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.

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.

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.

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.

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

The meaning of meaning II

The beginning of the Gospel of St John. 'In principio erat verbum et verbum erat apud Deum et Deus erat verbum' ('In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God'). Source: click here. From:

The St Petersburg Gospels (eighth century)St Petersburg, National Library of Russia, MS. Lat. F.v.I. 8 , a gospel-book written at an unidentified centre, possibly in southern England, perhaps towards the end of the eighth century.

Und doch haben sie recht, die ich schelte:

Denn dasz ein Wordt nicht einfach gelte,

Das müsste sich wohl von selbst verstehen.

Das Wort ist ein Fächer! Zwischen den Stäben

Blicken ein Paar schöne Augen hervor.

Der Fächer ist nur ein lieblicher Flor,

Er verdeckt mir zwar das Gesicht,

Aber das Mädchen verbirgt er nicht,

Weil das Schönste, was sie besitzt,

Das Auge, mir ins Auge blitzt.

And yet they are right, those whom I'm scolding:

Because a word isn't simply valid,

Which of course is clearly obvious.

The word is a fan! Between its sticks

Two beautiful eyes are looking at you.

The fan is only a lovely veil,

I admit, it covers the face,

But it doesn't hide the girl,

Because the most beautiful she possesses,

The eye, flashes into my eye.

Joh. Wolfgang von Goethe

What are you reading, my lord?

- Words, words, words.

Shakespeare

Mankind has always had problems in making a distinction between what is really “true”and what is “only a representation”. I could give numerous examples of it, but let’s restrict ourselves to law. Law pretends to find the truth in cases of crime or conflicts between individuals, and test this truth against the rules. Witnesses have to promise by oath that they will tell “the truth, only the truth and nothing but the truth”. Modern law has been heavily influenced by insights about scientific investigation developed since about 250 years, which gradually grew to the generally accepted conclusion that in science and in law only those events, phenomena, situations etc. belong to “the truth” that (a) are observable by human senses and (b) are agreed upon that they are observable by human senses, by generally accepted “common sense”, i.e. the values and norms of the culture in which the laws and investigation methods take place. Indeed, to avoid disputes and conflicts about what is “generally accepted common sense”, rules to determine what this entails have been codified in law itself, too.

Philosophy of science has invented the concept of “inter-subjectivity” to indicate that 100% “objectivity” cannot be obtained by human senses. Before these about 250 years the ruling cultures of Western civilisation have been aware of this, too, but many decisions of what was “generally accepted common sense about what is observable by human senses” were taken by political and religious power.

So, what could be read in Holy Books was readable, thus these texts were also clear and understandable by everybody who could read. Religions with one or more Holy Books were thus called “revelation religions”, because in these books God Himself is assumed to reveal what is true. In this idea the concept of “inter-subjectivity” is ignored and/or rejected. The early-Medieval Christians were debating about what had to be understood by the gospels, and what gospels could be declared “legitimate” and what gospels could not. Also, what essential dogma’s should be incorporated into the Christian religion had to be codified and made clear to people as “the prescribed Truth”. Dogma’s are elements of truth not observable by human senses, but stated, again, in multi-interpretable words. In Eastern Christianity a dogma is recognised as a mystery that cannot be further discussed or analysed, implicitly recognising its symbolic function (“symbol” interpreted as “symbolic for the Holy Truth”). In the West, however, dogma’s became starting points for extensive theologian debate. The Council of Nicea was a milestone in establishing the legislation of truth for the Christian Church. I believe that, in effect, the Roman Catholic Chuch has been officially founded in the Council of Nicea.

Between people in the West, but also within these people, conflicts arose debating the dogma’s. It is generally assumed that Reformation took place because of misconduct of the Roman Catholic elite, but I think there was more. John Calvin c.s. also applied scientific reasoning to dogma’s in his predestination doctrine, which became a dogma in itself. The dogma-debaters were all erudite scholars, but their theories had to be made clear to the then illiterate masses, who fully had to come to terms with the meaning of life, the opinion of what was true held by their local nobility, and all kinds of uncertainties which are considered “certain” by 21st-century, average-educated people. This created (and still creates) much misery suffered by “orthodox” religious people who ask themselves if they are “truly converted” or not, when they are in their hour of dying.

I hope these words of mine illustrate the confusion when it comes to determine what is “true” or not. My believe is that it is commonly agreed upon that there is a truth or truths, but that mankind doesn’t manage to capture this in language words. Why not? Just because these words are understood in different ways by people, dependent on if, and how, they are learned and understood by children and adolescents in the environment that raises and educates them (if they are educated at all). Some philosophers reason that there is no truth at all, but I think that all philosophy must be stated in words and thoughts in words, and that even truth-deniers have to admit that they exist, and that there is an earth, a moon etc. etc. that everybody can see with their senses.

Recently I read some information about “picture thinking” which I found very interesting in this context. There is a small minority of intelligent people who are not well able to arrange their thoughts in verbal concepts: they are naturally inclined to think in visual representations. Of course they experience much difficulty in school education and verbal reasoning, but they excel in finding solutions for all kinds of difficult situations that verbally thinking people have the greatest problems with. I’m sure I sometimes come across them in the Hotel Management School where I work. They are not able to write a dissertation or assignment according to the standards and reading their products one would ask how this student got admittance to the school in the first place, but when one learns how they perform in their internship job as a management trainee in a 5-star hotel, there is nothing but excellence. No business organisation is more hectic than a big luxury hotel in a metropolis city where our trainees are working as part of their study. One needs people as managers, who can oversee a situation immediately, who are well able to anticipate how situations will look like and what resources and facilities they require, and take the right decisions on the spot. Who are also able to manage, no, to master themselves and keep feeling sure and confident, also when much spending guests are treating them rudely. These people are confident when a verbally thinking individual (like me) would almost die with a dry mouth of stress. On the other hand, they feel often very stressed when they have to hold a presentation before an audience, which takes place at the school quite often and until recently I was wondering how these stress-proof youngsters could be so nervous when they are required to perform a presentation. I don’t say that all these students are picture-thinkers, but I suspect that their number is over-presented in our school, and that picture-thinking is not an either-or characteristic, but follows more or less a gradual scale.

Turning back to the truth and how we humans are dealing with it. I believe we are able, other than animals, to “see” the truth, only we are not able to capture it in language-words or pictures. Next time, before analysing the phenomenon of hospitality, and what we understand by it in its deepest sense (as promised in our posting “the meaning of meaning I”), more about the Truth as it manifests itself in poetry, symbols and human interaction. It will appear that my meaning of meaning is supported by nobody less than Norbert Elias.