December 2014: Who's Minding the Store?

Astral Facts, December 2014

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

Who’s Minding the Store?

Each year at this time we take a break from the formal academic life and many of us drift into the “informal” academic life (usually fraught with updating lesson plans and discovering the textbook for next term is out of print or has been revised into a new edition).  To relax our minds, we often look to escape by reading “nonacademic” fiction, often referred to as “pulp” or “trash” fiction.  But is that really a “waste of time”?  Does a guilty conscience prevent us from sharing such dirty little secrets?  Here’s a confession of what I’ve encountered recently worth recommending, if you don’t mind my sharing.

Recently, I have been engaged in a “LinkedIn” discussion on “Why Read Fiction?”  Since the discussion participants have primarily been involved in the various disciplines of the Humanities (who else would be interested in posting?), the discussion has been highly supportive.  Nonetheless, the emphasis has been on the effects fiction has on the readers’ minds as well as what has dredged up that content from the writers’ [subconscious?] minds.  Ultimately, fiction stimulates one’s imagination, inducing further thinking on the part of the readers.  Many of these thoughts delve into the “what if” realm that could predict or possibly prevent consequences in the future.

For example, recent news reports have responded to McDonalds® new scheme to appeal to the Millennials – order your burger and ingredients via electronic device and have it delivered to your seat in the restaurant.  This would mean no need to wait in line and have to speak to the counter-person in person.   Theoretically, this will allow for “more personal attention from employees” according to the company press releases.

 “The problem for chains like McDonald’s is that with this generation, the Millennials in particular, the standard of expectations has risen,” Gordon said. “The standards that were OK for our parents aren’t necessarily OK for us.”

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/sep/04/mcdonalds-build-your-burger-test/

I’m not sure what kind of “personal attention” is involved here, except a distancing from “interpersonal communication.” 

With this in mind, and considering current events these days, what about changing the law enforcement system so that such aspects of “interpersonal interaction” could be reduced?  Back in the 1950s Ray Bradbury let his mind wander in that direction, asking the question, “What if, in 2053, …..?” which he expressed in his short story, “The Pedestrian.”

It is available online:  http://mikejmoran.typepad.com/files/pedestrian-by-bradbury-1.pdf

This past term, students in one of my classes read Sacred Clowns by Tony Hillerman.  Written in 1993, it addresses interesting aspects of multicultural issues.  The two main characters, Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, are part of the Navajo police force in the Southwest, one a young officer and the other near retirement.  In their regular duties, they have to find a balance in their lives as tribal members and policemen.  Not only do they need to respect and conform to the legal guidelines on and off the reservation land, but they also have to mitigate Native American culture, which differs among the Navajo, Hopi, Tano, and Cherokee cultures and tribes present in their jurisdiction.   This raises many “what if ….” thoughts that many of us may not recognize in our own daily lives, but we see at work in our current events.  This book is readily available in libraries and bookstores, new and used.

Finally, a bit more “chilling” aspect of “what if …” thinking concerns the possibility of “lone wolf” acts of terrorism.  Frederick Forsyth’s novel The Kill List, published this summer, covers that only too current possibility as well as “what if …” pondering on possible causes as well as ways to respond.  Of course, this could be extended to “lone wolf” hacking into corporate and national databases as well.  This book is also readily available in libraries and bookstores, new and used.

Hopefully, this might stimulate a few curious minds out there.  In between, perhaps a mindless escape into a few football bowl games might be needed as well, but please turn the volume down, if you don’t mind!

Walter Lowe
Astral Facts is a somewhat regular presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices during the academic year.

November 2014: Choice Film Choices

Astral Facts, November 2014

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

                      Choice Film Choices

This time in November is an interesting season with the emphasis on giving thanks.  On November 11^th, we remember to thank those who have served their country in the military, and on the fourth Thursday we give thanks as families for many aspects of our lives.  Of course, right after that comes Black Friday, which I think actually started online a few weeks ago.  Frankly, it seems to be creeping up earlier and earlier, and not exactly in a positive way, even though we don’t do much about that: somehow reminiscent of those wedgies from back in junior high days that would have been even more uncomfortable if brought to the attention of others around you.

Another aspect of the holiday season that also seems to be creeping in earlier and earlier is the slate of blockbuster movies opening up.  Combined with the shoppers’ traffic and the high cost of movies these days (we teachers haven’t had a raise or even a COLA salary adjustment for over seven years now), my inclination is to wait until the DVD comes out.  Knowing this, my 15-year-old son has been negotiating for several months now to be able to attend the Thursday midnight premiere of the final episode of the Hobbit trilogy in December, even though he is supposed to be in school early that following Friday morning.   He does have a point about the reduced traffic congestion aspect.  (Why can’t they put the same effort into their English persuasion essays for school?)

