Players

Perhaps the most inspiring thing I've seen in the last quarter.

"And something very unusual happens. That fixed behavior--which is rigged and stereotyped and usually ends up with a meal--changes. ... And an incredible ballet begins. ... They are beginning to do something that neither would have done without the play signals."

"John mentioned that I've done some work with murderers."

"It doesn't have a particular purpose, and that's what's so great about play. If the purpose is more important than the act of doing it, it's probably not play."

"[M]anipulation of objects is the hand in search of a brain. The brain is in search of a hand, and play is the medium by which those two are linked in the best way."


http://www.ted.com/talks/stuart_brown_says_play_is_more_than_fun_it_s_vital.html

One Thing

If there is no other thing you take from my words, now or ever, receive this: the great question of your life is your response to what the universe presents to you.

I call the motions in history toward the Best 'acts of God,' and seek to join in them. I want to be part of the work of the best, even if my only work is to stay out of the way as the Best unfolds and fulfills itself. Remember that "they also serve who only stand and wait."

Your response might be a question. 'Why, god?' seems to be a common one.

Your response might be a complaint, or a curse.

Your response might be a deed of mercy, an act of compassion, a thought, a song, or a whisper.

My point is that any of these can be good or ill, depending on what is necessary to the best. If one dedicates oneself to the best as one knows, and the God who knows and wills the Best (the God who loves, the Beloved), then one is usually on to a true, good, and beautiful response.

Above all, I charge you, constant reader: remember that your response may be informed but can not be mediated by the actions of others. I call the response to the world that one embraces the Best, worship. I declare this of worship: that the one thing it cannot be is stereotyped or simply copied. If it were so, one could not exist, because one would be unnecessary to the ultimately efficient Great Work.

Reread

So Cory Doctorow wrote this great book called Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town.

There's this wonderful quotation from that novel:

Have you read all of these?” Alan asked as he shifted the John Mortimers down one shelf to make room for the Ed McBains.

“Naw,” she said, punching him in the shoulder. “What’s the point of a bunch of books you’ve already read?”

Actually it's quotations from the novel, because of reincorporation, but you get the idea.

Best Regards, Constant Reader,
Will

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Who watches the Watchmen?

Who watches the Watchmen?

Who watches the watchmen?

A simple 'yes' or 'no' will suffice, although consider yourself free to amplify.

Esaay on Gray Introduction

Sing to me, O Muse, of Precious Balance, of Judgement hard won, of the Tao of metis

The hall of Elrond's house was filled with many folk . . . .

Frodo looked at them in wonder, for he had never before seen Elrond, of whom so many tales spoke; and as they sat upon his right hand and his left, Glorfindel, and even Gandalf, whom he thought he knew so well, were revealed as lords of dignity and power.

Gandalf was shorter in stature than the other two; but his long white hair, his sweeping silver beard, and his broad shoulders, made him look like some wise king of ancient legend. In his aged face under great snowy brows his dark eyes were set like coals that could leap suddenly into fire.

J. R. R. Tolkien, quoted from The Lord of the Rings, Book 2, Many Meetings

I was chatting (in the technological sense) with some friends last night [this two years and gone], and remarked that my hair had grayed since last they saw me, December. It being now March [N.B. of 2007], I was vehement at the change. A gracious lady made remark that graying (actually whitening, I read in wikipedia) distinguishes men.

Which is the common observation of early 21st culture. At least in the industrialized world, and I suspect uniformly. Gray hair on a man signifies wisdom, victorious struggle, and dignity. On the other hand a woman's gray hair simply means she isn't young. Which, at least in this pleasure driven cultures that value objects, means she doesn't have one of the two qualities of worth to a woman. And of course that she's likely quickly losing the other: beauty.

(I dissent with the notion that age must rest ungraciously on women. I think we can see the beauty of potential: a young girl or small gazelle or budding gardenia; and the beauty of fulfillment: a mature woman or grizzled wapiti or withered wreath.)

Perhaps it is a specific and concrete achievement to notice, to appreciate the beauty, the good of each thing.

5 Levels of Communication ala Powell

My paraphrase:

I. Phatic (Cliches)
II. Factual
III. Evaluative (Opinions, I believe statements, I think statements)
IV. Emotive (Gut, Conviction, I feel statements, I want statements)
V. Communal or Peak (Needs, perforce Vulnerabilities)

"If you are on fire, folks will come to watch you burn." - paraphrase of Dale Calvert, in his blog post about public speaking referencing the five levels.

