Now Playing:

Tune: Opening

Album: The Way Up

Artist: Pat Metheny Group

I live for the fall and winter. I tolerate spring and endure the summer.

I have always been more comfortable in the chill. Perhaps because there is no shortage of warmth around me.

"... trifles make the sum of life."

Dickens – David Copperfield

Canoe Metaphor

Is a life what we see when we look back? 

Wake of passage? 

Ripples and eddies of deeds and omissions?

Each stroke of the paddle, another day.

Ahead, the glassy and, as yet undisturbed surface.

Potential.

It begins

Now Playing:

Tune: The Pretty Road

Album: Sky Blue

Artist: Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra

I suppose that I may be a little early.

This is the year I attain mid-century status and I thought that it might be a good idea to record some of my thoughts.

This one of the eras in my life when major changes and developments seem to be accruing.

- 25 years of marriage

- friends getting sick and passing away

- parents aging

- settling into a new and growing business

More questions than answers....

On a completely different note, let the blather begin:

"Never believe your own press." - old adage

As living entities, we rely (among many other things) on positive and negative feedback to determine our position relative to the environment. It is our natural tendency to probe our surroundings and obtain feedback (sensory, emotional and intellectual). This applies to our physical existence, the emotional/psychological relationships we develop with those around us and is a vital component of reality and theory testing.

In mechanical and electrical systems, negative feedback is often deliberately introduced to increase stability and accuracy. If we only ever solicit information supportive of our point of view, the positive arm of the feedback loop becomes abnormally strong at the expense of the negative limb, which grows atretic. 

What we can be left with is a system out of control.

Could this be one of the characteristics of radical groups (religious, political and even environmental), which refuse to consider any information which conflicts with their point of view? Could this be the reason why many decisions for action under these circumstances have resulted in disaster?

I realize that this may a somewhat simplistic point of view but I would encourage us all to consider and evaluate our (especially our most closely held) beliefs from different and divergent points of view.