The Devourer of All Things

What did Helen of Troy see in the mirror when she was old? Ovidius (Metamorphoses, XV, 233): "[A]nd Helen weeps, when in the glass she sees her wrinkled face, and wonders why two heroes fell in love and carried her away. — O Time, devourer of all things."

Was it a coincidence that Homer was blind? Is there a relation of his blindness and the fact that the divine name of God (YHWH) of Judaism was regarded as too sacred to be uttered? Is there a relation of his blindness and a couple of blind men in the New Testament of Christianity? Is there a relation of his blindness and the fact that in Islam it's prohibited to make a visual representation of the prophet Muhammad?

What is "wrong" with the sense organ 'eyes' of the species 'homo sapiens' - and when was this born? Too enchanting? Too blinding? Too much distraction? Do they hold off from what really matters or from the truth? What does really matter? What is the truth? Do they exist in plural?

P.S. Source quote: here. Picture 'Elena' (1814) is from Pelagio Palagi: here.

There Always Comes The Point

According to Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) in her 'Lying in Politics' (1971), acting men usually use three options confronted with a problem - with the goal to divert the mind: A, B and C whereby A and C represent the opposite extremes and B the "logical" middle-of-the-road "solution" of the problem. This thinking is a fallacy according to her because, "reality never presents us with anything so neat as premises for logical conclusions."

 

Acting men or politicians lie because things could indeed have been as the liar maintains they were. Arendt: "Facts need testimony to be remembered and trustworthy witness to be established in order to find a secure dwelling place in the domain of human affairs."

Facts can be removed from the world but in the political domain it can only be done through radical and wholesale destruction. Arendt: "In order to eliminate Trotsky's role from the history of the Russian Revolution, it is not enough to kill him and eliminate his name from all Russian records so long as one cannot kill all his contemporaries and wield power over the libraries and archives of all countries of the earth." 

There is no such thing as lasting deception, there always comes the point beyond which lying becomes counterproductive! Good that we have a fact checker team at 'The Washington Post' who store (here) all false or misleading claims of "Mister President".

P.S. I feel these days the urgent need to re-read: (1) Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1932), (2) George Orwell, 1984 (1948), (3) Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception (1954), (4) Aldous Huxley, Island (1962) and (5) Christopher Hitchens, Why Orwell Matters (2002).

What the World Needs is ... Evolutionary Love

On the day Donald Trump became president elected of the #USA2016 I went to a Stacey Kent concert in Rotterdam #Netherlands.

What lovely music. Her voice and singing: beautiful, intense, crystal clear and honest. I cried twice. After her first song she spoke to the audience. She told she slept that night 1.5 hour and that her heart was broken in thousands pieces because Hillary Clinton didn't win the elections. Heartbroken and devastated.

What puzzles me since, is 'Why?'. Why are so many people so over the top on Trump's "winning"? He won? She lost? Why don't we celebrate democracy? We agree, we disagree and we agree to disagree. Play hard to get selected but within the rules of the law. Democracy isn't perfect but it's, "the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried" (Churchill). Give the President elected a fair chance. In people we trust. In democracy we trust. In the long run presidents want to be remembered as a "good" president. This endeavor is a guarantee for "misbehavior". Have trust!

Next to that there is a bias when we see democratic elections as a "game of or win or lose". The image is according to me wrong. The engine of the evolutionary process is not struggle, strife, greed or competition. Rather it's nurturing love. In which individual 'homo sapiens' are prepared to sacrifice their own perfection for the sake of the wellbeing of its neighbor.

Addendum to my 'reading list on history' (October 19, 2016):
21. Charles S. Peirce/ Evolutionary Love (1893). Antidote against Charles Darwin's image 'Survival of the Fittest'. The image is not evolutionary competition but evolutionary love.

P.S. Number 21 is a footnote on number 4, this is the power of images/ metaphors.

50 Words For ...

The Sami languages have as many as 300 different words for types of snow, tracks in snow and conditions of the use of snow (source).

The people of the Cook islands have many words for the age, freshness and use of coconuts (Frisbie, 'The book of Puka-Puka' (1929)). More than 50 words?

