I am probably subjective in my outlooks to the world, to understanding our humanity, and attempting to have a positive outlook. That's a mouthful! Granted that our attempts to achieve a peaceful existence full of potential and choices with freedom and dignity are besmirched with the news headlines reporting the opposite around the world. Fighters with evil intent to cause horrific suffering very similar to Nazi behaviors of our past is happening now! The conflicts of the Middle East continues with propaganda and analyses attempting to explain how this has come about. Our ability to govern ourselves in question with Israel politics now so familiar to us with our own governance in disarray.
Yesterday in a challenging hike up the ridges and valleys of Kahuku Oahu I thought I had an insight. We were climbing then descending some steep inclines and one more challenged hiker was getting in shape after being absent from hiking for a number of months. We assisted him mostly down the more challenging sections both enjoying our challenges and attempting to make sure we had a successful hike rather than a fall with injuries. So what's the insight? Subjective reasoning again, I think there are some people who would not enjoy assisting another would see the challenged hiker as a hindrance to their enjoyment of the trail. Oh, no you may exclaim! Well I partly agree that most of the people I associate with would find the assisting necessary and agreeable to them but there is a minority who would not. How much of a minority? I think substantial. How else can we understand how significant groups endorse gerrymandering, racial exclusions, resistance to assisting those in poverty, maybe homeless and impaired? Our congress may be influenced by this type of minority that will use any means to create chaos and dysfunction to prevent democracy from functioning! Am I taking too big a leep from some impressions I had while hiking or maybe there is a kernel of understanding I'm attempting to be aware of.
While hiking one of our participants who knows the words and songs of folk singers mention Bob Dylon's song
My Back Pages Song by Bob Dylan
Crimson flames tied through my ears, rollin' high and mighty traps Pounced with fire on flaming roads using ideas as my maps "We'll meet on edges, soon, " said I, proud 'neath heated brow Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth, "rip down all hate, " I screamed Lies that life is black and white spoke from my skull, I dreamed Romantic facts of musketeers foundationed deep, somehow Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now Girls' faces formed the forward path from phony jealousy To memorizing politics of ancient history Flung down by corpse evangelists, unthought of, though somehow Ah, but I was so much older then. I'm younger than that now A self-ordained professor's tongue too serious to fool Spouted out that liberty is just equality in school "Equality, " I spoke the word as if a wedding vow Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now In a soldier's stance, I aimed my hand at the mongrel dogs who teach Fearing not that I'd become my enemy in the instant that I preach My existence led by confusion boats, mutiny from stern to bow Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats too noble to neglect Deceived me into thinking I had something to protect Good and bad, I define these terms quite clear, no doubt, somehow Ah, but I was so much older then I'm younger than that now Source: LyricFind Songwriters: Bob Dylan https://www.google.com/search?q=my+back+pages+lyrics&newwindow=1&sca_esv=573681836&sxsrf=AM9HkKl-GqBzRsD-fqR8t-4BPV239ggMtA%3A1697426906049&ei=2q0sZdHUAp-i0PEPs7m6-Ac&oq=my+back+pages+bon+dylan&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiF215IGJhY2sgcGFnZXMgYm9uIGR5bGFuKgIIADIKEAAYRxjWBBiwAzIKEAAYRxjWBBiwAzIKEAAYRxjWBBiwAzIKEAAYRxjWBBiwAzIKEAAYRxjWBBiwAzIKEAAYRxjWBBiwAzIKEAAYRxjWBBiwAzIKEAAYRxjWBBiwA0iQFlAAWABwAXgBkAEAmAEAoAEAqgEAuAEByAEA4gMEGAAgQYgGAZAGCA&sclient=gws-wiz-serp
So here is Theory of Memory "Long, long ago, before I was a tormented artist, afflicted with longing yet incapable of forming durable attachments, long before this, I was a glorious ruler uniting all of a divided country—so I was told by the fortune-teller who examined my palm. Great things, she said, are ahead of you, or perhaps behind you; it is difficult to be sure. And yet, she added, what is the difference? Right now you are a child holding hands with a fortune-teller. All the rest is hypothesis and dream."
Just spend some time thinking and appreciating this short poem on how we live.
