Sander's Reflexions

It’s been a strange week. Yesterday I’ve seen Mozart’s opera ‘Così Fan Tutte’. Wonderful music and a very simple story. A farce or comedy where two lovers test the fidelity of their fiancées. The title ‘Così Fan Tutte’ (They are all alike) already unveils that the women will fail in this test. A scenario that was considered highly immoral at the time it was written and still makes one frown his brow. But the libretto has many subtleties that make you laugh and think about love. For me this was some light relief.

It was much lighter than last weeks performance of The Elementary Particles by ‘Het Nationale Toneel’. There was enough humour in the play, but is was not cheerful. Although, it was easier to digest than the book written by Michel Houellebecq. It is a story about two brothers struggling with life and love. One is lost in his scientific thoughts, the other in his lusts. Both are not capable to really love another. It’s questioning real love in modern society.

Than, just between those two clamorous artworks about love and life. There was this dreadful news. A very nice colleague lost wife and baby and stays behind with his two year old daughter. Reality without logic. Pitiless. There are no words for it. Just silence….

I was listening to a CD of Miles Davis. "Is that an elephant making music?", was the positive reaction of my daughter. Positive, yes. She usually says, "I don’t like papa-music. I want children music!" This time she listened with interest. "Darling, it is not an elephant. It’s a famous musician playing the trumpet." She looked at me. "No daddy, you’re joking. It is an elephant. They sound just like a trumpet."


Quote of the day: "Good music is like making love". Fernando Lameirinhas.

Roos already replied that my decision to start these reflexions was my own. It also was my own decision to reply on Jelle’s posting. But is it a coincidence that he posted this text exacly 25 years after the dead of Sartre? And why did I associate this text with Sartre? After posting my comment I read an article about Sarte in my newspaper and became aware of this remarkable coincident.
Sartre wrote: "Man can will nothing unless he has first understood that he must count no one but himself; that he is alone, abandoned on earth in the midst of his infinite responsibilities, without help, with no other aim than the one he sets himself, with no other destiny than the one he forges for himself on this earth." (from L'Être et le Néant / Being and Nothingness, 1943)
So our freedom implies that we are responsible for our own destiny. We must build it ourselves. The nasty thing is that we are not free to pick the ingredients, the things we encounter on our path.
More Sartre here.

Did you ever buy a car? It’s not an easy thing to do. This time I have put some more constraints. At least I want enough space for luggage and I have restricted my budget. So I looked around for a car that suited me. Most car vendors talk about the qualities of the cars they have. But yesterday there was a young boy, age 12, that came to me and said "Isn’t she beautiful?" He’s going to be a good merchant. It’s not a car. C’est une voiture! Féminin. C’est de l’émotion! L’emozione! And even the British know that. Look at their cars. Jaguar, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Aston Martin, MG, Rover and so many others. It’s passion. You don’t buy a car with your brains. You don’t buy it with your heart. You buy it with your .. ehhh .. maybe it’s your tan tien. An automobile should swing and rock and move you with passion.
Once I had a Twingo. The most luxurious one with leather seats and air-conditioning. When I offered to give a ride to a lady, she replied that public transport was okay. Before the Twingo I had a Rover. Everybody enjoyed it.
So finally I know the most important requirement for my new car. The only problem is that if I also want enough space I get problems with my budget.

Reflections of sound. My head is full of it. Rhythms, melodies, harmonies. Some simple, some complex. I’ve been to a great concert, a performance of Frank Zappa’s Joe’s Garage. It was my first Zappa. I know very little about him, but he is a genius, madman and a freak. After a few songs my head was overloaded. I tried to follow the musical lines, but lost them. When the intellect fails, emotion is still there. I didn’t know what they where doing, but it was fun. On my way home my head was filled with echo’s. Small fragments of sound that just before had made a song. They say Mozart could reproduce a piece of music with 6 voices that he had heard only once! Well, I can’t. Not even 1 voice. I’ve tried for a long time. Last night, one of my teachers was playing the keyboards. He can. I can’t. He enjoyed it. So did I! There should be more composers with this mad genius.

