While experiencing happiness, we have difficulty in being conscious of it. Only when the happiness is past and we look back on it do we suddenly realize – sometimes with astonishment – how happy we had been.
Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
Our family traveled to Crete last year for a vacation. We visited Athens the previous May with a group of classmates, friends, and faculty from NYU, and I felt entirely absorbed into the Greek experience. Reflecting on our trip to Athens, I wrote the following:
My view is that what causes Greece to sustain in the world is a unique and special connection to family. In that sense, I think the choice of [one of our hosts to] share Epictetus’ ideas of stoicism, and his relation to family connection, was curious. Epictetus wrote, “When you see a man shedding tears in sorrow for a child abroad or dead… do not hesitate to sympathize with him so far as words go, and if it so chance, even to groan with him; but take heed that you do not also groan in your inner being.” It seems to me that this is antithetical to the approach of the Greek people we met. I imagine they are as sincerely empathetic a people as there is in the world. I wonder, can one demonstrate meraki and not periodically groan in one’s inner being?
I wanted more of this experience, and we treasured our 2019 trip to Crete. In anticipation of the trip, I read Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis. This book took on, over the course of months of slow digestion, a form of personal anthem. The book features a stuffy, intellectual narrator, suffering from various forms of discontent, who ventures to Crete to re-open a lignite mine. Along the way, he becomes introduced to Alexis Zorba, an impetuous brute with a treasure trove of life experiences. The story of their bond, adventures, and ultimate separation is described in vivid detail and with clear suggestions of the nature of, and possible remedies to, tendencies of the human condition. I think about this book nearly daily. And our trip to Crete in 2019 lived fully up to expectations.
Fast forward, and apparently April 2020 has passed. Well, that was an unusual month. I was talking with Becca this morning about how bizarre it was to have not left our property by a single foot over the past three days; Becca observed that it had actually been five days since I stepped off our property. Yea, our coronavirus-caused Groundhog day continues.
These days, which rhyme more than repeat, are creating a disorienting feeling for me. I feel like I have been waxing and waning in my personal emotional state. Having reflected on what is working well for me, and what is is not, I will make some adjustments for May.
Wax: I relaxed my initial efforts to avoid the Main Stream Media (MSM), but will reimpose that effort now. Originally, I thought the approach was important because of the extent to which I found myself exhausted by the ubiquitous framing of all matters, including topics of science, as having a relevant political framework. My instincts were correct. I need less MSM in my life right now.
Wane: A pleasant (re)-discovery for me this week has been the music of Bruce Springsteen. I remember being approximately Holger’s age (6) when I first heard Born in the USA. I have been listening to Bruce Springsteen Essentials more or less all week, which has made the week that much nicer. I’ll continue this.
Wax: I have been watching lectures on the Internet, including on topics of finance, economics, science, and history. Most recently, I have been re-reading Nouriel Roubini’s book, Crisis Economics. Professor Roubini has also been hosting various lectures on topics ranging from his views of the coming economic recovery shape (v, u, l), opinions about the future of the European Union, and the risks of a “Greater Depression” during the present decade. I think I will reduce the amount of time I am spending on these topics; I am not sure these reads are energizing me in a way alternative activities might.
Wane: I had a very nice interaction on Twitter with Dolly Chugh, who was honored with a Distinguished Teaching Award. I noticed within the award a reference to her facilitation of a book club at Wallkill Correctional Facility, and Tweeted curiosity about the booklist, to which she promptly responded with a listing, including cc: to the various authors. I ended up ordering one, Alexander Hamilton’s Guide to Life by Jeff Wilser, based upon discussion with Camilla, who has become quite infatuated with Manuel Lin Miranda’s Hamilton. I think spending time together reading this, and talking about it, will be a nice way to connect. I am looking forward to this.
.@JeffWilser joined us to discuss Alexander Hamilton’s Guide to Lifehttps://t.co/8HadqhDrtp
— Dolly Chugh (@DollyChugh) April 30, 2020
Wax: I spent some time, in follow-up to review of some of Roubini’s lectures, looking at data at the St Louis Fed, ICE, and US Treasury. My thoughts on consolidating comparative statistics on the size, liquidity, and efficiency of various US debt markets to US capital accounts and bank equity capital seemed worthwhile last Sunday afternoon; By Wednesday evening, the incremental effort following the kids’ bedtime seemed to be more effort than it was worth. Frankly, does anyone outside of the DCM world really care about the distinction between duration and convexity? In short, the answer is no. I will hit the pause button on that project for a bit.
I spent some time this morning rereading some of Kazantzakis’ words. I think, as I approach this next week, I will invest more into his following idea, despite the fact that I imagine they are intended as a signal of the naiveté of his protagonist. I think there is tremendous virtue in working every day to compete in business and engage constructively in the community. I do not think that belief is a signal of naiveté.
“Are you a preacher or a capitalist? You must make up your mind!”
But how could I choose? I was consumed by the ingenuous desire of uniting these two things, of finding a synthesis in which the irreducible opposites would fraternise, and of winning both the earthly life and the kingdom of the skies.
Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis,