Losing/finding their voices

Elton John's voice is deepening as he ages and he can no longer hit the high notes in his own songs. Besides this change, his voice still sounds beautiful. His more recent songs are written with his new vocal range in mind, allowing the warmth and power of his voice to resonate. But live performances of his older songs sound lacking.

Billy Joel suffers the same fate and has adjusted cleverly. When performing, he uses a digital piano inside a hollowed out grand piano. This allows him to play his songs as written, but dropped down to a more comfortable key at the flick of a switch. He still doesn't typically hit the very high notes in the River of Dreams or An Innocent Man. But those notes might have been outside his comfortable range even when recorded, since he stopped trying to hit them very soon after recording them.

Billy Joel says he doesn't like his voice, so he is often trying to sound like someone else. I can see that. Elton's voice is inherently beautiful and stands on its own. Billy's has inherent qualities, but it evolved with each album. He sounded like a folksy singer-songwriter in the 1970s and modern and metallic by the middle 1980s. Perhaps he had found a happy medium for his last recordings in the 1990s. Elton, however, has sounded consistent throughout his career.

Libraries changing

Libraries are changing, but I think they are as important as ever. They may eventually contain fewer paper books, but they will always be a place to quietly read or study, to find help with research, or perhaps even find a date.

I think libraries should remain libraries. I don't like when a library is called a "learning commons" or "resource center". They are still libraries no matter what you call them, just as a "judicial center" is still a courthouse and a "public safety building" remains a police station. (Though I understand that a combined police and fire station might be sensibly called a public safety building.)

I hear the case made that as society becomes more digital, public libraries are more important than ever, since they provide internet access to those who can't afford it at home. Sure, that is true. But public libraries shouldn't serve only the poor. They should be celebrated public places with resources and an atmosphere rich enough to attract people from all walks of life.

It is an interesting time to build new libraries or renovate old ones. Nobody knows exactly what kind of physical space we will want in a library in the years ahead. Maybe we will still have a lot of books. Maybe no books. Or perhaps it will be typical for libraries to contain a small archive of particularly important paper books as technology makes them impractical for everyday use.

Perhaps paper books will become obsolete. A physically adaptable public space in a rapidly changing world, however, will not become obsolete.

Libraries and books

I was reading a novel recently and started to really appreciate the feel of the book in my hand. Maybe I have always appreciated the physical form of books. But it is different now that I have the sense that books are going digital.

I don't know for sure that this is the end of paper books. But as technology improves, paper books seem impractical. They are primitive. Every word is printed out in ink on an unchanging page. They take up too much space and are a nightmare to move.

But I also think that as electronic books take over, paper books will be appreciated more. We'll probably soon be reading only digital books. But every household might have a few hard copies of its favorites, maybe a shelf of old family books that add warmth to a room.

I am not so sure about paperbacks. They may go the way of the cassette tape. They were cheap and convenient, but don't age well. They are not meant to last. They are not good decorations.

The First Chill

Oh how I love the first chill of autumn. I am wired for cold weather. It feels natural to me. I feel more myself.

Hot weather is uncomfortable. You can wear light clothes, but at some point it gets so hot that even nude, the heat feels oppressive. Air conditioning is common, but not standard in every home, office, and car.

I can dress for comfort in the coldest weather. And every home, office, and car is heated to a preferred temperature.

I don't have much fun in the summer. Sure, I take advantage of the opportunity to get exercise outside. But I don't like to lie on the beach. I prefer to walk along an empty beach in the fall and winter.

Paradoxical Commandments

In recent days I found myself turning to the paradoxical commandments for inspiration in the face of challenges. I learned of the commandments in a very memorable way. They were packaged as the theme of a graduation ceremony I attended. The commandments were read in full and then explained and celebrated through speech and song.

The Paradoxical Commandments

• People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.
• If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
• If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
• The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
• Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
• The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.
• People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
• What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
• People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway.
• Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.

I was moved when I first heard this, but only recently did I really experience its meaning. The Paradoxical Commandments are an answer to the cynicism we are tempted to feel in a world in which virtue goes unrewarded. We live in a difficult world. I need inspiration to keep my head held high and to take the high ground.

