Is God an Under-Achiever?

Have you ever wondered why prayer doesn't seem to work? Yet, what if it did? Does God not answer prayers on purpose? Or does He, but you don't like what His answer is for you?

Some have said that God is evil. Is He?

Or, is He just a flawed, like the rest of us? If we were indeed created in His image, well....

Of course, getting back to prayer now, if you pray for having your own personal Nation, or something possibly impossible like world peace, you're just fooling yourself; because you're simply not going to get it. Are you.

Now, I'm not really saying you'll get anything at all, no matter what you ask for.

I'm just speculating, what if?

Did you ever consider that perhaps prayer not only works, but what if it works every time? Maybe you just can't see what you're getting for your prayers.

Does God even pay any attention at all?

What if the answer is something as simple as how God passes through Time being different than how we do? Perhaps He is even passing through Time in an inverse orientation to us, His creations? What if as a joke, he created us, but in the opposite direction from how he was traveling in Time.

What if Time is God, and He is only a symptom. Holy books everywhere say we cannot understand God, so maybe we need to consider these "ridiculous" concepts.

What would this mean to us? What could it explain for us?

Sometimes it really helps when trying to understand the un-understandable, to break "out of the box" of one's normal thinking processes, and go into a more oblique angle-of-thought. To leave what we normally consider to be rational. Because sometimes, actually many times, doing this can give us insights that we would otherwise not have been able to achieve. It's just a kind of trick for those wanting to achieve transcendent thought on-the-quick.

Let's say you were having a rough time of it, financially. So in your desperation, you prayed for money. Now if God were passing through that particular moment and heard you (or decided to hear you), and He (also) decided to give you, say, a winning lotto number; well, how lucky is that?

OK, now consider that it had to happen before you prayed for it, not after. Remember? If God passes through time in a completely different and possibly unknowable direction from how we do (and what if its laterally?), that might well be expected to happen. Perhaps He is not unlike Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, and is simply, "unstuck in time". He is God after all. Why SHOULD he be stuck in time like we are?

Speaking of the Great Divine One, do you see God as a male or a female? Do you adhere to this small anthropomorphism or as something greater than and outside of that? Or does that really have no relevance at all?

If in the beginning, there was only God, He wouldn't have a need for sexuality. After all sexuality is really there just for reproduction, pro-creation (and therefore, also for bonding purposes). If He did split out parts of Himself to create us, He'd realize that we needed to reproduce, being mortal and needing replacements to continue on, or it would be a rather short term experiment, wouldn't it? Not to mention, He'd know we are weak and need another, where he possibly doesn't. Or does He? Besides, gender can be a symbol as well if you think about it.

So then, regarding gender, what does one call an omnipotent being? "Him". "Her"? "It"? Does it even matter, really?

"It", somehow seems rather disrespectful. But going with the bible in that "He" created Man in "His own image", perhaps I'll just go with that for now until further evidence rears its questionably aesthetic head. It just makes it less clumsy for prosaic and lecture purposes. Don't you think?

Now, perhaps in winning that aforementioned lotto money, you ended up like many lotto winners have in the past by making the same mistakes they made and ending up in debt after having won all that money. Got what you wanted? Sad, isn't it?

So now, there you were, praying for financial salvation and there God was, in his infinite wisdom and reverse forward motion, grants you the answer to your prayers. He gives you a great grandiose grouping of funds. But as that would have to happen before you needed it, you would forever wonder why God never answered your prayers when you were in such dire need. And that's my point, that regardless of this ludicrous scenario, things could be happening that you can't see.

I'm not trying to argue for the existence of God here, just pointing out how damn ignorant we can be in the overall universal size of things.

However, remember now (getting back to it), He did answer you when you had asked, just not in the order you might have expected (and isn't that just like God?). That concept is important. You might think (in hindsight), that winning that lotto money ate up all your good luck and therefore you ended up "eating it" in the end, for all that good grace bestowed upon you.