The Ma'aza have more names for watercourses than any other topographical features (Hobbs, 'Bedouin Life in the Egyptian Wilderness' (1989)). More than 50 words?

What words are #top1 for
... Farmer in 8,000 BC? Different for the 20th Century farmer? Different 21th Century?
... Sailor in the 17th Century? Different for the 21st Century sailor?
... Singer?
... Writer? Different for a songwriter?
... Hooker?
... Soldier?
... Historian?
... Greek in year 2015? Different than in year 2005?
... Someone who loves listening to 'fado menor' music (listen: here)? Different for the singer?
... Lovers?
... Earthworm?
... Egyptologist?
... Bookreader?
... Someone who lives on the back of the Moon?
... Glider pilot? Different from a fighter pilot?
... Individual 'homo sapiens'? Different from species 'homo sapiens'?
... Oak (tree)? Different from a poppy (flower)?
... Blogger?
... Virtual assistent (VA)?
... Trapper who lives for 10 months a year in a lodge and makes use of a canoe?
... 'Poeta' or 'poetisa'? In Europe? In South America? In Australia?

Our Protagonist

"In twenty (2035) or thirty (2045) years the self-learning computers will outsmart the species 'homo sapiens'. For them discussing with us then, is like us discussing with earthworms now." 

Just a random quote that triggered my mind during a masterclass a couple of weeks ago. Like discussing with an earthworm! I never talk to earthworms. Do you? For me they are: fish bait or those animals who keep the soil airy. I never talk to them - I talk to the chickens but not to earthworms. I never discuss  with them.

What do earthworms think? Earthworm language - an aptitude test:

# begin #
I need food! I crawl further. Tasty little worms. Eat! Nice, another one. Eat! Stone material, I must go around those. Annoying also a tree root. Underneath! Corridor. I've been here before. I move further. More food. Eat this! That! And that! I am about to explode. Let me take a nap under that big tree. Sleep! Awake, what do I feel above me? It's the rhythm of rain. Quick! Move up, on the surface there's always enough to nibble between the grass: dung and decomposing animals. Yummy. It's nice here. Just eat a little more. Never stay too long on the surface because it's danger.  Later tonight I will return to have sex with other worms. With others is better than have sex alone. Much better. Move back.
# end #

And just before she/he [note] went back in her/his corridor to 'Sleep!' a blackbird came along. Who quickly grabbed - veni, vidi, vici - our protagonist in her mouth. A few moments later the senses of our earthworm stopped getting fresh input.

Imagine that we are the earthworm in 2045. Who or what is the blackbird? And whose eyes write and read this fable?

[Note] Earthworms are hermaphrodites. They are 'she' and 'he' at the same time because they have both female and male sexual organs.

Nothing to Add or Subtract

Remember the song 'Perfect' (1988) from pop band Fairground Attraction: song and lyrics? The song that tells us that 'it's got to be perfect' and not take 'second best'?

'Perfect'. Just a random word that all of us understand and comprehend. Really?

Give it a word and 'it' will come alive in our mouth and mind. For the ancient Egyptians a physical object, human being or enemy was born the moment you gave it a name by writing it down. Came alive by naming it!

The word 'perfection' was born a long time ago. Literally the Latin word 'perfection' means 'a finishing' or 'bringing to an end'. The genealogy of the concept 'perfection' reaches back to the ancient Greek word 'teleos'. The oldest definition is from Aristotle (4th century BC) and is more than 2,300 years old. I can't find the word 'perfect' in the quote? Correct :) in English the word 'telos' is translated as 'complete'.

Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book V, chapter 16. 

Quote from 'The Complete Works of Aristotle, Revised Oxford Translation', 

Edited by J. Barnes (1984)

Summerized. Aristotle calls 'perfect':

• 1. Which contains all the requisite parts
• 2. Which is so good that nothing of the kind could be better
• 3. Which has attained its purpose

Pretty down to Earth isn't it what Aristotle calls 'perfect' or 'complete'? A shoe that contains all the requisite parts. A flute-player that couldn't play better. Death as the last end of life.

