I love manifestos ( maybe because I wrote some, should I attribute this manifesto writing tendency to my ancestral communist roots? Think how world changing Marx and Engels's Communist Manifesto was!) and this one came to my mind as I was thumbing through an issue of Fast Company, in which these jerks at AOL Time Warner were expounding strategies they were planning to use to "market" stuff via the Web and thus make a tonne of money. Hahaha as long as there is peer-to-peer networks, they don't stand a chance. By the way one can find Feynman's lecture mentioned in the previous post by searching for Audio books on WinMX.

So I wished they read this manifesto and the book.

This evening as I was eating supper I was listening to a lecture given by Feynman. "Basic Physics", one of the lectures in the book, Six Easy Pieces. And meanwhile I was ruminating on how his books and he continues to be an inspiration to me. If I would have to list my "heros" Feynman surely would be some where in the top ten.

Sashi

Stuff from "Surely You Are Joking Mr. Feynman." (a must read book)

In "Alfred Nobel's Other Mistake", Feynman almost makes you believe he would rather have not accepted the prize only because of the time differences between Europe and the US. But reading about his brush with Swedish Royalty is most entertaining.

[...] I therefore had no idea why someone would be calling me at 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning. "Professor Feynman?" "Hey! Why are you bothering me at this time in the morning?" "I thought you'd like to know that you've won the Nobel prize." "Yeah, but I'm sleeping! It would have been better if you had called me in the morning." -- and I hung up. My wife said, "Who was that?" "They told me I won the Nobel Prize." "Oh, Richard, who was it?"

" It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your hearts longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it. I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, or to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another and be true yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. I want to know if you can be faithful and therefore trustworthy. I want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty everyday, and if you can source your life on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the moon.

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after a night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done for the children. It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came here. I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in empty moments".

ORIA, MOUNTAIN DREAMER, INDIAN ELDER