I know the author has written a book that puts the commandments in a Christian context. But by themselves they can be secular enough for this aspiring spiritual atheist.

Speaking of which, I've been Sponged. I've got James Shelby Spong's secular idea of Jesus in my mind. I wrestled with that, wondering whether Jesus works well enough for me as a metaphor. I will continue to wrestle with this, because I hunger for a secular spiritual experience that I haven't quite satisfied.

Yeah, all my reading, writing, and thinking about spirituality for one who doesn't believe in the supernatural led me nowhere. Do I need to make a leap of faith to have a means of experiencing spirituality?

The Marriage Plot

 (Spoiler alert)

I read Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex because Amazon said it was bought by people who read two of my favorite books, Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections and Donna Tartt's The Secret History. Middlesex is worthy of that company. It is a seamlessly woven multi-generational story of a hermaphrodite's coming of age amid a backdrop of family secrets, modern Greek history, and the fall of Detroit.

The Marriage Plot is a very different book about the love triangle among three recent Ivy League grads: Apparently beautiful Madeline, who never has to fight for male attention; charming but mentally ill Leonard; and spiritually questioning Mitchell.

It is hard to like Madeline, the pretty girl who can have any guy she wants but falls for and marries Leonard, who is the worst kind of manic depressive. He loves his manic episodes and adjusts his medication accordingly, against his doctor's guidance. Mitchell meanwhile is grounded but head over heels for Madeline. Madeline exploits this unrequited love, taking advantage of his always available shower of affection whenever she needs her ego propped up during her difficult points in her relationship with Leonard.

Leonard and Mitchell have a conversation about their respective spiritual quests that seems to deeply affect both of them. Mitchell comes to respect Leonard and understand why Madeline married him. Leonard leaves Madeline and disappears. Mitchell initially thinks he and Madeline will finally be lovers. But when they have sex, Mitchell realizes it is part of Madeline's selfish process of forgetting Leonard. The sex is unfulfilling for Mitchell as he realizes Madeline was an early ideal to him that not longer fits. I walk away form this ending with respect for Mitchell and a sense of optimism now that he can move on with his life.

Taste in music is subjective

Taste in music is subjective, but it doesn't feel that way.

Multiple times I've seen a facebook thread bash a popular musician. It starts with something like "how can anyone possibly like _______?" Friends join in, hatred piles on. It gets nasty. A commenter may or may not suggest that this musician is the reason terrorists hate the US.

In one of these threads, the target was a band that I never liked much. But a group of my friends, all musicians who are pretty serious about music, worship the band. Then I saw someone from this group (not knowing his beloved band was attacked in the first example), ridicule another artist. And this artist, too, has fans who are thoughtful and serious about music.

Musical taste is subjective. And it is pretty immature to think it isn't. If a particular artist doesn't appeal to me, it doesn't mean he's shit and those who appreciate his music are misguided.

I understand that this is a challenge of our subjective consciousness. Some things we can consider objectively. One river appears wider than another. If there is disagreement about this, it can be measured. But to think that music can be compared the same way misses the complexity of human experience and the fact of our subjective consciousness.

Signs of unsustainability

We know now that one of the signs that the last housing boom wasn't sustainable was that home prices were growing much faster than incomes. I don't know that in all circumstances that would be a sign of a coming major economic crisis. But it at least should have suggested that the boom would at least have to slow. It seems like common sense now, but during the pre-bust housing hysteria, unstoppable growth in home prices seemed to be the new reality. Things seemed to have changed--housing was just going to become more expensive, despite income levels.

Are there signs that elements of our current economy are unsustainable? Signs that will seem obvious to us in the future?

The rising cost of attending college is getting more and more attention. This is different from the housing bubble. Everyone seems to understand that this is a big problem that isn't good for anyone. In contrast, before the housing bubble burst, homeowners were typically pleased at their homes' rapid appreciation. But I think there is still a major disconnect with reality among college students and their families who take on a huge debt burden regardless of a student's future income potential. For example, engineering students have the same access to student loans as creative writing majors, despite the major difference in income potential between the two.

Increasing numbers of young adults are finishing college with a shed load of debt. It is like starting your adult life with a mortgage but no house. And there is an even worse scenario that a huge number of young people face, but receives little attention: incurring large student debt without earning a degree. I don't know how the college bubble could burst and what it would look like. A college degree has already become less valuable for an individual because more people are going to college than ever before.

I also wonder about how it can be that it is often seems to make financial sense to replace, rather than repair, many consumer goods. For how long can factory labor in Asia be dirt cheap? If China's economy continues to rapidly grow, cheap labor there will become more scarce. Perhaps that will mean consumer goods here become more expensive and it will gain make more sense to repair rather than replace a broken TV or lawnmower.

My feeling is that this is a sign of the unsustainability of cheap consumer goods. I have no idea if this will be settled with an economic mess or an easy adjustment. The best possible outcome I can imaging is that an increase in labor costs in Asia leads to a more equal playing field in which even the US can compete again with them in manufacturing. And if consumer goods become expensive again that it more often makes more sense to repair rather than replace them, there will again be a need for repairmen of all types everywhere--good local jobs.

Real estate investment scam

I recall nearly a decade ago hearing homeowners note with pride how much the value of their homes had risen. I found it very discouraging. How was I ever to buy a home with prices so high and rising? Would I ever escape rent slavery?

In those circumstances, it seemed rational to buy a home and start building equity in the rising market. Renting appeared to be plain stupid--simply throwing money away. If you wanted to get ahead in the world, you absolutely had to get into the market as soon as possible.

But it was baloney. It was a bubble that burst soon enough, bringing misery to millions of home owners. Now people are living in negative equity slavery, where they are stuck with a house worth substantially less than the mortgage they are paying on it.

See, it turns out that real estate generally appreciates at approximately the rate of inflation. Look at the Case-Shiller home price index from 1890 to present.

This inflation-adjusted index shows a couple interesting things:

• As noted in the index's Wikipedia article, there has never been a long-term upward trend in real estate prices. The market rises and falls, but has always gravitated back to 1890 prices.
• The height of the most recent boom was unprecedented. But like all past booms, it was followed by a bust that returned prices near 1890 levels.

Many people profited handsomely if they bought low and sold high. But this is a zero-sum casino game. If I bought a home for $100 in 1999 and sold it for $180,000 in 2005, I made an $80,000 profit. But when the market crashed, the value of the property returned to around $100,000--a loss of $80,000 to the buyer.

Even with a rise in a property's inflation-adjusted value, the investment is not necessarily profitable. Consider this scenario: I bought a house for $100,000 in 1984 and sold it in 2013 for $300,000. Wow, a $200,000 profit! But not really. $300,000 is worth about $134,000 in 1984 dollars. That's a profit of $34,000 in 1984 dollars, right? No, that is an incomplete picture of the investment. $100,000 is the purchase price, but certainly not the entire amount invested in the property. The taxes, mortgage interest, and maintenance costs incurred over the 29 years that I owned the home were substantial. Depending on the actual tax and interest rates, it isn't uncommon for these costs to equal or exceed the purchase price. Including those costs shows that a nominal profit can easily be an actual loss.

Of course there are benefits to owning a home. It is wonderful to put down roots and have control over your living space.  But the most cited benefit, that it is a good investment, is a scam.

Beautiful Things

I'm all excited lately about the beauty of some of the simple things around me--particularly my acoustic guitar, my road bike, and dip pens.

The acoustic guitar looks the way it does in order to work the way we want it to. Its form is almost completely utilitarian. There isn't much room for variation in the appearance of a functioning acoustic guitar. The main area of flexibility is in the shape of the body. But even the normal variety I see in their bodies seems to be to support different types of functionality, such as having the body shaped in a way that allows the player's hand to reach farther up the neck.

And yet the acoustic guitar is beautiful. I've heard the curve of the body describes as womanly. The crisscross of the frets and strings look like the panes of a tall window. All the features, such as the pick guard and tuning pegs, break up its massing like other architectural details on a building. Sparse decoration is sufficient to personalize an acoustic guitar, for it is already naturally beautiful. On the other hand, there are all sorts of gaudy electric guitar designs, since their sound doesn't depend on the body shape.

