Healing Philosophy

Changing faces with a smile - Talita

2011-09-19T22:45:00.000-07:00

Well shipmates, I hope you are all well. Many things have I read and seen and experienced that almost made me come out of blog retirement and perhaps I shall get around to sharing them too. But this is the one that did it.
You are in for a treat. What you are going to see is nothing less than the beauty of the world.

Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Philippians 4:8

For more info about 'Operation Smile' or if you would like to make a donation click here.

Petition to save the Fukushima children

2011-04-27T10:19:00.000-07:00

I discovered this at Japan Nuclear Crisis Blog. (See post 26^th April)

Urgent Petition Against 20 millisieverts per year (mSv/y) Radiation Exposure onto Children in Fukushima

Sign petition

Preliminary deadline: Tue. April 26, 2011 at 23:00 in Japanese time (UTC/GMT +9 hours)
Final deadline: Sat. April 30, 2011 at 23:00 in Japanese time (UTC/GMT +9 hours)

We urgently demand the withdrawal of the Japanese Government's inhumane decision to force 20 millisieverts per year (mSv/y) radiation exposure onto children.

On April 19th, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) notified the Board of Education and related institutions in Fukushima Prefecture the level of 20 millisieverts per year (mSv/y) as a Radiation Safety Standard for schools in Fukushima Prefecture. This is the standard to be used for school grounds and buildings. The Government has indicated that 20mSv/y is equivalent to 3.8microSv per hour measured outdoors.

3.8 micro Sv/h is roughly 6 times [the 0.6microSv/h] of "Radiation Controlled Areas" (0.6 microSv/h or more). The Labour Standards Act prohibits those under the age of 18 from working under these conditions. Forcing children to be exposed to such radiation doses is an exceedingly inhumane decision. Therefore, we condemn this in the strongest terms.

20 mSv/y is comparable to the [legally] recognized dose for inducing leukemia in nuclear power plant workers. It is also comparable to the maximum dose allowed for nuclear power plant workers in Germany.

In addition, this 20mSv standard [for Japanese children] does not take into account the fact children have higher sensitivity to radiation than adults, nor does it take into account any internal radiation exposure.

Currently, according to the radiation monitoring conducted at elementary and middle schools within Fukushima Prefecture, more than 75% of these schools have contamination levels comparable to "Radiation Controlled Areas" (0.6 micro Sv/h or more). Further, roughly 20% of the schools fall within "IndividualExposure Controlled Areas" (2.3 microSv/h or more) and are in an extremely dangerous situation.

The level set by the Japanese Government at this time amounts to coercion of this dangerous situation upon children, and, can interfere with voluntary measures by schools to minimize exposure.

MEXT states that 20mSv/y is based on the recommendation Pub.109 by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) as well as on the reference levels in the band of 1 to 20 mSv/y as "Post Emergency Situation" Standards from the ICRP statement released on March 21st. The latter means MEXT has adopted the maximum level.

As of March 21st, there has been no substantive information disclosure by the Japanese Government on the decision-making process for establishing these standards. Moreover, no explanation has been given concerning why the Government has neither taken the sensitivity of children into consideration nor internal radiation exposure into account. The contents of the consultation held between MEXT and the Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) are not disclosed, and the situation remains extremely opaque.

We demand the Japanese government of the following:

Retraction of the "20mSv/y" standard for children.

Disclosure of the names of experts, who deemed "20mSv/y" for children to be safe.

Note: At the governmental negotiation held on April 21st, it became evident that the Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) concluded the 20mSv/y standard for children as "Permissible" without undertaking any formal consultation. Moreover, on April 22nd, the Commission reported to the office of Mizuho FUKUSHIMA, member of the Japanese Diet, House of Councillors that no minutes (records) exist of the 5 Nuclear Safety Commission members' deliberation leading to the 20mSv/year standard.

References:
Expert comments cited from the articles on the establishment of the 20mSv/y standard ("Fukushima-Katastrophe - Japan legt hohe Strahlengrenzwerte fur Kinder fest" or "Japan's MEXT sets High Exposure Limits for Children"), Der Spiegel, April 21st, 2011.(See comparison to German workers.)
http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,758410,00.html

Edmund Lengfelder (Otto Hug Radiation Institute), "The cancer risk will visibly rise in the future. By setting these standards, the government will steer
clear of any liability legally, however not morally."

-------

This petition is being organized by: Green Action, Greenpeace Japan, Citizens' Nuclear Information Center, Citizens Against Fukushima Aging Nuclear Power Plants (Fukuro-no-Kai), Osaka Citizens Against the Mihama, Oi, and Takahama Nuclear Power Plants (Mihama-no-Kai), Friends of the Earth Japan

For further inquiries, please contact:

Green Action
Suite 103, 22-75 Tanaka Sekiden-cho
Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8203 Japan
Tel: +81-75-701-7223
info@greenaction-japan.org

Friends of the Earth Japan
3-30-8-1F Ikebukuro Toshima-ku Tokyo 171-0014, Japan
TEL: +81-3-6907-7217
finance@foejapan.org

[English translation of Japanese original: FoE Japan / Green Action]

Sign petition

Fukushima Daiichi - it's worse than you think

2011-04-08T09:13:00.001-07:00

Closing Ranks: The NRC, the Nuclear Industry, and TEPCo. Are Limiting the Flow of Information from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.