After the ancient Greeks, the Christians "translated" the concept of 'perfect' to God. According to the Christians, human beings are never perfect after Adam and Eve ate from the apple. They make mistakes, sin and always there is something to add or subtract in what they do and let. Only God is perfect and we - human beings - have to embrace the fact that we are not. Never!

Somewhere in the 17th Century, God died in the main culture of Western Europe. 'Democracy' as a God was born. 'Love' as a 'God' was born. 'Peace (not War)' as a God was born. It has to be perfect. Nothing less. For that 'homo-sapiens' fight and kill.

Democracy as a Natural Law. Love as a Natural Law. Peace (not War) as a Natural Law. What a nonsense. It's projection. Made and invented concepts by 'homo-sapiens' in Western Europe. Historically biased.  Culturally biased. 'Homo-sapiens' biased. Individual 'homo-sapiens' biased. Highly subjective.

Look at the 'Venus de Milo'. Once this marble statue must have had arms too. Not perfect as a copy of a female body. Once the statue must have been without damages. Not perfect because of the damages in the marble. She is admired for her beauty. For some she is not perfect because of her hairstyle or the way she wears her skirt. For some this statue is the perfect representation of Greek classical art. For some  she will not be.

What's my point? 'Perfect' is a moment frozen in time. In a metaphor: it's a photo. Appreciated by some. Disgusting for others.

P.S. I wrote on 'Democracy' before: here (2009). And on 'God = Love': here (2010)

Unless

End of Time? Planet Earth without species 'homo sapiens'? 

I can imagine an Earth without our species on it. But it won't be true in reality for the next 5 billion years. (After that our Sun will turn into a Red Giant and life on Earth will be impossible.) I am very optimistic about our survival. Who can beat us - unless we kill ourselves? The species that is able to invent 'Mäusenplatten' (Miischplatta, Plaana or Stadelbeine) or 'Staddle stones'. Stones that keep mouses, rats and other vermin out of the food stocks.

Little Detail II

You can skip this blog! Not such a tasty topic.

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power, corrupts absolutely. The 42 year reign of Muammar Gaddafi (1942-2011) in Libya proves this 'fact' one more time. He was sex-obsessed and committed an endless list of sexual crimes. No woman or man was safe in his country. Rape for 'fun'. Rape for punishing. Rape for lust. Rape for manipulation. Children. Teens. Woman. He even raped the woman and daughters of his generals. And if he had to the generals themselves too. 

Complaining in Libya? Tricky ... mostly it was a death warrant.

Who sodomized him after being captured (source)? Why? Will we ever know?

Who pulled the trigger that killed him (source)? Why? Will we ever know?

After reading Annick Cojean's 'Gaddafi's Harem: The Story of a Young Woman and the Abuses of Power in Libya' (2012) my conclusion is that it could be any Libyan - and a lot of people from other countries. He had many enemies. And there were a lot of (wo)men who had reasons to avenge and to restore their (family)honour.  Someone's father? Someone's brother? Something personal?

P.S. There is a special lemma on Kaddafi's death on Wikipedia: here. Inconclusive who did it! 

Front Door

Would you open your front door for him? Would you invite him into your life? And mind and dreams? And in the end act alike? Would you've accepted Jesus as a prophet when you would have lived 2,000 years ago? Sure?

In retrospect it's easy to "see" who the true and false prophets were in history. In retrospect! What about the todays that are not lived yet and are not frozen into history? What to do with our present-day prophets who claim they "see" the end of time? Would you open your door for him or her? And in the end act alike?

What to do with Ronald Weinland? Is he a false prophet? The end of time did not come on September 29, 2011. Less than 3 months is left to May 27, 2012. Another false prophecy? Are you sure? Do we have to worry about: Greece in/out the EURO, killing fields in Syria, democracy in Egypt, next music CD of Madonna, holiday to Spain in July or ...?

