Black And White Week

Stick with it - Friday's picture may be more interesting.

More on the search for happiness.

The next chapter of 42 etc etc etc starts off describing an episode of The Simpsons where Homer is delivered of a crayon which has been clogging his brain since he was a child. This freedom raises his intelligence above that of everybody else save for Lisa and after several episodes where he starts questioning the wit of situations he finds himself in, he asks for the crayon to be re-inserted so that he may live his live in blissful ignorance of the lack of intelligence around him. This is then linked beautifully to Socrates' attempt to disprove the Delphic Oracle's assertion that he is the wisest man in Greece. After speaking to all the wise people around, Socrates decides that the oracle is right because only he realises how much he does not know. A big chime went off in my head at that point. Therefore there are two types of ignorance - Pig Ignorance and wise ignorance which of course is the knowledge that you do not know everything and the acceptance of that fact. A lot of my unhappiness comes from not being able to complete anything - things may work and perform perfectly in terms of what is required of them but they just don't seem 100%. We should concentrate on what we know we can sort out completely and avoid getting frustrated at being unable to complete everything. At this point my head is full of half-remembered aphorisms which all seem to be variations on Socrates' Delphic issues which shows how prevalent the attitude is throughout history. Unless of course, the story has been widely reported in order for the teller to sound intelligent without actually understanding the meaning. I also keep thinking of the word inscrutable as well. Even my brother has spouted something along these lines at me. Wisdom comes in a flash of understanding not with a lifetime of study or something like that.

Looking back now, the picture is actually apt - the ladder to understanding perhaps though maybe it being a fire escape suggests a descent rather than an ascent.

Technology still amazes me. My wife has decided that she really ought to get back into The Archers and asked me to set the PVR to record it last night. Within a minute I was able to download all the week's episodes as mp3s and transfer them to the PVR ready for listening. And now with 2gig of USB stick memory, I am beginning to get into that state which people who make their living in technology should never really go to. It all seems so fascinating and of course goes against my ideas from above because so much effort has gone into making all these things perfect and easy to use. We don't need them. My wife could quite happily live her life in comfort and safety without having The Archers on demand. I have listened to The Archers on and off for years. I remember it being on at any lunchtime I happened to be at home in the week and without actually listening to it, it gave out a feeling of comfort, especially when I realised that the view out of the windows in our house was the same as the characters would see. I seem to remember Shula from when I was very little but she can't be that old can she?