Stany Foucher recently wrote a book, Art du Déplacement: Au delà du saut. I’ve been working on translating it for my own reading. I can read the French language at an “advanced beginner” level. From the epub version of the book (which I printed so I can write on it), I’m working in a notebook… writing things out longhand is part of the learning process. I don’t simply want to read this book, but rather I want to apprehend this book.
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A while back I found this large essay about questions. I’ve been reading it repeatedly and found a number of interesting points (which will go on to become seeds for posts to Open + Curious.)
And questions are a tool you can use for that, as long as you’re able to hold them without immediately asking them (which shifts your focus onto answers). Leave the question in your mind as a thing to be figured out by your mind’s further interactions with the world.
~ Malcolm Ocean from, Questions Are Not Just For Asking
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It struck me that the sense of wonder that I sometimes experience in a conversation may actually be exactly the same sense of wonder from childhood. Everything is possibility. Everywhere there is opportunity for learning. Everyone brings perspectives. All of which invites further interactions.
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Constant idleness should be included in the tortures of hell, but it is, on the contrary, considered to be one of the joys of paradise.
~ Charles de Montesquieu
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But the deeper reason is that there’s really no such thing as a natural resource. All resources are artificial. They are a product of technology. And economic growth is ultimately driven, not by material resources, but by ideas.
~ Jason Crawford from Can Economic Growth Continue Over the Long-term?
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A few years ago my thinking shifted. I used to think of something, simply by its existence, as being a “natural resource.” More recently I’ve begun to pay attention to which, and how much, technology has to be added for something to be a resource. Anything in the ground has no special value until someone adds the mining or drilling, the refinement, distribution and so on. That makes it clearer how to evaluate the trade-offs.
It becomes easier to visualize, and realize, that the constraints are not the amount of the natural resource (the raw stuff) but rather that the limits are all the expense, destruction, energy, transformation, and ideas that have to go into making that raw stuff usable. And sometimes, it’s just not the right trade-off to make a something into something useable.
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New thing: You can now receive a daily quote by email from my Little Box of Quotes.
While this weekly email includes the quotes as I add them to the collection, the daily email is a random choice from the entire set of ~1,500.
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Just as nature takes every obstacle, every impediment, and works around it—turns it to its purposes, incorporates it into itself—so, too, a rational being can turn each setback into raw material and use it achieve its goal.
~ Marcus Aurelius
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You must understand fear so you can manipulate it. Fear is like fire. You can make it work for you: It can warm you in winter, cook your food when you’re hungry, give you light when you’re in the dark, and produce energy. Let it go out of control and it can hurt you, even kill you… Fear is a friend of exceptional people.
~ Cus D’Amato
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What impact does practicing Parkour have on personal transformation and navigating the challenges of motherhood?
Teresa Vazquez-Dodero describes the changes and sacrifices of motherhood, both in body and mind. She explains her initial experiences with parkour, how the community drew her in, and her views on defying stereotypes in parkour. Teresa discusses her unique perspective of risk, her studies in multiculturalism, and finishes by sharing the benefits of parkour for all ages.
I would describe this relationship as the most liberating body— or relationship with my body and relationship with my environment that I’ve ever had in any sports situation.
~ Teresa Vazquez-Dodero (1:14)
The conversation explores the transformative effect Parkour has on physical and mental well-being, particularly through the lens of motherhood. It highlights the dramatic changes and sacrifices involved in raising twins and the physical challenges that accompany it. Through Parkour, Teresa discovers a liberating relationship with her body, which contrasts starkly with her previous struggles after pregnancy. She emphasizes how Parkour reconnects her with movement, allowing her to reclaim aspects of herself that were sidelined during motherhood.
Another focus is on breaking societal norms and defying stereotypes, particularly those surrounding age, gender, and motherhood. Teresa reflects on her initial fears of not fitting into the Parkour community but ultimately finds acceptance and encouragement. Her insights extend to broader topics such as risk perception, personal responsibility in maintaining physical health, and the importance of continuous movement. She draws parallels between movement, personal growth, and larger societal observations derived from her academic background in multiculturalism and race studies.
Takeaways
Parkour and self-liberation — Parkour provides a liberating relationship with the body and environment, fostering freedom beyond structured gym environments.
Motherhood and physical transformation — Pregnancy, particularly with twins, significantly alters the body and challenges personal movement, leading to a long recovery process.
Reclaiming identity — Parkour helps reclaim aspects of personal identity that are sidelined during the demands of motherhood.
Risk and societal perceptions — Risk in Parkour is often perceived differently from within the practice, where the emphasis is on maintaining health and preventing long-term issues.
Age and movement — Parkour offers a pathway to sustaining movement and health as individuals age, challenging norms that equate aging with physical decline.
Community and inclusivity — The Parkour community welcomes diverse participants, valuing different perspectives and experiences regardless of age or background.
Resilience through adversity — Parkour serves as a metaphor for overcoming life’s challenges and rebuilding physical and mental strength post-adversity.
Cultural insights and race studies — Teresa draws connections between movement practices and her academic studies, highlighting broader societal patterns and introspective analysis.
Resources
Parkour Generations — A resource for Parkour classes and training, referenced as the community that supported Teresa’s Parkour journey.
Smith College — Teresa’s alma mater, where she studied literature, multiculturalism, and race studies.
(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)
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A political victory, a rise in rents, the recovery of your sick, or return of your absent friend, or some other quite external event, raises your spirits, and you think good days are preparing for you. Do not believe it. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace by the triumph of principles.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The first 90% of a project is a lot easier than the second 90%.
~ Tim Sweeney
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Wherever your life has locked you in, wherever force has failed you, put down the hammer: pick up the crowbar.
~ Bryan Ward
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The agent of our immunological misery is the disappearance of something we co-evolved with in a mutually beneficial relationships: microbes and parasites that have lived inside our bodies for millennia.
This new hypothesis is brilliantly summarized in a recent book by Moises Velasquez-Manoff: An Epidemic of Absence: A New Way of Understanding Allergies and Autoimmune Disease.
~ Todd Becker from, What causes allergies and autoimmune disease?
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This model “works” fairly well, as long as the economy is growing fast enough–population continues to grow and resource extraction continues to grow as planned. In a finite world, we know that this model cannot work forever. At some point, we can expect to start reaching limits.
What do these limits look like? I would argue that in the case of resource extraction, these limits look like increasingly high cost of extraction.
~ Gail Tverberg from, Oil Limits Reduce GDP Growth; Unwinding QE a Problem
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You should also read “Quantitative Easing (QE)” (the first three, short paragraphs on WikiPedia summarize it neatly.)
My opinion: We need to start seriously talking about a STEADY STATE ECONOMY. What would that look like? How would it work? How do we get to that? Seriously. We simply CANNOT have a growing and expanding economy forever on a finite planet with finite room and finite resources. What part of “finite” don’t you understand?
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