To Have Loved and Lost:
"It is better", a widely accepted dictum claims, "to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all". Maybe. But when the dust settles nothing is ever too clear about love. Perhaps it should read: "It is better to have been loved than never to have been loved at all". That rephrased dictum is hard to refute in any any aspect of it's implications.
Love is one of those terms which is hard to define but we all know it when we feel it. I don't know how much love drives most human mating. For the most part few are able to really select the 'love' of their life. When young people date or socialize or dance etc. it is quite a complicated process. First you have to painfully sort out where you stand in the attractiveness scale. The imperfectly contoured are not really free to approach the more perfectly contoured for dancing, dates, or any other kind of social adventures. Lot of daydreaming during youth. For all practical purposes, with precious few exceptions, one really figures out how far above your own attractiveness level you can possibly reach, or how far down from your own attractiveness level you are willing to fall. Then you have to add personality factors. In the end, whatever works, works---at least for a while. I personally find it hard to comprehend how most people tangled up in life together can genuinely be in love, as least as we learn love from movies. Something else seems to keep them together, maybe a fear or realization that left in the open market they might do worse or come up empty handed. This co-habituation of humans is probably the most complicated and least logical of human endeavors. This does not demote its importance.
Organized religion doesn't help much. One more damn mitigating factor. Of course "what God has joined together let no man put asunder". Please, spare such nonsense. If God were really joining couples together there would be no divorces. I mean, we all see the rampant absurdities in who marries who and this is God's doing? This image of God pairing up couples and then deciding which sperm fertilizes which egg and personally bringing to term each of us via His will is really a remarkable self deluding self centered belief. Nothing about the little we understand about God's evolutionary process leads us to remotely believe God is meddling much on any individual basis with His laws of evolution. I have no idea upon what basis we can conclude we are even favored over any other species let alone be favored on any personal basis, one person over another. Still, having said this, I know we need believe in something or we might go crazy. If no one else really loves or understands us at various moments in our lives, at least God does. I accept this as an obligatory crutch. Like who amongst us, in one form or another, doesn't have mental 'conversations' with God? At least, many believe, if God doesn't communicate with us, He certainly does with the Pope or a minister or an Ayatollah, or a Rabbi, or Billy Graham, or Mother Teresa, or whoever wrote the Bible we accept as the Word of God. It is less clear why God would permit a legitimate Bible to contain elements of absurdities and moral deviations from the Golden Rule. Like so many other aspects of life, we believe what we want to believe in any Bible, and ignore what seems an ill-fit to our own notions. Sometimes when I struggle to comprehend God, in the end I believe I need to take a nap. Others I guess feel a need to join a crusade to persecute heathens---God's will must be done. You know, I kind of feel God's will has been and will be done and I don't think He depends on me to in any way control His own laws of evolution. I really would like to be more important in the total scheme of things, at least understand things more clearly, but settle in the end for just playing the cards dealt to me as best I can. In the end, AMEN.
But back to love. As powerful as love is, the consequences often are disastrous in one way or another. Love, more often than not, ends---either with developed---even if tolerated---incompatibility, or death of a partner, or forced social separation. Either way your sense of well being and your emotional state are hacked away until parts of both are irreparably gone. Gone with the wind. The sad truth is that in some cases a love would have been better to have never happened. The consequences can often be catastrophic to your future capacity to love or trust or forgive whoever is perceived to have caused the bubble of love to burst. The scars from failed or denied love can go deep. Few people in life seem more emotionally deranged than products of a bitter divorce. And the more bitter they are the more other people avoid them.
If religion is a mitigating factor in love, then sex is the loose cannon. All this noisy intrusive turmoil about gay and straight love/sex is really some kind of lunacy contest. Sex is not exactly a logical reasoned judgmatic activity in humans controlled exclusively by hormones as in most other animals. I doubt it is even possible to have any intellectual conversation about most any sex acts except the act required for reproduction, and that kind of conversation is hardly titillating. If people don't talk much about their sex lives to others it is for good reason. They don't want to sound like fools. What is a turn-on for some is a turn-off for others. If someone has a foot fetish it just is, and if they find feet sexy I guess the matter is closed. And despite hysterical claims that some forms of sex between consenting adults, or who loves who destroys their own marriage or situation in life, it just doesn't seem anyone's marriage breaks up because of the nature of someone else's marriage. That is pretty farfetched. If anyone is going to lose sleep over love and sex it probably need be restricted to their own love and sex life. I know, God is supposedly angry and furious about certain kinds of sex acts or love mates existing as part of human nature. I presume, by definition of God, God could put an end to just about anything regarding His evolutionary process if He so desires. To insist God depends on me or others to effectuate his own wishes is really preposterous. Whenever anyone claims they are doing God's will I immediately become suspicious. More likely their own preference in the matter is now energetically camouflaged as God's will. In all of history there have been endless 'witch burnings' in one sense or another ad nausea. Every culture creates it's own witches. Man's inhumanity to man is probably more common than any humane treatment amongst diverse humans. The same people who truly choke up about unfortunate breaks in life for themselves, their own family, their own country, their own ethnic group, etc. are often the same ones most determined to punish any diversity from their own personal beliefs. Of course there are so many believers with so many differing inherited beliefs, all with God on their side, that it becomes some sort of Laurel and Hardy show without the humor. OR, maybe this just proves God has a sense of humor and we all are Laurel and Hardy.
The relationship between love and sex is simply too unpredictable and labyrinthian-ally gnarled for any measurable correlation. Clearly one can love without sex involved at all---like love for your parents, or friends, or pets, or God, etc. Probably many marriages last because of love and despite sex. I am less sure about the other way around. Based on decades of casual observation I sense many marriages last without either love or satisfactory sex. Frankly I don't know why the State gets involved in what constitutes a marriage at all. If two people of age want to live together and call themselves married, that ought to be the end of it---let it be so. The government could just charge for the marriage license and be done with it. The 'lovey duckies' are making their own bed and ought to be the ones to lie in it. When younger I knew what constituted a good marriage. With time, I no longer have the vaguest idea. I watch a good many married couples and feel lucky to be single. I watch a good many married couples and feel most unlucky to be single. All this watching doesn't seem to bring much enlightenment about marriage. Some of the strangest matches last forever, some of the seemingly best matches end abruptly.
Like most people I don't really like to talk about my own experiences with love. If there is any topic which no one will understand except yourself it is your own experiences with love. Even a simple 'love affair' with a pet is a matter between you and your pet. Try showing up at a gathering and blah blah about how much you miss your pet and all the reasons you miss the pet---blah, blah, blah and see how fast people disperse to the other end of the room. A dead parent or spouse and the dispersal will be respectfully slower. Talking about a former love affair which painfully ended will generate an almost angry dispersal to the other end of the room. The more painful the separation, or the most unjust circumstances which forced the separation, the less anyone wants to hear about it. Some things in life you need shoulder alone, try to keep things in perspective, attribute any injustice to the imperfection of human nature, and play the cards left in your hand as best you can. The worst, of course, is when the lost love affair is your own inability to do the right thing for the object of your affection. You know where the blame lies and you, whether you like it or not, will pay the price and be haunted with all the what if, could have, should have, would have, etc. Some mistakes you pay for---for the rest of your life---and you accept the price to pay as a permanent part of your life.
