It is has been a long while since last I wrote a blog update. With the winter months having come in so fast and the long yearly awaited Christmas taking over everyones lives, my musings have been on a bit of a back burner recently. With that also comes my vested interested in my expedition due to take place later this year (2010). As forementioned in my previous entries, I have been blessed with a position in Team Metalrallykhar on the 2010 Mongol Rally. Over the past few months, we have been working hard to get things in motion. We have acquired a vehicle, a Daihtsu Terios 1.3L 4x4. We have also been working on getting our website up and running and with lots of help from my friend Dan's girlfriend and her company, it finally went live yesterday! Very happy indeed are we that it has finally managed to become a reality rather than a dream. Smiles all round.
With many of my hours being poured into this and also a recent string of other ventures, I have taken a step back from my analytical and somewhat deep and meaningful search for life and all its answers. Instead, I have been enjoying life and letting the questions remain unanswered that much longer. But as the new year starts and with all the excitement of the coming adventures looming over me, I have found a new lease of energy and rather than researching and enquiring into the darkest corners of my psyche and soul, I have taken a more ambient and methodical approach. My interest in Philosophy has grown significantly and alongside that I have also been exploring the lighter side of Physics and the implications they have into our understanding of the world, universe and life.
They may appear as two very different strains of research, the opposites of each other in fact. Philosophy being about thinking and exploring in fine detail the meanings and emotions raised by arguments and ideas from throughout our history, but also delving deep inside the mind to explore thoughts, feelings and questions contained sinuously within ourselves. Whereas, in stark comparison, Physics explores the scientific evidence between many theories laid out by some of the greatest minds in the past 200 years. Physics not only tries to explain how something works but why it works, whilst still ensuring that it adheres to rational and explorative understanding and that any conclusions drawn within this field, are readily justifiable and shown in a way that can be determined with limited variation in results, rather than mere speculation. Saying this though, I am sure that in the advancement of this field of study and science, there has been many speculative ideas and conclusions drawn, but not as many as if it were to be compared to Philosophy. I think my reasons for approaching both of these subjects, despite their opposition to each other, is something to do with a physicist and what he said, 'To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction".
For me this relates to the Ying and Yang, the light and dark side, the black and the white. Not in a truly differential way, where the 2 opposites are so far apart that they have no way of working together, but in the sense of the Ying and Yang. The two combining to create a whole, parts of one piece working in conjunction with the opposite and vice versa. So Philosophy and Physics, two ideas of different backgrounds, one for the exploration of language and mind, the other for the exploration of what is, the more detailed look at that which can be manipulated and broken down before being reassembled. But even as I write this, my mind cannot help but think how close these two subjects are to each other, how differently similar they are. Mind and matter combining to open exploration and understanding to those willing to wade through the mire that both subjects carry heavily on each side.
I find the technical jargon and flamboyant wording in some texts and books on the two subjects can be written in such a way that it is almost impossible to make head nor tail of what the author is pertaining too or just simply trying to explain. But through my constant endeavours, I am slowly starting to get a light grasp on the heavier matters concerned within each area of study. I like to interweave the two, seeing how they can bolster and improve on the theories of the other, using not just a mind thought process but seeing how scientifically this can also be applied. The Ying and the Yang.
But for now I have much to do, work has its claws buried deeply in me, stretching my patience and enthusiasm to a severe low, yet onwards I walk knowing that soon the torment of the rat race will be left behind me as I take my first steps, on my own two feet, out in to the big wide world and not just small steps, but 10000 miles sized steps. The adventure that I have yearned for is within touching distance, now I have to work hard and ensure that all is ready for the day I become my own man.
