September 15, 2003
Peace Out
Last April, the Dalai Lama wrote a fascinating editorial in the NY Times. Called "The Monk in the Lab," the piece described how research 
is demonstrating the beneficial effects of meditation in these times "when destructive emotions like anger, fear and hatred are giving rise to devastating problems throughout the world," as the Lama wrote. It's a poignant, thought-provoking premise, that peace is literally just a state of mind.
He visited MIT last week and gave a talk at a workshop on "Investigating the Mind: Exchanges Between Buddhism and the Biobehavioral Sciences on How the Mind Works.” I've always been fascinated by the intersection of faith and science -- even wrote a song about it -- because there's a fine line between the knowable and the unknowable. Researchers studying brain functions are trying to prove what a lot of people already know: Meditation gives people control over negative emotions and makes them happy, even euphoric. The fact that meditators exhibit greatly increased activity in brain regions associated with happiness doesn't prove God exists, obviously; let's leave that to the high energy physicists. But it has serious implications for religion as mind control, both in the positive and negative senses. Separated from the question of whether there's a deity, meditation (or prayer, maybe) can have a quantifiably positive effect on humans, and therefore on society. Boy, could we use it. But the irony is that so much hatred stems from religious zeal -- I'm not expecting the MIT folks to solve that one in my lifetime.
On a related note, some columnist named Tina Trice is just the latest pundit to speculate as to whether Prozac could reduce tensions in the Middle East. It's just a matter of time before the pharmaceutical industry catches on and offers Faith as a pill. Available by prescription only. May cause drowsiness. Do not take while operating machinery, etc.
September 14, 2003
Bye Bye Johnny
"Both he and June Carter were priceless," said Wilco's Jeff Tweedy. "I don't think there could possibly be a better couple of humans to be ambassadors for country music, because of the way they embraced change, and grasped a younger generation's need to be a part of that. There wasn't anything exclusive about them. They lived the real punk ethic and the real Christian ethic: there wasn't much judgment in my mind the way they treated other people and treated other people's music. It was revelatory.
"It came from Johnny Cash being unique and a stranger in any genre of music that people might have grouped him in," Tweedy continued. "He just made Johnny Cash music, and I think he saw that and appreciated that in other people. The songs he played in the latter part of his career are a testament to how open they lived their lives." Complete article.
I'd say this photo is over-used, except it's so perfect. The same article w/ Tweedy's quote includes an account of how it came to pass:
In 1969, rock photographer Jim Marshall photographed Cash at a concert in San Quentin prison, producing an indelible black-and-white image that would forever define both men. It shows the singer with eyes squinting and lips pursed thrusting his middle finger into the camera lens.
"The cameras were buggin' me," Cash said in a 1996 Tribune interview. "They were in the way of the people. I had asked beforehand that they not cover up half the audience with cameras and equipment, but they didn't listen. So here comes this TV camera and I flipped 'em the bird. I told 'em, `I'm gonna throw you out rather than have the audience suffer.'"
Cash chuckled. "I got over my little hot flash, though. I'm sure I wouldn't have done it that way today. I would have handled it a little more quietly."