Value for Saturday of Week 25 in the season of Ripening

Being Diligent and Meticulous

Beyond mere responsibility, or even reliability, is diligence: the active expression of vigilance. It is a state of constant focus and attention to important details. It is excellence irrespective of ability, in other words, a person may not have the talent to become excellent or even proficient at certain things but through diligence that person will attain the highest level of achievement accessible to him.

The excellent performer is also meticulous. Such a person pays careful attention to ensure that the work product is of the highest possible quality, given the available talents and resources.

Real

True Narratives

Technical and Analytical Readings

Photographs

Documentary and Educational Films

Imaginary

Fictional Narratives

Poetry

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

Krystian Zimerman is a classical pianist known for meticulous preparation and attention to detail. Deutsche Gramophone promotes him thus: “Zimerman’s place among today’s greatest artists rests not least on the freshness and originality of his performances, always intensely personal and prepared in meticulous detail.” Various people have commented on it. “Zimerman has a very meticulous attitude to recording and many of his discs have won major prizes . . .” “Purity and clarity are hallmarks of Zimerman’s playing and there was an almost aristocratic composure to his phrasing and a velvet touch …Everything was meticulous, not …a quaver out of place.” “No detail escapes his meticulous approach.” Here is a link to his playlists. 

Ernest Ansermet was a conductor known for his “meticulous perfectionism” and detail-oriented conducting. “He was modest, upright, uncompromising, stubborn, opposed to the star system, and yet became one of the greatest conductors of his century. For many years Ansermet divided his time between music and mathematics . . .” Here is a link to his playlists.

Conductor André Cluytens’ “conducting style was characterized by his meticulous attention to detail, his ability to create a balanced and cohesive sound, and his deep understanding of the composer's intentions.” Here are links to his playlists.

Caprice cycles:

With their meticulous attention to detail and musical color, the Latvian Radio Choir under Sigvards Kļava capture the idea of diligence, more than vigilance, in this recording of Aleksandr Grechaninov’s All-Night Vigil (Vsenoshchnoye bdeniye), Op. 59 (1912) (46’). The performance is also emotionally compelling. 

Friedrich Cerha was a contemporary composer whose music sounds like the angst and uncertainty of the twentieth century. Professional musicologists understand that his compositional skills go deeper than that. Of Cerha’s “Spiegel” (a mirror into life) cycle (1961) (approx. 85’), fellow composer Brian Ferneyhough writes: “As I first listened, I was immediately captivated by the meticulous detail of the configuration, captivated by it in accordance with the extent to which the cluster-like quality of the overall structure did not blot out, but rather sharpened and deepened this necessarily up-close impression. Even just inconnection with the title of the cycle, I thought of comparing it to the so-called ‘Claude Glass’, that mirror-like accessory made of black obsidian that was used by 19th-century painters. 

Other compositions:

Music: songs and other short pieces

Visual Arts

Film and Stage

This Is Our Story

A religion of values and Ethics, driven by love and compassion, informed by science and reason.

PART ONE: OUR STORY

First ingredient: Distinctions. What is the core and essence of being human? What is contentment, or kindliness, or Love? What is gentleness, or service, or enthusiasm, or courage? If you follow the links, you see at a glance what these concepts mean.

PART TWO: ANALYSIS

This site would be incomplete without an analytical framework. After you have digested a few of the examples, feel free to explore the ideas behind the model. I would be remiss if I did not give credit to my inspiration for this work: the Human Faith Project of Calvin Chatlos, M.D. His demonstration of a model for Human Faith began my exploration of this subject matter.

A RELIGION OF VALUES

A baby first begins to learn about the world by experiencing it. A room may be warm or cool. The baby learns that distinction. As a toddler, the child may strike her head with a rag doll, and see that it is soft; then strike her head with a wooden block, and see that it is hard. Love is a distinction: she loves me, or she doesn’t love me. This is true of every human value:

justice, humility, wisdom, courage . . . every single one of them.

This site is dedicated to exploring those distinctions. It is based on a model of values that you can read about on the “About” page. However, the best way to learn about what is in here is the same as the baby’s way of learning about the world: open the pages, and see what happens.

ants organic action machines

Octavio Ocampo, Forever Always

Jacek Yerka, House over the Waterfall

Norman Rockwell, Carefree Days Ahead

WHAT YOU WILL SEE HERE

When you open tiostest.wpengine.com, you will see a human value identified at the top of the page. The value changes daily. These values are designed to follow the seasons of the year.

You will also see an overview of the value, or subject for the day, and then two columns of materials.

The left-side column presents true narratives, which include biographies, memoirs, histories, documentary films and the like; and also technical and analytical writings.

The right-side columns presents the work of the human imagination: fictional novels and stories, music, visual art, poetry and fictional film.

Each entry is presented to help identify the value. Open some of the links and experience our human story, again. It belongs to us all, and each of us is a part of it.

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The Work on the Meditations