"Cateva consecinte a 4 incapacitati."
"Some consequences of 4 incapacities."
de / by Charles S. Peirce
1. Nu avem putere de introspectie, dar orice cunoastere a lumii exterioare deriva din rationamante ipotetice.
1. We have no power of Introspection, but all knowledge of the internal world is derived by hypothetical reasoning from our knowledge of external facts.
2. Nu avem putere de intuitie, ci orice cunoastere e determinata de cunostiinte anterioare.
2. We have no power of Intuition, but every cognition is determined logically by previous cognitions.
3. Nu avem putere de gandire fara semne.
3. We have no power of thinking without signs.
4. Nu avem nicio conceptie despre ceea ce este absolut incognoscibil.
4. We have no conception of the absolutely incognizable.
A more in depth view of this topic on this site dedicated to Peirce and his lifetime research.
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Questioning the question itself would be an answer if an answer could really exist without the question.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
From cellular to social intimologies
I read this article today on the Gnoxic Blog - although I tried to write a short description of this article or an intro ... it just might be better for you to read it and make your own conclusions... .
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
It's now the middle of winter, but the buds are already there which will start to grow in the spring. How do they know when to start growing? All multicellular organisms grow until they reach maturity: how do their cells know when to stop reproducing?
This is the kind of question addressed by Werner R. Loewenstein in The Touchstone of Life: Molecular Information, Cell Communication and the Foundations of Life. It's a cause for celebration when a specialist like Loewenstein can present the gist of a lifetime's research to a general audience as he does here. I've been taking it in small doses (a few pages per day), and i don't expect to retain many of the details—and anyway, in a field moving as fast as this one, the details are subject to change. But some central principles persist, and some of those coincide with basic themes of my work in progress, Turning Words.
Turning Words is about guidance systems, and Loewenstein's book reaffirms that living beings are self-guiding systems, perfused at every level with what he calls cybernetic loops. These loops are the keys to self-organizing and self-regulating processes, and Loewenstein shows in some detail how they work at the cellular level. I think it's worthwhile to investigate whether they also work at higher levels, in the psychological and social domains.
Cell populations, or (on a larger scale) organs of a body, do not regulate themselves by electing a legislature, still less by recognizing the authority of a monarch. They don't obey any central command hierarchy; instead, they self-regulate by means of cybernetic loops. The signals meaningful to them arise among themselves, almost anywhere, and propagate by intercellular communication.
Here's where the coincidence comes in: i'm also reading presently Paul Hawken's recent book, Blessed Unrest. Hawken describes the rise of a new kind of social ‘movement’, one which promotes social and environmental justice without relying on charismatic leadership, central command structures or ideological consensus. This movement is totally decentralized, and yet can act with great singleness of purpose and power when circumstances make this possible, because each ‘cell’ in the movement is organically in touch with many others.
A sure sign of maturity in any organism is that it stops growing. The growth process is self-regulating; the breakdown of growth control is the disease we call cancer. The corporate structures which currently dominate the political economy of our planet are addicted to ‘growth’ as measured by the movement of money and assets. In organic terms, they are dedicated to prolonging the stage of immaturity, and that is why they afflict the planetary ecosystem just as cancer afflicts an individual body. (The corporate connection with cancer is not only analogical but causal as well, by the way: most of the known carcinogens in the environment are of corporate origin.)
All of this suggests that what humanity needs in order to wake from the long corporate-industrial-consumer trance is a decentralized communication network, which will clue us in to our common interests in the same way that a body knows that it's time to stop growing. This way the human race might just have a chance to reach maturity.
Via GNOXIC blog
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
It's now the middle of winter, but the buds are already there which will start to grow in the spring. How do they know when to start growing? All multicellular organisms grow until they reach maturity: how do their cells know when to stop reproducing?
This is the kind of question addressed by Werner R. Loewenstein in The Touchstone of Life: Molecular Information, Cell Communication and the Foundations of Life. It's a cause for celebration when a specialist like Loewenstein can present the gist of a lifetime's research to a general audience as he does here. I've been taking it in small doses (a few pages per day), and i don't expect to retain many of the details—and anyway, in a field moving as fast as this one, the details are subject to change. But some central principles persist, and some of those coincide with basic themes of my work in progress, Turning Words.
