Robert C. Day's Blog, page 51

Catastrophism

Iheard on the news the other day that rapper Kanye West lost the songs for one of his albums when his daughter (North) flushed the only copy of them (on his iPhone) down the toilet. Whether this is true, orwhether it’sjust part of the publicity for hiswife – Kim Kardashian’slatest TV show is neither here nor there – the big point is: who names their daughter North!!? Especially when their family name is West! Sigh.

That said – if this is true(the lost songs part)then Ican sympathise with Mr W...

Friends

Friends – I have been tested to my very limits!

I have survived three and a half hours in the company of four females at the height of their verbal powers – and I am still smiling!

There is love, there is patience, there is sacrifice and then – there is a man sat listening to talk of … erm … truly, I have no recollection of what was said. I must have blanked it from my mind already, even though it ended barely twenty minutes ago.

I mean no disrespect – sincerely I don’t, but there are some co...

Flood Myth

Amyth is a sacred narrative concerning the early history of a people thatholdsspiritual orreligioussignificance and explains a natural or social phenomenon.

It is none of the following:

Legend – believable narrative involving events taking place within human history Fiction – stories created by the imagination Fairy tale – far-fetched story involving fairies, elves, giants and the like Folklore – beliefs and practices shared and handed down by people that have something in common Fable – fic...

Fashion

Some fashions lasta lifetime, like Levis; others seemed to last forever, like huge sunglasses; and still others slip in and out of existence like gastrotrichs.

Sometimes I see these ups and downs, and I laugh at the way that we fall for the tricks of the marketing guys and gals who work so hard to get us come back to their stores whilst at the same time trying to ensure that their product doesn’t make the same journey.

Why do I laugh? Well, aside from the fact that laughter and having fun nev...

Poetry

“Poetry seizes on the images and emotions that occur in our minds when we hear or read wordsand shape those words into forms that impart more meaning than they might otherwise suggest.” (1001 ideas that changed the way we think)

Some poetry makes me sad
Some poetry makes me laugh
But prose just makes me glad
That I don’t have to faff
With words that sometimes rhyme
With rhythm that’s sublime
‘Cause I don’t have the time
‘Cause life’s just too short.

Pleasure

For sure – pleasure is in the experience of the experiencer. Whereas one could argue that beauty could either be in the beheld or the beholder, pleasure can only be in the one place. Take away the experiencer and the experience vanishes like a vanishing thing.

The extent to which pleasure manifests is related to the attention one gives it – just as a clean surface appears to the extent to which one rubs it with a cloth.

Can one ever experience complete pleasure? Maybe so, but ask yourself thi...

Consolation of Philosophy

Bertie:I must tell you of my wretched complaint.

Lydia: Oh, for the love of life, please tell me more, Bertie – I long to know of your complaints.

Bertie:The beans that I ate for lunch don’t seem to have agreed with me.

Lydia: Wait. I was rather under the impression that you wanted to talk about your complaint. Now you tell me that the beans are complaining too?

Bertie: After a fashion. They long to be free.

Lydia: Freedom. Hmm. And is your complaint of a similar nature?

Bertie: Not entirely....

Rest

I’ve been experimenting with rest. Sounds like an easy thing to do – right? All I need to do is to lay down in my nice soft bed, cover myself with my duvet and … sleep! But hold on – isn’t this just about the body? What about the mind and all those thoughts scurrying back and forth inside my head – what can I do to make them rest?

Have you ever had yourself a really hard day, one of those where nothing seems to go right? And thenwhen evening comes and you lay down for some well-earned zzzs– y...

Dictionary

The average number of words in the eleven most widely spoken languages in use today is 287,818.181818 (approximately). A 1995 study in the US showed that college grads have average vocabularies of 17,000 words, but some rock stars of the literary world have used a few more words than this, with Shakespeare coming in at over 30,000 words and Goethe an impressive 50,000 words – which was pretty good for those days. Most of us get by on less that this, but if you want to express yourself bettere...

Sleeping in Public

Just fell asleep during a seminar called “Creating a Restful and Resilient Mind”. Not sure whether to feel happy or sad about that!