and positions. The latter, however, must be independent of the prior spiritual beliefs that inform them and capable of standing on their own, under their own weight, under the logic of universal human principles. If not, they represent private, individual faith only and it would be inappropriate to bring them into the political sphere. I also wouldn't ever want to see the Roman deities dragged through the ugly mud of a political debate. 

The BBC reports the tragic remorse of a doctor who served as an official in the Georgia corrections department, personally being involved in executions.

The death penalty also irreparably harms those who carry it out:

Burger spent 17 years on death row. Dr. Ault saw him change. The troubled youth got an education, his brain developed and matured.

Yes, he was guilty of a terrible crime. He was  also desperately contrite.

When Dr. Ault described Burger's execution to me, his words were powerful, the agonized silences even more so. Two decades have done little to ease Dr. Ault's burden of remorse and guilt.

"His last words to me were, 'Please forgive me.'"

"I could see the jolt of electricity running through his body. It snapped his head back and there was just total silence... and I knew that I had killed another human being."

I like you, and I'm rooting for you, Christians!

I like the guy at 0:20. He looks sincere. Beautiful video of Charlotte Church singing O Come All Ye Faithful. 

May They

May they greet the passage of time with equanimity and a sense that each era as much 'belongs' to them as the era of their young adulthood. May they greet the inevitable recession into the past of beloved features of the present era without a tragic degree of nostalgia. May they greet each inevitable new challenge or difficulty of whatever kind with purpose, poise, grace, wisdom and love. May they rise above the inevitable friction that occurs between family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and all those with whom we interact. May they meet rivalry, competitiveness, insults, mockery, passive-aggressiveness, and all forms of hostility, subtle or direct, of any volume or amount, with poise and compassion. May they respond to discrimination and prejudice with authentic friendliness and an undisturbed heart. May they find in themselves a perspective from which they can maintain genuinely good spirits, in the face of life's inevitable difficulties. May they be at peace, with themselves, with those around them, and with the rest of the world. 

Prayer for K.

Prayer to the gods of Rome for my friend K., who is undergoing surgery this week.

Time & Space

The geography here is pockets of densely urban space divided by stretches of mountainous terrain. To walk across it is to pass through, on a smaller scale, Manhattan, Appalachians, then Manhattan again, then Appalachians once more.

 

Last Sunday, I went for a six-hour hike. An hour in the city. Then up into some small mountains, the city sounds receding to a distant din. Then down the other side, an hour walking along the shore with violent waves crashing into enormous rocks. Then the reverse walk back home at dusk.

 

When I was a child, there was a certain kind of weather that suggested possibility. A clear, cool, breezy May day. A deep blue sky. The wind sounds different when blowing through a forest with leaves. A kind of rushing sound it lacks in the winter. The combination of rushing wind and bottomless blue sky. The illusions have been peeled back. The petty ugliness of conventional existence reduced in size far below. The wide openness of time and space.

 

This was not that kind of day. Last Sunday was hazy. But I remembered.

 

 

From a pavilion at the top of a mountain, looking down onto the shore & ocean.

 

The waves and rocks.

Prayer for Ukraine

Prayer to Janus and Vesta for Ukraine, that no one else may die and that the conflict may be resolved by peaceful means.

Human Conflict

Some thoughts on human conflict. I have in mind verbal conflict, legal conflict, non-violent political conflict. I write these as recommendations to myself. I don't guarantee that they are the best fit for your personal circumstances. I don't intend this post to reference a particular conflict.

 

From Meditations Book IX, Section XVIII:

It is not thine, but another man's sin. Why should it trouble thee? Let him look to it, whose sin it is.

But it was against me! Through it, I've suffered a loss! Is the loss--if indeed it be one--magnified through wounded eyes? What noble high road would you not hesitate to recommend to a stranger who had suffered a similar loss, assuring yourself all the while that had you experienced the same grievance, you would have taken such a road, would have responded more ably, with more practicality, with more sense? Then why not actually take that higher path that in other circumstances you unhesitatingly recommend and know to be true? Didn't the injurer previously act that way, on numerous occasions? Then, if you knew in advance, why be so surprised and hurt this time?