Turning Words is about guidance systems, and Loewenstein's book reaffirms that living beings are self-guiding systems, perfused at every level with what he calls cybernetic loops. These loops are the keys to self-organizing and self-regulating processes, and Loewenstein shows in some detail how they work at the cellular level. I think it's worthwhile to investigate whether they also work at higher levels, in the psychological and social domains.
Cell populations, or (on a larger scale) organs of a body, do not regulate themselves by electing a legislature, still less by recognizing the authority of a monarch. They don't obey any central command hierarchy; instead, they self-regulate by means of cybernetic loops. The signals meaningful to them arise among themselves, almost anywhere, and propagate by intercellular communication.
Here's where the coincidence comes in: i'm also reading presently Paul Hawken's recent book, Blessed Unrest. Hawken describes the rise of a new kind of social ‘movement’, one which promotes social and environmental justice without relying on charismatic leadership, central command structures or ideological consensus. This movement is totally decentralized, and yet can act with great singleness of purpose and power when circumstances make this possible, because each ‘cell’ in the movement is organically in touch with many others.
A sure sign of maturity in any organism is that it stops growing. The growth process is self-regulating; the breakdown of growth control is the disease we call cancer. The corporate structures which currently dominate the political economy of our planet are addicted to ‘growth’ as measured by the movement of money and assets. In organic terms, they are dedicated to prolonging the stage of immaturity, and that is why they afflict the planetary ecosystem just as cancer afflicts an individual body. (The corporate connection with cancer is not only analogical but causal as well, by the way: most of the known carcinogens in the environment are of corporate origin.)
All of this suggests that what humanity needs in order to wake from the long corporate-industrial-consumer trance is a decentralized communication network, which will clue us in to our common interests in the same way that a body knows that it's time to stop growing. This way the human race might just have a chance to reach maturity.
Via GNOXIC blog
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Writing letters...
This is actually an excerpt of a letter I wrote to someone about the fact of writing letters and what it means for me, re-discovering it after (sorry to say) almost 18 years when I wrote an I-love-you-letter as a secret admirer and never received any response from the girl of my [then]dreams.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -( the original of the following message was written on real paper with real ink-pen, keeping all the errors and corrections on the same page ) - - - - - - - - - -
Writing letters...
it's almost a dying habbit being replaced with nicely designed outlook templates or even worse - the functional look of webmails and Yahoo!Emoticons. It's almost as having your true identity hidden even from yourself, forgetting who you really are, replacing the Nerve and the Instant with predefined "eror" correcting automatisations. Not to sound like a conspiracy lunatic against humanity as we know it today, I really do want to sound happy because This is how I feel right now after I could give (in (real)writing) a piece of me and received a piece of somebody else, and that felt fantastic.
I would like to keep writing to you and others as well, even if I won't receive any response, but I definitely want to taste this more and also know myself better while doing this. Hopefully this will make everybody else happy at least as much as I am. (RE)discovering a human(e) approach towards communication was A very happy moment for Myself.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - ( end of excerpt ) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Thank you again and I also congratulate myself for writing a letter... I'll surely do it again and also recommend it with warmth to everybody reading this.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
The ideal reader revisited
Having a few blogs I constantly read the Intimologies blog is my top read. And here a new article about the ideal reader...
"A scripture is a text which challenges the reader to live up to the standard of an ideal reader.
The ideal reader has to believe that the text is a sign of the truth. This truth is then the object which the reader aims to see through the sign. Or as Wittgenstein might say, it's the object of the language-game of reading. By an observer of this process, the reader's faith in the sign as representative of the truth could be called a heuristic device; but for the participant, the reader entering into dialogue with the text, this faith must be a genuine belief—in other words, it must actually guide the reader's conduct. She must dedicate herself to learning something new from the text, not reading into it something she already knows or believes.
