Heraclitus' Cold Feet

“Into a river you can’t step twice,”

Heraclitus declaimed his sage advice.

“You can stand on the land

And dance on the strand,

But 'NO WADING!'

unless it's on ice."

*Note:

"The river
Where you set
Your foot just now
Is gone---
Those waters
Giving way to this,
Now this."

Fragments: The Collected Wisdom of Heraclitus, Translated by Brooks Haxton.

Patterns--What Could Be Simpler?

I read in a recent issue of New Scientist, that aging, which may bring with it memory loss, Alzheimer’s, dementia, and a boat load of other mental maladies does have one benefit: increased “pattern recognition.” Yep, as one gets older, a lot of things get dimmer and fade away, but apparently one of the few things that gets, or at least can get, stronger and brighter is pattern recognition, which Laura Spiney the author of the article “Golden Oldies”(New Scientist, August 13, 2005) says is a critical component of problem-solving skills. “Pattern recognition is useful for solving problems. It is the ability to see that the object or problem confronting you belongs to a group of similar objects, and is therefore likely to have similar properties. So you can solve the problem on the basis of prior experience, without knowing very much about it. So, you see, as we get older, we get more capable of solving problems. In our wizened years, we are able to see that a given problem, let us call it problem “X,” is quite like other problems that we’ve encountered, like say, problems “U, V, and W”. If, in the past, we solved “U, V and W” with strategy “A”, strategy “A” might be able to solve our current problem “X”. (Unless of course, problem “X” is a bit different and is really more like problem “Y”, in which case, given my increasingly powerful pattern recognition capabilities, I will note that problem “X” is more amenable to strategy “B”.) So in this case, where I might have used Strategy “A”, instead I will use strategy “B”. But wait a minute! What if strategy “B” has been better used with problems “R, S, and T?” Strategy “B” will not work with “U, V, and W”. Any ol’ fool can see that! No, “U, V, and W” will require a much more subtle strategic approach. It will require strategy “C”. So, in order to make the long story of pattern recognition, a short story, problem “X,”---which I originally thought looked like problems “U, V, and W,” but which in fact, looks much more like problems “R, S and T”--- will be solved, not by strategy “A,” or “B,” but by strategy “C”! I will solve problem “X” with strategy “C”! Voila! There you have it. The amazing story of how, as we get older, all problems are the same. And all we really need to do, is use the same solution for whatever problem we may encounter. From now on, you, like I, will benefit from solving all of our problems with the same solution. What could be simpler?

Told You Not to Wander 'Round in the Dark

It has been raining here for 7 or 8 days. It’s Biblical. Last night, I walked Stanley in the pouring rain and howling wind. The trees were heavy with rain, their leaves pulled down by a conspiracy of gravity and damp weariness. Stanley was happy, as he padded around looking for the right place to leave his doggy signature. I wore headphones and listened to the recent release of Cream Live at the Royal Albert Hall (2005). The streetlight at the corner had gone out, and as I rounded the bend with Stanley pulling at his leash, everything was ink black, sopping wet, and horror-movieish. The song "Badge" was on, a song originally written 35 years ago, or more, by Mr. Clapton and George Harrison. "I told you not to wander round in the dark. I told you about the swans that they live in the park. Then I told you about a kid, now he's married to Mabel." What does this mean? I don’t know. Shouldn't I be reciting Yeats instead? Jeez. The curse of the 60s. It’s my music, like it or not. The driving base, the searing lead guitar. The inane lyrics that seem, somehow, to speak to me—across the years--- with some poignant meaning, despite their inanity. The rain, the rain, the damn rain driving down. The dog looking for a place to poop, but he too, now growing weary of the rain. "I'm talking about a girl that looks quite like you. She didn’t have the time to wait in the queue. She cried away her life since she fell off the cradle." At least the trees are beautiful with the night all tangled up in them. An invisible beauty I need to imagine, because it is too damn black and windy for me see much, nor to linger here long. “You’d better pick yourself up off the ground, before they bring the curtain down.” Maybe this is a song about death? About the ineluctable fate that everyone must confront. Who cares if the 60s are 40 years in the past. Who cares that the past has passed. There is only a past for those who are living. For the dead there is nothing, not even nothing, because the deceased are no more. Auden: “What Happens to the living when we die?/Death is not understood by death; nor you, nor I.” Stanley, almost invisible in his poodle blackness, decides he’s had enough and tugs me in the direction of home. Which way is that, Stanley?

The Air Conditioned Class: "It's Climate Change, Silly, Not Global Warming."

