tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post114736009672368387..comments2024-03-27T11:16:36.951-07:00Comments on One Cʘsmos: Verticalisthenics and Other Youth-Defying WondersGagdad Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1147582450855974192006-05-13T21:54:00.000-07:002006-05-13T21:54:00.000-07:00So I'm sitting at home, catching up on this blog. ...So I'm sitting at home, catching up on this blog. At 39, I'm on the lowish side of this blog's demo...<BR/><BR/>... And I find myself adrift. Unable to tolerate the shrieking distortion blaring through the base world's speakers, Ive sought refuge in Blogland. And when my cockleshell first alighted here, a few months back, I made some silly comment and shoved off.<BR/><BR/>Now I find myself reading every post, wondering where to go from here. I've hit a wall, and must change how I approach life. The more I read this Boblog, the less tolerable I find my previous passion, ordinary political blogs.<BR/><BR/>Sigh.<BR/><BR/>Thanks, Bob, Petey, Bobbleheads, and especially, your son.PSGInfinityhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09778921507090905909noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1147449199792457782006-05-12T08:53:00.000-07:002006-05-12T08:53:00.000-07:00Yes, Benone of the biggest disillusionments of my ...Yes, Ben<BR/>one of the biggest disillusionments of my life was the realization that not all adults are grown-ups.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1147406965445459362006-05-11T21:09:00.000-07:002006-05-11T21:09:00.000-07:00Yeah, the John Cleese thing had me confused too. ...Yeah, the John Cleese thing had me confused too. Someone at Amazon must have botched the listing.<BR/><BR/>Although, come to think of it, it doesn't make much more sense that Monty Python's John Cleese would write the forward to a San Francisco professor's book on the philosophy of time...well, perhaps in an absurdist Monty Python way it makes sense...<BR/><BR/>However, I must admit, it does make me even more curious to read the book.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1147405663603601302006-05-11T20:47:00.000-07:002006-05-11T20:47:00.000-07:00One way to get two rabbits:wait until they are clo...One way to get two rabbits:<BR/>wait until they are close together and shoot 'em with a shotgun. :^)<BR/><BR/>Wisdom isn't bound by age.<BR/>I've known foolish 80 yr. olds and wise children.<BR/>Spend some time around children with cancer, or any life-threatening disease, and you will gain wisdom.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1147405181060507182006-05-11T20:39:00.000-07:002006-05-11T20:39:00.000-07:00That ain't Cleese, it's Needleman. But it's close...That ain't Cleese, it's Needleman. But it's close enough - Cleese wrote the foreword to that book.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1147404458367453892006-05-11T20:27:00.000-07:002006-05-11T20:27:00.000-07:00December. You win!December. You win!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1147404099807286452006-05-11T20:21:00.000-07:002006-05-11T20:21:00.000-07:00JWM - Lack of oppposable thumbs, you know. Any cat...JWM - <BR/><BR/>Lack of oppposable thumbs, you know. <BR/><BR/>Any cat that purrs to my music can drink with me anytime.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1147403654161833862006-05-11T20:14:00.000-07:002006-05-11T20:14:00.000-07:00Booger the Cat is currently busy studying remedial...Booger the Cat is currently busy studying remedial grammar, punctuation, and spelling. When I said busted I wasn't kidding around.<BR/>August<BR/><BR/>JWMAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1147402882227110962006-05-11T20:01:00.000-07:002006-05-11T20:01:00.000-07:00Same here. What month, kitty?Same here. What month, kitty?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1147402551176434172006-05-11T19:55:00.000-07:002006-05-11T19:55:00.000-07:00That animal is sooo busted.JWMThat animal is sooo busted.<BR/><BR/>JWMAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1147402467005926032006-05-11T19:54:00.000-07:002006-05-11T19:54:00.000-07:00don let hnm no im tipng this but thatjwm wuzs brn...don let hnm no im tipng this but thatjwm wuzs brnd in1952<BR/>bugrth catAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1147400521144193762006-05-11T19:22:00.000-07:002006-05-11T19:22:00.000-07:00Dilys-Can't remember the exact phrase and no longe...Dilys-<BR/>Can't remember the exact phrase and no longer have the book, but someone once remarked that it took the optimism of Christianity to consider that it was reasonable for two young people to throw themselves into their deathbeds together. <BR/><BR/>I married very young - at 20- with the cocksure boundless optimism of youth. Hardly had the sense to be anxious at that age. But I also had a very strong sense of vocation, though I wouldn't have been able to describe it as such at the time. So, it was rather like choosing to be a doctor, or lawyer or such. More "now I get to do what I've always wanted", rather than other avenues being cut off.<BR/><BR/>I've always wondered if the perceived speeding up of time as we age doesn't have something to do with percentages. If you're 2, a year is 50% of your life. If you're 50, a year is 2%. So, though a year is still 365 days, its slice of the pie chart is smaller.<BR/><BR/>C.S Lewis pointed out to a young man investigating religion that the fact that we're not at home in time is very strong evidence for an existence out of time, or eternity.<BR/><BR/>I'm wondering if I might be the oldest person here. JWM, you show me your b-day and I'll show you mine...