Tuesday, February 27, 2007

A nice weekend


<- Picture of a big apartment building (detail) under construction at Papendrecht, a town near Rotterdam (covered with wind-protecting foil), taken during our voyage through the Netherlands this weekend



Saturday 24 February we headed in the afternoon for Oirschot, a wonderful village between Tilburg and Eindhoven.

The weather was gloomy, one shower after another and no sun at all that Saturday. We had dinner at “Hajé”, a nice and cosy road restaurant, without that plastic and red-and-yellow atmosphere that most of these facilities have. On the contrary, all furniture is in wood, old and believe it or not, for sale. This entrepreneur made his restaurant both restaurant and furniture shop. If you buy a table, you can take it with you or let it deliver, and he will replace it by something else that’s also for sale and the same holds for the chairs, the decoration pieces etc. If you are travelling in Holland and you want a nice and cosy rest place, then this is the place for you. I admire the owner because he took over an almost bankrupt road restaurant, when this restaurant wasn’t located along the highway anymore due to its reconstruction along another route. Two predecessors didn’t manage to keep it profitable, but he did, and how! We arrived at Oirschot in dark and had some trouble in finding the Beukenhof , despite our detailed maps we had with us. It was really a nice place, something to return to at future occasions. It offered the comfort of a 4-star hotel, only less formal, with bigger rooms, no bath (only shower) and no restaurant: it was “only” bed-and-breakfast. Many sculptures and paintings, not the mainstream-taste as you see so often in hotels, contributed to an agreeable interior experience. (I could write a brochure for them I realize now).

We got up early and headed for Bergeijk, from there we went on to Postel. There we attended the Holy Mass, impressively old-fashioned with Latin Gregorian chants, and a spiritual sermon. After the Mass we visited the abbey restaurant of course, after which we had a walk in the surrounding woods and abbey gardens. (See above). Near the abbey there was also a typical Belgian “little street” of fried-potatoe-sticks stands (in the UK they call it “chips”, in the USA “chips” are round thin slices, in the UK they have a stick form, elsewhere in Europe they are called “patates frites” or more commonly “frites” (pronounce “freet”). Its awful odour spread all around the place, and its enjoyers were sitting, standing or walking through the street. I once read in a culinary column that fites should not be eaten in a restaurant, but are most enjoyable in a cold and gloomy environment with cold wind, a desolate parking lot, at the counter of a sober “frietkot” (frites sales stand). Well, here all these conditions were met, but we didn’t feel any appetite for this calorie-rich delicacy.

We also visited Turnhout, but although the town was nice and medieval in its impressions, the weather and the closed shops (all cafés were open however) weren’t really inviting for a long stay. Here you see a typical Belgian picture (it couldn’t have been taken elsewhere in the world) of a statue of the Holy Virgin amidst commercial and traffic signs on a café outside wall. I find it “typical” for Belgium because it tells you something of the way religion is integrated into their easy-going culture, that only on its surface seems to be easy-going and casual, but in deeper layers it houses grief and a tendency to flee into festivities and folklore. In previous ages, the Flemish people suffered much from the Church’s and nobility’s co-operative oppression, but they remained loyal to their shared faith. Even at the Mass this Sunday, there were a count and countess who were memorized by the priest and prayed for by the audience. Hugo Claus, a famous Flemish novelist, wrote a wonderful novel about it: “The sorrow of Belgium” (“Het verdriet van België”).

In Oisterwijk, after a visit to an old family member, we enjoyed the dinner, far more copious than we were used to, but that’s the way it is when you go out for dinner once every six months or so.

The other day I went on my own to Oirschot early in the morning to get some cash because that was the only way to pay at “Beukenhof”. Of course I took some pictures of the huge church, that one would expect in a big city but not in such a small town. At my return, the inn-keeper told us something about Oirschot. In the Middle Ages, when Tilburg and Eindhoven didn’t exist yet, it was one of the main cities of Brabant (next to Brussels and Den Bosch). It even had a medical faculty, and high nobility found there one of her dwelling places.

After checking out we went to Tilburg, to visit a modern arts museum, but what we already suspected was true: like all musea in the Netherlands it’s closed on Mondays. We then walked along the Goirkestraat (Goirkestreet, pron. Gorkestralt), the street where I lived during my sociology study at Tilburg University. Here you see a picture of the house: I lived in the attic, with windows at the other side of the house. The window at the right side belonged to the room of someone who is now a high official at the United Nations, the window at the left side belonged to the room of the current president judge of the court of Amsterdam, where big companies such as ABN-AMRO and Stork go to for disputes and disagreements between shareholders and boards of directors. Both are examples of people who start with minimal opportunities and use their talents and hard work to get where they are now, serving other people and society on top level. From the U.N. housemate I learned “how to behave like a gentleman”, from the president judge I learned how to persist and not to have my opinion ready the first time I hear or read something. 100 Meters further to the Southe in this street there is a graveyard next to (again) a monastery, guarded by angels, one of them pictured by me.

Then we drove home, experiencing the “East-West, Home Best” poverb after our arrival.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

patience please...


I'm finished for a while, and return coming Monday (26 February). Please be welcome for reading and commenting, but I promised to myself and my family not to touch the blog for a couple of days. Thanks for understanding.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Gnothi seauton (know yourself)


Gnothi seauton

A tribute to Charles Horton Cooley, the inventor of the "looking glass self".

O, thou white bathroom, thy spirit of honesty reigns
When thou invitest sincerely thy guests to denude,
After which many feel vanity slacken its reins,
In thy pure cleanness, with laundry and towels bestrewed.

Look, how the merciless looking-glass mirrors the real,
Look, how the bather distorts it because it is his,
How he will care it, anoint it with perfervid zeal,
Till he is blindfold with selfish and satisfied bliss.

After the bathing the mirror is damped with mist,
The real is enrobed with fresh-washed cloth;
Thou lettest in mercy these untrue enjoyments desist
And swalloweth manfully left-behind broth.

O, thou dear weblog, thy spirit of honesty reigns
When thou invitest sincerely thy guests to denude,
After which many feel vanity slacken its reins,
In thy pure features, with postings and comments bestrewed.

Look, how the merciless screen-glass mirrors the real,
Look, how the blogger distorts it because it is his,
How he designs it, and fills it with perfervid zeal,
Till he is blindfold with selfish and satisfied bliss.

After the session the screen is turned off and shows mist,
The real is enrobed with fresh-washed thought
Thou lettest in mercy these untrue enjoyments desist
And swalloweth manfully ev’rything, anything wrought.

O thou white bathroom, prepared to receive me,
I keep on my clothing, to hide whom I am,
Oil and hot water, let them not deceive me!
(But I am not sure if this stanza will not be a scam).

The beauty of decay

This morning it was rather misty, but there was just enough light to make some impressions in the park during my dog-duty. I'm grateful that the local authorities leave blown-down trees on their place instead of tidying up the park constantly.

I must have a better camera.



Mist sieves light
On a fallen tree
Moss, moist and green
In darkness unite.



Decay in dark,
Life in light,
Its rotting bark
Yields its might

Day and night
Alternate
So it is right,
So they create.



Sunday, February 18, 2007

Geese, meece, a dog and two ducks





In the park where I often walk with the dog, I meet often peculiar birds, such as the "Ijsvogel" ("common kingfisher"" ), and since a week or three some "zaagbekken"("common merganser"). I only had my mobilephone and these birds hate human company so I couldn't get closer, but a got a nice picture anyway.





