The passage of my summer

So here is all the books I read this summer (in Brett chronological order):
1. I Love Mormons
2. Way of the Wild Heart
3. The Complete Idiot's Guide to World Religions
4. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
5. Blue Like Jazz
6. The Story of Philosophy
and currently reading
7. Motley Fool Investment Guide
8. Orthodoxy

I'd guess that's going on 3500-4000 pages of material of all non-fiction. Giggidy goo- that's how I get the ladies.

Anywho, I said that I would post this, and post it I shall. The following is from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and I really identify with it right now.


First, a summary of the book: A philosophical autobiography disguised as a motorcyle adventure across America.

A quick read on the relatively mysterious author is well worth the 60 seconds it will take.
Robert M. Pirsig


Anywho, this is a passage in the book as they begin to ascend into the mountains and as their trip ascends to high altitude he gradually begins speaking about a different kind of high country, the "high country of the mind".


"Few people travel here. There's no real profit to be made from wandering through it, yet like this high country of the material world all around us, it has its own austere beauty that to some people make the hardships of traveling through it seem worthwhile.

In the high country of the mind one has to become adjusted to the thinner air of uncertainty, and to the enormous magnitude of questions asked , and to the answers proposed to these questions. The sweep goes on and on and on so obviously much further than the mind can grasp one hesitates even to go near for fear of getting lost in them and never finding one's way out."

If you've ever read deeply into philosophy you know exactly what Pirsig is writing about and I think he says it very poetically, but very accurately. I think the majority floats through life without real, open-minded (I mean completely open-minded) questioning.

If you've got another few minutes and you've already clipped your toenails and got all the lint out of your bellybutton with a golf pencil, read this story of "The Good Brahmin" by Voltaire, a lovable frenchman who also possessed one of the great minds of all time.




"I wish I had never been born!" the Brahmin remarked.

"Why so?" said I.

"Because," he replied, "I have been studying these forty years, and I find that it has been so much time lost...I believe that I am composed of matter, but I have never been able to satisfy myself what it is that produces thought. I am even ignorant whether my understanding is a simple faculty like that of walking or digesting, or if I think with my head in the same manner as I take hold of a thing with my hands...I talk a great deal, and when I have done speaking I remain confounded and ashamed of what I have said."

The same day I had a conversation with an old woman, his neighbor. I asked her if she had ever been unhappy for not understanding how her soul was made? She did not even comprehend my question. She had not, for the briefest moment in her life, had a thought about these subjects with which the good Brahmin had so tormented himself. She believed in the bottom of her heart in the metamorphoses of Vishnu, and provided she could get some of the sacred water of the Ganges in which to make her ablutions, she thought herself the happiest of women. Struck with the happiness of this poor creature, I returned to my philosopher, whom I thus addressed:

"Are you not ashamed to be thus miserable when, not fifty yards from you, there is an old automaton who thinks of nothing and lives contented?"

"You are right," he replied. "I have said to myself a thousand times that I should be happy if I were but as ignorant as my old neighbor; and yet it is a happiness which I do not desire."

This reply of the Brahmin made a greater impression on me than anything that had passed.

I really like Voltaire

-Brett

What you want (Baby I got it)

**So this is taking off from my last post of whether or not it's good to be a static person. I think the idea of intimacy fits in here somehow...**

So, I do have a couple people that I think have a good feel for the entire Brett Ripley spectrum and it's noteworthy that long talks with these people seem to be about the most therapeutic thing I can do.

I think that's one of the deepest desires of us little humans: real intimacy. To be known fully, with all the good, and more importantly, with all the bad, and to be loved for who you really are.

This need for deep connection though is many times disguised and mistaken for a myriad of feelings. In both Western and Eastern cultures this need is often played out as a desire for sex, or money, or buying things, or being popular or famous, or status. A person just wants -no- NEEDS to hear "You're good. You're good where you're at right now. "

What most people get is "you'll be good if..." or "you'll be good when..." and this leads to other bad things (that I'll have to save for another post :) ).

