Month: October 2015

Confusion among the capable is a sign that qualitative growth is possible.

The opposite of the claim “There are knowable truths” is not “There are no knowable truths”, but silence.

Since the claim “there are no knowable truths” is itself a truth claim, it inherently contradicts itself.  Practically, it is a mask for cowardice and disengagement from life, in  almost all cases.  If nothing is true, then there is never a need for sacrifice.

And actually, that leads to an interesting idea: if we do not sacrifice ourselves, we are forced to sacrifice others.  If I am not working on myself, I am bound to be taking from others.

It is obvious what the Cultural Sadeists take, but what do the Sybaritic Leftists take?  They take meaning.  They take the higher purposes of life beyond simple comfort and pleasure.  They see safety as an end in itself, and danger and risk as inherently undesirable, because they know that is where the learning is, and they do not want to be reminded that life is always a fatal experiment for all of us.

This past week has been a bit tough, but it has led to an important realization: the way you get and stay tough is learning to thrive on adversity.  You don’t accept it, you don’t tolerate it, you don’t muddle your way through it: you ENJOY it.

Over the years I have had a lot of opportunities to spend time with and get to know some really tough people, and they are happiest when they are on the edge, when they are pushing their limits.  It is not something they do because they have to, but because it makes them feel alive.

And these folks–lets take Special Operations guys as an example–are not serious, grim, scowling people.  They love to laugh and joke around and mess with each other.  You don’t need to act tough when you are tough.

I think it is really important to reframe difficulty.  We assume that a “bad” situation necessarily must lead to negative emotions.  But if you treat everything as an adventure, as an experience meant to teach you something, you become alert, you become receptive, you ask questions of the experience like “why are you here?”  You wait for the answer, you look for the answer.  And it comes.  Some part of your unconscious can’t stand the tension, and it will feed you something you didn’t have before.

As I have said before, I have no way of knowing if “everything happens for a reason” (other than you being a dumbass and making bad choices), but it is categorically a useful belief.  If you believe that, you start looking for reasons, and in that very process you transform it.

Laugh, and the world laughs with you. Get bed bugs and……….Jesus fucking Christ, where did everybody go?

I suppose on the plus side I now have life experience that will allow me to relate to lepers.

There has always been a time after the plague, and after the war.

It occurs to me that with most “comfort” mattresses, the foam adjusts itself to you.  If you sleep on the floor, like I did last night (I’ll skip the full back story) your body has to adjust itself to the floor.  Thinking about it objectively, which do you think is better for your overall long term health?

Consider this test: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2858804/Can-exercise-test-predict-DEATH-People-struggle-sitting-rising-test-five-times-likely-die.html

Then consider that in the United States you can literally go years without sitting cross legged anywhere.  You sleep on an elevated bed, and you sit in chairs all day, including the chair in your car.

I have a basic cotton mattress on order that I am going to put on the floor, and am giving serious thought to watching TV sitting cross legged on the floor.  I even gave some thought to sawing down the legs on my table, but I do want to have some guests more than once.

Still, I think the way Asians do it is likely healthier.  We read often about overall longevity of nations, but it is worth pondering how we measure longevity of QUALITY life, as in being able to do most things yourself.  Here is one possible metric: median age at which half the aging population needs help getting off the toilet, which would include a support bar. I’m two thirds serious.  Everybody has to (hopefully) do it every day.  Needing help sucks for everyone.

I have no intention of winding up sick and senile in an old folks home, smelling like shit and urine, and eating once again the food of an infant.

It occurs to me that growing in “Goodness”–becoming “gooder”–is a growth in the number of situations where you can be happy.  I have defined Goodness as being capable of living happily on your own, and taking pleasure in the happiness of others.  You are becoming better the happier you can be alone, and the more joy you find in the joy of others, the more places, the more ways.

And I would say relative to the last post, that I think most people walk into adulthood wounded.  They use will power to function, to get married, to have kids and raise them, but when they get to a certain age, they are tired.  They do not know how to contact the joy of living, how to replenish their spirits.  They get in ruts.  They watch TV, drink beer, cheer on the local team, and they grow old poorly, then they die.

We can do much better.  I am going to try and start my “Church” in November.  Should be interesting.  I have the spot selected and am working on a Powerpoint.  This is my answer to aging: a renewed effort to save the world.  You may call me a windmill chaser, but I am an enthusiast, and that is worth something.

I’ve decided to leave curing cancer to my oldest, who I have convinced to pursue it with diligence.  She is indefatigable, and with my ideas, we may have something in a few years.

I will add that in my view we all live forever–whatever that means–so extending lifespans is not an intrinsically important task.  What IS important is a new paradigm as to the nature of life, which in turn will lead to new understandings of what being human truly means, which should be the death knell for the 19th century metaphysics which still infect virtually all the sciences.  That, in turn, will create the opening for building a genuinely good world.  Pipe dream, perhaps, but everything great started as an idea.

You have to do something with your life.  Why not aim high?

The beauty of children, ideally, is they call forth from us all of our creative and beneficial energies.  They give us opportunity to express completely unselfish love, a love which differs from that of man and wife in that in giving you also hope to receive.  With children, all you receive is their happiness and well-being (again, ideally: many parents rely on their children to meet their own selfish needs).

And children grow.  That is what they do.  We become connected with this process, cheering them on at this and that, commending for this or that.  Change is continual, whether we seek it or accept it or not.

We have all heard of the Empty Nest Syndrome, which is a bit different, but not that different, for single parents.  What next?  What to do with a life which had been dedicated to something which grew and left?

This is the thing: you should never get caught flat-footed.  All of us can see this coming, and need to have projects in the hopper, and new work to do.

The joy of parenting is in giving, loving, and growing.  You do not need children for any of these, though.

I personally am committed to growing as continually as I can manage as a person for the remainder of my life.  My last project will simply be interrupted by death.

I feel sad.  I am moving from where I have lived the past ten years, and looking through all the old stuff is bringing back a lot of memories.  Since God is a practical joker–and likes to teach through apparent bad luck–I have simultaneously gotten a bed bug infestation, and am having to weigh what to bring and what not.

I am leaving virtually all that connects me to the childhood of my children–their blankets, stuffed animals, their artwork, and even their bed.

And pondering all this, it occurs to me that the essence of letting go is opening to new possibilities.  If you remain attached to the past, this is tantamount to saying that your best years are behind you.  It is a regression, a choice of decline.

Where I was concerned, my children had very happy childhoods, fulfilling, nurturing childhoods, and they know and appreciate this.  They are both wise beyond their years.

For my part I look at, say, an piece of artwork that I had thought lost, and feel happy finding it.  Then I recollect that all that is gone.  They are gone. That child that painted that is gone, never to be again, although I may one day get glimpses of it again in a grandchild.  Who I was then, thankfully, is also gone.  I have evolved.  I have worked very hard, and seen good results.

So in the spirit of Tibetan butter art–which they create, then melt–I am going to burn my favorite drawings, in the name and in the spirit of embracing all the good things, and all the learning, which is yet to be.

I am finding that you can choose courage.  You can choose to face an unknown future calmly, and even with acceptance and grace.  You can choose to be fully human.

Edit: those pictures still make me happy in the present, so I decided to keep them.  They are the open musings of happy children, and that is an energy worth recollecting for all of us.

Can you remember an election where the front runner of either party was doing anything but looking for all the publicity they could get?  Bernie Sanders certainly is.

I think this fact alone, this willingness of Hillary to trust the media to carry water for her, should speak volumes about the state of our political affairs.  She still had a commanding lead, last I read, although it was slipping.  Going months and months during a campaign season doing something close to nothing will do that.