I feel a wave of overlapping themes. I read James Nestor's
"Breath: The New science of a Lost Art", I am listening Emily
Thomas on Dilemma podcast about her book "The Meaning of
Travel" and I just read jebug29's phlog on SDF about things
sinking into the lawyer induced permafrost of copyright.
All this makes me think of our history as some kind of renewable
commodity that we are burning through faster than it generates.
Like some fungi we go through compost and split things apart.
In the process we blow away complex structures and forget that
they were there.
My face is reflected on the monitor, looking like one of the busts
they have at display at the Acropolis Museum in Athens. A weird
look of focused contemplation with a hint of timeless emptiness.
In "Breath" one of the interesting ideas for me was that you can
breathe a lot less than you would think. I tried this while
walking, pushing the intake down to a level where I don't yet feel
any strange sensations. I also made a point of breathing through
the nose. It doesn't sound like much, but it does create sort of a
mindfullness state while walking and a refreshed feeling after
a relatively long and fast walk in uncomfortably hot weather.
During past few years I quit smoking several times. The trick is
to get used to quitting. Every time you quit, you get more
comfortable with the withdrawal. The same is true for other kinds
of projects with physiological feedback.
Walking makes me think of travel, and that edge of unknown that
you always have ahead of you when you are in a foreign country.
Can I find it somewhere here, close to me? Should I start hiking?
Should I concentrate more on the different states of mind? There
is a part of me that is desperate to do something or go somewhere,
physically or mentally. Would meditation help?
I wonder if the zen masters can sit through sit coms.
