{"id":8647,"date":"2011-10-14T11:21:15","date_gmt":"2011-10-14T15:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=8647"},"modified":"2011-10-14T11:21:15","modified_gmt":"2011-10-14T15:21:15","slug":"too-little-then-too-much-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/too-little-then-too-much-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Too Little Then, Too Much Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/29543294?byline=0&amp;portrait=0&amp;color=ffffff\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"601\" height=\"338\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"smalltext\"><em>[Video: introduction to <a title=\"The Present, at Kickstarter\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/scottthrift\/the-present\" target=\"_blank\">The Present<\/a>, a Kickstarter project to produce a clock which takes a whole year to complete a cycle. The clock will mark the passage of time by subtle changes in the background hue to which the clock&#8217;s single hand &#8212; a &#8220;season hand&#8221;? &#8212; points.]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>From <em><a title=\"whiskey river's commonplace book: Friedrich Nietzsche, on science's need for magic\" href=\"http:\/\/whiskeyriverscommonplace.blogspot.com\/2005\/11\/archaic-revival.html\" target=\"_blank\">whiskey river&#8217;s commonplace book<\/a><\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Do you really believe that the sciences would ever have originated and grown if the way had not been prepared by magicians, alchemists, astrologers and witches whose promises and pretensions first had to create a thirst, a hunger, a taste for hidden and forbidden powers? Indeed, infinitely more had to be promised than could ever be fulfilled in order that anything at all might be fulfilled in the realms of knowledge.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Friedrich Nietzsche)<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Now there is present in the world at the moment, or at least I like to think so, an impulse which I have named the archaic revival. What happens is that whenever a society really gets in trouble, and you can use this in your own life &#8212; when you really get in trouble &#8212; what you should do is say &#8220;what did I believe in the last sane moments that I experienced&#8221; and then go back to that moment and act from it even if you no longer believe it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Terence McKenna)<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn&#8217;t go away.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Philip K. Dick)<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Not from whiskey river:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>If Life Were Like Touch Football<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Driving north on Route 2A<br \/>\nfrom Vermont to Maine<br \/>\nlistening to the news:<br \/>\n&#8212;the New England Patriots coach was caught<br \/>\ntrying to videotape the handsignals of the New York<br \/>\n<span style=\"margin-left: 3em;\">Giants&#8212;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I remember how we six sisters<br \/>\nwould recruit a few boys from the neighborhood<br \/>\nfor a pick-up game of touch football in the street,<br \/>\nhow we&#8217;d break into teams,<br \/>\nhuddle around whomever was chosen to be qb,<br \/>\nhow the qb would extend her left palm, flat,<br \/>\ninto the middle of the huddle,<br \/>\nplant the index finger of her right hand in the center of her<br \/>\n<span style=\"margin-left: 3em;\">palm, and then<\/span><br \/>\nwith finger motions and whispers,<br \/>\nshe would diagram who was to go where and when,<br \/>\nin order to so confuse and fool the other team<br \/>\nthat one of us could break free<br \/>\nand go long.<\/p>\n<p>Oh that feeling<br \/>\nof running as fast as I could<br \/>\nextending my arms, my hands, my fingers<br \/>\nas far as I could<br \/>\nwatching that spiraling bullet of a football,<br \/>\nreminding myself:<br \/>\nif you can touch it,<br \/>\nyou can catch it.<br \/>\nIf you can touch it,<br \/>\nyou can catch it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Julie Cadwallader-Staub [<a title=\"The Writer's Almanac: 'If Life Were Like Touch Football,' by Julie Cadwallader-Staub\" href=\"http:\/\/writersalmanac.publicradio.org\/index.php?date=2011\/10\/12\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Bookmobile<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I spend part of my childhood waiting<br \/>\nfor the Sterns County Bookmobile.<br \/>\nWhen it comes to town, it makes a<br \/>\nU-turn in front of the grade school and<br \/>\nglides into its place under the elms.<\/p>\n<p>It is a natural wonder of late<br \/>\nafternoon. I try to imagine Dante,<br \/>\nWilliam Faulkner, and Emily Dickinson<br \/>\ntraveling down a double lane highway<br \/>\ntogether, country-western on the radio.<\/p>\n<p>Even when it arrives, I have to wait.