Philosoblog

Blogson2 and I went to the Jammer last night to see Tim Curran show his latest surf flick. The movie was pretty cool and was the usual footage of perfect waves we’ll never ride and guys pulling moves we’ll never do. Why else would we spend 10 bucks each to get in, right? Plus, it’s a traditional gathering of the tribe, and pretty much any excuse will do to get me together with the bros. The added benefit being that the Jammer still makes the best burger on the beach, and every once in a while ya just have to go over there and drop in on the full-on, close-out cholesterol bomb. And if you can do that, watch a surf movie and talk story with the boys, it doesn’t get much better. Except, possibly if there was some surf, but I’m just dreaming now.

A missing member of the tribal elders was Vinnie, who blew out his knee the day before yesterday surfing the mini-swell we had. Bro: I tried to stand up for you and tell the story of it as an epic struggle of man versus sea — Thor Heyerdahl in the Kon-Tiki, Ahab and the Great White Whale, Greg Noll at Waimea — but the boys already had a couple of beers in them by the time I got to the telling of it; and the general consensus was that you were a dork for getting hurt in small surf, and all the sympathy went to Mrs. Vinnie, who is now condemned to putting up with you until you can surf again. It’s a cruel world. What does it all mean?

In fact, what is the meaning of meaning? I recently read an interesting treatise on what makes a person a philosopher. One of the interesting points was a comparison of what it meant to be a lawyer versus a philosopher in ancient Greece. It seems that the ancient Greek court system allowed a very short and precisely defined amount of time for arguments to be made, and therefore lawyers were people who had a very limited amount of time and for whom time was money. Philosophers, on the other hand, had nothing but time. So to be a philosopher, one had to have loads of time, and — time being money — eschew those things which money can buy in favor of more thoughtful pursuits.

And this has nothing to do with surfing, right? Au contraire, mon frere. Because to be a surfer around here, you will need loads of time. This past week was a perfect example. It was pretty much as flat as it can get most of the time. And that is really no different than the rest of the time. So basically, there is hardly ever any surf at any time. And, therefore, if you are going to get any surf, you have to have the time to go when it’s time; which doesn’t happen very many times. Frankly, if you are going to surf, you have to be ready to go at any time and at all times. Who has the time? Philosophers and Vinnie.

Now, medieval philosophers liked to debate the root cause of man’s actions in terms of will versus intellect. The so-called voluntarists adhered to the theory that actions were governed by the will, and the intellectualists argued that people were motivated by their intellect. This debate about what the intellect thinks or the will does catches Vinnie right in the middle, because he knew darn well there wasn’t going to be any real surf and he went anyway. So now he is on the bench contemplating the philosophical conundrum of will versus intellect until his knee heals. And he will have a lot to think about. The swell model shows a pretty big swell heading our way on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. I’m kinda with the boys on this — we’d better pool some money and start sending Mrs. Vinnie a crapload of flowers. She’s gonna need ’em.

Comments

[Kent @ The Financial Philosopher]

Vinnie may be more of an "existentialist," who would maintain that the individual is solely responsible for giving their own life meaning and living life passionately and sincerely.

Whether or not there are waves does not matter -- it's the process that gives meaning to life...

Or perhaps he is some form of a surfing "dualist," who might say, "I surf, therefore I am!"

Nice post...

Kent