From Fairwinds Associates

The 50 at Fukushima Daiichi

2011-03-16T14:03:00.000-07:00

Some days ago I read that TEPCO was withdrawing all its personnel from its stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, all except for 50 who were to remain to fight the overheating reactors. The word ‘heroes’ immediately came into my mind along with memories of those heroic doomed Russian helicopter pilots who dumped load after load of concrete on radioactive Chernobyl.

A few days ago the word ‘heroes’ was not being used in the media because it looked like the danger was small and that the problem would be contained. Not anymore.

[7:06 a.m. ET Wednesday, 8:06 p.m. in Tokyo] The number of nuclear workers at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was slashed Tuesday from 800 to 50, but had grown to 180 by Wednesday afternoon, the Tokyo Electric Power Company said.

"Their situation is not great," said David Brenner, director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University. "It's pretty clear that they will be getting very high doses of radiation. There's certainly the potential for lethal doses of radiation. They know it, and I think you have to call these people heroes." (from ‘This just in’ WSJ Blog)

Strangely, as I was writing this, an article at the WSJ site about the 180 heroes suddenly disappeared. I suppose it was pulled because it painted too heroic and desperate a picture of events out of control, or at least not going to plan. In it there were quotes from nuclear experts about the specialized knowledge of these 50 who, precisely because of their knowledge, knew exactly what risks they were taking and therefore were true heroes. They were doing what they considered to be their job and more importantly their duty to protect their endangered nation. I remember one commentator saying they were in ‘uncharted territory’ and likened events to an adventure movie where the workers were ‘ad libing’ as they went along. For example, using fire trucks to pump seawater into the reactors to cool them ‘was not in the manual’.

There is no lack of examples of courage and duty in Japanese history. Indeed such heroic courage and devotion to duty are a large part of the samurai code that is deeply ingrained even today in the Japanese psyche. Akira Kurosawa gave us the quintessential legend of the 7 samurai; history gives us the 47 Ronin. Today’s events give us those who will become known forever as the 50 at Fukushima Daiichi.

The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour. Japanese Proverb

Midoharu

2011-03-14T20:00:00.000-07:00

What terrible, terrible times for the Japanese. My heart goes out to them.

I stumbled on Midoharu’s Youtube channel recently. Midoharu is a beautifully cute Japanese girl whose mother lovingly captures all her endearing antics. This week, after watching the shocking videos coming out of my beloved Japan, her videos seem all the more poignant.

Today mother posted this latest video. What do you do when the sky is falling and your heart is black? You could look at the children.

Bill Gross: America requires more than a makeover or a facelift. It needs a heart transplant

2011-02-03T09:07:00.000-08:00

Bill Gross dons armour and sword again and cuts a bloody swathe through the rotten financial and political system of America. We like Bill Gross.

Fifty years ago, the highest paid and most prestigious professions were that of a doctor or a 707 airline pilot who flew the “golden” route from Los Angeles to Honolulu. Today the yellow brick road begins on Wall Street or the City. Aside from supernova innovators such as Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg, the money is made from securitizing things instead of booting and rebuilding America. The tallest buildings in almost every major city are banks, with tens of thousands of people shuffling and trading paper for a living. One of this country’s premier investment banks paid each of its 26,000 employees an average of $370,000 in 2010, nearly ten times the take-home pay of other American workers. Almost a quarter of the 400 wealthiest people on Forbes annual richest list make their money from money, whereas only 8% could make that claim in its first issue in 1982, and probably close to 0% when I first read my economic primer in 1966.

Financiers have lost their high ground and, if truth be told, we began to lose it a long time ago when we figured out that money was more than a medium of exchange or a poor substitute for a store of value. We figured out a turbocharged way to make money with money and proclaimed ourselves geniuses in the process. Well, we’re not. We may be categorized as “opportunists,” to be generous, but society’s “paragons” and a legitimate destination for a significant percentage of college graduates? Hardly.

This country desperately requires a rebalancing of priorities. After readjusting the compensation scales via regulation and/or free market common sense, America needs to anoint a new set of Mensans who can create something more than a cash machine and make this country competitive again in the global marketplace. We need to find a new economic Keynes or at least elect a chastened Congress that can take our structurally unemployed and give them a chance to be productive workers again. We must have a President whose idea of “centrist” policy is not to hand out presents to the right and the left and then altruistically proclaim the benefits of bipartisanship. We need a President who does more than propose “Win The Future” at annual State of the Union addresses without policy follow-up. America requires more than a makeover or a facelift. It needs a heart transplant absent the contagious antibodies of money and finance filtering through the system. It needs a Congress that cannot be bought and sold by lobbyists on K Street, whose pockets in turn are stuffed with corporate and special interest group payola. Are record corporate profits a fair price for America’s soul? A devil’s bargain more than likely.

Read the full article.

Loose Change 9/11: An American Coup

2011-02-02T19:02:00.001-08:00

I have just finished watching Loose Change 9/11: An American Coup which raises disturbing questions about the truth of the story of what happened on that day. I was already aware that the 3 Trade Centre buildings could only have collapsed as they did by controlled demolition after viewing a video a couple of years ago by Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth. Loose Change elaborates on that and introduces many other strange facts. We now know for example that explosive material has been identified in the dust collected from the falling towers. Also that no identifiable plane wreckage (or human remains) has ever been found at the alleged crash sites of American Airlines flight 77 at the Pentagon and United Airlines flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, something that has no precedent in aviation history.
The implications and conclusions that can be drawn are truly disturbing and you owe it to yourself to get informed and be aware of what has happened, what is happening and what may happen again. If enough people demand to know the truth behind 9/11 perhaps we can avoid a future 9/11 event and the war it leads to.