What to do during the next 3 months? If I mock Weinland and his 'Church of God, Preparing for the Kingdom of God' (COG-PKG) I'll get cursed with "terminal diseases". After May hundreds of millions will die. According to the FAQ, his church is focused on helping those who are "genuine" in their desire to "follow and obey" God. We have to repent our false beliefs and practices, obey His ways of life and keep the Sabbath holy. "Finally, all must come to understand that there is only one true baptism in life whereby one can be forgiven of all sins. There is one true baptism into God’s one true Church, just as there is only one true Almighty Eternal God. Those who want to be baptized and desire to be begotten of God’s spirit must read and follow the instruction given."

In other words, Do We Need to Get Baptized into Weinland's COG-PKG?

How to get prepared for December 20-23, 2012? NASA has since 2007 received more than 5,000 questions from the public on this subject. Some asking whether they should kill themselves, kids and pets. 400 of those questions were answered (source). Should we Build a Spaceship and Fly Away from planet Earth - trying to escape?

• Collision or near-miss with a large planetary object (Nibiru)?
• Alien invasion?
• Being destroyed by a giant supernova or super-massive black hole?
• Geomagnetic reversal?

What's my point? Of course I'm teasing you :) ... there's no scientific proof for the doomsday scenarios above.  My real personal pleasure was puzzling on all those predicted end of time catastrophes. I looooooooooove puzzling. This is my point: Scientist are Prophets too. Making false and true predictions.  Only in retrospect we can tell which predictions were right and wrong. Who do I have to follow? What to do next?  

Little Detail

Look at this picture (November 2008) from Alvaro Ybarra Zavala - @alvaroybarra - from a soldier in the civil conflict in Congo. 

For me, at first it was just a random picture of a soldier in my newspaper. Until I realized what he is holding in his hand on the right: one hand from another human being (soldier?). Cut-off with the knife he is holding in his mouth? What horror :( My horror became even more evident and felt like a personal attack when I took a closer look at what he is holding in his hand on the left: Cut-Off Penis With Testicles! He deliberately cut off someone else's (external) genitalia. Why?

The soldier seems pretty normal to me. Rare kind of behavior in history? There is a historical parallel in Ancient Egypt. On the Narmer Palette, one of the oldest archaeological finds in Egypt, King Narmer (Old Kingdom) cut-off heads and genitalia from his enemies (source page 22). It's a find dating from the 31st century BC. 3100 + 2000 = 5100 years old! Rare in Ancient Egypt? No. "Mutilation of fallen enemies was commonplace in pharaonic Egypt. During the New Kingdom cut-off hands and genitals were dedicated to Amen-Re and their tally kept by scribes." (source)

Why? Body counting? Humiliation? Deprived of his vital body parts in this world he can never be reborn in the next? Lust for power? Souvenir? Or ...?

Please don't feel offended with this letter. I seek and want to face our human behavior. Even when it hurts.

P.S. @alvaroybarra added this caption (Spanish) to his picture. 

Mediterranean Salt

A few days ago I read this tweet (in Dutch) from @saskiadekkers. It was about the increasing informal economy in Portugal. No tax is paid for 1/4 of Portugal's GNP.

A lot? Typical of the countries in the South of Europe? I don't know. I was wondering if there is a correlation/connection between the financial crisis in Europe (starting around 2008) and the amount of ‘informal economy’ in a country. I collated some online data I collected to give an answer to this question.

The picture is pretty clear. In the South the economy is more informal and there is more corruption. In the North it's less. France and USA both belong to the northern way of behavior.

Question 'Is there a correlation between the amount of informal economy and the present day interest rates for Government bonds'? Answer: YES! The more informal the economy the more a country has to pay for the 10 year notes. Mark again the difference between the South and North of Europe. 

Mark that in the picture above Greece is a special case. If the correlation is 1 we would expect an interest rate between 5 and 7. The present day interest rate (34,36%) for Greece is rare. 

France is (partly) a southern country - if we look at the map - but in the pictures above it's 'clair' that they belong to the northern way of behavior and are treated alike for what they have to pay for their 10 year bonds. 

"Vada a bordo, cazzo!" (English 'Go on board, dick') Says who?
Sources for data: (a) informal economy; (b) corruption; (c) interest rates 2012-01-18 10:48:34; interest rates Turkey 2012-01-18. 

