Art, Symbolism, and Creative Interpretations: The Tarot

Today, I am enjoying using a new copy of the:
Voyager Tarot, Intuition Cards for the 21st Century. 
By James Wanless, Ph.D.. Artist Ken Knutson. 
78 full color collage art Tarot cards.  117 page mini booklet. 
Fair Winds: ISBN 978-1-59233-322-6, 2017.  First edition 1984.  

Has anyone seen a chart or list correlating the 78 cards in the Voyager Tarot (or other Tarot decks) with the 64 Hexagrams of the I Ching???

For examples:

I Ching Number = Tarot Card Name

#1 Creative, Initiating = Magician, 1

#4, Childhood, Youthful Folly, Impermanence = Fool, 0

#52 Mountain = Hermit, 9

During a morning Voyager Tarot card reading, I usually select one card as the most significant for the day.  I would like to write on each Tarot card the corresponding, related, correlated, comparable, similar themed, or relevant I Ching Hexagram Number.  

Also, this is a different way for selecting an I Ching Hexagram other than yarrow sticks or coin tossing.  

A Repost from 2018:

I first purchased and used Tarot decks in 1979.  I studied numerous books on the subject of the Tarot.  I purchased numerous decks over the decades.  First, I enjoyed the variety of artwork and symbolism in the 78 cards in the different decks from different centuries.  Second, the creator of each deck brings some new insights into the overall structure and meanings for the cards in the deck.  Third, I enjoyed "reading" and creatively interpreting the symbols and images in these small art objects in the context of my own life and questions.  

I even made, in 2011, some very incomplete notes in hypertext documents on the Tarot.

My method over the years is to ask a question or reflect on my current consciousness and situation in my life.  Then, I randomly pull from 3 to 5 cards from the deck.  I try to interpret, reflect upon, and consider the meaning of each card.  I may use The Voyager Tarot book to refresh or expand my understanding or memories.  Then, I arrange the cards in some order to "tell a story."  I do this once a day, at night; then, in the morning, reconsider the meanings and relevance of that 3-5 card reading in my life.  I only look at cards right side up; although, I do sometimes reverse the meaning of the cards depending upon the story I create.  

I enjoy using the 1991 Voyager Tarot deck the most.  

This photomontage deck was designed by James Wanless, Ph.D.  The photographic collage artwork was created by Ken Knutson.  It was first published in 1984, and then in 1991 and 2008. 

The Voyager Tarot: Way of the Great Oracle Book.  By James Wanless, 1989.  Book and Deck. 

 The Fool, 0

                          

The Wheel of Fortune, 10

                   

 

               

 

Skyview HS Girls Varsity Soccer

November 4, 2025 Tuesday

Camas Papermakers played against the Skyview Storm (12-1-4).

The game was held at the neutral soccer stadium in Battleground.

The game started at 7 pm. It rained throughout the game. It was around 50F.

The game was, again, a defensive struggle. The two teams played hard and it ended in a 0-0 tie in regulation. Then they played, in the rain, two overtimes; ending again in a 0-0 tie. Then, they did the penalty kick off phase against the goalies. In the dramatic end, Skyview 1 and Camas 0.

Skyview played Camas three times this season: twice during league play, and once in the 4A State Championship Finals. They were a tough opponent. Our record this season against Camas: a 1-1 Tie (2 Overtimes), a 1-0 Camas win, and a 1-0 Skyview win (2 Overtimes & PKs).

Skyview High School
Girls Varsity Soccer Team 2025
Season Results (13-1-4) as of 11/4/2025

Central Catholic High School 3-0 Win
Curtis 0-0 Tie
Ridgefield 1-0 Win
Sumner 1-1 Tie
Columbia River 0-0 Tie
Mountain View 7-1 Win
Chiawana 2-1 Win
Prairie 6-1 Win
Rogers (Puyallup) 3-0 Win
Heritage 7-0 Win
Battle Ground 7-0 Win
Camas 1-1 Tie
Union 3-2 Win
Battle Ground 8-0 Win
Camas 0-1 Loss
Union 3-1 Win
Puyallup 1-0 Win
Camas 1-0 Win
Tahoma

18 Games as of 11/6/2025
13 Wins
1 Loss
4 Ties
13-1-4

Goals Scored = 54
Goals Given Up = 9

Skyview will now be seeded in the State of Washington overall girls soccer high school Finals for 2025.

