[MD] strong legs

[Margaret Warren]

mm (Mary Margaret) - 
(and no I'm not Catholic, nor ever have been)
I often use this abbreviation in correspondence. 


SA:
Intention is not what I take to be the
'handler of the outcome' or 'the definer of what will
be or not be'.  The squirrel and us had our intentions
and on another day and night the outcome could well be different.  The
possibility to go here or there after we concentrate and try to do something
is still as it is - possible.

mm:
Yes, I agree with you about the interaction and the 
event between you and the squirrel; on another night
the squirrel could have choked - (I don't know where
that expression comes from, but I don't mean literally;
I mean - he could have missed the 8 ball after a perfect
run of the table. But I think choking on the 8 is a 
result of that momentary passing blip of doubt that 
passes through our minds at the moment we turn 
intention into action.

But the odds of the squirrel doubting
himself are rather low. Interesting that Smith mentioned
'the critic' in our own head. I don't think the
squirrel has that gene (and I'm using the word 'gene' here figuratively, 
I'm not prepared to discuss biology or neurolinguistics).

I have a friend who told me
the other day that he wasn't born with 
'the diplomacy gene'; he has a difficult time 
editing himself with regard to social situations and often
says what's on his mind without regard to the social
implications; yet, most of his comments are completely
intellectually appropriate and true. So he says them
anyway. Now, some of us might think he could
edit himself in that moment, (think about what he's about 
to say and evaluate whether or not it's going to 
be appropriate). Now to me this is an example
of where we could start looking at moq...
he is a musician, his goal is to keep gigs coming 
in to support himself; if he says things that 
will piss someone off and potentially harm his
future - to me, the social level in this regard
clearly has some survival advantages, but I do see that his 
choice (he likes to think it's not a choice
and thus would be 'biological' - who am I to say whether
he's right or not, I only have my opinion - you know
schizophrenics don't filter out paranoid delusions AND
sometimes there is a grain of truth in their delusions,
they just don't filter out when it's appropriate to 
let those thoughts not get the better of them). 

But to choose to use the social level is an intellectual
choice. We can choose to use different levels
of interaction. His adherence to his intellectual
observations is an example of 'quality' - he's
going to say what's on his mind no matter what
the result (like the story of the native tribesman in Lila 
who was ousted and then made a leader); on the other hand, choosing to 
edit himself for the sake of diplomacy and 
continued gigs and therefore survival can also be 
a quality choice.

'you can catch more flies with honey..."

The squirrel has a crafty way of engineering how
to get what he wants - maybe you should leave 
for the squirrel a small portion of your stash. 
See what the squirrel does with a social level. 


SA:
     Thus, intending, yet, unknowing where this will
land, I throw this new heading out there thinking we
(Margaret and I) have strong legs in what I define
strong legs to be in relation to quality, as opposed
to being a strong wind trying to blow quality away
from our view and experience of the world.

     Where do you stand with Pirsig's quality?  Are
you strong legs or strong wind Margaret?  I don't want
to put words in your mouth so if I was wrong above in
thinking "we have strong legs", then I apologize. 

mm: 
Well, I certainly think I evaluate situations in an entirely
different way since I've read Lila; I think the book has
presented to me a different conceptual vocabulary to work with than I
had before. I do like the idea that some entity (a) is predisposed to 
go toward (b) not because it's random,
but because (b) has an ineffable 'quality' characteristic.
 
I consider quality in every one of my transactions
at every level of my day to day experience. 

I have an image that I took of some sea anemones in a tide pool in
Monterrey;
and everytime I think of DQ, I see a wave coming in and the 
water washing around those anemones and causing their little 
'fingers' (strong legs?) to waft around back and forth
- so here's a question: can't the strong wind be a DQ event or did 
someone say that already? 

sometimes it seems in these discussions that we look for the 
dynamic to be somehow better than the static, BUT both of the Pirsigian
expressions actually have the word Quality in them. 


gotta get some work done

mm


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