Brown Motion

This memorial day we decided to go experience the Zen/ Buddhist life - even if for a few hours that is - at the footsteps of Tinsel Town (LA) no less.  Our journey included two spots that are known for its meditation inducing qualities and attract variety of stressed out citizenry mostly from the Los Angeles area and some from further away. We started on a Sat and returned on the following Monday traveling around 700 miles altogether but feeling refreshed, somewhat amused yet inspired by what we witnessed. Left the Bay Area on Sat morning and drove straight into a retreat for the erstwhile hippy crowd now a Yoga destination - in central California called Ojai (pron Oh Hi).  Right! Even the once famous native of southern India, J Krishnamurthi (philosopher and writer) made his home and later expired in this tranquil valley.  Ojai is a village in the valley at the foothill of the Santa Ynez mountains, and gets its cool mists from the Pacific only ...

Whose?  Sounds gross?  Well financial advisors warn you against it too.  The act of finding a low point to trade into an asset is termed as 'picking a bottom' or 'bottom of the barrel fishing' or something equally insane. Amidst catching falling knives and timing the markets the people that are trying to achieve their get rich quick dream are finding themselves roiled.  All the clamoring amidst cyclical rotations and diversification combined with easing monetary policy merely leads to a business case for selling sleep disorder pills. High frequency trades and algorithms that throw the investor out of rhythm are the norm and to buy and hold has gone the way of crashing gold.  In and out is also dangerous esp if you also suffer from e. malfunction that can affect your moods making for more bad trades. So to all I drop this advice - stop picking anything before hitting rock bottom.  Instead try heavy lifting by paying attention to what really matters....

Almost could be a last name - Washingfeet...no I am refering to the act of literally using liquids ranging from water to honey to milk to a concoction of any of the above and other ingredients to taste..sorry, to rinse the hind hooves of a dude or dudette considered worthy of such service. I see number of photos of so called modern day Mahatmas that have generated this sort of fan following.   The affected cult in this case, the washers, are seen tending to the feet of the washee.  Nothing wishy washy here.  They are all in.  As in true blue (or orange) believers. What's the matter?  What's going on?  Where did this start?  These same people might have piles of dirty laundry at home but no matter - they give their all to literally scramble over other humans to get to the front of the line to wash the feet of their lord, their guide, their mentor, their advisor, their brand et al. Affiliation is the name of this game.  Whether ...

I am not smart enough to know how to value - 1. Relationships (the human kind) 2. Asset Classes (fancy word for defining everything from Barrel of Crude to Pork Bellies to Gold Bars to Diet Supplements to Cash - in dollars or yen or pounds or rupees to a bottle of Coca Cola or the company's stock or bond or derivative of any of the above) 3. Longevity (time span expected on the planet with faculties intact) 4.  Miscellaneous items (house I live in; cars I drive; food that I eat, fashion or things in haute etc.) You see I am smart enough to know that value of something is always relative to some other event or interaction which I may or may not be able to influence.  So trying to pin down this ephemeral idea is plain stupid IMHO. People trade variety of assets daily based on their perception of what others might think the value of that asset may be a year from now; a week from now or even an hour from now.  That is to say that they acknowledge that nobody rea...

That could mean a lot of things to a lot of people depending on what the context is. To be grounded is to be emotionally stable and I will assure the readership that I am as I write this. To a person delayed at an airport with no sign of movement the airline will label the crew and passengers as being grounded in Dallas.  It has nothing to do with being ground. Perhaps mentally but not physically.  I am not a nut after all. Its evident that many words seem to have been tampered with over time and people use them with or without any grounding in the subject. Think about how many types of grounds there are and the types there aren't. You have fair grounds but not black grounds. You have backgrounds and foregrounds but no sidegrounds. Who comes up with this stuff? And on what grounds? It's a grind when you have to think of all the ways people will use the language to discuss an idea or notion without any background in subject matter.  Yet to be successf...

Marketing tends to target human aspirations. That is a broad theme which is used stateside to snare the gullibles. It has reached heightened proportions with everything from water to phones to cars being labeled as smart. Clearly we see a trend that highlights the fact that people are not - smart. That they are aspiring to be and therefore affiliating to these items that are labeled smart hoping some of it would rub off. The only thing that gets rubbed off amongst this aspirational generation is their petty bank balance. But no matter. Soon they are amongst the most talked about and hip crowd who having seen the smartness they exude have also jumped on the bandwagon and are now all sporting smart water bottles in one hand juggling the smart phone in the other. But wait don't text and drive - also don't drink and drive - even if its a smart car! Some may have managed to shove their device down their throat while pouring water in their ear. Oops! Time magazine did a co...

Saw 'The Sessions', an indy film based on a true story of a man in the iron lung and some fun with Jewish idiosyncracies. Highlight is the theme for the believers that he who taketh also sometimes giveth. And giveth good. The protagonist is a polio affected man in his thirties who has braved the odds to live a life without pity and with optimism about his future. He is a graduate from a reputed University in California. He has high hopes to achieve what many would consider brazen in light of the odds. Plot focuses on his wish to experience intimate interactions with the opposite sex and the interesting journey that results. From engaging in a dialog with his priest played by William Macy (who plays the part of a liberal advisor and friend) to having a cast of nurse attendants that help him seek what he is missing he finally finds a woman who is in the business of providing surrogate sex therapy. She clarifies her position as being different from a prostitute because app...

This one is loaded. The question that is. Interpreted purely literally I would say Yes. As in better 'off' than 'on'. For starters species on this planet takes itself so seriously that they actually think they are a significant contributor to their own well being. THat they are the smartest of the survivors since survivors began surviving. They discount the horrors and their idiocy to be proponents of all that they have done that has lasting impact. Well - they do not talk about being lucky. Frankly their whole existence is a matter of luck and much like the Truman show entire generations have come and gone thinking they had a purpose and that they mattered when reality was far from. I hate to be the one to stand and say that is not so. We do not matter. We never have. Its our own myopic and largely arrogant attitudes that makes us think we do. For all the so called inventions and cures, devices and technologies, revolutions and gay marriages I am not sure ...