<br \/>\nThe librarian is busy, getting out<br \/>\nthe inky pad and the lined cards.<br \/>\nI pace back and forth in the line,<br \/>\nhungry for the fresh bread of the page,<\/p>\n<p>because I need something that will tell me<br \/>\nwhat I am; I want to catch a book,<br \/>\nclear as a one-way ticket, to Paris,<br \/>\nto London, to anywhere.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Joyce Sutphen)<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We have now found out that many things which we felt to be basic realities of nature are social fictions, arising from commonly accepted or traditional ways of thinking about the world. These fictions have included:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>The notion that the world is made up or composed of separate bits or things.<\/li>\n<li>That things are differing forms of some basic stuff.<\/li>\n<li>That individual organisms are such things, and that they are inhabited and partially controlled by independent egos.<\/li>\n<li>That the opposite poles of relationships, such as light\/darkness and solid\/space, are in actual conflict which may result in the permanent victory of one of the poles.<\/li>\n<li>That death is evil, and that life must be a constant war against it.<\/li>\n<li>That man, individually and collectively, should aspire to be top species and put himself in control of nature.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Fictions are useful so long as they are taken as fictions. They are then simply ways of &#8220;figuring&#8221; the world which we agree to follow so that we can act in cooperation, as we agree about inches and hours, numbers and words, mathematical systems and languages. If we have no agreement about measures of time and space, I would have no way of\u00a0making a date with you at the corner of Forty-second Street and Fifth Avenue at 3 P.M. on Sunday, April 4.<\/p>\n<p>But the troubles begin when the fictions are taken as facts. Thus in 1752 the British government instituted a calendar reform which required that September 2 of that year be dated September 14, with the result that many people imagined that eleven days had been taken off their lives, and rushed to Westminster screaming, &#8220;Give us back our eleven days!&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Alan Watts, <em>The Book<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p>But y&#8217;know, despite our best efforts and fondest, most fervent wishes, the pace of life sometimes still accelerates, spirals out of hand. At such times, it&#8217;s good to remember we&#8217;ll always have the easy magic of fundamental things:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 90%; line-height: 1.25em;\"><em>[Below, click Play button to begin <\/em>As Time Goes By<em>. While audio is playing, volume control appears at left &#8212; a row of little vertical bars. This clip is 2:28 long.<a class=\"hidden\" title=\"4.6MB - you sure about this?\" href=\"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/audio\/astimegoesby_jimmydurante.mp3\" target=\"_blank\">]<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<div style=\"border: 1px solid silver; margin: 0.25em 0.5em 0.5em; padding: 1em 0.5em 0pt; width: 400px; float: none; text-align: center;\" title=\"Click Play button to hear 'As Time Goes By'\">[audio:astimegoesby_jimmydurante.mp3|titles=&#8217;As Time Goes By&#8217;|artists=Jimmy Durante]<\/div>\n[<a title=\"Lyrics: 'As Time Goes By'\" onclick=\"javascript:wopen('https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/lyrics\/astimegoesby_lyrics.html', 'new', 350, 500); return false;\">Lyrics<\/a>]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Video: introduction to The Present, a Kickstarter project to produce a clock which takes a whole year to complete a cycle. The clock will mark the passage of time by subtle changes in the background hue to which the clock&#8217;s single hand &#8212; a &#8220;season hand&#8221;? &#8212; points.] From whiskey river&#8217;s commonplace book: Do you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,1393,53,74,251],"tags":[1211,2250,2524,2627,2628,2629,2630,2631,2632,2633,2634],"class_list":{"0":"post-8647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ruminations","7":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","8":"category-movies-media","9":"category-music","10":"category-poetry-writing_cat","11":"tag-alan-watts","12":"tag-kickstarter","13":"tag-terence-mckenna","14":"tag-the-present","15":"tag-friedrich-nietzsche","16":"tag-philip-k-dick","17":"tag-julie-cadwallader-staub","18":"tag-joyce-sutphen","19":"tag-as-time-goes-by","20":"tag-jimmy-durante","21":"tag-casablance","22":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-2ft","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8647"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8694,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8647\/revisions\/8694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}