Things which will make me go back to Japan

2011-01-11T21:27:00.000-08:00

The introduction to Werner Bischof’s ‘Japan’, which was the subject of my last post, is written by Robert Guillain who is described as the Far East correspondent of Le Monde. It is a fitting, poetic introduction to Bischof’s extraordinary photos. I particularly liked a section where he describes ‘Things which will make me go back to Japan’. Reading them, I realised that I do not have a list of ‘Things which will make me go back to England’. Having a Lithuanian father and English mother has smudged that feeling of belonging to one place. I feel more empathy reading Guillain’s list as any I might make for another place… Here are a few things from his list that resonate with me:

I will go back – to put it at its lowest – to see Japan without the Japanese, that is for the sake of the country’s very individual local colour; for the astonishment of seeing the originals of those images of nature that the deft brushes of the Nipponese artists have painted on silk; for the pine-tree with its twisted branches, the flight of the wild geese over Tokyo bay, and the thatched villages in the misty valley at the foot of Fujiyama; for the blending of mountain and sea, and to watch the smoking volcanoes; for an island off Tokyo, which is a basket of red camellias floating on the edge of the Pacific…

I will go back to enjoy the strange Japanese way of life. The nudity of its comfort, its simplification of existence and its search for contentment in frugality and closeness to nature…

I will go back for the sake of the children, who are like live dolls; for the girls with their laughter, their Mongol eyelids, their brilliant black hair, their bare feet in wooden sandals and the pure metal of their hearts ensheathed in softness; for Japanese women, who seem to belong to a race different from that of the men, and are the country’s finest achievement…

I will go back to assure myself that the West can learn certain lessons from the East; I will go back, so that Japan may teach me the refinements of the artistic sense and the gift of communing intensely with the mystery of nature; to reacquire from the Japanese that respect for the past, and the people of the past, that we Westerners have lost; to confirm that no-one knows what politeness is until he has experienced Japanese politeness.

Image by Mattias

Werner Bischof’s 'Japan'

2011-01-04T15:24:00.000-08:00

I came across this photograph (click, gets big) quite haphazardly looking through the posters in a now defunct frame shop around 1998. I bought the poster and framed it and it has decorated my home ever since and will always have a place there as long as I live.

It was taken by Werner Bischof in 1952. To me it is a very powerful statement of the beauty of the visible in Japanese architecture and of the invisible in the Japanese soul. Is there a better example of architecture in perfect harmony with nature? And the photographer has perhaps instinctively so framed the photograph to enhance this harmony. See how the lines of the upper roof are a mirror image of the lines of the branch that reaches out to it. I never tire of contemplating this image and the period that it evokes so eloquently and wondering why I feel such affinity.

I had never heard of Werner Bischof so I searched on the web and found the book the photo came from (‘Japan’ Werner Bischof, Simon and Schuster, 1954) and I ordered it from a rare book dealer. When it arrived I was taken aback to read this beginning to the author’s profile:

This is a book the author will never see.

Werner Bischof finished his work on it in New York in February, 1954, sent the layout and captions off to Zurich, and departed by jeep for what was to have been a year’s photographic trip to Latin America. His trip ended abruptly on May 16^th, high in the Peruvian Andes, when a car carrying him and two companions went over a 1500 foot cliff.

I was filled with sadness when I read this. How grateful we should be for each day we live, for how abruptly it may end. To the nostalgia evident in this photo was added the knowledge of the observer’s sudden end. What a loss we feel, when we open the book, for this photo is but the portal to an inestimable treasure of images of Japan by this great photographer.

Werner Bischof, one of the half-dozen most brilliant photographers of his generation, spent almost two years photographing every corner of Japan, every aspect of Japanese life. Out of the many thousands of pictures he took, the 109 most beautiful examples of his work have been assembled in this book.

You will search in vain on the web for these images, which is quite astonishing given their quality. The image above is to my knowledge the only one on the web and I hope I don’t get into trouble for it. But it is the shame of the world that his work is not better known and if this post and this photo introduce you to him then it will be a very great good and I hope I will be forgiven.

10 Places to Find Free Philosophy and Healing Courses Online

2011-01-04T12:42:00.000-08:00

This is a guest post from Bailey Harris. Bailey writes about health insurance quotes and related topics for www.healthinsurancequotes.org.

If you have been looking for new ways to harness your inner strength and increase your health and happiness or if you are just interested in exploring philosophical topics, there are many different free classes that you can take online. Here are 10 free internet and email courses to check out in your spare time.

Classics in Western Philosophy - This free online course from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is designed to introduce students to Western philosophical tradition through the works of philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hume, and Descartes. Course materials include reading lists, lecture notes, assignments, exams, and other study aids.

Introduction to Ancient Greek Philosophy - Taught by Donald Kagan, Sterling Professor of Classics and History at Yale University, this free online philosophy course examines the development of Greek civilization. Free course materials include lecture transcripts and audio and video lectures.

