May 2011

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Welcome

This month has been a month of settling in to life in Wagga Wagga. It is surprising how much is involved in shifting and setting up in a new country. Sonja is enjoying her job and I have been concentrating on getting everything organised for settling in, exploring the city and getting an idea of what I will be doing for the next while. I still do not have my university study organised and I am looking for some short term or part time work.

I bought a wee Mazda 323 to get around town and we have been buying lots of furniture etc. It is strange being away from all the people we know. Getting a broadband internet connection has proved to be a huge marathon, being told we could not get broadband where we were, but then soon as we got a phone connected, it was all possible again. We have been using a USB modem in the meantime, but I am really looking forward to real broadband soon. I have been going to the library most days for their free broadband.

Lake Albert is about a 15 minute walk from where we are. It is a "man made" lake constructed back in the 1860s and is a reasonable size. Here in Wagga Wagga we have come out of a ten year drought during which the lake was little more than a big puddle, but is now full to overflowing. It has been restocked with fish and everyone is waiting for them to grow to full size so they can get fishing.

Inspite of the sign entering our suburb being called Tatton Hills, the whole area is very flat compared to what we are used to in New Zealand. It has meant there is plenty of land for expansion in the city and so everything is big and spread out. There are few two storey buildings, streets are very wide and everyone one seems to have a good size yard. You can view some photographs of our time in Sydney and Brisbane, returning to NZ and preparing to leave, and the journey to Wagga Wagga.

As Gonna Lay Down my Sword and Shield gets closer to publication, I am thinking (and writing a little) for my next book, tentatively entitled from Creation to Dynamic Co-creation. That was the title of the poster I took to the Waterloo conference. The basic idea is to look at how the concepts and philosophies discussed in Gonna Lay Down my Sword and Shield might form the basis of a way of life that makes sense of 21st century living.

Books I have Read this Month

Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity by Gregory Bateson

Reading this book is a part of my plan to read the writings of the pioneers of Systems Theory. His writing is really great, especially when see in the context of the time he was writing. He was so much ahead of his times and you can see how he influenced later thought. I found it not an easy read. On the surface it might seem easy, but I found myself rereading often. The book is very philosophical. It looks at many linear concepts that we tend to take for granted and then presents systems thinking and cybernetics to point to a new understanding that explains reality much better.

Best of the Net

Youtube has a great discussion between Rupert Sheldrake and Bruce Lipton entitled A Quest beyond the Limits. It is broken into 10 minute chunks but brings together two great minds, whose theories are both outside the mainstream, but worth real consideration. Rupert Sheldrake has been investigating life and consciousness from his ideas on morphic fields, while Bruce Lipton has come at the same problem from a physical cellular level.

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Books I read this month

What Makes us Tick byHugh MacKay

Sonja has been given some books to read to help her in her new job, so I am reading them too. This book introduces 10 human desires and examines them. It has some interesting ideas, but there isn't much new in the book and it tends to have unsubstantiated opinion. It would have been good to link the desires more and show more of how they arise in human behaviour.

Best of the Net

I found a very good summary of Ervin Laszlo's idea of the quantum vacuum as the underlying field from which everything emerges and returns called Concepts of Matter, Life and Mind. It also adds some interesting biographical details about Ervin Laszlo.

Victor's webpage Victor's complexity website Subscribe Email Victor Victor's first book