Here's To Your Health

  

                                                                          

Observing the disc golfer on a beautiful day in the park is outright poetic.  So I'll end with this nice excerpt from the 1987 book on a long-standing debate concerning the Elgin Marbles. Author Christopher Hitchens brings the words of a poet into the arena.

In his book titled "Imperial Spoils The Curious Case of the Elgin Marbles" publishers Hill & Wang/1987,  Christopher Hitchens states, "Two unforgettable sights for travelers are the Parthenon in Athens and the Elgin Marbles in London. But why are half of the Parthenon's sculptures and friezes in the British Museum instead of in Greece? Are these sublime emblems of the Periclean Age a 19th-century British lord's oxymoronic legitimate pillage, or should they be recognized by now as a part of Britain's cultural heritage? Does it matter to people elsewhere in the civilized world that when work on the Parthenon began, Sophocles and Euripedes were at the height of their dramatic powers and Socrates as a young man watched the Parthenon rise - and probably helped to build it since he was a stonemason and sculptor by trade?

Lord Byron thought that removing the 5th century B.C. sculpture from the Parthenon was criminal and said so in measured verse in ''Childe Harold.'' In a stanza about his countrymen that was suppressed by his publisher, he began, ''Come then ye classic Thieves of each degree. . . Come pilfer all that pilgrims love to see.''

Democracy

                                         Protesters evicted from Zuccotti Park convened later in Foley Square in Manhattan

(Photograph by Marcus Yam for the New York Times Nov. 16, 2011)

 I was struck by this photograph's composition and the calm aura captured by the photographer against an early morning sky in the busiest city of America. The figure of a young man off to the left addressing the crowd is contrasted by the building behind him with its vertical supports reminiscent of columns from antiquity. Considering the excitement often associated with the Occupy Wall Street Movement, this image serves to remind us of mans' inherent desires for self expression, to listen and to be heard. For most people these words would describe a student. But one of the greatest listener's throughout history, was a teacher. His name was Socrates.

Read the following excerpts from  a Socrates study guide

 then listen to American history buff Joe Spratt draw parallels to Socrates 

and 

our Founding Fathers!

Contributions of Socrates

One: Awakened thinkers to the need to examine and reexamine their political, moral, and philosophical views in order to discover and root out errors and misconceptions that impede progress. Socrates accomplished this task by demonstrating, through cross-examination of people he encountered, that many accepted precepts, conventions, and beliefs were based on faulty logic or outright errors. A quotation attributed to him states: "The unexamined life is not worth living." In other words, a human being must not be complacent and self-satisfied; instead, he must be ever probing, exploring, and reconnoitering his soul in order to discover ways to imrpove.

Two: Effectively rebutted a central tenet of the Sophists, traveling teachers who charged fees for educating young men. This tenet maintained that the guiding principles of a society, such as justice and truth, were relative concepts--that is, they changed according to the needs of men in a particular time and place. What was considered right and just in Athens was not necessarily right and just in another society, the Sophists maintained. One man's virtue could be another man's vice.

Three: Pioneered the use of inductive reasoning to draw logical conclusions. According to Aristotle, Socrates founded the "scientific method." 

Four: Demonstrated that wrongdoing results from ignorance. If a man lies, Socrates might have said, he does so because he does not understand the benefits of telling the truth.

Five: Inspired philosophers in his own time and in later times to pursue the truth through rigorous analysis of available, facts, opinions, and so on. Two of the most important philosophers in the history of the world, Plato and Aristotle, both esteemed Socrates as a supreme thinker and infused their philosophical systems with Socratic thought. Plato was a pupil of Socrates, and Aristotle was a pupil of Plato.

Six: Showed the world the meaning of integrity and moral commitment by accepting a death sentence rather than recanting his principles.

Seven: Made clear that a human being is more than his appearance. Socrates was ugly, wore old clothes, and walked barefooted through the streets of Athens. But his mind and the words he spoke were beautiful.

.Study Guide Compiled by Michael J. Cummings..© 2004, 2010 

 

Take a Walk

Listen to the Sages philosophize on 

the art of walking

Below are some excerpts from scholar, Saurabh Bhattacharva's, author of "Walk Therapy, the Walk of Life", who presents a great opportunity for guided imagery. You may even imagine yourself walking along with Aristotle in the 4th century!

"...and when you want to reach your self, there's nothing better than a stroll through nature. It is a new day and the sun is just beginning to peek over the horizon. Your bare feet press down dew-drenched grass. The sweet and soothing smell of fecund earth seeps into your lungs with each deep breath, making you one with nature's creative force, asking you to throw out your arms and embrace creation. Intimacy could never be more profound.... the left foot alternates with the right, the conscious side with the unconscious, between heart on the left and reason on the right. Walking erect and balanced, like a vertical line, the world axis, can unite conscious and unconscious mind and matter, in a way that thinking can not.

