Layer 416 . . . The Ashes, Test Match Cricket, Night Owls, Digital Lives, Tiredness, Energy, The Winter of our Disconnect, and the Gift of Time

.

'And gentlemen in England now a-bed shall think themselves accursed they were not here'.

So here I am pouring a glass of best malt whisky and breaking open a box of chocolate brazils - by way of middle of the night celebrations. It's all over now. An Ashes victory by three games to one - all three victories by an innings and plenty.

I've never been a massive sports fan, and could never understand the nutters who stay up all night listening to Test Match Special during Ashes series Down Under. So how come I've recently spent hours in the middle of the night following the Over By Over reports on the Guardian website whilst listening to TMS on the Radio 5 site? What's been so special about this team and this series?

I spent some time yesterday looking forward to a good night's sleep tonight - following  the swift removal of the remaining three Aussie wickets before midnight London time. First of all, however, there were the previous day's highlights to enjoy on ITV4 between 10.00 and 11.00 pm. Extremely enjoyable. Now for the main course - the final climax and the final celebrations . . .

Imagine the wretched feeling then - waking up at well past midnight, and realising that I'd fallen asleep and missed it all! The moment of victory! The excitement and the joy! The post-match comments and plaudits! What an idiot!

Except . . . wait! This is amazing! It's been raining in Sydney and play's been held up! Plus - the tail enders have been hanging around and are still in there, still holding on. Thank heavens for those much derided Aussies - Smith, Siddle, Hilfenhaus and Beer.

Then down they went, one after the other - Siddle caught by Anderson, after slogging into the outfield; Hilfenhaus caught behind; Beer getting his stumps smashed down by Tremlett - the perfect ending to a winter-long saga.

Truly a moment to savour. And I wasn't joking in the last blog when I said that Australia is fortunate to have been well and truly beaten by a clearly superior side, and not just pipped by a bunch of equally ordinary players. The Aussie commentators have rightly been able to concentrate on the brilliance of the English, making only passing references to the defeated Australians, relatively speaking.

Most of the English team were interviewed afterwards. How different, and how pleasant, they are - compared to the England footballers. The horrors of Rooney, Gerrard, Terry, Ferdinand et al. (Walcott is the exception - and he wasn't picked for the World Cup Finals. Remember Rooney cursing the English fans as he left the pitch following a diabolical and shambolic performance by both him and the team?) I could go on, as usual, about the importance of intelligence, but I won't.

Swann spoke intelligently about the dangers of hubris, the need to stay grounded, and so on. Strauss made a lighthearted comment about being personally responsible for the victory thanks to  passing on batting tips to Cook. (An antidote to the crass Pietersen comment about how it was him wot won it?)

I felt sorry for Trott - out for a duck in the Test in which his side scored a record total for a single innings by an England team in Australia, with no further opportunities in the series to redeem himself. Collingwood was also a slightly sad figure.

Interestingly Pietersen wasn't on the interview parade. Has he been advised to keep his stupid big mouth shut? Or has he finally worked that one out for himself?

So is cricket the new rock n roll? Er - no. But those of us who are currently enjoying the brilliance of this particular team would seem to have a lot to look forward to. Victory in the World Cup next year - the 50 overs one-day form of the game - would be the perfect follow-up to two consecutive Ashes victories, and the World 20-20 victory in South Africa last year.

Test match cricket may be a minority sport these days, enjoyed mainly by the likes of night owls, retired colonels and the Barmy Army, but it surely deserves better than to have its highlights broadcast at 10.00pm on ITV4 - a TV channel whose rubbish programmes are not even listed in proper newspapers.

The people who run the game should be held responsible for it becoming a minority sport, thanks to selling the broadcast rights to Sky Sports - a minority channel watched only by a few hundred thousand hard-core sports nuts.