Karen and I have attended nearly all the soccer games this 2025 season, as have her parents, as well as Hanna Flinn and Beryl Flinn.

We have enjoyed the play of the entire team and the very good coaching this entire 2025 season.

We, of course, take special interest in the Skyview soccer team Defense.
We carefully watch Goalkeeper Sure-Handed Brynnlee Williams #0, Wing Defender Speedy Leilany Elias Sanchez #8, Center Defender [our Granddaughter] Mean Machine Makenna Flinn #17, and Wing Defender Cannonball Quinn Lundy #9. This stout defense, in addition to all the fine Skyview mid-fielders that helped in defense as needed, recorded 10 shut-out games out of 18, only gave up 2 goals in one game this season, and only gave up 9 goals total in 18 games.

November 1, 2025, Saturday

Today, at 1 pm, the Skyview HS Girls Varsity Soccer Team (11-1-4) played the Payallup HS team. They played at Kiggins Stadium in Vancouver, WA. We attended.

Skyview won the game 1 to 0.

We are now in the State of Washington Finals. The Skyview team record is now 12-1-4

We play Camas next on 11/4. We have already  played Camas twice this season: a 1-1 Tie (2 Overtimes), and a 1-0 Camas win.

Karen and I and other family members will attend the Skyview/Camas game at the neutral Battleground HS Stadium on 11/4 at 7 pm.

So long, Bruno

Our dog, Bruno, and was a great pal for Karen and I.

During the first 5 years of his active life, Bruno lived in Red Bluff, California. We lived on a five-acre parcel of land in the country.  Bruno ran everywhere on that property, dug holes, hunted gophers, ran through the fields, played with visitors, took walks with me, and lollygagged in our ponds on hot summer days. He was a well behaved dog, curious, and friendly with people. He was a muscular, strong, sturdy, and powerful dog.

We moved to the suburbs in Vancouver, Washington, in 2017. We live on a small lot with a nice back yard. Bruno mostly became an indoor house dog.  Bruno and I took walks together in our neighborhood. He was a good walker on a leash.

It gets cool and damp in
Vancouver, WA, from
October to April.
Walkers, man and dog,
need good clothes.

Bruno got along well with the Flinn dogs.

The aging Bruno

We hung out together on the back porch.
His bed had an insulated cushion, blanket,
and extra blankets to cover him up with.
We seldom had a fire.

Bruno liked to sleep in my study while
I used my computer and played music.

He played with Roxy.

Back porch sunbathing.

Playing with a dog-toy and Charlie dog.

Hanging out in the back yard.

Nap Time, Old Buddy.

In his final months, we nursed a ugly tumor
on the back of right paw, and gave him
medicine for the three other tumors on
his 12 year old body.

We played with his dog toys. We wrestled and hugged.  We sometimes slept together on the floor.

In the last three years, Bruno began to "talk" more with squeals, moans, grunts, puffs. He made us laugh.

He was trained to ring a bell by the back door when he need to go to the toilet outdoors. He always did so.

Our extended family all delighted in Bruno's company, and he was a polite guest at other's houses.

Bruno was steady, active, alert, intelligent, and a well behaved house dog in Vancouver.

We all age. We all get weaker. We all face poor health. We all die.

Bruno has been sick from cancer for the past four months. Bruno died today, October 18, 2024.  

Bruno lived a very good life for 12 years. I will be one to miss you at lot, old buddy.

Benefits of Playing Music

The Benefits of Playing Music Help Your Brain
More Than Any Other Activity

By John Rampton, 2017

"Long-Lasting Benefits for Musicians

Brain-scanning studies have found that the anatomical change in musicians' brains is related to the age when training began. It shouldn't be surprising, but learning at a younger age causes the most drastic changes.

Interestingly, even brief periods of musical training can have long-lasting benefits. A 2013 study found that even those with moderate musical training preserved sharp processing of speech sounds. It was also able to increase resilience to any age-related decline in hearing.