While those of us in the Humanities Science fields do find enormous benefit in reading the printed words and letting our imaginations work, it is also quite illuminating to observe how others can and do employ their imaginations in interpreting what they have read or experienced.  This is especially true in dealing with real life experiences and the moral and ethical issues that arise.  Thus, it might be worth venturing out into the traffic to view these new releases, but with the local Redbox just around the corner and Netflix just a few buttons away on the remote control, those excursions can be supplemented with some that have evolved into DVD form. My family has had the opportunity to experience some notable examples that can provide some insight into past events.  Here are three we found thought provoking, in chronological order of setting.  

For Greater Glory (2012)

Set in the 1920s in Mexico, this tells the story of the Cristeros War (1926-1929) when the Mexican President, Plutarco Calles, applied Leninist views and declared religion to be the “opiate of the people.”  He expelled all foreign-born clergy and severely restricted religious services and activities, executing those who did attend church services.  At that time, a retired general (played by Andy Garcia) was asked to help in the struggle.  Although he was an agnostic himself, he recognized certain principles were being challenged.  While we viewers may not be confronted by such moral or ethical challenges of a national level, how might we respond to such a challenge if faced at home, in the workplace, or within the community?

  Here’s the trailer for the film:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1566501/

Argo (2012)

Set in Iran in 1979, this tells the story of the “occupation” of the American Embassy in Tehran.  During the chaos of the event, six embassy staff members were able to use a side exit before the embassy was overtaken.  Although refused asylum at two other embassies, they were able to “hide out” in the home of the Canadian ambassador.  This film chronicles the efforts of a CIA operative (played by Ben Affleck), who felt a moral obligation to try to extract them through the ruse of planning for a blockbuster science fiction movie  (Argo, thus the title of this film) to be filmed on location in Iran.  Again, the central character is faced with the moral and ethical issue of making a commitment and following through with it, even when the authorities choose to withdraw support.  A thinking audience might see these same principles at work at many different levels in the home, the workplace, the community, etc.

Here’s the trailer for this one:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1024648/

Lone Survivor (2013)

Once again, this chronicles a true story. A four-man US Navy SEALs reconnaissance team in Afghanistan has orders to observe and not initiate engagement with Taliban forces.  Three Afghan villagers herding goats in the mountains stumble upon the reconnaissance team.  The soldiers know that if they let the villagers go, they will immediately inform the Taliban of their presence, even if they promise not to.  Thus, the obvious course of action is to execute the villagers in order to complete their mission, which would protect a larger number of local citizens as well as the soldiers themselves.  However, their orders are not to initiate action, with the added factor of "innocent" citizens being involved.  The decision the soldiers make will impact their lives and the lives of others forever.  Should they choose “the greatest good for the greatest number”?   What moral and ethical decision would be best?

Here’s the trailer for this one:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1091191/

So we found those three quite interesting.  If you have other recommendations, add them in the comments box below.

Certainly, life was a lot easier back in the days when movies just provided simple escape and entertainment while people could relax their minds eating popcorn with fake butter.  However, even though the butter was fake back then, the issues weren’t, which is still true today.  While we can recognize the butter still may not be real, certainly the issues raised on the screen are more real than ever.

So perhaps before and after (perhaps even during) the barrage of contemporary holiday goings on, I would prescribe a few runnings of It’s a Wonderful Life with George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) wooing Mary Hatch (Donna Reed) while battling Old Man Potter (Lionel Barrymore) with the angel Clarence (Henry Travers) working on getting his wings.  It’s chock full of principles of ethical and moral choices as well, without all the explosions.  If black and white cinema isn’t your bag, perhaps The Wizard of Oz can remind you and the rest of us that there’s no place like home.

Walter Lowe
Astral Facts is a somewhat regular presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices during the academic year.

Cat Got Your Tongue?

Astral Facts, October 2014

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

                       Cat Got Your Tongue?

Most people know that the end of October brings the emphasis on Halloween with attention to pumpkins, spooky spirits, and witches with their feline companion, the black cat, which might even be a witch in disguise.  However, just two days prior is the oft unrecognized National Cat Day.

http://www.nationalcatday.com/

Now that tennis racquets use special synthetic strings, it makes one wonder if cats really serve any purpose except to challenge teenagers to see who can sleep more hours in the day or to perform for YouTube videos that distract people from meaningful activities.

Writer Deepak "Gotham" Chopra wondered the same thing.  Here is what he found:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slKKvm_vu9g

In spite of all these “astral facts,” we could still take a more “hard science” (STEM) approach and wonder – what if we had to ship 120,000 cats from an island to the mainland?  Perhaps that could be used as one of those irritating word problems students would wish to avoid in their math classes.

