Turtles All the Way Down
Most meditators, myself included, are quite familiar with the Turtle Problem. I’ll be sitting there thinking, “Okay, here I am, staring at a wall.” Then comes, “Who is having this thought?” (a standard technique in some forms of meditation), followed instantly by, “Who is having the thought, ‘Who is having this thought?’” And before you can say infinite regression, my mind’s off and running down mirrored corridors, bouncing the question (as I imagine) between the twin hemispheres of my brain: turtles all the way down.
At which point, any hope that I can ever know for sure What Is Real seems absurd, and the “brains in vats” premise of The Matrix doesn’t look quite so weird after all.
Barry Evans (barryevans9@yahoo.com) thanks the Agents for letting him believe that he lives and loves in Old Town Eureka.
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Recent field notes
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Today
Lanphere Dunes Restoration
STAFF PICK / outdoors / 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Meet at Pacific Union School. Help remove non-native invasives at the Lanphere Dunes Unit of the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Tools and gloves provided, wear work clothes and bring water. Carpool to the protected site. 444-1397.
44th Annual Kinetic Grand Championship Race
STAFF PICK / events, art, outdoors, sports, for kids, free / 9 a.m.-6 p.m. A 3-day, 42-mile kinetic sculpture race over land, sand, mud and water! LeMans start at the Noon Whistle on the Arcata Plaza. Follow the race through Manila, Eureka and into Ferndale on Memorial Day for the Glorious Finish. kineticgrandchampionship.com. 889-3024.
Open Gardens
outdoors / 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Humboldt Botanical Gardens, College of the Redwoods, Eureka. Roam the 44-acre fully fenced property. $5. www.hbgf.org. 442-5139.
Organic Gardening Seminar
garden / 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Shafer's Ace Hardware and Garden Center, 2760 E St., Eureka. Free lecture by Duncan McNeill on how to create a healthy environment and healthy soils for your plant’s roots. E-mail shafers@sbcglobal.net. 442-5734.
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