To have loved and lost is the risk of having dared to love. In the end, if honesty rules the day, most all of us are more like Terrell Owens---he is up front about it---he loves himself. Someone once claimed masturbation is nothing more than having sex with someone you love. Ok, this discourse was bound to deteriorate given the topic. Say goodnight now to ____________(your own choice) wherever he/she is.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Teddy Roosevelt
Back in June under the title Friends of Sagacity I listed the people I admired most in history. Periodically I have decided to feature some of them by simply listing quotations by them which illustrate why I admire them. The first is Teddy Roosevelt. You can do that with Teddy Roosevelt because he wrote his own speeches. Most modern Presidents have speech writers so quotations are somewhat meaningless. George Bush, left to his own intellect, is not likely to utter much worth of any note at all. Even those with the intellect capable of good quotations, like John Kennedy, are often remembered by certain thoughts which were really written by speech writers. Frankly, modern Presidents have so much on their plate that they have little time for contemplative thoughts of their own. The solution of course would be to have them give far fewer speeches and spend much less time giving speeches, raising money, and 5 0'clock news bites. Presidents today are so scripted as to make them almost daily actors.
At any rate below are some of the better thoughts of Teddy Roosevelt with a few personal comments (in parentheses). Teddy was kind of a political Terrell Owens. Teddy Roosevelt loved being the center of attention, but his energy and determination produced results.
"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far"
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
"...the man who really counts in the world is the doer, not the mere critic-the man who actually does the work, even if roughly and imperfectly, not the man who only talks or writes about how it ought to be done." (1891)
"Criticism is necessary and useful; it is often indispensable; but it can never take the place of action, or be even a poor substitute for it. The function of the mere critic is of very subordinate usefulness. It is the doer of deeds who actually counts in the battle for life, and not the man who looks on and says how the fight ought to be fought, without himself sharing the stress and the danger." (1894)
"Let the watchwords of all our people be the old familiar watchwords of honesty, decency, fair-dealing, and commonsense."... "We must treat each man on his worth and merits as a man. We must see that each is given a square deal, because he is entitled to no more and should receive no less.""The welfare of each of us is dependent fundamentally upon the welfare of all of us." (Republicans should take note of this)
New York State Fair, Syracuse, September 7, 1903
"A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards. More than that no man is entitled, and less than that no man shall have."
Speech to veterans, Springfield, IL, July 4, 1903
"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."
"Much can be done by law towards putting women on a footing of complete and entire equal rights with man - including the right to vote, the right to hold and use property, and the right to enter any profession she desires on the same terms as the man."..."Women should have free access to every field of labor which they care to enter, and when their work is as valuable as that of a man it should be paid as highly."
An Autobiography, 1913
City streets are unsatisfactory playgrounds for children because of the danger, because most good games are against the law, because they are too hot in summer, and because in crowded sections of the city they are apt to be schools of crime. Neither do small back yards nor ornamental grass plots meet the needs of any but the very small children. Older children who would play vigorous games must have places especially set aside for them; and, since play is a fundamental need, playgrounds should be provided for every child as much as schools. This means that they must be distributed over the cities in such a way as to be within walking distance of every boy and girl, as most children can not afford to pay carfare.
(To Cuno H. Rudolph, Washington Playground Association, February 16, 1907.) Presidential Addresses and State Papers VI, 1163.
"It is no use to preach to [children] if you do not act decently yourself."
Speech to Holy Name Society, Oyster Bay, August 16, 1903
"Optimism is a good characteristic, but if carried to an excess, it becomes foolishness. We are prone to speak of the resources of this country as inexhaustible; this is not so."
Seventh Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1907
"We of an older generation can get along with what we have, though with growing hardship; but in your full manhood and womanhood you will want what nature once so bountifully supplied and man so thoughtlessly destroyed; and because of that want you will reproach us, not for what we have used, but for what we have wasted...So any nation which in its youth lives only for the day, reaps without sowing, and consumes without husbanding, must expect the penalty of the prodigal whose labor could with difficulty find him the bare means of life."
"Arbor Day - A Message to the School-Children of the United States" April 15, 1907
"There can be no greater issue than that of conservation in this country." (And T.R. was one of the first Presidents to understand this. Bush still doesn't.)
Confession of Faith Speech, Progressive National Convention, Chicago, IL, August 6, 1912
"Defenders of the short-sighted men who in their greed and selfishness will, if permitted, rob our country of half its charm by their reckless extermination of all useful and beautiful wild things sometimes seek to champion them by saying the 'the game belongs to the people.' So it does; and not merely to the people now alive, but to the unborn people. The 'greatest good for the greatest number' applies to the number within the womb of time, compared to which those now alive form but an insignificant fraction. Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations. The movement for the conservation of wild life and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method."
A Book-Lover's Holidays in the Open, 1916
"The conservation of natural resources is the fundamental problem. Unless we solve that problem it will avail us little to solve all others." (and now we can add overpopulation to this)
Address to the Deep Waterway Convention, Memphis, TN, October 4, 1907
"Thrice happy is the nation that has a glorious history. Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."
"The Strenuous Life"
"A healthy-minded boy should feel hearty contempt for the coward and even more hearty indignation for the boy who bullies girls or small boys, or tortures animals."..."What we have a right to expect of the American boy is that he shall turn out to be a good American man."
"The American Boy," St. Nicholas Magazine, May 1900
"There are good men and bad men of all nationalities, creeds and colors; and if this world of ours is ever to become what we hope some day it may become, it must be by the general recognition that the man's heart and soul, the man's worth and actions, determine his standing."
Letter, Oyster Bay, NY, September 1, 1903
"If a man does not have an ideal and try to live up to it, then he becomes a mean, base and sordid creature, no matter how successful."
Letter to his son Kermit, quoted in Theodore Roosevelt by Joseph Bucklin Bishop, 1915
"There are two things that I want you to make up your minds to: first, that you are going to have a good time as long as you live - I have no use for the sour-faced man - and next, that you are going to do something worthwhile, that you are going to work hard and do the things you set out to do."
Talk to schoolchildren in Oyster Bay, Christmastime 1898
"I have a perfect horror of words that are not backed up by deeds." (this is the horror of most modern day politicians)
Oyster Bay, NY, July 7, 1915
"The object of government is the welfare of the people." "Conservation means development as much as it does protection. I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land; but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us."
"The New Nationalism" speech, Osawatomie, Kansas, August 31, 1910
"This country will not be a permanently good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a reasonably good place for all of us to live in."
Chicago, IL, June 17, 1912
"I don't think any President ever enjoyed himself more than I did. Moreover, I don't think any ex-President ever enjoyed himself more."... "Success - the real success - does not depend upon the position you hold, but upon how you carry yourself in that position."
University of Cambridge, England, May 26, 1910
"I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life; I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well." (I feel the same way and is reflected in the kind of people I admire)
Des Moines, Iowa, November 4, 1910
"The worst of all fears is the fear of living."
An Autobiography, 1913
"To borrow a simile from the football field, we believe that men must play fair, but that there must be no shirking, and that the success can only come to the player who 'hits the line hard.' " (Go Terrell!)
Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay, NY, October 1897
"Let us speak courteously, deal fairly, and keep ourselves armed and ready."