Birds and bees do it. Rivers do it. Let's...

Desire Paths. Do They Make You Smile Too? 

Last week I've been thinking about why desire paths make me smile. Better: make me laugh a lot :)) Ever noticed the eroded shortcuts caused by footfall where constructed pathways take a circuitous route?  The paths usually represent the shortest and/ or most easily navigated route between an origin and destination.

Did you know that those shortcuts had a name? I didn't. I found out only a couple of months ago.

1. The birds and bees do it. Rivers do it! (Here is the life history of a meander.) Look at the bends in rivers. The water that crawls like a snake through the landscape. The play of water and obstructions (rock, harder soil, trees, etc).  And  human intervention when we channelize them.

2. People do it! At school we learn - the hard way - how we have to write and speak properly. And in real life? We play with language. What we write on Twitter and via SMS is a mix of abbreviations, emoticons :) , #hashtags, wrds whre lettrs are missng, different languages, words that make sense in a context, single letters or digits replacing words or syllables, slang etc. In real life we use language most of the time in a shortcut format. Ever read a properly written shoppinglist?

3. Cain and Abel did it! Desire paths are connected to the old story of the two sons of Adam and Eve in the (Hebrew) Bible. Remember the story? Cain is a farmer and his younger brother Abel is a shepherd. Abel is murdered by Cain. The fight between constructed pathways versus desire paths is deep down - since 10,000 BC - the fight between farmers/ settled people/ Cain versus  hunter-gatherers/ Abel.

Why do shortcuts make me smile? Because every-time when we're trespassing the non-constructed soil of Others we are feeding the hunter-gatherer/ Abel in us. Most (who not?) of us live in our time and age settled in houses but ... deep down we long for wandering. We have wanderlust ;) 

Still there? It's about you too

"Work Expands so as to fill the Time Available for its completion." Still there? Just wait for a moment. It's about you too!

Why did you want to skip this Post? Is it boring to talk about 'to complete work'? You already know all you need to know about this subject? Really?

I'm a manager for more than 10 years. Time and again I hear "We Need More Capacity!" Sure. But having more slack resources, like more 'workforce capacity', is no guarantee that our company would finally have time for all the work that needs to be done. Why not? Because we as species 'homo sapiens' spend our time anyway. Our time for our tasks fills the time we have available. Regardless how much time there is. 8 hours, 24 hours, 40 hours or 80 hours a week.

Did you notice that this applies to:

• Social media. 1 hour chatting, tweeting or listening to music a day? We can - effortlessly - spend 24 hours on the web talking to our online friends.
• Lover. Just eating with the two of us. We can look into each other's eyes for weeks.
• TV. Watching a movie, a soccer game and a whodunit story. Time flies.
• Books. I could read for days at a row. How about you?
• Glider club. I could spend every week, at least 2 days with my friends at the glider club. Talking about flying up there. And flying in the blue sky. 

Why am I telling you all this? At work. At home. In our mind. It's not about having lack of time. It's about priorities and urgencies of the things we want to do. It's about making choices. And sticking to them.

One last thing. Ever noticed that the same can be said about money? Our expenditures rise to meet our income. Regardless how much we gain.   

P.S. The laws above are not something I've made-up. It's the first and second law of C.N. Parkinson (1909-1993).

This is when my buzzer goes

Sometimes I dream that I'm awake. Sometimes I'm awake and dream. Sometimes I forget the source of what I think. Was it in my dreams? Was it during daytime? Or was it in the time in between? In between sleeping, dreaming and waking up in the morning ... vaguely remembering images and words.

A few days ago I thought for a few hours that in portuguese 'sonho' is the word for both 'dream' and 'cloud'. I was wondering how the connection was ever born. What a great image: a dream as a cloud! I had questions like:

• When was this connection born? 12th century? Context?
• Influence of Roman, Christian and Muslim worldview?
• Is this image (partly) shifted since we are able to fly?

Stop! I checked out in a dictionary. The portuguese word for 'dream' is 'sonho'. And 'nuvem' for 'cloud'. I wasn't able to find (better: refind) any connection. In retrospect I must have dreamed it. Influenced by a song - which one?

