Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi believed in a very unique form of relativism. Relativism is a theory, especially in ethics or aesthetics, that conceptions of truth and moral values are not absolute but are relative to the persons or groups holding them. Thusly, the morals and aesthetics of a human are far different from the morals and aesthetics of a fish. In his famous example, he talks of how we find two particular people very beautiful, a fish apon seeing them flees into the depths, the birds fly away, and the animals scatter into the forest. In fairy tales we tell stories of beauty that transcends this relativism. Think about snow white and her harem of animals birds etc. A being so pure that her beauty was recognized by all. Alas, no such creature exists.
Zhuangzi was one of the foundation blocks of Daoism. He speaks of the Dao, or 'the way', at length in his book. The ironic part is that he is a firm believer that the Dao cannot be described using words, since words are a logical construct and thusly relativistic, whereas 'the way' is transcendent of relativism. He believes the way can only be reached through meditation, and the shutting down of the mind. To live the way, one must seal off what makes us human, and view the world through what he calls the vital breath. Then and only then can one cultivate the self.
It is interesting to me that there are entire religions devoted to getting outside of the human condition. It's an idea that seems futile, but shows so much promise. For example, when in your life are you completely incapable of thought? Go ahead and try to silence your thoughts right now...I double dog dare you. Can you do it? Didn't think so, There is at least one time in your life that a complete lack of thought occurs that I know of. Orgasm. This is for a purely chemical reason, your brain is flooded with endorphins and thought becomes impossible. AND IT FEELS GREAT! So if meditation can achieve a similar goal, I'm all for it :) The other times I hear people talk about being non-thinking is with athletes that are "in the zone". Often times you will here the best athletes say after a great performance, I don't know how I did that, I was just relaxed, or I was on another level today...etc. etc. We've all been there hopefully, with something that we do. Anyways, that's enough about shutting off the brain, back to Zhuangzi.
I think Zhuangzi is certainly on to something with beauty being relative. However, it's interesting to note the advances mathmatics has made into the realm of beauty. For example, the golden ratio is 1:1.618 or some such number (too lazy to google). It is a ratio that appears throughout nature and is symbolic of beauty. Babies amongst all species have enlarged facial features. A trait that naturally draws an individual to care for it. Furthermore, symetry is a universally accepted (at a visceral level) form of beauty. Studies have been done proving that babies of many species will stare longer at symetrical faces than asymetrical ones. Morals have similar characteristics. For example, the incest taboo spreads across many species (granted not all). This argument certainly doesn't render Zhuangzi's arguments moot, but I do believe the above caviats should be considered when discussing whether knowledge is truly relative.
It has been said that Zhuangzi was the first Anarchist. This is because he believed in withdrawling from the social construct and focusing on individual cultivation. The world will govern itself without our help he would say. In a way, he is correct. Remember the immortal words of the joker, "introduce a little ANARCHY, upset the established ORDER, and everything becomes Chaos..."? Well it turns out, the entropy of an 'ungoverned body' is not without order. Entropy, afterall, occurs within a 'governed system' and can only do so much. For example, take my room. Messy as it seems, there is an order to it still. Clothes are on the floor, pillows on the bed, sheets on the mattress, all fixtures that left to the whims of entropy would remain (despite what my mom would say). I could walk in and out of my room, sleep on my bed, or dance around naked, and at the end of the day, the clothes would still be on the floor and not on the ceiling. In a governed system such as Earth, entropy moves things towards their position of least potential energy, not least order. The question is, is this order superior to the some other order. Zhuangzi does not answer this from what I've seen. He mocks the efforts of people whom organize and do work upon the system because he knows their order will not last, but he doesn't say why natural order is better. For is there not something positive to the ant that comes from constructing an ant hill? Or is the Ant merely a sentient being not concerned enough with its self cultivation. I'm not so sure. Zhuangzi reminded me of Martin Heidegger who labeled human beings Da-sein, or that which is concerned with its being. In his later years Heidegger became obsessed with poetry and prose much like Zhuangzi. To me it seems both men struggled within in the confines of logical language. They turned to artistic language to illustrate concepts which were seemingly indescribable. In the end, I think Zhuangzi was an enlightened soul....relatively.

A good thing

Being above expectation is...a goood thing! Today was a goooood day. I found myself wondering what to do with my hours of extra time cause I won 500 dollars so fast (a lil under 2 hours) that I just didn't want to play anymore! So i beat halo, and prepared a feast and got in a workout in the extra time. I weigh 178 now...EEKS! I dunno if its muscle or fat or both, but I have been working out when I'm in DC pretty consistently. I guess I'll just let the ladies be the judge of that :/...anyhow a graph from today:

lol you can see where I played 6 max....its the long break even stretch in the middle...sigh the things I do for full tilt points. But i NEED that 47 inch flat screen so I can ball out on two TV SIZED MONITORS!!!!! muwahaha...tho...I dunno how my neck would handle that lol...