Access is vital. I feel sorry for the kids of today, who have no chance of spending lazy summer days with their families watching enthralling Test matches (and Test series) unfold on open-access terrestial television. Maybe the majority of them would do so whilst multi-tasking on Nintendo thumb-twiddlers, and whilst updating Facebook pages on laptops and smartphones, but so what? Some of us also multi-task by making cups of tea, glancing at newspapers and pouring tots of whisky. This is the beauty of Test Match cricket - it's part of your daily life, whether on radio or TV, and not a substitute for it. Day or night.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/jan/07/ashes-england-australia

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/jan/07/the-ashes-2010-11-england-australia


...............................................


This week's Book of the Week on Radio 4 has been one of the best. A necessary, original and important book.

The Winter of Our Disconnect

By Susan Maushart. How one mother imposed techno-silence on three angry teenagers for six months

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00x79zh

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/lifestyle/the-winter-of-their-disconnect-how-susan-maushart-and-her-family-lived-without-technology-for-six-months/story-e6frf00i-1225866993954

"There were lots of reasons why we pulled the plug on our electronic media ... or, I should say, why I did, because heaven knows my children would have sooner volunteered to go without food, water or hair products. At ages 14, 15 and 18, my daughters and my son don't use media. They inhabit media. And they do so exactly as fish inhabit a pond. Gracefully. Unblinkingly. And utterly without consciousness or curiosity as to how they got there.

They don't remember a time before email, or instant messaging, or Google. Even the media of their own childhood - VHS and dial-up, Nintendo 64 and "cordful" phones - they regard as relics, as quaint as inkwells.

They collectively refer to civilisation pre-high-definition flatscreen as "the black and white days".

The most arresting points made by today's extract from the book were about the tiredness brought on by relentless and excessive digital multi-tasking on the part of teenagers (and others), and how much better we become as people when we're not tired and have plenty of mental and physical energy. The point was also well made that time without access to digital media is potentially time available for reflection and meditation, which are also vital for living well.

It's a question of balance . . .
.

Layer 415 . . . Ambition, Success, Zen, Rewards, Ashes, Acedia, Helping Others, Self-Development and Enlightenment

.
Ambition

Becoming familiar with Zen, the Tao, the Watercourse Way, etc, helps to explain why quite a lot of us seem to lack personal ambition and haven't striven to become 'successful' either professionally or materially. In our society it's the mainstream view that we ought to be ambitious, set ourselves goals, and achieve as much recognition and reward as our society can offer.

Eastern philosophy, however, sees the development of the self, and seeking enlightenment, as the real goal of life. Through meditation, through becoming authentic and spontaneous, through trying to help others, and so on, we can develop ourselves without having to become wealthy or having to achieve high status. It's often been said that material wealth, worldly 'success' and great personal ambition may, in fact, be handicaps in achieving these other goals. Fully evolved humans appear to have very little regard for either material wealth or high status or personal ambition - other than living well and being the best human being they can be. As ever, Layer 22 for reference.

Self-Development

How to develop the self without becoming self-obsessed and self-centred? The usual things really - Zen practice.

Therefore at the beginning of this new year resolve to do the following:

Eat and drink moderately and well.

Have regular meals - don't snack throughout the day or graze on what's easily available.

This year eat and drink more fresh lemon juice, more honey, more green tea, more powdered vitamin C, more fish, more lentils and chick peas, more garlic, more fresh chillies, more olives, more tomatoes, more home-made soups . . . and drink more water.

Enjoy sensible amounts of meat, cheese, bread, coffee, tea, red wine, spirits, beer, sake, nuts, fruit and chocolate.

Go for more walks and make more contact with nature, the elements, the sky, the sun and the seasons. Meditate as you walk, and also find other times of the day to examine your own thoughts, calm your mind, allow your deepest thoughts and feelings to come to the surface and come into the light of day. Allow the light to turn fears and negative thoughts into something positive, or simply neutralise them.

Have a regular bedtime. Have a regular waking up and getting up time.

-----------------------------

Helping Others

I've been pondering what it means to help other people. Especially those who are nearest and dearest.

You have to accept that in order to help others they must first of all want to help themselves. They also have to genuinely want you to help them.

