Meditations #25

 Your own mind, the Mind of the universe, your neighbour's mind - be prompt to explore them all. Your own, so that you may shape it to justice; the universe, that you may recollect what it is you are a part of; your neighbour's, that you may understand whether it is informed by ignorance or knowledge, and also may recognize that it is kind to your own.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Nine

As usual, MA is sharing some truth. Of course you should start with your own mind; as he tells us many times, always start with yourself first when you consider the deeper meaning of anything. If you start with yourself and make your primary goal one of justice then most of the wrongs that you impose on others will be eliminated. And isn't that the key? Start with living a just life, as compared to imposing justice on others. That said, always remember the role that you play in the larger whole, the universe, and never lose sight of the part that you play, and, well, try and remember what a small part you play. And only at the end turn your attention to your neighbors. How many of us start there, making our life one of comparison and envy, as comparted to considering their actions in regards to the simple question of ignorance and knowledge, and moving forward from there.

More Faffing Around

 OK, here's another clumsy picture. The other day I was down by the lake to meet up with my dear, dear friend Sarah who was passing through the state. As things were breaking up I walked over to the shoreline and, for the first time, tried out one of the polarizing lenses for the camera. Unlike the upcoming trip to Jordan, I don't have buyer's remorse on spending the money on the camera (at least not yet). I want to have a better handle on it before I take a few hundred pictures in Jordan.

For a first effort I'm fairly happy, especially in regards to what it the lens did to the sky. Hmmm, I'll post some more pictures later and keep tinkering.

Buyer's Remorse or Maybe Not

 In a month I'll be back in Jordan. Naturally, as is often the case this far out, I'm suffering through buyer's remorse, or maybe just general exhaustion at the thought of all the hoops I have to jump through to get there. As I've discussed previously my son and I are heading over to Jordan for Thanksgiving break, essentially offering ourselves up as lab rats for the trip. In a non-Zombie Apocalypse world I'd probably still feel a slight bit of buyer's remorse, but the pandemic has made things so much more complicated. Of course, once I go and sort things out it will make the March student trip so much more manageable - so I know that in the end I'll appreciate the effort (unless I come back and decide that getting two people over and back was such a nightmare that I can't even imagine bringing over twenty people). Now, I'm also bringing my son, which will be his first trip to Jordan and only his second time out of the country, so that will also rev me up down the road. It's such a joy to spend time with your adult kids because it's so rare that we get that time, and I'm excited to share my favorite place with him.

Soon, soon, all too soon we'll be at the Rainbow Camp in the Wadi Rum, watching the sun set over the desert, and all this anxiety will be forgotten.

Faffing Around

 As I mentioned in another post I recently bought a camera. It's not a fantastic camera but rather a good camera, a Nikon D3500, which is one of those classic starter cameras. Classically, it didn't come with an instruction manual, but instead you could go to a website to view the manual. They always sell it as a sign of their environmental concerns, when, obviously, they're simply trying to maximize profits. So, the learning process has been slow. All I've been doing so far in tinkering with it, measuring my level of buyer's remorse. Soon I'll start messing with the options and gadgets, with a hope of having a better idea what the hell is going on before I head over to Jordan next month. I've taken the camera out for a test drive at Greenmount Cemetery, which is close to my apartment, and then out to the Causeway. Both days were appropriately overcast, that is, a day when it's hard to fuck up pictures. I can already feel the urge to buy a bigger lens for closeups, so this will all end badly.

Meditations #24

 In death, Alexander of Macedon's end differed no whit from his stable boy's. Either both were received into the same generative principle of the universe, or both alike were dispersed into atoms.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Six

When we are in love (and I hope to feel that again someday) we act as if no one has ever felt as we feel at that moment - and when the love ends (and I hope to not feel that again someday) we act as if no one has ever suffered as we are that moment. In a way, of course, this is how we view out lives: utterly unique phenomena that change the world forever, which, of course, is absurd. Following that logic, and cycling back around to MA, wouldn't that also be true of our deaths as well? This is not to say that Alexander didn't change the world in a way that his stable boy didn't - I was just talking to my friend Kerry and Steve last night about how I'd like to teach a class on the historical and cultural influence of Alexander (as compared to what he did during his life). However, I agree with MA in that when Alexander and his stable boy lay dying, at that moment, what was happening to them, either for good or bad or nil, added up to the same thing.

Essentially a Selfie

 And here's a picture that I snapped in Budapest. Where? I'm not certain. I'll do some research and get back to you.

I kind of remember this cathedral . . . more soon.

Ruzomberok Revisited

 No, I'm not actually going back to Ruzomberok, Slovakia (although I'd like to do so). Instead, as I've been culling through old pictures, I came across some from the painful summer that I passed through Slovakia a couple different times. Sadly, many of the Slovakia pictures were lost when my camera was swiped in Barcelona. This led me to going back into my blog and reading my posts about Slovakia, which, sadly, are few. I found a very lovely and heartfelt post about my time visiting Rozomberok and the good folks at the university there. It's inspired me to post a couple pictures of the city itself, snapped on a gloriously overcast day, but I'm think I'm going to try and reach out to my friends from there and see if they are still teaching at the university. One of my many failings as a human beings (and they are legion) is that throughout all the heartache of the last decade I've let people slip away.  This blog, with all its flaws and missteps, is a lovely history record in and of itself and I'm going to mine it.

Making Friends in the Desert

 As I continue to look through old pictures I come across ones that for some reason I've never posted. Here's one from a desert jeep safari in the early days of my time in the UAE.

Kids will be kids.

Meditations #23

 Anything in any way beautiful derives its beauty from itself, and asks nothing beyond itself.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Four

This reminds me of the debate between Kant and Hume about the nature of beauty that used to be a staple of the sadly discontinued COR 220. Essentially, do we appreciate beauty because we, after study, possess the education and experience to see it (Kant) or is there something inherent in the beautiful thing that we pick up on unbidden (Hume). MA seems to be coming down on the side of the latter.

Gorp

 Here's a picture of my friend Pedro, his friend Dickie, and some incredibly ancient dude at the SJC. One of the joys of the last couple years has been my friendship with Pedro, which started at the Food Shelf and turned into some great fun outside of it. His wife Gwen snapped this picture. People don't normally take pictures of me, and you can see why. Still, it was a lovely afternoon. Pedro normally just texts me that he's at the SJC and he's brought some of his homemade gorp (featured prominently in this shot).

And you can clearly see why I always insure an odd number for every outing. My friends have just settled on referring to me as the Prime Number, not simply because I have a thing for prime numbers but also because I never bring a date. Dying alone may seem bad, but you did get control of the remote.