Interview with Hawk Newsome of Black Lives Matter

Social Security vs. Private Retirement

The Unfettered Mind

During the past month or so, I've been reading books like Sun Tzu's The Art of War and Benjamin Zander's The Art of Possibility. Reading the Art of War gave me a much deeper appreciation for Eastern philosophy and I find myself recognizing a lot of those same philosophical ideas in The Art of Possibility as well which has gotten me even more interested in continuing on with this reading trend.

From what I understand, Miyamoto Musashi, like Sun Tzu, is another man who many consider to have been a "Zen Master" and so I'll be reading his book over the holiday: The Book of Five Rings. But before I read that, I plan on first reading The Lone Samurai: The Life of Miyamoto Musashi to get a broader understanding of the man. What I really liked about the copy of The Art of War that I picked up (Understanding the Art of War by Robert Cantrell) is that the author not only included the English translation of the original text but also explanations of the history pertinent to understanding the text allowing me to soak up quite a bit more value than I would have just reading the raw English translation. Likewise, I suspect that starting with The Lone Samurai might help me later in understanding Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings.

A third book that caught my eye for the holiday is The Unfettered Mind by Takuan Sōhō, another famous Zen Master who is rumored to have advised Miyomoto Musashi among others.

Maybe one day I, too, will have an unfettered mind (right now it is quite fettered).

Lessons in Freedom

In the first episode of the second season of Kung Fu, there exists a dialog between a young Kwai Chang Caine and one of his instructors, Master Po which I think teaches an important lesson in freedom and what it means. I think there are a number of people in the Free Software community who are in desperate need of learning this particular lesson.

Master Po: What have you found?

Young Kwai Chang Caine: A spider, master. It has trapped the fly. Should I destroy his web?

Master Po: Why?

Young Kwai Chang Caine: So that it will not make a prison for other living things that were free.

Master Po: Look more closely, grasshopper. Were you to destroy this web, would not the spider, knowing no other way, build another?

Young Kwai Chang Caine: Yes, but I cannot kill the spider.

Master Po: Look more closely still. Is not the spider also trapped by its own web?

Young Kwai Chang Caine: Yes, but if I do nothing, it will capture more living things, make them prisoner, and kill them.

Master Po: You are concerned, then, with the fly to which nature has given wings so that it might move around freely?

Young Kwai Chang Caine: It is cruel to see it made a prisoner.

Master Po: Ha ha ha. Still you do not see. Which is truly the prisoner? The fly, which, moving freely enters unknown danger? Or the spider, which, having spun its web, remains, never knowing the pleasure or the danger of the fly?