Today another dream was shattered. Progress? Progress since species 'homo sapiens' went farming and settled? Progress since our Neolithic Revolution 10,000  years ago? Really? All the Hot, New, Cool and Wow Stuff of Today  are Extensions. The car and airplane are an extension of legs. Phone of the ear. TV of the eye. The computer of the brain. A machine gun with dumdum bullets an extension of our ancestors sticks and stones. None of these extensions ever succeeded - to my knowledge - in changing human nature. People behave as ever (non-limited list): ambitious, in love, greedy and selfish.

This weekend a lonely New "Knight Templar" went on Crusade in Norway. Fighting against the multi-cultural society and Islam. I thought it was "real" in a bad dream. But when I woke up it was still there.

Not purification. It's cooling down, stupid ;)

Earthquakes. Tsunamis. War. Where do they come from? What caused them? It  must be one of the most ancient questions. Punishment of God? A stitch of the Devil? Allah's sign to those who are not servile to his laws? Notice End of Time? Or ...? What do you think?

Last week @The_LoveGoddess tweeted this:

• "The heart is the core of the earth. When the earth is shaken everything is pulled back to this core. This is gravity.... This is LOVE."
• "My first attempt to do a video message. In Light of March 10, 2011 World Events YouTube #TSUNAMI #EARTHQUAKE  Love and light - J"

Juno (The_LoveGoddess) claims in her youtube-message that #earthquake and #tsunami in #japan are part of God's divine plan. It's the "purification" of mother Earth/ Nature. We don't have to worry or cry. It's Love.

The image of "purification" puzzles me. Next to that it puzzles me that a mystic like Juno shares with great passion her claim. Absolutely convinced that her truth is True.

First some facts. The world according to me:

• God or gods are psychological projection of species 'homo sapiens'. Names of JWH, God and Allah are not given to humanity by Him via a holy book but are given by human messengers to Him. Given to Him. Not the other way around. more
• Religion has been invented by species ‘homo sapiens’. In a way human beings need some external “being” to give their lives direction and meaning. more
• Our life is sweet and sour. These days it seems we don't want to see our sour emotions anymore. We deny them. Translating 'sour' by purification is a denial. more
• Enlightenment. It happened to me three times. What? THAT what Plotinus calls: lifted out of the body into myself and beholding marvellous beauty, becoming One with the Universe. more

Keep the details above in mind when you read my letter to Juno.  

Dear Juno,

Nuts? I don't think you are nuts by claiming that the earthquakes and the tsunami in Japan (March 2011) are "purification". At the same time I think you are wrong. The metaphor or image is wrong. Any idea how influential images are? more
When I read in between your tweets I know that you had your moment(s) of enlightenment. You feel the need to share your message or connection with "God" to the world. You are a mystic! You want to share your love.
According to me there is no such thing as God. Nor Devil. Nobody is testing, punishing or rewarding planet Earth with everyone and everything on it. No one is pulling strings. Nothing is cleaning or purifying planet Earth.

Species 'homo sapiens' lives on planet Earth. A planet with a crust that occupies less than 1% of Earth's volume. Do we live on solid ground? Hardly! Earthquakes come and go. Planet Earth is cooling down. Image 'cooling down'.
People built houses on steady ground. Mostly rocks. For generations it's a save spot. Everyone in Japan knows they are living on a fault line. It's dangerous. The risks are acceptable. If not they would have moved to another place a long time ago. It's sour when relatives drown in a tsunami and your house and the rest of the village is wiped out. 

Why am I writing this letter to you? It's a letter from a friend. (Always beware of your friends!) The presentday sour in Japan is not God's, Planet Earth's or Mother Nature's purification. It's the cooling down of planet Earth. Don't deny the sour. Don't confound love with bad luck or misfortune. It's cooling down, stupid ;)

Best regards,
@JeanD99

What do You Think. Why do We Watch TV?

Look at talkshow host Oprah Winfrey. Look at U2 rockband singer Bono. Look at Paris Hilton. Take 30 seconds … what do you see? Differences? Resemblances?

