I went snowshoeing on Seymour this morning. This is the sunrise from Brockton Point. There was blue sky on one side and a very dark cloud that passed over on the other side.
Visibility after First Peak was a bit sketchy and the trail wasn't very well traveled so I stopped just past First peak. First hike of the season I need to ease into it. Nice to see the snow again.
The snow was very nice. Two weeks ago there was almost no snow. Today was awesome. Just as I was coming down from First peak three ladies from Ireland were coming up. One was from Dublin and the other two were from Monaghan county.
If you want to get a parking spot you have to go early. They don't open the road up the mountain until 7:00 AM and I was there at 7:05. They make the snowshoers park down by the toboggan run so if you get there late you have a very long hike up from the parking spot to the beginning of the hike.
You also need to get a free parking pass online before you go. Cypress doesn't require one. I think Seymour uses them to regulate parking. I was heading down the mountain just after noon and the line to go up the mountain was crazy.
I had mentioned that I bought a new copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and am rereading it to see how I relate to it now that I am older and I think I have to make a few clarifications right up front from the get go.
I had always said that book had a profound influence on my life growing up although I don't think I ever read it. I liked motorcycles and I liked Zen. I think that's as far as I took it.
As for a complicated definition of quality, I don't think that ever entered my mind. I do remember the beginning of the book which talked about how when you are driving a car you experience your surroundings from the outside like you are watching them on TV. While on a motorcycle you are in the frame experiencing it first hand.
In my mind that was impressive. That was living the dream. Robert Pirsig added a more complicated literary and philosophical twist which can ad to or distract from the journey.
For example, I recently mentioned how in the introduction to the 25th anniversary edition of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert Pirsig mentioned how things can be hidden from the reader when the book is written from the First Person narrative. This is where we get into literary works as opposed to motorcycle journeys.
In that movie they conducted an experiment. They hooked the riders up to electrodes and measured their brainwaves. They discovered that as you ride a motorcycle, other distractions or worries tend to disappear and you tend to focus exclusively on the road ahead. This is why wind therapy is good for processing trauma. That's about as far as I go with it.
I'm not on a Monty Python quest for the meaning of life because I found it. Life is simple. Be good, do good. As you sow so shall ye reap. Life does not end at death. Families are important. No other success compensates for failure in the home.
Our greatest joy in life can be found in spending time with our family. That's not to say people who are single and don't have kids can't experience joy. Not at all. Be good, do good. Martin Luther King said anyone can be great because anybody can serve. When we serve others we forget our problems and become healed. So it's really that simple.
Zen can apply to anything - Buddhism, Christianity, even the game of Tennis. The inner game of tennis was simply a text about right brain versus left brain in sports.
As for Buddhism, Buddha was a rich kid who left the ivory tower and saw suffering in the world. As a result he was filled with compassion. Thus the term the compassion of Buddha. There's no conflict or struggle between Buddhism and Christianity. The golden rule exists in all religions.
Kal Dosanjh recently made a post on Linkedin of a group of small minded white guys doing a deranged version of the Haka in the face of a Sikh gathering. It was very disturbing because they appeared to claim to be Christian but their actions were far from it. First of all the Haka comes from Maori tradition. Those while trash expropriated it for a bad purpose.
Second of all, Christ said love your neighbor. When asked who is my neighbor he gave the parable of the Good Samaritan. Christ chose someone from a different race and a different religion the locals hated. Then said this guy did good. He is a better neighbor than you are. I have a hard time with Christian intolerance. It's very hypocritical.
The book Zen and the Art is an inquiry into values. You don't need to have a religion to have morals. The purpose of religion is to aspire to something higher and raise our morality.
Obviously I would see the struggle Robert Pirsig mentioned between Phaedrus and the Narrator as a profound allegory of the mainstream media and I'm going to set the schizophrenia thing aside because that's far beyond me. Life is simple and so am I. Ride hard, die free. Don't let life pass you by.
