Ok, so I'm reading "The Hemlock Cup - Socrates, Athens and the Search for a Good Life" by B Huges. If you're like me you are only VAGUELY aware of Socrates ... wasn't he like some guy from Greece, or something? But who of us know all that much of the style and contribution of one of the greatest philosophical minds of any time?
So, so far I'm enjoying the book. It's by a historian, and she tries to place us in ancient Athens and give us pause to think about minor things like...I dunno...Democracy, maybe?
Check back. I'll know more later
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Everything changes...or does it?
"The more things change the more they stay the same". I USED to subscribe to this thought. It's a superficial view of things, really; for EVERYTHING changes every moment of the day. We just choose not to pay attention at a level that can record it all.
Watch a river flow...water going by... looks the same, right? Now don't disagree with me here, it friggin' looks the same. But it's not. Look out in the forest...lotta trees, right? In fact, if you aren't paying attention all that much you might say 'lotta GREEN stuff'. Every drop of water flowing by, every tree you can see (and all those you can't see) is unique. And they're all changing. Water mixes with water and 'stuff'; trees have a bend this way or that, a branch here or there, a different genetic make up...all making them different from the next one.
We're all different, too. I mean, of COURSE we are. Still, look at a crowd of people...You're incapable of seeing it as other than a crowd, and a group of individuals standing very close together, at the same moment. Our minds can't handle that much information. Oh we can pick out individuals, but that's now what we're talkin' bout here.
So it naturally follows (ok maybe not naturally) that all this mass of nature and humanity is both unique and changing every moment. And it's JUST as hard to get it into our minds to recognize both the river, the trees, the crowd changing right before out eyes.
Ok, you're saying...So what? Good question. So what? The "so what" is we expect the things we want to stay the same to stay the same; the things we WANT to change to get on with it and change. And yet it's all changing, all the time, randomly and by design. We can't do a hell of a lot about it. Well, I guess we can..and we do. If we're cold we move toward the light. If we want to see well we move toward the light. If we want to be happy we move away from what makes us UN-happy. Wait...Don't we?
Oh, if only. Most have been known to allow themselves to fall DEEPER into a funk, further into the darkness. Come on...admit it...you, too. Why do we DO that? It's so...so unreasonable. Well, I think it's tied to this 'forever changing' thing; I'm still unraveling how it's related and I may NEVER completely understand it. I mean, why choose pain, cold, darkness, confusion, masses if we have a choice?
Crapola! Do we not have a choice? Is there NO free will, really? Are we changing so fast that we can't choose? Is this madness to try? Where am I going with this? I have NO idea. Sorry to make you read this far. (No I'm not..I meant to. Wait, did I?)
Watch a river flow...water going by... looks the same, right? Now don't disagree with me here, it friggin' looks the same. But it's not. Look out in the forest...lotta trees, right? In fact, if you aren't paying attention all that much you might say 'lotta GREEN stuff'. Every drop of water flowing by, every tree you can see (and all those you can't see) is unique. And they're all changing. Water mixes with water and 'stuff'; trees have a bend this way or that, a branch here or there, a different genetic make up...all making them different from the next one.
We're all different, too. I mean, of COURSE we are. Still, look at a crowd of people...You're incapable of seeing it as other than a crowd, and a group of individuals standing very close together, at the same moment. Our minds can't handle that much information. Oh we can pick out individuals, but that's now what we're talkin' bout here.
So it naturally follows (ok maybe not naturally) that all this mass of nature and humanity is both unique and changing every moment. And it's JUST as hard to get it into our minds to recognize both the river, the trees, the crowd changing right before out eyes.
Ok, you're saying...So what? Good question. So what? The "so what" is we expect the things we want to stay the same to stay the same; the things we WANT to change to get on with it and change. And yet it's all changing, all the time, randomly and by design. We can't do a hell of a lot about it. Well, I guess we can..and we do. If we're cold we move toward the light. If we want to see well we move toward the light. If we want to be happy we move away from what makes us UN-happy. Wait...Don't we?
Oh, if only. Most have been known to allow themselves to fall DEEPER into a funk, further into the darkness. Come on...admit it...you, too. Why do we DO that? It's so...so unreasonable. Well, I think it's tied to this 'forever changing' thing; I'm still unraveling how it's related and I may NEVER completely understand it. I mean, why choose pain, cold, darkness, confusion, masses if we have a choice?
Crapola! Do we not have a choice? Is there NO free will, really? Are we changing so fast that we can't choose? Is this madness to try? Where am I going with this? I have NO idea. Sorry to make you read this far. (No I'm not..I meant to. Wait, did I?)
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Bend in the River
Metolius River very near its Source - Fall 2005