Game theory

Walker Percy's notion of rotation, which he defined as "the experiencing of the new beyond the experiencing of the new," comes to mind this morning as I read the newspaper in my small pied-a-terre in downtown Portland.

"For example," Percy wrote in "The Moviegoer," "taking one's first trip to Taxco would not be a rotation, or no more than a very ordinary rotation, but getting lost on the way and discovering a hidden valley would be."

Gosh, what if we actually lived this way, if not in search of rotation at least aware of it when it was happening? And then seeking it out more and more, even in our boring, event-filled little lives.

Rotation's really a nice way of acknowledging what's beyond us, and taking control of everything we can't understand by making a journey out of it.

There's a column by James Stewart in the business section of The New York Times this morning about the financial situation in Greece and game theory. I rarely read the business section these days, the business section is at best the gateway to the sports section, but I took a chance on it today and discovered things I hadn't known.