So, when I speak to you, I notice, I know, I think, I believe, I feel, I desire, and I need all at once. In fact, I do all these things all the time every conscious moment of each day.

With the possible exception of believing. I'm understanding "beliefs" psychologically here, to mean mental structures somewhere in the no man's land between thoughts and feelings. That is, beliefs are neither evanescent impressions, like feelings; nor chains binding assumptions and propositions, like logical thinking.

Mood is a close word to what I mean here. A belief is abiding like a mood, but may include rather more thoughts. In fact, a belief might be simply a coupling of mood and thought--not merely what I think about something, but what I intend to do about it because ... . If one follows the linked causes all the way to their root, one will find somewhere a transition from objective statements to normative statements, and it is this transition that I find beliefs. At the interface of fact and feeling as it were.

MacDonald

The Diary of an Old Soul
George MacDonald

September 18

Why is it that so often I return
From social converse with a spirit worn,
A lack, a disappointment--even a sting
Of shame, as for some low, unworthy thing?--
Because I have not, careful, first of all,
Set my door open wide, back to the wall,
Ere I at others' doors did knock and call.

---
Father, again and again I tire, and groan, and remember
the futility of my former days, and wonder that I
ever will progress, with all my past debt burdening
the way and shadowing my path.

But if a shadow stretches before me, a warmth is on
my back--of the Sun, finding me and glowing
to cheer me along and along, sometimes disappearing
as I dip, and reacquainting me with the heat of life
as I rise, and run again.
---

More
Words by Pierce Pettis and Andrew Peterson

Album: The Far Country

(John 12:24)

This is not the end here at this grave
This is just a hole that someone made
Every hole was made to fill
And every heart can feel it still--
Our nature hates a vacuum

This is not the hardest part of all
This is just the seed that has to fall
All our lives we till the ground
Until we lay our sorrows down
And watch the sky for rain

There is more
More than all this pain
More than all the falling down
And the getting up again
There is more
More than we can see
From our tiny vantage point
In this vast eternity
There is more

A thing resounds when it rings true
Ringing all the bells inside of you
Like a golden sky on a summer eve
Your heart is tugging at your sleeve
And you cannot say why
There must be more

There is more
More than we can stand
Standing in the glory
Of a love that never ends
There is more
More than we can guess
More and more, forever more
And not a second less

There is more than what the naked eye can see
Clothing all our days with mystery
Watching over everything
Wilder than our wildest dreams
Could ever dream to be
There is more

Ron is good with words and thoughts

I shan't attempt to preserve the marvelous style that Ron maintains in his observations, but shall relate three of them from Men's Group last week:

1. Relationships are inherently transformational. They change you, in unpredictable ways.

2. Marriage is supposed to lead me to God. (Neither Ron nor are married, but he seems much closer to the finish line of the premarriage race than I do.) So for all of everything it is, my receiving love in marriage is to remind me of my Father; my giving love in marriage is to remind me of the Church's Groom.

3. Insufficiency is a must in affairs of the heart. It reminds us of our dependence on God; it is not to be run from or resigned, or even accepted, but to be embraced.

(From VCL teaching, but mentioned that same night)
Also, the world says this:

Give me Authority over you.
Be Accountable to me.
Then I will Affirm you.
If you submit to me, are corrected by me, and find me the judge of your good efforts, I may Accept you (if you measure up, and keep measuring up).

Jesus and His Kingdom say:

I Accept you.
I Affirm the good in your life.
If you will, I will help you to adhere to your best wishes by making you Accountable to them.
I will take Authority, gladly, if you trust me to bear it for you.

The World (kosmos):
-> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> -> ->
Authority, Accountability, Affirmation, Acceptance
<- <- <- <- <- <- <- <- <- <- <- <- <- <- <- <- <- <- <- <-
Jesus's Body

Love is near

27 “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ 29 And since this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone.

Acts 17

The word that saves is right here,
as near as the tongue in your mouth,
as close as the heart in your chest.

Romans 10

For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off.
...
But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.
...
That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, ... for he is thy life, and the length of thy days ... .

Deuteronomy 30


I should perhaps note that the Romans 10 link is to Paul's explanation of the Deuteronomy 30 quotation. If you balk at my connection between the word of God and God, perhaps this from the beginning of John's gospel will explain:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

If you wonder at my identity between God and love, most succinctly I will refer again to a part of a letter traditionally in John's name about Jesus:

7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

It is extremely clear,
then: Love is near.

13I bring near My righteousness [in the deliverance of Israel], it will not be far off; and My salvation shall not tarry. And I will put salvation in Zion, for Israel My glory [yes, give salvation in Zion and My glory to Israel].