 

But through it, he has obtained an advantage, and I a disadvantage! The injury compels reciprocity! Only then will there be justice! Is the loss what you think it is? Aside from conventional loss, the other person has inscribed his bad actions into the eternal fabric of the universe, locked as they are in the past, where he can't retrieve and undo them. In a sense, his primary victim, therefore, is himself. You on the other have not done so. From that perspective, is there not an overwhelming sense of relief? By not responding, you have escaped a rather ugly fate. Would imprinting the universe with two bad actions really restore justice, or would it render the past twice as corrupted, and the ethical purity of two lives diminished instead of just one?

 

It's different this time! Normally I'd be forgiving, but this is the one exception! Perhaps, but when does it not seem different? By what measure is it the one exception? Didn't it often feel like the one exception previous times? Won't it be the one exception again the future? Is your grace limited to  the intervals between the tests you repeatedly deceive yourself to be the one true exception, and does it become meaningless therefore, for being so? Why are you handing over the limits of your good behavior to the other person, to play god over you, predictably reactive as you are to the other person's provocations?

Go, go, go!

It's Monday morning here. Bathroom cleaned. Place swept. Morning offering & morning prayers said. Off to the travel agent to see about tickets.  Then study. Then work. Go, go, go!

(I'm by nature a lazy slug! Don't let this post deceive you!)

I leave you with lovely Raul Malo of the Mavericks, doing the Marty Robbins classic. 

Prayer for K.

Prayer to Janus and Vesta for my friend K, who is undergoing cancer treatment, and last I heard, had received a pessimistic diagnosis. We've been friends for 19 years.

Mini-Documentary on Stoicism

A nicely put together mini-documentary on Stoicism.

When I first heard that I should 'enjoy the show', my response was, 'I want my money back', but lately--fortunately--I haven't wanted my money back.

Patience, Mildness, Goodness

Meditations, Book IX, Section IX:

Either teach them better if it be in thy power; or if it be not, remember that for this use, to bear with them patiently, was mildness and goodness granted unto thee. The gods themselves are good unto such; yea and in some things, (as in matters of health, of wealth, of honour) are content often to further their endeavours: so good and gracious are they. And mightest thou not be so too? or tell me, what doth hinder thee?

The Most Precious Thing

The most precious thing a person can have, the most precious thing never to lose, is a pure heart.

Picture taken by me a few months ago with my phone camera.

Epictetus on Argument

Epictetus, The Handbook, Section 42:

When any person harms you, or speaks badly of you, remember that he acts or speaks from a supposition of its being his duty. Now, it is not possible that he should follow what appears right to you, but what appears so to himself. Therefore, if he judges from a wrong appearance, he is the person hurt, since he too is the person deceived. For if anyone should suppose a true proposition to be false, the proposition is not hurt, but he who is deceived about it. Setting out then, from these principles, you will meekly bear a person who reviles you, for you will say upon every occasion, "It seemed so to him."

Dissatisfaction

Tonight, I feel dissatisfied.

1. I feel dissatisfied with the way I first worded my previous post on this blog. I spoke too directly, in a way that made me look proud, when all I was trying to do was convey my happiness that I did what I was supposed to do.

2. I feel dissatisfied with a comment I made in an online forum. I spoke too directly there too, in a way that probably gave people who read that forum the wrong impression about me.

3. I feel dissatisfied with my work today. I made a minor mistake, that might have given the wrong impression to customers.

I shouldn't obsess over these things. I shouldn't chase my reputation, a thing outside my control, "in tighter and tighter circles", as Admiral Stockdale said. I also can't undo the past. I should just do my best right now.

