BusterStronghart@Gmail.com
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
BusterStronghart@Gmail.com
RSVP from a friend.
I seem to represent the lone hold out. Yes Wed is the date and I consulted my calendar
and there are no prior appointments for that day. Before I assent to the meeting
I feel it appropriate to share with you my dark mood which might taint the upcoming
evening if it persists.
Upon my return from my brief trip abroad I noted in my Staatsburg kitchen an excess of
mouse turds in several corners. The weather has been bitterly cold for the last few weeks and in my absence the brown mice have found their way into the house from outside and made their way up to the kitchen in search for food.
For a man who is trying each day to live in greater harmony with his whole environment
the presence of mouse turds in his kitchen posed a disturbing contradiction. Let them be they are living creatures perhaps with little souls with a need for life and participation in the great karmic wheel.
On the other hand, they spread filth with their indiscriminate urination and defecation and will multiply endlessly to meet the limits of the food supply and beyond. I,without much hesitation, chose the killing. With standard mouse traps and peanut butter, I executed 10+ furry creatures mostly by crushing their skulls. Yes, me first; human over animals when the choice comes. But then where does it stop?
The entire protein-for-humans industry adopts this tenet in spades. We not only kill them. We eat the animals too. I have just returned from France where eating animals has been raised to high art. There are unintended consequences. It is a disaster for the planet.
So as soon as I finish the bouef in the frig I will try once again my hand and mouth at
being a vegetarian. So here is the bottom line by next Wednesday, my new regime will be in full swing. So I would prefer, if I am to eat with you all and not just watch, that the restaurant choice be one where a vegetarian can get a reasonable meal without feeling like a freak. Indian food would be nice.
ss
RSVP from a friend.
I seem to represent the lone hold out. Yes Wed is the date and I consulted my calendar
and there are no prior appointments for that day. Before I assent to the meeting
I feel it appropriate to share with you my dark mood which might taint the upcoming
evening if it persists.
Upon my return from my brief trip abroad I noted in my Staatsburg kitchen an excess of
mouse turds in several corners. The weather has been bitterly cold for the last few weeks and in my absence the brown mice have found their way into the house from outside and made their way up to the kitchen in search for food.
For a man who is trying each day to live in greater harmony with his whole environment
the presence of mouse turds in his kitchen posed a disturbing contradiction. Let them be they are living creatures perhaps with little souls with a need for life and participation in the great karmic wheel.
On the other hand, they spread filth with their indiscriminate urination and defecation and will multiply endlessly to meet the limits of the food supply and beyond. I,without much hesitation, chose the killing. With standard mouse traps and peanut butter, I executed 10+ furry creatures mostly by crushing their skulls. Yes, me first; human over animals when the choice comes. But then where does it stop?
The entire protein-for-humans industry adopts this tenet in spades. We not only kill them. We eat the animals too. I have just returned from France where eating animals has been raised to high art. There are unintended consequences. It is a disaster for the planet.
So as soon as I finish the bouef in the frig I will try once again my hand and mouth at
being a vegetarian. So here is the bottom line by next Wednesday, my new regime will be in full swing. So I would prefer, if I am to eat with you all and not just watch, that the restaurant choice be one where a vegetarian can get a reasonable meal without feeling like a freak. Indian food would be nice.
ss
Saturday, January 09, 2010
BusterStronghart@Gmail.com
From "To The Finland Station", Edmund Wilson
(From Hegel came the idea that)"...the great revolutionary figures of history were not simply remarkable individuals, who moved mountains by their single wills, but the agents through which the forces of the societies behind them accomplished their unconscious purposes. Julius Caesar, says Hegel, for example, did of course fight and conquer his rivals, and destroy the constitution of Rome in order to win his own position of supremacy, but what gave him his importance for the world was the fact that he was performing the necessary feat--only possible through autocratic control--of unifying the Roman Empire."
"'It was not then merely his private gain, but an unconscious impulse,' writes Hegel, 'that occasioned the accomplishment for which the time was ripe. Such are all great historical men--whose own particular aims involve those large issues which are the will of the World-Spirit."'