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1147398105250148722006-05-11T18:41:00.000-07:002006-05-11T18:41:00.000-07:00To our Young Friend Kahn --Loved the Cleese you fo...To our Young Friend Kahn --<BR/><BR/>Loved the Cleese you found. Cleese as Petrucio in Jonathan Miller's production of <EM>The Taming of the Shrew</EM> is the best, most heartbreaking portrait of someone tutoring a soul that I have ever seen. He also co-wrote a book on psychology with bursts of brilliance.<BR/><BR/>Great find! I'll definitely track that one down.<BR/><BR/>And to tie Taming of the Shrew in with the whole death motif...did anyone else here have mortal anxiety just before getting married? A real, serious marriage, like having a child, seems to present itself to the lower mind as a kind of death.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1147391083999236832006-05-11T16:44:00.000-07:002006-05-11T16:44:00.000-07:00Rorschach,In line with your beautiful observation ...Rorschach,<BR/><BR/>In line with your beautiful observation on mono no aware, this from James Clavell's "Shogun":<BR/><BR/>Omi's death Poem:<BR/><BR/>What are clouds<BR/>But an excuse for the sky?<BR/>What is life<BR/>but an escape from death?John Hindshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05654010029465940318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1147388679260618192006-05-11T16:04:00.000-07:002006-05-11T16:04:00.000-07:0029 and YOU'RE the baby? Ha! Try twenty-six...Micha...29 and YOU'RE the baby? Ha! Try twenty-six...<BR/><BR/>Michael A (Rorschach)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1147388592590919872006-05-11T16:03:00.000-07:002006-05-11T16:03:00.000-07:00How about a nice little synchronicity? Just a few ...How about a nice little synchronicity? Just a few moments after posting the above I'm looking for something (completely unrelated) on Amazon, but find myself reading <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1576752518/ref=sib_fs_bod/102-1957667-1632103?%5Fencoding=UTF8&p=S013&checkSum=75MKtRJiGaU%2FlNUg5caqIBQxGsgTFM2%2FIDxE2jKT%2BDs%3D#reader-link" REL="nofollow">this</A>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1147388476188539322006-05-11T16:01:00.000-07:002006-05-11T16:01:00.000-07:00Crap! Now, it looks like I am going to have to fi...Crap! Now, it looks like I am going to have to find a new group of "seasoned flatulents" as JWM put it. Thanks, Kahn! ;0)Lisahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04969685296436358865noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1147387504618946732006-05-11T15:45:00.000-07:002006-05-11T15:45:00.000-07:00It's funny, but it didn't occur to me until today'...It's funny, but it didn't occur to me until today's post that, at 29, I'm the baby of the group - sorry Lisa :). <BR/><BR/>So I guess it's kind of odd that I get all this stuff. For a while I thought this spiritual longing of mine was a product of my youth, something to resolve and outgrow.<BR/><BR/>JWM mentions the old "if only I knew then what I know now." <BR/><BR/>For me I feel like I'm stuck in that paradox, I have a conceptual understanding of time and mortality. I know that the days are passing and my youth will not last forever, but I still act as if it will. I suppose it's the worst of both worlds. Kind of like the time traveler who goes back to change an event, but learns the hard way that history can be stubborn.<BR/><BR/>At the same time, I'm very accepting of my past and the road I'm on. I am right where I need to be, and I couldn't have gotten there by any other route. But I still cling to the impatience of youth, without enough of its joy.<BR/><BR/>Seems like my impasse is more akin to the manager arriving early for the game; sitting and staring at his watch as he waits around for the team to show up.<BR/><BR/>It's frustrating to know what you want; have the blueprint in hand; all the tools; the conditions set; you've gone through all you excuses and distractions; and there you are - knowing full well that you have a clear choice between action and regret - heaven and hell...but you stand there on the corner, blinded by the blinking WALK sign.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1147382656924238362006-05-11T14:24:00.000-07:002006-05-11T14:24:00.000-07:00I gotta say that I just love cyber-hanging with th...I gotta say that I just love cyber-hanging with the Bobbleheads because I am the baby of the group! Officialy aproaching my mid-30s next week is a bit overwhelming knowing that each day I am nearer to 40 than 30. I have been told the 30s are the new 20s and the 40s are the new 30s etc. I will choose to view it in the positive and wear my age as a badge of honor. Physically, I feel better now than I ever did in my 20s, only with a few more wrinkles! I hope that I have mentally and spiritually matured but that is probably debatable! ;) <BR/><BR/>I am keenly aware that time is speeding up and I must appreciate every moment for what it is. Sometimes, I wish I could just dig my nails into the ground to slow the earth from spinning so fast! Death still seems far off in the future but ya never really know until it's too late! I am a hopeless optimist in some ways and still think I have a few new careers left in me to sort through. I suppose I will just have to take the word of my older and wiser Bobbleheads about mortality. I can't remember who said, Youth is wasted on the young, but it does seem to be true!