For each person there is a sentence – a series of words – which has the power to destroy them.
~ Philip K. Dick
slip:4a304.
The power to destroy →
Virtuous. Wise. Bold. →
The way of a superior man is three-fold: Virtuous, he is free from anxieties; Wise, he is free from perplexities; Bold, he is free from fear.
~ Confucius
slip:4a186.
Insist upon it →
People universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you are fortunate enough. But that’s not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it.
~ Elizabeth Gilbert
slip:4a145.
Ready servant of his mind →
A man is one whose body has been trained to be the ready servant of his mind; Whose passions are trained to be the servants of his will; Who enjoys the beautiful, loves truth, hates wrong, loves to do good, and respects others as himself.
~ John Ruskin
slip:4a55.
Hit it harder →
At the end, when your legs are tired
~ unknown
and your arms are giving out,
GET ANGRY.
Get angry that you are tired.
THEN HIT IT HARDER.
slip:4a109.
Two questions →
There are two questions a man must ask himself: The first is, “Where am I going?” and the second is, “Who will go with me?” If you ever get these questions in the wrong order you are in trouble.
~ Sam Keen
slip:4a187.
DD-882 →
USS Furse (DD-882/DDR-882) was a Gearing-class destroyer of the United States Navy, named for Lieutenant John H. Furse USN (1886–1907).
My father served aboard as a fire control technician (as in “gun fire”); He operated a radar tracking and guidance system which controlled the targeting of the ships guns. At other times (I believe “special sea and anchor detail” being the correct parlance) he was tasked as a “phone talker” which generally entailed following a half step behind the officer of the deck (i.e., the officer commanding the ship at any given moment) and relaying communications through a microphone and headset he was wearing. (So if the Captain wants to single up all lines, he can simply say, “fo’c’s’le, bridge, single up.” and the ever-present, invisible sailer repeats it into the phones.)
Anyway. Here is a small collection of photos my father took of USS Furse.
Some of my readers are salty dogs, and will wonder how a sailor took photos of his own ship under way. During a Mediterranean cruise, Furse exchanged some sailors with a French destroyer during joint maneuvers.
ɕ
What is a man? →
What is a man?
~ Paul Anka
What has he got?
If not himself,
then he has naught.
slip:4a110.
Visceral →
My suspicion is that, in our convenient society, we don’t need to be acutely aware of our balance and body positions vis a vis the ground because many of us don’t do much physical labor anymore, or play freely as kids outdoors now that we have so many enticing computer games to entertain us.
~ Wayne Muromoto from, 90. The base: close to the ground – The Classic Budoka
slip:4uwote2.
More than a year ago, I wrote that parkour is about freedom (and much more.) There is also a visceral component that I’m finding is playing a greater and greater role.
Visceral, adj. characterized by, or proceeding from, instinct rather than intellect: a visceral reaction; characterized by, or dealing with, coarse or base emotions.
When you treat your body like a Cadillac meat vehicle – that is, when it’s just a mode of conveyance from one creature-comfort to the next – you soon cease to be intimately aware of what your body is feeling. A large part of the allure of parkour is the immediate and clear, honesty and reality of the experience of training. It’s obvious that your body and mind are not readily separable, but in normal daily life, one mostly ignores the body. In parkour, the body and mind have to work in harmony.
I have a lot more to say about this harmony (my personal interpretation, and explanation, thereof.) But for the moment, I’m just going to start with the above.
ɕ
Victorious effort →
We do not admire the man of timid peace. We admire the man who embodies victorious effort; the man who never wrongs his neighbor, who is prompt to help a friend, but who has those virile qualities necessary to win in the stern strife of actual life.
~ Theodore Roosevelt
slip:4a11.