I see a big campfire. Only 3 ‘homo sapiens’ generations ago we all sat, with our own 40-60 group, around campfires. Looking at the fire. Eating and drinking. Dream a little. Chat a lot. Making plans for tomorrow. In our time and age we exchanged campfire for TV and other social media.

In the past our group consisted family, neighbors, friends etc. People who all lived nearby. People we all knew face to face. These days our 40-60 group is spread throughout planet Earth and consists: family, popstars, celebrities, Twitter and Facebook friends, writers etc. Most of them we don’t know personally. We get informed about them via TV, glossies, newspapers, tweets etc. We know much more about them then about the neighbor 5 houses down the street.

The setting changed. Our 40-60 group changed. But what remains is the amount of people we follow. Still 40-60. What remains is our need for people who change ideas with us: what's next? what happened? what to do tomorrow? who can we trust and who not?

Look at the fire. What do you see? 

You know?

Only 200-300 years old! Did you know that all our present day focus on I, Me and Self is a highly biased perspective? It's a Western Enlightenment view on life of species 'Homo Sapiens'. It's only a couple of 100 years old. 200 - 300 years old! Surprised?

Twenty years ago I planned to write "someday" a book on the history of happiness. Four years ago I realised I don't have to write it anymore. It's already written by Darrin M. MacMahon in his book 'Happiness: A history'. I read it 4 years ago. Back than I needed a mirror. I needed something that dried my tears and cleared my head. Reading Darrin's book worked perfect for me. 

In a way we as species invented (better: have been inventing) "happiness". The definition on what a happy life is changed a few times during history (source):

• Homeric.  Happiness = Luck
• Classical. Happiness = Virtue
• Medieval. Happiness = Heaven
• Enlightenment. Happiness = Pleasure
• Contemporary. Happiness = A Warm Puppy

It's my birthday today and I cry if I want to.

Not on Tanja Nijmeijer (FARC). Or is it too?

Some time ago I read this quote: "We spend money we do not have, to buy stuff we don't need, to impress people we don't like". A lot of people despise this kind of behavior. I don't.

This quote poped up yesterday when I re-read a bookreview on David Hazony's book 'The Ten Commandments'. The 2nd commandment reads 'You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol.' David's interpretation of this commandment: smash the narcissistic idols of wealth and fashion. Mark that David tries to (re)find the wisdom of the 10 commandments beneath, above or beyond all the religious controversies. His set of 10 commandments is a complete blueprint for individuals and society as a whole. It's a guideline to improve or change the world. To make a better world. To make all of us more caring. Regardless of our religion.

Look at Fidel Castro (Washington 1959) wearing his militairy green. Always in "casual" green in order not not get distracted what to wear next and to be equal to his compañeros. Question: Did (better: does) Fidel smash his idols of wealth and fashion?

What's my opinion on all this? A dream of a fashionless, equal world for all people is an illusion. It's a dream. I believe above all that we are apes. Selfish apes fighting for our personal survival and the group(s) we live in. Showing wealth, good health and good taste is something that individual apes need to gain a partner to get procreated.  Show off and impress other apes is relevant for the peck order and our survival to be fit. It's competition. Sharing is no big deal in a world of plenty but when there is not enough ...

• we will crush or stampedes others in moments of panic at religious pilgrimages, professional sporting or music events
• we will eat other human beings (taste like chicken) when our plane is crashed on a remote spot 
• we will be selfish like Ingrid Betancourt on her "trip" with the FARC

This blog is not on Tanja Nijmeijer (FARC). Or is it too?

NON-READ REVIEW BOOK 'THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

Dear David,

Let me first say this. I do understand the reason why you wrote this book. I do appreciate your project. I do understand your 'win'. But ... I don't comprehend my 'win' and why this book is urgent for me to read (and re-think etc) now.