However, when we reflect on the logic or semiotic of the reading process, it is clear that the real meaning of the text is its interpretant, i.e. the new sign generated in the mind of the reader by the process itself. This is the ‘sequel’ which is ‘of all books the most indispensable part’, as Thoreau said in the passage i quoted here last week, in the ‘Earwaves’ post. And of course this is not the end of the process: the immediate interpretant (the new sign) must generate another interpretant, and somewhere along the line this must affect the practice (behavior) of the interpreter, which ideally carries the whole community forward, toward the ultimate confluence of life and truth. The meaning of the text thus includes what Peirce called the ‘logical’ and ‘ultimate’ interpretants as well as the immediate.
Summing up, then, the ‘meaning’ of the scriptural sign is its object from the participant's point of view and its interpretant from the observer's point of view.
What then does the object of the sign look like from the observer's perspective? I'll take up that question next time."
...via Intimologies Blog
"A scripture is a text which challenges the reader to live up to the standard of an ideal reader.
The ideal reader has to believe that the text is a sign of the truth. This truth is then the object which the reader aims to see through the sign. Or as Wittgenstein might say, it's the object of the language-game of reading. By an observer of this process, the reader's faith in the sign as representative of the truth could be called a heuristic device; but for the participant, the reader entering into dialogue with the text, this faith must be a genuine belief—in other words, it must actually guide the reader's conduct. She must dedicate herself to learning something new from the text, not reading into it something she already knows or believes.
However, when we reflect on the logic or semiotic of the reading process, it is clear that the real meaning of the text is its interpretant, i.e. the new sign generated in the mind of the reader by the process itself. This is the ‘sequel’ which is ‘of all books the most indispensable part’, as Thoreau said in the passage i quoted here last week, in the ‘Earwaves’ post. And of course this is not the end of the process: the immediate interpretant (the new sign) must generate another interpretant, and somewhere along the line this must affect the practice (behavior) of the interpreter, which ideally carries the whole community forward, toward the ultimate confluence of life and truth. The meaning of the text thus includes what Peirce called the ‘logical’ and ‘ultimate’ interpretants as well as the immediate.
Summing up, then, the ‘meaning’ of the scriptural sign is its object from the participant's point of view and its interpretant from the observer's point of view.
What then does the object of the sign look like from the observer's perspective? I'll take up that question next time."
...via Intimologies Blog
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Benoit Mandelbrot said...
“Science would be ruined if it were to withdraw entirely into narrowly defined specialties. The rare scholars who are wanderers-by-choice are essential to the intellectual welfare of the settled disciplines.”
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti
ne tavalim pe jos,
ne murdarim pe maini,
ne stropim prin balti,
umblam desculti,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
ne jucam cu putza,
mancam nisip,
batem fetite pentru ca le iubim,
suntem curiosi,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
picam din picioare,
ne pisam pe noi,
ne rupem o mana,
stam in ploaie,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
desenam cu orice,
ne jucam cu orice,
suntem capabili de orice,
suntem imbatabili - chiar neinvinsi,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
ne batem cu bulgari de zapada
ne tavalim prin noroi,
facem castele din nisip,
ne asezam pe un scaun si avem o masina,
stam sub masa si avem o casa,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
negam sfatul,
negam forma,
negam eticheta,
ne facem de cap,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
intarziem la masa,
facem oameni de zapada,
ascultam povesti,
traim povesti,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
suntem copii,
suntem ademeniti,
suntem pacaliti,
suntem bucurosi,
mancam ca sa ne jucam,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
ne ascundem,
ne bagam in seama,
avem prieteni imaginari,
avem lumea noastra,
avem tot,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
dam din inima,
suntem sinceri,
credem in ceea ce spunem,
credem orice,
aprobam orice,
negam orice,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
ne plictisim,
ne place sa radem,
ne place sa vorbim,
toti sunt prietenii nostri,
vrem sa fim mari,
vrem sa fim ocupati,
vrem sa fim obositi,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
avem multe intrebari,
avem multe raspunsuri,
avem multi prieteni,
vrem sa stim totul,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
construim ce ne place,
adunam tot si toate,
dam tot si toate,
aprobam,
dezaprobam,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
suntem incaltati,
suntem imbracati,
suntem hraniti,
suntem culcati,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
omoram cu aceeasi usurinta cu care dam viata ideilor,
raspundem cu aceeasi moneda,
ne plangem de aceleasi lucruri,
ne bucuram de aceleasi lucruri,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
ne simtim bine cand ni se alineaza dorintele,
suntem directi,
spunem ce simtitm,
spunem imediat cum ne simtim,
spunem multe,
facem multe,
spunem ca suntem copii si suntem Fericiti.
