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Overall total postings: 1672
| 1109 |
Andrew |
N/A |
2006-12-03 |
22:40:46 |
.... sorry, must have hit "submit" in my haste... "added the non-seqaveat" was meant to read "non-sequitur", since the last line of Eccleaisates = "love God and obey his commandments", which makes no sense whatsoever, given what's just gone before.
Billy, don't forget we're in Nairobi launching "Anno's Africa" twixt 5 Jan and 28 Feb... but why not join us there??! |
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| 1108 |
Andrew |
N/A |
2006-12-03 |
22:29:47 |
| Billy, you're on! As to Job, a nice little story. According to someone or other, Job was one of those books that nearly never made it into the OT... during the Council of Nicea, half the jury voted it in (on the basis that it was one of the finest examples of Hebrew poetry), as against the other half who rightly agreed that this was clearly the work of a God-hater (is there a word for this??) since Job spends the better part of his diatribe trashing God for ever having spat himself out of his mother's womb into such a vile world. The compromise was to write in a set of Job's "comforters" who would rebuke Job for regailing against the divine, arguing God's case - to which Job naturally makes no reference since the comforters werew added 300 years after Job bit the dust! The same goers for Ecceleisatesa - fabulous poetry, but clearly not in synch with Jewish (or Christian) theology.... so after "the Preacher" (aka the author of Eccl.) has extolled us to "rat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die" the Nicea rewriters added the cnon-seqaveat |
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| 1107 |
Billy Scherer |
N/A |
2006-12-03 |
21:10:50 |
I've actually talked to Ned about my desires to return as I believe
Los Angeles has given me all it has to offer, or more
appropriately, I've given it all I have to offer. Labour in the
Summer sun brutalized me to quite a low, which I'm trying to
bring myself out of. A return is certainly not as easy as I'd like it
to be, even for just a visit but I saw a televangelist today who
said that the Lord provided him with a Rolls Royce when he
asked for it, so maybe I'll just ask and be provided a way.
In another instance of synchronicity, it's funny that you mention
the Bible because I just bought a copy a couple of weeks ago to
cross-reference things I've been reading in the Qur'an and read
of Jonah in tandem with Moby Dick (which I've finally gotten
around to). It's one of those handy versions that highlights all of
Jesus' speech with red ink but I shall now give Jesus a break and
skip back to the Old Testament to check on poor Job. Perhaps
reconcile my current state with God allowing Satan to tempt me
into oblivion.
But if your offer of air miles still stands when I've managed to
save enough to keep up rent while not working, I'll make my way
back over to everyone and these discussions can continue over a
bottle of wine rather than cyberspace.
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| 1106 |
Andrew |
N/A |
2006-12-03 |
20:04:48 |
| I wish you were here Billy - I feel there's a great on-going conversation, and would love to hear more from your side. As I'm sure you know, "Lao Tzu" simply means "old man, possibly wise", the assumption being that the Tao Te Ching is a collection of ideas by various thinkers (among them Mo Tzu) spanning at least a couple of centuries, roughly contemporary with Socrates and Plato over in Greece. In that sense the Tao* is like my two favourite books in the Old Testament - Job, and Ecclesiastes, neither of which should be there as they are evidenty the work of atheists (eg Ecclesiates: "Time and chance govern all" - oh really? So not God?? This being Darwinism in a nutshell, George W please note!) *Tao = "way-which-cannot-be-defined"... If ever you're fed up over there or wanting a change of scenery, please feel free to visit us in Wales - we can sort the air-miles, all you have to do is check in at LAX! You are much loved and much missed. |
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| 1105 |
billy |
N/A |
2006-12-02 |
22:05:24 |
Well I would say, Andrew, that most everything I’ve been
bumping around on this great page, I learned from your
impeccable sermons in the conservatory. You introduced me to
the Tao, Watts, the quantum world, Eintstein, the Fibonacci
sequence, Napoleon, the joys of manhunt and many other
manner of things totally foreign to me before my first trip to
Wales. Bee’s right that you would make a wonderful teacher. I’d
say that you’ve already taught many, certainly me and of course
you taught Ned how to blow things up in the lab, among hordes
of other things. So, it was you that pushed me into the Tao, for
which I’m forever grateful, and I can’t do much else but clumsily
let it push me this way and that. Any admiration you have for
me is greatly returned in kind with love and my
acknowledgement that you made me a better man.
