I realize that the books Andrew lent me involve goal setting and dog mindedness through extreme sports. A point Andrew made is that ego can get in the way, and in the book it goes to, approaches injury or even death. Pretty much approaching of living near live and death or injury.
I see myself as having a type “A” personality. And there have been many times I could have been killed. Perhaps I should be dead, but I defied the odds. Pretty much high risk/high reward is where I lived, but also I am a thoughtful deep thinker. Something innate kept me alive.
I remember in college taking a senior seminar in my radical SUNY school, Old Westbury. Back then this school had a concentration of radical professors and radical ideas.
The senior seminar was for their Sociology majors, but really the major was interdisciplinary and was PES, short for Politics, Economics, and Society.
Robert Ross, or Haj, was a visiting professor who taught at MIT. Pretty much we covered Science, Philosophy, Religions, as being somewhat unified because they are all systems of belief. In science what got deconstructed were the idea and also the limitations of “Newtonian” thought, the reductionist thinking involved, and how that related to western society and its constructs.
On the other hand this was contrasted against eastern views of thinking, religion, science and eastern philosophies that are more of an interactive wholistic approach to thinking that pretty much is a separate reality.
There was actually taken away from quantum mechanics and the study of sub atomic particles where sometime believing lead to seeing. Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle got cited, and I was exposed to an entire different way of framing the world.
Did you know that juggling is big at MIT. That in itself is a philosophy. On that first day of class we all learned how to juggle. We were taught to do something almost everyone did not know how to do; we were taught that anyone could learn; and the most important lesson was to frame the learning process in a positive manner.
Pretty much everyone was shown that they could catch a ball, so you basically could at least juggle one. Could you practice and get better? Could you do two? If not just frame it that you are working on it. The deeper meaning is not to limit yourself, keep a positive mental outcome, and move forward by practice telling yourself “I’m working on it.”
So for many these ideas were all abstractions, but then again this led to deeper understandings and then profound meanings.
The minimal reductionist thinking that is present in western thinking leads to specialties, PhD’s, and a narrowing of thinking and possibilities. Isaac Newton believed the world was a machine that could be understood by dissembling its parts. The history of modern art kinda followed this same framework eventually leading to conceptual art, pop art, minimal art, and earthworks. All reductionist thinking.
In physics quantum mechanics involves a system of beliefs and a realm of possibilities. This is about thinking in a complex way, while a lot of western science still uses Newtonian thought.
Anyways I think you should know where my head is at, and why I think I am part of what Alvin Toffer the science fiction writer who also is a bit of a visionary as being part of “The Fourth Wave.” Over 3 decades ago he wrote a book called “The Fourth Wave” where it expands on my learning in the later 70’s.
Pretty much traditional college learning was challenged, and Alvin Toffer promoted a new intelligence that dealt with complexity and processing and intergrating vast amounts of information. The term “Age of Information” was coined by then. He cited Operation Desert Storm as being the first war that was most fought and won by use of information.
Smart bombs and precision weapons led to very few American casualties. CCC (Central Command and Control) made it a swift war. Then he predicted the success of individuals without college educations being the game changers, like college drop outs like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs cited as people who understood complexity.
I find myself in retirement living in a world of many possibilities, a lot of uncertainty, and a place where I still have a lot of ambition. Not for wealth or fame, but to now discover who I really am, and to perhaps find a deeper meaning.
Not only am I physically building myself, but my mind resides and now resides in a big realm of possibilities.
I see a lot of inspiration. Speaking of which I think a weight workout today since I have been writing here so much today.
Also look up this Flat Picking Champion named Carl Miner. I discovered him through watching U-Tube auditions of Santa Cruz guitars. His playing style I would like to emulate. He is very fluid and pretty much does not know what he is going to play. Basically everything is an improvisation. Just pure guitar, no vocals.
Cal