ne murdarim pe maini,
ne stropim prin balti,
umblam desculti,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
ne jucam cu putza,
mancam nisip,
batem fetite pentru ca le iubim,
suntem curiosi,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
picam din picioare,
ne pisam pe noi,
ne rupem o mana,
stam in ploaie,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
desenam cu orice,
ne jucam cu orice,
suntem capabili de orice,
suntem imbatabili - chiar neinvinsi,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
ne batem cu bulgari de zapada
ne tavalim prin noroi,
facem castele din nisip,
ne asezam pe un scaun si avem o masina,
stam sub masa si avem o casa,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
negam sfatul,
negam forma,
negam eticheta,
ne facem de cap,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
intarziem la masa,
facem oameni de zapada,
ascultam povesti,
traim povesti,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
suntem copii,
suntem ademeniti,
suntem pacaliti,
suntem bucurosi,
mancam ca sa ne jucam,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
ne ascundem,
ne bagam in seama,
avem prieteni imaginari,
avem lumea noastra,
avem tot,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
dam din inima,
suntem sinceri,
credem in ceea ce spunem,
credem orice,
aprobam orice,
negam orice,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
ne plictisim,
ne place sa radem,
ne place sa vorbim,
toti sunt prietenii nostri,
vrem sa fim mari,
vrem sa fim ocupati,
vrem sa fim obositi,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
avem multe intrebari,
avem multe raspunsuri,
avem multi prieteni,
vrem sa stim totul,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
construim ce ne place,
adunam tot si toate,
dam tot si toate,
aprobam,
dezaprobam,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
suntem incaltati,
suntem imbracati,
suntem hraniti,
suntem culcati,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
omoram cu aceeasi usurinta cu care dam viata ideilor,
raspundem cu aceeasi moneda,
ne plangem de aceleasi lucruri,
ne bucuram de aceleasi lucruri,
Suntem copii si suntem fericiti.
ne simtim bine cand ni se alineaza dorintele,
suntem directi,
spunem ce simtitm,
spunem imediat cum ne simtim,
spunem multe,
facem multe,
spunem ca suntem copii si suntem Fericiti.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Personal view.
By now you know what my interests are so far regarding the previously 41 topics. Till now I barely had a personal view towards anything because I really needed to see how this all works and moves and nevertheless 'feels' like... now I know.
So here are some things that I want to make clear from start with you, me and a potential-future-me and everybody else.
I don't write/post for you or for the potential-future-me nor for everybody else. If I write something down here I will(am) write(ing)/post(ing) on this blog first and foremost for myself(present moment-tense)... I lived this "comment-expectancy-phenomena" for eight months now while I posted the previously 41 topics... and really didn't like the fact that nobody wanted to comment on those topics ... as I assumebly would have expected... Of course I admit that this is(was)/was(is) MY OWN PROBLEM - no comment about that, but still is an globally-ongoing,-(developing-into-'normality')-, phenomenon... if you think about it.
here another question arose - If not for others why the heck do it? Why not keep a journal? .. a written one.
I have lots of journals - and still cannot logically explain why I am doing this... at least I feel like doing it. But if we were to explain all the choices we made till this point in life...( 4 shaman-lifetimes wouldn't be enough ). ... so, here I am- barely naked and legal - just going with the flow, stopping myself from explaining my actions and just posting stuff, filtered through the moment/instant/lifetime in the breath of the... present-moment-tense.
If not for me - definitely my future me will have a blast reading this stuff here.
Thinking about contradictions now ...!?
yes - hopefully there will be as many in my life as possible... I like contradictions - U-turns - Crossroads - and ...late trains - mainly because all the big systems are infected by this virus.