In response to a recent post by one of our readers and the reader's trusty canine (you know who you are, so I need not mention any names here) the following:

Dear (Name of Reader), and of course, (Name of Reader's Dog):

Thank you for your thoughtful comments on the state of Air Conditioning, a.k.a., the Air Conditioned State. We here at Moo Moo Camus, and our subsidiary organization, the Bureau of Social Turmoil, are happy that you have, with your clever acumen, penetrated the fog of our initial observation. Indeed, to wit, viz, i.e, : a specter is haunting all of Europe, and indeed, the other important parts of the known world, including Anaheim and Orlando, and it is the specter of the international air conditioned class, who hope one day to seize control of the state (including the states of Florida and California, but not Idaho---too many hot potatoes) and impose a world numbing condition (to wit: air conditioning) on all of humanity. This state will henceforth be known as "Chilly" (not to be confused with the South American nation, nor with ingredients of Mexican food). Chilly will be ruled by a small elite of neo-conservatives, neo-liberals, and neo-anderthals whose every effort will be directed toward making the world safe for global warming. Their motto however, will be, "Everything is cool". They will work, day and night, to make us all think that everything is cool, really cool, when in fact , it is not. Once they have worked their evil, everyone will want to be 'cool.' Everyone. And pretty soon, everyone will THINK that he or she IS cool. Then people from all walks of life will walk around, thinking, "I am really cool," and "everything is cool." And more insidiously, they will FEEL cool.

Once this new elite, the air conditioned class, has stabilized power, it will not stop at anything. It will announce that the world is cool and that you and I are cool, and that even Donald Trump is cool. Next thing you know, they will have us believe that even capitalism is cool. And everyone will want to be a capitalist and everyone will want to be on 'the Apprentice,' or worse, some home remodeling show on the E-channel. Everyone will be infatuated with themselves, thinking, "I am cool, the world is cool, capitalism is cool, everything is cool." But of course, (Name of Reader), you and I will know better. You and I, and perhaps ( name of Reader's dog) too, in is doggy perceptiveness-- will know the truth: WE ARE ALL IN A WHOLE LOT OF HOT WATER!

Down with the Air Conditioned Class. Long live Air Conditioning!

Air Condition the Roman Forum!

Pictured here, MMC and daughter at the Roman Forum (and Siena), August, 2005. 2500 years of history, layer upon layer, in the footsteps of the Emperors, the foundations, both literally and figuratively, of Western civilization, and all I can think about while here is, 'My god, its, 95 degrees and what I wouldn't give for a cool Lime Squishy and a dunk in a pool.' Of course, there was no pool available. OK, so creature-comfort comes before my appreciation of high culture and the history of Wesern Civ . I'm spoiled. I've become a member of the air conditioned class. (Thanks Sandra for the Class designation)

For all those awaiting more philosphical insight: Here is what I am thinking today: Why have human civilizations throughout history so much depended upon barbarism, terror, and violence, to sustain themselves? Take, for example the Roman gladiatorial system and the theme of brutal circuses and free bread. It wasn't just that the participants must have been brutalized, but the whole of Roman society must have internalized a kind of normalized violence and cruelty. Oh Oh! (Sound Familiar?) Fast forward 2000 years: Q: What's changed in contemporary, advanced industrial societies? How much have we progressed? A: Air conditioning.

Today, in our contemporary culture, we have plenty of spectator viloence, although much formerly overt public violence has been hidden from view and is perpetrated far from our eyes (e.g Iraq and Afganistan, Darfour, etc.). At home, sadistic cuelty now takes the place of gladiatorial mahem in the cultural arena; to wit "reality" TV shows (which are, of course aything BUT, real) and the fine achievments on offer, from FOX, like "the Apprentice."

In any case, we saw Rome, Venice, Siena, Pisa, and Florence. Took in all the sites--including the Doge's palace in Venice. Lots of old buildings and old culture. And old illustratrions of the connections between culture, politics, economics and power. I really liked the Doge's palace, in Venice, because among other things, it illustrated perfectly, the early inseparability of church, the organized military violence of the state, and (Catholic) ideology. (The ideology was of course, more beautifully portrayed by impressive painters, than today's global Coke and Rebok ads). The 'Bridge of Sighs' runs directly from the Doge's palace (the seat of political and merchant economic power) to the prison and torture rooms. So it must have been pretty clear to 17th c Venetians who held the power and to what use such power was directed. Church, state,
military----all within a few hundred yards of one another. All wrapped up in one palace-sized complex of state power. As I mentioned to H, it would be likehaving the Capitol building in Washington DC, the federal prisons, and the U.S. Army all connected by a convenient catwalk.

Ummmm, maybe things haven't changed that much, after all?? Except for, of course, the air conditioning.

Sirius, the Dog[1]

There once was a dog named Sirius

Who’d chase his tail, until he became quite delirious

He’d run round and round

Until he wound down

And couldn’t tell his front from his rearious

---

[1] The dog in this poem is named after the star, Sirius, which appears in the constellation of the Big Dog, or Canis Major. Because Sirius is the brightest star in the Big Dog constellation, it's called the Dog Star. It's a double star, which means it has a tiny companion star that spins around it. Could that be Sirius' tail?

Back at the Wheel After A Long Absence

Just returned from Italy. Two weeks in Venice, Florence, and Rome. Jet-lag, and anomie. Where are we? Methinks that too much time has passed since my last entry. Need to write a few lines in order to see if I am still able to write at all. (Was I ever able to write??) Here goes:

Sharp horizon
rusts
against the Agean.
No Odysseus,
yet a return after exile.
Everything piles up
like the smooth stones of dreams.
Plumb the sockets of this sea
until the measure
of what we are
is nothing
dreamed of,
nothing gained.