Easier to put on a photo are the geese around our school. The building you see is part of our school hotel where students practice for their future work in "real" hotels. This is also a real, 4-star classified hotel, where "real" guests are staying. Being served by students they find often attractive. I wonder if the geese don't make too much noise to wake them up too early. But they are good guardians against possible attacks by our competing school at the othe side of a small river that separates our premises from theirs :-).


Then here we have Menno, cleaning the cage of his 3 meece. Joris, the dog, is taking care that no mouse will escape. The desk and the table I discussed earlier in a post called "father's furniture". Under the desk cover is my computer where I use to blog.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Evie on my pc


Just for fun...

Three billion matches


When we returned from our holiday trip to Denmark I noticed on the dashboard of our car that we had driven more than 3,000 kilometres. For one reason or another I wondered how many millimetres this was. A match’s diameter is about one millimetre, how many matches have to be laid down next to each other in order to obtain this distance? Three billion. A seemingly nonsense question suddenly appears to give insight into the quantity of “one billion”. Three billion is in millimetres twice the distance to North Denmark plus a number of drives in the environment. In the same time, one gets an idea of:
The number of Euro’s the government wants to save in expenses (x billion)
The number of people on earth (8.5 billion)
How rich a billionaire is
The number of stars (suns) in the Galaxy (somewhat more than 100 billion)
The number of years ago that life started to develop on earth (3 billion)

To elaborate on this last point: humanity was developing into existence about one million years ago. Translated into distance in millimetres this is 1 kilometre. This means that returning from Denmark I could see the sign with the name of my village appear alongside the road when our first ancestors walked on the earth. Up to then, during the whole trip to and from Denmark the earth could live perfectly without this natural plague. And what about my own age? This is comparable to the width of the stopping line before the traffic light, as a part of this whole holiday journey.
But what can I do with this information? As a matter of fact: nothing at all, and that is exactly the point: this kind of knowledge should in fact guide my whole behaviour. Almost anything you strive for seems to become totally unimportant when one is aware of one’s little tiny ego. This ego is only big in our own experience. Outside it, it means nothing. It can only cause damage when 8.5 billion nothing-meaning ego’s want to strive for “results” on this small, tiny planet (not even a star) in this Galaxy with its 100 billion stars.
This is what I thought of when I watched a broadcast on TV about a Dutch ex-UN soldier visiting Lebanon. In this broadcast the two big cultural differences between West and East that seem to cause so much conflict and misery in our century, became unintendedly visible: the value attached to individual freedom of the West and the value attached to community loyalty of the East. The soldier was visiting a Lebanese village where he had been during his peace-keeping activities in the eighties. Of course, now he was wearing civilian clothes. I saw how a small group of men ordered the camera crew to stop filming in the streets. The soldier got very angry, because there was no law prohibiting filming in public streets, but a Lebanese man told him: government is far away; here the decisions are taken by our chief. The “chief” appeared to be an elder member of the community, informally endowed with much authority. He also added: “when you were here as a military, we had to obey you, now you have to obey us”. I could imagine that the ex-soldier was outrageous, because this was just the situation he fought for: for giving these men the “freedom” to make their own laws and let each other live in “freedom”. Now they obeyed a local old man and didn’t ask themselves if his wishes were in line with national laws. Although less extreme, it resembled the situation of American “liberators” in Iraq and Somalia. Western politicians think they can achieve a Western state model in Eastern countries. Eastern politicians and clan leaders think they have to challenge Western influence in their countries. The concept of the modern, parliamentary ruled state is a Western phenomenon, intended (roughly speaking) to unite millions of individuals with their own strivings, opinions, situations, etc. Millions of ego’s are thus bound together to preserve everybody’s right to take pictures in streets. This is not what Easterners want, they want a sense of belongingness in everyday life. Exaggerated by big ego’s, both sides try to impose their view on the other side. This, they think, is their very, very important mission. In the West many people think that co-operation is only recommended when we benefit individually from it. In the East people think that individual activities are only important if they sustain and support group values. This way ego’s build caricatures of values that are really worthwhile in themselves. The Lebanese man added: then we obeyed you, now you obey us! He showed his offended ego and his pleasure to take revenge. The soldier got angry because his ego had told him that he had “helped” these people to “return” to free speech and movement-values. How important are we? How to change this battle of the ego’s?

Chewing gum for the mind


Here's some old stuff of May 2004, published in our school magazine CHNtimes (I"m a smoker again):

From the first of January on, I am quitting smoking. I discovered that “quitting smoking” is a process, not an act, not even a non-act. Since I know the effects of tobacco by experience, I always remember and like this effect. So, dear reader, this is why so many ex-smokers are the fiercest propagandists of non-smoking: they are simply jealous and want the smoker to undergo the same tortures as they went through in their non-smoking attempts. Just like converted heathen who wasted their lives with doing what they liked to do. They always preach that you have to live their sober lives, too: in secret, they regret their conversion and want to go back to their previous way of life, but they know that if they do this, they will end up in hell, and that’s what they didn’t know before their conversion.

Anyway, this spiritual battle of mine against the seduction of smoking is fought with the aid of nicotine chewing gum. They allow me to have a normal daily life. I seldom used chewing gum before, and now I‘ve noticed its peculiar features. At first, you think: what for heaven’s sake entered my mouth? Like for instance, that cheap wine I tasted recently: at first the wine feels as if an angel moistens your tongue, but a second later it is overwhelmed by a biting, bitter sour. With chewing gum, it’s the other way around: at first, you feel the urgent need to spit it out, but then you notice the soft and flexible substance and how it moves around in your mouth almost erotically, like… especially if her teeth are freshly brushed and she is a non-smoker. Until the piece of gum gradually becomes a nuisance, or a sense in your mouth that you almost unconsciously maintain because without it you would miss “something”, until somebody tells you how impolite it is to chew in the presence of other people, and you get rid of it until you are alone again for a new, fresh gum. I have to take care that I won’t get addicted to nicotine chewing gum.

The same holds for so many other things, such as theories and concepts. They are chewing gum and tobacco for the mind. At first, you either don’t notice or hate them. Then you have to read or hear them, starting the chewing process. You won’t read them because of curiosity, like you would start an interesting novel or “dirty booklet”, or some reading about your hobby. No, you have to chew, because your job (health) requires it, or you are afraid you can’t keep up with colleagues (non-smokers) or miss career opportunities, etc. But behold, a miracle occurs! After having read for a while, you get interested and eventually you end up as an enthusiastic expert or expert critic. Until after a while you discover that the concept or theory has lost its taste. When you start about it in a conversation or meeting, then you hear people around you sigh and look disinterested, or a roaring laughter bursts out: throw your concept or theory into the nearest bin a.s.a.p. In Dutch there is a word for it referring to chewing: “uitgekauwd” which means literally “chewed out”, “feeble”. It’s also a problem that many theories are launched, and you don’t know in advance what theory or concept will survive, because not all of them get feeble and chewed out, there are a few that persist. Now what I suggest is: I repeat this column after five years (my retirement year is 2009) and see what concepts have survived the chewing process and are still fresh: Values and Norms, Competencies Management, Development Lines, Balanced Score Card, Experience Economy, Portfolio, Own Responsibility, Interculturisation, PBL, CBL, Learning Routes, Identity Concept, Yield Management, Education Renewal, Computer Aided Education, Knowledge Management, Zero Tolerance Approach, POP, 360 Degrees Feedback, SWOT, Training on the Job, Learning Styles, Customer Oriented, Integrated Communications, Implementing Strategies, Target Groups, Market Segmentation, Synergy, Media Inflation, Stakeholders, Self-Review, Project Education, Fair Share, Intra-Organisation Integration, Target Audience Integration, Learner Reports, Short Answer Questions, Girl Power, POS, Cross-Cultural Education, Social Acceptabililty Management, Self Management.