Philosophy of Mind - This free online course from the University of California - Berkeley focuses on the nature of the human mind. The course consists of 32 audio lectures.

Environmental Philosophy - Norte Dame offers a free online course that focuses on environmental philosophy. Students are encouraged to explore the current environmental crisis and consider ways in which the crisis may be resolved. Free course materials include an ebook, video lectures, and discussion questions.

Philosophy and Death - This free online philosophy course is taught by Professor Shelly Kagan of Yale University. The course explores mortality and death from a philosophical standpoint. Free course materials include both audio and video lectures.

Meditation 101 - Phylameana lila Desy, the About.com Guide to Healing, offers a free introductory meditation course. A portion of the course is delivered via email each day for nine days.

Health U - Health U provides an entire library of free online health and healing courses. Some of the topics you can study include heartburn, insomnia, weight loss surgery, breast cancer, lymphoma, psoriasis, leukemia, and multiple sclerosis.

Principles of Human Nutrition - The John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health offers a free course on the role of nutrition in growth and health. Designed for self-learners, the online course includes lectures and a reading list.

Herbal e-Course - Created by a Community Centered Herbalist, this free online course provides an introduction to herbs and herbal remedies. The course is delivered via email and takes seven days to complete. You can also download a free ebook that explores 23 herbs and their uses.

Yoga Podcast Class - Hillary Rubin, a certified yoga instructor, offers free yoga instruction through video-based podcast classes. Each class takes approximately 40 to 60 minutes to complete.

Merry Christmas from me and the Snowman

2010-12-24T22:18:00.000-08:00

The Rainbow and the Covenant

2010-12-14T21:36:00.000-08:00

Whilst stirring my oatmeal in the morning I usually read my current Patrick O’Brian novel. Having just completed the series again, I was reading instead 1001 Pearls of Bible Wisdom by Malcolm Day. Regular readers know I have no qualms about posting religious insight along with the philosophical, be it from the Bible or the Talmud or the Koran. I was reading the section about forgiveness and reconciliation.
All my life, I have always had a hard time understanding how Jesus could ‘die for our sins’. Why should God forgive us because Jesus died on the cross? I understood that Jesus asked God to ‘forgive them for they know not what they do’ but why should He? And it was always strange to me that, for such a central concept, I had not come across any explanations, no elaboration about why this should be.

Well, at 53, stirring my porridge one morning, I finally understood why.

The Rainbow and the Covenant

After the flood that destroyed all living things, except those taken into Noah’ ark, God made a covenant, or pledge, with humanity never to devastate the Earth again. As a reminder of his promise he placed a rainbow in the sky: ‘I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant…” (Genesis 9:13). The covenant was fulfilled in the Passion of Christ. Jesus straddles the divide between human wrongdoing and God’s judgment and, through the Crucifixion, enables God to be reconciled with sinful humanity. People no longer need to endure God’s wrath – their sins are forgiven.

And following this introduction we read …

… in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them … 2 Corinthians 5:19

In Jesus God took on the form and condition of a man, open to fear, weakness and pain. Yet Jesus could ask God to forgive his persecutors while on the cross. Thus God could see that there was some good in man, despite his sins. Thus he was reconciled and the covenant fulfilled.

I am reminded of that quote we saw in Into Great Silence:

Behold I am become human. If you should not want to join me in becoming God, you would do me wrong.

Image by Brian Parton

Laughter Yoga - by Maria Rainier

2010-11-30T09:42:00.000-08:00

Since discovering Moymoypalaboy (see October and November 2010 posts) I have been playing and replaying their videos almost every day for a dose of laughter. Not only do I laugh, but I am delighted, rejuvenated and encouraged. We know laughter has this effect on us, so why don’t we do it more? Maria Rainier tells us more about the effects of laughter and how one doctor has made it into a Yoga form. Here is her guest post for Healing Philosophy.

A child laughs 400 times a day; an adult laughs 15 times a day. What gives?

This is the entire premise of laughter yoga—restoring laughter to those who have forgotten or lost reason to laugh.

Dr. Kataria and Hasyayoga

Medical physician Dr. Madan Kataria began his research into laughter after reading the findings of Norman Cousins, an American journalist who purportedly cured his degenerative heart disease with massive doses of Vitamin C and by training himself to laugh. Inspired, Kataria began encouraging his family members and friends to laugh by telling jokes, but as the jokes ran out, Kataria resorted to psychosocial and playful techniques to arouse laughter. He then discovered hasyayoga (laughter yoga), which he made popular in 1995 from Mumbai across the entire globe. Today, 60 countries together boast over 6,000 Social Laughter Clubs.

What is Laughter Yoga?

Laughter yoga combines unconditional laughter (laughing for no reason: no jokes, no comedy, no innuendo, merely joy) with yogic breathing (pranayama). Laughter yoga is exercised in a group of people who, with eye contact and childlike playfulness, turn little giggles into laughter from the belly.

What Are Its Benefits?

Other than it being fun, the benefits of laughter yoga are many. Clinical research from University of Graz in Austria; Bangalore, India; and in the US indicate that laughing—even fake laughter, which the human body cannot differentiate from real laughter—lowers stress hormones like epinephrine and cortisol in blood. Regular reminders to laugh also allow individuals to deal with stress more productively by putting stressful situations into perspective with the rest of one’s life: what’s a burned pancake in view of one’s overall health?

