The Writer's Poke

The United States may be the greatest country in the world. Who's to say? But why would Americans that have never travelled outside the country's borders try to make that claim? Christianity may be the "true faith," but why do Christians send out missionaries to convert the "pagans" without learning the beliefs of the individuals they're trying to convert? If listeners agree with Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and the political views they hold, is there a danger to continue listening to their radio shows rather than listening to shows that might provide different perspectives? My thesis is a simple one: Whether we wish to examine culture, religion, or politics, we find truth in the familiar. That which is "foreign" to us -- or that which we don't expose ourselves to on a regular basis -- likely won't seem to be as valuable, or to hold the same "truth." We make our judgements based on what we know and observe, and right...

"It's tragic that it is easier for the severely mentally ill to get a gun than adequate medical care." -- Michio Kaku

I'm preparing to teach a Humanities class with the title "The Art of Being Human." What a weird title for a class. According to the course description, the course should basically show students how others have attempted to live worthwhile lives. Admittedly, trying to teach others how to live worhtwhile lives might be going a bit above my paygrade, as they say. My sole hope, really, is just to teach people to examine their own lives. I'd like my students to be able to differentiate between art and artificial. Unfortunately, many of us live our lives in a "paint-by-numbers" style. Now, I ask you: Can paint-by-numbers be considered art? Sure, the finished product can be pretty, and there's a value to the systematic, ordered approach. But in the end, it's not art. To me, the true value to living a "worthwhile life" is to avoid living the sort of predetermined life that others would set for you -- whether it be promoted by cultural, famili...

Philosophers may debate it, but most people accept that we have free will. While we can all think of exceptions to the rule, for the most part the buck stops with us. We are responsible for our actions. Now here's the fun part. Some religious traditions promote the idea that, yes, we have free will, but we really shouldn't be using it. That's not exactly how they would state it, of course. Such traditions would most likely state that part of our "free will" is to freely avoid acting on improper impulses, etc. Yes, you have the free will to do x, y, or z, but instead, accept that doing x, y, or z is "wrong" or "sinful" or "against God's plan," and don't do it. Can we use our free will to question why x, y, or z is wrong, sinful or against God's plan? Well, no. Because doing so would itself be wrong, sinful, or against God's plan. Please don't question. Be obedient. Offer yourself up as a willing sacrifice. Submi...

The average person living in the United States today has more freedom of choice than any person living in the entire history of humankind. But does more choice equate to more happiness? How do we cope with the infinite number of options we "enjoy"? Psychologists have developed tests that indicate that too many choices lower overall satisfaction levels. In other words, if we have a few options, that's optimal, but when we have to sift through dozens of choices, it's too much for us to handle. We become numb through oversaturation. Common sense would suggest the truth behind the curse of choice, too. Think about going to the store to buy a box of cereal. Does it really matter that the grocery store stocks a hundred different kinds of cereal, or are you simply going to pick out Honey Nut Cheerios like you have done every previous time? It takes a special kind of person to select an unknown cereral from the more tried and true options available. Or, think about some...

Dalai Lama has noted that the Tibetan language does not have a word for "guilt." This seems very strange to me, as "guilt" is a very common emotion felt in the English-speaking world. Can it be that Tibetan people don't feel guilt, or do they feel some emotion like guilt, but simply attribute a different word to what they're feeling? And if the attribution is different, is the feeling itself different?  In other words: Does language create reality? The common assumption would be that we create words to fill a void, a need. If a language doesn't include a specific word, then that would seem to indicate that no void exists. The Tibetans apparently never felt the need to create a word for the emotion of guilt. In The Stuff of Thought, Steven Pinker suggests that "We are verbivores, a species that lives on words." According to Pinker, "language is above all a medium in which we express our thoughts and feelings." But if we don'...