.Examples of concepts and theories that recently got “chewed out”: Total Quality Management (TQM), Management by Objectives (MBO), Organisation Development (OD), Self-managing Teams, Education Renewal, Empowerment, Interdisciplinary Approach, the Learning Organization, Business Re-Engineering, Change Management, Assertiveness Training, Sensitivity Training.


Maybe a solution could be borrowed from the stop-smoking parallel: stop inventing new theories and concepts. But then you will miss really important theories and concepts that survive over time, such as: gravity theory, relativity theory, symbolic interactionism, scholastic theory, game theory, evolution theory, logic, post-modernism, service management, etc. Not inventing new theories and concepts, or ignoring them, would mean shorter study duration, and less staff needed, because we don’t waste time with chewing anymore. Do we want this? Or are we too hooked on theories and concepts?

Fair enough!


A Roman-Catholic pastor, a protestant clergyman and a rabbi are travelling together on their way to an oecumenical conference. Their conversation is about the way they distribute the money collected during services for God and for their own living.

Says the pastor: when the mass is over, I go home to my fair-distribution room. There is a circle on the floor. I go and stand in the middle of the circle, and I throw the money straight upwards. The money that fell down within the circle, is for me and the money outside the circle is for God.

Says the clergyman: what a coincidence, I do it the same way, only I haven’t a circle, but a straight line dividing the room in two. I stand on the line and what comes down left of it, is for me and what comes down right of it, is for God.

Says the rabbi: I see my faith is much stronger than yours. I also do it the same way, but I have no circle nor line. I simply throw up the money, God takes His share while it’s up there, and what comes down is for me.

Something about religion and thinking

Carl Gustav Jung is my friend in my spiritual quest. One of the aspects that give me hope, is his conviction that there exists an autonomous spirit. He concludes this from many dozens of treatments of neurotic patients. (By the way, I believe that too many psycho-therapists base their way of treatment on Freudian or Jungian principles, but I think one needs their sharp vision and genius for comparable results, people are too quick in their confidence that they can do it that way, too) . When I read about it, I had to think of my dreams in which I met people telling me things or that I come into situations that I didn’t expect, yes, that I was learning in my dream. Where do these things come from? Apparently there is somebody inside me whom I’m not aware of. Many neurotic people experience this in a far stronger way, they hear voices telling them things to do. I noticed that Jung speaks about neurotics, not about psychotics. Jung interpreted correctly these voices as giving the patient orders to do things that would cure them, but they couldn’t interpret the voices that way, Jung used his archetype-theory for his interpretation. I’m still reading, I’m curious about if, and what he writes about the voices that are heard by e.g. schizophrenic patients, who tell them to be aggressive and defend themselves in their paranoia.

The “I” is a curious phenomenon. When you keep asking: “who am I” you come soon to the point you can’t give an answer anymore. You can describe your name, what you are doing, your “profile”, your CV etc. but you realize that all these things are like clothes around a body. Am I, then, my brains, am I my reflections and thoughts? Tell me.
I’m inclined to think that Nature or, call it God, looks through me to itself or Itself. I once heard somebody, and he wasn’t an atheist, say: “God is a human projection”. At that time I thought he told me and the others in his audience (it was a reading) that God was merely a human invention, but now I think I understand what he intended to say. “God is a human projection” means that God “uses” the human to let Himself know. As far as we can suspect, no animal has any idea about God.
Jung speaks also about the quaternity-symbol. He reasons on good grounds that the trinity-symbol represents indeed an almighty God, a mediator between Him and mankind, and a Spirit in Whom we can recognise the deepest motivating force of morality. All three are united in one God, in this view, in a mysterious way (mysterium fidei). Jung notices that in the omnipresent quaternity-archetype (symbolising the All) a fourth aspect is missing, and that’s the aspect of negation. “I am the great negator” is what Mephistopheles says to Faust in their first meeting. As such this aspect is inextricably connected to the trinity, and humans can fall victim to this force. Has man a choice, then?

Yes and no. Let’s start with the no. Every sound baby who is born, has the potentiality to grow both sides. It’s like a seed or a set and it depends how it’s fed and grown by people around him or her. If exactly the same person as Hitler would have grown up since, let’s say, 1982, then he would have become a much different personality than he was at his time. In this respect, man has no choice, especially not in his early childhood.

Now the “yes”. Everybody feels that he has choices. Everybody feels his conscience if it has had the opportunity to develop when he grew up and/or his mental capacities allowed him to. So man has a choice in that respect.

About thinking

Now writing this post I think I have come a little further on my quest, but I have to re-think many things over. Speaking about thinking: I have been thinking too much, and I feel that many excellent scientists think that thinking is the most important way to get hold of the truth. I think it’s not only thinking, but also surrender. That’s what the word “Islam” means, by the way. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing also wrote an uncompleted theatre play titled: “Faust”. He was a contemporary of Goethe, although both never met each other. In this play “thinking” is praised as the most precious gift from God to mankind. From other writings such as “The Education of Mankind” and “Nathan der Weise” it appears that Lessing had a lesson for us in the 21st century: you don’t help your own religion if you keep debating, struggling and fighting about defending it and/or trying it to spread it all over the world at the cost of other religions. That’s childish thinking, just as God of the Old Testament assisted His people in wars and committing murders, even mass-murders. He did so because (according to Lessing’s writing) people didn’t know better, they were like children, but now they are supposed to have grown up. Lessing wrote it as a literary work, not as an essay about historical truth, but in its symbolic value it contains more truth than any essay could contain. Surrender, by giving up your superior feelings, and in doing so you notice that you didn’t stop thinking, on the contrary, you kept thinking. That’s an aspect of Enlightenment that is too much overlooked when we call it the period of the raise of "scientific thinking" and freeing ourselves from the chains of religion.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Nihil est in sensu quod non prius fuerit in spirito


Writing the previous post I quoted a variation on a well-known principle in science and law: “Nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuerit in spiritu”. The last word of this variation is different from the original, which is as follows: Nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensu”.

I quoted it because of the primary reaction I assumed to have motivated Dr. Ronald Plasterk to polemise against Mrs. Verhoeven, the Minister of Education, when she considered to promote Intelligent Design in schools. The question is: can we know something that we didn't first observe with our senses? Plasterk is an atheist biologist, and is opposed against anything that looks like a divine interference in natural processes. When a Minister of Education says something sympathetic about Intelligent Design, the adrenaline in Plasterk’s body will get a push.

On the other hand, Dr. Plasterk is (at least I assume he is) an empiricist. The empiricist’s principle is that “nothing can be in our intellect (our thinking) that we didn’t first have observed with our senses”. See this website for further explanation. So he is smart, and thinks of his career, he has to deal with people with whom he has experiences, and covers up his spiritual emotions with rationalist arguments, and says that “the state must not interfere with religious education in schools”, thus following the very rational principle of separation of State and Church. In this argument he won, and Mrs. Verhoeven had to withdraw her considerations.

I recently I saw a debate between a Jewish rabbi and another rational “evolutionist” brain-surgeon (an atheist of course) whose name I regretfully forgot, who mentioned the word “spirit” as a real human characteristic. I was almost flabbergasted and turned the sound louder with the zapper. But to my disappointment he located this spirit in a certain brain area, and identified it with that area. The rabbi could only argue that this wasn’t true and how could we feel that God was with us if He hadn’t … and stuff. I wish I was there to discuss, but I was only a TV watcher.