Who Benefits?

In fact, the benefits of laughter yoga have been recognized to the extent that many schools of Surat, Baroda, and Bangalore (India) have introduced it into their curriculum. Schedules include ten minutes of hasyayoga in the morning assembly and five minutes of hasyayoga at both the beginning and end of each day in classrooms. Students’ grades as well as theirs and teachers’ moods have improved; they work better together with more positive attitudes and improved communication, discipline, and attendance. American college students at Ithaca College are quickly catching on to the trend.

If children and young adults can stand to gain from laughter yoga, so can businesspeople. Humor is a common tool in the office to break tension and keep workers going through the day; laughter yoga is a reliable and effective method that allows even adults to laugh wholeheartedly for 15 to 20 minutes with short breaks of yogic breathing. India, Denmark, and many business environments in the U.S. show benefits of reduced stress and improved productivity after only three weeks of laughter sessions.

Seniors, medically ill patients, and patients with physical and mental challenges also benefit from laughter yoga. Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease make it difficult to comprehend humor, but with hasyayoga, no humor is needed to laugh, exercise, and feel pure joy. Coping with pain and trauma becomes easier for cancer patients such as those who perform laughter yoga during chemotherapy sessions in the Swedish Cancer Hospital in Chicago. Children with mental and physical handicaps enjoy improved motor and expressive skills and health.

Laughter yoga has even been introduced to the prison system. British actor John Cleese visited Mumbai Prison in 2001 and found that prisons—concentrated hotbeds of negative emotions and thoughts—of all places could use laughter yoga. Reduced violence and improved moods and prisoner/staff relations have ensued in several prisons in India, Europe, and the U.S. with regular practice of laughter yoga.

Watch this clip from BBC’s Human Expressions, which explores the benefits of laughter yoga.

Bio: Maria Rainier is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education, where recently she's been researching online music degree programs and blogging about student life. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

Quantitative Easing Explained in 6 minutes

2010-11-23T22:03:00.000-08:00

I came across this video at Juggling Dynamite. It has ‘gone viral’ reaching 2 million views in the last week. Pass it on to your friends, you can’t make this up.

The Ordertaker - Moymoypalaboy

2010-11-20T16:30:00.001-08:00

This one will not be everyone’s cup of tea and I normally do not appreciate heavy punk music or whatever it is called. But I love these guys: they put such heart into it and their expressions have me in stitches.

I was very angry this week and I have been watching this video and laughing as a kind of therapy. This is exactly how I would like to react sometimes....

Laugh with Moymoypalaboy – If you wanna be my lover

2010-10-30T20:21:00.000-07:00

These guys look like they are having a ball, as well as making us roll on the floor. (There’s a mixed metaphor in there somewhere).

Lots more here at Carambabr’s Channel

Laughter, the best medicine - Marima by Moymoypalaboy

2010-10-28T10:32:00.001-07:00

These guys are great. If they don’t make you laugh, you are in big trouble.

Lots more here at Carambabr’s Channel

Stephen Maturin discusses handwriting with Jack

2010-10-18T23:28:00.000-07:00

Regular readers know I am a great fan of Patrick O’Brian and his Aubrey-Maturin series of novels. I am again reading the lot one after another and today I happened to come across one of those references to good handwriting in ‘The Commodore’. In the days O’Brian is writing about, handwriting was used in many official naval documents: ship’s logs, maps, Admiralty orders, pretty much everything, and the ability to write in a good hand was much valued. Perhaps it was so in Plato’s time also.

Stephen said, ‘Will I tell you another of Plato’s observations?’

‘Pray do,’ said Jack, his smile briefly returning.

‘It should please you, since you have a very pretty hand. Hincksey quoted it when I dined with him in London and we were discussing the bill of fare: “Calligraphy,” said Plato, “is the physical manifestation of an architecture of the soul.” That being so, mine must be a turf-and-wattle kind of soul, since my handwriting would be disowned by a backward cat; whereas yours, particularly on your charts, has a most elegant flow and clarity, the outward form of a soul that might have conceived the Parthenon.’

Jack made a civil bow, and pudding came in: spotted dog.

Of course, Stephen is a doctor and who ever heard of a doctor with good handwriting. And if anything, Stephen is the proof that Plato’s observation does not always stand the test. But whereas a bad hand is not always a condemnation, a good hand is certainly always a recommendation.

Image: extract from the log book of HMS Victory

The History of Writing

2010-10-13T13:17:00.000-07:00

This is a guest post by Louise Baker. Louise ranks online degrees for Zen College Life. She most recently wrote about the best colleges online.

Ever since time began, man felt the need to express all his thoughts, feelings and desires within the format of the written word. It is very likely that man evolved the concept of writing long before he established the capacity for any form of intelligibly audible exposition.

Early Writings

The earliest forms of writing were more than likely simplistic scratchings on clay, sand or rock. Recently, certain clay tokens were found which had the possibility of being the earliest example of written communication in ancient times. In the prehistoric times, certain pictograms upon numerous cave walls have been collectively acknowledged to be the fundamental precipitators of the written word as we know it today. Interestingly enough, the pictures operated with the same underlying compulsions which would have spawned the written word; the need to convey thoughts, ideas and the ability to mark and record daily business transactions in a tangible and understandable medium. For the longest time, writing consisted of pictographs recorded on malleable substances such as clay or soft rock. Cuneiform and ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics combined elements of pictures and words to express thoughts as fully as possible in what is considered some of the most advanced writing systems at those times. In the Orient, however, the standard for the written characters of most Oriental cultures stems directly from one source... the Chinese; whose influence is established in the writing systems of both Vietnam and Japan.