These days, most people won't bother to pick up a coin on the floor unless it's at least a quarter. If you were at the grocery store and found a quarter, you'd probably smile at your good fortune, pick it up, and put it in your pocket. Would you even consider taking it to Customer Service to report it as lost? Try it some time, and record the bemused look on the associate's face. Your honesty will probably make the rounds of the breakroom for the rest of the day. Why do we consider a quarter so insignificant? We cannot know the true value of that quarter to the person that lost it, but we judge based solely on our own situation that the quarter is virtually meaningless -- although not quite meaningless, as we willingly bent over to pick it up. If we found a wallet, whether it had ID included or not, most of us would probably take it to Customer Service, yes? Perhaps the wallet only included a quarter, but we'd still turn in the wallet. But what if we found ten...

I like religions and mythology more than most people, but I also like science more than most people. And, I cannot understand how someone can get so into religions and not spend time learning mythology and science. Seriously. Enjoy Christmas, but think about learning some science. And, don't ignore the connections between mythology and modern religions.

Yes, I know that most people are thinking ahead to 2011 Goals -- at least people that make goals -- but that's too far away, really. Instead, I've decided to make some 2010 Goals. Actually, I made my 2010 goals at the beginning of the year. As always, I experienced some successes and some failures. It's good to look back and examine the past, but why not focus on the now, too? Setting a beginning-of-the-year goal, while good, is artificial. We're given a new beginning each morning we wake up, and we should use the start of each day to commit to what we want out of life. So, while others are taking one last week to procrastinate on starting 2011 goals, I'm using each day this week to keep working away at my goals in 2010.

Weather services around the world adjust what is considered "normal" -- in terms of average temperatures and precipitation amounts -- every thirty years. We're now at the end of one such cycle, and so everything that was considered "normal" for the last thirty years is about to change. This, I think, is such a perfect metaphor, as each generation does the same thing with cultural norms. What was once taboo often evolves into "normal" over the course of time. Some people cling to "tradition," but the truth is that even so-called "traditions" evolve. The only constant, as the cliche goes, is change. As we enter the new year, one big political change involves the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. For years it's been considered "normal" for our military not to inquiry into the sexual activities of its members, but if any "deviant" activies came to light, an otherwise stellar member of the military coul...

Most people know that Christmas has pagan roots, right? But Christians tend to overlook this fact. I assume they do so because they believe Jesus is "real" and not like all the other "pagans" that came before him. Question: What makes Jesus real? And what makes all the others "fake"? I'm not sure how much time it's worth investigating these questions, but probably more time than the average Christian spends examining them. And maybe I'm even wrong about my initial assumption. Maybe most people don't know that Christmas (and Christianity) has pagan roots. Anyway, Merry Christmas. http://www.zeitgeistthefilm.com/

I'm sure psychologists have studied this issue, but common sense would suggest that older people tend to live in the past, whereas younger people tend to live either in the moment, or for the future. That's a generalization, of course, and I'm sure individuals have "cycles" of sorts. For instance, at the end of the calendar year, it's probably more likely to think about (or relive) the past year; on the other hand, don't a lot of us think again to the new year and the promises it holds? That's why people make New Year's resolutions after all. Life must be lived in a continual series of "nows," and to a certain extent, living too much in the past or too much for the future is like not living at all. In other words, it's the -ing -- the now-ness -- that we should pay most attention to if we truly value living. What's the most effective way to live in the now? "I wasted time, and now doth time waste me." -- William...

Interesting Dec. 2 birthday trivia. Britney Spears turns 29 today, and Nelly Furtado turns 32. Although they're only 3 years apart in age, Nelly has never seemed Britney's contemporary, has she??