I think the professor wasn’t able to understand something beyond “nothing can be in our intellect (our thinking) that we didn’t first have observed with our senses”, or, better, “nothing exists that we cannot observe with our senses”. Even John Locke (see website) acknowledged, that we are limited by our senses, implying that it is very well possible that things exist we cannot observe. That’s one. Two: suppose that only those things exist that we can observe, how come that they exist, and how come that we exist, observing them? That’s where the atheist stops, avoiding this question as “irrational”, just like the rabbi reasoning in a circle.

Does God exist and did (does) He create?

Rabbi: Yes, because the Scriptures say so, and I feel His presence.

Atheist: No, because nobody can see him, and I don’t feel his presence.

Rabbi: It is impossible that so complex organisms can originate from random genetic variation processes.

Atheist: Yes, it is, and these processes are not random, but follow comprehensible, observable algorithms.

Rabbi: See, I got you! There must be an Intelligence who ordered the gene mutation to follow these algorithms!

Atheist: Come on, rabbi, this confirms that nature is alorithming itself!


I sympathise with the rabbi, but the brain-surgeon made me doubt. Let me follow my spirit, and not my senses. As John Locke says: senses are good for day-to-day life. By the way, TV can be very educational. I saw part of an interview with one of the big restaurant-entrepreneurs in HOlland, Mr. Gerrit van der Valk. He is renown because he can hardly read ("let alone English", as he said) but has a phenomenal entrepreneurial instinct and charisma. He was asked: what is the most important lesson you learnt from your father? He replied: keep your ears and eyes open, and your mouth shut. Also Jesus recommends us: "he who has ears, let him hear". I am certain (no doubt about this with me) that Jesus intended to say "listen to the voice of the Spirit". No matter whether this can be done by a lump of brain and chemical processes, or by an invisible ghost-phenomenon, maybe it's both.

Dutch government: pea soup with sugar?


We have almost a new government, consisting of three parties: the C.U. (Christian Union), the C.D.A. (Christian-Democratic Appeal) and the P.v.d.A. (Party of the Labour, a social-democratic party). One could say a christian - socialist collaboration. Tasts like pea soup with sugar, an almost impossible combination, reminding an old soldiers' song, titled: "Who put the sugar into the pea soup?" ("Wie heeft de suiker in de erwtensoep gedaan?"). Of course I'm primarily interested in the new Minister of Education. He appears to be a brillant biology professor who has almost won a Nobel Prize. During the last decade he developed an interest in societal affairs andd has a column in one of the Dutch leading newspapers, so from now on his opinions can be matched against his governmental behaviour. His name is Robert Plasterk. When you look on his website, you notice that "evolution" is something that he couldn't avoid to deal with, and he furiously wrote against the Minister of Education who is still in charge for a couple of days, Mrs. Maria van der Hoeven. She had the hubris to put on her weblog that she considered to introduce the concept of "Intelligent Design" into the schools. Robert Plasterk immediately made the mistake to see "creationism" and "intelligent design" as one and the same concept, and also seemed to forget that more than two thirds of our primary schools are "Christian" schools, where an Intelligent Design concept already belongs to the curriculum. His point was however not the validity of either I.D. or evolutionism (which to my opinion doesn't exclude I.D.) but that a government had not to interfere with religion or religion-related subjects in the classroom (separation of Church and State - principle). In that sense he was right, but his first emotion was that somebody important had I.D.-sympathies, I'm afraid. "Nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuerit in spirito", as one would quote a variation on the famous proverb.
Now the journalists ask him the obvious question: how could he, as such a libertarian atheist as he is, co-operate with so many Christian ministers in one administration? The newspapers mention some facts that could explain this: he has already sung 40 times in a Christian choir the Matthew's Passion of Bach, and he explains that the big Chistian issues such as abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, etc. as far as he is concerned, are already satisfactorily settled in existing laws.


I know that the Netherlands have an image of too much liberty on these issues, maybe to such an extent that even a creationist-fighter like Plasterk is satisfied with it. Now the Christian Union, which never participated in government before and has exclusively Christian voters will be able to regain some influence in these matters. The two Christian parties together will defend the interests of the Christian schools as bullterriers. Dr. Plasterk, better be alert! But I think he'll manage. As a columnist he invented the word "Somethingism" (Ietsisme) for the religious feelings of those people who are not church-attendants (except maybe at Christmas and marriage) but feel there must be "Something".


It also seems as if the government has said goodbye to "integration policy" as such. Integration has to come from the people themselves, and cannot be imposed by government measures. Only the Minister of Housing has immigrants in his job description. It goes the right way with immigrant situation: gradually and very slowly they will get integrated by themselves I'm sure. Now we expect the Rumenians, from a country that just has become EC-member, and certainly will seek improvement of their life situation also in our small country. They have an image (but never generalize!) of seeing us as the very rich strangers, from whom it's allowed to take away something sometimes, anyway, quite a few burglars and thieves that have been arrested appear to be Rumenians all of a sudden.


And rich we are! We Dutch seem also to go to former communist countries, even to settle there. I saw a website where houses and building places are offered for sale, at less than one third of the price paid here for the same quality! So who wants to move to Poland (not Menno, when I talked with him about it!), be quick for the market will soon adjust prices. You also have to learn Polish because English is spoken by as many people as here speak Chinese, minority speaks a little bit German. That too will change rapidly I'm sure. And you have to be Roman Catholic, or try to adjust to the very catholic culture in that country, I think.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Hospitality: care or shares?


Philemon and Baucis was an old couple who, according to Ovid (Metamorphoses 8:621-96) once gave hospitality in their humble cottage to two travellers who had been turned away from other, richer houses. During supper, to the hosts' astonishment, the wine bowl miraculously replenished itself; their only goose, which they would have killed for the occasion, flew to the visitors for refuge. Jupiter and Mercury, for it was they, then revealed themselves to Philemon and Baucis, and took them up to the mountainside where they observed that the whole country was covered with flood waters, except for the cottage which had been changed into a temple. Granted a wish by Jupiter, the old man and woman chose to be priests of the temple. At their death they were changed into an oak and a lime tree. painting in oil by David Ryckaert the Younger (Antwerp, 1612-1661) from: http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/r/ryckaert/philemon.html

This is the first, introductory, edition of a series of posts about hospitality:

An inquiry into the extent to which values of caring an/or profitability are motivating drives for job performance in the hospitality industry

Rationale
As a lecturer at the International Hospitality and Office Management School (IH&OM) of Leeuwarden I conducted numerous interviews with candidate students to see what their motivations and attitudes were before they would be admitted to our school. The school, an institute educating future managers in hotels and other hospitality organisations (mostly commercial businesses) was attractive for many of them because they offered the opportunity for a job in which it was crucial to arrange an environment for people where they could find themselves at ease and relaxed by good lodging facilities, meals and other staying services. This was also what these young people were looking for: a job that offered this opportunity. They were prepared and motivated to take the disadvantageous working hours, the stress-causing peaks and troughs in demand, the low wages and difficult career opportunities into account. Many of them already had experience with this work and wanted to develop themselves in the industry. Some of them dreamt of starting their own hotel or restaurant. “Pampering people” was their main motivation. Next to this they also were attracted to “see something of the world” because of the opportunities to have an internship or follow a module of the programme in other parts of the world, putting themselves in a position of a guest themselves, being a fellow craft (not an apprentice anymore) in a historically old duty, but new profession, before becoming a master by their graduation. Caring for guests and being a guest themselves, offering and enjoying hospitality.
In her Christian-inspired book “Making Room” Christine Pohl (Pohl, 1999) makes clear that being a guest and a host alternately and/or simultaneously is a characteristic of Jesus Christ. For Christians Jesus Christ represents the ultimate role model of the Good Man. In the Rule of Benedict it is ordered to the monks to receive a poor guest just like Jesus Christ Himself. The idea is however not typical for the Christian faith. Around AD 0 the “pagan” Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso wrote his “Metamorphoses”, a series of myths about the theme “metamorphosis” (transition from one form into another). In one famous story the chief god Jove and his son Mercure transformed themselves into poor beggars, asking for food and shelter to an old couple, Philemon and his wife Baucis, who gave all food they had for a meal with their guest, and got richly rewarded, not in a material sense but spiritually: their humble hut became a temple and after their long life as temple-servants they became two trees standing close together, with their branches intertwined, as a monument for their hospitable example. Examples of this self-sacrificing hospitality can be found anywhere, especially in times of extreme need and danger, both in myths and reality (a.o. Braithwaite, 2003).

