Month: July 2023

Categories
Uncategorized

Analogue versus Digital day dreams

The irony of listening to a podcast on a phone with bluetooth earphones on negative capability was not entirely lost on me.

The quote from the poet Keats

I mean Negative Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason

And there are some analysts who do not own a mobile phone, and who do not have email. You can only contact them by landline. You can leave them a message. I imagine they have wine in the cellar, fermenting. Pictures in the dark room, developing. They day dream. They play records. They eat lunch on a plate with a knife and fork. They siesta. They write freehand and use a type writer. They listen to bird song. They do not scroll. Only stroll. They free dive into their minds. Being with them is like being with a silent blazing orchestra.

Negative capability means you can’t search up the answer. You might not even know the question. We don’t know that much. It means staying in a state of not knowing. Turn the lights off. Go underwater. Perhaps you have a buzz from your phone interfering with your negative capability? Silicon valley with its cruel optimisation makes possible this post, but does it take away our ability to day dream. Get lost.

Categories
Uncategorized

Poem of the Day

A colleague turned to me and said some days I take so much pleasure in going for a walk and saying nothing much at all. I just say, look there is a flower…Look there is a bird. I take pleasure in buying bread.

She shared a poem about the ordinary pleasure of buying bread. Not white sourdough necessarily! Just bread. Here is the poem

by Naomi Shihab Nye

Before you know what kindness really is
You must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth,
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness,
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
You must travel where the
Indian in a white poncho lies dead
By the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you, how he too was
someone who journeyed‎ through the night
with plans and the simple breath
that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness
as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow
as the other deepest thing,
You must wake up with sorrow,
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth,
Then it is only kindness
that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day
to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises it’s head
From the crowd of the world to say‎
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend

Thank you to Angela M for introducing me to this poem

Categories
Uncategorized

Is the Yellow Jersey on Drugs?

Is Jonas Vingegaard human? Is he a marvel superhero in lycra? What does his wife put in his lunch box? Does he have a motor fitted in the back of his bike?

For cycling fans the imperious riding of Vingegaard is unbelievable. The way he put time into his closest rival Pogacar during the time trial was bordering on murderous. Aged twenty six, he has ridden faster than any rider in living memory.

Professional cycling is the hardest of sports. It has been awash with drugs for ever. And that’s just the masseur and team drivers. The riders have fresh blood, needles, drugs, and the kitchen sink. Anything and everything.

Lance Armstrong was taking drugs from the age of 16 at his triathlon club, way before his testicular cancer. He even made sure do another come back so he would definitely be caught out.

When a rider decimates his opponents it usually means doping. However, you may call me naive, but I don’t think Vingegaard is on drugs. He is a drug free yellow bomb. He doesn’t speak much to the press. He doesn’t share his power files. But he is very honorable.

In a previous year he waited for his closest rival who had fallen of his bike, in order to make the contest fairer. Maybe that makes him more sadistic, in that he wants to be honorable, and still crush his opponent. What confidence, what grace, such power!

Still, sometimes a rider comes through that transforms everything. He must have the genes, the talent, the team, and good luck. In Vingegaard we have a true winner. I wish him a wonderful ride into Champs Elysee and hope he is able to savour his true achievement. Thank you Vingegaard for giving us the Grand Boucle!

Categories
Uncategorized

The Ashes Today, Rare Metals, and the Joys of Digging

Listening to the radio today I am enjoying the cricket. As i start typing Chris Woakes takes the final wicket. Australia all out for 317. Looks like England are in the lead, at least for now. But like therapy, we don’t know what will happen. Will England batsmen score centuries, or will their be a collapse. Even if they bat well, will the weather hold? If it rains in Manchester, no days are added on. The weather is a mystery, and could scupper England’s chances. The audience are buzzing, I can hear them through the radio.

I recently enjoyed reading Mike Brearley’s latest book, Turning Over the Pebbles. He had a dual life as a philosopher, England captain, and then as a psychoanalyst. He approvingly refers to another analyst, saying that analysis is liking mining for rare metals. I like that idea. But I also think about the damage that mining invariably causes. I think about the cold war between China and the USA as they tussle over advanced microchips and rare minerals. But perhaps I am being too literal. Surely, what he is saying, psychologically speaking, if you keep digging, if you go beyond the surface, you will be rewarded with treasure. Rare minerals are esoteric. They are precious. We can behold their potency. We can put them to use. But first we have to find these psychic treasures. In the meantime I need to find the exact quote, and will need to keep manually scouting through the paper pages. I can’t find it in the index. But there is a pleasure in digging through the book, that allows me to read half remembered pages….