White’s awarding winning book, A. Lincoln (2009), is a good read, perhaps even a great one. BUT you have to REALLY like history. Truly for those who want to learn about the remarkably complex President Lincoln, this book is a must read.
For people with average interest, it’s way too long, too chronological, and dull.
This morning, while cooking breakfast, I was listening to the radio. A great show from the “Science Lab” (NPR) came on talking about will power, or at least that’s what I thought it was about. The people in the experiment were asked to memorize a number. Participants did not know that there were actually two categories of numbers: two-digits and seven-digits. They were given as much time as they felt they needed and told only that they would repeat the number when they got to another room down the hall.
BUT, as they would walk down the hallway a person would suddenly appear and give them the choice of a snack (as a kind of thank you for participating in the study). There were two choices: chocolate cake and a bowl of fruit salad. At a rate of almost 3 to 1 the people with two-digit numbers selected fruit salad, while those with seven digits in their head chose chocolate cake.
The researchers concluded by saying that humans have two systems inside our brain constantly competing with each other for attention: the emotional system and the rational system (not to be confused with the left lobe and right lobe). Anyways, it turns out that keeping the rational brain busy with the task of remembering all seven digits prevents is from loudly overriding the emotional brain’s desire for the rich, gooey chocolate cake. While memorizing two-digits is “a piece of cake ” (just kidding – couldn’t resist). It’s easy enough for the rational brain to remember the two digits AND enter into the “cake or fruit” debate . Participants can hear the little voice in their heads saying “think about the calories…make the healthier choice…”
Interesting. I think I just learned a down side of multi–tasking!
In a recent conversation, a long time friend and I argued about the nature of friendship. I was lobbying strongly for an organic metaphor, that relationships are like plants. One person provides the sunshine while the other provides the water. With both inputs, the plant will thrive, but without either one the plant will eventually die. The obvious analogy is that for a friendship to thrive BOTH people must pay attention to the relationship and put energy into it.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, I thought my analogy was tight. But my friend had a completely different metaphor. He said, “This “balance” translates in … what should I call them? visible tokens? To me balance is a mirage. It’s an ideal, not a real place”, he continued, “relationships (and not only human ones) progress or exist in lots of noise and confusion, sometimes in silence, even.”
He went on to say that “relationships are a chaotic algorithm (which is not to say random); the peculiarities of a particular relationship appear at its strange attractors, recursively”.
When I tried to push the organic metaphor, he said “a relationship is a system (btw: “system” doesn’t necessarily imply soulless robots), even though you cannot synthesize it in a mathematical formula. I was trying to illustrate that I don’t need a “mathematical formalization” to accept a dynamical system (i.e. a relationship) and that “mathematical formalization” is what “visible tokens” are.
(NOTE : If you are wondering what happened to reading, I’m just finishing up the A. Lincoln book. To be honest, while I’ve enjoyed it, I can’t say that there’s a lot to write about. I would truly only recommend this book for people REALLY interested in american history, and I’m not even sure I would put myself in this category. Don’t get me wrong – I’m glad I read the book. Not just sure how many people I would recommend it to. -Dana)
As my friends read their Christmas presents, a few have sent me their synopsis of the books they’ve read. Here is the first guest blog of what I hope will be many more contributions to this year’s theme – Which ideas Change us and Why?
Entry from Professor Tom:
For Christmas I received Shadow Catcher, by Charles Fergus (1993). Had never heard of it or him. The book is a novel closely based on an obscure (nowadays) event in relations between white America and the original inhabitants of this land. In 1913 a department store magnate bankrolled an “expedition” that encouraged reservation indians to seek US citizenship. That was in the context of the magnate’s plan to build a huge statue of the “vanishing indian” in NY harbor; intentionally smaller than the statue of liberty (to symbolize the presumptive smallness of indians as a “race”). Ground was actually broken on this project but it fell apart when WWI broke out – a rare positive effect of that conflagration.
Anyway, the book is about people on the expedition, which traveled the rails all over the west trying to get indians to kiss the US flag. As if that weren’t enough, the book is also about photography and the nature of photography – what photographs mean, what they tell us about people, and so on. This because a large part of the expedition was to photograph the “vanishing” indians. A book of photographs was published, still highly regarded (for the photographs, not for the politics), called “the vanishing race”.
Not for everyone, but quite interesting if you’re into US history, or photography, or larger questions about representation and interpretation. Quite a good book for thoughtful young adults.
Tom
I vote make one! It’s a new decade – think about it. Some day our grandchildren will be studying about the 2010’s, just like we studied about the “Roaring Twenties” or ” the Age of Enlightenment.,” and they’ll ask “What were you doing?” I for one hope to have something remarkable to say.
Ok, maybe that’s too much pressure. It’s much easier to take decades as they are made – one year at time. So this year, I asked some of my friends how they go about doing resolutions. Here are some of the most interesting ideas I heard.
How about you? Any cool ideas to share as we usher in this decade?
...Old habits and routines push at the door and we think we lack strength to keep them blocked from entering this new space we’ve created. When this happens, friends are the key – lean where you feel strength pushing you up, toss the ones that will ruin what you’ve created.…
Of course it’s easy to say “toss the friends who ruin us,” but anyone who has been around the block knows friends change us. Every close friend I have ever had has influenced me – helped create who I am today.
As a mother this has a lot to do with how I observe who my children pick as friends, as well as who pick them. Along with the thrill of having close friends comes the heartache of outgrowing them. Sometimes friendships are just not destined to be. I remember my aunt telling me that my cousin was developing an unhealthy friendship. Instead of forbidding it, my aunt simply made her unavailable for playdates until the fascination ran its course and both individuals stopped trying to become friends.
The question is: what is a friend? Are there any universal truths to consider as we move into the next year? I think so.
So with friends like these, can we move into the new year with slightly higher aspirations for ourselves? I think so! Next blog must be thoughts on the soul.