Early travellers such as Erasmus and John Calvin already complained about the disappearance of genuine hospitality, which they didn’t associate with inns at all, on the contrary: inns were places where lodging and food was offered at high prices and the “guest” was exploited with a minimum of comfort. In the 21st century, the lodging and restaurant industry carries the name of “hospitality” in their banner with pride and certainly this industry offers far more than the medieval and 17th century inns. It is even said that the guest’s wishes determine what is being offered, and how it is offered. But the guest has to pay. It is not the poor beggar, nor the poor traveller knocking on the doors of the Benedict monastery, no, the guest has first to be checked if he will be able to pay or if he has paid for this so-called hospitality.

Noticing the motives of young people attracted by “careful” hospitality one wonders if something of this universally present value of hospitality might have been left in the motivation of hospitality workers and managers. The profit pursued by hotels and restaurants is only possible if caring for guests and a “caring attitude” is real. The guest cannot be cheated: even the most luxurious and outstanding service will fail if offered by people who are primarily interested in profit. It seems worthwhile to investigate this assumption.

Defining the concept

Hospitality is a phenomenon that is present in practically all known cultures, and dates from ancient times. Traditionally, and still nowadays, outside business social contexts, the values that underlie this concept are still known and cherished. Hospitality is a multi-faceted concept, which means that it refers to a moral obligation, recognizable for members of a group or society within the same culture. This regulation is driven by deeply felt, but often unconscious assumptions about what is appropriate behaviour in a given situation. Thus it results in behaviour which is recognizable for members of a shared culture as hospitality behaviour. This behaviour takes the form of a ritual between host and guest: both know their role, and breaking the code or “script” means offence or potential conflict between the two inter-actors. This pattern is applicable to situations ranging from very concrete and identifiable, to general, sometimes almost metaphorical situations such as religious functions, the reception of refugees, etc. It also applies to cultural traits and peoples’ characters, potentially leading to observable behaviour.

Hospitality in pre-industrial societies (by far the greatest part of our cultural history) is almost exclusively free of any (obliged) remuneration. Nowadays it is debatable whether “genuine hospitality” can be subject to remuneration (Vijver, 1989, Pohl, 1999). In fact, the hospitality industry is the only industry branch in which such a discrepancy in two value systems exists within the service product itself. In not-for-profit institutions we see more often discrepancies in value systems, e.g. “control and penalizing” vs. “help and assistance” (police, social welfare, etc.), or “educate and develop” vs. “number of graduates / research publications within time limits” (universities).

What is meant by hospitality? In Western languages, hospitality is a concept used to indicate several kinds of situations, states of mind, and ways of conduct, thus covered by several domains of meaning e.g. ethics, philosophy, psychology, sociology, business and management, etc. In general, hospitality is associated with a more or less ritualistic encounter, a social event in which two parties are involved, manifesting itself in an observable way. In fact, hospitality can even be considered as a “value” in itself.

So hospitality is a concept which is difficult to define unequivocally. Every more or less exactly attempted definition will exclude aspects from other points of view. As for the relevance of the definition it is generally accepted in social sciences, that a definition is needed for inter-subjective understanding of the concept. This difficulty in defining social concepts such as “hospitality”, “care”, “(ab)normal behaviour”, “service” etc. is the reason why some scholars refuse to handle definitions as operational instruments in research and theory building. They assert that the members of a society or culture, in their language, give meaning to a concept and they seldom do so in an unequivocal way. (Elias, 1991). From this point of view it is a task of social research to investigate what meanings are given to a concept under study by the users of that concept themselves, namely the group or culture in which the concept is used.

In the academic world these concepts are often nicknamed as “container concepts”: from an operational point of view, they are difficult to define, and seem to be too “vague” and “multi-interpretable” for a satisfying (operational) definition. They are called container concepts, because essential characteristics, observable, concrete features, and different levels of abstraction and viewpoints can be “thrown” into this container ad libitum. Everybody “feels” what it entails, but everybody gives a different definition or description.

Hospitality is such a concept: without features and associations that describe a “feeling” or “atmosphere” it cannot be captured in any workable operational definition, so researchers exhaust themselves in summoning up features and attributes they observe in situations understood as hospitality situations, in much the same way the biological features of man or the appearances and growth specifications of a tree can be listed.

In many cases, a good method to capture a concept’s essentials is etymological analysis. Many abstract concepts have a non-operational, not directly measurable meaning, which has developed from a less complex or less abstract concept that existed in language long ago in history. Often it gives the core of the concept’s meaning (but not always because etymological development may also have lead the meaning away from its original source). Let us try to do this with “hospitality”, “Gastfreundlichkeit” (German) and “gastvrijheid” (Dutch).

Hospitality stems from the Latin word “hostis”, originally meaning stranger (both enemy and guest). In its development a separate word for “host” originated from “hostis” and “potis”: “hosti-potis”: “stranger – lord” or host, later also used for guest: hosti-potis > hospes).

The German word “guest” and its siblings in several German-family tongues seems to be related to the Roman “host” since its Indo-European, pre-historical times. The Dutch “gastvrijheid” means literally “guest freedom”, and is also the literal translation of “hospitality”. We can imagine that in ancient times and the Middle Ages strangers were assigned their place by the host community, because this community didn’t know about the norms, rules (and often intentions!) the stranger was obeying to, and vice versa. So for their own protection and the protection of the stranger, the stranger was continuously under supervision and/or company. It seems obvious, that “gastvrijheid” refers to giving the guest as much freedom as possible, which also means that you as a host are always available, not to supervise or to control, but to see that the guest feels easy ands comfortable amidst customs, habits, ways of communication etc. (s)he is not familiar with. The German “Gastfreundlichkeit” is easy to interpret: “Freundlichkeit” simply means “friendliness”, and “Gast” “guest”.

We can conclude that “hospitality” originally means the friendly reception of strangers. It says nothing about remuneration, although many cultures consider remuneration to be contrary to the social rules and rites around hospitality as they developed in the history of a culture. In ceremonial situations the guest is supposed to bring with him (precious) gifts for the host, and vice versa, but these are not intended as remuneration.

