‘lathe biosas’ through the summer?
The members of the EpicureanGroup on Yahoo http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EpicureanGroup/
seem to have taken Epicurus’s advice a bit too much o heart: ‘lathe biosas’, i.e. live hidden, inconspicuously.
I miss their calm, cheerful and reflected voices.
For me the Wisconsin summer sounds (with the cicadas loud concerts) and feels (with the warm and humid air) rather Mediterranean: it reminds me of my favorite places on the Dalmatian coast of the Adria: Kotorska Boka and the island of Rab.
I spent most of the summer also mostly in hiding, too: most of the summer days working for money/sustenance of our holy bodiesJ, walking and talking with my wife and our children, reading and listening to Portuguese guitar music.
I had the chance to make a few people aware of the essence and the influence of Epicureanism on our daily lives by giving a talk in the Summer School in Madison, Wis. One person from the audience came to me after the lecture and confessed that she realized she was an Epicurean, unwittingly, as so many millions.
The lecture was taped and as soon as I manage to do some basic editing with my son I will upload it to youtube and give you the link. I could use professional help on editing, though, if anybody of my friends would offer their knowhow and some of their time.
thinky AND crafty
Tomorrow one of my Australian cousins will come to see us for a few days.
While munching our English muffins on the back porch my daughter told me about the present she is going to make for my cousin. I told her that I admired her rare capacity to think up the kind of present that would make a person happy and then manufacturing it.
“I am a thnky and crafty person” said she “and I like to see the happy faces people make when they get a present from me”.
Details with photo about the typically Wisconsinite present will follow as soon it will be confectioned. I will have to find a toilet paper roll, though, so she can get started on the crafty part.
My Daily Birthday Cake Today
Since I started celebrating my re-birthday every day I developed a kind of private birthday party. I usually get up between 5 and 6 and get hungry around 7 in the morning while most of my family is still asleep. I get out a deep frozen blueberry bagel, thaw it and toast it. Then I put little pieces of unsalted butter on the halves and watch them melt.
Today the ritual was specially rewarding due to the sunrays falling on the butter. It looked like it was the sunrays that melted the butter.
The warmth of the bagels, its color and texture, the sight and the smell of the melting butter formed a complex sensual symphony, a hymn to the new morning.
David Sedaris thanks for “aggressive piglet” jokes
I could not meet Ernest Hemingway. I could not meet Kurt Vonnegut. I could not meet JK Salinger. But I could meet David Sedaris.
As a very special birthday present from my wife. On Thursday, April 7, we drove to Davenport, Iowa, to see and hear him. On the stage he seemed smaller and frailer than I had pictured him. But he was much funnier than I hoped he would be.
After the reading, I joined the long and winding line of one or two hundred autograph hunters. It took him about twenty minutes to start his signing session. He talked and smiled with each and all of us while trying to devour a huge steak. After another 30 minutes it was my turn to tell him a joke.
I decided to introduce him to a Hungarian joke character that portrays a facet of the Hungarian collective soul, the dumb and self-defeating ‘aggressive piglet.
‘ The aggressive piglet falls into a pit.The good fairy is coming along and notices the piglet at the bottom of the pit. She calls: - Hey Piglet, wait a minute I’ll go and get a ladder!
The aggressive piglet shouts back: – I won’t wait!!!
and another one:
The aggressive piglet goes to the railway station ticket sales and says:
- Give me a railway ticket!
- Where would you like to go?
- None of your damn business!
David seemed to enjoy the piglet, since he mentioned him above his signature (see picture above).
I have no picture with Ernest Hemingway. I have no picture with have no picture with Kurt Vonnegut. I have no picture with JK Salinger. My wife is a law-abiding lady and she just could not pretend the ubiquitous “No photos, please!” warnings.
My satisfaction could have been complete: I have seen and even talked with the best living American short story author. Except that David Sedaris said on the stage that the best living American short story author was Tobias Wolff…
I could have gone on wondering whether I have just met the best living American short story author or not, had I not taken a firm decision to ignore David’s ranking as less reliable than my own. Upon taking this decision my satisfaction was complete again. Irreversibly, this time.
I am proud of my friends
I don’t believe pride is an emotion anybody should be proud of experiencing if
“pride is an inward directed emotion that exemplifies either a high sense of one’s personal status or ego (i.e., leading to judgments of personality and character) or the specific mostly positive emotion that is a product of praise or independent self-reflection.” (Wikipedia)
Especially Epicureans should be ashamed of it and work hard at getting rid of it as soon as possible since its ugly head indicates an over-inflated ego or a dangerous vulnerability to praise. If independent self-reflection should lead to pride one ought to improve one’s self-reflective skills. Urgently.
I can’t help feeling proud of my friends, though.
It took me over forty years to understand that I don’t understand the correlation between my needs, my desires and the way I satisfy those desires, resulting in stressing myself, my friends and family, my coworkers and supervisors, clients and suppliers. It took me another five years to read all the relevant books on Epicurean life techniques and happiness studies to work my way out of the jungle and another five years to hone my tools by using them to set people free of their self-defeating beliefs and unhealthy habits and help them dismantle the walls they build between themselves and their pathway to happiness through congruence and stress-FREEDOM. It took me another year and the invaluable support of my wife to write a wise AND funny book for those who are interested in spending the rest of their lives walking toward their own happiness instead of working for their own or someone else’s greed.
My friends, however, must have been born wise and don’t seem to need the distilled fruits of hard-earned practical wisdom packed in nicely wrapped palatable pieces of advice. They must be champions in analyzing their desires, in satisfying their natural needs through synergistic satisfiers, in keeping their lifestyle and behavior patterns in line with their values and attitudes, serenely threading down their own proven pathways from pain to pleasure, producing their own happiness though congruence and stress-FREEDOM.
I must assume they do all this judging from the absence of their comments on the excerpts of my book that I have been publishing in sequels in my blog. The only topic they mildly reacted to was sequel 15: “How Is It Possible To Find Romantic Love? “
Complete strangers ask me when will my book be available in print and on kindl, when will I start training and coaching sessions on the Galenian Epicurean Conduct of Life, or at least publicly speak about it. (Which I don’t’ know yet. I still have to take care of my health and the happiness of my family.)
But it’s a relief that my friends are doing well, confidently threading their own pathways toward happiness.( Or what they believe is happiness?)
It’s a shame to feel proud but who could help not being proud of them? (Maybe Epicurus?)
back to (almost) normal
Three weeks and three days after having finished the radiation treatment I am almost back to normal. The last week of the treatment and the next two weeks were the most painful and difficult time but the short pangs of intense abdominal pain were alternated by much longer time slots of painlessness. Even in this state I managed to talk to a group of students and faculty at Ripon College about my experiences in working with international refugee-relief organizations, attend official receptions and dinners. I stopped losing weight at a point still above my body-mass index and can now eat and drink almost everything.
I still sleep one or two hours more than before but that does not disturb anyone and I still have to take imodium occasionally.
I started making my daily walks with my kids again and resumed some of my chores, foremost among them cooking. My wiener schnitzel was highly appreciated even by the most critical members of my family.
I am looking forward to the St Patrick’s Day party at one of our friendly neighbors, even though I might not want to indulge in my deep reverence for Jameson whiskey. Yet.
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