On a cold January day in 1885, Ambrose Bierce pondered that very question.  Here’s what he came up with

http://www.ambrosebierce.org/cargo.htm

Isn’t it interesting how science and imagination can combine to delight certain audiences nearly 130 years later!

Walter Lowe
Astral Facts is a somewhat regular presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices during the academic year.

2+2: Find the Value

Astral Facts, September 2014

2+2: Find the Value

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

In mathematics and other important “STEM” fields, (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), the general procedure is to solve problems or answer questions by finding the “value” of the variable in an equation, where this variable is expressed by a symbol (often the letter "x") representing a sort of quantity.  We even use these basic equations to express concepts beyond their “quantity” aspects.  Thus, if we Google “e=mc2,” about 718,000 “hits” show up in less than 30 seconds.  Likewise, “2+2” brings up over 25 billion “hits” in only 20 seconds! 

It seems that such expressions of “value” extend far beyond the simple quantity nature of the various symbols in equations.  For example, in the Humanities Sciences, we use such expressions as "that's as clear as two plus two” and “it’s as easy as 2+2” along with many other variations of phrasings to express aspects of value expressed as "quality."  Often we can see this used as a background detail in visual texts as well.  If schoolroom scenes in art or film have a math problem in the background, it is usually the 2+2 example.

Thus, the deeper question might be focused on the quality aspect if we ask “What is the value of 2+2?”  George Orwell alluded to this equation in his 1949 novel 1984, about a hundred years after Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s main character in Notes from Underground (1864) mused upon it.  Both used the equation 2+2=5 as a basic expression to comment on the political and social climate of their time.  Today, we can also see the question of the “value” of 2+2 still being used as demonstrated in this short  six-minute film from the 2013 Oldenburg Film Festival:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTjM6S-kOmg

 In our current technology driven culture, we tend to emphasize the numbers to identify the quality of life – whether it be the dollar figure of our income or the number identifying the phone model that equals the “I” of our identities.  As many of us evaluate our own lives, we tend to stress the “bottom line” number, but we forget to consider where the actual “bottom line” might be.  Those numbers represent a quantity value, but the Humanities Scientists prefer to consider quality as well when assessing “value.” As they say, “it’s not how many years in your life that is important; it is how much life is in your years.” 

How then do we identify the value of our lives?  It should be as obvious as 2+2!

Walter Lowe
Astral Facts is a somewhat regular presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices during the academic year.

Roots, Branches, STEMS, and Leaves

Astral Facts, Mid-Summer 2014

Roots, Branches, STEMs, and Leaves

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

Roots, Branches, STEMs, and Leaves.

A few years ago Eats, Shoots & Leaves was a best-selling book on grammar and usage.   The title comes from the author, Lynne Truss, reading a description of the panda bear which had a misplaced comma after “eats.”  Of course, the original meaning (without the comma) was to identify two things the panda eats (A panda eats shoots and a panda eats leaves.)  However, the insertion of the comma puts the three words into a series that follows a pattern.  Since “eats” is a verb, so then must the other two be verbs:  A panda eats, it shoots, and it leaves!  Thus, restaurants began putting up signs declaring the right to refuse service at their own discretion.  Apparently the restaurants were worried about replacing the food servers if pandas ate at their establishments!

Hopefully, other people who also read the original source were able to read beyond the grammar anomalies to grasp the gist of the content.  Realistically, probably the majority of the readers didn’t even notice the discrepancy in a sort of “ignorance is bliss” state of being.   Frankly, those “humanities science” details, like artwork on the refrigerator in many family kitchens, don’t really seem to impact life with much significance.  After all, if we read the “serious” news, we know that our culture is declining due to deficiencies of education in the STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), which is where educators are under pressure to patch the leaks and raise the bars.

Yet, on my campus, the faculty in many of the STEM disciplines are acting to “stiffen” the course prerequisites, making the skills in areas such as English 101 required prior to enrollment in their basic entry level content courses.  When students lack the basic elements of language comprehension in reading, writing, and speaking and other forms of critical thinking, the complexities of the STEM content get muddled in manipulation.

Just as life in a colorless cubicle, without even basic art on the refrigerator door, seems spiritually bleak, STEM content in isolation can lead to lifeless suppression of creative thought and inspiration.  The successful ingest the refrigerator art and much more.

For example, last spring I had the apparent misfortune of one of my back molars going rogue on me, and I ended up patiently being a patient in my dentist’s waiting room, knowing a root canal was looming up in my near future.  I say “misfortune,” but Garrison Keillor has noted, “Bad experiences never happen to writers; it’s all material,” which might be the case, for a fairly current issue of Scientific American (April  2014, V. 310, N. 4) was nestled in among the magazines devoted to people and fashion.  Deciding to choose the “read less traveled,” I thumbed through the pages to try and take my mind off the pain in my jaw.  As I did so, I was surprised to find the contents included many “interdisciplinary” humanities science references appreciably much advanced beyond the basic refrigerator artwork.

