MORLEY’S WORKSHOP
Zen and the art of insanity
Reading the ‘piece of string’ brain bender reminded me of the book Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance by Robert Pirsig (now deceased, bless his soul.) On my first reading, being heavily into motorcycle touring, I couldn’t see past the actual physical journey of riding a motorcycle across the country. Re-reading it a few years later while searching for the meaning of life I embraced the spiritual angle while thinking ‘Wow! This is truly deep, heavy shit!’ I didn’t really understand it but it sure sounded great.
Many years later, reading it a third time and being older and somewhat more cynical, offset I might add by a sense of humour, I’ve been assured it is more than just a little warped, I concluded that the bloke thought too much about life as a huge never-ending mathematical problem and drove himself insane. Watch it Morley, I’m a bit worried about you.
Aussie Sadler,
Mornington Vic
morley says...
HEY AUSSIE, I reckon you and I are the only blokes ever to finish reading Zen and the Art. Many people started reading it, but the ones that finished it are a very small roll-call indeed.
For my money, I reckon Pirsig might have scratched too deep, even though he makes a long and reasoned case for his thoughts. From what I remember, he spent a huge chunk of a huge book trying to distil what quality’ amounted to. He applied all sorts of values to the concept but, for mine, he missed the obvious one: Quality is what you like. And he probably should have left it at that.
At the risk of scaring you further, Aussie, I reckon that something can be termed a quality thing when it gives you pleasure (don’t be dirty). The Kiwis call it `choice’. The fact that we, as humans, share the brain-chemicals that give us our moods and preferences, it stands to reason that some things will evoke almost universal feelings of pleasure. Like a politician copping a cricket ball in the nads, for instance.
