2010.07.15 19:00 - What the Nose Knows

The Guardian for this meeting was PlayAsBeing. The comments are by Calvino Rabeni.

Bruce Mowbray: Hi, Para -- There you are all sparkles again.
Paradise Tennant: hiya bruce :) how are you :)_
Bruce Mowbray: Actually, I'm fading fast -- probably going to have to get to bed before this session is finished.
Bruce Mowbray: YAAAAWWWWWN.
Paradise Tennant: smiles I know i tend to wind down soon too
--BELL--

Paradise Tennant: smiles did you have a good day ?
Bruce Mowbray: I've had an excellent day, thank you. I just got off the RL phone from a long talk with a friend -- feeling great now!
Bruce Mowbray: And you?
Paradise Tennant: smiles
Paradise Tennant: lol I worked very hard for some 11 hours .. and am now eating a late dinner with the dog protesting everytime I take a bit and he doesn't
Bruce Mowbray: Awwww. I see his photo in your profile. A poodle?
stevenaia Michinaga: hello Bruce, Paradise
Paradise Tennant: smiles yes a mix bearded collie and poodle
Bruce Mowbray: Hey, Stevenaia.
Bruce Mowbray: My RL dog (Bear) didn't get a walk today because it was too darn HOT.
Paradise Tennant: hiya steve
Paradise Tennant: poor bear
Bruce Mowbray: ;-) -- He still has a winter coatm so he's probably happy we didn't walk.
Bruce Mowbray: coat.
Bruce Mowbray: How's it going with you tonight, Steve?
stevenaia Michinaga: kinds of toasty over here
Paradise Tennant: smiles
Bruce Mowbray: Ooops -- hit the bow instead of the nod...
Bruce Mowbray: Hi, Benjamin.
stevenaia Michinaga: bello Benjamin
stevenaia Michinaga: Hello
Paradise Tennant: hiya benjamin
Benjamin Greycloak: Hi everyone!
Benjamin Greycloak: how long ago was the ding
Benjamin Greycloak: ?
Bruce Mowbray: 8 minutes ago.
Benjamin Greycloak: and why do i sit side-saddle like this?
Bruce Mowbray: You can change your sitting posture by clicking on the cushion
stevenaia Michinaga: you can click the pillow to change
stevenaia Michinaga: that too
Bruce Mowbray: left-click it.
stevenaia Michinaga: hello Calvino
Bruce Mowbray: Hi, Calvino.
Paradise Tennant: hiya cal :)
Benjamin Greycloak: got it
Benjamin Greycloak: thanks
Paradise Tennant: smiles
Paradise Tennant: well what shall we explore tonight ..any ideas ?
stevenaia Michinaga: yes you do
Calvino Rabeni: Hello everyone :)
Benjamin Greycloak: Hi Calvino
Benjamin Greycloak: !
Calvino Rabeni: How about, impressions of the place we live in?
Paradise Tennant: smiles great topic
Bruce Mowbray: in RL, you mean?
Paradise Tennant: how are surrounding change us and how we change our surrounding
Calvino Rabeni: Last night was a fingernail moon
Benjamin Greycloak: Well I live on the Mississippi River!
Benjamin Greycloak: like I can see it out of my window
Paradise Tennant: listens
Benjamin Greycloak: and its beautiful!
Calvino Rabeni: Summer night, long twighlight, cloudless sky with a fingernail moon and Venus shining bright
Benjamin Greycloak: A real sense of place!
Calvino Rabeni: Exactly - sense of place was what I was thinking :)
stevenaia Michinaga: I love the way the sounds of nature here refocs my attentions away from things and to new things, jsut like the gong
Paradise Tennant: smiles
Calvino Rabeni: When the senses are enlivening
Calvino Rabeni: and there's some feeling of the sublime
Benjamin Greycloak: Thats what reality is becoming for me -- its all about the current environment and my relation and attitude towards that environement
Benjamin Greycloak: that it, thats all there is
Calvino Rabeni: In RL - it comes from grace, or maybe from being open to seeing it where it is
stevenaia Michinaga: tell us about grace, Cal
Paradise Tennant: listens
--BELL--