San Francisco, CA, May 13, 1903
"No man can lead a public career really worth leading, no man can act with rugged independence in serious crises, nor strike at great abuses, nor afford to make powerful and unscrupulous foes, if he is himself vulnerable in his private character." (Which is why Terrell prevails)
An Autobiography, 1913
"This country will not be a permanently good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a reasonably good place for all of us to live in."
Chicago, IL, June 17, 1912
"There is not a man of us who does not at times need a helping hand to be stretched out to him, and then shame upon him who will not stretch out the helping hand to his brother." (Our society is currently failing in this area)
Pasadena, CA, May 8, 1903
"It is by no means necessary that a great nation should always stand at the heroic level. But no nation has the root of greatness in it unless in time of need it can rise to the heroic mood."
Fear God and Take Your Own Part, 1916
"There is not in all America a more dangerous trait than the deification of mere smartness unaccompanied by any sense of moral responsibility." (Amen!)
Abilene, KS, May 2, 1903
At any rate below are some of the better thoughts of Teddy Roosevelt with a few personal comments (in parentheses). Teddy was kind of a political Terrell Owens. Teddy Roosevelt loved being the center of attention, but his energy and determination produced results.
"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far"
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
"...the man who really counts in the world is the doer, not the mere critic-the man who actually does the work, even if roughly and imperfectly, not the man who only talks or writes about how it ought to be done." (1891)
"Criticism is necessary and useful; it is often indispensable; but it can never take the place of action, or be even a poor substitute for it. The function of the mere critic is of very subordinate usefulness. It is the doer of deeds who actually counts in the battle for life, and not the man who looks on and says how the fight ought to be fought, without himself sharing the stress and the danger." (1894)
"Let the watchwords of all our people be the old familiar watchwords of honesty, decency, fair-dealing, and commonsense."... "We must treat each man on his worth and merits as a man. We must see that each is given a square deal, because he is entitled to no more and should receive no less.""The welfare of each of us is dependent fundamentally upon the welfare of all of us." (Republicans should take note of this)
New York State Fair, Syracuse, September 7, 1903
"A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards. More than that no man is entitled, and less than that no man shall have."
Speech to veterans, Springfield, IL, July 4, 1903
"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."
"Much can be done by law towards putting women on a footing of complete and entire equal rights with man - including the right to vote, the right to hold and use property, and the right to enter any profession she desires on the same terms as the man."..."Women should have free access to every field of labor which they care to enter, and when their work is as valuable as that of a man it should be paid as highly."
An Autobiography, 1913
City streets are unsatisfactory playgrounds for children because of the danger, because most good games are against the law, because they are too hot in summer, and because in crowded sections of the city they are apt to be schools of crime. Neither do small back yards nor ornamental grass plots meet the needs of any but the very small children. Older children who would play vigorous games must have places especially set aside for them; and, since play is a fundamental need, playgrounds should be provided for every child as much as schools. This means that they must be distributed over the cities in such a way as to be within walking distance of every boy and girl, as most children can not afford to pay carfare.
(To Cuno H. Rudolph, Washington Playground Association, February 16, 1907.) Presidential Addresses and State Papers VI, 1163.
"It is no use to preach to [children] if you do not act decently yourself."
Speech to Holy Name Society, Oyster Bay, August 16, 1903
"Optimism is a good characteristic, but if carried to an excess, it becomes foolishness. We are prone to speak of the resources of this country as inexhaustible; this is not so."
Seventh Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1907
"We of an older generation can get along with what we have, though with growing hardship; but in your full manhood and womanhood you will want what nature once so bountifully supplied and man so thoughtlessly destroyed; and because of that want you will reproach us, not for what we have used, but for what we have wasted...So any nation which in its youth lives only for the day, reaps without sowing, and consumes without husbanding, must expect the penalty of the prodigal whose labor could with difficulty find him the bare means of life."
"Arbor Day - A Message to the School-Children of the United States" April 15, 1907
"There can be no greater issue than that of conservation in this country." (And T.R. was one of the first Presidents to understand this. Bush still doesn't.)
Confession of Faith Speech, Progressive National Convention, Chicago, IL, August 6, 1912
"Defenders of the short-sighted men who in their greed and selfishness will, if permitted, rob our country of half its charm by their reckless extermination of all useful and beautiful wild things sometimes seek to champion them by saying the 'the game belongs to the people.' So it does; and not merely to the people now alive, but to the unborn people. The 'greatest good for the greatest number' applies to the number within the womb of time, compared to which those now alive form but an insignificant fraction. Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations. The movement for the conservation of wild life and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method."
A Book-Lover's Holidays in the Open, 1916
"The conservation of natural resources is the fundamental problem. Unless we solve that problem it will avail us little to solve all others." (and now we can add overpopulation to this)
Address to the Deep Waterway Convention, Memphis, TN, October 4, 1907
"Thrice happy is the nation that has a glorious history. Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."
"The Strenuous Life"
"A healthy-minded boy should feel hearty contempt for the coward and even more hearty indignation for the boy who bullies girls or small boys, or tortures animals."..."What we have a right to expect of the American boy is that he shall turn out to be a good American man."
"The American Boy," St. Nicholas Magazine, May 1900
"There are good men and bad men of all nationalities, creeds and colors; and if this world of ours is ever to become what we hope some day it may become, it must be by the general recognition that the man's heart and soul, the man's worth and actions, determine his standing."
Letter, Oyster Bay, NY, September 1, 1903
"If a man does not have an ideal and try to live up to it, then he becomes a mean, base and sordid creature, no matter how successful."
Letter to his son Kermit, quoted in Theodore Roosevelt by Joseph Bucklin Bishop, 1915
"There are two things that I want you to make up your minds to: first, that you are going to have a good time as long as you live - I have no use for the sour-faced man - and next, that you are going to do something worthwhile, that you are going to work hard and do the things you set out to do."
Talk to schoolchildren in Oyster Bay, Christmastime 1898
"I have a perfect horror of words that are not backed up by deeds." (this is the horror of most modern day politicians)
Oyster Bay, NY, July 7, 1915
"The object of government is the welfare of the people." "Conservation means development as much as it does protection. I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land; but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us."
"The New Nationalism" speech, Osawatomie, Kansas, August 31, 1910
"This country will not be a permanently good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a reasonably good place for all of us to live in."
Chicago, IL, June 17, 1912
"I don't think any President ever enjoyed himself more than I did. Moreover, I don't think any ex-President ever enjoyed himself more."... "Success - the real success - does not depend upon the position you hold, but upon how you carry yourself in that position."
University of Cambridge, England, May 26, 1910
"I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life; I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well." (I feel the same way and is reflected in the kind of people I admire)
Des Moines, Iowa, November 4, 1910
"The worst of all fears is the fear of living."
An Autobiography, 1913
"To borrow a simile from the football field, we believe that men must play fair, but that there must be no shirking, and that the success can only come to the player who 'hits the line hard.' " (Go Terrell!)
Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay, NY, October 1897
"Let us speak courteously, deal fairly, and keep ourselves armed and ready."
San Francisco, CA, May 13, 1903
"No man can lead a public career really worth leading, no man can act with rugged independence in serious crises, nor strike at great abuses, nor afford to make powerful and unscrupulous foes, if he is himself vulnerable in his private character." (Which is why Terrell prevails)
An Autobiography, 1913
"This country will not be a permanently good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a reasonably good place for all of us to live in."