Whew back to reality....sort of

Sick week, sick life now back to the grind. Thre in another 500 dollar today which has made march a surprisingly productive month given the start of it being devoid of poker. Yesterday we had an amazing spread prepared by senor peacock the grill master. It included steak and shish-kabobs (sp?), potatoes and beer. It reminded me why I absolutely love living here!

This month i'm going to try to be stingy. It was B. Laub's bday yesterday and the night was spent dining and "rolling deep" to the bars. Clarendon where I managed to only spend like 45 (sigh when did that become good for me?!) on bar related stuffs. Got to meet a bunch of cool guys and girls that I'd only heard stories about. They lived up to expectation and were quite cool. Shot some pool, threw some darts, and watched Harvard steve get heckled by some donk jocks at the punching bag machine at the bar. In all fairness, there was an gorgeous indian girl that just beat the tar out of the punching bag scoring in the high 700's on whatever silly scale they use. Steve then punched a score slightly lower, prolly a mishit, but regardless quite the shocker moreso by the girl than steve.

Anywayz, happy bday to all those involved, my grandmother included! Bonne Chance!

Island sayings that may need to be incorporated into my lexicon.

In response to whether or not she was too young... After 12 its lunch

Drug bucket - any random stash of waded up money and pot (no i don't smoke pot mom)

F that noise - pretty self explanatory but with the added bonus of meaning for a poker player/statistician.

That pothole was so big you could see it on google earth

Do work - eh...an oldy but a goody

COMOOOON Choooop - a great name for a crab in a crab race saaay? Choop being the local bar tender

Here we don't date women, we just take turns.

Unbeknownst to me, I was some 46 yr old ladies birthday present - classic blackout story Zach told

Snorkeling, golf, and trouble

So last night got a little out of hand, We decided to tour the casino and every bar on the way with me having 2 drinks to each of his one. We hit about 4 bars before getting to the casino...so that was 8 drinks I guess. Then we hit the blackjack machines and degened it up for about 1.5 hours. I crushed Mark got crushed, a reversal of the night before. All in all down 40 bucks at the casino including drinks and stuff, so that's fine. Then we decided to go to the boardwalk bar, where the shat hit the fan. We ran into a sober zach (see previous pics at dinner) who proceeded to try and relieve himself of the sober label. So that was nuts, and needless to say I'm grateful that I'm still alive, and have all my parts.

The day before, we went on a snorkeling trip out to Buck Island. Got to see some barracuda, Carribean lobster, schools of fish, one monsterous shark, nautoloids, and the very beautiful tour guide Darby, who of course was into girls...I believe...sigh standard. The experience was pretty darn amazing, and I didn't kick any coral so...gooo me.

I could definitely see taking this show that is my life to an island for a few years. I'd miss the winter a lot, and I'm pretty sure it would have to be an island like Hawaii where the crime rate is a little lower. Today though, I heard a song on the radio that's chorus went something like, "barack obama, barack barack obama, gonna fix it" and just about moved here on the spot. Today we played a lil miniature golf, and smacked some range balls from whence they came. Good times. Here are the mandatory pics...

I swear everyone here is monsterous. I know for a fact I've put on a lil wait just visiting here!

a shot from the second day or so, but a goody.

170 dollars poorer, but infinitely richer

So I've told some people my theory of the US Virgin Islands, but I think it necessary to get it onto the internet so i can claim it when someone writes it up and sells it. St. Croix is like the equatorial Alaska. It should be stated here that I have never been to Alaska, but this is how I imagine it. The world revolves around respect and booze with everyone clammering to get more of both. Today I saw a boy being beaten on the side of the road by an older larger boy. I also heard on the radio about a man who was beaten with a baseball bat, but when at trial was to affraid to testify because he didn't think the police would protect him after the trial. The perpetrator got off. I tell these stories because they are indicative of how the people here deal with conflict. They escalate to fists, bats, and guns quickly. The strange dichotemy pronounces itself in the rest of daily proceedings. There is an incredible air of politeness, a genuine friendliness towards even the strangest of strangers. Its as if a band of thieves was dropped off on an island and told to act like they were in camelot. The conversational skills of the average islander are incredible. They can talk about nothing forever, and spout off hilarious one liners or detailed stories down to the most minute detail. I will attempt to recreate one of these stories in a later post about Ricky tiki tambo rambo... the grey mongoose with an attitude that Zach (one of Mark's old school friends) told at dinner the other night. Oh yes, and speaking of dinner 170 dollars later this is what happened.

...BAM!

Not pictured here are the chicken marsala, cheese platter from heaven, and mahi mahi etc. etc.

simply exsquisite.

Today we went to the beach where columbus landed and I saw another one of my future houses. The houses will get an entry all their own as I have quite a number of houses I will be purchasing some day in the not to distant future!

Now this little gem of an idea on your left is called a crab race. Step one buy and name a hermit crab...the more rambunctious the better, as they say its all about attitude and size doesn't matter. A mantra I live by...jk. Anyhows, no stomping no pointing at crabs and absolutely no stomping on crabs (yes, it happens...story to tell here as well...)

One final note for all the haters out their...

GG life

Trip report!

Aight a few pics from this sick lil island!

More later dinner time.