Hanafuda

 So many rabbit holes, so little time. My fascination (thanks to the Criterion Channel) with Japanese film noir has not only led to a junior-level class that I'll be teaching next fall but also to a series of games based on the handfuda deck. I was telling Janet about Mirahiro Shinoda's great 1964 film Pale Flower, starring Ryo Ikebe and Mariko Kaga in iconic roles. This led to a screening and a tumble down a rabbit hole to figure out the gambling game played by the yakuza in the film. This led to to the handfuda deck - and the many different games that you can play with the deck (although we still haven't sorted out the actual gambling game they play in the movie) - and the purchase of several different hanafuda decks. Apparently I've found a good partner for rabbit hole spelunking. 

Pale Flower is highly recommended! It will be featured prominently in next fall's class.

Our initial hanafuda deck, which we tracked down, like everything in the universe, on Amazon. This also included the purchase of a couple supplemental books as we try and figure out what the hell is going on with hanafuda. Koi koi!!

I think this has turned out to be our favorite hanafuda desk (although, as a purist in all things, I have an affection for the original one).

I mean, with the exception of the extra symbols that would allow you to use the deck in a "regular" card game (again, as a purist I disapprove), how could you not love these cards? The Japanese love their supernatural.

O lobo nao fala portugues

 As part of the preparation for this summer's Portugal adventure Janet and I have been tackling Portuguese on Duolingo. She has a natural affinity for languages so she's dominating it, whereas, well, I'm championing on as best I can. I decided to just go ahead and buy a lifetime membership at Rosetta Stone (I've tinkered with a couple languages, mainly Arabic, there in the past) but for some reason their app is not interested in letting me pay - and I'm having similar issues at their webpage - so I'm experimenting with Duolingo (I'm so frustrated with Rosetta Stone's refusal to help me pay that it makes me think that the entire thing must be run by Vermonters, who, as we know, are oddly resistant to being in any hurry to take on business/money). Anyway, Duolingo is fun and sort of goofy and, to a certain point, free. It's sort of set up as a game, so it is fun, if you can get your mind around the absurdity of devoting your time to learning how to say things like "the wolf does not speak Portuguese" . . .

Lindoso

 OK, so I blatantly swiped this picture off of the Net, but hopefully I'll take a somewhat similar one this summer. This is the tiny village of Lindoso, tucked away up near the Spanish border in northern Portugal. Janet and I are headed there for seventeen days this summer, as part of a three week jolly in Portugal. A couple months back she texted me when I was sitting at the SJC with friends and said that she had found crazy cheap flights to Portugal, and what should she do. I said "Buy them, now, don't think about it. We'll sort it out later." Actually, we really hadn't been dating that long at the time, but it just seemed like the thing to do; to be fair, we discussed going to Portugal on our first date. Then later I was messing around on the Airbnb site and stumbled across a 13th century cottage on the grounds of a castle in Lindoso, a town of which I knew nothing. And here we are. The cottage actually holds six - our thought process was that our friends could come and go as they pleased - although, yeah, we know no one will show up, and that's OK.

Our plan is to just be for around three weeks, with side day trips and the occasional overnight. I normally don't like it when people say they "can't wait" for something, because, well, it's sloppy, because what they really means is that they're really urgently looking forward to something. Having said that, I can't wait until we arrive in Lindoso.

Life in the Wilderness

 So, what do you do on a Saturday morning in Calais, Vermont? Simple, head to the dump. Or, more accurately, the transfer station.

Road to Sossusvlei

 Recently I purchased a new phone, and it's amazing/infuriating the stuff that survives and doesn't survive the transition. My Instagram account is now locked and, after devoting way too much time to trying to sort it out, I've just given up. In the end it's just a stupid Instagram account, but it did have some cool pictures/comments and I was following some interesting folks, some of whom I only talk to via Instagram. On the end other side there were over 13,000 pictures which suddenly returned from the ether, including this one that I snapped in the early morning on the way to the Sossusvlei to enter the park.

It was beautiful and magical inside the park, but even getting there was extraordinary. I need to find a way to get back there soon and for a longer time.

Ramadan Reflection

 Disclaimer: It's usually about a third of the way through Ramadan that I'm at my most tired and grouchy, and thus most at war with my own religion.

I was thinking this morning about the concept of the Gates of Ijtihad, which is a concept that appears in both the Sunni and Shia ends of the Islamic spectrum. The term is ijtihad essentially means something like independent reasoning; that is, carrying on an intellectual exploration, a scholarly and structured but also usually messy one, to sort out the deeper meanings of the complexity of, specifically, the Qur'an, but more generally the entire religious concepts of the faith. The belief is that the Gates of Ijtihad were closed around the year 1000 C.E. (at least that's the Sunni take, the Shia one is more fluid and believe the Gates are still open). Essentially, this means that the questions were answered and didn't need to be explored anymore. I have profound problems with this, as you might expect. We always have to struggle with what these concepts mean, and while we shouldn't simply weakly react and cave to a changing societal world, I think we have to take it into account. I don't think that all the questions were answered over a thousand years ago. Rather, I think the modes of oppression were in place over a thousand years ago, and the role of the religion - and the concomitant, support readings of its texts- in support of that oppression were in place. When we unquestioningly give in to interpretations that, mainly, reflect the societal age in which they were realized we do such a disservice to a religion that began as a revolutionary movement in support of the oppressed.

Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.

Meditations #32

 In your action let there be a willing promptitude, yet a regard for the common interest; due deliberation, yet no irresolution; and in your sentiments no pretentious over-refinement. Avoid talkativeness, avoid officiousness.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Three

Two years ago, as the pandemic was just taking over the world, I proposed to someone that COVID had turned life into one expansive Ramadan. I think I cited several aspects of it, but at this moment I'd like to just focus on the one that seems most important to me at this moment: intentionality. During Ramadan you have to plan your day. When do you start your fast? When and where do you end your fast? Did you eat and drink enough in the morning to carry you through the whole day? Where will you be during the day during prayer times? What extra volunteering and service will you be performing? In some ways COVID was like that. You had to think about every act, not simply because you wanted to minimize the chances of getting sick, but also because what if you got sick and died? Were you affairs in order, not simply financially, but also emotionally? Have you told all your friends that you love them and how much they mean to you? And while we all miss the spontaneity - both during Ramadan and during the depths of COVID - the importance of leading an intentional life, or a life of, to quote MA, "due deliberation," is a valuable lesson to remember.