Isaiah 46

To-morrow

They are a strange race, the men of Stourveld. They are known for the beauty of their daughters and the uniform plainness of their matrons; a condition thought by some to be the accomplishment of changelings of faerie, not indeed robbing the cradle but the birthing bed. Inward looking, accident prone, they are a people much given to introspection and self murder.

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

The Ise Shrine

The Ise Shrine is rebuilt adjacent to its current site every 20 years. It's on its 61st iteration as I write this. It's an example (another is wikipedia) of love as a renewable building material in Chapter 5: When Personal Motivation Meets Collaborative Production of Shirky's book Here Comes Everybody.

We don’t often talk about love when trying to describe the public world, because love seems to squishy and private. What has happened, though, and what is still happening in our historical moment, is that love has become a lot less squishy and a lot less private. Love has a half=life too, as well as a radius, and we’re used to both of those being small. We can affect the people we love, but the longevity and social distance of love are both constrained. Or were constrained–now we can do things for strangers who do things for us, at a low enough cost to make that kind of behavior attractive, and those effects can last well beyond our original contribution. Our social tools are turning love into a renewable building material. When people care enough, they can come together and accomplish things of a scope and a longevity that were previously impossible; they can do big things for love.

It's encouraging to me when folks tell me that we have structural changes that increase the power of love. A part of that is that I deeply love systems. The function of institutions (I used to say government, but that's a synecdoche) is to make evil hard and good easy.

Now We Can Do Big Things For Love

Edited 20080329 to correct doff to dopp.

Life teaches us that motivations other than getting paid aren't enough to add up to serious work.

And now we have to unlearn that lesson, because it is less true with each passing year. People now have access to myriad tools that let them share writing, images, video--any form of expressive content, in fact--and use that sharing as an anchor for community and cooperation. The twentieth century, with the spread of radio and television, was the broadcast century. The normal pattern for media was that they were created by a small group of professionals and then delivered to a large group of consumers. But media, in the word's literal sense as the middle layer between people, have always been a three-part affair. People like to consume media, of course, but they also like to produce it ("Look what I made!") and they like to share it ("Look what I found!"). Because we now have media that support both making and sharing, as well as consuming, those capabilities are reappearing, after a century mainly give over to consumption. We are used to a world where little things happen for love and big things happen for money. Love motivates people to bake a cake and money motivates people to make an encyclopedia. Now, though, we can do big things for love.

Clay Shirky, from Here Comes Everybody!, Chapter 4: Publish then Filter

Thomas has been promoting this book for several days, in several ways. I read a bit and talked to him for an hour and a half or so, in the middle of the day. Then I left for my father's house, in quest of, among other things, my dopp bag (which my mother assures me is simply another way of saying 'toiletries bag').

(If you should see a red leather dopp bag, somewhat frayed, do not approach it. Call the police immediately. It is suspected in the removal of myriad whiskers and three unobjectionable beards, as well as countless travel ablutions. It is to be considered armed [razor] and extremely dangerous.)

I read the above driving to Opelika and while loitering over chili in my mother's house. It's one of the more delightful things I've read, and I wished to share it with you; because I love you.

Wm. Temple:

Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by his holiness; the nourishment of mind with his truth; the purifying of imagination by his beauty; the opening of the heart to his love; the surrender of will to his purpose--and all this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin.

Anniversary

Shake hands, we shall never be friends, all's over;
I only vex you the more I try.
All's wrong that ever I've done or said,
And nought to help it in this dull head:
Shake hands, here's luck, good-bye.

But if you come to a road where danger
Or guilt or anguish or shame's to share,
Be good to the lad that loves you true
And the soul that was born to die for you,
And whistle and I'll be there.

--

'Tis five years since, `An end,' said I;
`I'll march no further, time to die.
All's lost; no worse has heaven to give.'
Worse has it given, and yet I live.

I shall not die to-day, no fear:
I shall live yet for many a year,
And see worse ills and worse again,
And die of age and not of pain.

When God would rear from earth aloof
The blue height of the hollow roof,
He sought him pillars sure and strong,
And ere he found them sought them long.

The stark steel splintered from the thrust,
The basalt mountain sprang to dust,
The blazing pier of diamond flawed
In shards of rainbow all abroad.

What found he, that the heavens stand fast?
What pillar proven firm at last
Bears up so light that world-seen span?
The heart of man, the heart of man.

--

Bitter words from a better man,
the shadeling prince A. E. Housman