Whoa

Damn, just like that, ive gone from a kid with people to look after me and tell me what to do, to an adult. For all my pondering about what adulthood will feel like and when it will come, maybe its just starts when you realize how much of a bitch all this paperwork is. Responsibilities man, responsibilities.
Whoa.

2 Possible Views of Nature

There are two distinct views one may take in regard to the vast majesty, the amazing, consuming, unfathomable hugeness of nature in comparison to us. There are two distinct ways of dealing with gazing over the unending miles of ocean or the continues bloom of a forest's trees. There are two distinct conceptions of our place in the seemingly incalculable expanses we see everyday if we but look out the window.




They are:


1. Nature is big and we are small. Humans can but only pitifully hope to churn up a few meters of dirt  in a few places on earth and otherwise have little impact on the Earth or Nature as a gigantic whole. Any conception that we are important in the grand scheme of things is a delusion: we are but tiny tiny boats in a sea larger and deeper than we can imagine. As such, we have little impact on the environment and thus little responsibility for its well being.


2. We have power over nature in ways cloaked a thousand fold by our relative size. The choices we make impact Earth more than seems apparent. As the dominate species on the planet, we have deep responsibility to ensure the continuance of the beauty that engulfs us. Not only for our children, but for the other species of the planet who make  up this so called Nature. While we sometimes cannot hold all of Nature in our minds, it is clear that we do hold all of Nature in our hands.









So step back and consider these two world views. Ask yourself what you believe: are we a spec floating in the wind or are we masters of our domain? If this exercise seems a little silly, that is because your mind is so made up about your view; remember that there are many many people out there with the opposite viewpoint.


More to come on this soon, but for now, take some time to figure out where you stand.

A Quick Word on Protests in the Middle East and Then a Joke

I'm not saying i understand the political situation there fully, but it is pretty cool to see people taking their lives and their freedom into there own hands. How interesting that a powerful semi-dictator is being taken down without 1 US troop involved. Revolutions and changes in power in the name of democracy are sometimes violent but don't necessarily have to come at the end of a American's gun. Maybe this would have been good to know 10 years ago.


I understand that I really have no way to effect the situation at all and there is a serene calm that comes with such a realization even though it is obvious that violence is part of the process. I don't particularly care if the new ways of life forged by these social uprisings are more friendly to the US, I only hope that the new system, after the riots are over, is more just than the current one. Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof. 

And now, for the unrelated Joke Of The Day: 

I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. I immediately ran over and said "Stop! Don't do it!"

"Why shouldn't I?" he said. I said, "Well, there's so much to live for!"

"Like what?" "Well ... are you religious or atheist?" "Religious."

"Me too! Are you Christian or Jewish?"

"Christian." "Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?" "Protestant."

"Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?" "Baptist."

"Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?" "Baptist Church of God."

"Me too! Are you Original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?" "Reformed Baptist Church of God."

"Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?" "Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915!"

To which I said, "Die, heretic scum!" and pushed him off. 

Creativity

I am of the disposition that the sphere of mental possibilities is endless.  Sometimes it seems that everything good has already been thought of, has already been created, has already said, has already been tried.

But that is so plainly false that I laugh at the notion even now that I write this.

Go ahead, spend 1 minute thinking about something that doesn't exist yet. Its hard at first but let your mind go a little bit and you'll see a whole new world of possibilities.

Advice to America's Youth

Read books.

Which books? Good ones?

How do you figure out which one's are good? Read enough books and you'll start to get a sense about the whole thing - or maybe you don't figure it out so much, but it doesn't really matter. Just read.

My Reason for Treason This Season and What I Would Like For the Holidays 2010

    I have always had a really hard time dealing with the gift giving and getting part of the December American holiday season. Every year I get these very strange feelings about the whole thing. The gifts we get each other aren’t really gifts more like responsibilities, obligations and debts; I don’t want some materialistic thing; I’m not worthy of this gift when there are so many more needy people in the world; I can’t possibly succeed in getting you the right gift; why do we need to weigh down a holiday’s beauty with needing to get a gift for everyone you know? Those are the kind of things running through my mind.