"They may be called Heroes, inasmuch as they have derived their purposes and their vocation, not from the calm course of things, sanctioned by the existing order; but from a concealed fount -- one which has not obtained to a phenomenal, present existence. -- From that inner Spirit, still hidden which, impinging on the outer world as on a shell, bursts it in pieces, because it is another kernel than that which belonged to the shell in question. They present themselves, therefore, as men who appear to draw the impulse of their life from themselves; and whose deeds have produced a condition of things and a complex of historical relations which appear to be only their interest,, and their work."
"Such individuals have had no consciousness of the general Idea they were unfolding, while prosecuting those aims of theirs; on the contrary, they were practical, political men. But at the same time they were thinking men,
"This was the very Truth for their age, for their world; the species next in order, so to speak, and which was already formed in the womb of the time. It was theirs to know this nascent principle; the necessary, directly sequent step in progress, which their world was to take; to make this their aim, and to expend their energy in promoting it."
"...For that Spirit which had taken this fresh step in history is the inmost soul of all individuals; but abides in a state of unconsciousness from which the great men in question aroused it."
"Their fellows, therefore, follow these soul-leaders; for they feel the irrestible power of their own inner spirit thus embodied.
From "To The Finland Station", Edmund Wilson
(From Hegel came the idea that)"...the great revolutionary figures of history were not simply remarkable individuals, who moved mountains by their single wills, but the agents through which the forces of the societies behind them accomplished their unconscious purposes. Julius Caesar, says Hegel, for example, did of course fight and conquer his rivals, and destroy the constitution of Rome in order to win his own position of supremacy, but what gave him his importance for the world was the fact that he was performing the necessary feat--only possible through autocratic control--of unifying the Roman Empire."
"'It was not then merely his private gain, but an unconscious impulse,' writes Hegel, 'that occasioned the accomplishment for which the time was ripe. Such are all great historical men--whose own particular aims involve those large issues which are the will of the World-Spirit."'
"They may be called Heroes, inasmuch as they have derived their purposes and their vocation, not from the calm course of things, sanctioned by the existing order; but from a concealed fount -- one which has not obtained to a phenomenal, present existence. -- From that inner Spirit, still hidden which, impinging on the outer world as on a shell, bursts it in pieces, because it is another kernel than that which belonged to the shell in question. They present themselves, therefore, as men who appear to draw the impulse of their life from themselves; and whose deeds have produced a condition of things and a complex of historical relations which appear to be only their interest,, and their work."
"Such individuals have had no consciousness of the general Idea they were unfolding, while prosecuting those aims of theirs; on the contrary, they were practical, political men. But at the same time they were thinking men,
"This was the very Truth for their age, for their world; the species next in order, so to speak, and which was already formed in the womb of the time. It was theirs to know this nascent principle; the necessary, directly sequent step in progress, which their world was to take; to make this their aim, and to expend their energy in promoting it."
"...For that Spirit which had taken this fresh step in history is the inmost soul of all individuals; but abides in a state of unconsciousness from which the great men in question aroused it."
"Their fellows, therefore, follow these soul-leaders; for they feel the irrestible power of their own inner spirit thus embodied.
BusterStronghart@Gmail.com
"Lying here, during all this time after my own small fall, it has become my conviction that things mean pretty much what we want them to mean. We'll pluck significance from the least consequential happenstance if it suits us and happily ignore the most flagrantly obvious symmetry between separate aspects of our lives if it threatens some cherished prejudice or cosily comforting belief; we are blindest to precisely whatever might be most illuminating."
-- from Transition, by Iain M. Banks
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest
-- The Boxer, by Paul Simon
"Lying here, during all this time after my own small fall, it has become my conviction that things mean pretty much what we want them to mean. We'll pluck significance from the least consequential happenstance if it suits us and happily ignore the most flagrantly obvious symmetry between separate aspects of our lives if it threatens some cherished prejudice or cosily comforting belief; we are blindest to precisely whatever might be most illuminating."
