Danah Zohar, The Quantum Self (1990:34)
phenomenology: September 2006 Archives
Blow or hug?" Zeynep wondered out loud while the birthday candles melted onto her rich chocolate cake. It was past 1 a.m. in Amherst. Not exactly the time one would expect a party, especially having just completed a cross-country flight. "Welcome back!" she said to me and Little Brother. (We spent our summers in Turkey and Romania, respectively.)
Anuj (creative visionary and primary organizer) wasn't there for the pre-party, playing chauffer while we discussed (among other things) the differences between "simply connected surfaces" (no holes) and non-simply connected surfaces (has holes). (Did you know that mathematicians begin by ignoring 3D space, collapsing everything into 2 dimensions?)
[What comes next is an exercise in mathematical metaphorics. I am probably stretching them completely out-of-shape.] [[Oh well.]] ;-) Anuj will be pleased (?) to learn that he has no holes. [Steph has a few about the size of cannonballs but that's another story!] He is not a torus (Steph, btw, is a Taurus but oh-so-close to Gemini).
Once Zeynep arrived the party rollicked on! Rajiv took pictures but I bet he didn't get one of Alenka's gift of a beaker filled with flowers. I am so jealous! I want one!!! Jake is back to being sleep-deprived. John and I compared political notes on Turkey. Tate jumped in (and was just getting ready to tell me how wonderful commutable matrices are when Zeynep arrived - next time?)
Lava looks totally manly. Ricardo spoiled Anuj's golf swing by taking video. Sue (sp?) and Clara (?) kept to themselves in the kitchen but I did walk in on some kind of bizarro knife play - I ducked into the bathroom fast. Did I miss anyone?
My evening didn't end when I left. Just to add some more excitement, someone (who is learning how to drive) decided to weave over the center yellow line. What are those flashing lights behind us? Sigh. Fortunately, the cop bought my explanation that he weaved, "Probably just because we were talking." It didn't hurt that my registration and driver's license were current. And that LB didn't say "We just left a party!" Instead he said we were going to "Amherst" and coming from "Amherst." I added, when the cop pressed, that we were at an apartment on Pleasant St. Unbelievably, the cop accepted the most ragged learner's permit you've ever seen and issued only a verbal warning. Whew!
Or don't, but know you're often making decisions before you're conscious of the factors influencing them.
I bought the book Friday night because I took it as a sign. This review by the enlightened librarian finds a problem with its "lack of forthcomingness" but I'm not sure harder evidence will do more to convince people than the stories he tells? I guess this book didn't become as popular as his previous one, The Tipping Point.
I was out with half of Drunk-with-Power and Cautiously-Concerned-with-Confidentiality. We had a wondrous meal in honor of Robin, who is still getting settled at the University of Chicago (and planning her birthday party).
It was a sign because I wavered between titling a poem I wrote last week "Wink" or "Blink". The content/effect of the poem (both in its conception, writing, and hopefully reception) is along the precise lines of Gladwell's book: "Blink is concerned with the very smallest components of our everyday lives - the content and origin of those instantaneous impressions and conclusions that spontaneously arise whenever we meet a new person or confront a complex situation or have to make a decision under conditions of stress" (2005:16).
I don't recall that I'd heard of this book before seeing it on the table in Raven.
:-)
Gladwell goes on to ask, "What would happen if we took our instincts seriously?" (17). I've been asking this of myself for awhile now. He argues a kind of unconsciousness (not Freudian), called the adaptive unconscious.
It's fallible, of course, subject to betrayal, being "thwarted" (14), "thrown off, distracted, and disabled" (15). Hence, one must practice reading and applying it. Been there and still doing that!
ps. I really need to figure out how to add audio because reading this is not complete without hearing Marvin Gaye kicking it as I type.