    The height of my disillusion was sharing a Christmas morning with my ex-girfriend’s family. I was raised in a Jewish home –certainly not the den of materialism you’d expect from a person writing this – my views on the ills of the season were formulated from the outside (a new watch and a puzzle wrapped in newspaper counted as overdoing it for any night of Chanukah.) So when I saw these 2 adult children blazing through box after box, bag after bag,  parents looking on with baited breath waiting for approval, it freaked me out. The 15 foot tree lined with presents turned into a 15 tree and a 4 foot pile of wrapping paper and packaging hour of steady-paced tarring, smiling, and thanking. And yes, it was fun, I do understand the joy of a new toy – studying it, marveling at it, figuring out how to use it. But happened at such an excelerated speed! Junkies getting their fix – shooting up again and again within the hour not so much for pleasure but for the sake of the routine. Oh God what a mountain of wrapping paper!

          (To be fair, that family was nothing but nice to me and I really appreciated being included in their celebration. They are not what I make them out to be – it’s just very easy to write negatively about one’s ex-girlfriend.)  

    I’ve (half-heartedly) done the protest thing before. Don’t buy me anything. I don’t want anything besides world peace. Send a gift to a charity instead. And in the early stages: I don’t want stuff, I just want money. Some years I can’t tell if I honestly don’t want anything or I’ve just forced material desires out of my head… and then I slap myself for getting all self righteous. Boy, airs of superiority complex waft around me like during this season like…well… like… the way this season wafts around me in coffee shops selling eggnog, gingerbread-spice lattes.

     And the thing I keep noticing is that the biggest effect I have is causing a headache for the people determined to get me something. No, I am not changing the big System, just kinda being a pain to the people in my life. So I have decided to compile a list of stuff I would actually want and/or need. Out of my comfort zone, but I guess its normal for lots of people so here goes. If you would like to get me something this holiday season, here are some of my thoughts. I will be sure to be grateful for anything I receive 

 2010 Desire List

Things you probably have to buy:

Size 11 Converse-All Stars Low (color undecided)

Size 36 Black Calvin Kline briefs with white elastic band and black lettering (sold at Costco)

Light Resistence (Purple) Jump-Stretch Band (link)  

New Laptop

Windows 7

Laptop Tune up/ reformat

Sports watch

Skins tights

iPhone 4

External Hard drive

Black, high density foam roller

1.5 or 2 pood (25 or 30 lb) Kettle ball

Money

Weight vest

Things you could find, make or do without spending money:

Fix my car door, window

Fix my battery, remote key, lights, computer,

Milk crates

Lacross balls

Let me train you in the gym

Great books you’ve already read

2009 college nationals disc (Ohio)

Let me stay in your cabin in tahoe sometime this winter (or hook it up with a friend’s)

On the Uselessness of Bankers

This inspired me to think about and come up with a couple very different metaphors for banking:

• Bankers are parasites that latch on and suck to the 2 way flow of goods from producers to consumers. How much of the wealth do we let these parasites consume? Bankers dont produce wealth, they produce money, wealth comes from farmers, builders, artists, scientists
• Bankers trade time for wealth via the lending of money. "Sure we'll give you this money now because there will be plenty of it to go around in the future. We have plenty of money and time and will lend you some in exchange for the your promise to give us your wealth over the long run. We'll, wait. We have time, its you that doesn't have time." Banks have this idea that there will be more money out there in the future because economies have always grown because populations have always grown. I dont understand how no one is bring up the fact that actually yes, every habitat, even Earth, has SOME carrying capacity and the population will stop growing AT SOME POINT.
• Bankers are matchmakers, connecting opportunity with those who want to do something with it. Thing is, maybe this was necessary in the past, but now we have the best opportunity search tool available to us: the Internet. Why do we continue to pay banks to find something I could pull up with a Google search?

What do you think? Are any of these meaningful, thought provoking, or insightful?