The road bike is a certain type of perfection too. It is designed for maximum efficiency riding on pavement. The narrow wheels minimize rolling resistance and the drop handlebars put the rider into a position to minimize wind resistance. It is pleasurable to be riding and know that this machine is making the most of my physical energy.

I find that dip pens can be especially beautiful in the same way as the acoustic guitar and the road bike. Bowl pointed nibs are especially attractive. They look like something between a paintbrush and modern ballpoint pen. And like the guitar, they look the way they do in order to function the way they do and there is little room for ornamentation. I use them for general writing and not even for calligraphy or lithography. They help me put more focus into my typically terrible penmanship. And no modern pen creates as perfectly consistent a line as a dip pen. This is one reason why they are often used by illustrators.

The acoustic guitar, road bike, and dip pen are timeless things that are still important despite constant high tech innovation. They have been designed to a certain perfection where they just can't be improved much more.

Long Childhood is Uniquely Human?

Neat Slate article with a fascinating evolutionary explanation of why human beings have much longer childhood's than other biological relatives. Sometimes a scientific explanation of an element of our humanity makes us seem cold and meaningless. But not in this case. I'm moved by this one.

Spong's Jesus

Retired Episcopal bishop John Shelby Spong believes most of what is claimed about Jesus Christ is bullshit. It turns out he is a skeptic like I am. But he is different. After peeling away the supernatural claims that the story of Jesus is wrapped in, he still finds a profound spiritual force.

He argues that the bible is an inconsistent and contradictory product of its time that makes claims that no thoughtful modern person should believe. Christianity that dogmatically follows such a text is broken. Such is the Christianity that at its best coexisted with, and at its worst, fueled racism, sexism, and homophobia for nearly 2,000 before secular movements began to free us of these bigotries.

But Spong thinks Christ still is something powerful. He believes Christ was a real person whose life and teachings profoundly moved his contemporaries. But in Christ's time, people had only the supernatural language of their time to describe what they saw. But Spong believes there is something real that inspired the stories of Jesus that we know.

Who was the real Jesus? Spong says it is a man who taught people to live life fully and to embrace our full humanity. He taught people to transcend their tribalist survival instincts and love all regardless of race, religion, and gender. This was pure radicalism in its day.

The gift Spong gives is a concept of Jesus that is useful to non-Christians. In fact, I feel inspired by his version of Jesus without needing to know for sure whether it is fact or fiction. This version, completely lacking supernatural elements, is at least possible to a skeptic.

My pen obsession deepens

So now I'm obsessed with dip pens--those old-fashioned pens that you have to dip into an inkwell. It is technology somewhere between feather pens literally from a bird and fountain pens that contain ink and don't need to be dipped into an inkwell.

This began with my purchase of a trio of Pilot Varsity disposable fountain pens. That is a fun product--a $3 fountain pen that writes quite smoothly and despite its branding, can be refilled and reused indefinitely. I look forward to running out of ink and cracking one open.

I so enjoyed the feeling of the Varsity's nib scraping across the page that I got an itch to try writing with a dip pen. I bought a set with several nibs and started playing. I've had a blast comparing the feel of each nib. They vary in several ways.

Flexibility: A more flexible nib allows the writer to change the width of the line by varying the firmness of the pen on the paper. A firm nib is durable and works well for non-artistic writing.

Fineness: A narrow or broad line.

Ink economy: The finer and firmer nibs consume much less ink. One of the nibs can go several lines on a single dip.

I understand that dip pens are now used almost exclusively by artists. But I am just enjoying the experience of writing with them. I like the idea of writing the way people commonly did over a century ago. And as far as hobbies go, this is very inexpensive. I bought a set including two handles and six different nibs for about $10. Furthermore, dip pens have an old-fashioned utilitarian beauty to me, like a violin or a trumpet.

I'm interested in eventually playing with a true feather pen like many great minds fidgeted with long ago. I also want to try a glass dip pen. And I might also search around for an inexpensive practical fountain pen for regular use.

Photo from Wikipedia