Chicago, IL, June 17, 1912
"There is not a man of us who does not at times need a helping hand to be stretched out to him, and then shame upon him who will not stretch out the helping hand to his brother." (Our society is currently failing in this area)
Pasadena, CA, May 8, 1903
"It is by no means necessary that a great nation should always stand at the heroic level. But no nation has the root of greatness in it unless in time of need it can rise to the heroic mood."
Fear God and Take Your Own Part, 1916
"There is not in all America a more dangerous trait than the deification of mere smartness unaccompanied by any sense of moral responsibility." (Amen!)
Abilene, KS, May 2, 1903
Monday, October 20, 2008
'THY WILL BE DONE'
"Thy Will be Done":
There are a good assortment of insensate inane expressions which have achieved popular usage throughout history. They have in common a certain illusion of profound expression, a certain supposed finality about them which portrays these expressions as the final word. When common sense and human understanding fails, when our faith that God will intercede on our own, or on our groups' behalf, becomes a non reality, then often the final white flag comes up and "Thy Will be done" closes the book.
But what exactly does this phrase mean? Who is Thy? Is it my God or some other groups God? And for God's Will to be done, does it require a directive or ok from us? It sounds too much like the phrase, "OK, have it your way". Interestingly, the phrase is not always used as a mindless submission to fate, but sometimes "Thy Will be Done" is used to justify some sort of crusade---legal, cultural, or military----against those who think or act differently from us, or who have something we want. It is rare for any army to go into battle without imagined confidence that God is on their side and God's Will is being Done. How can the same phrase be used in such different ways? In one case we are frustrated that God is not listening or paying any attention to, or helping, our cause of the moment, and we admit our ignorance---we 'let' God have His way, admitting that we don't understand His way. Yet in other instances we are absolutely sure we understand through 'faith' God's way or will and we undertake an active role is carrying out God's will. Of course our group's perception of God's will often clashes with another group's perception of God's will and 'uh oh'----the laws, persecution, and killing fields commence---all in the name of doing God's will.
The perception of ethics is an innate attribute of the human species. But the understanding the 'Will of God' is not innate to any species. Claims that certain humans do understand the 'Will of God' has never been demonstrated throughout all of history. The holiest amongst us, and those of the past, have sometimes committed the most grievous of crimes, about every crime imaginable, and no human yet elevated to such stature has ever demonstrated the ability to be right on all the important issues of his/her day. Where does this purported knowledge, from religious leaders, of God's will come from? Is it by a human vote of some sort? Is it an inheritable knowledge? Is it by knowledge learned by gaining a degree in religion? If, after all these years of human existence, there is no clear indication of who these people are who know God's will, why do we persist in every group devising some sort of human mechanism to select such people? Shouldn't at some point this sort of silliness stop? Isn't God's Will the ultimate reality, not something we can perceive or manipulate via rituals and prayers and college degrees? Fish can swim, birds can fly, and humans have the ability to reason more so than other species. Every species works with what they have, and so too must humans. Some problems we can solve and should solve using our collective reasoning, while some problems are not yet accessible to human reasoning---but we do know that reason is the tool which God's evolutionary process has given humans to use. Our innate ethics, coupled with our collective ability to reason, are God's evolutionary gift for us to survive or perish in HIS evolutionary system. Other species don't have these tools. We ought to quit trying to humanize God or visualize God as some sort of manipulative and cruel taskmaster who needs our constant worship in the most absurd ways.
God's will, by definition of the word God, is being done. Humans may well be the first species with the innate ability to affect their own destiny. Given this point in evolutionary time, humans may or may not be able to protect our own destiny as a species, but that hardly contradicts the laws of evolution. The laws of evolution are God's will, God's creation, God's mechanism for progress over time. What is constant is God's Will and Time. All else is temporary---ephemerally transient. TIME doesn't go. WE go, TIME stays---I guess forever.
There are a good assortment of insensate inane expressions which have achieved popular usage throughout history. They have in common a certain illusion of profound expression, a certain supposed finality about them which portrays these expressions as the final word. When common sense and human understanding fails, when our faith that God will intercede on our own, or on our groups' behalf, becomes a non reality, then often the final white flag comes up and "Thy Will be done" closes the book.
But what exactly does this phrase mean? Who is Thy? Is it my God or some other groups God? And for God's Will to be done, does it require a directive or ok from us? It sounds too much like the phrase, "OK, have it your way". Interestingly, the phrase is not always used as a mindless submission to fate, but sometimes "Thy Will be Done" is used to justify some sort of crusade---legal, cultural, or military----against those who think or act differently from us, or who have something we want. It is rare for any army to go into battle without imagined confidence that God is on their side and God's Will is being Done. How can the same phrase be used in such different ways? In one case we are frustrated that God is not listening or paying any attention to, or helping, our cause of the moment, and we admit our ignorance---we 'let' God have His way, admitting that we don't understand His way. Yet in other instances we are absolutely sure we understand through 'faith' God's way or will and we undertake an active role is carrying out God's will. Of course our group's perception of God's will often clashes with another group's perception of God's will and 'uh oh'----the laws, persecution, and killing fields commence---all in the name of doing God's will.
The perception of ethics is an innate attribute of the human species. But the understanding the 'Will of God' is not innate to any species. Claims that certain humans do understand the 'Will of God' has never been demonstrated throughout all of history. The holiest amongst us, and those of the past, have sometimes committed the most grievous of crimes, about every crime imaginable, and no human yet elevated to such stature has ever demonstrated the ability to be right on all the important issues of his/her day. Where does this purported knowledge, from religious leaders, of God's will come from? Is it by a human vote of some sort? Is it an inheritable knowledge? Is it by knowledge learned by gaining a degree in religion? If, after all these years of human existence, there is no clear indication of who these people are who know God's will, why do we persist in every group devising some sort of human mechanism to select such people? Shouldn't at some point this sort of silliness stop? Isn't God's Will the ultimate reality, not something we can perceive or manipulate via rituals and prayers and college degrees? Fish can swim, birds can fly, and humans have the ability to reason more so than other species. Every species works with what they have, and so too must humans. Some problems we can solve and should solve using our collective reasoning, while some problems are not yet accessible to human reasoning---but we do know that reason is the tool which God's evolutionary process has given humans to use. Our innate ethics, coupled with our collective ability to reason, are God's evolutionary gift for us to survive or perish in HIS evolutionary system. Other species don't have these tools. We ought to quit trying to humanize God or visualize God as some sort of manipulative and cruel taskmaster who needs our constant worship in the most absurd ways.
God's will, by definition of the word God, is being done. Humans may well be the first species with the innate ability to affect their own destiny. Given this point in evolutionary time, humans may or may not be able to protect our own destiny as a species, but that hardly contradicts the laws of evolution. The laws of evolution are God's will, God's creation, God's mechanism for progress over time. What is constant is God's Will and Time. All else is temporary---ephemerally transient. TIME doesn't go. WE go, TIME stays---I guess forever.
THE 'TEAM' IN PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL
The 'TEAM' in Professional Football:
One of the most overworked and overused word thrown around in football circles is the use of the word team. It usually is in regards to gelling as a team or being a good teammate, etc. It weighs on my mind more than others because it is one of those words invariably used by those sport commentators who thrive on dishing Terrell Owens. It is a steady drumbeat of he doesn't care about 'the team' or he is not a 'good teammate' or he is only concerned about his own performance.
