[MD] MD Suffering the Seeds of Change

[Dan Glover]

Hello everyone

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> From: kmp_cats at hotmail.co.uk
> To: moq_discuss at lists.moqtalk.org
> Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 09:47:33 +0100
> Subject: Re: [MD] MD Suffering the Seeds of Change
>
>
> Greetings Marsha, Dan, and any others that may be reading this,

Hi Tamara, it's good of you to join us.

>
>
>
> I am new to MoQ discuss. I have only recently read ZMM and
>
> LILA for the first time, and enjoyed both very much. I'm still
>
> struggling with all the abbreviations in these emails, and was
>
> planning just to read for a while, but this is a topic that
>
> I felt I could contribute too.
 
Dan:
Yes the abbreviations can be confounding to be sure. Some of the "long-timers" here tend to forget that. Also, often times if a person writes out the words instead of abbreviations they will discover for themselves the fallacy of what they're saying. 
 
Be that as it may, if you have any questions, just ask. Someone will be glad to answer.

>
>
>
> Before I begin though, I must apologise for any glaring errors that
>
> you see. I haven't had as many years on earth as I predict
>
> many of you have had (my count is only 16). Although I am not
>
> a failing student, I can relate to Pirsig's account of the education
>
> system. It is too geared towards exams, rather than the
>
> teaching of quality, and therefore I haven't learnt as much about
>
> the English Language as I would like. This has greatly frustrated me.

Dan:
The English language is quite challenging; I've been studying it for 50+ years and I still have much to learn. 
 
My oldest son didn't care much for school, ever, even when he was very young. He finally ended up dropping out of high school despite my objections. A year later I convinced him to get his GED. He signed up for a class. One day he shared some of his course work with me. It was all geared towards passing the course. The course was giving him the answers so all he had to do was memorize them. There was no real learning involved. He passed and that enabled him to get a better job, which was the point of the whole endeavor, I suppose. Still, something bothered me about the whole procedure. 

>
>
>
> I picked up ZMM on the advice of my music theory teacher, a
>
> subject which I took up outside my school time because I
>
> found it interesting. I enjoyed the story and found the philosophy
>
> fasinating. I wanted to talk more about it, but I have already
>
> learnt that trying to talk about philosophy to other teenagers
>
> doesn't earn you many friends, and my parents haven't read
>
> the books.
 
Dan:
Robert Pirsig's books aren't for everyone, I agree. Growing up, there was very little emphasis on the reading of anything in my family. I didn't know my mother well so I don't know if she was a reader; my father was not, nor are my brothers. I was the oddball.

>
>
>
> Dan, you said:
>
>>Sometimes other people would walk up and hear me
>>reading and stop to listen. Later, they'd say,
>>what was that book you were reading? And I'd
>>show them. They'd say, cool. And walk away. I'd
>>think to myself, cool? I just read you part of
>>one of the most powerful books ever written and
>>all you say is, cool? Don't you want to read it
>>too? Don't you want to write down the title?
>
>
>
> I think that, for a lot of people, ZMM is too hard a
>
> read. It took me a little work to get into the book, but now that
>
> I have finished it, I am very glad I put in the effort. I'm sure
>
> many people have felt obliged to read it because of it's reputation,
>
> read a few pages, then put it down.

Dan:
Yes I tend to agree that ZMM is a difficult book. And, as the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Myself, some books just turn me off and no matter how I try I can't seem to get through them. So I understand. 

Thanks for writing,
 
Dan
 

 
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