If birds sing in the morning Why not me Why not we
I quickly turned to a rhinoceros.* There is a famous Zen koan that has nothing to do with birds. Also everything to do with birds, even if they are not mentioned.
I thought of writing about the koan here. Funny that I haven’t before. I thought of sending friends the koan, found at Blue Cliff Record 92, without explanation or commentary. What would they think? What do you think?
Yanguan (750-843) called to his attendant, saying, “Bring me the rhinoceros fan**.” The attendant said, “It’s broken.” Yanguan said, “If the fan is broken, then bring me the rhinoceros.” The attendant didn’t answer.
*I didn’t intend for that sentence to be multi-layered, but it could be. I wrote “turned to” to mean changing the subject. One of the great absurdist plays by Eugene Ionesco is Rhinoceros, in which the people of a town one-by-one turn into a rhinoceros. It is sometimes interpreted as a parable about people turning into Nazis during World War II.
**Likely an expensive item, made of rhinoceros horn or picturing a rhinoceros. Not someone who is fanatical about rhinoceros.
Note: Originally I used the word “bullshit” instead of “nonsense”. Even if many of us use the word regularly, it does have a harsh ring. Feel free, when you read “nonsense” to make the substitution.
I am not an expert on the impact of truth and nonsense in public life. I am, however, familiar with both.
For this purpose, I define truth as reasonable, rational, well-informed and even-handed discussion of actuality. Nonsense is discussion that is untruthful, ill-informed, illogical and driven by ideology. Of course many things don’t and can’t neatly fit into those categories. But for this purpose, they will serve.
The premise is that there is always a ratio of the two. Society, the nation, the world are more livable and workable when that ratio is at a certain point. If the ratio of truth to nonsense gets too low—say one part truth to two or three parts nonsense—trouble is on the way, or has already arrived.
That ratio has reached a critically low point in American public life. It shouldn’t be necessary to list the many examples. One election and one major public figure should be enough.
When nonsense overwhelms truth, rather than it just being an unavoidable and unhelpful element, the consequences can be dire and unpredictable. People who value truth grow discouraged and demoralized. People begin to wonder whether truth is achievable or worthwhile pursuing. People begin to think that nonsense in public life isn’t as bad as some say. In fact, for them nonsense may be the most expedient way to reach certain goals.
History is filled with times the truth/nonsense ratio has hit dangerously low levels, sometimes with truth practically disappearing. The outcomes have been tragic.
Is there a rebalancing remedy? I am a sworn optimist. But we can’t ignore that the former president was found to have told more than 10,000 lies during four years in office. That’s an average of about ten lies a day. He’s kept up the pace after leaving office, even under oath. And he’s running again, talking nonsense and having powerful people talk nonsense for him.
What can you do? Speak truth (reasonable, rational, well-informed, even-handed). Encourage and praise truth and truth telling. Discourage, uncover, dispute, politely criticize, aggressively condemn (as appropriate) nonsense, whoever and wherever.
Plato suggested we might be best ruled by philosopher kings.
Besides adding queens, I add poets.
Politicians, scientists, all kinds of smart or not so smart people think they are the ones to lead us through our challenging times. Poets and philosophers are mostly marginalized and ignored, because they are thought to be out of touch with hard realities and useless when it comes to critical matters.
Note that it is sometimes the politicians, scientists and smart people who have created and worsened those challenging times. Poets and philosophers offer unique perspectives on those challenges and realities.
As I’ve said before, we need more poets and philosophers in our field of vision and our public lives. Ask for them to be there. And if you are one of them, be there.
Joe sits most days on the porch of his house on Main Street. Everybody knows Joe, most everybody likes him. People passing by stop and chat. They listen to Joe’s wisdom, his stories about his life, what he’s done, what he’s seen. He can get a little nostalgic, but that’s just Joe being Joe.
Don doesn’t live on Main Street. He lives in a mansion on the hill. Every day his driver brings him around. He gets out of the limo, walks around, grabbing anyone who’ll listen. He talks and talks and talks, mostly about himself or about some cockeyed vision of the town and how it’s going to hell, unless he saves it. Some people like Don, but most people are just scared of him. He seems to be getting crazier every day. He is frightening, but some say that’s just Don being Don.
Election for mayor is coming up soon. Joe and Don have both decided to run. People are sad, because they know the town has other people who could do a better job. Will Joe get off the porch? Will Don stop threatening people? Is there something wrong with the town?
What is mysticism? One of many words that can mean many things. As Humpty Dumpty said, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
In The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic and Mysticism, Rabbi Geoffrey Dennis tries to define it:
The term “mysticism” is one commonly applied, but imperfectly defined….
Scholars have struggled to give a precise definition to what constitutes mysticism within the Western religious traditions. Most regard it to be the impulse, ideology, and discipline to experience the unmediated presence of God or, more radically, union with divinity or a more broadly defined “Absolute.” Evelyn Underhill calls it, “… the expression of the innate tendency of the human spirit towards complete harmony with the transcendental order; whatever be the theological formula under which that order is understood.” Others see mysticism as a project of human transformation, the radical revision of human nature in relationship to the divine.
