"He sat a long time and he thought about his life and how little of it he could ever have foreseen and he wondered for all his will and all his intent how much of it was his doing."
— Cormac McCarthy (Cities of the Plain)
"We gallop through our lives like circus performers balancing on two speeding side-by-side horses--one foot is on the horse called "fate," the other on the horse called "free will." And the question you have to ask every day is--which horse is which? Which horse do I need to stop worrying about because it's not under my control, and which do I need to steer with concentrated effort?"
— Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)
"Reflect, then on you adult life and pick a truly bad moment, as bad a moment as you can bear to contemplate in suffocating detail. . . Now, so what? In the larger of things, what is the meaning of your regret? Does it count for anything, or is it just a sort a sort on involuntary hiccup, a meaningless spasm provoked by a meaningless world? Do we live in a universe in which striving and hoping, regretting, blaming, promising, trying to do better, condemning and praising make sense? Or are they all part of a vast illusion, honored by tradition, but overdue for exposure?"
-- Daniel Dennett (Freedom Evolves)
Well, Big Frank is chewing on this one. How much control is it that we can exert on ourselves, our experience, our thoughts, our feelings, or the world around us. How much of this control is freely exercised by us? I grew up believing, as still mostly do (remember, I'm chewing on it and so some doubt has entered otherwise I wouldn't have to chew - just swallow) that I have free will. Starting from some religious upbringing: God has us all here in this moral laboratory where our actions will be noted and if they are good ones heaven awaits us and if they are really bad ones we go to hell. I was told this was just and that God wanted it to be totally up to me - exercise my free will and reap the reward or pay the price. Of course, this is all speculative nonsense and nobody can prove it. So scratch that rationale, and remove theology from this discussion. The immutable laws of nature then dictate that we have no fee will; everything that happens is caused by some previous action etc. etc. This applies as much, from a determinist's view point, to a rock dropped, as to an apple seed planted, to animal locomotion, and to all human thoughts and subsequent actions. That seems to make sense and much of it can be proven; however, the bit on thoughts cannot. There is no evidence that Big Frank is aware of that can trace thoughts to actions of atoms or molecules. So Big Frank thinks that he does have control of himself, and acts like he does, but does he? What about the unconscious urges we are not aware of, or genetic predispositions, or of early incidents in life, or a thousand other variables? Big Frank doesn't know.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
The Conquest of Happiness
Bertrand Russell again . . . yeah, Big Frank knows; this thread is getting pretty long. Big Frank just has to ride this thing out and it could be some time. Russell wrote a lot (around 2,000 words everyday of his adult life), and he lived to the age of 98, so he had a lot to say about a lot.
Big Frank just finished Russell's book, "The Conquest of Happiness". It is a little bit dated; he wrote it in 1930, and he devotes a considerable amount of text to the upper crust of society and a slim layer of professions (artists, scientists, and businessmen). Women in his book are largely women of leisure and of the upper class. As a result, much of the book can be skimmed, but there is still a lot of useful advice on how to conquer happiness. His approach, conquering, requires effort, by his own admission; happiness is a matter of attitude, engagement in life, purposeful thinking, and the overcoming of obstacles to happiness.
The greatest obstacle to happiness, according to Russell is being self-absorbed. Russell in the first chapter relates how he learned to enjoy life more: "Very largely it is due to a diminishing preoccupation with myself. . . Gradually I learned to be indifferent to myself, and my deficiencies; I came to center my attention increasingly on external objects; the state of the world, various branches of knowledge, individuals for whom I felt affection.
Russell goes through a variety of the causes of unhappiness: competition, envy, the sense of sin, persecution mania, etc. 'Worry' can be centered on many of these unhappy tendencies. Russell calls for a look outward to the external world as one way out of worry: "One's ego is no very large part of the world. The man who can center his thoughts and hopes upon something transcending self can find a certain peace in the ordinary troubles of life which is impossible to the pure egoist."
In the final chapter Russell contrasts the happy and the unhappy man. The unhappy man: "One of the great drawbacks to self-centered passions is that they afford so little variety in life. the man who loves only himself cannot, it is true, be accused of promiscuity in his affections, but he is bound in the end to suffer intolerable boredom from the invariable sameness of the object of his devotion." On the other hand, "The happy man is the man who lives objectively, who has free affections and wide interests, who secures his happiness through these interests and affections and through the fact that they, in turn, make him an object of interest and affection to many others. To be the recipient of affection is a potent cause of happiness, but the man who demands of affection is not the man upon whom it is bestowed. the man who receives affection is, speaking broadly, the man who gives it."
Big Frank just finished Russell's book, "The Conquest of Happiness". It is a little bit dated; he wrote it in 1930, and he devotes a considerable amount of text to the upper crust of society and a slim layer of professions (artists, scientists, and businessmen). Women in his book are largely women of leisure and of the upper class. As a result, much of the book can be skimmed, but there is still a lot of useful advice on how to conquer happiness. His approach, conquering, requires effort, by his own admission; happiness is a matter of attitude, engagement in life, purposeful thinking, and the overcoming of obstacles to happiness.
