Ummagumma

Another spectacular sunset looking off my front porch in mid-September. September was mild with normal rainfall.  The last glimpse of summer gave way to the first hint of autumn.  We had a few crisp fall-like days but there was still plenty of warmth and humidity for most of the month.  This is the month when we start trimming things back.  What remained of the Black-eyed Susans and the tall Queen of the Meadow were cut.  But several things either continued to bloom or put forth for the first time.  I did not have to mow as much since the cooler evenings took with wind out of the various grasses.  The bird action began to diminish.  On some days you could hear more crows than anything else and the bird calls in my woods lessened in frequency.  There was still plenty of butterfly action. Looking out the window in my study at the back garden in early September.  The Crape Myrtle in the center is in peak bloom. More Crape Myrtle in full bloom.  These are three planted together in our fr

Proof of purchase. “...the evolution of consciousness...[is a tale of] the growth and development of the mind as a series of unfolding stages or waves .  Few of these developmental schemes are rigid, linear, clunk-and-grind models portrayed by their critics.  Development is not a linear ladder but a fluid and flowing affair, with spirals, swirls, streams, and waves...” (page 5) So it is that Wilber integrates Spiral Dynamics into the four quadrant system in A Theory of Everything .  Before explaining the stages of consciousness, in a slightly different manner than in Sex, Ecology, Spirituality , Wilber makes a subtle but important point.  Stages of consciousness mean that there are higher and lower stages or memes.  It is inherently a hierarchy (has depth).  But Wilber does not want the reader to think of “lower” stages/memes as “dumber” or “lesser” compared with “higher” stages/memes.  Every stage/meme is/was important to human development in its own way. But...and this is a big but

Note: This is a continuation of my overview of Beethoven's magnificent String Quartets, my tribute to him on the 250th anniversary of his birth. Beethoven's next three string quartets were commissioned by Count Andrey Kyrillovich Razumovsky , Russian ambassador to Vienna, in 1806.  This was one of the composer's most prolific years, when he wrote his 4th Piano Concerto , his 4th Symphony and his Violin Concerto (the greatest such concerto ever composed, in my opinion).  But the work that most guided what are called “ The Razumovsky Quartets ” was Beethoven's great Symphony No. 3 .  With these, Beethoven transcended the traditional string quartet into a “symphonic” type achievement. Whereas Beethoven's Early Quartets could all be played by competent amateur musicians in the service of various aristocrats and religious royalty, these three quartets were a challenge for even many professionals to play.  They are rich, textured, nuanced, layered, sophisticated yet co