For example, near the back (I tend to thumb through magazines from the back as a technique I learned as a young boy looking through Readers Digest for the little quips at the end of the stories) I discovered Steven Mirsky’s article “The Numbers Game” about baseball, which begins with “The lush green of the outfield.  The pop of horsehide ball hitting cowhide mitt….” (88) – much more poetic than scientific!  Immediately, he references the “holy trinity” referring to the statistics of three kinds of athletic performance.  Without a familiarity with the "trinity" concept that originated in the fields of the humanities sciences, readers would find the reference is obtuse.  In the right hand column of the article, the reference to annus miribilus is not some exotic bacterial strain a proctologist would study, as many historians and other humanities scientists would recognize. Hopefully, the proctologists would look into it!

  

On the other side of this page, Michael Shermer begins the article “The Science of Lying” by recounting the GEICO commercial of Abraham Lincoln being asked by his wife, “Does this dress make my backside look big?” and “Honest Abe” must struggle with the ethics of the honesty of his answer. Noting how the humor of the situation appeals to the readers, Shermer comments on the test of love and loyalty at the root of this appeal.  This sounds more like humanities science content than STEMwork! 

Shermer goes on to reference the book Lying (2013) by neuroscientist Sam Harris, quoting Harris’ comments on the ethics of telling the truth, for “by lying, we deny our friends access to reality-…” with Harris' conclusion to “tell the truth with tact.”  Harris notes that even white lies end up “associated with poorer-quality relationships” (87).  It certainly seems that a lot of “humanities science” has been stirred in with the STEM content here!

Paging further back toward the front, I found another article on RNA research; the authors (Christine Gorman and Dina Fine Maron) begin with the statement, “Starting with the double-helical structure of DNA in 1953, the story of molecular biology has featured more characters than a Russian novel” (54).  Not only are the writers familiar with the modus operandus of classic Russian authors, they expect familiarity of the reference to be enlightening (and somewhat amusing) to the particular readership of such a publication.  Obviously, it takes more than basic STEM education to make the connection.

In between is a much longer in-depth article on “The Secret Spiritual History of Calculus,” by UCLA mathematics historian Amir Alexander, which explores the original debate between two 17^th Century Scholars, Italian Bonaventura Cavalieri and Swiss Paul Guldin.  As the editors note in prefacing the article, “In this adaptation of a chapter from [Alexander’s] upcoming book, he explains that Guldin and Cavalieri belonged to different Catholic orders and, consequently, disagreed about how to use mathematics to understand the nature of reality” ( 82).  Again, the mixture of STEM and humanities science is obvious.

The publication has much more, such as the article by Nola Rogers on spider courtship entitled “Love Him or Eat Him?” that suggests the choice seems to hinge on “feminine whims” rather than “scientific” principles.  Rogers ends with a quote from the researchers, “Our results provide evidence that different female personalities can lead to different outcomes in the interactions between males and females in a sexual cannibal” (24). 

Whoa!  This sounds like something from a Gothic novel or the premise for the next cable TV miniseries!  Can you envision it: a string of crime scenes after someone eats, shoots, and leaves and these events criss-cross a series of sex crimes involving mutilated male corpses!  Let your imagination run with it!

 Certainly all these articles were written by natural scientists with obvious training in good writing; thus perhaps they are not representing the scope of expertise of the STEM community as a whole.  Nonetheless, the references were expected to be understood by the target audience (primarily the STEM community). Just as it is good for us humanities scientists to be familiar with the STEM world, so do the humanities science disciplines aid in connecting to physical reality.  

Thus, it seems that for truly quality education, educators should help students put emphasis on the fields of the humanities sciences so they can root, branch, and STEM before they leave!

  

Walter Lowe

Astral Facts is a somewhat regular presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices during the academic year.

Astral Facts, Spring 2014: My Couplets Runneth Over

Astral Facts, May Spring 2014

My Couplets Runneth Over

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

My Couplets Runneth Over

We have come to the end of another academic year, which is always a bittersweet time as we see people moving on and relationships altered.  Often we hear the discussion about viewpoints regarding a glass partially filled with water, with the optimist seeing it half full and the pessimist seeing it half empty.  People usually don’t ask the engineers, who merely see a waste of materials.  

After all, if we’re only going to have eight ounces in the glass, why use a 16-ounce glass?  Have we ever seen products sold in the stores like that: a 12-ounce drink in a 16-ounce bottle or 20 ounces of pickles in a 32-ounce jar?  (Of course the “half gallon” of ice cream now comes in a “1.75 quart” container, but that’s business and marketing – not science!  Crackers and cereal may settle in that big box, again marketing at work.)

