Translations of the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

There are many translations of the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.  It is important, I think, to know what you are getting when you get a copy of the Meditations for your study.  I think if you are reading Marcus Aurelius for the first time you should consider getting the best translation, which is by Maxwell Staniforth (1964) on Amazon here.  Here is the opening line from the Staniforth translation.  "Courtesy and serenity of temper I first learnt to know from  my grandfather Versus."  This version is not in the public domain so you need to buy a copy of the book.  The book is out of print, so when you buy it on the used book market there is a chance your seller will mess up and send you another book from Penguin Classics, but you don't want that translation because it is flat and lifeless.  You should get the 1964 version from Maxwell Staniforth.  Here is a photo of the book cover.

The book is isbn 0140441409.  There a second entry for the 1964 book on Amazon.  It is odd that there are two entries for the same book on Amazon, but Amazon is not perfect.  You want the out-of-print Penguin edition because the new translation (2002) that is in-print is awful.

Here are other versions of this first verse from the Meditations.

"Of my grandfather Versus I have learned to be gentle and meek, and to refrain from all anger and passion."  Translator:  Meric Casaubon in 1634.  This is available online at Project Gutenberg as the Meditations.

"From my grandfather Versus I learned to relish the beauty of manners, and to restrain all anger." Translator:  Francis Hutcheson (1742).  Online link.

"From my grandfather Versus I learned good morals and the government of my temper."
Translated by George Long (1862).  A Dover Thrift edition available online here.  I do like the Dover Thrift edition.  This is also available online from Project Gutenberg as THE THOUGHTS OF MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS.  Yes, there are two versions of the Meditations at Project Gutenberg.

"From my Grandfather Versus, a kindly disposition and sweetness of temper."  Translated by C. R. Haines 1915.  You can briefly view an online copy here.  The Haines translation can be purchased as a book here.

Now you can select the version of the Meditations you like best. Enjoy your reading!

Robert

Good Acapella Gospel Singing

I want to mention a couple of great acapella gospel albums.  One is Anywhere Is Home by Jean Redpath and Lisa Neustadt.  Here is the list of songs on the album.
1. Turn Your Radio On
2. Just As the Evening Sun
3. Precious Lord
4. Standing on the Promises
5. Now My Dear Companions
6. Life's Railway to Heaven
7. Jesus Hold My Hand
8. If You Believe
9. Let the Lower Lights Be Burning
10. Anywhere Is Home
11. Oh, He's Taken My Feet
12. When Morning Comes
13. Grey Funnel Line
14. Run Come See Jerusalem
15. Sailor's Prayer
16. Near the Cross
17. Face to Face

I was not familiar with #9 Let the Lower Lights Be Burning and #14 Run Come See Jerusalem until I purchased this album and I like them very much.  This album has song samples on Amazon.  The liner notes are very nice.  They include comments on the songs and all the lyrics.  Comments on songs #2 and 3 say that some songs are from an old hymnal, Awakening Glory, owned once by Davis Hammel, a circuit rider preacher in Oklahoma's past.  These are certainly old time gospel songs.  They are largely acapella, but there is occasionally some light instrumentation.

When you read the lyrics to Run Come See Jerusalem you see the song describes the shipwreck of the Pretoria, a ship that went down in the Great Lakes.  Here is a URL to a discussion on this song:  http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=67533.  It seems to me that Run Come See Jerusalem is more a folk song than a gospel song.  The singers are more folk singers than gospel singers through their careers.

Here is an article about Jean Redpath and here is an article about Lisa Neustadt.  The article about Neustadt mentions she was a child when her family fled Nazi Germany in the 1930's to escape the persecution of the Jews.  We in America have forgotten  that millions of Jews were murdered by the Nazis.  In Treblinka alone 800,000 men, women, and children were systematically killed by Germans, the best educated people in Europe.  I believe it is by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit that people can resist the temptation to do evil.  Gospel music is more than entertainment, it is an inspiration to lead Godly lives.

Another album of theirs is Angels Hovering Round.  Here are the songs on this album.
1. Where the Soul of Man Never Dies
2. Land Where We'll Never Grow Old
3. There Are Angels Hovering 'Round
4. Dry Bones
5. Lighthouse
6. Precious Memories
7. This World Is Not My Home
8. Angel Band
9. Harbour Bells
10. Down on My Knees
11. Jesus, Won't You Come By Here?
12. Give Me Your Hand
13. Have Thine Own Way

Both singers are dead.  Enjoy their songs while their albums are still available.

