logic of difficulty

In an effort to increase productivity and spend my time left on this mortal coil wisely, I’ve been experimenting with making certain things difficult. Not good things, of course, such as ritual, spirituality, creative expression, or spending time with people whose company I enjoy; the things I’m trying to make difficult are detrimental and wasteful activities such as watching internet videos, eating when I’m not hungry, and spending more money than necessary on transportation.

To avoid getting lost down a YouTube rabbit hole, I tether my laptop to the internet via my mobile phone instead of using house WiFi. Due to the limited amount of mobile data my plan provides, watching internet videos is out of the question. When zoning out to the latest trending vidz threatens to eat into my allotment of wireless gigabytes, staying on task and hammering out the paragraphs becomes the path of less resistance.

To avoid stuffing my face between meals, I buy most of my food dry, raw, or in bulk, which means I have to prepare something before it’s ready for consumption. With the exception of the odd carrot or apple, this has allowed me to drastically cut down on spells of random munching, given that I can’t just eat one cookie after the other while standing in front of the kitchen cupboard but have to bake a batch first, from a box.

To avoid wasting time driving around out of laziness or spending money unnecessarily on a gym membership, I bicycle or walk nearly everywhere I go. Bicycling and walking, as well as a daily hatha yoga practice, sets of burpies, and regular disc-golf outings, fulfil most of my upper and lower body workout demands without monetary expenditure. (Plus, these activities contribute little to my overall carbon footprint, which I estimate to be roughly 9 tons of CO2 a year.) Since getting access to a car or a gym is difficult, I resort to the options at my ready and immediate disposal.

By making that which I want to do easy, and that which I want to avoid doing hard, I find myself living a more productive and active life than I ever did watching TV or driving around in a slave’s chariot.

americanifesto / 場黑麥 / jpr / urbanartopia / whorphan

on the logic of cleaning dishes

When I was a teenager, in 1991 or ‘92, my parents had my siblings and me do the dishes each night after dinner. Two of us three kids would wash and dry everything by hand then put it all neatly away. Just before my sister and I had finishing the chore one night, our mother came in and spoke to us, pointing out that water had collected on the counter and in the sink. “When you’re finished,” she said, “leave so few traces that that not even Sherlock Holmes could figure out what had occurred here.” We wiped away the clues, leaving the area sparkling, and spotless.

Now, nearly thirty years later, I still do my best to stick by the logic related above. When I dirty a dish or pot, I clean it up immediately. When the dishes are dry, I put them away. Used laundry goes in one place, clean clothes in another. If something is out of place or damaged, it gets fixed or discarded. In this way, my work gets done while it is still small - before it becomes a burden.

With a glance at my living quarters, a trained detective could gather lots of information about my habits and proclivities. What he would not find, however, is that I am a messy person.

americanifesto / JPR / whorphan / 場黑麥

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logic of leaving

In keeping with previous efforts to record the logic by which this whorphan lives, the following are logical steps he takes in preparation for leaving home.

Before even approaching the front portal he runs through the list of tasks he wishes to accomplish whilst out-of-doors. Once the steps necessary to accomplish the tasks at hand are clearly fixed in his mind, he gathers up the tools necessary to go about his business quickly and efficiently. These might include a laptop to use at the public library, an overnight ruck packed the night before, a pair of worn-out shoes that need cobbling, a list of groceries and the reusable shopping bag in which to carry them, a few dollars to pay for services rendered, &c.

By glancing quickly out the window he collects information about the weather and gathers up the tools needed to shield himself from it, be they umbrella and raincoat or sunshades and hat. After securing shoes to his feet he checks that cell-phone, house-key, and wallet are on his person. Steeled by one last mental run-through of the upcoming tasks, he finally opens the door and makes good his exit.

If he sticks to the above steps he can attend to his various external errands via the most efficient walking or bicycling route without doubling back to fetch some forgotten thing.

Spes mea in ratio est.

americanifesto / JPR / whorphan / 場黑

logic & meditation

Certain old teachings encourage their reader to be still inside, to seek a silence in the mind. One benefit of a quiet mind is that it tells itself fewer stories than a mind consumed with labeling and categorizing what it sees and senses around it. This is important because the human often tells herself stories in situations unusual or potentially dangerous, then tends to keep living according the rules of these stories long after the spectre of harm has passed. By repeating to herself such stories, such logic parameters, she shapes her perception of the world, which in turn shapes the world around her. Into a still mind engaged in meditation frequently blossom old and unwanted logic parameters, at which point they can be tasted of and measured before being gradually broken down and replaced with logic parameters that serve to improve the life and surroundings of the person thinking them. A person who sits quietly in the dark and the depressing thoughts is a person basking in happiness, surrendered unto a core of loving indifference. Confronting long-standing and stagnant logic parameters is a tricky business, one that requires constant vigilance and true grit, but it rarely results in outright death, wherefore I shall continue.