The professor talked about how a second completely different interpretation was also plausible. Robert said he had to reread the book to see it. He explains how things can be hidden from the reader if the book is written in the First Person narrative. The first person only tells you what they want you to see.
He states that in the book Turn of the Screw, the reader does not see that the governess is the villain not the hero because what the governess sees is all the reader ever sees. It's very interesting. Then he relates it to his story about Phaedrus which I obviously haven't read. It also relates to our present political climate of misdirection. History is written by the victors.
Pirsig mentions the Hollywood ending in his book and states "In the intended ending it is not the narrator who Triumphs over a villainous Phaedrus. It is an honorable Phaedrus who triumphs over the narrator who has been maligning him all the time."
"In Phaedrus's view the narrator is a sellout, a coward, who has abandoned truth for popularity and social acceptance. He sees that the narrator doesn't want to be honest any more, just an accepted member of the community, bowing and accommodating his way through the rest of the years."
"Phaedrus was dominated by intellectual values. He didn't give a damn who liked or didn't like him. He was single mindedly pursuing a truth he felt was of staggering importance to the world. The world had no idea of what he was trying to do and it was trying to kill him for his trouble. For more on the real Phaedrus, who is not a villainous ghost but rather a mild mannered hyper intellectual let me recommend Lila, a sequel that has been properly understood by a few."
Wow, Robert Pirsig wrote a sequel called Lila which examines life's essential issues as he recounts the journey down the Hudson River in a sailboat of his philosopher-narrator Phaedrus. Awesome. I just ordered it. Zen and the Art was written in 1974. That was over 50 years ago. Lila was written in 1991.
My kids are trying to teach me how to use Chat GPT. AI can be a useful tool to learn languages but it does frighten me.
I used to know someone who lived for Christmas and played Christmas music all year long. For many years I couldn't listen to Christmas music. When it would come on in the grocery store I would cringe. It was like nails on the chalkboard for me.
There were some I liked. I enjoyed TSO and I liked I hear the bells on Christmas Day. Yet there was a very long time when I just couldn't listen to the old familiar carols they play. I like the instrumental. That's not so offensive. It's more soothing. I enjoy classical music and the symphony.
In Colombia they celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day they dance salsa for three days. That's not really my thing but that it their wholesome tradition that makes Christmas real for them. Just like shrimp on the barbie at the beach in Australia. The intent of Christmas is peace on earth, good will to men and it's easy to lose that in the confusion that surrounds Christmas. Aspire to something higher. Do good, be better. There's nothing wrong with that.
I guess the reason I've been going on and on about Christmas this year is because when they try and take something away from you, you become very protective of it.
It's like when England started persecuting the Catholic church in Ireland. What do you mean I can't go to mass? Yes I can. If England had just left them alone the church would have faded out of relevance but as soon as they banned it, that created a knee jerk reaction to defend it.
All the sexual assault cases were great and abominable but that can happen anywhere. Even with hockey coaches. We need to be vigilant in protecting children from abuse.
Kash Patel's hypocrisy is astounding. Right after he censored and buried the Epstein files for Donnie, he announced charges against a new pedophile. The wrong shall fail, the right prevail with peace on earth, good-will to men. Despite the defiant abominations of Donald Trump and Netanyahu.
Something feels a bit off this Christmas and it's not what you think. I remember when my daughter was very young she casually mentioned how she could relate to the Green Day song Boulevard of broken Dreams and it broke my heart.
Sometimes life doesn't work out the way we had hoped and not until time passes can we see that it was for the best. I'm not talking about death. That's always going to leave an emptiness.
The majority of my family have passed away and that makes Christmas very different. So we do our best to try and carry on those traditions. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we fail but we always try. We always do our best.
My daughter commented on an ap that tracks your screen time and she was shocked how many hours a day she spent scrolling on her phone so she started to read books like she used to. That's a good use of free time.
