The Useless Tree

Sports

  • Taoist Football

    This clip, which invokes existentialism, has a strong Taoist resonance – except that Taoists would not despair at meaningless and would not contemplate suicide, they would just laugh and open themselves to the unfolding of Way. http://www.theonion.com/content/themes/common/assets/videoplayer/flvplayer.swf Pre-Game Coin Toss… Continue reading

  • The Olympics are not Important

    I'm back from summer vacation.  Our England trip was great.  We saw a lot (London, Oxford, the Cotswolds, Stratford-upon-Avon and Bath Spa) and we walked a lot.  Best of all, it was a stark change of scenery and activity for… Continue reading

  • Yankees I Ching Blogging: The Prospects for this Year

             The previous post reminds me of how I have gotten away from I Ching blogging.  So, let's rectify that right now with a question: how will the New York Yankees fare this season?      The oracle came back… Continue reading

  • 5000 Years of Olympics Civilization?

         This really doesn’t have anything to do with my project of considering ancient Chinese thought in modern American life, but it is too funny not to mention.     I’ve been following the struggle over the Olympic torch… Continue reading

  • The Greatest Olympic Protest Ever

           The problems in Tibet of late are linked to the Olympics.  The torch relay has already been used as a site of protest.  Over the next month we will likely see significant demonstrations (I am guessing in… Continue reading

  • Friday I Ching Blogging – Who Will Win The Super Bowl

        I had to do it.  After my Sun Tzu analysis of what the New York Giants need to do to win the Super Bowl, I just had to ask the I Ching who will actually win.  I am,… Continue reading

  • Sun Tzu on how the Giants can win the Super Bowl

         I am back in my office at Williams in rural northwestern Massachusetts.  A far cry from the intense urban-ness of Taibei and Hong Kong.  But the great advantage of this place, for me, is that it is home.… Continue reading

  • Darryl Stingley, Taoist Sage

         The NYT Magazine did its annual collection of obituaries, The Lives They Lived, on Sunday.  One story in particular struck me, the reminiscence of Darryl Stingley.  For a man of my time and place that name carries a… Continue reading

  • Confucian Football

         I noticed this headline today and immediately thought of The Master: Fatherhood Puts Game in Perspective.      It’s about Fred Taylor, an accomplished running back for the Jacksonville Jaguars (one of those teams I have never really… Continue reading

  • Steve Nash, Taoist Sage

          The masterful, MVP point guard of the Phoenix Suns, Steve Nash, is down with the Taoist thing: “With Steve it’s all about the flow.” Flow, of course, being shorthand for that state of mind that artists and athletes… Continue reading