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Veritas, Goddess of Truth
May 8, 2016
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Harvard motto
In ancient Rome the goddess Veritas ruled truth and sincerity. In Greece she was known as Altheia, and is mentioned in Aesops Fables:
Aesop, Fables 531 (from Babrius 126) (trans. Gibbs) (Greek fable C6th B.C.) :
“A man was journeying in the wilderness and he found Veritas [Aletheia, Truth] standing there all alone. He said to her, ‘Ancient lady, why do you dwell here in the wilderness, leaving the city behind?’ From the great depths of her wisdom, Veritas (Truth) replied, ‘Among the people of old, lies were found among only a few, but now they have spread throughout all of human society!’”
[N.B. This fable is preserved only in a Latin text. Aesop’s Aletheia (Truth personified) becomes Veritas in the Latin.]
Her father is Saturn in Rome and Zeus in Greece. One creation story found in Aesop’s Fables tells us how she was created by Prometheus along with her arch enemy Mendacium. She is the mother of virtue. Her name is often included in mottos. Harvard’s motto is simply Veritas. The pursuit of truth was considered to be an essential part of Roman citizens’ duty. To discern and tell the truth is a full time job. Forgery and subterfuge are everywhere and always will be. The difference between Veritas and Mendacium is feet. Mendacity literally has not feet on which to stand. Veracity walks away with conviction.
Aesop, Fables 530 (from Phaedrus Appendix 5) :
“Prometheus, that potter who gave shape to our new generation, decided one day to sculpt the form of Veritas [Aletheia, Truth], using all his skill so that she would be able to regulate people’s behaviour. As he was working, an unexpected summons from mighty Jupiter [Zeus] called him away. Prometheus left cunning Dolus (Trickery) in charge of his workshop, Dolus had recently become one of the god’s apprentices. Fired by ambition, Dolus (Trickery) used the time at his disposal to fashion with his sly fingers a figure of the same size and appearance as Veritas [Aletheia, Truth] with identical features. When he had almost completed the piece, which was truly remarkable, he ran out of clay to use for her feet. The master returned, so Dolus (Trickery) quickly sat down in his seat, quaking with fear. Prometheus was amazed at the similarity of the two statues and wanted it to seem as if all the credit were due to his own skill. Therefore, he put both statues in the kiln and when they had been thoroughly baked, he infused them both with life: sacred Veritas (Truth) walked with measured steps, while her unfinished twin stood stuck in her tracks. That forgery, that product of subterfuge, thus acquired the name of Mendacium [Pseudologos, Falsehood], and I readily agree with people who say that she has no feet: every once in a while something that is false can start off successfully, but with time Veritas (Truth) is sure to prevail.”
[N.B. This fable is preserved only in a Latin text. Aesop’s Aletheia (Truth personified) becomes Veritas in the Latin.]
These fables are useful to us during the campaign season during which a large part of our job is to distinguish truth from rhetorical and cultural beliefs. It has never been more important for us to verify what we believe.
New Rule: 250 Steps An Hour
May 5, 2016
calories in
During my month as a poet I lost count of calories. They (the calories) did not forget about me. The extras have lodged themselves around my waist, as my jeans alerted me this week. I need to get back on track, and Fitbit has improved my ability to do so. This morning Fitbit informed me that since our relationship began I have walked 1,997 miles, which means now I am over 2000 miles charted, graphed and tracked for my information.
While I have been wearing the device my needs have changed over time, and my involvement with recording data has varied from close attention to nothing. I used to record my water drinking and all my food, as well as my water exercise when the Fitbit was not on my wrist. My enthusiasm for this lagged and my need to get sounder sleep became the most urgent need I had. During our time of doggie hospice last year I had to get up many times during the night, and I was very upset about the end of our dog’s life. My sleep, usually my finest talent, had gone to hell. The sleep recording feature of my device became a real help as I tried different methods of improving my sleep. I figured out that honey before bed and during the night when I let the dog out seriously helped the ability to rest soundly.
