Bezieling and inspiration at the Philosophy Cafe

Last week's Philosophy Cafe evening at De Vrije Ruimte (the school that Anne Sophie goes to) was about exploring the concept of "bezieling", a Dutch word meaning something like inspiration, enthusiasm, drive, being on fire, and may well be literally translated into a non-existing English word "ensoulment", the root of the word being "ziel" or soul. Being the only non-native speaker of Dutch in the room, I had difficulty with understanding and feeling the exact meaning and context of this concept. Eventually, I settled with the closest I could come to in my native Russian: "воодушевление" (душа meaning soul).

We divided into two groups based on whether we wanted to think about "bezielen" (inspiring others) or "bezield worden" (getting inspired). As usual, the Philosophy Cafe is at least just as much about a question at hand as about how we approach the question. The method we used this time was 1) to come up with a few concrete examples of how we inspired someone or got inspired ourselves, then 2) choose one such example, 3) let the person describe the situation in as much detail as possible and explain exactly how the concept was manifested in their example, 4) ask clarifying questions about the situation, 5) try to put ourselves into the situation, and from there 6) ponder whether we felt that the situation had to do with the concept in question (bezieling) and explain why.

After 30-40 minutes, the groups joined together again to exchange ideas. Interestingly, the first group (to which I belonged) approached the subject from an individualistic perspective, while the other group was talking about getting inspired in community and solidarity with others. We were invited to think about our criteria for bezieling, resulting in something like: (let someone) discover new things from within, insight, enthusiasm, long-lasting effect, source of energy, being deeply moved, connectedness, joy, etc.

After a break, we proceeded towards attempting at a definition of bezieling, using a number of techniques:

1. keeping to a concrete example and putting ourselves into a situation (see above)
2. thinking of common idioms, proverbs, ideas having to do with the concept at hand
3. identifying what we include in and exclude from our definition
4. exploring whether our definition is necessary and sufficient

Eventually, I came up with the following definition: burning desire to do, make, practice and excel at something. Some other definitions given in the group included: "from standstill to motion", "intense drive leading to remarkable action", etc.

All in all, as always, it was a very enjoyable and thought provoking evening in a good company of special people. Bezield and inspired, I stayed for another half hour or so, talking, listening, sharing ...

North Cyprus, March 2012

This is a quick recap of our recent trip to North Cyprus in early March. Though not a popular destination yet, North Cyprus combines very good climate, beautiful nature, relatively little tourism, and extremely friendly, unobtrusive people. It may look not so well groomed at times, but I really enjoyed the authenticity of local life and the warmth of the people.





We booked an inexpensive package tour, with a hotel right on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea in Lapta (Lapithos) near Girne (Kyrenia). We just wanted to escape the almost unending cold and grey of the Dutch winter and enjoy some sun, good food, nature, culture and walking. I got myself this great little book from the library: Walk and Eat in North Cyprus, and we went on a beautiful mountain walk virtually every day of our 8-day holiday.

Spring is probably the best time to visit Cyprus. There is lots of vegetation and many wild flowers, including wild orchids! There are also many oranges and lemons everywhere. The weather is supposed to be very nice, although we had one day of rain and 4 or 5 days of sun.   It is also a good time for walking, which is our favourite holiday pastime.

The local food is really delicious, consisting usually of meze's (several small side dishes), chicken or lamb kebab, salads, lavash bread, local halloumi cheese, and ayran (local yoghurt drink). My mouth wets as I think back about those meals!

The locals are mostly of Turkish descent, mostly quiet, modest, warm, simple people. I managed to talk to a few of them, even though they hardly speak English. They seem not to have much, but seem to enjoy their simple life and community with others. I was fascinated by Sabo, the seemingly poor owner of a small cafe near the main square in Guzelyurt, who refused our pay for the coffee, showed me photo's of his family, gave a little toy to our daughter, and arranged for us to visit the local museum free of charge. Another old man related to me a story of his youth, how he served in the British army, and how his son died one year ago leaving two baby twins, he showed me his photographs. I was very deeply touched.

