Warm Recollections #25
More from the Bitz Files
As introduced here, these Warm Recollections are random cullings from thirty years of notes files…
A strange aspect of new technology is how it sometimes accidentally reduces our experience of the world. Taking red-eye out of a photo actually diminishes it, because we’re of a generation where red-eye is redolent of a picture having been taken at a party, during an event that was all low-light and high-fun. The picture looks more commonplace and mundane without. You’ve taken the party out of it.
Many bad things are endured for longer than they should simply because feeling bad is better than feeling nothing at all.
I bend, yes —
Because I am weary.
And so I bend,
So I will not break.
Some of the strongest memories in life will not be of extraordinary things, but of ordinary things feeling extraordinary.
Losing a mother is like the burning down of your own personal library of Alexandria. If you’ve still got one, love her and read her while there’s time.
As always, if you can think of anyone who might enjoy this Substack, please spread the word.
A man is born gentle and weak.
At his death he is hard and stiff.
Green plants are tender and filled with sap.
At their death they are withered and dry.
Therefore the stiff and unbending is the disciple of death.
The gentle and yielding is the disciple of life.
Verse 76 of the Tao te Ching
Phone photos have gone mental! I think it's Google who have this tech that lets you take several pictures then choose which bits of which picture you want to basically make another picture. But it doesn't have any relation to that moment! It's not real!
I think Bruce Lee was a big fan of bending like a reed in the wind, as was Hoban in Firefly and Paul Atreides😉
From what were talking about last week regarding Truth. "Truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is. And you must bend to its power or live a lie" Miyamoto Musashi.
There is, to be honest, very little that others would call extraordinary that happens to most of us. But you are of course right about ordinary things feeling extraordinary. And it is wonderful!
I was lucky enough to read The Prophet to my mum whilst she lay dying. Of course it's the banal that sticks with me. My mum was a terrible cook but she made the most amazing Full Irish Breakfast! An ordinary thing feeling extraordinary😁