It should be added that in our definition we purposely don’t rely on definitions that explicitly mention the offering of shelter, lodging and/or food, such as those mentioned by Lashley and Morrison: “Hospitality is a contemporaneous human exchange, which is voluntarily entered into and designed to enhance the mutual wellbeing of the parties concerned through the provision of accommodation, and/or food, and/or drink (Lashley and Morrison (eds.) 2000: 142). In the paper contributing to their book, another definition is: “The basic function of hospitality is to establish a relationship or to promote exchange of goods and services, both material and symbolic, between […] hosts and […] guests. One of the principal functions of hospitality is to consolidate the recognition that hosts and guests share the same moral universe or […] to enable the construction of a moral universe to which both host and guest belong” (Selwyn, 2000). Selwyn is less “operational” in stressing the “function” and “sharing a moral universe” as an essential feature of hospitality, and thus comes closer to a “verstehende” description (however, one may wonder if social phenomena can have functions, because a function pre-supposes that social unities such as societies, groups, tribes, etc. maintain and develop the same way as organisms do, which is debatable).

An important limitation of operational definitions is that they try to externalise an internal concept. What we see when we observe the conditions and features described in the definition, is the top of the iceberg. The main part of the iceberg remains under water, remains in the host’s and guest’s minds. This is the hospitality as described by Christine Pohl in “Making Room” (Pohl, 1999), who cites John Calvin and Erasmus, when they concluded that genuine hospitality doesn’t exist anymore in Western countries, as it is replaced more and more by inns (!), of which the only intention seemed to make profit.
What remains under water? All elements of the definition that refer to what we call “social reality”: allowances, agreements, acknowledgements, and all what can be referred to as moral aspects. These are not directly observable in overt conduct. All three participants in the process: host, guest and observer must be able to understand the meaning of behaviour patterns before they can be “labelled” as “hospitality”, there is no other way to describe a concept such as this.

Consulted literature:
Braithwaite R.W. (2003): Five Meals In The Forties: Perspectives On Hospitality Under Extreme Circumstances; Tourism Review International, Volume 7, No. 2, pp. 61-66(6)
Vijver, H (1998): “Ethiek van de gastvrijheid” (“Ethics of Hospitality”), Van Gorcum.
Pohl (1999): Making Room – Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Cy, Grand Rapids / Cambridge
Elias, N.(1991): Symbol Theory; Sage, London.
Lashley, C. and A. Morrison (eds.) (2000): “In search of Hospitality”, Butterworth / Heinemann: e.g. 13
Selwyn, T. 2000): An Anthropology of Hospitality, in: Lashley, C. and A. Morrison (eds.) (2000): “In Search of Hospitality”, Butterworth / Heinemann

Monday, February 12, 2007

What's in a brandname?


Here you see the website of my favorite beer. Click on "ja, ik ben ouder dan 18 jaar"and then, on "ga naar Brand"(the right of the two, so don't click on the left picture).
For possible copyright reasons, I cannot show you a photo of the beer but you can see it on the site. It's simple "Brand Pilsener".
It's the Brand brewery in Wijlre in the utmost South of the Netherlands, I lived in the area during the seventies. I knew the owner because of my work. Yes, his family name was "Brand" and his huge, ugly brewery which is a curse in the landscape and the village spoils much of its tender beauty. Mr. Brand was alderman of the village and disapproved many requests of citizens for a building permit to change their house, to build a small barn or shed, etc., I found it weird at the time, because his own building had to be rejected totally if it wasn't there already! Anyway, it wasn't his fault, and he merely did his duty. He and his company were very hospitable and I had the occasion to visit the brewery two times in my life and take care not to get drunk, and also the food we got was excellent.

Of all Dutch beers I find the taste of Brand come closest to the taste of the famous original Pilsner. Dutch people never order "beer" in a pub, café or restaurant, they always say: "pils", except when you belong to the nobility or exclusive student associations, then you say: "biertje"" ("little beer").















Wijlre (with brewery out of sight) and Wijlre from a distance



The brewery.... it produces excellent beer, and are hospitable, but keep it out of reach of the camera.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

applepie

The apple pie I baked for Janine and which has now almost vanished. Happy birthday, Janine! Of course the figure it shows has nothing to do with her age, we always use it when something pleasant has to be celebrated because it's 9 times 5. 9 is the number of perfection and 5 is the number of balanced relations (the pentagram, the golden section). And, 4 + 5 = 9.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Apple pie and Mozart



Up to now, still nobody commented on my new blog about Goethe's divan, but let's wait and see. Today was rather busy. With Menno to Burgum (2 miles further, a village with more shops than Harderijp) to buy birthday presents for Janine who has her birthday tomorrow. Then to Leeuwarden to buy really good thick gloves that permit me to go to school in Leeuwarden by bike. After that, walk with the dog (did you notice the comment from an Internet petshopkeeper looking for blogs with the word "dogs" in it to advertise by placing a comment? - really smart, I bet he has a sophisticated automatic program for it). Then, baking an apple pie for tomorrow (succeeded, although I do it twice a year on the average). And last but not least wrestling with my blog. The sidebar didn't want what I wanted it to look like, (I don't know html), and at last I went to the source of the blog page to copy the text in html (only there I could see the html version, not in the make-up frame) and paste it in the sidebar. Really smart, again.




My happiness was completed by the purchase of Mozart's Gran Partita, performed by the Nederlands Blazersensemble. You can order the CD here. I already had listened to several performances of this grandiose piece of music, but this one beats everything. I wouldn't have bought it, because I knew the piece and already possessed it, but friends and radio praised it into heaven. I wish I could let you hear but musicians must also earn their living and these people are purely motivated by music, not money. The performance is live in the "Waalse Kerk" in Amsterdam with an excellent acoustic contributing to the quality of the sound you hear on CD. Read also the booklet in it, then you understand the charm of this "simple" music without pretentions, upgraded to soul-permeating "light in tunes" by a musical genius.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Who is God?

<- Faust and Margret. On the background devil Mephistopheles, hated by Margret, is walking with Margret's neighbor woman Martha. Faust is chained to Mephisto by their contract. Despite this contract, he maintains his own personality and ideas. In the introduction to the play God says to Mephisto that he is allowed to test Faust with a contract, because "A good man, in his dark urges, is well aware of the right path".
The following fragment speaks for itself:

Margret: Well, tell me, what’s about you and religion?
You are a kind and good man,
but I think you don’t bother much about it.

Faust: Oh come on, darling! You feel, I’m good for you;
for my love I would risk my life and blood,
I wouldn’t take anybody’s feelings and church from him.

Margret: That’s not just, one must believe in it!

Faust: Must one?

Margret: Alas! If only I could do something about you!
You don’t even honour the holy sacraments!

Faust: I honour them.

Margret: But without desire.
To the Mass, the Confession, you didn’t go since long ago.
Do you believe in God?

Faust: My love, who dares say:
I believe in God?
Ask it to a priest or wise man,
And their answer only seems to mock
With whom asks the question.

Margret: So you don’t believe?

Faust: don’t misunderstand me, you beauty!
Who dares mention him?
And who acknowledge:
I believe him?
Who dares bear the sense
And be so audacious
As to say: I don’t believe him?
The All-compriser,
The All-container,
Doesn’t he comprise and contain
You, me, and himself?
Does not the heaven arch up there?
Does not the earth lie fixed down here?
And do not eternal stars
Rise, kindly smiling?
Don’t I and you look into each other’s eyes?
And doesn’t everything push up
To head and heart in you,
And doesn’t weave in eternal secret
Invisible visible next to you?
Fill your heart with this, however big it might be,
And when your sense abounds with salvation,
Then call it whatever you like,
Call it Luck! Heart! Love! God!
I don’t have names
For it! Sense is it all;
A name is sound and smoke,
Misting heavenly glow.

Margret: That’s all just and good;
Our pastor says thing like these, too,
Only in slightly different words.

Faust: Everybody says it everywhere,
Every heart under the heavenly day,
Everybody in his language,
Why not in mine?