But that would make no sense at all, would it? Not to you, not at that time. Because in actuality you only ended up with what you reaped for yourself. We do after all, have free will. Most of us just don't make proper use of it, do we? Too often, we tend to do what we think we needed to do, or what others expected us to do, rather than what, deep inside, we really knew we should be doing.

God on the other hand, has no such compunction to follow a group or trend (much to our great dissatisfaction at times, too). For he has no cohorts, no peers (and no, the Angels don't count). Having been passing backward through Time at the moment that you prayed to Him, God would have been completely unacknowledged by you in any efforts He would have made on your behalf.

Because after all, we are such minor creatures, being mere Human Beings. I mean, because of our not being able to move about in Time and all; like God can? What with his traveling through time all cockeyed in relation to us, perhaps this might even be a good argument for Angels. After all, someone has to take care of the day to day matters, feed the fish, water the garden, empty the garbage and all that. And keep us from figuring God out. Yes?

God they say, works in mysterious ways.

This paradigm of interacting with us, would generally appear to be, simply put, insane. Yet He has complete control, doesn't He? He can openly and freely manipulate Reality, perhaps even on a daily or minute, moment by moment basis. Yet remember, only in reverse Time, or simply in some other order of Time to whatever (y)our desires and understandings are.

Comprehension, you see, only comes when you see everything, both in as well as out of order. Enlightenment after all, is a transcendent realization that requires one to see everything. Every, Thing.

While we as people can only be in the here and now, never existing in the before or the after of this moment right here (whoops, and there it goes again, gone as we're suddenly in the next moment, and the next, on into our finity). This single moment that we permanently exist within; God on the other hand, well, is GOD, in part because He can be here and now in every moment other than this mere, but most important moment: Now.

Perhaps He can't even really be in this moment with us, but always in all other moments. Perhaps that is why He is so difficult to contact, because He is always one step away from showing four bars on his celestial cell phone. Or perhaps he isn't on Verizon, or Cingular. Maybe he has the GodFone network from Celestial Enterprises or something, and so, no free minutes with us. Maybe we're not in his Network.

On the other hand, perhaps what makes him God is that He is in every single moment all through time. Only He is experiencing it in reverse (or some other form, or) order, that may not be linear as we tend to experience time. We need linear time as were not sophisticated enough to handle things out of order.

So what if He were "unstuck" in time.

But, why would God do that? Would it even be a matter of God doing it? Or is it just that, because of how he set things up in the beginning, that's how it worked out for him in the end.

Or at the beginning, for that matter.

Well, He is God after all, isn't He?

Isn't that what makes him so all Mighty Great and All Powerful? That He can be everywhere and everywhen, all at once, even?

So, perhaps when we finally and for the first time can "fold space" upon itself in order to travel vast intergalactic distances, we'll not only be able to travel to the ends of the universe in a moment, but also see God at the same time? Perhaps that will be at the end of time. If there is such a thing.

If as one theory goes, by warping space and time to travel around the universe, we could be in all existing points at once, then just choose the one we want to be in, and instantly be in that elsewhere; or "elsewhen". Well, isn't that what they say about God, too? That He exists in all places, at all times? But it appears, to all people as completely different, perhaps according to your cultural contexts.

Consider this: what if you could create a computer that could alter quarks, atoms, molecules; basically altering, Reality?

Think on this: a keyboard attached to supercomputer, with a Star Trek like "transporter" that can alter (or create) matter and therefore, scenarios. Much like the "Holodecks" on later episodes in the Star Trek "Universe". Consider that you could somehow attach a PC to the galaxy itself. Whatever works for you to help you visualize these things.

Then, what if you could type something into that keyboard and the computer would then generate whatever you wanted by manipulating space? Space after all is merely comprised of differing forms and densities of matter or energy and time after all and is merely another form of those. And Time doesn't exist until you create matter and energy anyway. Matter and energy may only be condensed pieces of space. These are the ever Holy building blocks of the Universe; the body and blood of Christ, if you will, using the standard earthbound cannibalistic religious references.

Now, what if someone then wrote a virus for that computer? One which sought out and destroyed everything that God had created in one massive chain reaction across the Universe(s)?