Researchers also believe that playing music helps speech processing and learning in children with dyslexia. Furthermore, learning to play an instrument as a child can protect the brain against dementia.

"Music reaches parts of the brain that other things can't," says Loveday. "It's a strong cognitive stimulus that grows the brain in a way that nothing else does, and the evidence that musical training enhances things like working memory and language is very robust."

Other Ways Learning an Instrument Strengthens Your Brain

Guess what? We're still not done. Here are eight additional ways that learning an instrument strengthens your brain.

1. Strengthens bonds with others. This shouldn't be surprising. Think about your favorite band. They can only make a record when they have contact, coordination, and cooperation with one another.

2. Strengthens memory and reading skills. The Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University states this is because music and reading are related via common neural and cognitive mechanisms.

3. Playing music makes you happy. McMaster University discovered that babies who took interactive music classes displayed better early communication skills. They also smiled more.

4. Musicians can process multiple things at once. As mentioned above, this is because playing music forces you to process multiple senses at once. This can lead to superior multisensory skills.

5. Music increases blood flow in your brain. Studies have found that short bursts of musical training increase the blood flow to the left hemisphere of the brain. That can be helpful when you need a burst of energy. Skip the energy drink and jam for 30 minutes.

6. Music helps the brain recover. Motor control improved in everyday activities with stroke patients.

7. Music reduces stress and depression. A study of cancer patients found that listening to and playing music reduced anxiety. Another study revealed that music therapy lowered levels of depression and anxiety.

8. Musical training strengthens the brain's executive function. Executive function covers critical tasks like processing and retaining information, controlling behavior, making decisions, and problem solving. If strengthened, you can boost your ability to live. Musical training can improve and strengthen executive functioning in both children and adults."

String Figures from Native Americans

 Repost from 2013:

"Take a deep breath of all the stories that live here. A re-ligious act, to be true to the origin of the word “re-ligios”- to re-tie, re-link - is to find ways to re-connect, re-turn, re-imagine.”

In the winter season, we are allowed to say,

“Ts' its' tsi' nako,
Thought-Woman, the Spider
named things and as she named them they appeared.
She is sitting in her room thinking of a story now
I'm telling you the story she is thinking.”
-  Keresan Pueblo introduction

The Hands of the Spider Woman by Lauren Rain

Strings on Your Fingers by Mike Garofalo

Spider Grandmother weaves the Grand Cosmic Web and then spins off the planets and stars in the Navaho myths.  Zuni myths say the Spider Grandmother gave the art of string figures into the hands of the children.  Spider Grandmother is a powerful earth spirit being, the primary Creatrix of the cosmos and mind, a source of boundless imagination and the creation of the new.  An archaic Goddess of Weaving is essential to a pleasant life for all our people. 

Many Stars, Son-thlani, or Spider Grandmother’s Web is one of my favorite Navaho string figures to make.  I usually do the Spider Web (Jayne SF51) string figure first, for ritual purposes, to remind myself of my debt to all the people who have helped me learn to make string figures, everyone past and present are here symbolized as the Cosmic Web of Spider Grandmother.  

The image above is of the string figure called The Apache Door (Jayne SF12) known to many string players.  A different Navaho string figure, with a criss-crossing web pattern, is called Many Stars (Jayne SF51).    

Hands, Fingers, Feeling, Touching by Mike Garofalo

Strings on Your Fingers by Mike Garofalo

2024 Update

I recently found a brand of string that works fairly well when making string figures. It is called Cora's Cotton Craft Cord Dyeable Fiber 2 mm/.08 in in diameter.  

The best string I've used for make string figures with my hands was a string used by carpenters or masons or gardeners to mark out a straight line during construction.  I'm still looking for the correct brand of string, softness, strength, thickness, flexibility, etc.

