Category: REFLECTIONS EN PASSANT

In the music world a legend has it that Bruno Walther and Igor Stravinsky (both conductors and composers) had a difference of opinion about whether Mozart’s music should be conducted in a spirit of “singing” or “dancing”. A small difference in interpretation and a somewhat wonkish one, you might say. It brings up the spectre of facets and viewpoints in people’s perception of everything and how this is ruled by nature and nurture and fed by impressions, opinions and facts thrown at us from before cradle and all the way to our grave.

Assuming a dynamic and congenial exchange of opinion between two friends, founded on mutual respect, fondness and love, how big a difference of opinion will it take to shift or tip the scales and begin to erode those attributes of friendship? In true friendship, not mere acquaintance, there is a unique intrinsic mechanism of tightly wound springs, ticking cogs and oscillating balances that rules that particular friendship. Consequently, amongst true friendships each has its own mechanics, its own tolerance for deviation from accepted norms and its own number of degrees of freedom this particular friendship can tolerate.

Is there a golden ratio, a critical mass that preserves or potentially destroys a close friendship by shifting the balance between sympathy and antipathy?

Prompted by my daughter’s arrival from the West Coast I am again struck by the absurdity of flying through the air at 10,000 feet, let alone putting one’s life in the hands and minds of strangers. Strangers whose perfectly rational decisions may be overruled by heuristic (but misguided) algorithms of onboard computers to the detriment of you and your fellow travelers, and that without the calming voice of Hal.

This blog consists of the musings of a retired Dane living in rural Vermont the past thirty years and finally having time on his hands .

In my formative years in 4th and 5th grade I imagined myself becoming an artist or a literary critic but lacking aptitude for analysis, imagination or creativity, I became a doctor instead. I chose Medicine because its reputation for exactitude and science seemed a good cure for my ilk who, despite aspirations, were denied every gift offered by the muses to the lucky ones. Eventually, as I gained exposure to the World, I realized that important things we do in life touches on both Science and Art. This may sound a bit overwrought but I have come to think that it applies to most things we do in earnest and it matters not whether we are trench diggers or neurosurgeons.

So, as I embark on this leisurely endeavour I will adhere only to the Brownian movements of the mind and be guided not by the stars but by the anarchic forces of the pinball machine we call our brain.