The Evolution of Writing

Writing would then continue to evolve in varying states from culture to culture. The Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans and many other cultures would go on to develop extremely sophisticated writing systems, but with a rudimentary element of established format which would allow for easier accessibility to many as opposed to just a few specialized learners. In addition, the change in writing materials, from papyrus and parchment to the invention of paper in about 100 A.D., writing would become more widespread and less time consuming. (When compared to the previous materials available, that is.) The Eastern cultures, in particular, would yield some of the most dynamic writings and evolution of complex writing systems ever known. The Arab culture, with its particularly difficult codex of written language, relied on Western cultures to simplify its writings into something more manageable.

The Alphabet

The continuation of the evolution of writing would eventually yield one of man's most significant tools for written communication... a standardized Alphabet representative of a variety of sounds established by a series of vowels and consonants. With the advent of the Alphabet, sounds could be more easily conveyed into a tangible medium for a more comprehensive understanding of what the written text represented. Roughly about the fourth millennium, there are a number of examples of such systems being used in the writing of those times, but it wasn't until about 1850 B.C. that a formally standardized Alphabet was used for purely such a purpose. And in about 100 A.D., the Romans gave us what would eventually become the single most recognized system of writing in the world, our modern 26 letter Alphabet.

Who says the Romans never did anything for anyone?

Image: The Rosetta Stone on display at the British Museum since 1802 by Chris Devers

The fading art of handwriting - Marketwatch

2010-10-05T16:21:00.000-07:00

Well shipmates, it seems the subject of handwriting is the talk of the town right now. Today Marketwatch (one of my favourite financial hangouts) published this video entitled ‘Write on: Wendy Bounds discusses the fading art of handwriting, pointing out that new research shows it can benefit children's motor skills and their ability to compose ideas and achieve goals throughout life’. No kidding? Does that mean the old ways are sometimes better than the new ways?

Ryukan's Reply to a Friend's Letter

2010-10-05T09:53:00.000-07:00

Your smoky village is not so far from here

But icy rain kept me captive all morning.

Just yesterday, it seems, we passed an evening together discussing poetry

But it’s really been twenty wind-blown days.

I’ve begun to copy the text you lent me,

Fretting how weak I’ve become.

This letter seals my promise to take my staff

And make my way through the steep cliffs

As soon as the sun melts the ice along the mossy path.

From ‘Zen Poems’, edited by Manu Bazzano with illustrations by André Sollier

Letter-writing quotes

2010-10-04T12:10:00.000-07:00

Here are some quotes about letter-writing, by which we mean writing letters by hand in the ‘old-fashioned’ way. They follow on very nicely from my post of Umberto Eco’s The lost art of handwriting and my own thoughts on the matter here and here.

I like the one about the old hotel.

In an age like ours, which is not given to letter-writing, we forget what an important part it used to play in people's lives. Anatole Broyard

It seems a long time since the morning mail could be called correspondence. Jacques Barzun

Take pains ... to write a neat round, plain hand, and you will find it a great convenience through life to write a small and compact hand as well as a fair and legible one. Thomas Jefferson

I stayed in a really old hotel last night. They sent me a wake-up letter. Steven Wright

In a man's letters you know, Madam, his soul lies naked, his letters are only the mirror of his breast, whatever passes within him is shown undisguised in its natural process. Nothing is inverted, nothing distorted, you see systems in their elements, you discover actions in their motives. Samuel Johnson

When he wrote a letter, he would put that which was most material in the postscript, as if it had been a by-matter. Francis Bacon

In the midst of great joy do not promise to give a man anything; in the midst of great anger do not answer a man's letter. Chinese proverb

The word that is heard perishes, but the letter that is written remains. Proverbs

You don't know a woman until you have a letter from her. Ada Leverson

To find out your real opinion of someone, judge the impression you have when you first see a letter from them. Arthur Schopenhauer

Letter writing is the only device for combining solitude with good company. Lord Byron

One good thing about not seeing you is that I can write you letters. Svetlana Alliluveya

Letters have to pass two tests before they can be classed as good: they must express the personality both of the writer and of the recipient. E. M. Forster

I have received no more than one or two letters in my life that were worth the postage. Henry David Thoreau

Please write again soon. Though my own life is filled with activity, letters encourage momentary escape into others lives and I come back to my own with greater contentment. Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey

Sir, more than kisses, letters mingle souls; for, thus friends absent speak. John Donne

A letter is a blessing, a great and all-too-rare privilege that can turn a private moment into an exalted experience. Alexandra Stoddard

We lay aside letters never to read them again, and at last we destroy them out of discretion, and so disappears the most beautiful, the most immediate breath of life, irrecoverable for ourselves and for others. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A letter always seemed to me like immortality because it is the mind alone without corporeal friend. Emily Dickinson

Letters are among the most significant memorial a person can leave behind them. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Letters are like wine; if they are sound they ripen with keeping. A man should lay down letters as he does a cellar of wine. Samuel Butler

The tender word forgotten,

The letter you did not write,

The flower you might have sent, dear,

Are your haunting ghosts tonight. Margeret Elizabeth Sangster

It does me good to write a letter which is not a response to a demand, a gratuitous letter, so to speak, which has accumulated in me like the waters of a reservoir. Henry Miller

I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter. Blaise Pascal

A person who can write a long letter with ease, cannot write ill. Jane Austen

Letter writing is an excellent way of slowing down this lunatic helterskelter universe long enough to gather one’s thoughts. Nick Bantock

Poets don’t draw. They unravel their handwriting and then tie it up again, but differently. Jean Cocteau

A Letter is a Joy of Earth -
It is denied the Gods. Emily Dickinson

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God's handwriting. Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world. Mother Theresa

Image by The Missive Maven. Check out her blog.

