About a Boy and his Blog
Information about the author of this blog, his texts and his mental background.
(Title based on the book title by Nick Hornby: ‘About a Boy’)
A congregation is the funeral procession of its religion.
(Bô Yin Râ)
It seems to me that the leadership is more concerned with the following of the young people and the adults than with the truth.
(Max Horkheimer, Interview im „Spiegel“, 1973)
I’m good at love, I’m good at hate, it is in between I freeze.
(Leonard Cohen, Recitation, Live in London)
HOST: Years ago, a lot of people started writing biographies, which became a trend. Now it’s websites.
MARC: I remember the derisive phrase: ‹Nowadays it’s harder not to write a biography than it is to write one›.
HOST: Yes, I think that phrase applies to websites and blogs today.
MARC: You could say that, and you can see that with ‹Yoda’s Couch›: I couldn’t resist the temptation! The Indian guru Ramana Maharshi would ask: ‹Who is writing this blog?
HOST: I’m going to remain profane and ask you directly: Why did you write this website?
MARC: There are very personal reasons: For one, it’s a way for me to put my thoughts and ideas into words and to explore topics in depth. I update my thoughts, it’s a ‹mind reset›. On the other hand, it’s also a curiosity to learn something new on the computer. In any case, it makes me use my brain. A song by the Swiss band Sisyphos comes to mind: ‹Jogging for the brain›. (Here is an excerpt from Sisyphos live concert at the Drahtschmidli, Zurich, 1986.
(By the way: At minute 4:45 you can see the author of this blog, a bit younger. 🙂)
All this is also about vanity and the pleasure of showing my texts: ‹To whom it may concern› or better here: To whom it may be of interest.
HOST: Could it be that it’s also a kind of legacy?
MARC: Yes, a friend of mine put it that way; another friend said it was the fear of becoming irrelevant. I think it’s both! I also think of Yoda’s line: «Do or do not. There is no try».
HOST: Why a website and not a print product?
MARC: I work on a text for years, it’s always a process, I add, correct and add new thoughts. Printed is printed, with the website it’s very easy to update everything.
HOST: What do you want to achieve with the texts? Should it be life advice or life help for the reader? Isn’t there enough online for that?
MARC: That’s not my aim, that’s what I do for a living, and writing advice books is something that others can do much better than I can. If it makes the reader think as much as I do, and it’s entertaining to read, then I’ve achieved my goal. Suddenly the reader is sitting in the middle of the salon, taking part in the conversation.
The reader hopefully becomes part of the conversation.
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Mental composition or mental amalgam.
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„ …. Quality couldn’t be related with either the subject or the object but could be found only in the relationship of the two with each other. It is the point in whichsubject and object meet.
Quality is not a thing. It is an event.»
“Quality is the event at wich the subject becomes aware of the object. And because without objects there can be no subject – because the objects create the subject’s awareness of himself – Wuality is the event at which awareness of both subjects and objects is made possible.»
Robert M. Pirsig: „Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance“
(© Harper Collins, 1974).
Copy of this page of my book from 1978:
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We are fusion ourselves!
HOST: Bio-Psycho-Social ….
MARC: …. Body – mind. Memory of past – planning of future: an intersection of past and future. (Pause) And much more.
But we are always part of a relationship in a course of time: we are an event.
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Different languages revolve around the same realities.
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Putting words into context —- This is how information is created.
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I’m good at love, I’m good at hate, it is in between I freeze.
(Leonard Cohen, Recitation, Live in London)
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In the centre first we suffer because that’s where the fear is.
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In the centre, we are initially afraid of losing what lies in the clarity of the poles.
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It becomes our constant exercise to oscillate around this centre and to accept it as good enough.
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The essence is the bond that holds everything together.
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This is how genuine dialogue can emerge: Post-integrative dialogue.
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„You might very well think that. I couldn’t possibly comment.
“Michael Dobbs, «House of Cards“. The Book is base of the television series BBC 1990.)
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I like to swim around in the field of this polarity.
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In this field of relation we oscillate around the centre – – until it speaks to us.
HOST: see the koan “centre».