Good morning,
how well did you sleep?
I am on a routine, movement, aikido, H.M., TWA thought stream.
//interlace FB.previous post.
The whole stream began when I was reading The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor.
//great, dense, cogent infoQuant; http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/ ;I've praised it again//
Yesterday, the poem spoke about daily routines! The days do come, don't they Phillip Larkin? And we live them as best we can with and without the advice of doctors and priest. And today? The days become the seasons in passing, personal movements, demarcation of a visceral kind. These are ordinary daily task we do; yet, they change slightly as the seasons change, don't they, I ask Thom Tammaro?
I get up and drink my morning coffee as in everyday, but the air is getting cool and I must put on my robe. Soon, I will have to again turn on the heater and listen to the water gurgle through the pipes. And then? These movements and routine in this room that formed my life for the last year and a half will be over. Probably it will also bookend my movements and routines in Germany. It makes me sad, but I can't help but think these things. Life moves and I must move with it and I am left only memories. Ah.
Memories, there it is. The association, associative thinking. TWA did it to me! The post mentioned Phineas Gage, a popular lure for potential neuroscientist!
//http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage ; he was born in Lebanon.personal connection!//
But his name brought to my mind my own favorite lore, HM.
//http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Molaison ; surgeons.our mistakes offer much lessons.//
Henry couldn't remember. I think this is where the idea for the movie Mementos came from. It makes for a fascinating, humanizing, and effective way to learn and remember neuroscience. Ha! Irony? The interesting fact was that his procedural memory was left intact, but he could not form new episodic memory.
//http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episodic_memory
Why do I bring this up? Isn't this what Aikido training is all about. And traditional sword play? You train daily. This daily training shapes two forms of memory, the explicit and the implicit; the declarative and non-declarative. At an explicit level, I can see the movements, and rationalize why they work as a self-defensive. I know that people say it is also a form of spiritual training, but do you see? The only way to the spiritual insight is to do the daily movement. You can't write down Ueshiba's spirit. If you listen to him talk about these things, or read what he has written, it just sounds like nonsense. I think that is because he is trying to explain non-declarative memories and experiences in an explicit way! You just can't do this! The only way is daily, through the training, the movement, correctly honed by the spirit of Ueshiba and all the other sensei who moved before. They thought about the movements and then trained some more to "feel" if the movement fits into the learned movement, and how the new movements interact with ancestral movements. And how do you keep these non-declarative memories true because we all have ways of changing of memories to fit our current situation, our current movements. In the case of Aikido, the test is violence. If the spirit of Aikido, if the summation of past non-declarative memory sessions, if the expression of these learned memories doesn't neutralize violence, then you've lost Ueshiba's spirit. (This way of learning is also a great way to recruit another behavioral system that still functions under stress, that isn't coupled to the fear-and-flight circuitry. Maybe that is how we break out of these ancestral movements that are non-productive in the modern world.)
OK. That is enough explicit doodling for today.
I must move, but what shapes these movements now? When the "routine" and movements were with someone else, they are different. Now I move in solitary motion again. How is modern life shaping our daily movements? We are changing that ancestral spirit aren't we? Changing the group procedural memory. What is the force that keeps us true to that spirit. What part of the procedural past do we what to keep? Is technology a form of violence? What are the circular movements to humanize this violence? How do we enter, deeply into this encounter so that we can move with it and not fight with it? If the movement doesn't neutralize this "violence" in a productive way, then it is the wrong procedure!
I will try to move some more and get back to you.
I extend my hand. Shall we shake hands or shall we perform ikkyo?
(full disclosure: I haven't trained in Aikido in over five years! My excuse. I have been experimenting with other daily movements in an attempt to blend with technology)
Peace.
how well did you sleep?
I am on a routine, movement, aikido, H.M., TWA thought stream.
//interlace FB.previous post.
The whole stream began when I was reading The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor.
//great, dense, cogent infoQuant; http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/ ;I've praised it again//
Yesterday, the poem spoke about daily routines! The days do come, don't they Phillip Larkin? And we live them as best we can with and without the advice of doctors and priest. And today? The days become the seasons in passing, personal movements, demarcation of a visceral kind. These are ordinary daily task we do; yet, they change slightly as the seasons change, don't they, I ask Thom Tammaro?
I get up and drink my morning coffee as in everyday, but the air is getting cool and I must put on my robe. Soon, I will have to again turn on the heater and listen to the water gurgle through the pipes. And then? These movements and routine in this room that formed my life for the last year and a half will be over. Probably it will also bookend my movements and routines in Germany. It makes me sad, but I can't help but think these things. Life moves and I must move with it and I am left only memories. Ah.
Memories, there it is. The association, associative thinking. TWA did it to me! The post mentioned Phineas Gage, a popular lure for potential neuroscientist!
//http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage ; he was born in Lebanon.personal connection!//
But his name brought to my mind my own favorite lore, HM.
//http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Molaison ; surgeons.our mistakes offer much lessons.//
Henry couldn't remember. I think this is where the idea for the movie Mementos came from. It makes for a fascinating, humanizing, and effective way to learn and remember neuroscience. Ha! Irony? The interesting fact was that his procedural memory was left intact, but he could not form new episodic memory.
//http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episodic_memory
Why do I bring this up? Isn't this what Aikido training is all about. And traditional sword play? You train daily. This daily training shapes two forms of memory, the explicit and the implicit; the declarative and non-declarative. At an explicit level, I can see the movements, and rationalize why they work as a self-defensive. I know that people say it is also a form of spiritual training, but do you see? The only way to the spiritual insight is to do the daily movement. You can't write down Ueshiba's spirit. If you listen to him talk about these things, or read what he has written, it just sounds like nonsense. I think that is because he is trying to explain non-declarative memories and experiences in an explicit way! You just can't do this! The only way is daily, through the training, the movement, correctly honed by the spirit of Ueshiba and all the other sensei who moved before. They thought about the movements and then trained some more to "feel" if the movement fits into the learned movement, and how the new movements interact with ancestral movements. And how do you keep these non-declarative memories true because we all have ways of changing of memories to fit our current situation, our current movements. In the case of Aikido, the test is violence. If the spirit of Aikido, if the summation of past non-declarative memory sessions, if the expression of these learned memories doesn't neutralize violence, then you've lost Ueshiba's spirit. (This way of learning is also a great way to recruit another behavioral system that still functions under stress, that isn't coupled to the fear-and-flight circuitry. Maybe that is how we break out of these ancestral movements that are non-productive in the modern world.)
OK. That is enough explicit doodling for today.
I must move, but what shapes these movements now? When the "routine" and movements were with someone else, they are different. Now I move in solitary motion again. How is modern life shaping our daily movements? We are changing that ancestral spirit aren't we? Changing the group procedural memory. What is the force that keeps us true to that spirit. What part of the procedural past do we what to keep? Is technology a form of violence? What are the circular movements to humanize this violence? How do we enter, deeply into this encounter so that we can move with it and not fight with it? If the movement doesn't neutralize this "violence" in a productive way, then it is the wrong procedure!
I will try to move some more and get back to you.
I extend my hand. Shall we shake hands or shall we perform ikkyo?
(full disclosure: I haven't trained in Aikido in over five years! My excuse. I have been experimenting with other daily movements in an attempt to blend with technology)
Peace.
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