Replying (???), no, reacting in meanderlike connection with LO28760
Dear LO' ers, dear friends,
Andrew as usual has the extraordinary capacity to stimulate the mind
meanders in my head. In his contribution LO28760 (learning with, or
without a goal) there was one paragraph that stimulated the following
meanders. But first his paragraph:
> I hope from the bottom of my heart that every employee and stake holder
> (sic) in companies like Enron, Worldcom and Xerox to name but three now
> surfacing will take heed of the wisdom of China from two and a half
> thousand years ago. Corrupt people are corrupt people and time does not
> separate them, only the Confucian "shaking at both ends" does that, and
> the shaking has begun.
>
Andrew, and all other readers, do you know why chinese people eat with
chop sticks?
It is one of these intriguing questions which grew last weeks in my mind.
The chinese with their old, old history and far developed scientific and
philosophic insights, centuries earlier then in places where we live, were
they not able to ' invent' a knife, fork and spoon?
Of course they were able, but these wise Confucians concluded that
digestion must follow a quiet meandering path - like the yellow river -
towards the end of the digestive channel without bifurcations, without
barriers and without overloaded gulps and bulges in the peristaltic
movements. No, smoothness!
Thus the chop sticks for a peaceful and paceful meal and a slow boat on a
slow twisting inner stream.
In western countries (you know what I mean, but it depends on your stand
point and perspective) the love for slowness diminished already after the
middle ages. Nearly all inventions made in science and technology were
drive to kill the slowness. Fast, faster, fastest; that was and is the
hidden goal underneath the surface. Patience becomes a romantic idea, out
of date and utterly old fashioned.
And thus, knife, fork and spoon which has served for many centuries,
become now out of date too. These instruments stiil have too little
capacity, and even more worse, time has to be spent for cleaning them
after usage. Washing the dishes was for long a housely punishment, thus an
apparatus was invented. But even this takes too much time. And thus...
... we start eating with our hands now. Much easier and much more could be
taken then such a simple fork. Fast food. Away with the slowness. Try to
eat a hamburger with knife and fork, or even better - try to eat a
hamburger with chop sticks. Yes, try it! Take your time, maybe it will
take you 12 hours to finish that big, big, super Mac.
But if you have done it, I congratulate you. You have experienced now what
At de Lange means with DIGESTION.
Thank you Andrew, for the nice feelings which you generated within my
mind, from throat to bottom.
Leo Minnigh
--Minnigh <minnigh@dds.nl>
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