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May 2009You may need to click "load images"
or something similar to see the photos WelcomeWow, it has been a busy time! I have come back from my speaking tour of the North Island for the theosophical Society. First was a national council meeting about the land the Theosophical Society owns at Orewa. It was a pretty contentious meeting and hopefully we can follow through on the decisions we made. Then I went on to speak at Whangarei, Orewa, Auckland, Napier, Palmerston North, Wanganui, New Plymouth, Hamilton and Tauranga. My talks were all pretty well received and generally generated good discussions. Traveling
back from Whangarei to Auckland
I stopped at the Albertland Museum in Wellsford. My Great-great
grandparents were Albertlanders. They were a group of religious
dissenters, who decided to come and form a community near Wellsford in
the 1860s. They and their two children came out on the Matilda
Wattenbach pictured here. When they reached Auckland they decided to
stay there. I saw their signatures in the ships log.  I
also passed these pink sheep on the way back to Auckland. In Auckland I
met up with Ruth, whom I trained with for running programmes. I also
found the Te Unga Waka marae in Auckland, which was the first urban
marae in NZ and went to a church service there.  I found the membership records of my mother in the card database at the Theosophical Society. In Wanganui we went briefly to Ratana Pa, where I have never been before. The photo is of the temple there. In New Plymouth I climbed (though not all the way due to rain and wind) Mt Paritutu I last climbed about 40 years ago. I have been working on editing my book and adding changes recommended by people who have read my firsat draft. The next step will be to prepare some submissions to publishers. Best of the NetThere isn't much on the net this month because I haven't had time for it. I did find http://theosophy.ning.com that has lots of information, links etc to do with theosophy.Books I read this month - continuedSophie's WorldI read Sophie's World years ago, but thought it was worth looking at it again as I found it on audio, so it was good to play while I was doing all the driving around the North Island. It is a novel about Sophie learning about philosophy from a man called Alberto Knox and his dog Hermes. Having a story wrapped around it makes it easier to understand al the different philosophers and their ideas. While travelling I only got up to David Hume, so hopefully I can keep plugging away at it on my ipod.Pre History |
Subscribe to this newsletterIf you would like to receive this newsletter as a monthly email just send me an email. You may choose to email me to Unsubscribe. Previous NewslettersNewsletter archiveOld "Recent News" Books I read this monthBeing on tour gave me more reading time than usual, which was really great. Complexity: A guided tour by Melanie Mitchell This is a book designed to give an overview of the field of complexity. Melanie Mitchell works at the Santa Fe Institute and so has worked with many of the pioneers of the field. THe book gives great background, but I wouldn't advice this as the first book to read unless you have a pretty good grounding in science ands perhaps maths. (There is not a lot of mathematics, but there is much discussion of mathematical priinciples. Read something like Deep Simplicity by John Gribbin first, then this would be a good follow on.The Fall, The evidence for a Golden Age 6,000 years ago of insanity and the dawning of a new era, by Steve Taylor This book was lent to me by a friend after having read my draft. The basic propostion is that prior to all the male dominated societies begining about 4000BC were matriarchal societies existing in an idyllic paradise. I have previously read similar books by people like Riane Eisler. I felt his book was more balanced than hers, but I still found I was struggling to be convinced by some of his leaps of logic to back up his case. I am more convinced by Ken Wilber's take that there have been good and bad points about both patriarchal and matriarchal societies. I am hard pushed to see Neo-lithic life as idyllic. |
Victor's webpage Victor's complexity website Subscribe Email Victor Victor's first book |
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