To thine own self be true

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the performing gardeners who make our souls blossom.”

“One is content if one can find happiness in simple pleasures.”

I’ve found that I can’t do or be responsible for others’ choices and behaviors. One simply can’t do it for others if they insist on ‘doing it to themselves.’ One of the major wisdoms in life.

Microplastic content.

(from the sublime 44 Complete Bach collection by Gould)

It really does all connect when I review the sequence this afternoon. The connective mind being what it is. I was driven to go for a spring walk in the neighborhood at last after the meanest E-Town winter in recent history. Feeling the sides of my legs stiff, limiting my gait more than I’ve noticed of late. Thinking ‘Must take extra-strength Tylenol when I get home’ to see if that will loosen up. (Later it did as I predicted.)

Next at home, thinking about Hawking’s passing again, I pulled out Errol Morris’s beautiful documentary on the science great and watched the two extras: an interview with Morris who was in awe working with Hawking, and the other with his cinematographer who chose to shoot the scenes very uniquely. Again, impressed by Hawking’s genius and his wonderful abstractions.

Turning on Glenn Gould playing vol. 2 of the unexpectedly charming Bach Toccatas as I go to start my wife on the afternoon round of her 12 post-knee surgery exercises. 1-2-3. 1-2-3-4-5, etc. Put the plastic bag around the foot, lift the calf, hold it up, put the small rolled towel, now the big one under ankle or knee as Gould performs, as alive as Hawking still.

Limits and limitations. Of surgeries or an ALS diagnosis in his 20s, which only freed Hawking. Made me think of how limitations led to the insights and epiphanies of what drove one or made one a seeker, as in Gould’s or Hawking’s case.

But always the drive and discipline despite the limits, that one must needs transcend to move ahead, to get to where one wants to go or be. Free to play, walk again, or free to gallivant about the universe in one’s mind, imagination, and soul.

A large design and metaphor which brings out the best in people, especially the Goulds and Hawkings of the world. (And not an ounce of dreaded, phony pc-ness about any of this.)

would be Stephen Hawking’s life and work.

(in memory of one of the few truly interesting, great men of the current/recent eras)

(the excellent Criterion DVD with extras about the greatest scientist of our time who passed away today)

Still a very interesting, intriguing film after all these years. Cosmologist Stephen Hawking’s ideas and theories are the main attraction, but he has had an amazing life which included a fall down a long university staircase, an ALS diagnosis with continuing declining physical powers (paralleling the universe’s entropy he has studied), and surviving a car accident in which he was run over, but back at work the following week!

Everything about this movie is entertaining including interviews with his supportive mother and the scientists who know him well, Philip Glass’s remarkable film score written without seeing any of the movie’s scenes (!), and thoughtful direction by the ever-unconventional Errol Morris who makes the theoretical physics more exciting than a mere adaptation of theories from Hawking’s best-selling book.

There is no question that Hawking is a genius of consciousness since that is basically all that he has been left with plus his computer program clicker which enables him to communicate and speak via voice synthesizer. Is he a genius on a par with Newton and Einstein? I think you’d have to say yes because of how much he has made understandable about the universe and its processes: black holes, entropy, and the deep nature of time. He has one of the most brilliant imaginations and minds that has ever been, and Morris has gone a long way to helping us appreciate what Hawking and his ideas are about. Highly recommended.

is that you can’t depend on them. They will hang you up, lie, not come through on promises and commitments. You are far better to do as much as possible for yourself (and for others on those things you do choose). If you must work with others, it is often best to be prepared to do the given job yourself; many’s a time others will leave you stranded, not get down what they said they would, or just leave you on the spot and hang you out to dry in front of others.

The fact of the matter is that there are many lazy and rather stupid people who can’t be trusted. These include people you work with, family, friends, and even loved ones. One should always be prepared for others to fail and not count on others too much. It is just the way of the world and too much of human nature. Anytime I have run into problems for the last 27 years, I can attribute this often to others. They can’t be counted on, will let you down and even betray you.

That is why, as a long-time only child, I learned early on to do things myself except when I have to defer to experts for help with cars, dental work, plumbers, electricians, massage, surgery, and the like. There is a place for experts, even if it (shudder!) costs money! Why mess up things some others can do better?

But generally, it is far more important to become an autonomous individual who doesn’t rely on the help of others to do it for them. We have too many losers, incompetents, Peter Principal types, and weak people like this. No shortage, in fact.

Life becomes simpler and happier if you adopt the above approach as a general way of operating and navigating through your days and life. Being your own person and being strong for yourself works. It really does.

1. The Luck of the Irish: a delightful 1948 flick with Tyrone Power as a restless American who encounters a leprechaun, while in Ireland, who follows him back to modern New York, working as his manservant. There is even the novelty of a green-tinged version as well as the regular black and white version.

2. Darby O’Gill and the Little People: the 1959 take on leprechauns with a young Sean Connery. Special effects are still memorable and the banchee scene is still too intense for even young elementary-age kids.

3. Shake Hands with the Devil: (1959) the still-powerful take on the Irish-English conflict featuring a strong, crazed Jimmy Cagney as the prof by day/IRA man by night. Good on the politics and irrationality of the national violence.