This is just a brief summary to remember what we did and saw:

Day 1: Arrival and settling in the hotel. Our hotel room was rather Spartan and needed some repairs, but it was quite big, clean and had a great view over the mountains and the sea.
Day 2: Rain, picking up our rental car, driving to Girne and then on to visit the medieval Bellapais Abbey, trying local oranges and mandarins (we ended up buying and eating oranges every day!), eating adana kebab with lavash, exploring Lapta.

Day 3: Driving westwards along the coast, visiting Guzelyurt and the ancient remains of the Vouni palace, an 8 km walk in the hills around the Gecitkoy lake. There was quite a lot of mud on the road after yesterday's rain, so we were lucky to get back just in time before the dark. Anne Sophie enjoyed the walk, spending more than half of the time in her backpack carrier on my back :) We saw some interesting green stones and small heaps of  many small caterpillars. The food at the restaurant in the center of the small village of Gecitkoy was really good and inexpensive.
Day 4: Driving westwards along the coast, a 7 km walk and climb to the medieval Kantara castle, proceeding to the rough and wild Karpass peninsula, watching sunset and eating virtually alone in the harbour of the ancient city of Karpasia, next to the remains of a beautiful 10th century basilica.
Day 5: Two lovely and quite strenuous walks near Ilgaz and Karaman. At the end of the second walk we sat down to rest on the picturesque church square of Karaman and were surrounded by 9 cats of all colors, a real treat for Anne Sophie! Then on to to the magnificent St. Hillarion Castle and then a beautiful 20km ride right on top of the Kyrenia mountain ridge towards Kozan and back to Lapta.
Day 6: Visiting the medieval fortress and port city of Famagusta. There was some kind of folk festival there, and we enjoyed some local sweets. Then on to the ancient Cyprus capital city of Salamis, playing on the beach, eating a delicious meal in Ozankoy.
Day 7: A 9km walk in the mountains of Besparmak with lavish vegetation, many wild flowers, beautiful observation points and in the end a quite recently abandoned, mysterious Armenian monastery. Then a 1-hour climb to the majestic Buffavento Castle, with Anne Sophie walking most of the way! The meal at the Buffavento restaurant was probably the most delicious we had in North Cyprus!
Day 8: Visiting the capital Lefkosa (Nicosia), taking a city walk and crossing the guarded border into the Greek part, with some Occupy the Border protesters in the no man's buffer zone. Then back to Kyrenia, enjoying a walk along the sea front, and then back to hour hotel to catch the bus to the airport.

All in all, we had a very enjoyable time in North Cyprus, and I hope we shall come back there again!

14,000 days old!

Today I turned 14000 days old! That's quite an anniversary! If you'd like to calculate how many days old you are, you can use this calculator at Peter Russell's website: http://www.peterrussell.com/age.php

Have a good spring!

Are We Our Own Slaves?

Tonight's Philosophy Cafe at De Vrije Ruimte was again a blast! Under the unmatched leadership of Pieter Mostert, we discussed the question "Are we slaves of ourselves?" using various techniques. We learned and practiced the six ways of refutation classified by the Romans:

1. ab incerto 
2. ab incredibili 
3. ab impossibili 
4. ab inconsequente
5. ab indecente 
6. ab incommode

Also we learned how to define things according to Aristotle, based on inclusion and exclusion.

I came up with this definition of a slave: Slave is somebody who is unaware of his/her true motives. In that sense, all of us are slaves to a greater or lesser degree.

There was a 15-year-old guy from South Africa at the cafe called Bernard. He spoke Afrikaans, which, although it is very similar to Dutch, I found hard to comprehend. Bernard was active in discussions and struck me as a sincere and intelligent young man.

By the way, tomorrow is Anne Sophie's second day at De Vrije Ruimte school! Her first day on Monday was a success. Even though she was quite shy in the morning, we had difficulty taking her home in the afternoon as she was so much enjoying playing with other kids!

Anne Sophie's First Day at School!

Monday 3 October was Anne Sophie's first day at school! She had been talking for weeks about going to school and telling other kids: "Ik ben groot geworden en ga naar de basisschool!" (I've grown up and will be going to the primary school!)

When asked which school she was going to, she'd say "a small school". It is indeed a very small school with a couple of dozens of children. The school is called De Vrije Ruimte (the free space). It is a democratic school based on the concept of natural learning, meaning that children learn best when they can freely develop their interests and explore the world around them at their own pace.