-- from Transition, by Iain M. Banks
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest
-- The Boxer, by Paul Simon
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Sunday, December 27, 2009
BusterStronghart@Gmail.com
He was one of those not born for death--unlike the rest of us born between the poles.
"What are a hundred years, a thousand years, when a single instant effaces all of them."
Alan Badiou
When the cage opens after thirty years you can't fly anywhere.
He who follows another will never overtake him.
When I die I'll discover that I really hadn't lived or as Thoreau put it, "that one has lived what was not life."
Enslaved to work and to the attempt to make money my soul has been crushed--we all create our own jails, (Gary Watson, Salmagundi, nos 164-165)
And of course, my favorite, Cavafy, "the Walls"
Walls
Without regard, compassion or shame,
they built around me great high walls.
And I sit here now, and despair.
No other thought: My fate eats me.
Because I had so many things to do outside.
Alas, when they were building the walls
How could I not pay attention?
But I never heard noise from the builders, not a
sound.
Without my notice the closed me in from the world
outside.
C. P. Cavafy, 1896 - '97
translator: Alan A. Boegehold
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Walls
Without pity, without shame, without consideration
They've built around me enormous, towering walls.
And I sit here now in growing desperation.
This fate consumes my mind, I think of nothing else:
Because I had so many things to do out there.
O while they built the walls, why did I not look out?
But no noise, no sound from the builders did I hear.
Imperceptively they shut me off from the world without.
C.P. Cavafy, 1896-'97
Translator, Daniel Mendelson.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Here's a weaker translation:
Walls
With no consideration, no pity, no shame,
they have built walls around me, thick and high.
And now I sit here feeling hopeless.
I can't think of anything else: this fate gnaws my mind -
because I had so much to do outside.
When they were building the walls, how could I not have noticed!
But I never heard the builders, not a sound.
Imperceptibly they have closed me off from the outside world.
Constantine P. Cavafy
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"who built these walls? -- me," for starters.
He was one of those not born for death--unlike the rest of us born between the poles.
"What are a hundred years, a thousand years, when a single instant effaces all of them."
Alan Badiou
When the cage opens after thirty years you can't fly anywhere.
He who follows another will never overtake him.
When I die I'll discover that I really hadn't lived or as Thoreau put it, "that one has lived what was not life."
Enslaved to work and to the attempt to make money my soul has been crushed--we all create our own jails, (Gary Watson, Salmagundi, nos 164-165)
And of course, my favorite, Cavafy, "the Walls"
Walls
Without regard, compassion or shame,
they built around me great high walls.
And I sit here now, and despair.
No other thought: My fate eats me.
Because I had so many things to do outside.
Alas, when they were building the walls
How could I not pay attention?
But I never heard noise from the builders, not a
sound.
Without my notice the closed me in from the world
outside.
C. P. Cavafy, 1896 - '97
translator: Alan A. Boegehold
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Walls
Without pity, without shame, without consideration
They've built around me enormous, towering walls.
And I sit here now in growing desperation.
This fate consumes my mind, I think of nothing else:
Because I had so many things to do out there.
O while they built the walls, why did I not look out?
But no noise, no sound from the builders did I hear.
Imperceptively they shut me off from the world without.
C.P. Cavafy, 1896-'97
Translator, Daniel Mendelson.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Here's a weaker translation:
Walls
With no consideration, no pity, no shame,
they have built walls around me, thick and high.
And now I sit here feeling hopeless.
I can't think of anything else: this fate gnaws my mind -
because I had so much to do outside.
When they were building the walls, how could I not have noticed!
But I never heard the builders, not a sound.
Imperceptibly they have closed me off from the outside world.
Constantine P. Cavafy
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"who built these walls? -- me," for starters.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
BusterStronghart@Gmail.com
...................Important aporia, aporetic.
a·po·ri·a (-pôr-, -pr-)
n.
1. A figure of speech in which the speaker expresses or purports to be in doubt about a question.
2. An insoluble contradiction or paradox in a text's meanings.
[Greek, difficulty of passing, from aporos, impassable : a-, without; see a-1 + poros, passage; see per-2 in Indo-European roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
aporia [əˈpɔːrɪə]
n
1. (Literature / Rhetoric) Rhetoric a doubt, real or professed, about what to do or say
2. (Philosophy) Philosophy puzzlement occasioned by the raising of philosophical objections without any proffered solutions, esp in the works of Socrates
[from Greek, literally: a state of being at a loss]
aporetic [ˌæpəˈrɛtɪk] adj
...................Important aporia, aporetic.
a·po·ri·a (-pôr-, -pr-)
n.
1. A figure of speech in which the speaker expresses or purports to be in doubt about a question.
2. An insoluble contradiction or paradox in a text's meanings.
[Greek, difficulty of passing, from aporos, impassable : a-, without; see a-1 + poros, passage; see per-2 in Indo-European roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
aporia [əˈpɔːrɪə]
n
1. (Literature / Rhetoric) Rhetoric a doubt, real or professed, about what to do or say
2. (Philosophy) Philosophy puzzlement occasioned by the raising of philosophical objections without any proffered solutions, esp in the works of Socrates
[from Greek, literally: a state of being at a loss]
aporetic [ˌæpəˈrɛtɪk] adj
Thursday, December 10, 2009
BusterStronghart@Gmail.com
..................Truth, Beauty, Goodness
Dear Jason,
When your Dad and I were at Horace Mann we had a wonderful art teacher named Ion Theodore. He lived in the dormitory and was a sculptor. He chipped away at wood and granite through the night and taught in the daytime. As my room was next to his room(s) I was kept awake by his steady, rhythmic chipping.
He liked to expound his ideas to us, when he wasn’t pounding his mallet.
Ion was a wonderful man, soft, compassionate, and patient. He made time to speak to each of us individually. He liked to emphasize that he believed that we should lead our lives seeking “Truth, Beauty, and Goodness."
I am not absolutely sure that these were the three icons that he urged on us. I googled “truth and beauty” hoping to find the three correct words. Google took me to the Steiner book, “Truth, Beauty, and Goodness.” Do you know whether there is a different set of ideals that Mr. Theodore may have said to me?
If Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, are the correct ideals, do you know where originated? It sounds Greek, but I would like to know.
mike
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Mike,
The Good was the highest archetype for Plato and the neo-platonists. From the Good, Truth and Beauty emanated (I think in this order). From this trinity of archetypes, lesser archetypes emanated until finally the material world - a shadowy reflection of the world of archetypes - distilled out.
Try Plato or Plotinus as sources.
Steiner felt that all education should kindle the natural feelings for Truth, Beauty and Goodness that all young people have inherently. The natural idealism of teenagers in particular must be cultivated. This idealism is in danger from the dark sides of modern life and human history. He felt students must have outlet to exercise activity to counter these dark "forces."
Your teacher was a natural pedagogue. How wonderful to have a student who remembers and ponders these ideas long after hearing them.
I hope this was helpful and that all is well with you and your family,
Jason
________________________________________
..................Truth, Beauty, Goodness
Dear Jason,
When your Dad and I were at Horace Mann we had a wonderful art teacher named Ion Theodore. He lived in the dormitory and was a sculptor. He chipped away at wood and granite through the night and taught in the daytime. As my room was next to his room(s) I was kept awake by his steady, rhythmic chipping.
He liked to expound his ideas to us, when he wasn’t pounding his mallet.
Ion was a wonderful man, soft, compassionate, and patient. He made time to speak to each of us individually. He liked to emphasize that he believed that we should lead our lives seeking “Truth, Beauty, and Goodness."
I am not absolutely sure that these were the three icons that he urged on us. I googled “truth and beauty” hoping to find the three correct words. Google took me to the Steiner book, “Truth, Beauty, and Goodness.” Do you know whether there is a different set of ideals that Mr. Theodore may have said to me?
If Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, are the correct ideals, do you know where originated? It sounds Greek, but I would like to know.
mike
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Mike,
The Good was the highest archetype for Plato and the neo-platonists. From the Good, Truth and Beauty emanated (I think in this order). From this trinity of archetypes, lesser archetypes emanated until finally the material world - a shadowy reflection of the world of archetypes - distilled out.