These days, in football, as in many other professional sports, the word team has only a fleeting existence. Each year the composition of the team changes substantially. With all the injuries in football and the steady stream of substitutions, the word team practically exists in a different composition with just about every play. The truth is every player is forced to put their own performance on the field first. How many games the team wins has no bearing on whether a particular player is going to be around next year. Each player is evaluated entirely on his own performance. Period. The hard reality is winning depends on how each player performs at his own particular position. What is essential is that each player must run the right route, or defend properly, or tackle well, etc. If they do that well they are a good 'teammate'. How much anyone else likes the player, including the fans, is simply another ball game entirely. Sport commentators, having a good portion of their analysis about who is going to beat who turn out to be less than auspicious, find more pleasure in character assassination or character worship. But so do the rest of us.
Most players learn early on to babble about how concerned they are about their teammates, how grateful they are for teammate support and how the important thing is how the team does, not how they do. Yeah sure, if the team does well and an individual athlete does poorly he is history very shortly. The bottom line in professional football is money and individual performance. When a Giant player was asked recently about how the attitude of Burress affected him, he replied that he hardly ever has a reason to be in contact with Burress, that everyone has their own responsibilities on the team and that is what they concentrate on. Duh. I guess so---I mean obviously so.
The coaches preach to every teammate the need for each person to stay focused on their own tasks---stay focused, stay focused---along with stay in shape, stay in shape---and be tough, be tough---and be determined, be determined---and be a good citizen away from the field, be a good citizen away from the field, etc. Really? So here we have Terrell Owens, about the ultimate in staying focused, about the ultimate in staying in shape on his own, about the ultimate in being tough (in his case the word is changed to stubborn), and the ultimate good citizen off the field. Terrell's crime it seems is staying to himself, selfishly focused on being the best he can be at his position, not pretending his focus is on other teammates, and being tough about his stand on football matters that relate to his own performance. He comes to a team already packaged with all the personal traits requisite to top performance, and sport commentators fume away because he doesn't dance to their own preconceived notions of what constitutes a good teammate. He brags about himself, that is what irritates them.
Can't we just drop this fairy tale notion of how professional football players must all bond together in some kind of social fraternity for the team to win? Too many sport commentators seem to feel that unless a player dances to their own verbal and social nuance tunes, the player is a bad teammate. The only ones in a remote position to label anyone a bad teammate are past and former teammates of the player in question. Thus, I suggest, if these sport commentators want to throw the term bad teammate around, that every player on each team be asked, via secret ballot, to identify which players on their team is a good or bad teammate. Most of the time the player would say, "How the hell would I know, I hardly have any contact with him, he is on another practice unit coached by one of the 17 different position coaches".
Teams are so in a state of flux now personnel-wise that I kind of select coaches or players I admire and support the team they are on. When they move on, I move on. In the old days the Brooklyn Dodgers were pretty much the same team year after year. They may well have had considerable social bonding over time, and to the extent they were real professionals, that had little or nothing to do with their performance on the field. The importance of that was the way it made fans feel about the team. Anyone who has ever been on a sport team realizes that whether a player was a gregarious cheerleader in the locker room or rarely said anything had little bearing on their own performance on the team. If a professional player needs other players to get him focused on doing the best he can---well, that player is not a good player---he is not properly focused, he is not tough, he is not properly determined, etc. An example of a player who is all that, on his own, off by himself, obsessed with his own performance, is Terrell Owens. Now there is a valuable teammate.
One of the most overworked and overused word thrown around in football circles is the use of the word team. It usually is in regards to gelling as a team or being a good teammate, etc. It weighs on my mind more than others because it is one of those words invariably used by those sport commentators who thrive on dishing Terrell Owens. It is a steady drumbeat of he doesn't care about 'the team' or he is not a 'good teammate' or he is only concerned about his own performance.
These days, in football, as in many other professional sports, the word team has only a fleeting existence. Each year the composition of the team changes substantially. With all the injuries in football and the steady stream of substitutions, the word team practically exists in a different composition with just about every play. The truth is every player is forced to put their own performance on the field first. How many games the team wins has no bearing on whether a particular player is going to be around next year. Each player is evaluated entirely on his own performance. Period. The hard reality is winning depends on how each player performs at his own particular position. What is essential is that each player must run the right route, or defend properly, or tackle well, etc. If they do that well they are a good 'teammate'. How much anyone else likes the player, including the fans, is simply another ball game entirely. Sport commentators, having a good portion of their analysis about who is going to beat who turn out to be less than auspicious, find more pleasure in character assassination or character worship. But so do the rest of us.
Most players learn early on to babble about how concerned they are about their teammates, how grateful they are for teammate support and how the important thing is how the team does, not how they do. Yeah sure, if the team does well and an individual athlete does poorly he is history very shortly. The bottom line in professional football is money and individual performance. When a Giant player was asked recently about how the attitude of Burress affected him, he replied that he hardly ever has a reason to be in contact with Burress, that everyone has their own responsibilities on the team and that is what they concentrate on. Duh. I guess so---I mean obviously so.
The coaches preach to every teammate the need for each person to stay focused on their own tasks---stay focused, stay focused---along with stay in shape, stay in shape---and be tough, be tough---and be determined, be determined---and be a good citizen away from the field, be a good citizen away from the field, etc. Really? So here we have Terrell Owens, about the ultimate in staying focused, about the ultimate in staying in shape on his own, about the ultimate in being tough (in his case the word is changed to stubborn), and the ultimate good citizen off the field. Terrell's crime it seems is staying to himself, selfishly focused on being the best he can be at his position, not pretending his focus is on other teammates, and being tough about his stand on football matters that relate to his own performance. He comes to a team already packaged with all the personal traits requisite to top performance, and sport commentators fume away because he doesn't dance to their own preconceived notions of what constitutes a good teammate. He brags about himself, that is what irritates them.
Can't we just drop this fairy tale notion of how professional football players must all bond together in some kind of social fraternity for the team to win? Too many sport commentators seem to feel that unless a player dances to their own verbal and social nuance tunes, the player is a bad teammate. The only ones in a remote position to label anyone a bad teammate are past and former teammates of the player in question. Thus, I suggest, if these sport commentators want to throw the term bad teammate around, that every player on each team be asked, via secret ballot, to identify which players on their team is a good or bad teammate. Most of the time the player would say, "How the hell would I know, I hardly have any contact with him, he is on another practice unit coached by one of the 17 different position coaches".
Teams are so in a state of flux now personnel-wise that I kind of select coaches or players I admire and support the team they are on. When they move on, I move on. In the old days the Brooklyn Dodgers were pretty much the same team year after year. They may well have had considerable social bonding over time, and to the extent they were real professionals, that had little or nothing to do with their performance on the field. The importance of that was the way it made fans feel about the team. Anyone who has ever been on a sport team realizes that whether a player was a gregarious cheerleader in the locker room or rarely said anything had little bearing on their own performance on the team. If a professional player needs other players to get him focused on doing the best he can---well, that player is not a good player---he is not properly focused, he is not tough, he is not properly determined, etc. An example of a player who is all that, on his own, off by himself, obsessed with his own performance, is Terrell Owens. Now there is a valuable teammate.