Calvino Rabeni: I was riding my motorcycle into the setting sun
Calvino Rabeni: The air was clear and cool after it got dark - a rider feels the air and the scents contained in it...
Benjamin Greycloak: good way to keep cool
Benjamin Greycloak: a motorcycle
Calvino Rabeni: I passed a huge train yard with the scents of diesel and creosote and the rumbling of locomotives idling
Calvino Rabeni: all those have a feeling of history
Benjamin Greycloak: maybe thats the unmerited favor of god
Calvino Rabeni: then down past the fishing bay with all the fishing boats
Calvino Rabeni: and the marine smells, fish and water
Calvino Rabeni: down past the ship canal, with the looming vessels that are seagoing
Calvino Rabeni: Quite a lot of impressions of place, history, and tradition in this urban area
Calvino Rabeni: connected with a lot of things that were not present but spread out in time and space
Calvino Rabeni: and a lot of it carried subtly on the wind
Calvino Rabeni: (end of impression)
Bruce Mowbray is trying to guess what that urban area might be.
Paradise Tennant: scent tread to the brain before all else .. they are primal :)
Calvino Rabeni: And movement is primal - the motorcycle experience is being embedded in movement
Bruce Mowbray: Primal senses. . .
Paradise Tennant: akways liked the sense of smell because in a way .. to smell is to become one with whatever it is in a fashion ;) it is almost as though it can triggers .. memories to a bigger .. ?
Bruce Mowbray recalls some verse from Wordsworth: ". . . a sense sublime of something far more deeply interfused, whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, and the round ocean, and the living air, and in the mind of man."
Paradise Tennant: smiles I think you have just given this session it's title bruce :)
Calvino Rabeni: That captures the feeling nicely, thanks Bruce
Bruce Mowbray: This thing that Para mentioned about "becoming one with the thing that is smelled" -- Those were not her exact words, but --
Bruce Mowbray: I really enjoy imaging that I share Being with other animals and with other things -- Indeed, there IS no "other."
Calvino Rabeni: Calvino Rabeni wonders how Bruce's forensics were going about where I may have encountered those impressions ... lets see, rail yard and fishing and marine ...urban area ...
Calvino Rabeni: Here's the location http://maps.google.com/maps?q=fisherman%27s+terminal,+seattle...
Bruce Mowbray: I was thinking it might be Seattle! -Really!
Calvino Rabeni: I think, my point is - i didn't need to drive out in the country to find "nature" and have a deep impression
Calvino Rabeni: much as I sometimes disrespect city life :)
Calvino Rabeni: But like I think you do Bruce, I revere those conections with natural settings
Bruce Mowbray: I ran outside fo a sec to check out the "fingernail moon." It will be even slimmer tomorrow night.
Bruce Mowbray: [did we lose Paradise?]
Bruce Mowbray: Paradise Lost?
--BELL--