Even in business and science, the “Humanities Science” aspects play an important role.  This is why we often see the emphasis placed on the intangibles related to the “quality” that STEM analysis cannot measure.  The STEMmers measure quantity rather than quality – but what about ice cream measured in “scoops”?  How much is that really?  Visit places such as Cold Stone Creamery, Marble Slab, etc. where a few “scoops” costs as much as the “1.75 quart” half-gallon. 

Thus, in the “science” of marketing and advertising, where every restaurant is cooking up a similar slab of beef, the mantra is “sell the sizzle, not the steak!”  Starbucks isn’t successful because of the over-priced coffee and milk; it is the essence of the “Third Place” ambiance being marketed that appeals to the consumer.

Since the days of Plato, this relationship between content/form, style/substance, mind/body, however/whatever has piqued human interest.  The study of the external in order to understand the internal has spun off into fascination and emphasis on the external itself.  Even so, in the final conclusion, the STEMmers have reduced it all to the common dominators of electrons, protons, and neutrons and down.  So where’s the source of quality?  Try going to Baskin-Robbins and ordering a few scoops of protons, neutrons, but easy on the electrons!  (They won’t ask if you’re paying cash – obviously it will be charged!)

We’ve tried that in the Humanities as well.  Poems combine ingredients of iambic pentameter, enjambment, synecdoche, metonymy, onomatopoeia, assonance, sonnet form, free verse, ballad style, alliteration - on goes the list.  However we choose to identify and define the bits and pieces or the big picture, merely soldering together the components and plugging the arrangement all in will usually produce something as lifeless as Victor Frankenstein’s “creature” before the chemicals react or lightning strikes (as depicted in the film).  It is that lightning that inserts the spark and animates the body’s arrangement of protons, neutrons, and electrons.

During this past season, we lost one of the great sources of such sparks:  Maya Angelou.  Consider her most famous line/title:  “I know why the caged bird sings” – only half the couplet, yet overflowing with electrifying content.

Walter Lowe
Astral Facts is a somewhat regular presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices during the academic year.

Out Like A Lamb: March 2014

Astral Facts, March 2014

Out Like a Lamb

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

Out Like a Lamb

We’re well into April now, in the throes of the aftermath of March and the intensity of March Madness.  In the astral attitude of interdisciplinary shared governance, we can do some math after the aftermath of the official March Madness as it relates to the astral nature of the college experience.

During this time each year, attention is drawn to the “brackets” as people make their predictions for the 63 games played among the 64 teams selected in the NCAA National Basketball Tournament.  (Actually, it was 68 this year, for four games, referred to as the “first four,” were played prior to the actual tournament start.)  This is a national phenomenon, and each year President Obama has a special presentation as he reveals his selections, from his predictions of the winners of the 32 games in the first round, to his prediction of the regional winners ending up at the touted “final four” leading to the national champion in that 63^rd game.

The selection of the 64 teams and their positioning was announced on Sunday afternoon , March 16^th (referred to as “Selection Sunday”), and the first of the 63 games began around noon, PDT on Thursday, March 20^th.  ESPN announced that in those three and one-half days more than 11,000,000 online brackets were submitted on the Tournament Challenge website.

While the ObamaCare online registration might be a bit more complicated, during the six-month window of availability, 7,000,000 people were able to sign up, which is being regarded as a great victory, but that is only 63% of the number of brackets filled out on the ESPN website in only 3.5 days!  (In addition, millions of other brackets were filled out through other sports affiliated websites such as CBSSports.com and NCAA.com, as well as local contests run by The Seattle Times [Hoops Hysteria]).

For those concerned about revenue stream, consider this:  The last minute basket made by the University of Kentucky’s Aaron Harrison to beat Michigan not only sent his school to the Final Four – it sent the Kentucky coaches to the bank, for they earned a total of nearly $330,000 in added salary incentives by reaching that stage in the tournament!

The downside to the revenue stream seems to come from the tangential loss of productivity accompanying the distractions offered during the first few rounds of the tournament, for offices are abuzz with March Madness distractions.  Recent research revealed that nearly 4,000,000 hours of productivity is lost during this short span of time, which caused some companies to inflict severe penalties on workers caught being distracted due to the games.  (Some of the websites such as ESPN.com and CBSSports.com have a “boss button” link that workers can click on if a supervisor is in the vicinity.  This opens to an intricate Exel spreadsheet to hide the bracket views.)  However, subsequent research has indicated that the increased productivity in later months more than doubles any lost productivity due to the  resulting “camaraderie” created as workers commiserated over the agonies of busted brackets and ecstasies of “Cinderella” teams fighting their way through the bracketed jungles.  Those bonds have brought prolonged attitudes of cooperation and collaboration, even if “their” teams were eliminated early in the sequence.

