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The Good: Looks like Frances is going south of us so one more time we get a miss on our beach house. Even hearing that the $2600 hurricane deductible means that we'll pay for our own roof sounds pretty good compared to what could have happened. Going down to the beach tomorrow, yay! Will try to get in touch via my new $150 used iBook, but there's a chance it won't work...don't assume I've been blown away or swept out to sea. I shall return.
The Bad: The folks in Florida will get it again. It's really hard to feel good no matter where a hurricane goes.
The Ugly: I went to the appeal hearing for Brett Bursey, a friend who was arrested for protesting Bush's visit to this city and refusing to be moved into a "Free Speech Zone." You can read more about the original case at: http://www.rense.com/general45/otr.htm or
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jksonc/docs/bursey-docket-dsc-03cr309.html
The magistrate found for the Feds in the trial, but the appeal was questioning the constitutionality of the whole "Free Speech Zone," as far as I understand it. The ruling will come in writing sometime in the next couple of weeks. The highlight of the trial was the prosecution's contention that the Secret Service's needs to protect the President allow them to override constitutional guarantees, and his statement that "It's all very nice to get emotional about this free speech thing, but we need to look at the facts...." It was a scary day.
Also, the security. I fly a lot, and I've taught in prisons, so I'm used to security checks. This wasn't more invasive, but it was clear that the whole new Federal courthouse was designed with the security check as the focus of entry, unlike the architecture of older buildings with their huge wide entryways--grandiose, perhaps, but open.
This felt like going into a bank vault. Looked like it, too.
48 Ching: The Well
THE WELL. The town may be changed,
But the well cannot be changed.
It neither decreases nor increases.
They come and go and draw from the well.
If one gets down almost to the water
And the rope does not go all the way,
Or the jug breaks, it brings misfortune.
In ancient China the capital cities were sometimes moved, partly for the sake of more favourable location, partly because of a change in dynasties. The style of architecture changed in the course of centuries, but the shape of the well has remained the same from ancient times to this day. Thus the well is the symbol of that social structure which, evolved by mankind in meeting its most primitive needs, is independent of all political forms. Political structures change, as do nations, but the life of man with its needs remains eternally the same-this cannot be changed. Life is also inexhaustible. It grows neither less not more; it exists for one and for all. The generations come and go, and all enjoy life in its inexhaustible abundance.
However, there are two prerequisites for a satisfactory political or social organisation of mankind. We must go down to the very foundations of life. For any merely superficial ordering of life that leaves its deepest needs unsatisfied is as ineffectual as if no attempt at order had ever been made. Carelessness-by which the jug is broken-is also disastrous. If for instance the military defence of a state is carried to such excess that it provokes wars by which the power of the state is annihilated, this is a breaking of the jug.
This hexagram applies also to the individual. However men may differ in disposition and in education, the foundations of human nature are the same in everyone. And every human being can draw in the course of his education from the inexhaustible wellspring of the divine in man's nature. But here likewise two dangers threaten: a man may fail in his education to penetrate to the real roots of humanity and remain fixed in convention-a partial education of this sort is as bad as none- or he may suddenly collapse and neglect his self-development.
Six in the fourth place means:
The well is being lined. No blame.
True, if a well is being lined with stone, it cannot be used while the work is going on. But the work is not in vain; the result is that the water stays clear. In life also there are times when a man must put himself in order. During such a time he can do nothing for others, but his work is nonetheless valuable, because by enhancing his powers and abilities through inner development, he can accomplish all the more later on.
I take the main part to relate to the issues raised at the hearing today. Free speech is one of the fundamental principles of a good society. Even if the hearing were to go in the right direction, in Bursey's favor, the statement of the prosecutor implying that free speech is just some romantic notion is a clear indicator that the ropes that draw the water from our well are fraying dangerously.
The last part relates to me. This is a time for putting my life in order, and not helping others, in order to be more useful later on. That's almost exactly how I see it.
The Bad: The folks in Florida will get it again. It's really hard to feel good no matter where a hurricane goes.
The Ugly: I went to the appeal hearing for Brett Bursey, a friend who was arrested for protesting Bush's visit to this city and refusing to be moved into a "Free Speech Zone." You can read more about the original case at: http://www.rense.com/general45/otr.htm or
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jksonc/docs/bursey-docket-dsc-03cr309.html
The magistrate found for the Feds in the trial, but the appeal was questioning the constitutionality of the whole "Free Speech Zone," as far as I understand it. The ruling will come in writing sometime in the next couple of weeks. The highlight of the trial was the prosecution's contention that the Secret Service's needs to protect the President allow them to override constitutional guarantees, and his statement that "It's all very nice to get emotional about this free speech thing, but we need to look at the facts...." It was a scary day.
Also, the security. I fly a lot, and I've taught in prisons, so I'm used to security checks. This wasn't more invasive, but it was clear that the whole new Federal courthouse was designed with the security check as the focus of entry, unlike the architecture of older buildings with their huge wide entryways--grandiose, perhaps, but open.
This felt like going into a bank vault. Looked like it, too.
48 Ching: The Well
THE WELL. The town may be changed,
But the well cannot be changed.
It neither decreases nor increases.
They come and go and draw from the well.
If one gets down almost to the water
And the rope does not go all the way,
Or the jug breaks, it brings misfortune.
In ancient China the capital cities were sometimes moved, partly for the sake of more favourable location, partly because of a change in dynasties. The style of architecture changed in the course of centuries, but the shape of the well has remained the same from ancient times to this day. Thus the well is the symbol of that social structure which, evolved by mankind in meeting its most primitive needs, is independent of all political forms. Political structures change, as do nations, but the life of man with its needs remains eternally the same-this cannot be changed. Life is also inexhaustible. It grows neither less not more; it exists for one and for all. The generations come and go, and all enjoy life in its inexhaustible abundance.
However, there are two prerequisites for a satisfactory political or social organisation of mankind. We must go down to the very foundations of life. For any merely superficial ordering of life that leaves its deepest needs unsatisfied is as ineffectual as if no attempt at order had ever been made. Carelessness-by which the jug is broken-is also disastrous. If for instance the military defence of a state is carried to such excess that it provokes wars by which the power of the state is annihilated, this is a breaking of the jug.
This hexagram applies also to the individual. However men may differ in disposition and in education, the foundations of human nature are the same in everyone. And every human being can draw in the course of his education from the inexhaustible wellspring of the divine in man's nature. But here likewise two dangers threaten: a man may fail in his education to penetrate to the real roots of humanity and remain fixed in convention-a partial education of this sort is as bad as none- or he may suddenly collapse and neglect his self-development.
Six in the fourth place means:
The well is being lined. No blame.
True, if a well is being lined with stone, it cannot be used while the work is going on. But the work is not in vain; the result is that the water stays clear. In life also there are times when a man must put himself in order. During such a time he can do nothing for others, but his work is nonetheless valuable, because by enhancing his powers and abilities through inner development, he can accomplish all the more later on.
I take the main part to relate to the issues raised at the hearing today. Free speech is one of the fundamental principles of a good society. Even if the hearing were to go in the right direction, in Bursey's favor, the statement of the prosecutor implying that free speech is just some romantic notion is a clear indicator that the ropes that draw the water from our well are fraying dangerously.
The last part relates to me. This is a time for putting my life in order, and not helping others, in order to be more useful later on. That's almost exactly how I see it.