But of course, it could not touch God. Or does changing the Universe(s) change God?

Anyway, the virus would destroy all of God's great works; all He had done in those what, first seven days, was it? Well, with this paradigm, maybe he has a backup somewhere too?

No wait, it was SIX days as I remember it. Because He had to rest on the seventh. Because like everyone else, apparently God gets tired, too. Evidently. Now the bible didn't say God was breathing hard or breaking a sweat or falling asleep from exhaustion or anything, after all that creating. But perhaps, just maybe, He was bored with all that effort and needed some "rest"; some time off, a little while away from creating all this STUFF.

Or, simply He just needed some time to go and walk around to enjoy his creations.

Maybe. Maybe He's still gone, of on a "walkabout". And that's the real issue.

Actually, it was only after the third day that there even were days to begin with. So, how can he have created all this in six days when days didn't even exist for a few days in the beginning? How one can even say the heavens and the earth, lightness and darkness and such were created on a day before that day?

Speaking of that kind of ill-logic, let's skip forward a few years to a Church founded by a guy that just wanted everyone to be nice to one another and look at God as a Father figure and not a mean son of a bitch he had always seemed to be:

"The fundamental tenet of Spiritualism is that the path to God can be found not exclusively through the Church, but through direct communication with God. Pope Paul IV interpreted Michelangelo's Last Judgment, painted on the wall of the Sistine Chapel twenty years after completing the ceiling, as defaming the church by suggesting that Jesus and those around him communicated with God directly without need of Church." *

Well...skipping around a little some more, The Bible, Genesis, Chapter 1:

God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day. [then he did some other clever things and....]

There was evening and there was morning, a third day.

Then God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and so, well, it was so.

God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. But we know now that the lesser light at night is really the sun; but I guess God didn't realize that.

God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth,
and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good.

There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

Genesis, Chapter 2

This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the DAY that the LORD God made earth and heaven.

But you do wonder too, don't you? If God created everything in multiple days, how then in Chapter two could he have done it all in a single day?

Getting back to being all powerful and never tiring, I mean, if there were an Olympics for Gods, could another God do it all in five days? And perhaps not even NEED any resting on the seventh? Maybe, a black God, being a better athlete and all. Or, was God black to begin with, after all, considering the cradle of civilization and all, I mean, you don't really believe Jesus was blond haired and blue eyed do you?

Genesis, Chapter one again:

By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

All this shows here really, is simply not to use the bible as a reference.

Now consider this, wouldn't you think that if your computer, the aforementioned one, had destroyed the Universe and all God's Works, then God would simply have to start it all over again (let's skip the idea of a backup copy for now)?

Why you say?

Well, He, in His infinite wisdom, or so I'm told, did do it all in the first place. I mean, didn't He? So I assume He'd feel a need to do it all over again. Pan Dimensional Beings are quite like that, you see. Or so I've been told anyway.

And speaking of which, have you ever had to start something all over again from scratch? I mean like a project, maybe building a table or roofing a house or something. However, nothing like remarrying though, because everyone knows that's one of those things we all will do, all over, again and again, incorrectly. Even though we now know all the wrong things not to do again. Still, we can't seem to stop ourselves. Pity, that.

But usually, don't you take the lessons learned from the first effort and put them into the retuning of the second? As well, second time around, don't you get done in a sooner amount of time rather than later? Because, you've been over that ground once before already.

Or perhaps in this, God would be an Over-Achiever? And do it in six days again or more, but this time do it far, far better. Perhaps this time, dolphins would rule the world. Or that notorious Australian platypus would have more cohesion and focus in its design this time around. You know? You really have to wonder if that wasn't one of His last creations. After all, God might have been just a bit "burned out" or bored by that time (He did rest on the seventh day, remember? So what do you think was his last creation and how well formed was it?).

As for those dolphins, they did after all turn out with bigger brains than we, somehow. And if we're God's chosen, then how do you explain THAT? Well, sometimes that kind of thing just happens when you're creating huge systems such as the Universe. Or yes, even a smaller, mere planet sized ecosystem. Things like that, just happen, I suppose.