Try Plato or Plotinus as sources.
Steiner felt that all education should kindle the natural feelings for Truth, Beauty and Goodness that all young people have inherently. The natural idealism of teenagers in particular must be cultivated. This idealism is in danger from the dark sides of modern life and human history. He felt students must have outlet to exercise activity to counter these dark "forces."
Your teacher was a natural pedagogue. How wonderful to have a student who remembers and ponders these ideas long after hearing them.
I hope this was helpful and that all is well with you and your family,
Jason
________________________________________
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
BusterStronghart@Gmail.com
“Los elefantes son contagiosos.”
Paul Eluard.
“Él estaba poseído del más sagrado berretín cósmico: El hombre quería vivir todas las vidas y estaba condenado a transitar solamente por una. Aprendan a soñar los que se contentan con sacar la lotería.”
Alejandro Dolina.
Crónicas del Ángel Gris.
“Casi nunca nos damos cuenta de que podemos suprimir cualquier cosa de nuestras vidas en cualquier momento y en un abrir y cerrar de ojos.”
Don Juan / Castaneda.
“Los elefantes son contagiosos.”
Paul Eluard.
“Él estaba poseído del más sagrado berretín cósmico: El hombre quería vivir todas las vidas y estaba condenado a transitar solamente por una. Aprendan a soñar los que se contentan con sacar la lotería.”
Alejandro Dolina.
Crónicas del Ángel Gris.
“Casi nunca nos damos cuenta de que podemos suprimir cualquier cosa de nuestras vidas en cualquier momento y en un abrir y cerrar de ojos.”
Don Juan / Castaneda.
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
BusterStronghart@Gmail.com
Katatonia: Lyrics from Black Session
Katatonia Black Session Lyrics:
I sense infliction in the air
it's only me
I'm fucking up old times
it's a remembrance
O this
black session in my mind
O the black
I was too weak to fight the black
once more I let go
it is a black session
an invitation of sorts
I keep on living in
this my only wish
that life will be good someday
I keep on losing my
sleep because of this
seems so hard just to stay
so if you come by just
this last time
I'll be here
and I will talk to you like
if this had never been
O this
black session in my mind
O the black
Katatonia: Lyrics from Black Session
Katatonia Black Session Lyrics:
I sense infliction in the air
it's only me
I'm fucking up old times
it's a remembrance
O this
black session in my mind
O the black
I was too weak to fight the black
once more I let go
it is a black session
an invitation of sorts
I keep on living in
this my only wish
that life will be good someday
I keep on losing my
sleep because of this
seems so hard just to stay
so if you come by just
this last time
I'll be here
and I will talk to you like
if this had never been
O this
black session in my mind
O the black
BusterStronghart@Gmail.com
This is strange:
CNC says that "the Very Very Rich could do a bit more." What about the very rich? No? Or the Rich? Or the rest of us, who are living the middle class life?
-
You mean that there isn't anything that we could/should do for others? Did you know that the poorest are percentage-wise the most generous with their money?
I spent $120 for dinner for two the other night. Shouldn't I have helped the poor with that money? Or a part of it? According to the World Health Organization there are one billion undernourished people in the world. There are millions who are worse than undernourished--they are starving to death.
-
Are you saying that: "I work for my money, and I don't think that I should have to pay taxes that help someone else.?"
This is strange:
CNC says that "the Very Very Rich could do a bit more." What about the very rich? No? Or the Rich? Or the rest of us, who are living the middle class life?
-
You mean that there isn't anything that we could/should do for others? Did you know that the poorest are percentage-wise the most generous with their money?
I spent $120 for dinner for two the other night. Shouldn't I have helped the poor with that money? Or a part of it? According to the World Health Organization there are one billion undernourished people in the world. There are millions who are worse than undernourished--they are starving to death.
-
Are you saying that: "I work for my money, and I don't think that I should have to pay taxes that help someone else.?"
Friday, December 04, 2009
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