... but I don't live by contradictions, as contradictory as it may sound, I have an extraordinary life. ;)
Peace
My bows to Milton and Storm...
So here are some things that I want to make clear from start with you, me and a potential-future-me and everybody else.
I don't write/post for you or for the potential-future-me nor for everybody else. If I write something down here I will(am) write(ing)/post(ing) on this blog first and foremost for myself(present moment-tense)... I lived this "comment-expectancy-phenomena" for eight months now while I posted the previously 41 topics... and really didn't like the fact that nobody wanted to comment on those topics ... as I assumebly would have expected... Of course I admit that this is(was)/was(is) MY OWN PROBLEM - no comment about that, but still is an globally-ongoing,-(developing-into-'normality')-, phenomenon... if you think about it.
here another question arose - If not for others why the heck do it? Why not keep a journal? .. a written one.
I have lots of journals - and still cannot logically explain why I am doing this... at least I feel like doing it. But if we were to explain all the choices we made till this point in life...( 4 shaman-lifetimes wouldn't be enough ). ... so, here I am- barely naked and legal - just going with the flow, stopping myself from explaining my actions and just posting stuff, filtered through the moment/instant/lifetime in the breath of the... present-moment-tense.
If not for me - definitely my future me will have a blast reading this stuff here.
Thinking about contradictions now ...!?
yes - hopefully there will be as many in my life as possible... I like contradictions - U-turns - Crossroads - and ...late trains - mainly because all the big systems are infected by this virus.
... but I don't live by contradictions, as contradictory as it may sound, I have an extraordinary life. ;)
Peace
My bows to Milton and Storm...
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Dieter Rams about Design in 10 sentences ...
The work of Dieter Rams can be summarized best by his 10 design propositions:
1. Good design is innovative.
2. Good design makes a product understandable.
3. Good design is elegant.
4. Good design makes a product useful.
5. Good design is unobtrusive.
6. Good design is honest.
7. Good design is long living.
8. Good design is consequent right to the very last detail.
9. Good design is friendly to the environment.
10. Good design is as little design as possible.
1. Good design is innovative.
2. Good design makes a product understandable.
3. Good design is elegant.
4. Good design makes a product useful.
5. Good design is unobtrusive.
6. Good design is honest.
7. Good design is long living.
8. Good design is consequent right to the very last detail.
9. Good design is friendly to the environment.
10. Good design is as little design as possible.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
A Storm is coming ...
Happy Birthday anonimTM
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Tuesday, November 20, 2007
MIlton Glaser said ...
When asked by Debbie Millman in an interview :
Do you think the part of the brain that seeks community is awakened by communal brand experiences like MySpace, YouTube, or the iPod?
Yes. But there is a dark side to this. People develop communities that define themselves and isolate them from others. This leads to a kind of estrangement from everyone else. And before you know it, there's a class or status war, or some other sense that we're more important because of our desires, or a sense of betterment because we have good taste, or because we earn more money. That collective identification quickly turns into a way of excluding others from humanity. We have to be so cautious of this. It is an endless cycle of human history. A collective consciousness develops within a tribe, and everyone outside becomes worthless-it's a prevailing pattern in humanity.
(excerpt from the MIlton Glaser interview - from Debbie Millman's new book - How To Think Like A Great Grpahic Designer )
Do you think the part of the brain that seeks community is awakened by communal brand experiences like MySpace, YouTube, or the iPod?
Yes. But there is a dark side to this. People develop communities that define themselves and isolate them from others. This leads to a kind of estrangement from everyone else. And before you know it, there's a class or status war, or some other sense that we're more important because of our desires, or a sense of betterment because we have good taste, or because we earn more money. That collective identification quickly turns into a way of excluding others from humanity. We have to be so cautious of this. It is an endless cycle of human history. A collective consciousness develops within a tribe, and everyone outside becomes worthless-it's a prevailing pattern in humanity.
(excerpt from the MIlton Glaser interview - from Debbie Millman's new book - How To Think Like A Great Grpahic Designer )
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Woo Hoo Debbie...