Movement and Awareness

"Correction of movements is the best means of self-improvement:
1.  The nervous system is occupied mainly with movement.
2.  It is easier to distinguish the quality of movement.
3.  We have a richer experience of movement.
4.  The ability to move is important to self-value.
5.  All muscular activity is movement.
6.  Movements reflect the state of the nervous system.
7.  Movement is the basis of awareness.
8.  Breathing is movement.
9.  Hinges of habit."
-  Moshe Feldenkrais, Awareness Through Movement, pp. 33-39, 1972

Notes on Feldenkrais Methods

Video Games 2: Software Experimentation

I find that the NBA 2K 18 on the Nintendo Switch is very difficult to play because of the rapid pace required in skilled passing and shooting.  The software has a practice option with 1on1 and 2on2, etc., so you can learn the basic movements possible in playing NBA level basketball.  Manual dexterity and quick reflexes are not my strong suit, so my progress is poor in this game.  I have, thus far, led the Golden State Warriors to four resounding 1st quarter defeats.

Using the Madden NFL 18 football video game on the X Box One is easier for me to play than NBA basketball because the pace is slower.  Lots of commands and selections to learn.  I think that using and learning this Madden software might make my NFL football television viewing experience this autumn more interesting.  Also, if I learn this software's command and movement controls, then I can use the Madden software upgrades in years to come, e.g., 2018-2019 season, Madden 19.  X Box One is a decent console for using NFL 18.  I've used NFL 14 before.

Cheat sheets for basic movements are not easy to find; Gamers seem to prefer figuring the controls out for themselves through experimentation, failures, and modest consistent successes in playing a new game.

I use Mario Brothers Odyssey on the Nintendo Switch.  I have also played older versions of Mario Brothers on the PS2, and NES, e.g., Super Mario Brothers 2, Super Mario Brothers 3, Super Mario World.  I even have some Mario Brothers art, toys, and ???? Cube.

I started purchasing computers (Commodore, Atari, IBM-DOS clones), and video game hardware and software in the 1980's.  I played lots of games on desktop computers, telephones, tablets, and video consoles for 40 years.  I have always been interested in computers, their uses in business applications, and in the potentials of artificial intelligence, networking, learning, programming languages, etc.  I earned good money, I worked till I was 70,  while being a leader in library automation, management, using computers for management information systems, website development, grant writing, and research.

Video Games

Lately, I have been playing games on an X Box One player console, and on a Sony Nintendo Switch player console.  I also use an NES and SNES player console, and a Sony PlayStation 2 player console.  I have a variety of software, old school retro to current high end video games.  Over the past four decades, I have probably spent over $4,000.00 on the hardware and software for PC and video games.

On my Samsung 4 Tablet  I play some free Android applications, e.g., for the card game Spades and for the game of Chess.  The Nintendo Switch is also a fine handheld gaming device.

I find plenty of good used and some new software titles for the PlayStation 2.  I have purchased titles with a nice box and booklet, at it worked fine on my PlayStation 2, for as low as $2.50 to $12.00.  And, I occasionally find old NES or SNES cartridges for under $5.00.

Of course, the newer the hardware, like my 2017 Nintendo Switch, the more powerful the processor and memory.  It has faster speed, outstanding screen, responsive controls, and more display options.  However, the Switch software is currently very expensive at $30.00 to $60.00 a title.

I am thinking of purchasing a new high end PlayStation 4 this coming winter. Seems like top of the line in both hardware and software.

What games am I playing now?  Mario Brothers Odyssey on the Switch, NBA 2K 18 Basketball on the Switch, Madden NFL 18 Football on the X Box One.

What games do I want to play?  1.  Off Road Vehicle, ATV, Jeep driving games for the PlayStation 2.  2.  "Okami" for the Switch coming out 8/18.  "Minecraft" on the Switch.  "Legend of Zelda II: Adventures of Link" for NES.

I hope Madden NBA 19 and NBA 2K 19 come out formatted for the Nintendo Switch.

In real life sports, I watched all of the NBA Golden State Warriors basketball games available on television, and many games of other NBA West Coast teams like the LA Lakers and Portland Trailblazers.  I also watched many college basketball games on the PAC 12 Sports network.  I watched both of my grandaughter's play on basketball, volleyball, and soccer teams in 2017 and 2018.   Since I enjoy watching basketball games, I also enjoy playing basketball video games like NBA 2K 18.  I played basketball till I was 40 years of age, and I understand the game after a lifetime of watching for over 65 years.

