[MD] Zen and theArt of Religion

[Dan Glover]

John,

On Fri, Sep 5, 2014 at 8:36 AM, T-REXX Techs <trexxtechs at bellsouth.net> wrote:
> First, I want to express my appreciation to David Buchanan for a helpful and
> insightful contribution to the "Metaphor" topic in Issue 5.  Good
> scholarship, Dave.
>
> With regard to Message 1 in Moq_Discuss Digest, Vol 106, Issue 4:
>
> Andre, you fight like an adolescent girl, snapping and spitting and biting
> and scratching.  Go to your room!
>
> Yeah, I know...  JC started it.  He just makes you pompous philosophologists
> so mad.  It always gets under your refined skin when a clumsy, stumbling,
> sweating hiker comes along on an actual journey.  Yes, he says some dumb
> things sometimes.  So do I.  So do you.  But I stand with him.  Although, I
> don't always agree with him, I usually find something to chew on in his
> posts, and so do some of you.  (Where was MD during JC's absence???  It was
> pretty quiet there for a while.)  I find I have learned from him and
> benefitted from his insights.  What he and I share is that we both have
> "skin in the game".  Philosophy in general, and Pirsig's philosophy in
> particular, are vitally important to John and me.  It's of pivotal
> significance to our personal trips.  For us, it's not about winning points
> in a scholarly debate; it's about wrestling with real issues of living, and
> finding better ways of living and thinking that will help us and other
> people to live with greater purpose and greater happiness.  We're what
> DiSanto and Steele (Guidebook to ZMM) refer to as "journey" philosophers
> instead of "map" philosophers.
>
> To that end, I have also found Dan's constructive dialogs with John Carl to
> be interesting and beneficial.  Dan and John Carl "get" each other.  They
> can grapple and dispute; they can challenge each other, and Dan usually ends
> up teaching John (and me) something of value.  But he does so without being
> spiteful or insulting about it.  I don't always agree with Dan, but I salute
> him for knowing how to carry on a sincere mutual search for something good.
> I think Dan must be a "journey" philosopher, too.

Dan:

Thank you, John. I enjoy these discussions and I have profited a lot
over the years by participating in them. Hopefully John Carl has
learned as much from me as I have from him.

I don't read much philosophy so I can't really teach anyone anything.
John Carl was good enough to send me a copy of Randy Auxier's book but
it is rough going for me. I am sure it is to my detriment that I
prefer writing and weaving a bit of my own philosophy into my stories
rather than learning from the old masters. I most probably repeat
their mistakes along the way but I know where the journey ends. I
suspect not everyone does.

A word in Andre's defense... I know he cares deeply about the MOQ.
Many times he says what I am recalcitrant to voice for one reason or
another. That isn't to say that John Carl deserves the eviscerating he
receives here at times... no one does. This is a discussion group or
so I thought.

Be that as it may, we all take risks in putting our thoughts 'out
there' for others to consider. I think if we remember why we are
here--to discuss Robert Pirsig's MOQ--then things might go more
smoothly.

Thanks again,

Dan

http://www.danglover.com