Robert

Optometist David Fitzhugh Out of Business

Dr. David Fitzhugh in Plano had been my optometrist for many years.  I called his office a few weeks ago and there was no answer and no answering machine.  I drove to his office and looked and all his eye glass  material was removed from his office and his business was not open.

There is now a temporary sign up for a geriatrics clinic.  Dr. Fitzhugh's website for Plano Vision is still on the web.  I did not receive a post card nor a call that he was going out of business. I've been going to him for 20 years.  I do not know what happened to him. If you are wondering what happened to him, at least you don't have to drive to his office like I did.

Robert

Jim Rousselle and Chess

I was just thinking about how nice chess has been in my life. When I was in high school I was a kid without any real direction and I was not a dedicated student.  Chess caught my imagination.  It was at first a mystery on how to play the game.  In high school an older student in the chess club lent me a copy of  New Ideas in Chess by Larry Evans.  When I finished this book my chess playing improved significantly.  Then I read The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played: 62 Masterpieces of Chess Strategy by Irving Chernev and I found myself using some of the strategic ideas in my games. What was great about chess was way rules of the game created so many possibilities, yet there were still ideas to pull out of the  complexity, ideas that made sense.  Chess moved from being a mystery to being a revelation.

Physics and mathematics have revealed laws of nature that describe how the universe around us works.  And chess masters have revealed the laws of chess.  Chess is a lot like mathematics where a small number of rules creates a rich and complex system.  I enjoyed chess for many years and it was studying chess that led me to develop study skills that helped me do well in mathematics, science, and engineering at college.

I was in a Catholic all-boys school, Brother Martin, and a Chinese student in the chess club recommended I run for election as the club president even though I would not be a senior.  Traditionally the president was a senior.  After I won the election I wanted to be a good president so I arranged for us to have chess matches with other schools.  When we played Holy Cross High School their 1st board was a freshman named Jim Rousselle. Our 1st board was a senior and Jim wiped him out.

I could drive so I offered to drive Jim to the Eches Carre Chess Club, which at that time was meeting in the Milton Latter Library on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans.  Jim mopped the floor with everyone.  While Jim was still in high school he became the Louisiana State Chess Champion.  He defeated all the adults.  I remember one time when I was picking him up he set up a chess position from memory and showed me a spectacular combination played by Frank Marshall, the famous American chess champion.  Jim could remember entire games from memory.  Can you picture how talented Jim Rousselle was and is still?  I just checked and he won the state championship for the 6th time in 2013.

One more story about Jim.  We met at a high school chess tournament at Jesuit High School and I groaned because I knew how out-matched I was.  He told me I could pick my color and the opening.  I chose white and I asked him to play the Queen's Gambit Declined.  I thought this might be my best chance for a draw. Then he sacrificed his queen.  Of course he crushed me.  The combination was so nice he had it published in the Louisiana Chess Association (LCA) Chess Bulletin.

It was an older player in high school who helped me improve by loaning a book to me.  I like to think I helped Jim Rousselle on his road to success in chess.  Finding the Eches Carre Chess Club was difficult.  There was no internet at that time so I do not know how he would have found it if I had not taken him there.  They did not advertise, but they had great players and they had club tournaments that helped me and Jim grow as players.

Helping others is a Confucian concept.  From the CONFUCIAN ANALECTS by James Legge, Book VI, CHAP. XXVIII, Verse 2, we have this:  "Now the man of perfect virtue, wishing to be established himself, seeks also to establish others; wishing to be enlarged himself, he seeks also to enlarge others."  You can download this version of the Analects from Project Gutenberg, or you can purchase my book on Confucianism , Achieve Lasting Happiness: Timeless Secrets to Transform Your Life by Robert E. Canright, Jr., that includes the Analects. This is my introduction to the Analects for general reader.

Chess has been a big part of my life.  It has been very satisfying.  I was once in a chess tournament in Richardson, Texas, and I saw my opponent was Rodney Thomas.  I said to myself, "I know a Rodney Thomas from New Orleans."  Well, my opponent was Rodney Thomas from New Orleans.  He was a freshman while I was a senior in high school.  He was now much better in chess than I was and he defeated me soundly, but it was a pleasure to meet him as an adult and to get to know him better.

FYI:  here is a link to some of Jim Rousselle's games on the internet: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=132728

Chess has been good to me in so many ways:  learning to study, personal growth, like developing a sense of intuition, and then the joy of companionship with other players.  I recommend chess to you.