I watched the Seattle Seahawks on television last season along with other West Coast teams like the 49'ers, Rams, Raiders.  I watched all the USC football games last season on television, and many other West Coast college football teams on the PAC 12 Sports Network.  Since I enjoy watching football games, I also enjoy playing football video games like Madden NFL 18.  I played football till I was 25 years of age, and understand the game after a lifetime of watching over 65 years.

There's so much to be done

To experience the Five Animal Frolics we need to keep in mind the "Frolics" aspect of this movement art: being playful and exuberant, freeing up our time for fun, delighting in bodily movements, enjoying games of imitation, taking pleasure in the moment, and delighting in the exercise of fantasy and imagination.  We should be smiling as we enjoy our playful frolics.  We should strive to return to our youth, and rekindle those memories of our joyful childhood games, innocence, freedom of fancies, and silliness.  We are never too old to embrace that precious child within each of us.  

Bear Frolics: Lessons, Bibliography, Notes

The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh.  By A. A. Milne.  With decorations by Ernest H. Shepard.  New York, Dutton's Children's Books, 1994.  344 pages.  Color illustrations, hardbound.  ISBN: 9780525457237.  Originally published in 1926, 1954.  This book includes: Winnie-the-Pooh, and The House at Pooh Corner, VSCL.  
 
The Te of Piglet.  By Benjamin Hoff.  New York, Penguin Books, 1992.  257 pages.  ISBN: 0140230165.  VSCL.  

The Tao of Pooh.  By Benjamin Hoff.  New York, Penguin Books.  VSCL 
  
The most famous literary Bear is Winnie the Pooh.  Over 26 million English language books by A. A. Milne about the Pooh Bear and his friends have been sold since 1926, the books have been translated into scores of languages, and Disney Films has made him even more famous and a lucrative commodity line.  Benjamin Hoff has explored how Pooh Bear is a quintessential "Taoist Bear."   

So ... it is just fine for you to Dance like a Bear.
Become a Silly Bear for a awhile.
Enjoy the real honey of just being right were you are,
   here and now, content,
   Pooh, it is quite easy.
 

"Christopher Robin and I walked along
Under branches lit up by the moon
Posing our questions to Owl and Eeyore
As our days disappeared all too soon
But I've wandered much further today than I should
And I can't seem to find my way back to the Wood
So help me if you can
I've got to get back
To the House at Pooh Corner by one
You'd be surprised
There's so much to be done
Count all the bees in the hive
Chase all the clouds from the sky
Back to the days of Christopher Robin and Pooh."
- Return to Pooh Corner,  Words and lyrics by Kenny Loggins, 1969, MCA Musi

Spontaneity and Pleasure

"No pleasure endures unseasoned by variety."
-  Publilius Syrus  

"The essence of pleasure is spontaneity."
-  Germaine Greer

"Why not seize the pleasure at once, how often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparations."
-  Jane Austen

"Perhaps all pleasure is only relief."
- William Burroughs

"Man, Nietzsche contended, is a being that has leapt beyond the "bestial bounds of the mating season" and seeks pleasure not just at fixed intervals but perpetually.  Since, however, there are fewer sources of pleasure than his perpetual desire for pleasure demands, nature has forced man on the "path of pleasure contrivance."  Man, the creature of consciousness whose horizons extend to the past and the future, rarely attains complete fulfillment within the present, and for this reason experiences something most likely unknown to any animal, namely boredom.  This strange creature seeks a stimulus to release him from boredom.  If no such stimulus is readily available, it simply needs to be created.  Man becomes the animal that plays.  Play is an invention that engages the emotions; it is the art of stimulating the emotions.  Music is a prime example.  Thus, the anthropological and physiological formula for the secret of art: "The flight from boredom is the mother of all art." "
-  Rudiger Safranski, Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography, p. 23



Seven Pleasures: Essays on Ordinary Happiness  By Willard Spiegelman.  The seven simple pleasures discussed are: dancing, reading, walking, looking, listening, swimming, and writing.  If you included Taijiquan as "dancing" then all of these can be solitary activities.  Picador, 2010.  208 pages.  ISBN: 9780312429676. 

