[MD] MOQ is good. What is it good for?

[Dan Glover]

John,

On Wed, Sep 10, 2014 at 6:32 AM, T-REXX Techs <trexxtechs at bellsouth.net> wrote:

>[snip]
>               But then came the MOQ.  It's brilliant and beautiful.  But it
> comes up short and says, "Your experience doesn't count.  It isn't valid,
> and there's no place for it in the MOQ."  But I love and admire Pirsig.
> Everything he has written persuades me that he is a good, caring person who
> embraces so much that I believe in.  But the MOQ is static, as Andre says.
> It is an intellectual pattern, and any attempt to update it or extend it or
> expand it is forbidden. So there it sits, a magnificent sculpture.  I can
> walk around it, explores its nuances, touch it, feel inspired by it.  But
> then it's time for me to get back on the road, and it doesn't come with me.
>
>               That's why I've come to an impasse with it.  What can I do
> with it?  Where can I go with it?  Of what use is it to me on the road???
>
>               Please tell me, David, how you have used it.  What has it
> done, or what do you do with it to enhance your life?  To enhance anyone
> else's life?  I'm not baiting or taunting or accusing.  I really want to
> know.  I so desperately want the MOQ to be right and Pirsig to be right, but
> I've come to feel that they are holding me back in my life work.  I don't
> want to let them go, but I may have to.

Dan:

Once upon a time there was a boy stumbling around in the dark who woke
up a grown man one day and found himself raising a family and doing
his best to put bread on the table and keep the lights on and
generally trying to live a moral and upright life so as to be a
monument to his children and his wife.

He spent his days looking out of windows at the glorious sunshine
washing over the land wishing he could be wallowing in it instead of
laboring away for the all-mighty dollar. But he told himself he
couldn't, put his nose back to the grindstone, and pressed on.

One day he got out of bed lots older, the children were grown, and the
wife was gone. It came as a bit of a shock to find himself alone in an
empty house and more trouble than it would be worth to try and talk
his family into coming back home so he sought solace in reading and
writing and exploring the newly formed internet that soon captivated
him.

By chance or circumstance he found his way to the Lila Squad, a group
dedicated to discussing the works of Robert Pirsig. It was 1998. He
had read ZMM some twenty plus years prior but he had no idea that
there was now a second novel called Lila. His fixation upon earning a
living and raising a family had blinded the man to nearly everything
else in life and it seemed to him he was awakening from a long and
profound sleep.

In his loneliness a haste to talk to others compelled him to begin
writing to the Lila Squad almost immediately. His posts were mostly
either ignored or reviled as tripe. It didn't matter. He kept on
writing to the group. In time he made acquaintances with a number of
members who either genuinely enjoyed his posts (highly unlikely) or
else simply felt sympathy for the man.

One day he was asked to write the Lila Squad story. He had no idea
what that meant nor did he know how to go about it. Laughing off the
request he said no. He was asked a second time and again he declined.
He thought the person doing the asking was having a bit of fun with
him... after all, he wasn't qualified to write anything. Finally when
he was asked the third time it dawned on him that the man doing the
asking was actually serious. So he accepted the challenge.

He was immediately assailed with self-doubt. He had quit high school
in his second year to go to work. It seemed ludicrous that he could
achieve such a lofty goal as putting a book together, especially one
revolving around the MOQ, written by a man named Robert Pirsig and who
was an obvious master at what he did.

Still, he kept at it. Working at night while continuing his day job he
watched as gradually the book began taking shape though the title was
elusive. The Lila Squad Book held little appeal. Lila's Daughter
seemed appropriate but unwieldy. Finally one day while working his day
job inspiration struck. Lila's Child was born.

When the first draft was complete he taught himself how to write html,
built a website, and uploaded the document. After so many months of
toil the results seemed rather anticlimactic. Some people praised the
work, others hated it, and most people just forgot about it. So he
went back to working his real job in the real world.

One day word reached him that Robert Pirsig had been surfing the web
and stumbled upon Lila's Child, and what's more, he liked it and was
making notes on it! At first it seemed a cruel joke, a hoax being
perpetrated by someone who should know better. After all, what were
the odds of something like that happening?

Thinking to call out the shyster he suggested that the man write to
Robert Pirsig asking if he might be willing to share his notes. Of
course the man who told him about the news demurred saying he did not
think it was a good idea. It wasn't much of a surprise nor did being
even the least bit disappointed occur to the man. It had all been a
joke, after all.

A month later he received news that Robert Pirsig wanted to see the
final Lila's Child document and that yes he would furnish notes as
well as an introduction for the book. He was given an address where to
send the document when it was finished. It was no joke. The address
belonged to Robert Pirsig.

In 2002 Lila's Child was published along with the introduction of
Robert Pirsig's and his annotations. After working so long on the book
the world suddenly seemed empty of any intellectual pursuits as high
and lofty as Lila's Child.

I knew I had never enjoyed working on anything as much as I enjoyed
working on that book. Now that it was finished, what was I to do? So I
started writing another book. A dozen years later I am still writing
books only doing so full time now having taken a part time job to
support myself.

That is how the MOQ has changed my life. Lila's Child has hopefully
helped others to a better and more expansive understanding of the
MOQ... I know it has done so for me. But more, along the way I
realized as corny as it sounds that I was meant to be a writer and not
a cleaner of carpets and furniture.

That's my story to you for today. Thank you and goodnight.

Dan

http://www.danglover.com