Robert

Book: Zen in the Art of Archery

Today I pulled the book  Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel off my bookshelf and decided to think about it.  I have read the little book twice.  I read this version from Amazon.  You can  now read a free PDF version of the book.  The book describes how Dr. Herrigel, a western philosopher, learned archery from a zen master.  It was a unique approach to archery, but there was more to it than the archery.

Let's think about the underlying influences of this work. For your benefit, here are the closing paragraphs of the book.

Every Master who practices an art molded by Zen is like a flash of lightning from the cloud of all encompassing Truth.  This Truth is present in the free movement of his spirit, and he meets it again, in " It ", as his own original and nameless essence. He meets this essence over and over again as his own being’s utmost possibilities, so that the Truth assumes for him and for others through him  ̇a thousand shapes and forms.
    In spite of the unexampled discipline to which he has patiently and humbly subjected himself he is still a long way from being so permeated and irradiated by Zen that he is sustained by it in everything he does, so that his life knows only good hours. The supreme freedom has still not become a necessity for him.
    If he is irresistibly driven towards this goal, he must set out on his way again, take the road to the artless art. He must dare to leap into the Origin, so as to live by the Truth and in the Truth, like one who has become one with it. He must become a pupil again, a beginner; conquer the last and steepest stretch of the way, undergo new transformations. If he survives its perils, then is his destiny fulfilled: face to face he beholds the unbroken Truth, the Truth beyond all truths, the formless Origin of origins, the Void which is the All, is absorbed into it and from it emerges reborn.

Let's consider the final sentence: "the Truth beyond all truths, the formless Origin of origins, the Void which is the All."  It sounds inspirational, but I think it is empty.  The fundamental point of the book is the exploration of the irrational, or non-rational:  hitting a target without aiming at it.

I am a mathematician, engineer, and scientist, but I am also a philosopher, having written a book on Confucianism.  I know what it is like to create mechanisms or programs that accomplish useful work.  I am a man of action.  I also believe we humans have souls and a purpose.  I understand the romantics who chafe against the practical. Here are some of the lyrics to The Logical Song by Supertramp.

When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful,
A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical.
And all the birds in the trees, well they'd be singing so happily,
Joyfully, playfully watching me.
But then they sent me away to teach me how to be sensible,
Logical, responsible, practical.
And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable,
Clinical, intellectual, cynical.
...
Won't you sign up your name, we'd like to feel you're
Acceptable, respectable, presentable, a vegetable!

Look at the disparagement, calling logical people vegetables.  Here are some lines from the song The Traitor by Leonard Cohen

Ah the dreamers ride against the men of action
Oh see the men of action falling back

Leonard Cohen pictures the dreamers in rebellion against the men of action.  When people rebel against teaching or learning mathematics, they come from this place, this mind-set, this rebellion against the logical and the practical.  Some dreams inspire us, uplift us.  But some dreams, like basing a life on rebellion or a commitment to the irrational, are misleading and potentially harmful.

Robert

The Joy of Sending Cards

My church asked its members to send each other cards this year.  I like sending cards.  An invitation to send cards to my brethren is nice.  You too might enjoy sending cards to family and friends. For postcards I recommend Dover Publications (http://store.doverpublications.com/).  Start at their main web page,  type "post cards into the search box.  This takes you to the Stationary page, which has a tab marked "card books."  You will see the "favorites" list, but you can click on the "View all Card Books" button and see a larger list.  They have a nice selection of post cards.

A good source for cards that fold and go into envelopes (note cards) is Pomegranate (http://www.pomegranate.com/).  You will have to click on "Shop by Artist" and explore for note card sets.  But if you go to Half-Price Books, you can go to their note card/stationary section and you will find card sets from Pomegranate.

The final touch is to go to the US Post Office website and order attractive stamps.  An attractive stamp is a nice touch to an attractive note card or post card!

Robert

You might enjoy a related post:
The Joy of Letter Writing  September 7, 2015
http://planoparents.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-joy-of-letter-writing.html
In the Plano Parents blog

Which Judy Collins Albums Went Gold or Platinum

It was hard to find out which Judy Collins albums went platinum.  They were COLORS OF THE DAY  (year certified platinum = 1997) and  JUDITH  (1996).

