The meeting in September left me a little cold. Let's leave it at that.
A small group met in October without a pre-arranged topic, and chose What is Friendship? The discussion was lively and long lasting. The group broke up at 10:30, which long time attendees will recognize as being long past normal. With 7 people visiting and an overall group size of 10, I considered this to be about perfect. That, and Gordon brought 2 half-gallons of ice cream to share for dessert!
We chose to re-read (for most of us) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Pursig. I am about half way through it again, just at the point where they are about to reach Bozeman, where he is talking about Phaedrus in the High Country of the Mind. This is the part that most people find least interesting. Classical and Romantic Thinking. Rational justification of ideas. Locke. Empiricism and Rationalism. The futility of the scientific method. Where do hypotheses come from? Neitze and the logical positivists.
This is brain bending stuff and not what I call intuitive at all. I'm not sure what I can do with this when it comes time for the discussion, so if any of you have ideas I'd love to hear them. Shortly Pursig shifts into the idea of the Good - What is Good, and all that. I find that part quite interesting, and I know what to do with it. Do we just ignore the preamble then, and concentrate on what we can grasp?
November's gathering will be on the 12th. It is early to make way for the things that will be happening later in the month. No topic is planned - we will pick one at the time of the gathering. ZAMM will not have been finished by many people by then, I don't think, so let's hold off until after the first of the year to make a topic out of it.
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