On her first day at school, she was wait-watching at first, clinging to her mummy, but after a short period of time she got involved in games with other kids and hardly noticed her mother any more. She took part in her first school meeting, at which she volunteered to help with the school newsletter. She probably didn't know exactly what that meant and raised her hand because other kids did. We came to take her home as she was playing the Quartet with 3 other children, and it took us some time to persuade her to go home with us. She was excited, but very tired. It was a beautiful and unforgettable day!

Anne Sophie Turned 4 Years Old!

Last Sunday, 18 September 2011, at 19:35 our precious daughter Anne Sophie turned 4 years old!

How can I express my feelings for my daughter? She is truly our best friend, the love of our life, our faithful companion in our travels and our everyday life events.

Anne Sophie

with grandma's Ukrainean cat

She may appear shy to those she meets for the first time. But that usually only lasts a few minutes. She is cheerful, playful, funny, smart, enthusiastic, she loves to play and laugh and run around! Her life force and love of life shine through her entire being.

in daddy's shirt on the beach!

She is resilient as she can walk long distances without complaining and she usually doesn't cry or complain when she falls or bumps against something or hurts something. Yet she is a sensitive child and can burst into tears when she sees other children cry. She almost never cries in order to manipulate, so if she does cry, I know that she needs immediate help and attention.

She is daring, yet cautious. She can climb all kinds of rocks and stairs and frames, but she is extremely careful at where she sets her feet and she would immediately ask for help when she realizes she's in trouble.





Anne Sophie likes playing all kinds of imaginative role plays with her toys. It's so much fun watching how she plays the different roles by changing the tone of her voice. At one point she plays a little child and at another point she is a mother or a father or her play group teacher. An interesting thing is that she doesn't play with dolls, but with her toy animals. And yes, in those plays we can hear so many things we tell her played out on her toys, which is a great learning experience for us!

Yes, she is our great teacher. When I sometimes get cross with Luda, Anne Sophie would tell me in a calm, almost mentoring voice: "Папочка, не надо сердиться на мамочку" ("Daddy, don't get angry at mummy.") She can also tell other children what they may or may not do.

She is enthusiastic and curious about the world. I like it when she asks "What is this? Why is that? What did they say?" She likes counting and reading letters and doing puzzles.

All in all, she's an enjoyable, lovable, "easy" child! But of course there are some things that need our attention:

• She likes to go to bed late, I mean really late. She usually gets into bed at about 10 p.m., but then she still wants to play a bit, she wants us to read a book, etc., so it's not unusual that she falls asleep at around 11 p.m., which is of course very late, especially as she is starting school in a couple of weeks. I'm afraid she'll be a late riser, just like her mum :)
• She likes to watch her cartoons either on DVD or on the PC, which is fine, but sometimes she spends too much time doing that. At least she doesn't watch television, in fact none of us do as we gave up our cable TV several years ago.
• She can be very stubborn about what she wants or doens't want to do or eat.
• She doesn't like to clean up and put away her toys (who does?), so our living room often looks like a mess. On the other hand, she gets really enthusiastic when all three of us do the cleaning up together! Just the other day we were giving our kitchen a serious clean-up, and Anne Sophie joined in with all her passion!

On Sunday we had a great birthday party for her with many guests, presents, games, lots of food, and a puppet show that I did together with a friend! It was a really simple story about an elephant that went missing from the zoo, but the kids really loved the show, and I am thinking of using it more often for both entertainment and educational purposes!

In just over a week, Anne Sophie is starting to go to school. It's no ordinary school, but a democratic school based on the principle of natural learning. We are all very excited, and I'll keep you informed about the developments!

August 2011 in Numbers

It's time to give an account of the past month and see what's been achieved:

• 5h of meditation. It was actually more, but these are the times that I recored in my journal.
• 8h of spinning
• 25h33min and 497km of biking (including training, commuting and fun rides with my daughter and wife)
• Finished reading 1 book: Primo Levi's non-fiction trilogy "If This Is a Man"
• Had 2 visits from relatives from abroad

All in all a very nice month, notwithstanding exceptionally bad weather!