Descartes, Grayling and Reverse Seating

Reverse Seating Concert Hall QPAC © image Gretchen Bernet-Ward 2023

“Reverse Mode” means you sit in specially designed seating which flows from the choir stalls to the stage and gives you an immediate and engaging experience. This is the view performers usually see of the audience seating. The chair centre-stage (with microphone) is where the guest speaker, eminent philosopher and author Professor A.C. Grayling sat during his interview with host Dr David Burton. I took the photo and sat back for some Philosophy and Life.

“Descartes : The Life Of Rene Descartes and Its Place in His Times” by A. C. Grayling (Hardback) 2005

My Goodreads review:
“Been awhile since I read this book but last night I attended a talk given by Humanist A.C. Grayling, chaired by David Burton, and thought I’d put a comment on my blog. Not about his many controversial and philosophical books but about his delivery style, no doubt well-known to his students and devotees.
I was fortunate to sit next to Prof Grayling’s brother John and exchanged views before the floor was opened to audience question time. What I did not tell John was that I thought Grayling spoke well and interestingly but with a sense of rote, the ingrained inflections, slightly off-topic then cleverly returning, the humorous asides and thoughtful pauses obviously well honed over many years of public speaking and international tours. All the while keeping his eye on the clock. Kudos to Prof Grayling for his resilience, composure and charming manner but somewhere along the line the spark in his fire appears to have dimmed and I was not warmed by his fine words. GBW.”

❤ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

Read Philosophy and Life: An Evening with A.C. Grayling
View Concert Hall Music Performances 2024
https://www.ensembleqaustralia.com/2024season.html

Wise and Weird 22/2/2022

Yeah Yeah Yeah

♦ What if my dog only brings back the ball because he thinks I like throwing it?

♦ Your future self is watching you right now through memories.

♦ If poison expires, is it more poisonous or is it no longer poisonous?

♦ Which letter is silent in the word “Scent,” the S or the C?

♦ Do twins ever realise that one of them is unplanned?

♦ Why is the letter W, in English, called double U? Shouldn’t it be called double V?

♦ Maybe oxygen is slowly killing you and it just takes 75-100 years to fully work.

♦ Every time you clean something, you just make something else dirty.

♦ The word “swims” upside-down is still “swims”.

♦ One hundred years ago everyone owned a horse and only the rich had cars. Today everyone has cars and only the rich own horses.

♦ The doctors who told Stephen Hawking he had two years to live in 1953 are probably dead.

♦ If you replace “W” with “T” in “What, Where and When” you get the answer to each of them.

♦ Many animals probably need glasses, but nobody knows it.

♦ If you rip a hole in a net, there are actually fewer holes in it than there were before.

♦ Please note I am only the purveyor of these words of weirdly wiseness.

♦ When 22/2/2022 (Australian format) falls on Tuesday, we can call it “2’s Day”.

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

Postscript:
This is one of my earliest blog posts circa 2017.
I never thought I’d be reblogging it.
A lot has happened over the intervening years!

Calendar Date 22.2.2022 — Where will you be on Twosday? I will be at an Art Discussion group – *GBW*

The distinction is…?

Berneray Beach Scotland UK 02 — “Dune grass blows in the wind as a storm brews over Sound of Harris, Berneray beach, Outer Hebrides, Scotland” Image by Cody Duncan 2010.

Quotation from Ivan Illich (1926-2002) who was a Croatian-Austrian philosopher, one of the world’s great thinkers, a polymath whose output covered vast subjects. He was a critic of modern Western culture and addressed contemporary practices in education, medicine, work, energy usage, transportation and economic development.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/dec/09/guardianobituaries.highereducation

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

Public Dangers

IMG_20180630_160606 — Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) was a British mathematician, logician and philosopher best known for his work in mathematical logic and the philosophy of science.

To quote Mr Whitehead in full "...For this reason, dictionaries are public dangers, although they are necessities” ― Alfred North Whitehead.

A witty comment or would he have thought the same of IT in the 21st century e.g. Wikipedia and social media?

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

‘Hope’ Quote from Lin Yutang

Long And Winding Road 05 — Lin Yutang was a Chinese writer, translator, linguist and inventor.

Coffee Shop Wisdom

Platitudes, rather hippy dippy and old hat, short sugar-coated sentences designed to bolster the ‘feels’ of a younger generation. Look again. Each line creates an emotion, a memory jog, that tingle of happiness to the down-surge of sadness. Regret is there, the wince for things done wrong, then the smile for laughing out loud when you get it right. Basic universal rules for living.

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

IMG_20171214_133048

Wise and Weird

Yeah Yeah Yeah

♦ What if my dog only brings back the ball because he thinks I like throwing it?

♦ Your future self is watching you right now through memories.

♦ If poison expires, is it more poisonous or is it no longer poisonous?

♦ Which letter is silent in the word “Scent,” the S or the C?

♦ Do twins ever realise that one of them is unplanned?

♦ Why is the letter W, in English, called double U? Shouldn’t it be called double V?

♦ Maybe oxygen is slowly killing you and it just takes 75-100 years to fully work.

♦ Every time you clean something, you just make something else dirty.

♦ The word “swims” upside-down is still “swims”.

♦ One hundred years ago everyone owned a horse and only the rich had cars. Today everyone has cars and only the rich own horses.

♦ The doctors who told Stephen Hawking he had two years to live in 1953 are probably dead.

♦ If you replace “W” with “T” in “What, Where and When” you get the answer to each of them.

♦ Many animals probably need glasses, but nobody knows it.

♦ If you rip a hole in a net, there are actually fewer holes in it than there were before.

♦ Please note I am only the purveyor of these words of weirdly wiseness.

♦ When 22/2/2022 falls on Tuesday, we’ll just call it “2’s Day”.

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

Responsive

Gandhi Possessions

Mahatma Gandhi, Indian political and spiritual leader (1869-1948) said “The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems” and “Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it” because who knows what is around the next bend…

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

Anatole France…

…the famous French poet, journalist and novelist said “If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.” I guess social media has compounded that figure.

Anatole certainly looks worried about the situation…

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward

Simmering Manuscripts

My documentation is office-organised but my writing approach is organic. I will have four or five manuscripts simmering away then one will bubble to the top. That’s The One. I pursue it to the end. Sometimes those left simmering, sink to the bottom. Other times a new thought will be added and not even stirred into the mix, it will shine immediately and have my full attention.

You gotta love what you’re working on, right!

♥ Gretchen Bernet-Ward