The lost art of handwriting - Umberto Eco

2010-09-27T21:21:00.000-07:00

Speaking of the stop teaching handwriting in school or not issue, would you believe it? It appears I am once again well behind the program on this one. The following is a piece written by Umberto Eco and published in The Guardian on Monday, 21 September 2009 (a year ago almost to the day). Needless to say I am of his way of thinking.

The days when children were taught to write properly are long gone. Does it matter? Yes, says Umberto Eco

Recently, two Italian journalists wrote a three-page newspaper article (in print, alas) about the decline of handwriting. By now it's well-known: most kids – what with computers (when they use them) and text messages – can no longer write by hand, except in laboured capital letters.

In an interview, a teacher said that students also make lots of spelling mistakes, which strikes me as a separate problem: doctors know how to spell and yet they write poorly; and you can be an expert calligrapher and still write "guage" or "gage" instead of "gauge".

I know children whose handwriting is fairly good. But the article talks of 50% of Italian kids – and so I suppose it is thanks to an indulgent destiny that I frequent the other 50% (something that happens to me in the political arena, too).

The tragedy began long before the computer and the cellphone.

My parents' handwriting was slightly slanted because they held the sheet at an angle, and their letters were, at least by today's standards, minor works of art. At the time, some – probably those with poor hand- writing – said that fine writing was the art of fools. It's obvious that fine handwriting does not necessarily mean fine intelligence. But it was pleasing to read notes or documents written as they should be.

My generation was schooled in good handwriting, and we spent the first months of elementary school learning to make the strokes of letters. The exercise was later held to be obtuse and repressive but it taught us to keep our wrists steady as we used our pens to form letters rounded and plump on one side and finely drawn on the other. Well, not always – because the inkwells, with which we soiled our desks, notebooks, fingers and clothing, would often produce a foul sludge that stuck to the pen and took 10 minutes of mucky contortions to clean.

The crisis began with the advent of the ballpoint pen. Early ballpoints were also very messy and if, immediately after writing, you ran your finger over the last few words, a smudge inevitably appeared. And people no longer felt much interest in writing well, since handwriting, when produced with a ballpoint, even a clean one, no longer had soul, style or personality.

Why should we regret the passing of good handwriting? The capacity to write well and quickly on a keyboard encourages rapid thought, and often (not always) the spell-checker will underline a misspelling.

Although the cellphone has taught the younger generation to write "Where R U?" instead of "Where are you?", let us not forget that our forefathers would have been shocked to see that we write "show" instead of "shew" or "enough" instead of "enow". Medieval theologians wrote "respondeo dicendum quod", which would have made Cicero recoil in horror.

The art of handwriting teaches us to control our hands and encourages hand-eye coordination.

The three-page article pointed out that writing by hand obliges us to compose the phrase mentally before writing it down. Thanks to the resistance of pen and paper, it does make one slow down and think. Many writers, though accustomed to writing on the computer, would sometimes prefer even to impress letters on a clay tablet, just so they could think with greater calm.

It's true that kids will write more and more on computers and cellphones. Nonetheless, humanity has learned to rediscover as sports and aesthetic pleasures many things that civilisation had eliminated as unnecessary.

People no longer travel on horseback but some go to a riding school; motor yachts exist but many people are as devoted to true sailing as the Phoenicians of 3,000 years ago; there are tunnels and railroads but many still enjoy walking or climbing Alpine passes; people collect stamps even in the age of email; and armies go to war with Kalashnikovs but we also hold peaceful fencing tournaments.

It would be a good thing if parents sent kids off to handwriting schools so they could take part in competitions and tournaments – not only to acquire grounding in what is beautiful, but also for psychomotor wellbeing. Such schools already exist; just search for "calligraphy school" on the internet. And perhaps for those with a steady hand but without a steady job, teaching this art could become a good business.

Stop teaching handwriting in school, do not

2010-09-25T18:41:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I fell on an article written by a professor proposing that we stop teaching handwriting in school. I will not link to it, but if you Google it you are sure to find it. Her son was having trouble writing certain letters at school and she found, after a brief overview of the history of writing, that the time had come to move on to electronic writing methods and she ended with a fling at writing as so much pushing of a graphite stick in various directions. When I finished reading this, if I had had immediate access to the comments section, I would certainly have written that this was the stupidest idea I had ever heard in my entire life. I might have added something like, is your son also having trouble with art at school? Perhaps we should stop teaching art as well, we have computer graphics programs now, and after all it is just so much pushing around a paintbrush in various directions.

