Sylvia's Journal

Axel returned from his therapy at MGH with a reaction, we think, to the flu shot they gave him in addition to the vestibular workout. He won’t have to come back for a few months. Now progress is up to him and depends on how well he sticks to the prescribed exercise regimen. The physical therapy sessions at Shaughnessy are also coming to an end. Free at last (or nearly).

Yesterday was 10+ fall day. At lunchtime the puppy and I went for a walk during which we practiced heeling some more. Chicha has a choker collar and I felt sorry when I could hear her raspy breathing as she was pulling on the leash, her instincts telling her to chase everything that moved. I must have said the word ‘heel’ about a 100 times when she was pulling, and rewarded her maybe 25 times with cookie crumbs when she was not. This ratio of four to one is not good enough. We still have a ways to go.

We interrupted the training session with a romp on Singing Beach; ah, such freedom! Watching her dash off made me very happy: a big empty beach, enough sticks and balls to keep Chicha busy and running and the most perfect blue sky. On the way home we practiced more leash walking. I failed to wash the sand and salt out of her fur and left her for a nap in Tessa and Steve’s living quarters. They found sand in their bed.

I spent a good chunk of last night reading Confucius because a book with great speeches fell open in front of my feet on the page that had an excerpt from his Analects ( #11). I take such occurrences seriously and decided to follow the lead.

The Analects are a collection of short aphoristic fragments about government, virtue, filial piety, morality, social relationships and even dress code, written in the form of exchanges between a master and his disciples. In this regard it is not that different from Socratic dialogues or New Testament verses describing Jesus and his disciples inquiring into the nature of life. I don’t care that it has not been proven that Confucius actually wrote the Analects.

I started to read and one thing led to another. Before I knew it I had read all 20 of them, some 60 pages, with increasing amazement. Here I was, sitting at my computer, reading conversations that took place between Chinese gentlemen some 2500 years ago.

Sometimes I could not follow the conversation as it shifted gears in incomprehensible ways; sometimes I chuckled about the way the Chinese was translated (‘to wife’ as a verb). There is some language in there that we can’t use anymore because of all the connotations (‘What is a superior man?’) and then there is some plain good advice (“daily examine myself on three points: whether, in transacting business for others I may have been not faithful; whether, in intercourse with friends, I may have been not sincere; and whether I may have not mastered and practiced the instructions of my teacher.”). The book is full of great quotes that are just as applicable now as they apparently were 2500 years ago. What was wise then, we still consider wise.

These analects have now also been put on the Board meeting pile; they will make a nice complement to the junk toys that came from the same place. How is it possible that these two Chinas are related?

When I worked in China over a year and a half ago on a consulting and leadership program, I mentioned that Lao Tzu (Lǎozǐ) and Confucius (Kǒng Fūzǐ or K’ung-fu-tzu) were often quoted in Western leadership books. My Chinese counterparts had not heard of either one, even when given the proper Chinese pronunciation after we Googled the names. I learned that ancient Chinese is not well mastered by ordinary people living in the 20th century and the old writings are not as accessible as I had expected. In fact, they may be more accessible to us, because of the countless translations floating around. I got a taste of how difficult it is to translate them by looking up several translations of the same text; it is as if they were two entirely different pieces.