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!

Time to Learn and Time to Give

This is a place holder, where I would like to describe my meeting with Georgi (Jora) Ivanov as he and his wife and daughter were visiting with us in the last weekend of August.

Jora is an extraordinary fellow. He is a theater actor and director in Brussels, Belgium. We are related, as his sister Natasha is married to my uncle Oleg, my mother's brother. Natasha deserves a post or two by herself. Suffice it to say that she is one of the kindest, warmest, best people I've ever met. She is also mother to my beloved cousin Zhenya.

One of the things that Jora said to me that especially touched me was "There is time to learn and time to give."

This Week's Accomplishments!

This week (August 15-21) I've done a lot of cycling and meditation:

• 2h 15min of meditation (including walking meditation, sitting meditation and body scan meditation)
• 2h of spinning
• 2h 25min (61km) of cycling training
• 5h 30min (101km) of just-for-fun cycling with Anne Sophie

I also spent a lot of time with Anne Sophie (played games with her, went with her to the beach, to the playground and to visit friends), and finally finished reading Primo Levi's 600-pages long book.

Biking the Route des Legendes in the Belgian Ardennes

Last Sunday my months of bike training were put to a severe test. With a bunch of Flemish friends I travelled to Remouchamps, south of Liege, Belgium, to bike the Route des Legendes, which is a 100km scenic route consisting of two loops of 70 km and 30 km, with numerous climbs and descents and beautiful views to enjoy.

We had a perfect bicycling weather as we started biking at quarter to 10 in the morning. The first climb, which lasted a couple of kilometers was quite a shock. Although by now, having biked up the Alp d'Huez, the Grossglockner and the Mont Ventoux, I should know what climbing is, nevertheless the first few climbing kilometers are still quite a challenge. But I felt that my training has been paying off big time!

This was followed by many more climbs and descents, with some slopes reaching up to 17%. Initially, we stopped quite often in order to keep our group together. I enjoyed the nice views of the countryside and the neat little villages that we passed by.

The second loop started with a long 5km climb, which felt like it would never end. But overall it was much easier than the first loop.

Back at Remouchamps, we set out for the final, but also the most challenging ascent, that of the infamous La Redoute, in which you climb 161 height meters over the distance of 1.7 km. This means 9.5% on the average, with a maximum of 20%! This was absolutely the most difficult climb I have ever done!



In total I biked 105km (and more than 1500 height meters) in 5h45min. I got home very late and tired, but it was a great day and a great training for the upcoming conquest of Passo dello Stelvio!