02005-08-25 | Uncategorized
Ounce for ounce, it costs more than gasoline, even at today’s high gasoline prices; depending on the brand, it costs 250 to 10,000 times more than tap water. Globally, bottled water is now a $46 billion industry. Why has it become so popular? It cannot be the taste, since most people cannot tell the difference in a blind tasting. Much bottled water is, in any case, derived from municipal water supplies, though it is sometimes filtered, or has additional minerals added to it.
(Via vedana.net)
Interesting article in the New York Times. And if you like water treated by osmosis you should know that I am told that for every gallon of treated water 4 gallons of water are wasted…
02005-08-24 | Uncategorized
Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.
The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman’s yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, “Nothing, I just helped him cry”
I don’t know whether this is a true story, but that really doesn’t matter. Found this web site of Leo Buscaglia.
02005-08-23 | Uncategorized
Gerald Weber commented…
I don’t advocate the approach of those that ascribe to the gothic mode of evil like Shelley did. Good, evil, whatever, it’s all hollow sounding after a while as reality is not bound by words or other symbols which we invent. Jiddu Krishnamurti lectures illustrate this concept very well. By the same token, I don’t feel that maybe sums up the situation either because this is all based on thought rather than feeling. There’s no duende in the story. So if you see your horse galloping off in the distance do you remain emotionless and detached and don’t have a feeling about it? Maybe?
Good point. I think when your horse races off into the distance you get mad and stomp your feet and scream… and then you go on about your business instead of carrying that loss for the next 20 years and cursing your bad luck. Emotions are human. They are part of our human condition. They are beautiful. On the other hand, holding those emotions for a long time is not good. In other words, you can express your feelings as completely as El Pele or or Jose Merce express their emotions when they sing/perform – but then you return the microphone to the stand, leave the stage and shake it off.
PS: the emotion isn’t what hurts you in the long run – but getting attached to it will. As a child we feel emotions directly, but without stored experience. We get mad and then move on. As we gather more data/experience, our brain starts comparing that data with the fresh emotion… instead of getting mad at an event we get mad and simultaneously the brain whispers “this always happens to me – it’s the same as what happened last week and the driver who cut me off then looked German as well: Germans are evil!” You see?
02005-08-23 | Uncategorized
New in the ListeningLounge:
Several guitar loops from the song UnderWorld, found on the album La Semana.
I also added a new album called Leda Parts. There you will find rhythm guitar parts I am recording for her this month. She asked whether I would add my guitar to several additional songs for the album she has been working on for a long while. She hopes to release it later this year.
02005-08-23 | Uncategorized
I like the symmetry of a post entitled Black and White following a post entitled Apples and Oranges
Let’s return to our problem of good and evil and make use of the common white hat/black hat analogy which originated in the old movie Westerns. In these movies, the good guy wore a white hat [first aspect], whereas his mirror opposite, the bad guy, wore a black one [second aspect]. We have one of the simplest, most clear-cut mirror oppositions…
But what is the True Opposite (third aspect) of both of these fellows? It’s the man who, metaphorically, wears no hat at all.
The person who wears no hat is the person who’s not taking sides – the person who does not see himself or herself in opposition to others.
The black hat/white hat view of good and evil can make an entertaining movie because the moral lines it draws are so simple and obvious that the story remains easy to follow right through to its poignant finish. In real life, however, the lines are infinitely complex, and the story has no ending. The black hat/white hat theory of good and evil doesn’t reflect our actual experience of life’s moral difficulties.
(Via Dashh: A Day In The Integral Life)
Read more HERE
Wearing a white hat must be so exhausting. As exhausting as wearing a black hat, maybe. Wearing any hat is tiresome. Better to say may be like the old Chinese farmer.
There is a Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically. “May be,” the farmer replied. The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. “How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed. “May be,” replied the old man. The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. “May be,” answered the farmer. The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son’s leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out. “May be,” said the farmer.
I found the story HERE and have quoted it before.