Margret: hearing it that way, it seems bearable,
But it’s not right anyway,
For you are lacking Christian faith.

from: J.W. von Goethe: Faust, part I

This week

<- Menno's school
This week was a quiet and at the same time busy week. We didn’t have any “classes” and so I could dedicate myself to marking some dissertations and other activities that don’t have the “priority of the day”. As for the dissertations, in our school we had a discussion whether these research assignments should be called “dissertations” or “ thesis”. Since about eight years, we have been an international school. The official language is English, although a minority of the students doesn’t speak Dutch. But it must be English otherwise there would be no international students at all. So we decided that it should be “dissertation”. I was so happy that one of them was really good, it was a research in a “big” hotel (there are almost no big hotels in the Netherlands, although Amsterdam is overcrowded with 5-star luxury hotels) to the extent of work-related stress, potentially leading to burn-out. The hotel industry in our country is, next to the “education industry”, the branch of industry with the highest percentage of stress victims. Furthermore, I wrote a column for our school-magazine. It was in Dutch, every now and then I write a column in Dutch and I notice much more response from colleagues and students when it is in Dutch then when it is, as usual, in English. I use Dutch when the topic is typical Dutch. This time it was the Dutch army in 1965, when I was a soldier. I represented the school as a military unit and described the beginning of a working day, with the morning roll. The “team leaders” and the dean were the sergeants and the captain, respectively, and the captain held a briefing speech in which some current school developments were “explained”. Some colleagues were reproved because they didn’t shave properly, had to buy a new jacket, were too late with their drill movements etc. At the end I wrote that now everything was clear, but that I awoke from a dream and had to make the journey to my school again. I wondered if some parts wouldn’t be too “sharp” but I decided not to exercise self-censoring.
I also attended a small training course in coaching students during a half-year improvement project in a hotel or restaurant. Teams of 3d-year students go to a company and diagnose its business situation. They have to do literature research, market research and operational research, their goal is improving a business area with at least 5%: 5% more profit, 5% more patronage, 5% more guest satisfaction, whatever relevant. This had to be conducted like a real-life project done by a business consultation company, completely with a contract, project planning and –monitoring, reports, and (a start of) implementation of intervention measures. In the meantime they have to do peer-assessment. Really tough.
Furthermore I had a so-called “ten minutes talk” at my son’s (9 year) school, which I found really satisfying (see picture, when you want to see more about Hurdegaryp, please click here, don't let you deter by Dutch, under "foto's" you can see many nice pictures). His strengths and weaknesses were discussed and we agreed on what to be alert on both in school and at home. Also I had talks with Janine about her school situation, which is far more complicated than mine. She has to teach “theoretical support” to adolescents who often see school as something they have to do, but often hate. A real motivation challenge. My students are older and really strive for an international hotel career, and like many aspects of school. She has to deal with situations not really focused on study or reflection, but on practical problem solving, “theory” is often considered as ballast, and practice trainees as “cheap hands” in cost-cutting health care institutions (elderly homes, mentally deprived homes, etc.). Everything that explains things on paper is called “theory”, everything that can be instructed by practising, is the “real work”, and paper is what too many of her students hate. Well, maybe they are right, and too many “theories” haven been produced by too many desk workers, but even in the kitchen, no chef got his position if (s)he wouldn’t have studied books on hygiene, recipes, ingredients, kitchen management etc.
Then I had my blogs. I find it a wonder, how three people from totally different places discuss about something on my blog. That “something” I picked up from the blog of one of them. It is a wonder and a challenge, because my weakness is that I can be quite rude and, by consequence, misunderstood by people, so I see it as sharpening my communication skills as well. I have to get used to the fact that these communications are multi-lateral, so I can’t communicate directly with them, only on the public “posting board” visible for everybody. But I think that it’s just this feature that urges one to watch his words and retain respect for everybody’s sincere opinion.

I also could fulfil a long existing desire, namely publication of my translation of Goethe’s poetry bundle “West-eastern divan” in Dutch. I experienced that editors are reluctant to publish things like these because of the small Dutch market. I could produce an e-book, but this also will cost me financing in advance. So now I opened a new blog on my Google-account to publish it on Internet, who knows what will happen afterwards (http://goethe-divan.blogspot.com) . When there is enough on it to assess its quality by competent and interested readers, I’ll try to interest some newspapers to publish a story so that more people will visit the blog. They are also invited to submit their own poems to be published between the poems by Goethe.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

About alchemy

(picture above: "Putrefactio" (decaying) was an important process in alchemy because without it new life isn't possible. The crosses (both in the crossbows and on the graves), the sower and the picking birds, and, as last but not least, the figure rising from his grave, strongly remind to biblical symbols, events and parables. The shooters and their target symbolise the goal that has to be achieved. When watching these figures please do not attach any literal meaning to it, just simply see them and associate, letting the symbols do their work. Otherwise the goal will not be reached :-). (Picture used by Jung in his essay "Dream-symbols of the individuation process")

Conrad Roth stimulated me to gather more information about alchemy. Alchemy seems to be an occult or mysterious art, like e.g. astrology, handline reading, tarot, numerology, etc. I don’t feel any interests in those arts, with exception of alchemy. Carl Jung was interested and made extensive studies in alchemist subjects, because of his fascination with his expertise, psychology, in combination with archetypes which he discovered to be of crucial importance for the way humans deal with facts of life and world. Alchemy is full of archetypical symbols. It tries to reach higher spiritual insights, to become “better humans” by working (laborare) with the elements of nature. These elements performed “acts” under the direction of the alchemist, who himself also played a role in the act, and got improved by it in a spiritual way. Many alchemists, I believe, were religious and practising Christians. Conrad asked me explanation because I believed that alchemist roots can be found in the bible. I have to be more precise: In terms of Jung, the bible contains also many archetypical symbols. They were archetypical, just to raise the right human feelings and thoughts belonging to the texts, and thus had greater impact on the reader than just the words of the text itself.

It took years for me to understand that the Truth (see also previous posts) can often better be experienced in symbols (representing archetypes) than read in words. I was aware of this, and got confirmed by the following text which I just took from Internet, although in these texts Alchemy was also disapproved as a "science" distracting from the truth:

Let the studious Reader have a care of the manifold significations of words, for by deceitful windings, and doubtful, yea contrary speeches (as it should seem), Philosophers wrote their mysteries, with a desire of veiling and hiding, yet not of sophisticating or destroying the truth; and though their writings abound with ambiguous and equivocal words; yet about none do they more contend than in hiding their Golden Branch.
The Hermetic Arcanum

Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold.She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her.Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor.Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace.She is a tree of life to those who embrace her; those who lay hold of her will be blessed. By wisdom the LORD laid the earth's foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place; by his knowledge the deeps were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew.
The Bible, Proverbs 3: 13-20

http://www.world-mysteries.com/awr_alchemy.htm
http://www.sacred-texts.com/alc/harcanum.htm
I think that just like words, also chemical activities can be used to "tell how it really is". That's also why many alchemists were looking for a way to concretely turn stone into physical gold, and saw it as a blessing from heaven if they would succeed.

Some archetypical figures from the bible are, according to Jung, Christ himself (Jung is very positive about Christianity and its rites), Melchisedec (who is said to be the bearer of the Stone of Wisdom), some parables from the Gospels (the parable of the sower, see the picture with this post), Maria (representing more than “only” the mother of Jesus), the snake and the “tree of knowledge” in the paradise, etc. Of course, these archetypes existed before alchemy was practised, but alchemy incorporated them into their work.