1. You wrote "Ten ideas constitute a worldview that has not been articulated before". Title of your book is 'THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. How Our Most Ancient Moral Text Can Renew Modern Life'. Your claim of "most ancient moral text" is false. The oldest Hebrew bible dates from 600 BCE (source). 2.000 year earlier (ca 2770-2250 BCE) the ancient Egyptian concept of Maat was written down. Maat was the concept of truth, balance, order, law/ justice and morality. In the Book of Death, chapter 125 ('The negative confession') we can find most of the 10 commandments. I'm not a specialist on ancient moral texts but I guess we can find in China and Mesopotamia even older texts on this subject.

2. You wrote "The message is that [Ten Commandments] really have to offer us is of deep and immediate importance to our lives - regardless of faith." I do not disagree with your claim but the same could be said of every other (past or recent) culture on planet Earth. Every culture has it's own given set on proper/ good/ right behavior for individuals and groups.

3. Why should I read a book about something all individual 'Homo Sapiens' know by nature, by our innate morality? An inborn morality that we all know and understand regardless of faith or God/ gods we are focused on. Not religion is the rock of our human behaviour our inborn morality is. Check out Marc Hauser's The Moral Sense Test. Hauser: atheists have the same moral scores as deep believers. Even psychopaths have the same scores in the Moralitytest.

4. "Each commandment helps us become more caring, world-changing individuals." Sure! But why should I read your book on this? Why can't you write a 2 A4 blog on this? I'm interested in your message. I'm interested in your comments and interpretation of the 10 commandments. But I don't want to read your book.

Once again I do understand your 'win' of the book you wrote - it must have  been a great journey - but I don't understand my or our species Homo Sapiens' 'win'. What's the urgency for me? Why not summurarize your message in a blog on what it really means according to you to be a human being (love, life, wisdom, the self, property and insecurity)? Is your presupposition that by sharing your message in a book the mirror works better?

Best regards,

Jean

Of mice and men

Is it a coincidence that Michel de Montaigne and Dulce Maria Cardoso favorite pastime is just let time pass by and do nothing? Just like me. Why do we like this so much? Is it your favorite pastime too? Why?

This weekend I returned from my summerholiday. For 3 weeks I was with my family at the Mediterranean near Martigue (France). What can I say?  It was a good and lovely holiday. The weather was warm (>25C) and sunny. In my country it rained for more than 2 weeks. I read  6 books. Kids swam a lot at the swimmingpool and in the sea. We made a trip to Marseille twice. I loved the "wild" Calanques between Marseille and Casis. Strolled on the streets of Vincent van Gogh' Arles. Visited Cezanne's old atelier on a hill  (Lauves) in Aix-en-Provence. After 100 years Mont Sainte-Victoire is no longer visible from his/ this spot. Big trees everywhere. My kids were impressed by the  castle of  Tarascon. I missed the medieval smell. I looked for mouses (didn't see any). I made 2 coastwalks of more than 5 hours alone. I love to walk alone.

I could give you many more details.  I could show you all the pictures that were made. You could interview me, my wife and our 4 kids. We could ... - there must be more - but in the end we will end with "empty" hands. The truth is that we can't freeze or grab the days that pass by one by one. In a way I enjoy my life most when I don't freeze it. When I'm out of control. When I have no real target other than just let time pass by. Read a little. Dream a litte. Talk, eat, make love and hug a little. Write a little.

Since 10.000 BC species 'homo sapiens' settled down. No more walking around looking for something to eat. They settled down in farms and cities. Enough food nearby. Cooked food. More and more of us hardly need to invest time in getting and digest something to eat. So much much spare time compared to the other 'homo' species. It made us the species of today.

What's my point? We as species 'homo sapiens' lost something  since the agricultural and city revolution. Before this revolution - in my opinion the only two real ones - we had only one target: food, shelter, safety and reproduction. What did we lost? We lost track of our species dedication. We gained distraction. We gained so much distraction that most of us are most of the time lost. Lost! Got lost in distraction.

Since our species settled down we live together with mouses. Just realize every now and then that most of our species 9.000 generations of ancestors were not familiar with mouses. Nor with houses. Nor with cities. They walked around looking for ...

Question: are those whose favorite pastime is 'Just let time pass by and do nothing' those who are NOT lost in distraction?