More on a theme
In Joys, Otherstuff on November 29, 2009 at 8:32 am
This image may not quite be right but it is a religious theme and the book I’ve just been reading, The Curse of the Self, talks about the ways religions try to help us deal with the self. The author, Mark R Leavy, points out that Western religions focus on our controlling the self and Eastern ones try to get us to ‘quiet the self’.
In short, the book says that few animals have a ’self’ and while in general it’s a blessing for us humans that enables us to plan, reflect, socialise and so on, that it can also get in the way. ‘If we cannot return to a time before self’, he says, ‘the only way forward is to a state of mind in which we use our self when needed but are not a slave to its every egocentric, egoistic, and egotistical whim’.
The book covers, intelligently, but in an easily digested manner, our place and views of ourselves in relation to our social groups, the terrible things ourselves can do to us, and some suggestions for helping ourselves out.
It’s a book I’d recommend.
Celebration
In Joys, Memories on November 21, 2009 at 2:53 am
I celebrated the two years since my operation (the one that stopped the excruciating pain but caused me to become a cripple) by going to the Wailers concert in Porirua and taking the cripple sign off the back of my car.
It’s also one year since I drove again (using my left foot).
The concert was fun. Hikoikoi, the local Petone group, were a wee bit off key perhaps? but sweet and Katchafire were all professional sound with a great saxophonist. It was good to know most of the songs and they got the place rocking, er…….. moving.
The Wailers were pretty cool: a young woman (can’t find her name) was all energy but her version of Turn the lights down low…lacked something. Perhaps it was that sultry tone in Marley’s voice. The encores Buffalo Soldier and Exodus were good final songs.
The crowd was a mixture of ages and colour, with a tendency to be brown and have dreads. Nice mellow atmosphere and even a chance for a bit of a dance. Everyone knew all the words to all the songs, so we sang along too.
It was also the celebration of the opening last year of Porirua’s Te Rauparaha arena.
It’s been, as they say, a wee journey.
I guess it’s been a wee journey for the Wailers too.