Friday, October 10, 2008
OUR EVOLUTIONARY MOMENT
Our Evolutionary Moment:
To see the forest for the sake of the trees, in this venture called life, surely taxes human thought to the maximum. We all live in a 'little gleam of Time between two eternities', all existing as a miniscule part of a God created evolutionary process that evolves via natural selection and an endless process of compensation. Humans---most humans---like to think otherwise, that we are God's chosen species by a God that looks like us, thinks like us, and is heavily involved in each of our personal lives. Most modern notions of God are little advanced from the notions of cavemen---only the peculiarities of the rituals and faith based beliefs vary. We exist in a minute time period in this God created process, rendering it almost impossible to fully appreciate the whole process, or put our own participation of it, in perspective.
Part of my penchant for wandering around, mostly by myself, in these terminational years, is the opportunity to observe and cogitate the whole meaning of life. In some respects there are no answers, there never have been any answers, there isn't going to be any answers---life, in one sarcastic sense, is a bitch and then you die. Still, the challenge is to see and appreciate bits and pieces, however dimly, of this amazing evolutionary process. Those who fail to appreciate diversity and see only good in those who are reflections of themselves, both in thought and appearance, have no appreciation of God's evolutionary process. They are the extremists, the fundamentalists, the terrorists, the blind patriots, the unfettered capitalists, the family valuists, the political purists---all those who see right as some sort of absolute, regardless of circumstances---mental or physical. How can things be so absolute when all of us start with unique genetics and unique environments---we all truly are a part of all that we have met in life. It isn't "there but for the grace of God goes I", or worse even---"there but for my own deserving accomplishments in the eyes of God goes I"----it is really the created process of evolution, driven my the laws of evolution, which has determined our own destiny. What are we to thank God for----our choice of parents, our place of birth, our choice of schools, the economic status of our parents, our inherited religion, etc? Please, let's be serious, neither I nor others remotely earned any such good or bad luck in any of this. It is more like winning the lottery. You don't deserve it, you didn't earn it, you got lucky. Thank God for luck in His evolutionary process.
I can never resolve how to accept widespread injustices and catastrophes----not among humans, not among other animals. I feel about as bad when a pet dies as when a friend or family member dies, I feel as bad for the 2 million Jews who died as I do for the 2 million Vietnamese killed, or for the 100 million people predicted to die from starvation in the next few years. How does one separate personal good fortunes from the far more widespread misfortunes which plague most humans across the globe? I sense we live in the beginning of very tumultuous evolutionary times, when the shit is about to hit the fan, and another of the periodic evolutionary upheavals about to take place. The human species is out of control with our inability to control our own reproduction. Responsible reproduction isn't even part of political debates. How can one even talk about environmental protection when so much of the world suffers from human overpopulation? Recently the biggest world environmental organization stated that one out of every four mammals in existence now is on the verge of extinction. I feel sorry for every species about to become extinct. For me, there is a lot of sadness to see all around, and every tomorrow adds to the list. Evolution has always been a process of compensation. Any species which overpopulates itself becomes extinct or at least suffers dire consequences. 'As times go' is an oxymoron view----Time doesn't go, we Go'. We are not the terminal point in the evolutionary process. The human species may not even be a permanent fixture to our planet. We continue to know more and more about the past evolutionary pathway but we essentially have no predictive ability to foresee future evolutionary paths.
I don't think I have ever doubted the existence of God. Still, after all these years I have no clear concept of God. Just as we know, if some anonymous person sends us a gift, that the gift giver exists----we know that God exists. But we can know nothing about the anonymous gift giver or the nature of God. Unless God is some kind of sadistic and uncaring Being, He is not involved much in our daily lives. Young girls and old women don't get raped, or people starve to death, or people die slow painful deaths from horrible diseases or conditions if there is a GOOD God involved in human daily lives. That does not mean there is not a GOOD God who created the VERY GOOD evolutionary process, a process controlled by the laws of evolution. Good, like so much else, is a relative term. Maybe good can't exist in the absence of bad. A process that begins with single living cells and billions of years later we have the complexity of life existent today, is a GOOD process. If we can't see this GOOD then it is because we cannot see the forest for the sake of the trees, are too hung up on the myopic concentration on ourselves.
I used to pray. I don't anymore. What can I pray for regarding myself that supersedes the more pressing needs of so many others? And isn't it a bit presumptuous to think God will only intercede to do GOOD things if I ask (pray for) him to do it? I just can't feel comfortable reducing God to some kind of partisan goof ball who waits on his favorite flock to beg him for favors or to do something good for someone. I used to pray for just about everything and everybody---like I was running the show, directing God what to do when and how. Every Christmas Eve when the Pope, like clock work, prays for world peace, I really wish he and all others who pretend to have special connections with God, would just stifle themselves. Has there ever been a time in history when world peace magically came about after such demands couched as prayer? I think the two million Jews murdered by the German Nazis probably prayed a lot---an awful lot---and two million died. I think the 2 million Vietnamese killed by American troops probably prayed a lot too, but they died anyway---for what legitimate reason I don't know, although at the time I thought they deserved it. So much for my religious goodness. I will never understand how the Germans could kill 2 million Jews and I don't know how we Americans could kill 2 million Vietnamese. I don't know what the Jews ever did to deserve such a fate and I don't know what the Vietnamese ever did to deserve such a fate. Of course the Germans at the time thought they knew, and at the time myself and most Americans thought we knew why the Vietnamese had to die. So much for trusting our own feelings sometimes about others.
If God does not normally interfere with His own evolutionary laws, those natural laws which govern the whole process of evolution, does He ever interfere? If that question is knowable, it so far escapes me. I kind of assume, if God does, He doesn't do it based on human demands or begging. I think we all tend to assume that God's favorite species in this billion years process of evolution is the human species, and particularly those humans who inherited the same religion as ourselves. The Creationists, those holier than thou operatives with braces on their brains, believe God created them in His own image. They, and they alone, know what God wants, have this personal contact with God, and their ticket to heaven always seems to involve some sort of religious crusade against heathens. It is always best to stay under their radar. There is no fury so intense as religious fury. When God is on your side, God help the others. And all of us, naturally, know whose side God is on. Or do we? It seems every army or side always has a large contingent of clergy of some sort blessing all the killing on the killing fields, each side by the other. With time, I have learned to find all of this senseless partisan religious, ethnic, and cultural dementia beyond the pale. Sometimes I wonder if any of us are really sane? Daffy duckyness seems, at this point in human evolution, to be endemic. Well, not you and I of course. Although sometimes I do wonder about you.
All of us need faith based beliefs to sustain us. It is not too smart to believe in nothing. Ethics exists as part of human nature. Except for psychopaths, just about everyone knows basic right from wrong. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you is not exactly rocket science in the field of ethics. I can't say I am aware of any religion which is not based on that simple logical intelligible ethical concept. To what extent any of us manage to do this pretty much defines our ethical status. All else is bullshit. All else is defensive manipulation to justify not doing unto others what you would have them do unto you. Whenever someone is waving some kind of Bible around, run for cover. Of course I am not sure where you can run, we all know, given the right circumstances and encouragement, that neighbors can kill neighbors, friends can kill friends, and strangers can be killed by strangers in all sorts of contrived killing fields. Now that overpopulation and limited natural resources are upon us, killing fields across the world will be the evolutionary compensation. It is predicted that in the next few years 100 million people will starve to death. The current economic chaos is not likely unrelated to the larger picture of evolutionary compensations. Mother Nature, another euphemism for evolution, always bats last. I don't think I will pray since I don't believe the evolutionary process is built around me or anyone else---certainly not anyone else (smile). I would like to walk hand in hand with God, it sounds like a great idea. But more likely I just need to be satisfied to be a part of the evolutionary process for a short period of time, and to have been lucky enough on the evolutionary spinning wheel of fortune, to have have gotten some good cards. Each hand dealt at birth to everyone is different. Humans have the ability to play a bit with the cards dealt, many species don't to such a degree, and so we deal with the cards dealt, and that is about it---that's all she wrote.
