 |  | |
 | ||
| |  |
| |
| |
| |
| Mercifully brief. Admirably useful. | Nov. 7, 1998Issue Number 10 |
| |
| |
| |
|
- William Wisefool
IN THIS ISSUE
Bark! Senior and New Pups: We've unleashed the format a bit from the playpens of wise enterprise, culture, travel, and wisdom.
Too much other lickworthy stuff, e.g., healing arts, food, etc. to fit into containers...
WELL-BE:
Truth and boxes...
If you want a literary agent to take interest in your forthcoming book, or are in hopes of filling up your next workshop... you are advised to lay out your stuff in 4 steps, 7 steps, 9 steps - whatever, - but some formula. Publishers and the public thrive on tuna in a can. Reality, however, is a slippery fish, an armed dancer. It evades being an "it", for long, preferring to shape-shift before our endearing attempts to nail it down in a truth coffin. I had the opportunity to meet with two eminent gentlemen from the "holistic health" field who might agree. One is Dr. Peter D'Adamo, a fugue of a man, and author of "Eat Right for your Type", an increasingly popular book that makes the compelling proposition that your corporeal well-being might depend upon supping according to your blood type... As theories go, this one might be over 50% true, which is a lot in the theory game. During conversation with him, he shared his Brooklynite rendition of the convoluted evolution of the book, which he himself did not initiate. That story is a novella in itself, - a cartoon of what happens when public media meets private intelligence. In any case, his basic message still stands for your worthy review and experimentation. You're invited to check it out in the book and the website... If we boil or sauté the message down to the mundane basics, and skip, for reasons of brevity, the compelling archetypal stuff that underscores the theory, we get: If you've A blood type, like your agrarian predecessors, - rice be good, carbos be in; if it's O in your system, - you're a hunter-gatherer and better not be sheepish about lamb on your plate, and for you, it'sa basta with pasta: finito!; B's, like their nomadic ancestors can say cheese, smile, graze on nuts; AB's, - well, lots of maybes... The good Dr. D'Adamo has seen many philosophically-driven vegans and die-hard meatheads have their beloved points of view bite the dust, - go through the blender or meatgrinder, depending, as a compromise towards being able to get through the day clear-headed. Strict philosophies usually wind up pureed in the open marketplace of life-at-large. Another more subtle message gleaned from our conversation (not obvious from the book), was in response to the question of how vigilantly to follow the recommended diets. It went something like this: For safe driving, we've got red and green lights... and in critical traffic conditions, it's a good idea to play by the rules... But, "who in their right mind waits out the red at 4:00 in the morning?"... Flexibility and vigilance vary with road conditions. Obsessive: not good. The body, he said, has a lot of built in redundancies that can handle contradictions, especially in fairweather. I like this guy... ===== My other encounter of an OtherWise kind was with Dr. Rudolph Ballantine, an understated pioneer in the holistic medical field. If Peter is a fugue, Dr. B is a nocturne - impressionistic, suggestive, meditative. His background spans western psychiatry to Indian Auyerveda, homeopathy and yoga. A Southern gentlemen, with an old-soul style, he integrates various approaches to healing, from East and West, from etheric to the cellular.
His book called "Radical Healing" slated for January release is a culmination of 3 decades
of truth archeology in the alternative and mainstream medical circles.
http://www.wisefools.com/grlinks/grfetches.html While he is guided by his own set of principles, based on rich experience, his core message is something like: . . .The truth for each person is unprecedented and its discovery is part of the game. In the end, we can absorb the good advices of experts, but it is up to us to integrate them within the context of our own experienceŠ Let the stew of contradictory views we eventually encounter on the path find their rapproachment in the quiet hours of our deepest reflection.
Which man is right? They both are.
TRAVEL:
New Yawk This issue: no travel tips to remote hideaways in the South Seas or undefiled islands off the Scottish coastline; no suggestions for meditative ridgewalking in Umbria this time... Just New Yawk. The place has cleaned up its act. Subways... the trash is gone, art is up... Central Park is groomed. Grand Central is newly re-opened, grande again, a feeling of Old Europe presides... Classical music in Penn Station... The city is walkable, interesting, and of course, overwhelming. "The Lion King" Broadway musical, conceived by Julie Taymor, is where Cirque du Soleil meets Margaret Mead for tea with the Mad Hatter in Tzar Peter's Palace (the renovated New Amsterdam theatre). A creative yahoo of immense proportions. It goes on. For just prosaic walking, I still recommend Saul Wurman's "Access" guide (the one for New York), laid out well for the rambler (Access Guides/Harper Collins Publishers). It's color-coded by food, culture, hotels, historic sites and numbered easily for the area you're in... On the site: http://www.wisefools.com/grlinks/grfetches.html You can supplement with TimeOut guides for a punchier take on the current scenes. For a respite from the to and froing - try the J. Pierpont Morgan Library at 36th & Madison, a place many New Yorkers overlook. Human scale... some trees around. 5 minute walk from Grand Central. Great illuminated manuscripts and the sun-bathed Garden Court cafe for breezy dining... You don't miss the lunch crowd by showing up at 1 PM in NYC...Try 1:45.
Phone: 1.212.685-0610
CULTURE:
30 Nihterina (Night Songs): Manos Hadjidakis I'm reluctant to do this, feeling protective - even stingy, I confess, about keeping a personal favorite relatively undiscovered... It took 7 years until 1996 to track down this music from a 3rd generation tape... But you're worth it... From the recently departed Manos Hadjidakis, one of the legendary Greek composers who adapted ethnic themes to a classical idiom, we have 30 Nihterina (Night Songs)... Intelligent, wistful, romantic, mysterious: Greek, off the beaten path. No "Never on Sunday" themes for 100 bazoukis, here. Guaranteed to bring out something very special in you... If it's not to your liking, I don't want to hear from you. Order from Greek Records & Tapes (Tower/Amazon, not!)
Phone: 1.800.473-3522
WISDOM: CRAZY OR OTHERWISE
One late evening... Mullah Nasruddin (the legendary Wisefool of Sufi lore) was intently scoping out the ground near a lamppost. An acquaintance and passerby noticing the Mullah's continual pacing asked, "What are you doing, Mullah?" "Looking for my keys," the Mullah muttered. Passerby asked, "Well, when did you lose them?" "This afternoon," the Mullah replied impatiently. "What were you doing around a lamppost during the afternoon?" asked the acquaintance. Irately, "This isn't where I lost them, but now that I'm looking in the dark, the light is much better here..."
Adapted from Idries Shah,
OtherWise Moral: When you're searching for something that isn't lost, make sure to bring a flashlight.
OTHERWISE BRIEFS: Shorts-shorts very short this time.
Keep visiting the OtherWise site, your MarketPlace and your sanctuary for Vital Business, Artful Living & Other NobleStuff.
We are constantly developing resources for you and having fun
roaming and rambling through the bushes in search of good berries.
Inspired to comment or suggest? Please place your genius here (remember, mercifully brief, - we need our nap time too): By the way, don't take it too personally if we don't respond to you personally...
We ARE interested, and you may find your comments and
recommendations immortalized in future issues, or even at the
OtherWise web site.
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright ©1998 OtherWise, All rights reserved. Golden Retriever (TM)
is a trademark of OtherWise, and the OtherWise Business & Media Consort.