Today, just one of my favorite pieces of philosophy. As a scientist I put a high value on perception. How could we know that something exists if we cannot perceive it? One of the great founders of Empiricism is George Berkeley (1685-1753). [You’re right. It’s when Newton lived.] But can things exist when they are not perceived? Well, says Bishop Berkeley, God perceives everything. Ronald Knox (brother of Alberto in Sophie’s World?) summarized Berkeley’s answer in the following limerick.

There was a young man who said "God
Must think it exceedingly odd
If he finds that this tree
Continues to be
When there's no one about in the Quad."

"Dear Sir, your astonishment's odd;
I am always about in the Quad
And that's why this tree
Will continue to be
Since observed by Yours faithfully, God."

But what if God takes a nap? Fortunately, today we have Internet and people all over the world can still perceive us. Hey, I exist!

For Jelle, I have found a special student version here.

My best beloved is my wonderful daughter. She’s a bright and shining mirror. A reflector that lets you reflect. Yesterday we had dinner. Like most children she complains about vegetables. She likes meat though, but this time it was a bit spicy. "There is too much pepper in it", she said. "Well, pepper is good against your cold," I said. "It frees your nose." One bite later she asked: "Are there any vitamins in pepper?" "No, not really. Why?" "You see, it’s not healthy to put pepper in the food." I had to honour this point. She looked victorious and I got her meat. But her smile faded when I said that her spinach does contain a lot of vitamins. She is fair. She honoured my point and ate her spinach without further complaints. But I still regret that the pepper will be banned for some time.

She likes meat, especially sausages. She also wants to know everything. Some time ago we had lamb. "Does this meat come from the lambs?", she asked. "Yes, that’s why it’s called lamb meat." "Do the lambs make it?" "Yes, they do." "Do they like it?" "Ehh, not exactly." "Why not?" "These are the lambs buttocks." It took her a second. She said, "Oh…", and took another bite. Yesterday she picked up the topic. She had understood that a horse can be brought to the butcher who makes horse meat. She wanted to know if it hurts when the butcher cuts away the meat. "No, the horse does not feel it, because it is already dead. They let it die before they cut the meat." "Oh. But they may not do that with a mama horse having babies", she said with a firm look. "Don’t they do it?" "No dear." Ethics at the age of 4.

I decided to start a blog a few days ago. It took me some time to really start blogging, but I would rather call it a reflex than something I reflected on. It was Jelle who gave me the trigger. He said I should do it and I thought I'll do it. However, I'm not sure that his words were spoken before the thought came into being. This two things might even be unrelated. It’s hard to prove that his words caused my thought. It’s very likely that I already wanted a blog before he said it. I definitely was conditioned, because a year ago another friend said I should start a weblog. It could also be that Roos smiled when I heard the word blog. Who knows? Anyway, on my way home I knew I would start a weblog.

The most difficult part was still to come. What would be my first story? There are so many irrelevant things to start with! There was one thing I was NOT going to do. I would not start with a My First Blog explaining why I wanted to write. No, my first story would be given by my best beloved. And this evening she gave me something to write about. So tonight I created my weblog. But things don’t always (or never) go as you expect. Before I could write my story Blogger asked me the title of my blog. A TITLE? I wasn’t prepared for that question. The answer was not given in a reflex. Lots of transpiration till I got the inspiration, or rather, hit the right word in the dictionary. But that needed some explanation. You’ll find most of it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflection
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflection_(computer_science)
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=reflection
The spelling? Do we reflect on the things we do or are our actions just reflexes?

Honestly, I’m very pleased with the title. It allows me to write about philosophy, mysticism, physics and even computer science.

Why do I write in English and not in Dutch? Just because I want to share some thoughts with friends outside The Netherlands. Forgive me this small mistake.
And the story of my beloved? Tomorrow….