There is a substantial body of mysticism in Judaism, as there is in its younger siblings Christianity and Islam. The place of mysticism in these religions is complex and varied over time and circumstances. While mysticism might lead to fierce conflicts (“my enlightened vision is better than your enlightened vision”), the “radical revision of human nature” can also lead to followers experiencing other people and things in a more humane, open and divine way.
I don’t know of research measuring the study and adoption of mysticism among contemporary Jews. My anecdotal observation is that it might be small.
To a certain extent, materialism is the opposite of mysticism. Things are things but also transcendentally more than things. Land is land but transcendentally more than land. As religionists say, the phenomenal and the noumenal. We need and can’t avoid having and using the things, but that leads to attaching to the things, which inevitably leads to trouble, within ourselves and in the world. Mysticism, easily lost in the everyday of religions, including Judaism, and certainly lost in the turmoil, could be helpful right now.
Moon landing goes sideways: Odysseus mission will be cut short after craft tipped over
Flight controllers are expected to lose contact Tuesday or Wednesday with the Odysseus lunar lander – just days after it toppled over while completing a historic moon landing.
The private U.S. spacecraft made it to the moon last Thursday and ushered in a new era of lunar missions since NASA’s Apollo program ended five decades ago.
Then things went, well, sideways.
Intuitive Machines, the Houston space company that built Odysseus, said it’s likely that the 14-foot-tall lander tipped over when it touched down on the moon after its foot caught on a rock. Fortunately for Intuitive Machines – and for NASA, the mission’s primary customer – the lander maintained limited function even though its antennas were not pointed at Earth.
This story isn’t funny. Maybe a little funny. No one got hurt, unless the moon lander is a person.
A lesson. In humility. In chaos and randomness. Of all the rocks in all the universe its foot got caught in that one.
I asked ChatGPT what the odds of this happening are:
The odds of a moon lander tripping over a rock on the moon depend on various factors, including the size and distribution of rocks on the lunar surface, the design and capabilities of the lander, and the precision of the landing process.
Here are some considerations:
Rock Distribution: The lunar surface is covered with rocks of various sizes, ranging from small pebbles to larger boulders. The density of rocks can vary significantly depending on the landing site.
Lander Design: The design of the lander plays a crucial role. Modern lunar landers are equipped with advanced navigation and hazard avoidance systems to detect and avoid obstacles during descent and landing. These systems use cameras, radar, LIDAR, or other sensors to assess the terrain and make adjustments to the landing trajectory accordingly.
Landing Site Selection: Landing sites are carefully chosen to minimize the risk of encountering hazardous terrain such as large rocks or steep slopes. Site selection involves extensive mapping and analysis of the lunar surface to identify safe and scientifically valuable locations.
Mission Planning and Execution: Mission planners take into account the potential risks associated with landing on the moon and develop strategies to mitigate them. This includes optimizing the landing trajectory, conducting simulations and tests, and implementing contingency plans in case of unexpected obstacles.
Overall, while the possibility of a moon lander tripping over a rock cannot be completely ruled out, modern spacecraft are designed and equipped to minimize such risks through careful planning, advanced technology, and thorough testing.
The Democratic establishment is now complaining that “the media” are paying too much attention to questions about Biden’s age and not enough attention to Trump’s legal troubles.
In what universe?
I would be happy to see that the wall-to-wall saturation coverage of the Trump Trials actually had some effect on his chances to be the Republican nominee and to be elected president. There isn’t much evidence of that effect.
By comparison, the coverage of Biden’s age issue, or of his verbal and possibly cognitive slips, is relatively small. These are covered, which is unavoidable and appropriate, whether Biden or the party likes it or not. Politically inconvenient, but not out of proportion.
The Democratic establishment is well-known for dealing itself and holding difficult hands to play. The 2016 demand that Hillary be the nominee, despite her obvious political weaknesses, is a recent example, and one with still-current consequence. Once set, was there any real way of getting out of it? Just do what you can until election day.
That’s exactly where the Democrats are now. What do they expect from their complaints? Will the media stop reporting Biden’s age? Will they report his age but follow every report with the message that age doesn’t matter, even with the oldest candidate ever? The Democrats can’t “manage” this and other issues because even the best crafted message won’t change minds and can’t change what people see and hear with their own eyes and ears. It surely won’t change what the media does.
People who think that Trump is a criminal and a con man already know that, and have decided he should or shouldn’t be president in spite of that or because of that. No overwhelming number of trials is going to affect that. People who think that Biden is too old or too likely to suffer from cognitive decline already know that, and have decided he should or shouldn’t be president in spite of that or because of that.
Two parties holding two terrible hands they dealt themselves—and us. Dispiriting and potentially disastrous. Speaking just to the Democrats right now, it’s not the fault of the media.
A canopy of clouds covered dawn. I started to walk away as a hint of light tinted the dark blanket. I was frozen eyes open. By minute the red rolled over the gray. Afire. A miracle.
If you don’t appreciate everything You can’t appreciate anything
Bob Schwartz 