Calvino Rabeni: Calvino Rabeni whispers WB Para
Bruce Mowbray: WB, Para!
stevenaia Michinaga: thinks if smell and time and how they relate as space defining experiences
stevenaia Michinaga: *of
Paradise Tennant: yes scent dresses a room or place in a way ..
stevenaia Michinaga: even of all you had was smell, how righ experiences can me
stevenaia Michinaga: *rich
Calvino Rabeni: I think I remember many of the 90-second pauses - like mini-dreams in my memory
Calvino Rabeni: and what they showed about space, for instance
Calvino Rabeni: like that "music of the spheres" pause recently
Bruce Mowbray muses: Sorta makes me envious of dogs. . . who, it's said, can distinguish one scent from over 100,000.
Calvino Rabeni: I experienced how flat the world had become by looking at screens all day
stevenaia Michinaga: nods, but it;s their choices of what they smell that makes me think twice
Calvino Rabeni: and how much it opened into alive space during that 90 secs
Calvino Rabeni: The dog would have great discrimination about those smells, not measuring it along the human Yum...Yuck dimension
Bruce Mowbray: indeed.
Paradise Tennant: lol steve
stevenaia Michinaga: lol
Calvino Rabeni: The scat or whatever would be a whole infomation kiosk
stevenaia Michinaga: well put Cal
Paradise Tennant: smiles
Bruce Mowbray: A stron fan at the opposite end of my house is sucking the mystical moist night air through the open window - directly behind my monitor -- striking my bare chest -- a combination of clear-clean smell and cool caressing breeze.
Bruce Mowbray: strong.
Paradise Tennant: sounds nice
stevenaia Michinaga: nods huds
stevenaia Michinaga: oops
Bruce Mowbray: So very HOT here today -- but the night is forgiving, as spring forgives winter, or autumn forgives summer.
Calvino Rabeni: There's a tale that Richard Feynman was very curious about human senses like smell - he would ask a friend to open a book in his library to a page, and then replace it, while he was out of the room - and then come back in, and figure out what book and what page
Paradise Tennant: i am .. looking out at a million windows .. all alive with light .. life within but very quiet where I sit just the sound of my typing .. low lamp light and a softly snoring dog :)
Paradise Tennant: wow
Paradise Tennant: loved his book
Bruce Mowbray: me hopes that Para shared some of her supper with pouch.
Paradise Tennant: wonders if he .. perfumed the books .. :) he was a trickster
Calvino Rabeni: The interesting thing about a city hillside sit -is to realize all the lives going on at that very moment, within those windows
Paradise Tennant: lol i did . as always .. a 1 to 1 ratio
Calvino Rabeni: rather than just seeing "a picture"
Bruce Mowbray wonders. . . "?"
Paradise Tennant: yes that is what I mean
Paradise Tennant: all the conversations
Paradise Tennant: all the thoughts ..
Bruce Mowbray: each a tiny universe of senses - smells, feelings, tastes, sounds...
Calvino Rabeni: It's a different setting, but the same awareness that can see into nature and feel part of it
Calvino Rabeni: yes!
Bruce Mowbray: So, the Feynman thing -- He was able to locate the exact page, through ... smell or how?
--BELL--