As a freemason I’m not expected to tell anything about the symbols and rituals we use, at least not what they entail. The curious searcher will be able to get information about it anyhow, but not from me. We are left free to interpret these symbols and rituals our own individual way, talk about it wit brothers, respect them in their interpretation, and also we use the word “working” with these symbols and rituals, which we “use” to get better insight in ourselves and improve our way of dealing with others, to become “better humans”. Many of us are also practising Christians, like me. Having said this, I can add that I recognise many alchemist symbols in our “way of working”. We compare ourselves with the ancient masons building cathedrals, which is also a way of dealing with nature around us, maybe extended to fellow-humans and ourselves (the cathedral, or the stone (!) we work on, that’s my self.

I think that too many people take the written or spoken word as representing reality, or, reality itself. They didn’t learn to distinguish between, what Goethe pointed out, the myth containing more truth than written or spoken words can contain, on the one hand, and the myth as a story in written / spoken words with which the myth, and the truth, are completely identified. So they believe the myth has to be imposed on everyday life, and other people also have to take the myth as “truth” for everyday life, forming the basis of laws and regulations and if you don’t agree you will be killed or tortured.

There is an abundance of sites on alchemy on Internet, but I think one must be careful to make a distinction.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

A walk with the dogs

My son Menno (right) with his friend (left) playing with our dog (in Summer)


Friday 2 February I had my evening with the Freemasons. Being a member now for 13 years, I know what to tell about it and what not. There was a time many Freemasons’ wives didn’t even know that their husband was a member and that everything that was going on in their meetings was top secret, but nowadays we are less mysterious about it. Please see the website of Dutch freemasonry here, there you can also be linked to the site of our lodge “De Friesche Trouw” in Leeuwarden. Anyway, there was a discussion about Mozart’s opera “The magic Flute” which many consider to be “Freemason’s opera”. I think there are certainly elements in it that Freemasonry also uses in their ceremonies, but I think it is more a “Life career opera” using ritual acts that are derived from alchemy. In old Masonic paintings and pictures you often see symbols that we now don’t know about anymore, but at that time most educated people had their associations with, and they often derived from alchemy. Alchemy is nowadays associated with searching for a method to turn a stone into a lump of gold, at least by people who never read anything about it. In the 18th century many Freemasons had a hobby in alchemy which they considered as a way to get access to spiritual knowledge and more understanding of forces in human life and interaction See more about it here. C.G. Jung did elaborate study about it, too. Recently I visited an old lodge building from 1770 and saw a painting on which a putti (baby-like little angel) had a prominent place, and that putti was smoking a pipe! We were too busy with other things then, but I certainly will ask explanation about it some day. Anyway, I love the music of the magic flute and next to “Don Giovanni” I arrange it among the most delicious music Mozart ever wrote.
The next day was a household day, back to earth again: walking with the dogs, the laundry, the shopping, the cleaning of the floor together with my beloved Janine. In the evening we had our 2-monthly Mahjong evening, I and 3 ladies assembled around a game I hardly know. I just play because they need a fourth player, and for being and enjoying good company. What interests me about the game is its history and the symbols it uses. It is extremely “random”: by extensive random rules it is made certain that no player gains advantage by the sequence of the tiles or whatever. Also the wind directions play a role: North-West-East-South, and the East is considered to be left from the South, just the opposite of what we see on maps.
This Saturday, I also had the occasion to read an interview with an outspoken atheist who stated that he hated people who were searching the Truth such as me, had no idea of how everything functioned and what it’s all about in life and world. He is a well-known intellectual in the Netherlands (Max Pam, I’d rather call him Max Spam). He said that Nazism wouldn’t have been emerged if there were no Christianity, and that Hitler considered himself a Roman Catholic. And, I saw how he was right in some respects, which shocked my mind. Didn’t Paul reject Judaic Law? Didn’t Luther persecute the Jews because they wouldn’t accept Jesus as their Saviour? Wasn’t there, before World War II, a wide-spread anti-Semitic tendency in European culture, at least tacitly and sometimes openly, tolerated by Christian churches?
And then, wile walking with the two dogs (one of our own and one guest-dog) I decided that Max Pam was a controversial figure who couldn’t be right: in general, the Jews were a cultural minority and it’s almost a sociological law that cultural minorities, especially when they base themselves upon a different religion, are not loved by the mainstream culture and religion. In times of economic depression this can lead to outburst when the illiterate masses look for a scapegoat. Also, saying that he hated searching people clearly demonstrates that he knows how the world and society are functioning. Well, let him think that if it makes him happy. Thank you for letting me think, dear dogs! Now Janine is walking with them and my little son is making a mess with his little friend, making a bowl of popcorn and, because I wasn’t watching, decorating it with mayonnaise, chips, ketchup, chocolate grains, salt and sugar. Upstairs the toys (pieces of Lego and stuff) are spread around on the floor. Not many 62-year old men are enjoying these pleasures, I think. Oh, I remember I have to make a number of calls and paying some bills today, too. So till next time, dear reader, when I hope to continue with my search to the origins of hospitality, the Truth and God.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

The light is shining

8 years ago I made this poem, it has a relation to the previous posting although it's not about words or meaning. I got inspired to it by a fragment in Goethe's Faust where Mefisto, a devil, meets Faust and tells him that he is fighting matter because only by matter light is originated and spread around. So if he will succeed in destroying all matter, then light will also have vanished.

After the Dutch original an attempt to translation will be presented underneath. PLease post a comment if the translation can be improved because of possible language deficiencies. Although the Dutch version is in rhime, the English version isn't: English isn't my mother's language.

Het licht schijnt in de duisternis

Ik weet van mij, maar meer dan dat,
Meer ben ik, dan ik denk te weten,
Ik ben als jij een mens en ik bevat
Meer dan de schepping immer heeft bezeten.

Het Al heeft op zichzelf bevochten
De mens, die op zichzelve ziet
En op hetgeen waarmee hij is vervlochten:
De stof, die hem het licht en leven biedt.

Het licht heeft zich een plaats verworven
En heeft het leven aan de stof gegeven.
In duisternis zou 't zijn gestorven
Als 't niet door stof kon blijven leven.

Dat weten jij en ik als mens:
Ons is de stof gegeven om het licht,
Door onze zinnen, als haar lens,
Ziet de natuur haar eigen vergezicht.

Dat is wat ik, wat jij ook ziet:
Het licht blijft in het duister schijnen,
Gegrepen door het duister wordt het niet,
Maar doet het evenmin verdwijnen.


Wij kunnen niet slechts blijven schouwen,
Maar doen als zij, die door ons kijkt:
Een tempel als een kosmos bouwen
Waar 't licht langs donk're stenen strijkt.

Erik Tjallinks februari 1998

The light shines in the darkness

I am aware of you, and more than that,
I’m more than my awareness tells I am,
I am like you a man and I contain
More than creation ever has contained.

The All has conquered from itself
The man, who looks upon himself,
But also which he’s intertwined with:
Matter, giving light and life to him.

Light has conquered for itself a place,
And has given life to matter,
It would have passed away in darkness,
If through matter it couldn’t stay alive.

You and I know this, as we are men
To us is given matter just for light,
Through our senses, as her lens,
Nature sees her self-created sight.

This is what I, and what you also see:
The light keeps shining in the dark,
Seized by the dark it never will,
But neither causes it to disappear.

We can’t keep seeing just like this,
Let’s act like her, who sees through us,
And build a temple like a universe,
Where stones, though dark, are stroked by light.

Erik TjallinksFebruary 1998