The greatest obstacle to happiness, according to Russell is being self-absorbed. Russell in the first chapter relates how he learned to enjoy life more: "Very largely it is due to a diminishing preoccupation with myself. . . Gradually I learned to be indifferent to myself, and my deficiencies; I came to center my attention increasingly on external objects; the state of the world, various branches of knowledge, individuals for whom I felt affection.
Russell goes through a variety of the causes of unhappiness: competition, envy, the sense of sin, persecution mania, etc. 'Worry' can be centered on many of these unhappy tendencies. Russell calls for a look outward to the external world as one way out of worry: "One's ego is no very large part of the world. The man who can center his thoughts and hopes upon something transcending self can find a certain peace in the ordinary troubles of life which is impossible to the pure egoist."
In the final chapter Russell contrasts the happy and the unhappy man. The unhappy man: "One of the great drawbacks to self-centered passions is that they afford so little variety in life. the man who loves only himself cannot, it is true, be accused of promiscuity in his affections, but he is bound in the end to suffer intolerable boredom from the invariable sameness of the object of his devotion." On the other hand, "The happy man is the man who lives objectively, who has free affections and wide interests, who secures his happiness through these interests and affections and through the fact that they, in turn, make him an object of interest and affection to many others. To be the recipient of affection is a potent cause of happiness, but the man who demands of affection is not the man upon whom it is bestowed. the man who receives affection is, speaking broadly, the man who gives it."
Saturday, January 8, 2011
The Unendurable Loneliness of the Human Soul
Bertrand Russell in his Autobiography writes of his experience upon finding Mrs. Whitehead in agony over some heart pains that she was having. He led to a profound insight into the human predicament (italics are Big Frank's):
"When we came home, we found Mrs Whitehead undergoing an unusually severe bout of pain. She seemed cut off from everyone and everything by walls of agony, and the sense of the solitude of each human soul suddenly overwhelmed me. Ever since my marriage, my emotional life had been calm and superficial. I had forgotten all the deeper issues, and had been content with flippant cleverness. Suddenly the ground seemed to give way beneath me, and I found myself in quite another region. Within five minutes I went through some such reflections as the following: the loneliness of the human soul is unendurable; nothing can penetrate it except the highest intensity of the sort of love that religious teachers have preached; whatever does not spring from this motive is harmful, or at best useless; it follows that war is wrong, that a public school education is abominable, that the use of force is to be deprecated, and that in human relations one should penetrate to the core of loneliness in each person and speak to that."
"When we came home, we found Mrs Whitehead undergoing an unusually severe bout of pain. She seemed cut off from everyone and everything by walls of agony, and the sense of the solitude of each human soul suddenly overwhelmed me. Ever since my marriage, my emotional life had been calm and superficial. I had forgotten all the deeper issues, and had been content with flippant cleverness. Suddenly the ground seemed to give way beneath me, and I found myself in quite another region. Within five minutes I went through some such reflections as the following: the loneliness of the human soul is unendurable; nothing can penetrate it except the highest intensity of the sort of love that religious teachers have preached; whatever does not spring from this motive is harmful, or at best useless; it follows that war is wrong, that a public school education is abominable, that the use of force is to be deprecated, and that in human relations one should penetrate to the core of loneliness in each person and speak to that."
Sunday, January 2, 2011
The Magic Lamp in the Snow
[Photos: Big Frank Dickinson] Big Frank took the Magic Lamp out snowshoeing; well, obviously the lamp was just along for the ride. Actually, it was along for posing, because while most of us think that we know all about the Magic Lamp - you know, Alladin and the djinni who is obliged to grant wishes, what most don't know is that the Magic Lamp poses well, and bring scenes to life. Big Frank is not sure why this is, but there is something about a bronze oil lamp, something exotic, that makes even the most ordinary scene (snow and trees for example) look fantastic. Big Frank doesn't actually know if there is a djinni is this lamp, but if it ever comes out, he knows what to ask for! No problem there. For now, though, he is happy to just look at it.
Natural Abstract
Big Frank was out with the camera. It seems everybody is when there is snow, sunlight, and bitter cold. A brilliant blue sky punctuated the scene. A locust tree encrusted with snow stood in profile against the sky. Big Frank took the shot, and then he took it apart.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Happy New Year - Keep On Truckin'
Happy New Year! Big Frank is not all that excited about this random transition in our chronology, much as we would like to invest it with all kinds of special significance. He supposes that it is a good thing to reflect on what has happened in one's life and then to form some goals and muster the will to make them happen. However, most people know what it is that they want - it's just a matter of making it happen. So that's why the Keep On Truckin' guy is at the head of this post. Big Frank is going to Keep On Truckin' - that's his resolution for this year. He knows what he wants: love, friends, knowledge, health, some entertainment, contentment, a few challenges (not too many), new discoveries, fun activities and the peace of mind that comes with living life in a whole-hearted way. So, Big Frank steps into 2011, putting his size 13 forward and Keeps On Truckin'!
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