Calvino Rabeni: Well supposedly, he slowly sniffed his way along, imagining he had some of the capacity of the dog, if he could pay attention well enough
Paradise Tennant: hmm so he got to smell the page without seeing the book ?
Paradise Tennant: that would be pretty easy they all smell different
Paradise Tennant: like the old ones best
Paradise Tennant: smiles
Calvino Rabeni: I brought it up as an example of a person who gave credit to their ability for subtle sensing, and went into that experiential area
Paradise Tennant: going to try it in rl :)
Paradise Tennant: hmm pretty easy
Bruce Mowbray: The capacity for blind people to "see" through their fingers is also amazing -- some can apparently "see" colors that way.
Calvino Rabeni: R.F. had a super-curious and creative mind
Paradise Tennant: yes he did
Paradise Tennant: smiles
Calvino Rabeni: not willing to stay in conventional ideas about either physical reality or the experiential either
Bruce Mowbray: Truly a creative mind.
Calvino Rabeni: Have you noticed whether you can feel words on a printed page, with eyes closed?
Paradise Tennant: is busy sniffing books :)
Calvino Rabeni: For instance, laser printer or xerox copy
Bruce Mowbray: Only if those words are imbossed, I'm afraid.
Calvino Rabeni: Try it
Calvino Rabeni: You may find out more than you think
Calvino Rabeni: I found possible to feel the normal print on those surfaces
Calvino Rabeni: it is different than blank paper
Calvino Rabeni: I couldn't "read" it - but perhaps that could be possible with practice, who knows?
Bruce Mowbray: Mmmm... yes, there is a difference... with this printed page from my HP printer.
Calvino Rabeni: It's like Feynman's willingness to try it without knowing in advance, whether it is possible or not
Calvino Rabeni: I suspect the book story involved more than smell
Calvino Rabeni: but it must, for dogs also
Paradise Tennant: always wonder about dogs and their smell .. for them it is like reading .. try to make the effort every few days to take blue somewhere new .. or different like giving him a new book :)
Calvino Rabeni: I like seeing dogs faces out the window of a moving car, thinking about how much they sense, and how much they apear to enjoy it
Bruce Mowbray: A dog's face is very expressive - - one can easily sense the emotional state of a dog.
Bruce Mowbray: (or imagine that he can, anyway).
Paradise Tennant: they do enjoy it immensely but it is dangerous .... :) very common for dogs to lose an eye doing that .. they hit a big bug at speed...
Calvino Rabeni: As they can sense us, I suppose
Calvino Rabeni: Yes, it is dangerous, I wouldn't let mine do it either
Calvino Rabeni: maybe at slow speeds, since they like it so much
Paradise Tennant: smiles hmm yes actually they talk with their whole body smiles
Paradise Tennant: nods yes
Bruce Mowbray: and tails, too!
Paradise Tennant: mine has a chest harness and a seat belt .. sit up ..like a human .. waits to be belted in .. :)
Bruce Mowbray: ;-)
Calvino Rabeni: They instinctively sense things - evolved to know where the weak spots are of animals - but can use it for compassion
Calvino Rabeni: Once I had a cut - completely covered - I was lying down - and a dog came up, looked me in the eyes, and put his head soothingly right on that spot
Calvino Rabeni: even though it was underneath cloth and everything
Calvino Rabeni: very perceptive~ !
Paradise Tennant: yes scent is 43 x better than a human in the average dog in some of the hounds even more ..their whole brain is nose :)
Bruce Mowbray: We have co-evolved with the animals and plants. It is not intelligent (not exactly the words I mean, but. . . ) it is not intelligent to think our species is the "pinnacle of evolution." nacle
Bruce Mowbray: Everything now alive is the pinnacle of evolution -- since it has survived.
Calvino Rabeni: heheh - I knew another dog who would run along with nose to the ground like a vacuum cleaner - sometimes bashing into walls :)
Calvino Rabeni: Agree, bruce
Bruce Mowbray thinks: That dogs could have used a bit more eyes in his brain - not just ALL nose.
Calvino Rabeni: yeah
--BELL--

Calvino Rabeni: I was thinking about the concept - which feels pretty ironic - of Nature Deficit Disorder
Paradise Tennant: knows her dog thinks with his heart mostly :)
Calvino Rabeni: Do we suffer from it?
Paradise Tennant: hmm
Calvino Rabeni: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_deficit_disorder
Bruce Mowbray: "Nature Deficit Disorder..."
Paradise Tennant: sigh he has a point
Bruce Mowbray: a fascinating article, that. Will bookmark for reference later...
Bruce Mowbray: No Child Left Inside
Calvino Rabeni: nice slogan
Bruce Mowbray: There's so much "outside" in my life that I often feel like I am camping - even when I am inside.
Calvino Rabeni: hmmm, time here is such that I can go for a sunset ride about now
Calvino Rabeni: Thanks everyone for the great conversation
Bruce Mowbray: cool. ENJOY Calvino and happy trails!
Calvino Rabeni: See you later :)
Paradise Tennant: smiles thanks for coming cal :)
Bruce Mowbray: Thanks yo all. I'm to bed.
Paradise Tennant: take care
Bruce Mowbray: to all.
Paradise Tennant: I am off too . to walk the dog .. and dream of books and their smells :) maybe feyman will come to visit :)
Bruce Mowbray: Good night -- and see y'all soon, I hope.
Paradise Tennant: thank you for the conversation and the company as always a pleasure .. good nite :)
stevenaia Michinaga: laundry took longer than I thought
stevenaia Michinaga: nice to meet you benjamin