<BR/><BR/>PS. I think Keith Richards is still around because his insides have pickled. We are now witnessing cracks in the outer shell!Lisahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04969685296436358865noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1147377308894055372006-05-11T12:55:00.000-07:002006-05-11T12:55:00.000-07:00Beautifully put, JW. Just when you finally get us...Beautifully put, JW. Just when you finally get used to the first puberty, a second one comes along... <BR/><BR/>Need to think of a new name for it.... <BR/><BR/>And religion is hardly about escaping the facts of life. Real religion is about confronting them and deepening your relationship to the whole.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1147376224437561732006-05-11T12:37:00.000-07:002006-05-11T12:37:00.000-07:00Notes on today's post:I am reminded of being 11 or...Notes on today's post:<BR/><BR/>I am reminded of being 11 or 12 years old when my friends and I first discovered "dirty jokes", most of which had to do with the anatomical differences between us and the girls. We would always erupt in forced laughter over stories that, in retrospect, made no sense, and punchlines we didn't get, couldn't get, in our pre-pubescent understanding. Now as I enter into my mid fifties I have noticed a similar gap in understanding emerge when I have had occasion to talk with twenty and thirty year olds.<BR/><BR/> Only now the gap is not in the understanding of sex, but of mortality. It's like entering a second puberty, the first being the puberty of life, the second being the puberty of death.<BR/><BR/>Paradoxically enough it is not until one gains the awareness of mortality that the preciousness of life, and the value of time come into focus. It's easy to laugh at death when you're seventeen, or even thirty seven. Funny- I remember the professor I had for Shakepeare telling us that we would not understand Lear for another thirty years. Nobody believed him. Of course he was right. And just as it was impossibe to understand sexual innuendo at 11 years I don't think anyone under fifty can possibly understand Faust. <BR/><BR/> Don't get me wrong here- I do not sit around yearning for my lost youth, but it's well nigh impossible to avoid saying to yourself, "If only I knew then what I know now". A young person always thinks that means, "I wish I had the great accumulation of facts and knowledge". What you wish you had was the awareness of the preciousness of life and the brevity of time.<BR/><BR/>Same with religion. As a kid I always figured old folks like religion because they're scared to die, and they want to believe there's a heaven to go to. I'm not scared to die, and I don't give a fart for heaven. <BR/><BR/>At this stage of the game what I realize is that there is much more to this mystery of existence than threescore and ten years, and then the grave. It's the gut sense that what we're able to see is only a few pixels of a much larger image on the screen. So I look to religion for the greater view. In the words of Janet Church, my first artistic and spiritual mentor "You have to learn to see whole picture."<BR/><BR/>JWMAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1147371132898296332006-05-11T11:12:00.000-07:002006-05-11T11:12:00.000-07:00Side note: Hmm, until he recently fell out of a tr...Side note: Hmm, until he recently fell out of a tree in New Zealand, I sort of thought Keith Richard was a permament thing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1147370456404397982006-05-11T11:00:00.000-07:002006-05-11T11:00:00.000-07:00I finished a first reading of your book yesterday....I finished a first reading of your book yesterday. Out on my bike ride today it came to me that the work is a stream of consciousness "sandwich". I don't know what I like better, the "bread" or the "meat". Prediction for you. It will be a thousand years before another intrepid author makes a gift to the world of a more comprehensive exegesis of the human condition. Your compilation certainly gives a full accounting for all that is and at the same time makes the knowledge and understanding of our benefactors of old accessible to today's readers.<BR/><BR/>I look forward to Gerard Van Der Leun's comments on your book.<BR/><BR/>John HindsJohn Hindshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05654010029465940318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1147370077209174832006-05-11T10:54:00.000-07:002006-05-11T10:54:00.000-07:00Rorsch - Yes, like Japanese ice sculpture, which c...Rorsch - <BR/><BR/>Yes, like Japanese ice sculpture, which can be strikingly beautiful, then melts away within days. <BR/><BR/>As Carlos C. once wrote: Let Death be your advisor. <BR/><BR/>I think truly realizing the impermenence of that which is temporal compels the mind to seek out that which is eternal.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-1147368039883565432006-05-11T10:20:00.000-07:002006-05-11T10:20:00.000-07:00Another deep one today Bob.For most of my life I'v...Another deep one today Bob.<BR/>For most of my life I've struggled with trying to maintain the illusion of the "omnipotence of the infinite, open ended future" while at the same time realizing the fulfillment contained within the "freedom of responsibility and commitment". For me, following the former path eventually results in more emotionally risk averse behavior closing myself off from both the infinite and the benefits possible with risking commitment, thereby accomplishing neither goal. Then it's back to square one again, hunting up just one rabbit. Thanks for the reminder.<BR/><BR/>One thing about grinding, a mind with the propensity to grind will eventually find things to grind upon, even in the middle of now-here, believe me.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com