Thursday

Thursday is the day with the highest workload. I tried to do all my work today with thoroughness, diligence, and good cheer. I tried to study two foreign languages (Asian languages). Before work, fortunately, I was able to head off a potential conflict that arose while chatting with a relative on Facebook by (1) not reacting; and (2) pausing to consider how it arose and simply explaining what I thought happened. I'm glad to say that the conflict evaporated before my eyes, and we finished the conversation on just as good terms as when we started. After work, I bought things for a delicious dinner and stayed within budget. I will call my parents to see how they are making out in the bad snowstorm and to tell them that I love them. Then it's time for a well-deserved rest!

My Black and White Photographs

Would you like to see my black and white photographs? I want to show them to you. I hope you like them! I took them near where I live. It was a rainy, snowy, dark late afternoon, just before dusk. I got really wet, but it was fun taking them!

 

This Beautiful Life

I did my work today with thoroughness, care, diligence, good cheer and professionalism. I feel so proud.

When I finished work, the supermarket was closed, so I went to an Indian restaurant and still stayed close to budget. The food was delicious, and I complimented the cashier and the man who appeared to be in charge. I hope I made them smile. After dinner, I walked along the waterfront for an hour.

Happiness is bright city lights, spinach curry, big snowflakes, and a job well done! 

The picture is the view tonight from the stairs leading up a hill overlooking the beach. Lately, I've had lots of fun taking black and white photographs. 

Is the Religion of Numa true?

My shorthand for understanding Buddhism and Stoicism's approach to theism is that Buddhism (what I understand to be the older, purer kind, such as found in the Pali Canon, not the kinds that have been incorporated into local theistic traditions) is anti-speculative and Stoicism is agnostic. I understand both to approach the problem of existence with knowable existence itself as the starting point, rather than a flat assertion of the divine and its particular qualities. (Not the knowable that has to be talked into our awareness by theistic arguments. The raw experiential knowable.) We find ourselves alive. We find it difficult to make statements about the ultimate nature of reality that aren't problematic. How do we go from here? Buddhism's answer is salvation (in the broadest sense of the term) through the four noble truths and the eightfold path. Stoicism's answer is salvation through accommodating oneself to circumstance by bearing a correct perspective. This not making of closed, definitive statements by both systems of thought about theism frees you to come to your own conclusions and beliefs about the divine and still be, for the purposes of this line of thought, on the 'same path' prescribed by Buddhism or Stoicism. (Though the human psychology surrounding religious identity and group membership is an ugly briar patch to be entered with the utmost wariness, caution, and circumspection.)

To be sure, my shorthand is not wholly precise. If emptiness itself is empty of inherent existence, as the Heart Sutra says, that would rule out a certain kind of divinity. As for Stoicism, I simply don't know enough about its metaphysical side to talk about it. They may narrow the bounds under which divinity could occur. Yet, I've encountered many plain statements of agnosticism in Stoicism: "If there be gods," etc. I'm also suspicious that monotheists (not from malice) have misunderstood it and mischaracterized it. Sometimes describing the universe and its interlocking causes and effects can be misconstrued as a precise form of pantheism, when no pantheism is intended at all.

One could argue that the Religion of Numa (again, as I understand it), or something akin to it, is the most rational theism, if one is going to be theistic: (1) Material reality's hardness is an illusion, as both Buddhism and empirical evidence have pointed out. That doesn't mean anything in itself, but it does mean this--that material reality can't be used as a reference point completely to rule out any kind of divinity. To put it another way, there's no rock to place a lever against that wholly dislodges divinity. (2) As I've written before on this blog, material reality's lack of hardness also means that the things within it have a certain kind of divinity on their own terms, in and of themselves. They are thus worthy of a form of limited reverence and religious attention. (3) All of this aside, particular things in the world have an especially holy feeling about them, especially worthy of religious attention, regardless of whether they are transcendent or not. Human compassion, for example, is holy--at least to me--no matter whether it's a property of matter that emerges on the plane of reality on which we live or a manifestation of something transcendent from beyond our known universe. (I understand that my classification of elements of material reality as 'holy' based on 'feeling' is not a fixed or firm footing.)

