Biweekly Update From Ira's Intercontinental March on Breaking Up With Expectations #9

Ciao Bella/o! Sorry for the delay folks, too much online chess. The top three updates from the last two weeks were: <ol> <li>Meteora, Greece: Meteora is a litbomb rock formation that stands hundreds of feet tall (see <a href = "https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13mhXyJvI7n8GwrOxEYgV0yvWAqpbnGCR?usp=drive_link" target = "_blank" rel="noopener">photos</a>) in the upper middle part of Greece in a town called Kalambaka. The sunset was epic (again see <a href = "https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13mhXyJvI7n8GwrOxEYgV0yvWAqpbnGCR?usp=drive_link" target = "_blank" rel="noopener">photos</a>) and once the sun went down and the riff-raff cleared I actually relieved myself over the edge which was also something. There are a bunch of monasteries up there for which I did drive-bys as I’ve seen enough houses of un-falsifiability, I mean houses of worship, to get the picture, but respect to the monks for locking down such quality real estate.</li> <li>Beginning the process of beginning the process of renouncing “if”: In computer science if-statements are a critical part of any design because the same button or the same code might need to do something different depending on if it’s morning of afternoon (buongiorno vs. buena sera), your balance is above or below zero (black or red…), the input you entered was kosher or not, etc… However, Stella (in the fifth picture with her husband George) of the world-renowned Central Hostel in Kalambaka argues that there really is no if, there is only right now. Life is not chess where you should think a few moves ahead if you don’t want to get wrekt and it’s not code either. This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t think about the options we have right now and consider the best one but it does mean that we should only think about the options we have right now; nothing else is owed to us and nothing else is real. We can have long-term goals and dreams but if they aren’t informing some direct action in the present then they are fake, an abstraction like some game or fairy tale (which there’s a time and place for as my Dad reminds me from time to time - "it’s free to fantasize"). I find this is helpful when thinking about daunting issues like corruption in gov and climate change because if there aren’t any ways to help beyond what I’m already doing then there is no use worrying. Of course there could always be more that we can do in the now, and that’s why we analyze (and have the parking lot which is always helpful to me for the things we should do right now but don’t have the bandwidth). It seems like a healthy start to avoiding disappointment and better pushing into the present, thanks Stella!</li> <li>The Sistine Chapel: Omg, Michelangelo’s the real deal. It’s a genius blend of architecture and art - you really can’t tell where the columns end and the paintings begin. It’s the most insane use of space - I wouldn’t know how to fill the wall if you gave me free rein to paint the ceiling in my childhood bedroom, much less a chapel that can fit hundreds of people and he did it masterfully. The use of color was also awesome, way more than most of the drab paintings I saw in the rest of the museums (no offense Leo) and the scenes all feed into each other seamlessly, even for folks like myself who need some brushing up on their New Testament. There were other paintings in the Vatican Museum that weren’t half bad either, shoutout to <i><a href = "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_School_of_Athens" "_blank" rel="noopener">The School of Athens</a></i> by Raphael which I have fond memories of plastering on the philosophy club posters in college, it was cool to see it in the big time up on the wall.</li> </ol> My favorite parts of Italy are a three way tie between saying scusi on the street, drowning my insecurities in tiramisu, and the sculpture on literally almost every street corner (especially in Rome, it’s tough to describe how many statues there are). Italy is proving to be for the arts to me what Israel was for Judaism, Egypt was for enduring architecture, and Greece was for nature (and I hope, but don’t expect, Switzerland will be for democracy - next week!). It makes me want to shred at the music store until the old man who doesn’t groove tells me that it’s okay to play but not to sing and then again shortly after that it was my two minute warning. I’m excited to put sculpting in the parking lot for when I’m old and bowed out of the work force and looking forward to this new chapter of not knocking myself for the ifs-ands-or-buts of the future and just holding myself accountable to the intentions that I have right now and the legal moves that I have on this turn. Prego, Ira