There's nothing wrong with February as far as months go in the Northern Hemisphere, but shall we say it's redeeming feature weatherwise is its short duration and frequent days of low cloud holding rain, sleet, snow or no precipitation at all, just sitting there blocking the Sun a challenge ... still, walks are always possible, if not obligatory, heating in the Retreat House more than adequate, bright lights for reading and more books than this blogger will ever read ... anyway, it's a Library after all and who knows which book will turn which visitor on?
The Library grows and changes as it must ... Philipp Blom continues to enthral with his contemporary take on events, using History as a starting point, gathering information widely to create his version of Reality, drawing on cause and effect correlations in fields as diverse as psychology, criminology, biology, physics, sociology and philosophy of course ... all limited, as he states, in a Western Judao-Christian frame ... as a polymath and public intellectual, the frame is erudite, well researched and daring enough to make unusual correlations ... and yet when quoting the perennial philosophical insights, sticks with Ancient Greece and Rome, whilst Buddism, Dao and other Eastern traditions are discarded. ..
Meanwhile, Spinoza's Ethics awaits, along with Giordano Bruno, who was burnt to death publicly for a major indiscretion in the Dark Ages when a Pope censored debate ... both resonating, strangely, with the perfectly reasonable conclusion, discovered between intellect and intuition, that what may be called God is not an entity with a gender, separate from us or the rest of Nature, but actually immanent, infinitely so ...therefore holy, or Whole, and surely beyond understanding!
Carlos Rovelli steps forward as the latest scientist mystic to fuse duality into unity, or if not fuse return unity to its proper place by removing the blockages to Reality ... a great communicator in English, he employs knowledge of the Ancient Hindu insights chiming with the findings of the pioneers of physics, still explained as hypotheses to be disproved or moved into the realms of theory where Nobel prizes are found ... even though well founded theories are often disproved later in Time as microscopes and telescopes, clocks and watches, reveal higher and deeper Truths ...
Lighter reading includes Paul Theroux's strange tale of Millroy the Magician, Private Eye, rather tarnished since the medical section shifted from challenging official lies, and Viz, still amusing the small boy finding toilet jokes hilarious ...
As for small boys, the ones who will soon enough inherit the world, along with girls, not to mention all the other parts of Nature ... a kind Grandmother shares their wisdom and energy as their parents take a break from the joy of taking care of two brothers keen to talk to adults at the same time, when not distracted by television or video games ... and persuaded that exercise and fresh air daily is essential to their health, a view not always shared by young people aged 6 and 8, armed with their own opinions and brave enough to share them ... this version of Society, having atomised and dispersed generations, often leaves Elders without roles, Children short of role models, Parent(s) over-stretched and Society rather dysfunctional. .. new solutions are tried with greater or less success ... that's progress, of a kind!
Meanwhile February moves inexorably towards March and Spring, the daylight hours in Stanhope increasing, snow and ice lingering awhile longer, international plots play on with SAGE in charge, not wise, but smart enough to confuse mere mortals ... Sun itself, though hiding still appears to rise and fall as Earth appears to hurtle through space, though humans tend not to fall off even though the hurtling is accompanied by spinning ... all of which may be explained by Carlos and friends, while normal folks keep calm and carry on, as if the world is flat, the mystery embraced, kindness the Way to survive the madness ... Time for breakfast and a walk!
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