Ramblings
Whats new or interesting
In addition to a weekly long form post diving into one of many themes, it’s good to share a great book, a striking place, a poem, or whatever. Something snappy to finish a week off.
To kick things off, what I’m reading. I have a habit (good, bad, I don’t know) of reading a few books at once. Sometimes a book needs some think time, or maybe just because. Regardless, here are a couple that are well worth a look if you have the inclination and time.
Matt Strassler has written a fabulous book on modern physics around waves and particles (with a deep dive into the Higgs boson) for the layperson, ‘Waves in an impossible Sea’. Quite fascinating and a revelation. I think I will be reading it three or four times before I really get a handle on it and I hesitate to even try and summarise it. But if you are curious about the foundations and nature of pretty much everything, this is fabulous. It is also really interesting how current knowledge (hypothesis?) echoes some of the teachings of ancient mystics around form and formlessness and the illusion of solidity. But thats one for a long form piece!
Equally interesting and dealing with another fundamentally important and complex area, is Mark Epstein’s ‘Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart: A Buddhist Perspective on Wholeness’. Weaving together the insights of Buddhism and western psychotherapy, I found this both thought provoking and really helpful. Wisdom old and new helping us to learn a little more about ourselves. Another book that will require a number of reads to really get a handle on, for me anyhow.
And to finish on a completely different note, a recent rambling through the lanes of my hometown, Melbourne led me down this gem. I am more than a bit biased about my hometown and the fine grain where 19th century lanes lie around the corner from modern skyscrapers is part of what makes it marvellous. I reckon so anyhow.