It might be helpful to go further.  Because debates about theism and atheism in the West often take place within a Christian worldview, excessive focus is placed on transcendence. This may be hamstringing the debate. Christopher Langan says to speak of reality would be to speak of all that is, including God (he conceives of a single divine entity), and that it isn't meaningful to speak of a separate divine and a separate material reality. That certainly seems to solve the problem of how mere material things could have a holy feeling about them: They aren't displaying a transcendent nature. They are displaying characteristics of the nontranscendent divine. They don't form a single, unified divinity, except insofar as reality itself forms a whole. This isn't completely unproblematic, and it's not clear on what grounds the emergent properties of matter that I label divine and the objective nontranscendent divine would be distinguishable, but that's a post for another day.

If anyone reading this has a comment, I'd greatly appreciate your thoughts.

Prayer for Those Affected by Snowstorms

Prayer to the gods for those affected by snowstorms in different regions of the northern hemisphere.

"There Goes My Heart"

The Mavericks performing their 1990s hit, "There Goes My Heart" live on the David Letterman show, featuring a young, smiley Raul Malo.

I was lucky enough once to see the Mavericks in concert, in the 1990s, as an opening act. I remember saying to the friend whom I went with that they almost upstaged the main act.  

Missing Americans Project

A link to the Missing Americans Project homepage.

Prayer for the World

I watched some news videos. There were threats of violence in one place and tears and unfairness in another. Prayer to the gods for this country, my home country, and this precious world we live in, on this day in early February 2014.

Beautiful, touching piano performance of Ode to Joy.

Vestal Virgins in Richmond

This is a clipping from the Richmond Dispatch, dated April 7, 1901. It describes an upcoming performance of a play or musical about the last Vestal Virgins. 

"Delsarte" seems to refer to an eponymous acting method popular in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Tannhauser is an opera by Richard Wagner. La Rusticanna seems to be another opera, from 1890. The Holy City is a Christian song originating in the nineteenth century.

Unfortunately, the last Vestal Virgin really did convert to Christianity, after the Temple of Vesta was closed by Theodosius I in 391.

To Stay Purehearted

Marcus Aurelius in Book VIII, Section L, of Meditations, on staying purehearted:

"They kill me. They cut my flesh. They persecute my person with curses." What then? May not thy mind for all this continue pure, prudent, temperate, just? As a fountain of sweet and clear water, though she be cursed by some stander by, yet do her springs nevertheless still run as sweet and clear as before; yea though either dirt or dung be thrown in, yet is it no sooner thrown, than dispersed; and she cleared. She cannot be dyed or infected by it. What then must I do, that I may have within my self an overflowing fountain, and not a well? Beget thyself by continual pains and endeavours to true liberty with charity, and true simplicity and modesty. 

Pine Forest

I hiked through this pine forest two or three weeks ago, on a mountain a short train ride and bus ride from here. It reminds me of the pine forest my great-grandfather planted in my home country and the feelings of possibility and love I would have when walking through it as a child. 

Prayer for Michael

Prayer to the gods for the life and health of Michael.

Nobody stood up for Michael, but he seemed to be doing okay. "Michael is deeply religious, and he turned to his faith. He asked to start taking confirmation classes, and he carried a little Bible with him everywhere. He told us that he would sit at a table at lunchtime and recite Bible verses to himself, and it brought him great joy," Suttle said.

In addition to his religion and his love of My Little Pony, Michael has other keen interests. After watching violinist Lindsey Stirling perform, he was so enraptured that he decided to take up violin lessons. He avidly follows Stirling's music career and is now dedicated to practicing on his own violin. He also loves the music of Pentatonix, an a cappella group that has captured his heart. Outwardly, he appeared to be coping okay with the taunting and talked about it with his family. 