© JPR / whorphan / americanifesto / 場黑麥

on logic - update

For the past couple of weeks I have been exploring and tasting and trying to better understand the stories I tell myself, the logic-parameters within which I go about my daily business. Many of these logic parameters I set up around the age of five years old, in the wake of a sexual assault visited upon me by a shady, rapist neighbor. I was groped and abused then told to never tell anyone, on pain of death. Around the same time (because he apparently didn’t know, or bother to try and find out, how else to deal with the changes in my behavior) my father became psychologically abusive toward me. I was doing poorly in school; I had become overly sensitive to external stimuli (especially deep-voiced men); I was having trouble concentrating in general; and it seems that he thought that by being mean and spiteful toward me he could snap me out of it and somehow fix me. Now, almost 35 years later, I am still trying to fit the pieces of my psyche back together in the aftermath of the Big Shatter - being fed the Fruit of Forbidden Knowledge at too young an age. I gained from these traumatic childhood experiences a number of things, among them a strong empathy toward and desire to protect individuals downtrodden and weak; a nearly photographic memory of conversations and situations; a passionate dislike for and lack of fear of authority figures; the ability to make small children smile, and feel safe; the ability to detect - with a glance - sexual perversion in adult males; the ability to see beyond what the eye can usually see (such as where energies within the body are not flowing smoothly) that borders on the power to read minds. These abilities are of course counter-balanced by appropriate and equal disabilities, most of them existing in the form of the logical parameters I use to interact with the world - especially with women whom I find attractive. I have given myself until the rising of the next full moon on 14 November 2016 to explore and taste of these logical parameters so that I may start to heal myself more fully, and would like to profess my utter thanks and profound gratitude to the Lunar Goddesses of the Many Faiths who have watched over and sheltered me along this path. Mahalo, and om swastiastu.

© JPR / whorphan / americanifesto / 場黑麥

logical imprisonment - briefly

During those (hopefully infrequent) traumatic periods in life, it sometimes occurs that an individual will change the stories he tells himself, thus altering the logical parameters within which he goes about his daily business. In order to adapt to the startlingly new conditions around him, he will tend to arrive at conclusions regarding his place in the world that bear little resemblance to the conclusions he had drawn up until that point. Imprisonment, be it self-imposed or imposed by others, is one external pressure - in this author’s experience and opinion - that weighs heavily upon most logical parameters previously held, so heavily that significant adjustments will almost always be made. A person will alter his routines and expectations to fit the new world in which he lives, often jettisoning what to outsider observers might appear to be rational and sound practices in favor of more fluid decision matrixes. To minimize the pain coming into his life he will often begin to display an unhealthy obedience to the person or persons whom he has given power over his mental state, especially if his new ‘master’ has little concern for his emotional well-being. The more neglectful those above him become, the less he will take care of himself physically and mentally, thus hastening the decline of both his physical and mental health.

Many prisons in which people today live are not prisons in the traditional sense, ones composed of walls, bars, and guards. Instead, these prisons are often mental states built upon hastily erected logical parameters designed to minimize the pain and suffering caused by something like a soured business deal, a bad financial decision, a poorly-chosen spouse, or an encounter with the police. Such is the strength of the stories we humans tell ourselves that what was once known to be nonsense suddenly sounds like truth. There is no easy way out of self-imposed, mental imprisonment to an illogical external force; as with most things that cause suffering in this world, the only way out is through - via counseling, meditation, and the nurturing of an inner compassion for the self. Mahalo, and be well.

© JPR / whorphan / americanifesto / 場黑麥

on bicycling logic

Since finishing the stunning graphic novel ‘Logicomix’ by Doxiadis and Papadimitriou, et al., I have begun to delve into - so as to better understand - the types of logic I apply in my daily life. This has ranged from examining the logic of human encounters to the logic of bicycling. As the first installment of a series of articles laying out the various types of logical parameters within which I (am many others, I suppose) tend to operate, I shall provide the latter, below.
A) The bicycle is a mechanical contraption used to move one or more persons through the physical realm by means of (primarily) human muscle power.
B) The bicycle consists of these basic elements: saddle, wheels, frame, propulsion system (gears), pedals, handlebars, and brakes.
C) To use a bicycle, sit down on the seat, grab the handlebars with the hands, and start pedaling with the feet, shifting the hips side-to-side (maintaining balanced) so as to not fall over.
[Immediately upon starting to write this I began to realize the difficulties involved in trying to define the logic of even basic human endeavors.]
D) Whilst bicycling, take care not to run into things, go faster than is safe, or do something (texting, talking, taking pictures) other than paying attention to and trying to avoid obstacles that may lie ahead.
E) Persons operating motor vehicles tend to give exactly zero fucks about persons operating bicycles; in order to live a relatively long life free of major injury, avoid busy roads and high-traffic areas (also, please wear a helmet and some form of protective for the eyes).
F) Keeping one’s bicycle in proper working order is essential to having fun whilst bicycling as well as getting from point A to point B quickly and without unforeseen and frustrating repair-related delays.
G) Sitting up straight whilst bicycling, with a straight back and the head resting comfortably atop the spine, opens the chest for easy breathing and allows the head to pivot easily from left to right (hence the phrase ‘keep your head on a swivel’) so that the cyclist (this is what someone who rides a bicycle is called) can quickly gather scraps information about what is behind himself using peripheral vision (i.e. without turning his head completely around and taking his eyes off of the road ahead).
H) Wherever the eyes looks or the head turns, that is where the bicycle will go. Keep the eyes and head pointed forward in order to ride in as straight a line as possible.
I) If forced to ride upon a street also frequented by motor vehicles, stay close to the curb unless circumstances (parked cars, open manholes, or similar obstacles) force you away from the curb, in which case it is 100% acceptable to take up the entire lane and cause a brief traffic-jam.
J) Persons operating motor vehicles will scream obscenities, yell curses, shake their fists, and even try to physically injure or kill a cyclist whom they feel caused them even the slightest delay upon their route. As with most such situations, the best response to anger is joyful compassion, since at the root of all anger lies a deep, inner sadness.

The above are but a few of the most important logical parameters related to bicycle riding. Please stay tuned for more articles concerned with the logical parameters related to activities such as dating, polite conversation, child rearing, &c.

© JPR / whorphan / americanifesto / 場黑麥