I know of at least two fairly reclusive individuals, semi drop-outs, who appear to be suffering from acedia.

 Acedia

Acedia (also accidie, from Latin acidĭa, and this from Greek ἀκηδία, negligence) describes a state of listlessness or torpor, of not caring or not being concerned with one's position or condition in the world. It can lead to a state of being unable to perform one's duties in life. Its spiritual overtones make it related to but distinct from depression. Acedia was originally noted as a problem among monks and other ascetics who maintained a solitary life.

Acedia is essentially a flight from the world. It leads to not caring even that one does not care. The ultimate expression of this is a despair that ends in suicide.

As with those who followed him, Evagrius sees acedia as a temptation, and the great danger lies in giving in to it.

- Wikipedia

I presume there's a continuum that runs from extreme acedia right the way over to a state of spiritual joy, or satori.

I presume most people operate mostly or entirely somewhere in the middle - neither knowing nor caring about satori - let alone experiencing it -  but not completely in a state of torpor either.

As for depression . . . how DO most sufferers help themselves through it and get over it? By definition it's a state of feeling that nothing actually matters, that one is essentially worthless, and life is just a crock of pointless shit.

In the medieval Latin tradition of the seven deadly sins, acedia has generally been folded into the sin of sloth. Moral theologians, intellectual historians and cultural critics have variously construed acedia as the ancient depiction of a variety of psychological states, behaviors or existential conditions: primarily laziness, ennui or boredom. The demon of acedia manifests itself in a range of psychological and somatic symptoms that is far broader and more complex than the familiar tradition in the West.

Acedia is indicated by a range of signs. These signs (or symptoms) are typically divided into two basic categories: somatic and psychological. Acedia frequently presents signs somatically. Such bodily symptoms range from mere sleepiness to general sickness or debility . . .

A host of psychological symptoms can also signify the presence of acedia, which affects the mental state and behavior of the afflicted. Some commonly reported psychological signs revolve around a lack of attention to daily tasks and an overall dissatisfaction with life. The best-known of the psychological signs of acedia is tedium, boredom or general laziness.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acedia

The Watercourse Way is not passive, and the Tao is not mere adaptability, mutability and passivity. To become one's true self involves actively seeking to discover one's true nature, and to differentiate it from that which we're told by others we ought to be. To use meditation as a aid is a very positive choice. The discovery of the true self is NOT a thing that many people care to actively pursue - out of fear, vanity, egocentricity, false pride, sloth, etc.

Ashes News

Ah yes - the cricket. What a joy it is to see young people who have dedicated themselves to being the very best they can be in life being brilliantly successful in their trade or profession by virtue of their application, concentration, determination, self-examination, selflessness and skill development. To perform as well as these guys are doing you need to be right 'in the zone' for just about 100% of the time - both on the pitch and off it.

Very well done Cook, Bell, Strauss, Prior, Anderson, Swann, Bresnan and Tremlett. Thank you all for living up to expectations yesterday, and also for helping Australians to feel that at least they lost to the better team. Another 500 in the first innings and another victory by an innings will do nicely.

Trott - will continue to improve, and will learn to avoid ducks. Not quite there yet, but soon will be.

Pietersen - MUST do better. Not holding out much hope, though. Too big an ego. Too little EQ and SQ. Let alone IQ. This is a man who seems to believe that this Ashes success is all down to his heroic and selfless act of getting himself sacked from the captaincy. How immense is that? That's enough ego to fill a whole city. This is a man who gets himself out to crappy hook shots when good sense, concentration, hard graft, application and good judgement are needed.

Collingwood - possibly concentrate on becoming a useful medium pace bowler. We still need a good all-rounder at Number 6. As well as all-rounders at 7, 8, 9 and 10. Take a bow Mssrs Prior, Broad, Swann and Bresnan.

We can allow Jimmy Anderson to be in the team purely as a bowler, since he does so well as the night watchman. Tremlett and Finn to be his back-ups.

.