Artists experience this kind of thing all the time.

As a writer I've seen fiction story characters grow far beyond what I was originally intending to create and saw them growing far beyond what I was originally seeing in them. Sometimes in the end, you find that some minor character is actually the better character overall. Then you have to write an entire other novel about that one individual! And they can be quite demanding characters at times like those. They were after all, important enough to have a novel written about them and they can get quite haughty at times.

So, couldn't God simply decide that second time around, we're just not what we were cracked up to be and therefore He might just redo things more perfectly next time around? Perhaps not basing everything so much on chaos theory this time; or not so much with the number 23 in everything; or this time around, not use the Mandelbrot as a template in nature, but perhaps create another, possibly sillier, or maybe even more stringent, theorem?

Perhaps, as we've seen example after example of, God is actually an Under-Achiever (consider that platypus thing, or worse, the Chihuahua, a prime example of an Under-Achiever's creation). Not to mention, if YOU were doing the creating, would you really choose yourself as a template to follow when creating a race of beings, as God allegedly did? Or would you want to improve upon it? Doesn't the concept of "evil" seem just a little bit to you like an Under-Achiever's way of creating a system; then just saying:

"Oh, evil. Yeah, well, its necessary because, um, oh, well so people can see the difference between what is good and not. You know, you can't have dark without light! And all that, rot." (Sometimes I think God is British)

OK. Hmmm, sure. Whatever.

Then again, if God really is just the "C" student type, it might have explained a lot of things over the years. Like our once, Vice-President Quayle. Or President Jr Bush. As a comic once said, "Do you really want the guy who used to hold the service end of the hose on a keg at the frat party, to one day have his finger on the nuclear button?"

The bible says that God created us in his own image. Really!? Well, I know I wouldn't have were I Him. I'd have found all the faults in the design and try to create something far better. But then again, He IS God isn't He, and by definition, that means perfection. Or does it really? If by definition, we are indeed perfection, as God sees things, well, it really calls into question a lot of other things, doesn't it?

For one thing, does God not know what will happen in the future, when comes the end? Does He even want to know where this is all going to end up? Wouldn't that be pretty boring? Perhaps, defeat the purpose of all this? I mean if ALL is already written, what's the purpose? Going through all eternity already knowing the ending? What does that say about someone? And where IS that book where all is written anyway? It must be a huge tome of work! What IS the use in that any how? So, you have to ask yourself, what the Hell IS he doing?

So, what? You say? (O' apathetic one)

Who cares? You say? (O' dispassionate one)

First of all, try not to be such a pessimist. (O' pessimistic one)

Now, you know it really is quite possible that God has had no hand in dealing with Humankind since our creation. If ever at all. And if that's true, then what if all these many and varied and in some cases, purely silly religions are just so much stuff and nonsense? Pap and smear?

Maybe God's sitting around his God-study, waiting to be God-smacked when someone finally gets the right idea! Yet here we all are still, after thousands of years, flailing around miserably lost at all that!

Would it indeed finally take a Sci Fi writer to create a religion reasonably close to what God was waiting for? And what about that "party boy" and slightly psychotic, bigamist Joseph Smith? Did he really believe that Salt Lake City was the chosen land? REALLY?! Or was he just looking for an easy way to get all his magic underwear cleaned? And if he created Adam and Eve, naked, eating the forbidden fruit notwithstanding, what is the burka all about?

IF God allows a religion to be created in His name, don't you think He'd know where it would end up and not allow certain things to happen? I mean, its His reputation on the line there. Like what about the crusades? That was no way to win the "heathens" over to the Son of God's religion, so let's slaughter them all. Or like the Christian missionaries having caused the destruction of so much more than one autonomous people and their entire culture?

And what about these Islamic terrorists who think they are on God's side and get so many virgins when they martyr themselves by killing innocent groups of God's peoples? Bombs are indiscriminate and there are quite frequently some of what the bomber-martyr considers to be His own people getting dissipated.