Seneca on Benefits, the Nature of the Gods, and Imitating the Gods

The last paragraphs of On Benefits, by Seneca the Younger (4 B.C. to 65 A.D.):

I ought to imitate the gods, those noblest disposers of all events, who begin to bestow their benefits on those who know them not, and persist in bestowing them on those who are ungrateful for them. Some reproach them with neglect of us, some with injustice towards us; others place them outside of their own world, in sloth and indifference, without light, and without any functions; others declare that the sun itself, to whom we owe the division of our times of labor and of rest, by whose means we are saved from being plunged in the darkness of eternal night; who, by his circuit, orders the seasons of the year, gives strength to our bodies, brings forth our crops and ripens our fruits, is merely a mass of stone, or a fortuitous collection of fiery particles, or anything rather than a god. Yet, nevertheless, like the kindest of parents, who only smile at the spiteful words of their children, the gods do not cease to heap benefits upon those who doubt from what source their benefits are derived, but continue impartially distributing their bounty among all the peoples and nations of the earth. Possessing only the power of doing good, they moisten the land with seasonable showers, they put the seas in movement by the winds, they mark time by the course of the constellations, they temper the extremes of heat and cold, of summer and winter, by breathing a milder air upon us; and they graciously and serenely bear with the faults of our erring spirits. Let us follow their example; let us give, even if much be given to no purpose, let us, in spite of this, give to others; nay, even to those upon whom our bounty has been wasted. No one is prevented by the fall of a house from building another; when one home has been destroyed by fire, we lay the foundations of another before the site has had time to cool; we rebuild ruined cities more than once upon the same spots, so untiring are our hopes of success. men would undertake no works either on land or sea if they were not willing to try again what they have failed once.

Suppose a man is ungrateful, he does not injure me, but himself; I had the enjoyment of my benefit when I bestowed it upon him. Because he is ungrateful, I shall not be slower to give but more careful; what I have lost with him, I shall receive back from others. But I will bestow a second benefit upon this man himself, and will overcome him even as a good husbandman overcomes the sterility of the soil by care and culture; if I do not do so my benefit is lost to me, and he is lost to mankind. It is no proof of a great mind to give and to throw away one's bounty; the true test of a great mind is to throw away one's bounty and still to give.  

To Be Content in Any Situation

To be content in any situation. Perhaps not merely content, but even happy. It doesn't seem so unthinkable anymore. It seems possible. I used to think that "to die in the cold in the arms of a nightmare" was the cruel truth, acknowledging it the tragic yet true perspective. I made no distinction between the facts of existence and the emotions I thought they implied. To me, they were a package. If loss is inevitable, sadness inevitably accompanies it. 

I maybe am being overly optimistic here. It could be that there are circumstances so extreme, contentment, let alone happiness, is simply not possible. The best one can hope for is a muting of distress.

I have three things to say to that. 

The first is that I'll take it. A softening or cushioning of negative emotional responses in extreme circumstances is no bad thing for not being the optimum. The perfect doesn't need to kill the good. 

The second is that whatever happens in extreme circumstances need not destroy the much more accessible, life changing possibilities for contentment, peace, and happiness in less extreme circumstances. Everyone's life has constraints, even the best lives. To rise to a better position in life is often simply to trade one set of constraints for a different set. The newer set of constraints maybe more desirable than the ones left behind. But, as Viktor Frankl said, suffering is like a gas: it fills up whatever available volume there is. Thus do the new constraints eventually come to seem as grievous as the previous ones. Or, when a better set of life circumstances is achieved, a further set of even better circumstances appears on the horizon, and so on, the desired thing being ever out of reach. Therefore, contentment isn't usually derived from external things. It arises from within oneself, or it doesn't arise at all.  

The third is cautionary. These are glimmers of possibility for oneself. For me. I don't mean to set up a new standard or judgmentalism under which to convict other people for failing to live up to. I especially don't mean to hand over defenses, excuses, or justifications to abusers, bullies, or tormentors of any kind. My adoption of a hope for myself does not bring into existence a corresponding duty on other people to adopt the same hope. I have a single mission in life: To bring joy to others. 

