Thoughts On Restarting The Mind Engine

A Julia set,  a fractal related to the Mandelbrot set

OTR was surfing Facebook tonight, a practice he rarely pursues. The activity was inspired by a conversation at the conclusion of tonight's Lenten service. The ride brought him face to face with a close but long-lost friend in a fraternity of searchers. The brothers called their salon the Mind Engine. By 1974, their intellectual technology was dispersed by graduation, careers, marriages, and one flight to Canada. In its time, the Engine survived through the best and worst of times. It seems the components have done the same.  Today, OTR's found friend is a retired, renowned Shakespeare scholar who, like many of the Bard of Avon's characters, suffered profound personal loss in the course of his life. He's proud to describe himself as a hippie who succeeded. The photographs and lengthy entries connote abounding love for and pride in his two daughters,  his late wife, and her family. His spiritual journey has taken him deep into philosophical Buddhism. His Facebook journey includes a long list of friends unknown to OTR. 

Now what is one to do? Tonight's discovery is very much like coming upon a hidden chapter in a long-lost diary. There is risk in revelation and safety in memory adorned with imagination. OTR will think about it.

In the interim, he pays homage to his brother by posting this entry his friend quoted at length in 2009:

Outside looking in.