"I of my own knowledge…"

Chapter One

March 18, 1995

Saturday Evening

My first thought was: What in the world am I doing here and how am I going to last the week?

I got off the plane in the early evening darkness, walked through the automatic doors and there I was in the Charlottesville airport, finally. Up the escalator, through the empty second-floor lounge, and down the escalator to the main floor, wondering if my van ride to the institute had waited the extra hour, and if not, how I was going to get out there. I suppose if the rental car agencies are closed, I’ll have to call a cab, I thought. A 40-mile taxi ride will make an impressive addition to the tab.

Wasted anticipation, because as soon as I came out of the secured area through the revolving door, a guy came up and said, “You must be Angelo. I’m Mick. I’m your transportation to the institute, and I’ve got two of your fellow participants over here,” pointing behind him. He was maybe 50, a youngish 50, pretty average looking.

“Yes, I’m Angelo. How did you know?” I wasn’t the only man from the plane coming through the door.

Mick smiled. “I can generally tell. Let’s get your baggage and get on the road so we can get you some supper.” He led the way to the airport’s only baggage carousel. “You guys can introduce yourselves. You’re going to know each other a little better by the time I bring you back here next week, you might as well start now.”

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This site:

http://onlinenursingdegreeguide.org/2008/100-awesome-self-improvement-blogs-improve-your-physical-and-mental-health-achieve-your-goals/

is, as the URL says, a list of 100 blogs aimed at self-improvement. In this case, not self-improvement as in “make more money!” but as in the important things in life, the physical, mental, spiritual warp and weft of daily life.

To my surprise and delight, not one but two of my friends are among those listed!

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“The idealization of the primitive and the spontaneous, the natural and the effortless, was in origin a salutary revolt against life-denying systems of order. The adventurous exploration and settlement of the planet provided a counterpoise to the mechanical routine introduced by capitalism. Vitalities too long held in check by archaic institutions had reason to crave a fresh outlet, if only on a desert island with Robinson Crusoe: hence romanticism had, for a time, an activating and regenerative effect. And this was true, above all, in the political community where naturalism and democracy served as correctives to outworn institutions, molded to protect a single class. But in overthrowing the artificial hierarchies of property and privilege, the twin forces Romanticism And Revolution also attended to turn their back on natural hierarchies: including those that give authority to knowledge over ignorance, to goodness over malice and evil, to the rational over the irrational, to the universal and enduring over the time-serving and particular.”
Lewis Mumford, Interpretations and Forecasts, 343

When you read Ventura, you always learn something, even if it’s something you would rather wasn’t true. I’ve never seen anyone who could get more out of a newspaper than he does routinely. In a sense, he’s using the newspaper as a huge reminder sheet, so we remember what happened the day before yesterday.

MICHAEL VENTURA

LETTERS AT 3AM –

ISSUES ’08: RUSSIA

Austin Chronicle – August 29, 2008

Once upon a time there was a Russian named Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Was he a gangster? Some say no, some say yes, and some say, “Sometimes.” Was he a democratic visionary? “Yes!” chants America’s press; others are not so sure. But all agree that by 2003 he was Russia’s richest person, the 16th richest man in the world according to Wikipedia, owner of that great and powerful Russian enterprise, Yukos Oil Co. Then came October 25, 2003 – a day sad for some, joyful for others, but an historical turning point for all: Vladimir Putin, president (now prime minister) of Russia, whose soul George W. Bush claims not only to have seen but to have approved, ordered the arrest of Khodorkovsky.

The West was shocked, shocked, do you hear?! Arrest the 16th richest man in the world?! That could never happen in a free country! The charges must be false! Well, we’ll likely never know whether the charges were false, half-false, or one-sixteenth false. We’ll likely never know whether the trial was even one-sixteenth fair. But off to jail went Khodorkovsky, and in jail Khodorkovsky remains. The Western press, as with one voice, declaimed that Putin is but a czar in blue-jeans (true, he often wears blue-jeans); as for Khodorkovsky, they say he was framed for his love of free markets, truth, democracy, and, you know, that stuff.

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This is from the PEERS http://www.WantToKnow.info/008/080825_greatest_good

The excellent essay below from Greater Good magazine by J.K. Rowling, author of the renowned Harry Potter books, implores us to open our sphere of awareness to all who share our world. The moving description of her younger years working with Amnesty International can inspire all of us to work towards the greatest good, so that we might make this a better world for all. I also recommend subscribing to Greater Good magazine for lots of uplifting and inspiring stories and essays which invite us to join together in working for the greatest good. Thanks for caring and please help to spread the word to all who want to join in making a difference

Magic for Muggles
by J.K. Rowling

One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books.

This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs. Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working in the research department at Amnesty International’s headquarters in London.

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How many angry ideologues still have not learned this simple lesson!

“Historic observation shows that there are many modes of change, other than dialectical opposition: Maturation, mimesis, mutual aid are all as effective as the struggle between opposing classes. In failing to take in the diverse modes of change, Marx compelled himself to overlook a good part of human history.”
Lewis Mumford, Interpretations and Forecasts, 201

You will notice, in the middle of the home page of this site, a horizontal row of buttons. Until now they have been merely decorative, but as you see my webmeister has begun to activate them. Clicking on “My Story”, “Spirit and Society” or “Fiction” will now bring you to the respective pages. Ultimately all the buttons will work, which should make it a little easier to navigate the site.  

We are still having a problem getting the credit-card acceptance mechanism to work right, but that seems to be the last major speed bump. At least, it’s the last one we anticipate. Now it’s up to me to do the considerable amount of work needed to provide the information that is the site’s reason for being.

“It was possible for Paine, in the 18th century, to believe that culture was served merely by the absence of a church, a state, a social order such as those under which Europe labored. That was the error of his school, for the absence of these harmful or obsolete institutions left a vacancy in society, and that vacancy was filled by work, or more accurately speaking, by busy work, which fatigued the body and diverted the mind from the things which should have enriched it. Republican politics aided this externalism. People sought to live by politics alone; the National State became their religion. The flag…supplanted the cross, and the Fathers of the Constitution the Fathers of the Church.”
Lewis Mumford, Interpretations and Forecasts, 14-15

In this election year, a reminder.

“Democracy is not so much a new form of political life as a dissolution and disorganization of the old forms. It is simply a resolution of government into the hands of the people, a taking down of that which has before it existed, and a recommitment of it to its original source, but it is by no means the substitution of anything else in its place.”
Henry James, 1852, quoted in Lewis Mumford’s Interpretations and Forecasts, p. 10

“And of course the inner processes are very patient. The puzzle of humanness is apparently not meant to be a simple affair to be easily mastered. Whatever deals with human lives is naturally patient.”
Wilson van Dusen, The Natural Depth in Man