Here is Marcus Aurelius in Meditations, Book VIII, Section XLIII:

Take me and throw me where thou wilt: I am indifferent. For there also I shall have that spirit which is within me propitious; that is well pleased and fully contented both in that constant disposition, and with those particular actions, which to its own proper constitution are suitable and agreeable. 

Amazing. I hope I can do it. 

(I'm not sure the picture exactly matches the topic of this post. But it's drenched with sun, so maybe it does. I took it a couple of months ago near where I live.)

"I don't believe in this world-sorrow."

In Chapter Two of A Room With a View, by E.M. Forster, Lucy Honeychurch encounters the older Mr. Emerson on her first outing in Florence after her arrival. Because of Mr. Emerson's philosophical bent, the conversation quickly turns to philosophy. Mr. Emerson delivers these wonderful lines ('George' is Mr. Emerson's son, a young man of Lucy's age):

In his ordinary voice, so that she scarcely realized he was quoting poetry, he said: '"From far, from eve and morning / And yon twelve-winded sky / The stuff of life to knit me / Blew hither: Here am I." George and I both know this, but why does it distress him? We know that we come from the winds, and that we shall return to them; that all life is perhaps a knot, a tangle, a blemish in the eternal smoothness. But why should this make us unhappy? Let us rather love one another, and work and rejoice. I don't believe in this world-sorrow.'

Mr. Emerson is quoting a poem from A.E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad. Later, when Reverend Beebe and Freddy visit Mr. Emerson and George when Mr. Emerson and George are moving into the villa on Summer Street, they see a pile of books, among which is A Shropshire Lad. Reverend Beebe says, "Never heard of it."  

Here is the whole poem:

From far, from eve and morning
And yon twelve-winded sky,
The stuff of life to knit me
Blew hither: Here am I.

Now--for a breath I tarry
Nor yet disperse apart
Take my hand quick and tell me,
What you have in your heart.

Speak now and I will answer;
How shall I help you, say;
Ere to the wind's twelve quarters
I take my endless way.

A Room With a View

This is a charming 1985 production of A Room With a View. It stars Helena Bonham Carter as Lucy Honeychurch and Daniel Day-Lewis as Lucy's fiance Cecil. The characters and scenes are drawn more simply and less subtly than in E.M. Forster's novel. The pagan elements as well as the social themes that inform the plot, such as gender and class equality, are reduced in prominence--mostly reduced from theme to background--and the plot as love triangle is given more weight. (In the final scene, the specifically pagan conclusion of the novel has been replaced by church bells.) The film is optimistic and wholesome and lovely, like the novel.

I do like the Edwardian clothing, if it's been accurately represented. 

Retreat

I went on a retreat. It was a glorious three days to say the least. I was fortunate to be able to do many things: I participated in religious ceremonies. I prayed for my sick friend. I finished a novel I was reading. I stood on a road in the middle of a forest at night and listened to the call of an owl up on a nearby ridge. I drank coffee before dawn and listened to the sounds of several owls calling from different directions in the dark. I heard woodpeckers in the trees on a hike and again through the door while half dozing in my room on a sunny morning. Sometimes two or three could be heard to be drilling at the same time. I lay on the ground at night and looked up at a sky filled with stars. I saw Cassiopeia, Orion, Ursa Major, and the Pleiades. I saw a reddish planet in the eastern sky before dawn. (Was it Mars?) I walked along a river in which water rushed around enormous boulders. I saw a frozen waterfall hung in suspended animation over a green, rock-enclosed pool of river water. I stood at the summit of a mountain and, looking past and over a huge pillar of rock, saw mountains, one after another, receding to the horizon, poking up through a sea of cloud lit up white by the morning sun. I ate three meals a day of food prepared from scratch with nothing artificial in it. I stood at the base of a 1200 year old pine tree and looked up through its upper branches at the blue sky. 

I am happy and my heart feels full.