Does God ever interfere with the natural laws of evolution? Like others I have faith based beliefs. Unlike the religious rightists I understand the difference between belief and fact. And I don't think my beliefs should be the law of the land. Nor do I believe I have any direct contact with God. The best I think I can do is feel content to be a part of the evolutionary process, to accept good personal fortune for what it is, good fortune---not a directed gift from God---and try to do unto others as I would have them do unto me. Of course the corollary is that I also struggle to accept bad fortune, use what ever cards dealt to me to offset the bad fortune, but also prepare for the inevitable---in the long run we are all dead. The latter will be easier of course if I can control my own dying process. We aren't there yet, but the battle to have that right inches ever closer.
One of my current faith based beliefs is that God may, on occasion, interfere with the laws of evolution. And when He does, it has nothing to do with prayers, or anyone earning His interference. God may well have created some sort of 'free market' evolutionary process, but I believe He may, as needed, make some market corrections. As a student of Lincoln it always seemed to me something greater than Lincoln aided his mental processes from the time of the Lincoln-Douglass debates onward. There is nothing prior to that in anything Lincoln wrote or did which would have predicted his depth of wisdom from that debate period forward. Maybe God used Lincoln to solve the slavery issue. One of my friends refers to me as Professor Doomsday. Fair enough. But from this vantage point I wonder, and mostly hope, that maybe Barack Obama might be the next tool used by God to make a 'market correction' in the evolutionary process. Both Obama and Lincoln seem to have a wisdom which belies their past. Both seem, on face value, to be the most unlikely to lead any great movement, based on their looks or environmental or economic past. Both seem to have an impeccable sense of logic and fairness, both seem to belong to no particular group or religion. Both are genetic mutts, societal misfits, and gifted with an innate kindness that deflects the unkind missiles thrust their way. Lincoln, of course, was not the 'original ape' and Obams is hardly a 'terrorist', religious 'kook' etc. Of course having said all this, I can't prove any of it, but the hope and faith that maybe it might be true, sustains my sanity during these best and worst of times.
So now is, for all us travelers in this 'little gleam of Time between two eternities', our evolutionary moment. We are all here, all in this together, all with front seats, with no personal control over human destiny. That, clearly, is a good thing or we would simply overpopulate and kill each other as a compensatory solution. Of course maybe that is the way it is to go down, a free market evolutionary fall. Individually I guess it doesn't make much difference----the evolutionary process is clearly not about individual members of any species. There is no real evidence that God likes humans any better than other species, much like I don't really like other people any more than I liked my pets. Other species count in the evolutionary process, they really do---all the plants, the insects, mammals, etc. The contribution of such diverse species to the evolutionary process is not measured by one vs the other. Contrary to religious fundamentalists, life doesn't begin at conception---life is a continuum----sperm and eggs are alive---there is no beginning---and in the same vein there is no end----life goes on, the same molecules that make up our own unique 'being' will stick around, continue to combine with other molecules, or alter their form this way or that way, but the basic building blocks of life seem eternal. Let us never forget---Time doesn't go; Time stays. WE GO.
While I still have the chance: Bye. (Smile)
To see the forest for the sake of the trees, in this venture called life, surely taxes human thought to the maximum. We all live in a 'little gleam of Time between two eternities', all existing as a miniscule part of a God created evolutionary process that evolves via natural selection and an endless process of compensation. Humans---most humans---like to think otherwise, that we are God's chosen species by a God that looks like us, thinks like us, and is heavily involved in each of our personal lives. Most modern notions of God are little advanced from the notions of cavemen---only the peculiarities of the rituals and faith based beliefs vary. We exist in a minute time period in this God created process, rendering it almost impossible to fully appreciate the whole process, or put our own participation of it, in perspective.
Part of my penchant for wandering around, mostly by myself, in these terminational years, is the opportunity to observe and cogitate the whole meaning of life. In some respects there are no answers, there never have been any answers, there isn't going to be any answers---life, in one sarcastic sense, is a bitch and then you die. Still, the challenge is to see and appreciate bits and pieces, however dimly, of this amazing evolutionary process. Those who fail to appreciate diversity and see only good in those who are reflections of themselves, both in thought and appearance, have no appreciation of God's evolutionary process. They are the extremists, the fundamentalists, the terrorists, the blind patriots, the unfettered capitalists, the family valuists, the political purists---all those who see right as some sort of absolute, regardless of circumstances---mental or physical. How can things be so absolute when all of us start with unique genetics and unique environments---we all truly are a part of all that we have met in life. It isn't "there but for the grace of God goes I", or worse even---"there but for my own deserving accomplishments in the eyes of God goes I"----it is really the created process of evolution, driven my the laws of evolution, which has determined our own destiny. What are we to thank God for----our choice of parents, our place of birth, our choice of schools, the economic status of our parents, our inherited religion, etc? Please, let's be serious, neither I nor others remotely earned any such good or bad luck in any of this. It is more like winning the lottery. You don't deserve it, you didn't earn it, you got lucky. Thank God for luck in His evolutionary process.
I can never resolve how to accept widespread injustices and catastrophes----not among humans, not among other animals. I feel about as bad when a pet dies as when a friend or family member dies, I feel as bad for the 2 million Jews who died as I do for the 2 million Vietnamese killed, or for the 100 million people predicted to die from starvation in the next few years. How does one separate personal good fortunes from the far more widespread misfortunes which plague most humans across the globe? I sense we live in the beginning of very tumultuous evolutionary times, when the shit is about to hit the fan, and another of the periodic evolutionary upheavals about to take place. The human species is out of control with our inability to control our own reproduction. Responsible reproduction isn't even part of political debates. How can one even talk about environmental protection when so much of the world suffers from human overpopulation? Recently the biggest world environmental organization stated that one out of every four mammals in existence now is on the verge of extinction. I feel sorry for every species about to become extinct. For me, there is a lot of sadness to see all around, and every tomorrow adds to the list. Evolution has always been a process of compensation. Any species which overpopulates itself becomes extinct or at least suffers dire consequences. 'As times go' is an oxymoron view----Time doesn't go, we Go'. We are not the terminal point in the evolutionary process. The human species may not even be a permanent fixture to our planet. We continue to know more and more about the past evolutionary pathway but we essentially have no predictive ability to foresee future evolutionary paths.
I don't think I have ever doubted the existence of God. Still, after all these years I have no clear concept of God. Just as we know, if some anonymous person sends us a gift, that the gift giver exists----we know that God exists. But we can know nothing about the anonymous gift giver or the nature of God. Unless God is some kind of sadistic and uncaring Being, He is not involved much in our daily lives. Young girls and old women don't get raped, or people starve to death, or people die slow painful deaths from horrible diseases or conditions if there is a GOOD God involved in human daily lives. That does not mean there is not a GOOD God who created the VERY GOOD evolutionary process, a process controlled by the laws of evolution. Good, like so much else, is a relative term. Maybe good can't exist in the absence of bad. A process that begins with single living cells and billions of years later we have the complexity of life existent today, is a GOOD process. If we can't see this GOOD then it is because we cannot see the forest for the sake of the trees, are too hung up on the myopic concentration on ourselves.