Thus, we recognize this in the Humanities Sciences as well, for NPR (National Public Radio) has reported about New York’s New Victory Theater’s  Shakespeare bracket for the Ides of March Madness, pitting Shakespeare’s plays and characters against each other.  If you want to follow the progress, here is the link where the Final Four has Hamlet facing off against Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing matched against  The Merchant of Venice: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/03/30/296819698/the-ides-of-march-madness-who-s-gonna-stop-prospero?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=share&utm_campaign=storyshare  The results are all based on public voting through the website. 

In other words, beyond the external aspects of sports, we can find an inner astral essence at work.  As Prince Ghazi bin Muhammed has noted in his book The Sacred Origin of Sports and Culture, as far back as history has recorded, sports were considered to be a connection between humans and the divine, most obviously shown in the roots of the Olympic Games, where sporting events were consecrated to a variety of gods (who resided in Mt. Olympus, thus the name of the events).  As bin Muhammed notes, this was paralleled among the ancient Romans as well,

In classical antiquity games (ludi) had a sacred character and therefore became typical expressions of the traditional path of action.  ‘Ludorum primuminitium procurandis religionibus datem,” wrote Livy.  It was considered dangerous to neglect the sacred games (negligera sacra certamina); thus, if the state’s funds were depleted, the games were simplified but never suppressed…. The ritual slaying of the victorious horse, which was consecrated to Mars, should be connected to the general idea of “sacrifice”; it seems that the force that was consequently unleashed was for the most part directed by the Romans to increase the crops in an occult fashion, ad frugumeventum.  (Julius Evola qtd. in bin Muhammed 63-64)

In other words, it increased the flow of the revenue stream externally while solidifying the astral “revenue stream” between humans and the divine.

Consider this reference to sport representing the course of human life as explained by the Native American Chief Black Elk, extracted from Black Elk Speaks,

There was , until recently, a game among our people which was played with a ball, four teams and four goals which were set up at four corners.  But there are only a few of us today that understand why the game is sacred, or what the game originally was long ago, when it was not really a game, but one of our most important rites….. 

            The game as it is played today represents the course of a man’s life, which should be spent in trying to get the ball, for the ball represents Wakan-Tanka, or the [Sacred] Universe [i.e. heaven], as I shall explain later.  In the game it is very difficult to get the ball, for the odds – which represent ignorance – are against you, and it is only one or two of the teams who are able to get the ball and score with it.  But in the original rite everybody was able to have the ball, and if you think about what the ball represents, you will see that there is much truth in it.  (qtd. in bin Muhammed 71-72)

Perhaps we can see the similar dichotomy in our contemporary culture when considering the view of Vince Lombari, who is credited with saying, “Winning isn’t the only thing; it is everything!”and “If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?”  So much for "the love of the game!"

In comparison, note Grantland Rice’s observation, “It’s not whether you win or lose; it is how you play the game that counts.”  This offers insight into how the Seahawks’ Super Bowl XL loss against Pittsburgh brought the community together and continued fair play recently in Super Bowl XLVIII has brought bonds even tighter as the community proclaimed “I’m In!”  We can still see vehicles driving around with "12" flags flying.

Since we are actually into April as March Madness has gone out like a lamb for most of us, and April is national poetry month, here’s a posting from Manvotional, which probably should be called Humanvotional, substituting “human” for “man”:

         Playing The Game

Life is a game with a glorious prize,

If we can only play it right.

It is give and take, build and break,

And often it ends in a fight;

But he surely wins who honestly tries

(Regardless of wealth or fame),

He can never despair who plays it fair

How are you playing the game?

Do you wilt and whine, if you fail to win

In the manner you think you’re due?

Do you sneer at the man in case that he can

And does, do better than you?

Do you take your rebuffs with a knowing grin?

Do you laugh tho’ you pull up lame?

Does your faith hold true when the whole world’s blue?

How are you playing the game?

Get into the thick of it – wade in, boys!

Whatever your cherished goal;

Brace up your will till your pulses thrill,

And you dare to your very soul!

Do something more than make a noise;

Let your purpose leap into flame

As you plunge with a cry, “I shall do or die,”

Then you will be playing the game.

Walter Lowe
Astral Facts is a somewhat regular presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices during the academic year.

A Month of Somedays

Astral Facts, February 2014

A Month of Somedays

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

  

As we hit the end of February, I always find it interesting that the shortest month seems to have the most packed into it.  Every four years we need to add an extra day.  It is National Black Heritage Month, the SuperBowl is usually near the start of the month (extra super in the Pacific Northwest this year), the first Saturday of the month is always “Ice Cream for Breakfast Day” (hard to find those cards at Hallmark though), Valentine’s day is on the 14^th,  the 26^th is always “National Pistachio Day,” and the 22^nd is always “National World Thinking Day.”  Four years from now, it’s another Olympic Season to boot!

