Back down at my little Office in Eagle Valley.
Three weeks of highcountry winter. Lots of new
photos and texts. Now comes the hard but fun
work of sorting out and developing all the new
stuff! How much time I have to do this
depends entirely on the weather and snow
conditions. That’s because I now have a string
of camps set up, with gear and food caches, that
I need to keep an eye on. This is especially so
with climate chaos on the increase, and especially
in mountains, where the effects are amplified
by factors of 2 or 4 or more. When winter isn’t
always winter anymore, and it can rain with great
intensity up to and above 3000 m. at any moment,
even a simple snow wiki or igloo isn’t as safe
as it once was . . . .
Here’s a set of three new miniatures, just things
I’m thinking about, besides the weather:
IDEAS
Some ideas float into awareness like driftwood from
the sea; others, you sometimes need to sit on for weeks
before they hatch. Most amazing of all is the lightning
strike. Out of the blue, a new idea arrives unasked for,
fully formed, in a flash of insight. How is this possible?
The task of Philosophy is not just to see the logic
and consistency of relational webs between concepts
and theories, but also to prepare as a kind of spiritual
yoga the mind to receive new ideas.
CORRUPTION OF DISCOURSE
The ’shooting first and asking questions later’ of arguing
backwards from conclusions is not done in the name of
logic and reason, but merely as a means of strong-arming
consent or agreement. In contrast, real dialogue and discussion
always have a quality of thin, clear, air about them.
The open question is unburdened by the weight of the past,
treading lightly as it enters the unknown, following the
evidence wherever it leads.
INSURANCE
Insurance is not just the business of making money
out of what doesn’t happen. It’s also a sure sign
of the failure of community, of the common ground
of shared risk, of the ethical imperative of ameliorating
the natural and unavoidable lack of fairness in the
distribution of Fortune’s goods and privileges.