A nice review from Communication Arts on Debbie Millman's insightful book " How to think like a great graphic designer ". Buy the book here
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Last Lecture
Randy Pausch is a married father of three, a very popular professor at Carnegie Mellon University—and he is dying. He is suffering from pancreatic cancer, which has returned after surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Doctors say he has only a few months to live.
In September 2007, Randy gave a final lecture to his students at Carnegie Mellon. "There's an academic tradition called the 'Last Lecture.' Hypothetically, if you knew you were going to die and you had one last lecture, what would you say to your students?" Randy says. "Well, for me, there's an elephant in the room. And the elephant in the room, for me, it wasn't hypothetical."
Despite the lecture's wide popularity, Randy says he really only intended his words for his three small children. "I think it's great that so many people have benefited from this lecture, but the truth of the matter is that I didn't really even give it to the 400 people at Carnegie Mellon who came. I only wrote this lecture for three people, and when they're older, they'll watch it," he says.
Watch Andy's last lecture
Via Debbie Millman
In September 2007, Randy gave a final lecture to his students at Carnegie Mellon. "There's an academic tradition called the 'Last Lecture.' Hypothetically, if you knew you were going to die and you had one last lecture, what would you say to your students?" Randy says. "Well, for me, there's an elephant in the room. And the elephant in the room, for me, it wasn't hypothetical."
Despite the lecture's wide popularity, Randy says he really only intended his words for his three small children. "I think it's great that so many people have benefited from this lecture, but the truth of the matter is that I didn't really even give it to the 400 people at Carnegie Mellon who came. I only wrote this lecture for three people, and when they're older, they'll watch it," he says.
Watch Andy's last lecture
Via Debbie Millman
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
A Japanese folk tale
A new flute was invented in China. A Japanese master musician discovered the subtle beauties of it's tone and brought it back home, where he gave concerts all around the country. One evening he played with a community of musicians and music lovers who lived in a certain town. At the end of the concert, his name was called. He took out the new flute and played one piece. When he was finished, there was silence in the room for a long moment. Then the voice of the oldest man was heard from the back of the room: "Like a god!"
The next day, as this master was packing to leave, the musicians approached him and asked how long it would take a skilled player to learn the new flute. "Years", he said. They asked if he would take a pupil, and agreed. After he left, they decided among themselves to send a young man, a brilliantly talented flautist, sensitive to beauty, diligent and trustworthy. They gave him money for his living expenses and for the master's tuition, and sent him on his way to the capital, where the master lived.
The student arrived and was accepted by his teacher, who assigned him a single, simple tune. At first he received systematic instruction, but he easily mastered all the technical problems. Now he arrived for his daily lesson, sat down, and played his tune - and all the master could say was, "Something lacking." The student exerted himself in every possible way; h he practiced for endless hours; yet day after day, week after week, all the master said was, " Something lacking." He begged the master to change the tune, but the master said no. The daily playing, the daily "something lacking" continued for months on end. The student's hope of success and fear of failure became ever magnified, and swung from agitation to despondency.
Finally the frustration became too much for him. One night he packed his bag and slinked out. He continued to live in the capital city for some time longer, until his money ran dry. He began drinking. Finally, impoverished, he drifted back to his own part of the country. Ashamed to show his face to former colleagues, he found a hut far out in the countryside. He still possessed his flutes, still played but found no new inspiration in music. Passing farmers heard him play and sent their children to him for beginner's lessons. He lived this way for years.
One morning there was a knock at his door. It was the oldest past-master from his town, along with the youngest student. They told him that tonight they were going to have a concert, and they had all decided it would not take place without him. With some effort they overcame his feelings of fear and shame, and almost in a trance he picked up a flute and went with them. The concert began. As he waited behind the stage, no one intruded on his inner silence. Finally, at the end of the concert, his name was called. He stepped out onto the stage in his rags. He looked down at his hands, and realized that he had chosen the new flute.
Now he realized that he had nothing to gain and nothing to lose. He sat down and played the same tune he had played so many times for his teacher in the past. When he finished, there was silence for a long moment. Thern the voice of the oldest man was heard, speaking softly from the back of the room: "Like a god!"
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