It is a time of birthdays as well, with three of my children, my brother, my uncle Walter and my grandfather, and even me myself celebrating birthdays.  And, by the way, we also celebrate the birthdays of the Presidents.  It used to be that we noted the two most famous individually – Lincoln on the 12^th and Washington on the 22^nd  - but with the establishment of Martin Luther King’s holiday in January, we seem to have maxed out the quota for Federal Holidays, so those two got compressed into the Monday in between: the 17^th this year.

But it’s also a good time to light a fire in the fireplace and curl up with a bowl of popcorn and a good book on a cold winter’s day.  Here in the Astral Facts labyrinth, the question about what makes a “good” book gets a lot of play.  

Recently I was chatting with a colleague during lunch, and she said her grown son and some of his friends who also took a “non-humanities” track in college have been doing an informal “book club” activity to try to fill in those missing gaps in their world view.  She said he suggested that they next read Herman Melville’s  Moby-Dick together, and his suggestion was loudly shouted down by his peers.  Apparently they had heard about the book, and what they heard hadn’t been good.  It seems like one of those things like Justin Bieber, Kim Kardashian, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Nora Helmer – either you love them or you hate them.

But as a book, Moby-Dick is more than a book, which we can say about most great literature.  For those reluctant to take a flying leap into the water, I might suggest easing into it by paging through the book Why Read Moby-Dick? by Nathaniel Philbrick.  Its pocket sized 127 pages could serve to whet one’s appetite for the full course of around 700 pages (depending on the edition). 

And perhaps it is fitting to consider this in February as we focus on Black Heritage Month and the Monday between the birthdays of those two great presidents, for at the time of its publication in 1851, the United States was also in the time between those two great men and the establishment and maintenance of this country as a republic, of the people, by the people, and for the people – including all the people.

Philbrick observes how Melville has sailed the ship as a metaphor across an allegory of the sea, which can be looked at from a distance, but then applied up close.  Philbrick notes the section where Melville describes the melting of the whale blubber to extract the whale oil, a predecessor to the petroleum that fuels our current society:

“To kindle a fire on an oil-soaked wooden ship was risky at best, but it was the only way to boil the blubber into oil.  Wood was used to start the fire in the brick try-works, but once rendering of the blubber had begun, the flames were fed with the crispy bits that floated up to the top of the bubbling try-pots.  This meant that the fire that consumed the whale was fed with pieces of the whale’s own body.  The smoke that poured forth from this organically fueled flame smelled even worse than the fumes from burned human hair.  According to Ishmael, ‘It has an unspeakable, wild, Hindoo odor about it, such as may lurk in the vicinity of funereal pyres.  It smells like the left wing of the day of judgment; it is an argument for the pit’” (90).

And as the ship maneuvers, it is surrounded by this dense fog of smoke as it ploughs through the darkness of day and blindness of night, dragging this corpse of the whale – “plunging into that darkness of blackness, seeming [to be] the material counterpart of her monomaniac commander’s soul,” [referring to Capt. Ahab].  And as this continues, Ishmael finds himself turned around so that he is facing the stern rather than the bow and he must steer in the opposite direction of where he wants to go in order to get there (90-91).

In this scene of twisting and confusion, Ishmael recognizes, “There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness” (91). 

Melville’s insight, according to Philbrick is “What is needed more than anything else in the midst of a crisis is a calm, steadying dose of clarity, the kind of omniscient, all-seeing perspective symbolized by an eagle on the wing” (91).  

Here Melville presents the metaphor:

  “And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces.  And even if he for ever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the mountains; so that even in his lowest swoop the mountain eagle is still higher than other birds upon the plain, even though they soar” (91).    

Philbrick further observes,

 “Here Melville provides a description of the ideal leader, the anti-Ahab who instead of anger and pain relies on equanimity and judgment, who does his best to remain above the fray, and who even in the darkest of possible moments resists the ‘woe that is madness,’” (91).

Philbrick continues,

 “As I have said before, Moby-Dick is a book that was written for the future.  In this portrait of a person who resists the fiery, disorienting passions of the moment, who has the soul of a high-flying Catskill eagle, Melville, in his preternatural way, has hit upon a description of the political figure America desperately needed in 1851 but who would not appear on the national stage until almost a decade later, when Abraham Lincoln became president of the United States” (91-92).

Of course, it is just a story, and it seemed to fit in that time and that place.  

However, these things tend to have resonance that vibrates through time as well as up and down the levels of society.  Who knows, maybe some can see the application in the here and now!?

Walter Lowe
Astral Facts is a somewhat regular presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices during the academic year.

