"The first writers are first, and the rest, in the long run, nowhere but in anthologies" - Carl Van Doren

"A handful of sand is an anthology of the universe" - David McCord

As I've been unpacking my record collection (I got up to the letter 'P' this morning!), I've also been coming across a great many boxes containing books. Many of them are ones that I've picked up along the way, and others are ones that I claimed from my Mom's estate when she passed away. As I have mentioned earlier, very few of them I've read cover to cover, but most of them I've certainly read chapters, and bits and pieces here and there.

I mention all this because I was involved in an interesting conversation the other day about where we get our ideas from, what influences them, how we put them forward, with what authority, etc. I maintain, of course, that every single person is uniquely different in that regard, and that is why individual uniqueness is the only common thing that I "allow" into my "theory" (I've also been challenged in a sense, BTW, to call it something other than a theory, lest I someday have to prove it in a scientific way. Feel free to substitute whatever word fits you most comfortably...{my thinking, my postulates, my speculations, my entertainment, my hobby....}, it doesn't matter to me.

But the conversation got me to thinking. If all of today's philosophical thought has evolved over centuries from greater minds than mine applying themselves to the puzzles of the day, who influenced their thinking? Who went before the Platos and the Socrates of the world? And who before them? Are their names still bandied about because they added something unique and different, or because they strengthened a particular line of thinking? I don't know, I've never studied their works. I trust I've made it plain that I speak as a layman with my own thoughts.

But it's become clear to me as I've been unpacking these books and dusting them off to put back on different shelves than my records, that I've had a great many influences in my thought evolution. Can I tell you which books inspired which thoughts that I've built on? No. Can I tell you that the contents of these books have altered how I perceive my world and yours? Absolutely.

So, just for the halibut, here is a fairly lengthy, randomly selected, in no particular order, list of books I've unpacked in the past week, many of which I'll be re-visiting in the weeks and months to come.

But just prior to that, a couple fractals I did last night while I was thinking of something else.

Now, on to the booklist:

"The Purpose Driven: What on Earth Am I Here for?" by Rick Warren
"The Tenth Insight: Holding the Vision" by James Redfield
"Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" autographed copy by Stephen Covey
"The Gospel of Elvis" by Louie Ludwig
"A Course in Miracles" by The Foundation for Inner Peace
"Brain Longevity" by Dharma Singh Khalsa
"Life 101" by John Roger & Peter McWilliams
"The Celestine Prophecy" by James Redfield
"Living Without A Goal" by James Ogilvy
"Thriving On Chaos" by Tom Peters
"The Art of Selfishness" by David Seabury
"Selected Poems" by John Donne
"Practical Thinking" by Edward de Bono
"The Tao-Finding The Way of Balance and Harmony" - by Mark Forstater
"The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho
"Memory" by I.M.L. Hunter
"Vicious Circles and Infinity-An Anthology of Paradoxes" - by Patrick Hughes
"Straight & Crooked Thinking" by Robert H. Thouless
"Talks and Dialogues Saanen 1967" by J. Krishnamurti
"Talks and Dialogues Saanen 1968" by J. Krishnamurti
"Talks in Europe 1968" by J. Krishnamurti
"The Ambidextrous Universe: Mirror Assymetry and Time-Reversed Worlds" by Martin Gardner
"In Weakness, Strength" by Jean Vanier
"Tears of Silence" - by Jean Vanier
"How To Get Stupid White Men Out of Office" by a collection of authors (articles)
"Mirror of Man: Readings in Sociology and Literature" editted by Jane Dabaghian
"Second Foundation" by Isaac Asimov
"Dealing With The Idiots In Your Life" by Jim Benton
"The Laws of Spirit" by Dan Millman
"Give War a Chance" by P.J. O'Rourke
"The Dragons Of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence" by Carl Sagan
"Faces of Freedom: The Challenge of Transformation" editted by Adrienne Blue
"Horizons of Hope: The Quest for a New Consciousness" editted by Adrienne Blue
"Living With Everyday Problems" by Eugene Kennedy
"Ballads of a Cheechako" by Robert Service
"Moby Dick" by Herman Melville
"Foundations Edge" by Isaac Asimov
"The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence" by Kathleen Berger
"The Power of Intention" by Dr. Wayne Dyer
"The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism" by Fritjof Capra
"The Life You Were Born To Live" by Dan Millman
"The Seat of The Soul" by Gary Zukav
"How to Think About the Great Ideas" editted by Max Weismann
"The Universe Within: A New Science Explores the Human Mind" by Morton Hunt
"There Are Two Errors In The The Title Of This Book" by Robert Martin
"Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences" by Abraham Maslow
"Teaching Thinking Skills: Theory and Practice" editted by Joan Baron & Robert Sternberg
"A Book of Peace" by Elizabeth Goudge
"Notes To Myself" by Hugh Prather
"The Secret Trees" by Luci Shaw
"Googlewhack Adventure" by Dave Gorman

and my recently purchased additions:

"Theatre of the Mind" by Jay Ingram
"The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins
"Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the 10th Dimension" by Michio Kaku
"Chaos: Making a New Science" by James Gleick

and a very special find in the deep depths of my crawl space:

"The People of the Martian Spruce: a small novel in 3 parts" -autographed by the author.

So, there you have it. Two things: 1) this is a very incomplete list, 2) you can no doubt start to see some of the influences I've been exposed to, and have allowed to shape my thinking as I move through my particular, personal timeline and spaceline.



We're all different. We're all the same. It's the most beautiful paradox and contradiction possible, I think, because it allows us the option "to be or not to be", to make our choice.

Today's PEACE link compares George Bush's situation wrt. Iraq to Shakespeare's play "Henry V". "Don't fear change. Change fear."

Posted by Evydense on Friday, March 31, 2006 at 10:12 a.m. | Permalink