I recently talked to Ned about fame and he opened my eyes to it
being a creation that breathes hope into the downtrodden, that
they one day may have an easier life (but of course they should
be beautiful, so it’s curtains for you Big Ears). Though, I don’t
believe life in a “perfect” society would necessarily be any easier
than in an “imperfect” one because, of course, it is the difficulty
that lets us later sit on the shore and contemplate the dance of
the universe. I guess in the “perfect” society we’d all be
consciously dancing along with it, which is perhaps why monks
have a peculiar bounce in their stride as Alan Watts assures me.
Still, it’s greed that pays the money to print Hello! Magazine and
tell us what colours we should be wearing this winter so as not
to feel out of place at parties. The Buddha has become a
commodity. Lord help us when the Tao gets on the guest list.
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| 1104 |
Andrew |
N/A |
2006-12-02 |
21:10:21 |
| Aye, the love of money being the root of all evil - which is easy enough for me to say since I've never had it for long enough to love it with any permanence. The greatest pleasure of having loot is the discovery of what a pleasure it is to get shot of it... but this is hard to impress upon those who've never had (enough of) it in the first place - like fame. What is this current obsession for being famous at all cost? I ramble! Billy, I can't tell you what pleasure your postings give me, if only to know that you haven't forsaken the Tao, indeed are far closer to it than I. My admiration and love for you is unbounded... |
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| 1103 |
MamaBee |
N/A |
2006-12-02 |
07:15:39 |
| I was out at dinner In Nairobi last night and met a wonderful woman whose son was killed a year ago by an elephant -- aged 19. We talked about our boys - and guess wot - we also got talking about non-locality and the fact that when someone dies it feels as if a huge energy has been released into the space they left. I reccomended the Tao of Physics to her... Talk about Synchronicity - this really IS getting spooky!! (Spooky action at a distance indeed...) And Ned, Billy, Andrew and the others who are exchanging ideas on this page - I have just spent a wondrous half an hour in the local internet cafe, reading the last three pages and I feel amazingly alive and invigorated. I also feel VERY thick and can't believe I helped create that wise Ned. Billy - you have an extraordinary understanding and eloquence - and Andrew -- well I always said you should have been a teacher. What a forum you have all made... Absolutely riveting - I think I am finally beginning to understand a few things. Thank you... Love Mama Beee xxx |
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| 1102 |
billy |
N/A |
2006-12-02 |
02:18:48 |
Of course, you don't need a college education when you've got
nepotism (or casting couches either). |
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| 1101 |
billy |
N/A |
2006-12-02 |
02:14:53 |
Politics was never a great topic for Anno and I but it poked is
ugly head in every once in a while. Of course, we all made much
ado about September 11th – Anno actually having written about
it in “Terrorist Attack”. There’s also “Nero’s New Bathroom”. We
had the usual discussions of communism looking good on paper
but failing in practise and the near impossibility of the system
ever working due to fellows like Stalin and the inherent greed of
humanity. Their were many a chant of “fuck the combine” at
seventeen. I remember Anno saying in Italy that he would be the
first on the front lines in a new World War but I doubt very much
that he would have fought to the end to protect capitalism. He
certainly had the courage to risk his own life but I don’t think he
would have had the courage to take someone else’s. But I
shouldn't speak for him.
I’ve come to the conclusion that greed is the root of the problem
and that its ugliest manifestation is money. Anno was possibly
the least greedy person I’ve ever known. Certainly one of the
most giving – undoubtedly a spirit Andrew and Bee breathed into
him.
In America most people don’t go to college to better understand
their world. We learn that we must go to college so that we
don’t have to break our backs making a pittance. What we don’t
learn (some never do) is that along with that education we’ll
have to step on other people to make our lives easier. I have
never had money (still don’t) but Anno always made sure I was
OK. I did my best to pay back the favour. I remember when we
met up in L.A. I took all the money I had in the world with me
(probably about $2000). I kept half and gave the rest to Anno.
A simple form of communism between friends, which must be
the only way it can work, though I don’t think we’ve ever seen
communism the way Marx intended it; whether or not that’s
because Marx’s communism was never actually planned out.
The first paragraph of Anno’s poem on page sixty is a pretty
good indication of his relationship with capitalism. Not so much
in harmony with it as just used to it like most everyone else.
You’ve got to love his drawing on page six as well. I would
imagine Anno talked a lot with J.S. about politics but I don’t ever
remember him reading any Marx.
Lee was undoubtedly an anarchist but I never talked politics with
him. All he ever wanted to do is endlessly jam to the point
where your head hurt much more than your hand trying to keep
up with him.
Lord, teach me brevity.
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| 1100 |
Gar |
N/A |
2006-12-02 |
00:37:25 |
| I met someone amazing this last week, all because of a sequence of events that started with someone recognizing the KJD T-shirt. Thanks guys, I owe you one X |
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