Now I am back to being a star sleeper, but need to get back on track with a healthy weight loss program. New aspects of the feedback are helping me do that very effectively. In order to decrease the evils inflicted upon us by the sedentary life the new rule is to move at least 250 steps each hour. My daily goal is 10,000 steps, so obviously I need to move more than 250 steps some hours. The reminder to log those 250 steps gets me up from my desk or the evening news and gets me to move. It only takes about 2 minutes to take 250 steps. I find that once I have started to move I end up moving for at least 1000 steps before returning to my seat. At the end of the day there is a very helpful chart with active versus sedentary time spent. At 11:30 am I show 37% active and 63% stationary. I also can see a comparison between todays active total and my 30 day average. In the past when I finished my daily goal I felt free to let sloth take over the agenda for the rest of my day. Now I feel the need to get my 250 steps every hour and move that ratio of active/stationary in favor the more movement.
There is news on the calorie front as well. The dashboard now calculates not only the calories burned but also calories left to be burned. If food is logged there is also a comparison of calories consumed vs those burned. This is why I need to begin to record my diet again. I find it very helpful to see how many calories I still need to use to come out even for the day. Right now, although I have finished 10,605 steps, my calories are not yet half used…1,098 burned, 1380 still remain to be spent. New research shows that short intense blasts of exercise achieve much more than had previously been believed. I have new thoughts on this matter. I am going to concentrate on making sure I get in 250 steps during my waking hours, with an emphasis on sprinting. I think what is best for my body is a hard aerobic sprint every hour, and I now have the tools to remind me and reward me for this behavior. I am highly motivated by charts. Lucky me. I plan to sync my data as well as my attention to Fitbit for the greatest benefit. Do you use a tracking device, gentle reader? What do you like best about it?
Dashboard 2016-05-05 at 11.55.55 AM
Willful Blindness and Inertia
May 4, 2016
sundial
As individuals and as groups we all have blind spots. We accept beliefs without knowing all the facts simply because it is impossible to know all the facts. Especially in institutional settings we excuse resistance to change as part of keeping to tradition. If we look back in history we will notice that over time what was at one time considered to be true is now regarded as folly. Tradition is one thing and resistance to reality is quite another matter. Institutions protect dysfunctional operations not out of pride, but out of lack of awareness. The set it and forget it attitude runs strong in institutions and government agencies. It takes some tragic outcome to bring about change in some cases. It is impossible to observe one’s own actions if one is willfully blind. Thus, the blindness begets more blindness, becoming contagious.
What would Sir Isaac Newton think about the conditions that prevail?
- The body at rest is our culture, willfully ignoring our real situation
- The forces at work driving our society to move are all profit motivated
- Every profit has an equal and opposite loss to the environment/humans
No matter who wins the scary American presidential election now taking place, the financial and environmental imbalance will be rampant around the world. Balance can only be restored through awareness and planning. Without a plan we will careen ever closer to entropy. The solution is pre-political. Our awareness needs to cover all the people places and things with which we have contact. This energy drain, or misappropriated energy, is needed for the good of the entire planet in order to restore some kind of equilibrium. Plug the leaks in your own boat today. We are taking on water and listing to port.
door in the darkness
Solar Eclipse: Cracks in the Light
March 7, 2016
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Time for a Change!!!
The Solar Eclipse for March 8th 2016, occurs at 19 degrees Pisces. There is so much activity in the chart of the Solar Eclipse that when I attempted to grasp onto its theme I would find myself lost in a chaotic mess of archetypes, all clamoring to have their voices heard. But I kept being led back to a particular part of the chart, like it was the central leading character of the story. So to unravel the thread of this Solar Eclipse, I will begin with the planet that is in direct opposition, Jupiter in Virgo. Jupiter is eternal spirit, transcendental knowledge, expansive nature, the buoyancy of leaves swirling in air, the ecstasy of our divine nature. But in our human forms, in attempts to experience bliss of spirit, this archetype also leads to excess, overindulgence, seeking of pleasure through merely our senses in an attempt to get…
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Authority, Use and Abuse
March 3, 2016
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When we were in grade school it was obvious that we had little control over our circumstances. This is appropriate for children leaning to be part of a larger society. Still some of us questioned the system wondering where the teachers/parents/school officials got off being so threatening about some rules and regulations. Some of us used our own immature logic to question authority. Some of us even spoke up about what we considered to be abuse of our rights. Others quickly conformed to fit in and get the brownie points for behaving the way we had been instructed to behave. I was naturally part of the first group, those of us who felt oppressed unnecessarily by silly rules.