I used to pray. I don't anymore. What can I pray for regarding myself that supersedes the more pressing needs of so many others? And isn't it a bit presumptuous to think God will only intercede to do GOOD things if I ask (pray for) him to do it? I just can't feel comfortable reducing God to some kind of partisan goof ball who waits on his favorite flock to beg him for favors or to do something good for someone. I used to pray for just about everything and everybody---like I was running the show, directing God what to do when and how. Every Christmas Eve when the Pope, like clock work, prays for world peace, I really wish he and all others who pretend to have special connections with God, would just stifle themselves. Has there ever been a time in history when world peace magically came about after such demands couched as prayer? I think the two million Jews murdered by the German Nazis probably prayed a lot---an awful lot---and two million died. I think the 2 million Vietnamese killed by American troops probably prayed a lot too, but they died anyway---for what legitimate reason I don't know, although at the time I thought they deserved it. So much for my religious goodness. I will never understand how the Germans could kill 2 million Jews and I don't know how we Americans could kill 2 million Vietnamese. I don't know what the Jews ever did to deserve such a fate and I don't know what the Vietnamese ever did to deserve such a fate. Of course the Germans at the time thought they knew, and at the time myself and most Americans thought we knew why the Vietnamese had to die. So much for trusting our own feelings sometimes about others.
If God does not normally interfere with His own evolutionary laws, those natural laws which govern the whole process of evolution, does He ever interfere? If that question is knowable, it so far escapes me. I kind of assume, if God does, He doesn't do it based on human demands or begging. I think we all tend to assume that God's favorite species in this billion years process of evolution is the human species, and particularly those humans who inherited the same religion as ourselves. The Creationists, those holier than thou operatives with braces on their brains, believe God created them in His own image. They, and they alone, know what God wants, have this personal contact with God, and their ticket to heaven always seems to involve some sort of religious crusade against heathens. It is always best to stay under their radar. There is no fury so intense as religious fury. When God is on your side, God help the others. And all of us, naturally, know whose side God is on. Or do we? It seems every army or side always has a large contingent of clergy of some sort blessing all the killing on the killing fields, each side by the other. With time, I have learned to find all of this senseless partisan religious, ethnic, and cultural dementia beyond the pale. Sometimes I wonder if any of us are really sane? Daffy duckyness seems, at this point in human evolution, to be endemic. Well, not you and I of course. Although sometimes I do wonder about you.
All of us need faith based beliefs to sustain us. It is not too smart to believe in nothing. Ethics exists as part of human nature. Except for psychopaths, just about everyone knows basic right from wrong. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you is not exactly rocket science in the field of ethics. I can't say I am aware of any religion which is not based on that simple logical intelligible ethical concept. To what extent any of us manage to do this pretty much defines our ethical status. All else is bullshit. All else is defensive manipulation to justify not doing unto others what you would have them do unto you. Whenever someone is waving some kind of Bible around, run for cover. Of course I am not sure where you can run, we all know, given the right circumstances and encouragement, that neighbors can kill neighbors, friends can kill friends, and strangers can be killed by strangers in all sorts of contrived killing fields. Now that overpopulation and limited natural resources are upon us, killing fields across the world will be the evolutionary compensation. It is predicted that in the next few years 100 million people will starve to death. The current economic chaos is not likely unrelated to the larger picture of evolutionary compensations. Mother Nature, another euphemism for evolution, always bats last. I don't think I will pray since I don't believe the evolutionary process is built around me or anyone else---certainly not anyone else (smile). I would like to walk hand in hand with God, it sounds like a great idea. But more likely I just need to be satisfied to be a part of the evolutionary process for a short period of time, and to have been lucky enough on the evolutionary spinning wheel of fortune, to have have gotten some good cards. Each hand dealt at birth to everyone is different. Humans have the ability to play a bit with the cards dealt, many species don't to such a degree, and so we deal with the cards dealt, and that is about it---that's all she wrote.
Does God ever interfere with the natural laws of evolution? Like others I have faith based beliefs. Unlike the religious rightists I understand the difference between belief and fact. And I don't think my beliefs should be the law of the land. Nor do I believe I have any direct contact with God. The best I think I can do is feel content to be a part of the evolutionary process, to accept good personal fortune for what it is, good fortune---not a directed gift from God---and try to do unto others as I would have them do unto me. Of course the corollary is that I also struggle to accept bad fortune, use what ever cards dealt to me to offset the bad fortune, but also prepare for the inevitable---in the long run we are all dead. The latter will be easier of course if I can control my own dying process. We aren't there yet, but the battle to have that right inches ever closer.
One of my current faith based beliefs is that God may, on occasion, interfere with the laws of evolution. And when He does, it has nothing to do with prayers, or anyone earning His interference. God may well have created some sort of 'free market' evolutionary process, but I believe He may, as needed, make some market corrections. As a student of Lincoln it always seemed to me something greater than Lincoln aided his mental processes from the time of the Lincoln-Douglass debates onward. There is nothing prior to that in anything Lincoln wrote or did which would have predicted his depth of wisdom from that debate period forward. Maybe God used Lincoln to solve the slavery issue. One of my friends refers to me as Professor Doomsday. Fair enough. But from this vantage point I wonder, and mostly hope, that maybe Barack Obama might be the next tool used by God to make a 'market correction' in the evolutionary process. Both Obama and Lincoln seem to have a wisdom which belies their past. Both seem, on face value, to be the most unlikely to lead any great movement, based on their looks or environmental or economic past. Both seem to have an impeccable sense of logic and fairness, both seem to belong to no particular group or religion. Both are genetic mutts, societal misfits, and gifted with an innate kindness that deflects the unkind missiles thrust their way. Lincoln, of course, was not the 'original ape' and Obams is hardly a 'terrorist', religious 'kook' etc. Of course having said all this, I can't prove any of it, but the hope and faith that maybe it might be true, sustains my sanity during these best and worst of times.
So now is, for all us travelers in this 'little gleam of Time between two eternities', our evolutionary moment. We are all here, all in this together, all with front seats, with no personal control over human destiny. That, clearly, is a good thing or we would simply overpopulate and kill each other as a compensatory solution. Of course maybe that is the way it is to go down, a free market evolutionary fall. Individually I guess it doesn't make much difference----the evolutionary process is clearly not about individual members of any species. There is no real evidence that God likes humans any better than other species, much like I don't really like other people any more than I liked my pets. Other species count in the evolutionary process, they really do---all the plants, the insects, mammals, etc. The contribution of such diverse species to the evolutionary process is not measured by one vs the other. Contrary to religious fundamentalists, life doesn't begin at conception---life is a continuum----sperm and eggs are alive---there is no beginning---and in the same vein there is no end----life goes on, the same molecules that make up our own unique 'being' will stick around, continue to combine with other molecules, or alter their form this way or that way, but the basic building blocks of life seem eternal. Let us never forget---Time doesn't go; Time stays. WE GO.
While I still have the chance: Bye. (Smile)
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