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A fortuneteller in Singapore told Vince Poscente when he was young that he would die at forty – and he believed him. He says: “I worried that I might only have a few years to do all of the living I wanted to do, so I developed a peculiar and profound need to do everything fast. On the other hand, the same prophecy convinced me that I could not possibly die before forty – and that led me to do what any immortal would: I went skydiving. I went gliding. I flew a sailplane. And then, when I was twenty-three, I indulged in a sport that I recommend to everyone – luge. Racing down an icy slope on your back on a minimal sleigh at speeds faster than seventy miles per hour. Does it get any better than that?”
He competed in the Olympics in that sport, and reached the gold medal round, though he didn’t win any medal. He then took to lecturing on his experience as a way to improve performance in any line in life, and wrote a book, “The Age of Speed” (Bard Press, Austin, Texas 2007). Some quotations.
“My daughter Alex had a hard time learning how to ride a bicycle. She insisted on doing it by herself, and the process was a long one with an impressive number of skinned knees. But I remember the day she finally had a breakthrough.
She was taking it slow so she wouldn’t crash and get hurt once again, but she couldn’t seem to keep her balance. The bike’s wheels wobbled and she swerved wildly to keep herself upright as she tilted first left, then right. I saw her starting to fall, and I tensed, ready to run to her rescue. Then, in a last-ditch effort to stay upright, she started pedalling faster.
Suddenly the bike was moving in a straight line, no more crazy swerves or wobbles. As soon as Alex sped up, everything got a lot simpler. She got into a rhythm, keeping a fast, steady pace. She easily avoided a rock in her path, and cruised down the sidewalk as if she’d been riding for years. Speed helped stabilise the bike.” (p. 85)
That is the point of the parable. Too slow, you fall; too fast, you crash. Find your speed in life.
Another quotation:
“When I was a teenager, I camped out for tickets to see the Eagles in concert and stood in line for six hours. When I heard the first chord of ‘Hotel California’, all the anticipation that had been building since the moment I got into that line culminated in a thrilling experience. I’m sure I would have enjoyed the opening song even if I hadn’t stood in line for so long, but the anticipation contributed to the pleasure I felt. In this scenario, if I had sped up the time it took to acquire the tickets, I would have compromised the value of anticipation, so it was probably better not to pursue speed in that particular situation. Each activity has its own speed.” (51) |
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There is an instructive story by Frank Kafka, “The Silence of the Mermaids” which I sum up here:
“Ulysses stopped his ears with wax and had himself tied down to the mast to protect himself from the irresistible pull of the mermaids’ song over the rocks next to which his boat had to pass. But the mermaids had a weapon much more powerful than their song: their silence. A sailor may have sometime escaped their song, but nobody ever had escaped their silence. That is why the powerful seductresses did not sing when Ulysses came near them. Ulysses did not sense their silence, as he thought they were singing and he couldn’t hear them as his ears were stopped. So he escaped their song, as they did not sing, and their silence, as he thought they were singing.
I add a commentary to the story. Ulysses is said to have been cunning as a fox, so much so that the Goddess of Fate never got to know what he had in his heart. It is possible that Ulysses did realise the mermaids were keeping quiet, and he played the fool before them and before the gods, just to protect himself, let us say.”
(Norma, Buenos Aires 2006, p. 63)
To which I add my own commentary. Kafka is right in one point and wrong in another. He is right in saying that silence is more powerful than words, than melodies, than ideas. It is more attractive, enticing, seductive. This is a useful lesson for life, whether in order to seduce or to be – or not to be – seduced. Silence works better than words.
But Kafka made a mistake in his quotation from Homer. According to Homer, Ulysses stopped his sailors’ ears with wax so that they could keep on rowing when passing near the mermaids without swerving, and he asked them to tie him to the mast so that he would not move even when attracted by the song; but he did not stop his own ears, and kept them wide open precisely because he wanted to hear the mermaids’ song. If he had stopped his ears there would have been no need to tie him as he did not tie his sailors. He wanted to hear everything and see everything without danger while he kept directing the ship in her course. He did hear the mermaids’ song, was shaken, enthralled, seduced…, he strove to get free and to run and throw himself into their embrace…, but the ropes kept him tied to the mast, the boat kept her course, the danger was over, Ulysses stopped wriggling, his sailors untied him, they removed the wax from their own ears, and the voyage went on with one more episode for Ulysses to tell. And for Kafka to comment upon.
And for me and my further comment. One has to read the classics carefully in order to be able to quote them properly. Ulysses did not stop his ears. Kafka did not read Homer with care. Sorry, genius. |
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The father instructed his son: “Go out in search of the Truth Stone. Walk far, brace dangers, take time, but come back to your people and your family with the Truth Stone. Go now, and may God be with you in your search.”
The lad parted, walked for days on end without talking to anybody, crossed country after country without stopping, reached the sea, and there he asked the inhabitants of that last country to tell him where he could find the Truth Stone. They told him they all had Truth Stones there, and they gave him one of them. He kept it gratefully and carefully, and started on his way back.
When passing through another country on his way back, he stopped to talk with the people there, they asked him the reason for his journey, he answered he had come in search of the Truth Stone, had obtained it, and showed it to all. They laughed and told him that that was not the true stone, that the true stones were in their possession, and they gave him one of them. He kept it gratefully and carefully, kept also the first stone just in case, and went on his way.
The same thing happened to him in the next country, and in the next, and in the next. In every country he crossed on his way back, they gave him a new stone, always the true one. He kept them all, reached his father’s house, told him his tale, and showed him his collection of stones.
His father told him: “Now you know how the Truth Stone has led you to the truth. It is telling you that the people of each country believe they are the only ones that possess the true stone, and that all the others are false. Appreciate and keep what you have received in your people and in your family, and respect and understand what all the others have learnt in theirs. And keep all those stones carefully to remind you. This teaching did deserve that journey.”
The lad kept all the stones with care. |
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“God gives every bird its food, but He doesn’t throw it in the nest.” (Joshua Holland)
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