Had lunch with a colleague yesterday. It was more like he ate and I ranted. Long story. Point is that amidst my rants he also told me about something that he was reading. It involved a Frenchman visiting the Buddhist monastaries to learn from them and their way of living.
The author is struck by the novel way in which the monks can go through daily chores and not say a word. Silence it seems is pervasive here and yet there is no discord or ambiguity or chaos. How can that be?
My friend then took it on himself to experiment it for himself. Quite Gandhian I say in his experiments with truth - that of trying to emulate the Buddhist monk and going through his weekend without speaking with his roommate.
I think he came out of it feeling profoundly pleased and more aware that we as a species create a lot of noise that is just that. NOISE. Clicking incessantly on our multitude devices to ask this and that or download and upload meaningless bits of data in turn churning out more data to fill the ether.
Now that the planet is on the brink of extinction with all the hot air being contributed from bovines (with their flatulence) and humans (with all their gabbing) it might be worth looking at non-technology that actually lets people simply detach from the cord and go native.
This could involve abolishing transit of all forms for the day and using the hind legs to get from A to B (for food etc) and using speecch where absolutely necessary. All of this would cause a serious impact on humanity as they will suddenly hear foreign sounds like bird chirps, cricket calls and other phenomenon like wind rustling leaves.
Then they could go back to their blogs and continue to yammer about what they heard to make up for lost time adding more data to the cosmos.
This autumn the weather gods cooperated as we took a family trip in the northeast to see six states that qualify or makeup what is known colloquially in America as New England. Mass, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island (tiniest state in the union). The outing helped tally up the states we either lived in, visited or have worked in to 47. Guess which three have eluded this intrepid traveling family. Any rate the drive was all in about 1,800 miles and included some memorable geographic wonders or points of interest. Easternmost part of state of Massachusetts being one. Furthest drivable road east in Mass being another. Visit to all Ivy League schools (term harkens to a collegiate athletics conference and generally regarded as elite academic institutes of some repute worldwide) is another random bucket list item of which this trip afforded the chance to knock two more of the list. Dartmouth in Hanover, NH and Brown (and its sister institute the RISD - school f
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