John Vervaeke: Awakening from the Meaning Crisis - Ep. 9 - Insight

I started watching this episode weeks ago, but then as sometimes happens, life the universe and everything got in the way, time disappeared, a flat was decorated, stuff moved to storage, social events happened, and insane long walks and expeditions consumed hours and days. 

On reflection, it was the pursuit of meaning, the pursuit of higher ideals ... not goals per see, though it would be fair to say some of it was tests of self (I passed :-) A* ). 

This is another of those technical episodes and I had to watch it again from the start and may have to watch it over again. I'm glad I did, I'm glad I took an inadvertent break, because on returning to the subject matter I found I saw stuff that I'd either missed previously or more likely, had been trying to `cram' due to a certain impatience (having and being mode), the having in this instance is trying to obtain the sum of someone's years of knowledge and work in a few short hours of YouTube videos.

Now as Autumn deepens and the evenings draw in there will be less desire for the outside in cold and dark, and more time for `higher pursuits' (that term is covered in this episode). 

It would be fair to say, I have wandered innocently from the path, I have made much of me physically and much of the world outside, and now it is time to reflect, and Mr Vervaeke will be my guide.

Mushrooms and mycelium

I trained as a tree surgeon some eighteen years ago, and while I was on the course we learned about mycorrhizae, and inoculating planting holes to allow trees to form symbiotic relationships with mycelial networks, to extend the root networks and allow the tree and the mycelial mat to exchange materials: enzyme reduced minerals to the tree, broken down by the fungi, and sugars and starches passed to the mycelial network by the tree. At the time it was all new knowledge, as was growing trees in square holes, not round holes.

Nearly twenty years later (and it took ten years or more to get as far as garden centres and Gardeners World), mycorrhizae are standard tools for any sensible arborist and anyone who wants to give a freshly planted tree the best chance in life. 

This video is about more than mycelial networks and mushrooms. It's proper science, give it a listen and or a watch and be amazed at the body of information contained within.

This is the way.

Every now and then you have a run of inclement luck. In the last few weeks I have, broken my nose, had a concussion, twisted my right forearm and wrist, mangled my left pinky finger, fractured a tooth down to the root, and had an infection consequent to that (the joy of a first extraction is to come ... I am gutted about losing a tooth), I recently had gravity sickness and floor poisoning at a friends house and finally had a puncture resulting in the need for not one but two new tyres.

The flip side is that I have painted out my flat and it looks delightful, in real terms I haven't been this fit since my late twenties and an old lady stopped me on the beach the other afternoon to tell me I look `mighty fine for an older gentleman.' I have new glasses, I have with the help of a friend made more space at home, hemmed and hung curtains and my overall routine is fine-tuned, with lots of spare time for being outdoors.

It would be quite easy, given the last two years to weigh the bad shit against the good shit and say on balance there is a deficit of good luck. However, it would be fairer to say that I have clawed my way from `nothing' one year ago to this position by dint of determination, and the help of the best friends anyone could ask for (near and far) and that luck has very little to do with it. Effort in results out.