My nature was never very compliant without seeing the purpose of the rules. One such rule was my mother’s idea of fashion for little girls. I fought tooth and nail over cutting my bangs, putting permanent waves in my otherwise fabulous hair, and, most of all, the wearing of white ankle socks. The whole look was atrocious, but I was physically too small to fight off the stinky hair solutions or the bangs scissors. All I could do was take of the hideous white ankle socks once I had left home for school. It was my only available form of resisting authority that I saw as fascism. My parents were very strict, believed in beating children to a pulp with a belt, and fought back hard. I saw this was obvious sign of weakness, the need to physically bully a child into wearing white socks. If they had thought about what they were doing they might have made more reasonable rules and fought more reasonable battles, but they were out of their minds with power. They belonged to the Republican Party.
They voted for Barry Goldwater for president and loved war and police brutality. They were animated fans of the Viet Nam war, which was truly the last straw. They saw America as entitled bully, and I saw them as entitled bullies. Our political paths would never cross once I was old enough to vote. There was no discussion because my dad would blow his top so wildly that it was out of the question to question his opinions. I just wore a patch on the back of my jeans that said “War is not healthy for children and other living things” and they voted a straight Republican ticket. I have a letter my mother wrote to my father when Kennedy was elected bemoaning the fate of the world. They were truly nuts.
I now thank them for the training I had early in life to see that some authorities use power for evil (I still think permanents are evil and probably cause brian cancer). Some authorities are just ignorant, and must be opposed in order to save the world from fascism. The political scene we face today is clearly one of treacherous consequences. I thought most of the violent crazy people were already dead, but I was completely off course. This sentiment is alive and sick. It has never been more important to vote and become aware of the rights we still have in this country to shape our future. Please inform your self, gentle reader. Consider the possibilities very carefully, and then VOTE!!!
Why You Deserve to Be Happy: Stop Living Your Life Based on Other’s Expectations!
March 3, 2016
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Conformity is part of social programming. A little goes a long way.
Patience and Gratitude
February 18, 2016
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“Take full account of the excellencies which you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not.” Marcus Aurelius
This quote from ancient Rome is a good reminder for all of us. I recently had a small surgery done on my shoulder for skin cancer. I dropped my car at the shop at the same time for some quirk that caused it to not be “ready” for emissions testing. I expected to be personally out of action for a couple of days so the missing car would be no inconvenience to me during that time. Indeed the wound on my shoulder healed quickly and stopped hurting after two days. The car spent the entire week at the shop. I had to use it over the weekend, so I picked it up on Friday afternoon. I paid a $400 bill for the analysis, but the car was not cured of the unready state. I was to do the drive cycle again and bring it in on Monday (the deadline from the state to register the car) to test the readiness. It failed!!!! I sat at the mechanic’s office for 2 hours while the test was done only to learn that I had to try that drive cycle one more time to heal the problem.
Modern cars have electronic brains that record all the data about their lives. My car had simply lost it’s mind. We had replaced the oil cover with a non factory part, and that was all it took for this car to go totally psychotic on me. The mechanic discovered the issue and replaced the cap but before the car will resume normal function it must be taken through a “drive cycle”. This tedious and very specific way of driving at certain intervals using specific speeds jump starts the thinking mind of the car. I had never heard of this thing before and felt very put out that I had to pay that big bill and still do this drive cycle several times without success. Fortunately for me, when I drove up the freeway to Pinal County on Monday and returned to the emissions testing station the car finally passed the test without incident.