So I bought two new books. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and a 501 French Verbs dictionary. I want to start sharpening up my French vocab. My kids speak so many languages, I need to improve. I admire their gift.
I always talk about the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and how it had such a profound influence on my life yet to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure if I've ever read it. Certainly not cover to cover. I usually take selected pieces and find my own hidden meaning. So this year I'm going to reread that book and reflect on what it means to me now.
I often quote the title page because I find that most significant. Yet in the introduction to the 25th Anniversary of the book I find a sincere reflection. He said instead of basking in the huge success of the book which would defeat it's purpose, he wanted to write about the book's failures and try to correct them.
As we reflect on our successes and failures in life perhaps that kind of brutal honesty will lead us to where we really wanted to go all along. He mentions the Hollywood ending of the original book and how that wasn't the original intent.
Then he adds a Zen twist and I'm like well done. As a parent all you want in life is for your kids to be happy. Setbacks occur and the road changes directions yet we do our best to keep moving forward. One time in my life I adopted the saying no turning back because it was appropriate at that time.
In Anna Nalick's song Breathe (2 AM) she states "you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable And life's like an hourglass glued to the table No one can find the rewind button, girl So cradle your head in your hands And breathe, just breathe."
"There's a light at each end of this tunnel you shout Cause you're just as far in as you'll ever be out And these mistakes you've made, you'll just make them again If you only try turning around" so breathe and move forward. That's how we grow.
We shouldn't dwell on our mistakes lest we repeat them but we should recognize them so we can make course corrections in our future journey. The key is to make the course correction and forgive yourself so our mistakes don't hold us back like sandbags on a hot air balloon. Turn the helm and lift anchor.
I don't really have a Christmas Epiphany this year but then again, of course I do. I know a lot of people out there are scared. A lot of people are discouraged and pessimistic. Some are even considering MAIDS. The cost of housing is frightening.
I always try to look at the bright side of life. Walk in the light so to speak. My parents sent me a poster on my mission of a workhorse pulling a cart in a blizzard. The caption read when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Indeed they do.
Gentlemen may cry peace peace but the war has already begun. So let's talk about the war of words that seeks to lead men astray into slavery and captivity and let's talk about that guiding light that leads men out of darkness and captivity into the light and freedom we were created to enjoy.
At Christmas we celebrate the birth of Christ. Christ experienced sorrow. He was born in a stable. Isaiah 53 states "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not."
Psalms 118:3 states "The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner." The chief cornerstone which lays the foundation for not only the church but for our lives. The wise man built his house upon the rock.
The rock of our redeemer. That "when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." All men can fall but if we build our lives on a solid foundation the Devil's shafts in the whirlwind will not have power over us to drag us down to the Gulf of misery.
So if we see the big picture like Elijah did, we will realize that they that be with us are more than they that be with them. There's more good people out there than bad and I don't care what religion you belong to if any.
As the title page to the book Zen and the Art of motorcycle Maintenance declares, "And what is good, Phaedrus, And what is not good. Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?” No we do not. We all know. So let's be honest with ourselves and each other. Let's use our discernment in the sea of lies to see where we want to go then head in that direction. Peace.
CTV is reporting that "Skiers at Lake Louise got a reminder recently that not every bear hibernates all winter long. Parks Canada says on Saturday, Grizzly Bear 136—also known as “Split Lip”—walked from the parking lot up to the Juniper runs area. The Lake Louise Ski Club was hosting its annual Santa Slalom races at the time. The races halted." I guess.
CTV is reporting that "A large lodge constructed entirely of snow and ice is being built in Flin Flon, with the hope of supporting winter tourism in the region. Construction of the lodge—a 56-foot-long arc with ice walls—began approximately two weeks ago inside a Flin Flon campground. It is expected to open early in the new year."
Great idea. They have lots of these at the Carnival du Quebec. Lake Louse has an ice carving festival in January.