I think that's what makes God, especially the God revealed through Christianity so appealing. He knows you more than you know yourself. All that good stuff you did? He saw it. All those selfish things you did? He saw it. All those triumphant feelings when you aced that test or won that game or gave that speech? That pain you feel, that guilt, that isolation? Yeah, whether you knew it or not he was right there with you. He knows YOU and he knows you even more than your closest friends. And the best part of all? He loves you for it- loves you like crazy.

Sounds good, right? The only thing is that you can't have a conversation with him like with your friends. It's different. You have to pray, but even then you likely won't use your ears. Wait a minute. This great friend is there and he won't even talk to you! What kind of friend is that?

Alot of times this straight up just pisses me off- just makes me want to say this whole God thing is just a bunch of bullshit and all religious people are a bunch of frightened, blubbering idiots believing what their elders say just because they say it.

OR maybe this God is a kind of a father figure and just wants to teach you discipline and patience (and faith?) enough to dedicate time to sitting in silence and letting the world go by without you. Maybe.

-Brett

PS I've discovered that my typing can go for about 3 pages per dribble now that I've pent up all this thinking and all of these ideas for the last three months. These last three posts were going to be one little update. This could maybe turn out to be an interesting blog yet...

Electric People

Static People

I am amazed by static people. No, there's not people that will make your hand spark when you touch them, I'm talking about a different kind of static.
I'm talking about people who are the same no matter who they are around. I've only met a few of these people in my life.

Think about it: Most people compartmentalize their life to a pretty good extent. I've found that I, more than almost anyone I know, do this. The idea is that you are a different person around different people. Do you talk the same way to your pastor as you do to your old friends? Even within your circle of friends, don't you talk about different things and even have different mannerisms/sayings when you are with different groups of friends? Do you act differently with large groups as opposed to just one person.

I'll be the first one to say I'm guilty of this. I have so many hobbies and interests (and groups that go along with these). I mean from "class" friends to "rec" friends to "High School" friends to "Technical (nerdy)" friends to "how the crap did I ever meet this person" friends to "Hang out on the weekend" friends to, dare I say, "Religious friends" to extended family.

Part of it of course is a necessity of circumstance: I don't think anyone can give a lecture to 20,000 people with the same persona as when talking one-on-one in a coffee shop: It's apples and oranges and it should be that way (although some people have the gift of being very real and even personal when delivering speeches to massive audiences).

Some people might say this is a bad thing. Some may say it's good and "normal". I'm not sure. Maybe it's a healthy outlet to different aspects of our emotions. Maybe it's unhealthy to be so unsure of who our true self is. If anyone has any input on "compartmentalization", I'd love to hear it.

-Brett

I think Switchfoot has a song about this called 24.

Back in the (US)PR

So I write this post from Pelican Rapids High School! I'm actually in Frau's room right now leeching some school bandwidth and downloading Ubuntu 7.04. Apparently there's some new IT guy that works for the school that would maybe call the cops if he caught me hooked up to a computer here, so hopefully he's not working on a Sunday afternoon.

Recappage
1. Thursday night was f-ing fun and I'm really pumped to be living in the house that I'm living in with a bunch of sweet people. I think the challenge with roommates is always to still think they're sweet people at the end of the year! I don't expect too many probs.

2.Home Sweet Home: I am very very happy to be home, living in the house I grew up in, staying with my family, and seeing my close friends.

3. My quest through nerddom: If you know me, then you know that I have a very nerdy side to me that loves computers with a passion. This is my task for this week:
Swap in my new 500GB Hard drive and set up a dual boot with Ubuntu Linux and Windows Vista: Ultimate Edition.

Yeah, it's weird, but I really enjoy little projects like this. I love tinkering with my computer and learning/solving problems as they come up. I wonder if I'll be able to incorporate my EE degree into something like this for a jobber?

Anywho, it's good to be home without a schedule and without a job!

-Brett