I'd so much rather have one good hooker attend to me in heaven than 72 no doubt very annoying, virgins. I mean, sexually speaking, have you ever had to deal with ONE virgin? Besides, how many of those virgins, by the way, are over 65 and toothless?

Even if God didn't want to see the future Himself, in some cases, even we can use our brain to work it out, hardly without even thinking, what the end result would be of say, jumping off a 10 story building. That really doesn't take any supernatural abilities whatsoever. Does it? With a brain the size of God's, being someone that knows everything all the time (that's what omnipresence means after all), one would think it would take Him little effort to work things out for Himself.

So, in considering all this one could see how next time around, God might indeed give us more substance and less bravado. And try to improve on "perfection".

Because after all, bravado without substance is what? A Texan? Just a political party, you say?

Since you brought up political parties, what IS the deal with so many President's lately coming from the South? Of the last five President's, four were from the South? Can't the North produce a decent Presidential candidate anymore? Did JFK burn that all out during the Love decade?

Anyway.

Maybe we are indeed the pinnacle of creation in the Universe. Sad though if that's the case.

Maybe.

But I just hope, that should the "Creator of all" decide (or need) to one day recreate everything He had done before, I do simply hope that He will put more thought and corrective effort into it all. And lean toward being an Over-Achiever.

The next time around.

But then, what do I know.

Next time around, the platypus could be in charge.


* quote by Dr. Douglas Fields, Chief of the Nervous System Development and Plasticity Section, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
From his article, posted: May 26, 2010 09:40 AM at :
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-douglas-fields/michelangelos-secret-mess_b_586531.html?ref=fb&src=sp

So why CAN'T we all have what we want on Television?

Sometimes I think we just need someone else running things.
OK, most of the time I think that.

Its too bad that the bottom line isn't quality and to just do what is right, instead of just what makes the most money.

As we all know, pleasing the masses does not assure quality, rather it assures the lowest common denominator; usually anyway. Its the old theorem all over again: "intelligence is inversely proportional to the size of the group."

So then I think, wouldn't it be nice, if they would institute levels of "weight" in their analysis? Bare with me here. Just as in pugilism (that's boxing for you normal people), where there are weight classes, so too there could be "weight" classes in the levels of intellectual (or quality) media and entertainment. Even though there are not as many individuals seeking higher degrees (or levels) of quality (or intellectual stimulation), they too could then see shows that would please and stimulate them. And they could be made to show that they are making money, WITHIN their "weight" classification.

Its quite obvious however, that this could never work. If only simply for the reason that the average standard of intelligence would eventually (and perhaps painfully) begin to rise across the viewer base. IF that were to happen, it would require even better levels of quality in each stratum of the viewing market.

Either, this would be the death of TV as we know it, or....

This would require the writers and producers (and sponsors) to need to increasingly produce better and better material for broad(cable)cast. And we all know its better to keep your audience in a state diminishing intellectual pursuits, requiring lower levels of intellectual stimulation.

Otherwise, you could eventually see the writers as not producing a level of quality beyond what the average viewer could produce. Worse still, those viewers would eventually realize this and perhaps turn to reading books, or going outside and playing tennis, or maybe doing something constructive or productive.

Or...maybe not.

Tomorrow's Blog: Is God an Under-Achiever?

BP Oil Spill - The Nuclear Option

I read this today, from Susan Deily-Swearingen (Educator, Writer and Mother) in the Huffington Post, "One solution that is getting increased attention on the web and in the European press is the terrifying sounding nuclear option which, essentially, would detonate a nuclear bomb underground near the oil well shaft."

This is all over the media now. I wonder what size they would be talking here? The size of bomb that took out Hiroshima? The Bikini Island? What about instead of a 4 kiloton bomb, a 4 kilogram bomb? Or just big enough to melt the damn thing closed?

The problem with what they are doing now is if they go too fast, we can see sixteen separate leaks rather than one. Does anyone really think they are going to be able to stop this? If they fail now, they will have to wait till August to dump cement into it and that may fail.