These Judy Collins albums went gold: WILDFLOWERS (1969), WHO KNOWS WHERE THE TIME GOES (1969), IN MY LIFE (1970), WHALES & NIGHTINGALES (1971)

So she had 2 platinum albums and 4 gold albums.

Source:
http://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=default-award&se=judy+collins#search_section

RIAA is the Recording Industry Association of America.

Robert

Nice Pens

When you write notes and letters it is nice to have a good pen.  I mentioned the Pilot Metropolitan Fountain Pen (Black Plain, Fine nib, although you have many choices), a bargain at $15, in another blog post:  The Joy of Letter Writing, September 7, 2015, in my Plano Parents blog.  I bought it from the Goulet Pen Company (http://www.gouletpens.com/).  You can also find a nice description of rollerball pens in this article:  Letter of Recommendation: Uni-ball Signo UM-151 By TOM VANDERBILT, New York Times Magazine, MAY 21, 2015.  I have been using the Uni-ball Signo UM-151 and I like it, although it is so sharp, 0.38 mm, that it takes a little time to get used to it.  I like the way the cap snaps onto the pen with a solid click both to cover the pen for storage or to click the cover onto the end in order to write with the pen.  I like writing with the Uni-Ball Vision Elite Micro Point (0.5 mm). There is also a Bold Point (0.8 mm). The cover, or cap, clicks closed very nicely, but it is a little mushy when you try to snap the cover onto the back of the pen. I usually put the cap on the table, but I do like this pen and use it regularly.  It has a nice ink flow and a satisfying heft. I have re-purchased it.

One pen I liked from this article is the Pentel EnerGel.  I use this pen frequently.  It is a retractable liquid gel pen, 0.5mm.  I use it to write post-cards.  I also ended up getting a Uni-Ball 207, a 0.7 mm pen, which I enjoy because it is retractable.  This is the pen I now use for standard applications, like addressing envelopes and writing checks.

There is a list of 5 top pens on the Pen Addict website:  http://www.penaddict.com/top-5-pens/

Enjoy writing with a good pen!

Robert

Remembering New Age

I was remembering the New Age movement today.  Doing some house cleaning today I tossed out a copy of Journey to Ixtlan, The Lessons of Don Juan (1972) by Carlos Castaneda .  I made a note in the book, "the world is a feeling."  The quote on page 193 says, "The most difficult part about the warrior's way is to realize that the world is a feeling.  When one is not-doing, one is feeling the world..."  Remember the movie Star Wars came out in 1977 with a big emphasis on feelings:  "Stretch out with your feelings," said Obi-Wan to Luke.  The movie cashed in on some New Age jargon.

I had family that liked the works of Carlos Castaneda and I had friends who liked the book The Way of the Peaceful Warrior (1980) by Dan Millman.  I read both books because I wanted to see what family and friends liked, and I was unmoved by both books.   They made a movie out of the book The Way of the Peaceful Warrior and I took my daughter to see if she, as a young person, could see any value in the story.  My daughter was bored.  I was truly bored to tears.  Yes, my eyes teared up, I was so bored that I discovered that "bored to tears" is more than an expression.

In retrospect, I continue to be amazed at how many people were drawn to so many off-beat ideas within the New Age movement.   But then people still believe in Marxism.  Bad ideas have a long shelf-life.

Robert

The Big Short is an Amazing Movie

I saw The Big Short this weekend.  It is an amazing movie with Steve Carell, Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Hamish Linklater (from The Crazy Ones and The Newsroom),  and Karen Gillan (Amy from Doctor Who).  The movie is based on a book with the same title.  Michael Lewis (the author), the screenwriters, and the director took a complex set of events and explained the 2007 financial meltdown in a way that is informative, dramatic, and humorous.  And yet when characters showed a lack of respect for the human tragedy caused by the meltdown, other characters berated them for insensitivity.  That was tasteful self-restraint.  This movie is a work of genius.  Because the seamy side of Wall Street is portrayed, the movie has a deserved R rating.  This is not a family film, but it is an important film.

For the shear educational value, I think every person in the world should see this film.  The subprime mortgage disaster caused hardships around the entire world, so this film is of global importance.

Robert

Marfa in the News

Marfa, Texas, is mentioned in the Sunday New York Times, January 3, 2016, page 1 of the Arts & Leisure section, in the article Big Visions, Barely Seen by Randy Kennedy.  Apparently Robert Irwin is considered an "installation artist" and he is constructing an installation for the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas.  It is always nice to see people showing a positive interest in Texas.

Robert