I was quite shocked at my reaction, at the strong emotions I felt, and of course I realised that that was partly the author’s intention: to be provocative. I then decided it did not merit serious thought or a serious reply and moved on.

Since then I have noticed that my post The importance of good handwriting is quite popular and I am constantly reminded of the contrary article. I have found myself mulling it over. Then I began to think (cue heavenly light) that perhaps it fell to me to reply to the article (cue singing angels), that my entire life up to now had brought me to this moment (cue dark clouds of doubt parting), that my blog was the perfect vehicle (cue sun), and that my blog post on this subject might be read by some young impressionable mind and it would encourage him to persevere in his handwriting technique and he would go on to become a second Shakespeare who would influence an entire generation… (OK, cut the heavenly light, angels: take 15).

I am not a professor, nor a writer; I am just a guy with a blog but I will tell you what I think off the top of my head and you will be the judge.

I find it sad and surely irresponsible that an educator should hold such a mistaken view (and encourage others to hold it) but I suppose it is a sign of the times. There will always be people impatient for change and impatient of the old ways. I know because I have acted in that way in my time also, unfortunately. It is the lot of impatient youth.

But it seems to me that learning how to write is the basic building block of education. And no matter how easy to use and ubiquitous the electronic tablet becomes, pen and paper will always be necessary and indeed an art form. Necessary because pen and paper are (almost) always to be had - computers, tablets, electricity and batteries are not. Use those other electronic forms by all means, but handwriting has to be there to fall back on. I am not going to belabour the point, it seems so obvious to me. I am sure you can think of a hundred situations where a written message is the best or the only way.

It also seems to me reprehensible that an educator should undermine children’s resolve to learn how to write by hand and also parents’ efforts to help and encourage them. Perhaps it is more difficult for some children than others, but if we were to choose what should be taught in school on that basis where would we be? There is something to be said for the process of overcoming difficulties and personal inclination and mastering a useful skill by perseverance.

Civilization has come the long road through many a dark brutal age to the point where literacy is possible for everyone today and the suggestion to abandon the written word in school after so many have struggled and fought to bring literacy to the world would be to do them and our children a great disservice.

But my real argument has more to do with this ‘fling it down the gutter’ attitude to all the old ways of doing things. I must sound very much like the baby boomer I am as I write this, but I do assure you in my time the shoe was on the other foot as you can read in my last post about handwriting. I have evolved, my attitude has changed, for the better I hope. The computer and the advance of technology is not the secret of happiness. People are less happy today than they were 50 years ago. All the twitters and e-mails you may send your friends may be fun, but I doubt they give as much pleasure as our ancestors (parents, grand parents!) enjoyed when they received a single thoughtful (handwritten) letter.

I am not against technology or progress. I have a blog don’t I? I am simply saying that not every technological advance is necessarily an advance for human happiness. Technology has to be used wisely, usefully, reasonably. And respect for the old ways is a virtue. A well-written, thoughtful letter is an art form in itself. Where there is no art in daily life, there is no life. No life worth the living.

I am reminded of something I read about the art of the Japanese Zen garden. The author was talking about how one might apply to a (Japanese) Zen garden master to become his pupil. He gave the master’s postal address. He advised that it might take some weeks or even months to receive an answer. Zen garden masters did not have faxes, still less computers.

I am sure they are quite, quite happy without them.

Read more about the lost art of letter writing at Proverbs 31 maiden.

Image: ‘Winter’s Child’ by Lucia

I Ching therefore I Pod - new update for Yi Jing app

2010-09-16T10:07:00.000-07:00

In June I received a nice e-mail from Brian Arnold, president of Flat Earth Studio, the developer of the Yi Jing application I use on my I Pod. He thanked me for my kind reviews of the Yi Jing app and told me the good news: the company has now teamed up with Princeton University Press to offer the famous and definitive Wilhelm/Baynes edition of the I Ching as an update to the app. Here is an excerpt from the press release:

Princeton University Press and Flat Earth Studio are pleased to announce the newest version of the popular iPhone App, Yi Jing, now available from the iTunes App store. This major update for Yi Jing App includes new features and improved book content for additional purchase, including Princeton University Press's all-time bestselling edition of The I Ching, or Book of Changes, edited by Richard Wilhelm and translated by Cary F. Baynes. The New York Times says, "Princeton's Bollingen edition [is] still regarded as the best and most authentic by I Ching aficionados."

Yi Jing is the definitive mobile version of The I Ching, or Book of Changes, done the way it was meant to be experienced. Ancient meets modern as one of the oldest books written is re re-crafted to take advantage of the unique features of your mobile device. The updated App contains all of the features you need, including a question oracle, an integrated journal, and multiple translations and interpretations. The complete Wilhelm/Baynes text is provided for the first time in interactive readings.

"We are incredibly pleased to team up with Flat Earth Studio to make the Bollingen edition of the I Ching available in this format," said Daphne Ireland, Director of Intellectual Property at Princeton University Press. "The updated app allows fans to engage with this material in a completely unprecedented way."

See the full press release here, which provides links to Flat Earth Studio’s web sites, to iTunes, and to a YouTube video Yi Jing v2 walkthrough.

So there you have it. The already best I Ching app available just became the definitive and classic I Ching must have app. And rightly so.

THE IMAGE
On the mountain, a tree:
The image of DEVELOPMENT.
Thus the superior man abides in dignity and virtue,
In order to improve the mores.