Picture a shaded street of Athens, circa 430 B.C. A stout, balding man in his  sixties ambles along in deep conversation with an aristocratic youth, discussing ethics, politics, morality and other ideas. The logical flow of thought smoothly permeates into words with each step, and the plinth of western philosophy is laid on the walks of Athens. The elder teacher is Socrates, walking with his acolyte Plato. A century later, Plato's favorite disciple Aristotle will create the Peripatetic school of philosophy, modeled on the walks he took with his students in the natural environs of his academy.

And if that's not enough...

Walking plays an equally, if not more, important role in the development of eastern thought. France-based Vietnamese Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh has even developed a form of meditation on these lines—the walking meditation. Describing this, he says: "We walk slowly, in a relaxed way, keeping a light smile on our lips. When we practice this way, we feel deeply at ease, and our steps are those of the most secure person on Earth. All our sorrows and anxieties drop away, and peace and joy fill our hearts. Anyone can do it. It takes only a little time, a little mindfulness, and the wish to be happy." Thich, or Thay (teacher) as he is popularly known, considers walking the best way to deal with stress and anger. "Practice walking, even with your anger still within you," he says. "After a few minutes, your anger will subside."

Make Me a Star!

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is seen carrying archaeological treasures after a dive in the Kerch Strait that connects the Black and Azov Seas.

   Q. What do Joe Paterno and Vladimir Putin have in common?
    A.  Both men have drawn from the Classical past to promote their image


Above we see Mr. Putin in a staged photo associating himself with historical preservation, part of the image development program leading to his run for president in Russia's upcoming elections. As my mother would say, "He's no dummy." Most people would realize that these treasures, 6th century B.C. Greek jugs, were planted for him in a couple feet of water. Mr. Putin takes the risk of looking silly because he knows full well that any association with the culture of this period is a good one and beneficial to his cause. 




Joe Paterno, at one time considered the most respected college football coach in history, has recently fallen from grace. After a near 50 year career at Penn State University, he has been fired, following the arrest of his former assistant, charged with sexually abusing boys. Though he himself has not been charged with a crime, Paterno appears guilty of doing little to stop the abuse given what he knew. After being informed of a child abuse incident in the football locker room almost 10 years ago, the coach stopped at reporting the information to his athletic director. His legal obligation met, it appears the mindset was "let the games begin!"

According to author Jonathon Mahler in his New York Times article Grand Experiment Meets Inglorious End, "Joe Paterno as a lifelong lover of Latin, saw football through the lens of the classics. His Grand Experiment was to produce a team that embodied both athletic excellence and academic integrity. The true greats, he would say, didn't resemble Homer's Achilles, a grandstanding superstar motivated by his own quest for self-glorification. They resembled Virgil's Aeneas, who was propelled forward through every manner of hardship by an agonizing sense of moral duty to others." The football program's motto "Success With Honor,"  holds great irony today. As Mahler puts it, "the great molder of young men, discharged his legal obligation and moved on."

Balance Is a Lovely Word

Balance, it’s such a lovely word. Easy to say, straightforward in definition, it has a nice ring to it. Before being assigned to research Classical Greek and Roman history, 'balance' was a word that came up in my weekly yoga class, or over the radio during grim reports of the American economy. Last night my husband was lamenting over the difficulty of balancing his work and the time needed to train for a community 5k run. Striving for balance is nothing new. It turns out the Greeks in Athens were doing it 2500 years ago! 


Balancing mind and spirit was at the foundation of Greek civilization and considered one of the greatest contributions to the Western world as we know it today. Scholar Edith Hamilton in her book ‘The Greek Way’, writes 

"Rome was able to perceive the balance between the claims of the single man and the majority, between men’s sympathy and their reason. In this one field Rome reached the balance Greece had reached in every field she entered, and Rome has been the lawmaker for the world.” 

The ability to operate this way was unique in it's time (ironically, one could argue that it is somewhat unique in our own time, but more on that later). Remember, the greatest civilization in the East, Egypt, revolved around the way of the spirit. Things that were not seen became more and more the only things of great importance. Depressed by their rulers and in an atmosphere preoccupied with death, the common man looked to the afterlife for security, peace and pleasure. Not so for the Greeks, who indulged in thinking for themselves and fixed man's attention to the whole person, made up of body and soul, mind and spirit. 


Let's take a look at how this and other aspects of the Classical tradition developed and how these traditions present themselves today, in 2011. Below we hear from local elders, our Sages, adding their gift of storytelling, art making, and knowledge of history. Let the fun begin!

Reflecting on the words of Aristotle and Socrates...

Collection of drawings, measurements and research materials produced by elders in the Adult Day Health Program 

Detail