This entire experience pointed out to me how delicate my little patience system is. I lost it entirely when the car cost so much to repair and was not really repaired. Loosing my cool at the mechanic’s office on Monday I had to focus on my breathing and tell myself that my issue did not compare to most tragedies occurring at the same time. Driving up and down the freeway for the fifth time I reminded myself that many people would be very happy to trade places with me and my situation. There I was feeling very put upon because I had to repeat this tedious process to comply with regulations and register my car. Alone with my crazy thoughts I came to the conclusion that my irritation sensors were way to sensitive to bothersome problems. I reminded myself that:
- I own a big fancy car that almost always serves me very well
- I have a life of leisure and fun with very few interruptions
- I own my home and have never been in debt for a minute of my life
- I share my home with a loving, honest partner with a good sense of humor
- I now have Medicare and a fabulous primary care doctor near home
- I am not a Syrian refugee or a homeless American military veteran
- I have a strong healthy body able to easily recover from my surgery
This list could go on forever. I possess so many excellencies that I would hanker after if I had them not. Even Marcus Aurelius was not, in certain ways, as well off as I am now. He may have been a Roman Emperor, but he didn’t have a car. I hope this experience has reset the sensors of my car’s brian as well as my own. Life may not always be a bowl of cherries, but we must be patient and appreciative of the advantages we are given.
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- Marcus Aurelius
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- Marcus Aurelius
What Law and Order? #BlackPanthersPBS
February 17, 2016
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I am a revolutionary. I am in flashback mode during this political season. When I watched the PBS documentary about the Black Panther Party my mind was blown thinking about the similar tactics employed by our government today. Police are still outside the law, are still involved in brutality rather than community protection. In my neighborhood the police force protects criminals and refuses to respond to those who want to stop crime. I think it is scary that abuse of power continues to be our greatest obstacle to peace and prosperity. In 1968 J Edgar Hoover had absolute power to invade privacy and snuff Americans at will. Today the FBI is asking Apple to give them a back door to everyone’s iPhones. Today we have drones out killing people for our “freedom and democracy”. Have we ever had freedom and democracy for all our citizens? I think not.
I was involved, but not old enough to vote, in the 1968 election that sent Tricky Dick Nixon to the White House. I was in the audience at the University of Texas at Austin to listen to Eugene McCarthy, and later to Hubert Humphrey, during my freshman year on campus. I decided to register to vote as a Libertarian as soon as I was 21. The Democrats were more to my liking but both parties struck me as corrupt anachronisms dedicated to keeping war and prejudice alive around the globe. I was not alone in this belief. I am still not the only person who sees our system as dangerously off course.
We all feel that things have gotten out of hand, and we all want a better future for our country. I know that is true, even though the campaign rhetoric has become vile and toxic. With the new twist of a Supreme nomination stakes are high and emotions are higher. If we the people allow super pacs and nasty grudges to continue to drive our political outcomes we will all continue to feel let down by our government. This election, very much like the election of 1968, will have profound consequences on our image around the world as well as our own economy. No matter how you feel (Bern or no Bern) it is time to register to vote and exercise your right to elect officials you trust. History is being made very rapidly. Get out the vote, gentle readers. Do it now before all the hippies drop dead from exhaustion.
Gasherbrum
February 16, 2016
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This is a word to add to your vocabulary. Use Gasherbrum in a sentence as soon as possible in order to remember the meaning.
Imagine yourself climbing one of the highest mountains in the world, a steep jag of rock in a corner of the Karakoram, pinched between Pakistan and China. You are hanging on a rope, swinging against a rock face, a mile above the glacier below but not so far from the glacier to your side. A chunk breaks off the glacier hanging just over there… it resounds: “Gasherbrum!” You swing on the rope, thrash for room, bump on the rock and gash your bum.
Heck, why settle for one of the highest mountains in the world? Take seven of them. Or anyway seven peaks in one massif. That’s the Gasherbrum. One might be forgiven for thinking it’s Gascherbrunn, which would seem properly Germanically alpine, but these peaks are nowhere near Switzerland or Austria. And their name is from Balti, a language that is a form of Ladakhi, which is in…
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Why Bernie vs Hillary Matters More Than People Think
February 12, 2016
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Income inequality is the issue that is driving our destiny. Pay attention to the details.
Lately the internet has become full of arguments about the merits and demerits of Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. Over the past couple weeks, I’ve been discussing and pondering all the various views about this, and I’m increasingly of the opinion that most of the people engaging in this debate don’t really understand what is at stake in the democratic primary. This is in part because many Americans don’t really understand the history of American left wing politics and don’t think about policy issues in a holistic, structural way. So in this post, I want to really dig into what the difference is between Bernie and Hillary and why that difference is extremely important.
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