I wrote this entry for publication a few years ago, but never actually saw it in print until I happened to Google it today... http://books.google.com/books?id=qMIDrggs8TsC&pg=PA457&lpg=PA457&dq=bret+fuller+malcolm+x&source=bl&ots=teikSZwiz7&sig=uJ7I6e4wfkfz3Kc4UarGvikw99I&hl=en&ei=6_zeTIj9FIXcngfDwtjsDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

I went to a number of toddler birthday parties this year, and one thing that toddlers have in common is the way they open presents. For the most part, they never look at the present they've opened for more than a few seconds. With so many unwrapped boxes, toddlers simply must move on to the next present. Of course their parents are prodding them to do so. Left to their own natures, toddlers very well may spend more time with the open present in front of them. Not that Christians are toddlers, of course, but think about the attitude expressed by Christians who long for either the afterlife or the return of Jesus. Instead of savoring the present they've been given -- basically, Earth and the entire observable universe -- they long for the unseen. The next present. Why is it so wrong to stop and appreciate the life we're given? Suggest that, and Christians will frown. They have been told not to be of this world, which often times translates into not appreciating this world...

Why not have it all? Gloria Steinem has now spoken, and she says the idea that women can "have it all" is a myth. http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/11/13/news/aa10steinem1111310.txt But since when did anyone want to have it "all" in the first place? I mean, other than Napoleon or Alexander the Great, say, no one really wants it all when they use that expression. And all that "having it all" every really meant, I think, is that we shouldn't settle for less than striving for what we want -- and I'm using "we" to include both genders. If we want a career, great. If we want a family, great. And if we want other things in life, let's go get them. How do we know what we can or cannot have unless we go for it? Sure, we have a limited amount of time and resources. To that extent, it's silly to think we can have "everything." Nevertheless, humans are capable of achieving far more when they try than they are when ...

I'm not sure why, but even when I wanted to believe in Christianity, I could never buy into the literal interpretation of Genesis . Adam and Eve as real people. Really? Adam and Eve eating literal fruit and therefore casting the entire human race into sin and death. Really? Years later, it no longer surprises me that people literally believe this. After all, most people don't stop and think about what they're taught. And, most people don't read. Add those two things together, and it's easy to see why people believe in a literal Genesis account. For years, however, I've tuned out to the possibility that Christianity has any real value in my life. Not necessarily because of its worthy principles, but because of what people believe and teach. That, I realize now, is my own shortcoming. When read properly, there's nothing wrong with the Genesis account as a metaphor. I can even buy into the need for Jesus and the Crucifixion, as long as it's interprete...

With Netflix, I have access to thousands of movies and TV shows; I don't own them, but as long as they remain available in my instant queue, what's the difference? I can watch them as many times as I want, and for all real purposes, they are "mine." Now, think about the future of e-Books. As much as I hate to jump on board, it's all but inevitable that the e-Book will replace the paper book in the very near future. What will this do to libraries? Libraries are already lending out e-Books. Question: why would anyone buy an e-Book if the library will lend it to you for free? Sure, the e-Book will delete itself off your reader after the lending period is over, but so what? If you want to read it again, just "check it out" again. No need to take up space on your reader's hard drive... Technology is changing the way we think about ownership. Pretty wild.

How conventional is your life? If you're in your 30s as I am, think about how much you and I have in common: Spouce? check Kid(s)? check Job? check House? check Debt? check Obviously there's nothing wrong with conventional living, but if that's all there is, it seems kind of robotic to me. We have our freewill, and yet we all go through similar life stages, and we all share basic common experiences. What makes my life any different, then, from a million other lives in the Western world? This bothers me, and I yearn to make my life more unconventional. Of course people that are "unconventional" often find themselves being unconventional in uniform ways. So, perhaps there's no way out of the box. There's no way to live a life that someone else hasn't already lived. And maybe that's okay. I would just like to be able to add some unconventional elements to the satisfactory conventional elements of my life. The question is: How can I do that w...

This morning started immediately. Linda had errands scheduled, and I had to do the basic routine things. All I wanted was a pot of coffee with an hour or two to collect myself, by myself. Those days are gone. Of course after being "on" for an hour, I now have exactly the opportunity that I craved above. I have the hour or two by myself, with that much appreciated pot of coffee. I simply wish I could turn time around so that the coffee time came before the abrupt move from sleep to routine. Anyway, what's your secret? How do you keep your sanity, and how do you defeat routine and the stresses of daily life? For me, it just means starting another book. Today I'll be spending time with the Dalai Lama, reading his book How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful Life .