Good take by Brook Wilensky-Lanford on the brave and charismatic Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl.  Brook writes:

In 1977, Heyerdahl built the Tigris out of marsh reeds grown in southern Iraq, following the drawings of the ancient Sumerians. Heyerdahl believed he was going “all the way back” to human origins, which is why he began his voyage in a place traditionally associated with the Garden of Eden. The unusual craft he called the “floating haystack” made it through the Persian Gulf and out to the Indian Ocean, and almost to Egypt. But not quite: Heyerdahl and his crew were stopped at Djibouti. The surprisingly seaworthy haystack could have continued, but its human occupants were in danger: neighboring North and South Yemen were blowing each other up—one with Soviet weapons, one with American weapons. Frustrated in his attempt to prove that the world’s earliest people had been seagoing, cooperative, and peaceful, Heyerdahl wrote a letter of protest to the Secretary General of the United Nations:

“Surrounded by military aeroplanes and warships from the world’s most civilized and developed nations we are denied permission [to land the ship] … We are all irresponsible unless we demand from the responsible decision makers that modern armaments must no longer be made available to the people whose former battle axes and swords our ancestors condemned.”

– The Tigris Expedition: In Search of Our Beginnings

Then he set fire to the Tigris, in hopes of drawing attention to the cause of disarmament. Sadly, it didn’t work.

A man who understood proof-of-concept.  There’s only one road to peace: live it. 

[Image: Thor Heyerdahl]

This image has a sense of musicality.  All abstract concepts do.  Rhythm and harmony made material.  It works because it’s our primary way - the first way - of integrating with the world, even if the ear is often usurped by the eye. 

Indeed, it is generally understood that there is no seeing at all for the first few weeks, even though there is some response to light.  It, then, stands to reason that the function of hearing is prior to seeing in each and every individual, just as it is prior in evolutionary structures.

- Moshe Feldenkrais

[Image: Marc Chagall, King David]

The secrets of the universe are almost entirely invisible. 

When NASA was trying to break the earth’s hold and first send a man to the moon, money was flush but lightweight materials were not.  The more scientific instruments and rocket support, the more weight.  The more weight, the more difficult it was to launch a rocket to the moon.  Lightness was the most scarce resource, not money. 

Lightness is a scarce resource for most of us.  Our past is our weight, the invisible shackles that prevent us from launching into the future.

Our secret obstructions are almost entirely invisible.

~ü

Image: [Night in Black and Gold, The Falling Rocket by James Whistler, 1874-1875]

The cloud is fed by the lake.  The lake is replenished by the cloud.

In 2009 Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov promised a winter without snow by seeding the clouds.  Mankind’s only hope is that their unnatural tampering always comes up short.  And that nature, and the truth, always conquer.

Otherwise we will become something we cannot imagine.

~ü

Image: [Odilon Redon: Je Vis Dessus le Contour Vaporeux d’une Forme Humaine, 1896]

My Kid Could Do That.

One of my favorite artists is Mark Rothko.  Many reject his work thinking that they’re missing some genius, or offended that others see something in his work that they don’t.  I don’t look for genius because genuine genius is a rare commodity that is only understood in hindsight and reflection.  The beauty of Rothko’s work is, of course, it’s simplicity. 

On a related note, a professor of mine reflected on why he didn’t invent Facebook - or Twitter.  These are relatively simple applications in the scheme of what is actually complex in computer science.  The most difficult problem they deal with is volume, not invention or complexity.  He writes:

Four or five years ago, my best buddy on campus and I were having lunch at our favorite Chinese buffet. He looked up between bites of General Tsao’s and asked, “Why didn’t you and I sit down five years ago and write Facebook?”

You see, he is an awesome programmer and has worked with me enough to know that I do all right myself. At various times, both of us have implemented bits and pieces of the technology that makes up Facebook. It doesn’t look like all that big a deal.

I answered, “Because we didn’t think of it.”

…

We had the technical skills we needed to write Facebook. We just didn’t have the idea of Facebook. Turns out, that matters.

Wallingford continues:

…a key point that many people miss when they think about the success and achievement of things like Facebook and Twitter and Napster: The real story is not the invention.

The real story with Rothko is not the painting.  It’s what happens with the painting when it is placed in a museum, in front of people at a specific place in the world, at a specific time.

On the same note, Facebook’s achievement is not the complexity of the invention or the technological achievement.  It is its place in the world and its adoption. 

~ü

In a previous post I wrote about King Louis XVI, the pious king who unwittingly ushered in the first Republic of France.  He purportedly offered that his blood may be able to cement the happiness of the French as he stood at the gallows.  After his head rolled, the French citizens dipped handkerchiefs in the pool of blood as a memento of the last king.

Those gruesome handkerchiefs are now long gone but his blood may still be contained within this gourd.  Scientists are one genetic test away from confirming the gourd’s authenticity.  They already know that the blood is from a unique genetic pool. 

The king had an uncommon perspective on his death.  He was raised and repeatedly told of his significance.  As a king, he was surrounded by constituents the believed him to be the most important man in the world.  Yet through his faith he was able to ascertain that his place in the universe was much different - almost insignificant.  Understanding that in some small way his execution was a sacrifice for a greater good took a man of remarkable insight that far exceeded those who served him. 

As written previously, his reputation was not that of a great ruler but a coward.  I content that the blood within this gourd symbolizes a gateway away from tyranny and a step towards democracy.  In that way he certainly did cement the happiness of a great many Frenchmen and other free people around the world.

~ü

The Silent King - Louis XVI

Louis XVI is a king mostly remembered as a coward.  As weak.  Slow.  The tyrant that rolled over.  His execution helped abolish absolute monarchy and usher in a new republic of France.  It was instrumental in the path towards representational government in the West.  In a sense, he’s a martyr for peace.  He is not celebrated as such. 

This purportedly pious king said upon arriving at the gallows for his execution: “I wish that my blood may be able to cement the happiness of the French.”  In a written letter to his son, he him to forgive everyone who caused harm to the family.  If true, this is a remarkable sentiment of forgiveness - mostly interpreted as a weakness.

Maybe it is this way because it is not his action but rather his inaction that sealed his fate.  Yet he is an essential cog in the machine of human history.  Not because of his birthright but due to his character.  In reality, anybody we may judge as a poor character is still essential to something.  Even those whom embody laziness or ineptitude.  They are part of the composite of who we are today as a species.  They are also a reflection of what we are not happy with within ourselves. 

This is why I make films about ordinary people and ordinary things.  They are fascinating.  Paradoxically, the most remarkable aspect of Louis XVI’s reign is how ordinary he was.  He was no leader, not fit to be king.  He was a simple man born into the wrong place at the wrong time.

~ Schmüdde