Talk

The Cat

"In India, I was living in a little hut, about six feet by seven feet. It had a canvas flap instead of a door. I was sitting on my bed meditating, and a cat wandered in and plopped down on my lap. I took the cat and tossed it out the door. Ten seconds later it was back on my lap. We got into a sort of dance, this cat and I. I would toss it out, and it would come back. I tossed it out because I was trying to meditate, to get enlightened. But the cat kept returning. I was getting more and more irritated, more and more annoyed with the persistence of the cat. Finally, after about a half-hour of this coming in tossing out, I had to surrender. There was nothing else to do. There was no way to block off the door. I sat there, the cat came back in, and it got on my lap. But I did not do anything. I just let go. Thirty seconds later the cat got up and walked out. So you see, our teachers come in many forms."

Joseph Goldstein

Society

He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.

Aristotle
--Politics

This is definitely an interesting thought. I disagree with this one.

Rubin

In an Uncertain World: Tough Choices from Wall Street to Washington

Robert Rubin along with Summers and Greenspan guided the economy for most of the 1990s. This book reminded me of the government shutdowns, the Mexican crises and the effort to get a balanced budget. Its amazing how easily we've forgotten how much credit Clinton deserves for having the guts to push for what he believed was right.

Woman

One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.

Simone de Beauvoir
--Second Sex

Glocalization

The Lexus and the Olive Tree

Tom Friedman's paean to the Gods of capitalism. Interesting book. Chock full of stories.

The McDonald theory is advanced - no two countries with MickeyDs have gone to war.

Some long uncertain analogies to hardware and software. The implication is that you need the "software" (rights, courts, democracy) for running globalization. Glocalization as a word is coined in this book. Worth the read. The NYTimes has a healthy travel budget.

hmm

God may be understood to be similar to a lifeguard who sees a drowning child and, although perfectly capable of saving the unfortunate waif, does nothing and lets her drown.

Peter Fosl
--The Philosophers' Magazine, Spring 1998