MiLKing the Dream, January 2014

Astral Facts, January 2014

MiLKing the Dream

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

MiLKing the Dream

I have been thinking about this topic in the last few weeks as the holiday approached to celebrate the birth and life of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  (However, the celebration comes on the Monday nearest his January 15^th birthday, rather than the actual day itself.)  As most of us know, his most famous message is the “I Have a Dream” keynote speech given on August 28, 1963.  For many children, the holiday fulfills their dream of a day off from school (the students in my college classes might agree) and shoppers find dream bargains at the holiday sales, which sometime go on all weekend.  Groups have breakfasts, lunches, and dinners as fundraisers for their various activities. We have basketball tournaments, environmental “clean-up” projects throughout the area, groups preparing disaster hygiene kits, and even Humane Society activities to make braided toys for cats and dogs.  (Just Google “Martin Luther King Day activities” for details of 224,000 other links to lists of activities.)

With so much variation, we might pause to consider the “dream” lying at the root of such variation.  Fortunately, the textbook for my English 101 class does have the transcript of that keynote speech from 50.5 years ago.  In that speech, Rev. Dr. King mentions the “promissory note” embedded and imbedded in “the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence” as the foundation of human dignity, spirit, and value.   Rev. Dr. King’s concern was to recognize the time to “to make real the promises of democracy, ….the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood; now is the time to make justice a reality for all God’s children.”  That is the essence of his dream, which was promised in the founding of this country.

Fortunately, the textbook for my English 101 class also has the content of the Declaration of Independence as well.  In fact, it is the selection just prior to Rev. Dr. King’s text.  In this text, attributed to Thomas Jefferson, he states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all  men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”: a statement most Americans can probably repeat in content if not word for word.  What most may not be familiar with is the bulk of the remainder: a list of wrongs done by the king of England at that time.  The next eighteen paragraph points all begin with the phrasing “He has …”with the thirteenth point listing nine separate violations in that specific category.  In essence, Jefferson has noted that the monarch, endowed with the “Divine Right of Kings,” has not upheld the responsibilities that accompany such “Divine Rights.”  The king may have used his authority to establish civil laws that justified his actions, but they were contrary to his Divinely granted authority and responsibility.  In other words, the king has not performed the duties prescribed by the Creator, and the people are justified in exercising principles of “shared governance” by renouncing the king’s authority.

While Jefferson was eloquent in expressing the human “rights” of accomplishing the Creator’s dream, he wasn’t as diligent in exercising his personal authority or in compelling others in authority to exercise theirs as well in conjunction with Divine shared governance.  In fact, Jefferson was unwilling to “emancipate” even his own slaves, even though at least one of the slaves was the biological mother of his own child.

It was not until September 1862 that Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, effective January 1^st 1863, to extend the so far limited application of the original “promissory note” instigated by Jefferson and acted upon by the Continental Congress.   Unfortunately, the text of Lincoln’s proclamation is not in our English 101 textbook.  Nonetheless, that content can be easily retrieved online. The text of the “Gettysburg Address,” given nearly a year later, is in our textbook with an ending that includes the statement, “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.”    While this did proclaim an extension of freedom, it was still limited and sparsely enforced, which prompted Rev. Dr. King to declare 100 years later that it was time to fulfill the dream and honor that “promissory note” from the long past.  That is the Dream promised in America, and a dream still in progress.  Yet, we might ponder where this Dream may have originated, for it does seem to contradict the “survival of the fittest” evolutionary values of contemporary culture.

In another selection from our English 101 textbook, we might find an answer coming from England, the same source as the original irritation of the 1700’s.  In his article “The Rival Conceptions of God” C. S. Lewis describes the path that led him from being an atheist to becoming a religious person.  The article was originally from a radio talk given in England in 1942 during The Second World War.  In the content, Lewis notes that the major basis for his denial of God was that he could not believe in a God who would allow so much injustice to exist.  However, as he reflected upon this, he began to wonder why he would have an expectation of finding justice in the world.  He came to the conclusion that such an expectation must have originated from something outside himself, which he concluded to be emanating from the same Creator whom Jefferson had referenced as having endowed humans with life and liberty and the inalienable rights to pursue Happiness.  In his further reflections, Lewis came to the conclusion that things had “gone awry” through human behavior and God was waiting for humans to put it right again.  Thus, the Dream was two-fold – things being put right and this being done by human effort.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King had a Dream, but the Dream was driven by a force outside himself, and it was a Dream that included all humanity.  During this time when we celebrate his bravery and forbearance, at the cost of his life, in the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness in connection with that Dream and its source, perhaps it is good to examine our own dreams and their original sources, especially those Astral in nature.

  

Walter Lowe
Astral Facts is a somewhat regular presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices during the academic year.