SIREN "Before that I was a waitress. I wanted to marry you, I wanted your wife to suffer. in which all the parts are sad parts. think this way? I deserve Everything was clear to me: that proved she didn’t love you. if she loved you wouldn’t she want you to be happy? if I felt less I would be a better person. I was a good waitress. I could carry eight drinks. Last night I saw a woman sitting in a dark bus- in the dream, she’s weeping, the bus she’s on is moving away. With one hand she’s waving; the other strokes an egg carton full of babies."
Our life narrative here dissected and changed with a parting bus ride.
The dream doesn’t rescue the maiden. Strong feelings, longings, and delusions are described.
Louise Glück "You want to know how I spend my time? I walk the front lawn, pretending to be weeding. You ought to know I’m never weeding, on my knees, pulling clumps of clover from the flower beds: in fact I’m looking for courage, for some evidence my life will change, though it takes forever, checking each clump for the symbolic leaf, and soon the summer is ending, already the leaves turning, always the sick trees going first, the dying turning brilliant yellow, while a few dark birds perform their curfew of music. You want to see my hands? As empty now as at the first note. Or was the point always to continue without a sign?"
Have you ever looked for courage, for some evidence that your life has changed
"There was an apple tree in the yard— this would have been forty years ago—behind, only meadows. Drifts of crocus in the damp grass. I stood at that window: late April. Spring flowers in the neighbor’s yard. How many times, really, did the tree flower on my birthday, the exact day, not before, not after? Substitution of the immutable for the shifting, the evolving. Substitution of the image for relentless earth. What do I know of this place, the role of the tree for decades taken by a bonsai, voices rising from the tennis courts— Fields. Smell of the tall grass, new cut. As one expects of a lyric poet. We look at the world once, in childhood. The rest is memory."
Recently
I read an article about the controversies at Stanford University in
which the author describes how bias and discrimination over the
recent massacre
by Hamas was incorporated in the discussions and
comments of the students and
professors. Instead of dialogue and clarity both some of the students and faculty behaved with biased rancor. My take is that universities can be a place to be critical and thoughtful and a place to attempt to magnify and take sides with attempts to vilify and discriminate. They do represent our social disarray.
November 11, 2023 This discussion began with my sharing an article Why is the universe so complex and beautiful? By Adam Becker ( https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/11/16/1083141/why-is-the-universe-so-complex-and-beautiful/ ). This author describes the theory how at the very beginning after the big bang matter and antimatter came suddenly into existence and collided with its opposite counterpart (i.e. electron and positron colliding). These collisions resulted in energy with the annihilation of matter. However, not yet understood there was a slight imbalance leaving over matter without its opposite twin so something remained. The article goes onto describe how the remaining matter such as protons and neutrinos may undergo double beta decay (dissolving into energy) and how researchers are attempting to verify these theories. If these theories pan out our universe’s future may disappear very slowly into space and boring sameness of nothing. K and Leonard then had this dia
12/31/2023 Happy New Year. Life and change is like the uncertainty principle of quantum physics. When you are aware of change you know your living and when you are aware of change time is suspended. When your experiencing time, change and your life experiences are less certain since you've suspended your awareness of life and change for those moments of reflection on time. In human affairs absent hypothesis testing using the scientific method all we know is change and life. Choice then is awareness of change, life, and our certainty of free will. But if life and change suspends time, choice also is in the philosophical mind bending uncertainty. The scientific method involves testing your hypothesis by gathering observations that can be verified by other independent observers and see if the data and hypothesis flow and support each other. I'm reminded of the hypothesis of phlogiston. " The phlogiston theory is a superseded scientific theory that postulated th
January 14, 2024 My opinions concerning Israel's foundation as a Jewish state accepting most anyone as potential citizens who have Jewish birth heritage are mixed and ambivalent. Israel describes itself as a democracy but critiques of its lack of democratic practices and and antidemocratic pronouncements mostly point out that non Jewish citizens are often marginalized and have less protections. The label Palestinian also becomes a point of contention since the Palestinian can often describe a history of repression, an identity which has aspects of being a lower cast, and discrimination in education and economic advancement. Yet to some Jewish citizens and Jewish advocates of Israel, Palestinian is associated with anti-Jewish hatred, suicide bombers detonating themselves in marketplaces, terroristic attacks and extreme mistrust. For example, Palestinians may use the history of Zionism, the settlements history since 1920, the history of the partition conflicts and wars and t
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