Pleasure and the Good Life: Concerning the Nature, Varieties, and Plausibility of Hedonism.  By Fred Feldman.  Clarendon Press, 2006.  240 pages.  ISBN: 978-0199297603.  VSCL. 

Pleasure and Enjoyment: Quotations, Sayings, Information

Epircurean Philosophy

The Five Senses  

Play

The Essence of Pleasure: Spontaneity

"No pleasure endures unseasoned by variety."
-  Publilius Syrus  

"The essence of pleasure is spontaneity."
-  Germaine Greer

"Why not seize the pleasure at once, how often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparations."
-  Jane Austen

"Perhaps all pleasure is only relief."
- William Burroughs

"Man, Nietzsche contended, is a being that has leapt beyond the "bestial bounds of the mating season" and seeks pleasure not just at fixed intervals but perpetually.  Since, however, there are fewer sources of pleasure than his perpetual desire for pleasure demands, nature has forced man on the "path of pleasure contrivance."  Man, the creature of consciousness whose horizons extend to the past and the future, rarely attains complete fulfillment within the present, and for this reason experiences something most likely unknown to any animal, namely boredom.  This strange creature seeks a stimulus to release him from boredom.  If no such stimulus is readily available, it simply needs to be created.  Man becomes the animal that plays.  Play is an invention that engages the emotions; it is the art of stimulating the emotions.  Music is a prime example.  Thus, the anthropological and physiological formula for the secret of art: "The flight from boredom is the mother of all art." "
-  Rudiger Safranski, Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography, p. 23



Seven Pleasures: Essays on Ordinary Happiness  By Willard Spiegelman.  The seven simple pleasures discussed are: dancing, reading, walking, looking, listening, swimming, and writing.  If you included Taijiquan as "dancing" then all of these can be solitary activities.  Picador, 2010.  208 pages.  ISBN: 9780312429676. 

Pleasure and the Good Life: Concerning the Nature, Varieties, and Plausibility of Hedonism.  By Fred Feldman.  Clarendon Press, 2006.  240 pages.  ISBN: 978-0199297603.  VSCL. 

Pleasure and Enjoyment: Quotations, Sayings, Information

Hedonistic and Epircurean Philosophy

The Five Senses  

Play

Playing For Its Own Sake

"Creative people are curious, flexible, persistent, and independent with a tremendous spirit of adventure and a love of play."-   Henri Matisse  

Play: Quotes, Sayings and Poetry

Play: It is an an activity which proceeds within certain limits of time and space, in a visible order, according to rules freely accepted, and outside the sphere of necessity or material utility.  The play-mood is one of rapture and enthusiasm, and is sacred or festive in accordance with the occasion.  A feeling of exaltation and tension accompanies the action."
-  Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens

"In rare moments of deep play, we can lay aside our sense of self, shed time's continuum, ignore pain, and sit quietly in the absolute present, watching the world's ordinary miracles. No mind or heart hobbles. No analyzing or explaining. No questing for logic. No promises. No goals. No relationships. No worry. One is completely open to whatever drama may unfold."
- Diane Ackerman in Deep Play

Deep Play  By Diane Ackerman.  New York, Random House, 1999.  Index, 235 pages.  ISBN: 0679448799.  

"We may play with and pass on a garden, possessing one is an illusion.
Gardeners must dance with feedback, play with results, turn as they learn.
Some gardeners don't grow old and stop playing; they stop playing and grow old.
Nature's playfulness is a gardener's delight.
A garden is a sporting field, an area for play."
-   Michael P. Garofalo, Pulling Onions


"To play is to listen to the imperative inner force that wants to take form and be acted out without reason. It is the joyful, spontaneous expression of one's self. The inner force materializes the feeling and perception without planning or effort. That is what play is."
-  Michelle Cassou and Stewart Cubley in Life, Paint and Passion


"Play exists for its own sake.  Play is for the moment; it is not hurried, even when the pace is fast and timing seems important. When we play, we also celebrate holy uselessness.  Like the calf frolicking in the meadow, we need no pretense or excuses.  Work is productive; play, in its disinterestedness and self-forgetting, can be fruitful."
-  Margaret Guenther in Toward Holy Ground


Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture  By Johan Huizinga.  Beacon Press, 1971.  240 pages.  ISBN: 978-0807046814.  VSCL. 

Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul  By Stuart Brown, M.D..  Avery Trade, 2010.  240 pages.  ISBN: 978-1583333785. 

The Essence of Pleasure

"No pleasure endures unseasoned by variety."
-  Publilius Syrus  

"The essence of pleasure is spontaneity."
-  Germaine Greer

"Why not seize the pleasure at once, how often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparations."
-  Jane Austen

"Perhaps all pleasure is only relief."
- William Burroughs

"Man, Nietzsche contended, is a being that has leapt beyond the "bestial bounds of the mating season" and seeks pleasure not just at fixed intervals but perpetually.  Since, however, there are fewer sources of pleasure than his perpetual desire for pleasure demands, nature has forced man on the "path of pleasure contrivance."  Man, the creature of consciousness whose horizons extend to the past and the future, rarely attains complete fulfillment within the present, and for this reason experiences something most likely unknown to any animal, namely boredom.  This strange creature seeks a stimulus to release him from boredom.  If no such stimulus is readily available, it simply needs to be created.  Man becomes the animal that plays.  Play is an invention that engages the emotions; it is the art of stimulating the emotions.  Music is a prime example.  Thus, the anthropological and physiological formula for the secret of art: "The flight from boredom is the mother of all art." "
-  Rudiger Safranski, Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography, p. 23



Seven Pleasures: Essays on Ordinary Happiness  By Willard Spiegelman.  The seven simple pleasures discussed are: dancing, reading, walking, looking, listening, swimming, and writing.  If you included Taijiquan as "dancing" then all of these can be solitary activities.  Picador, 2010.  208 pages.  ISBN: 9780312429676. 

Pleasure and the Good Life: Concerning the Nature, Varieties, and Plausibility of Hedonism.  By Fred Feldman.  Clarendon Press, 2006.  240 pages.  ISBN: 978-0199297603.  VSCL. 

Pleasure and Enjoyment: Quotations, Sayings, Information

Hedonistic and Epircurean Philosophy

The Five Senses  

Play

No Pleasure Endures Unseasoned by Variety

"No pleasure endures unseasoned by variety."
-  Publilius Syrus  

"The essence of pleasure is spontaneity."
-  Germaine Greer

"Why not seize the pleasure at once, how often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparations."
-  Jane Austen

"Perhaps all pleasure is only relief."
- William Burroughs

"Man, Nietzsche contended, is a being that has leapt beyond the "bestial bounds of the mating season" and seeks pleasure not just at fixed intervals but perpetually.  Since, however, there are fewer sources of pleasure than his perpetual desire for pleasure demands, nature has forced man on the "path of pleasure contrivance."  Man, the creature of consciousness whose horizons extend to the past and the future, rarely attains complete fulfillment within the present, and for this reason experiences something most likely unknown to any animal, namely boredom.  This strange creature seeks a stimulus to release him from boredom.  If no such stimulus is readily available, it simply needs to be created.  Man becomes the animal that plays.  Play is an invention that engages the emotions; it is the art of stimulating the emotions.  Music is a prime example.  Thus, the anthropological and physiological formula for the secret of art: "The flight from boredom is the mother of all art." "
-  Rudiger Safranski, Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography, p. 23



Seven Pleasures: Essays on Ordinary Happiness  By Willard Spiegelman.  The seven simple pleasures discussed are: dancing, reading, walking, looking, listening, swimming, and writing.  If you included Taijiquan as "dancing" then all of these can be solitary activities.  Picador, 2010.  208 pages.  ISBN: 9780312429676. 

Pleasure and the Good Life: Concerning the Nature, Varieties, and Plausibility of Hedonism.  By Fred Feldman.  Clarendon Press, 2006.  240 pages.  ISBN: 978-0199297603.  VSCL. 

Pleasure and Enjoyment: Quotations, Sayings, Information

Epircurean Philosophy

The Five Senses  

Play