Perhaps as in the Chernobal accident we need the military to handle it. God knows how they will resolve it, though; but they are good at ending conflicts and this oil in the ocean is one of the largest conflict we've ever seen. Its like we decided to fly a plane for the first time with everyone on board, but never considered how to land it. I would argue to call for a stop to all deep sea oil drilling until they have a handle on how to deal with this possibility.

Think they'd come up with a quick answer then?

Hey, its just a thought.

Considering OneSelf, Holistically

Let's for a moment, consider things that are easily left by the wayside. Have you ever on a daily basis, considered your finances? Or, how about your bills? Your retirement savings? Your daily living expenses?

Of course you have. We have all had to. One has to take care of these expenses or one is not long to live this relatively easy life we have during these very modern times, even in this great country of ours called, "America".

But how much do you attend to so called, "luxury" expenses? Such things as entertainment, refreshments including both food and drink beyond mere subsistence? What about your emotional or spiritual concerns? We tend to lend ourselves to the most immediate elements in our lives and forgo the ones that are just as important, seldom giving much thought to those "luxuries" because they are not of so much immediate concern to us. We have heard much through life about the "spiritual" or religious side of things from just about everyone. But we do not hear so much about the other side of that equation. And there is another side of it.

For some people, those foregone conclusions could be one's family; for others it could be any consideration of themselves and their own personal comforts. Or it could even be just giving consideration to the family dog. You have to ask yourself form time to time, what is it I am forgetting in my life?

For yet another kind of person, it could be only considerations for their own creature comforts that guide their every living moment; when really they should be more concerned about their work or profession, their obligations, their family, or simply maintaining the dwelling they live in.

There is something about life in these times, that puts us in the mindset that everything is going too fast around us, taking up too much of our time and so makes for a good excuse for avoiding those things we find most difficult (or boring) to deal with. There are indeed a great many demands put upon us in our daily lives.

But if you go back in time and read what our predecessors have had to say about the life they were living, it was really much the same for them, too. Times are always faster paced than when we were younger. It's the nature of the beast of making your way through life from beginning to the end. Not to mention we simply tend to slow down through life.

And hey, that's OK!

I have read deciphered hieroglyphics from ancient Rome and found that it was just the same for them. For instance, they had the same complaints parents have always had for their children: "they just don't listen", "they are too self-absorbed", "they have no manners", and "they are only concerned about the here and now".

And so it goes...on and on.

I think the key here is as always, in the balance. One has to consciously weigh out the various elements of one's life. Remember to take the time for yourself, just as you do for every one and every thing else that you feel responsible for. Remember that you too are important. Also, take care for your future self. Do today, what will do well for you tomorrow; just as in the past where you have done then, for your self now.

It really never ends, until it ends.

On the other hand, if you are too absorbed with only your fun times now, reflect on what got you to where you are now. Are you ignoring important things in your life that will come back to haunt you later (or sooner)? But if you do now have the leisure time and the influence (power, money, resources) to be able to do anything you like, also do not forget the other side of the coin, fading off into the past. If nothing else, it makes you appreciate the good times you are now having even more.

Life is good. But Life is also a piece of art, much like a painting. You have to ask yourself, "Is my life framed like a Jackson Pollock painting, with parts of life in the frame (and yes that frame is important too) flung hither and yon with apparent (though possibly not) total abandon?"

"Or am I more like a Rembrandt painting, with a perfection of palette and brush stroke, with great attention to detail, and concern for every sigh and breath involved?"

Well, it's up to you. Life can be good; life IS good.

But a good Life doesn't just happen by accident.

Management vs worker bee

I just heard a report on NPR titled: Oil Rig Mechanic: Managers Argued Before Blast.

The chief mechanic Douglas Brown on the oil rig had something to say about the day of the platform explosion and sinking, there was an argument at the morning rig managers meeting between a BP manager and oil rig management company they leased from, Transocean. BP was a month and a half behind schedule in moving the rig to another well and it was costing them more than a half million dollars a day in leasing fees.

They were arguing that perhaps how they were going to do something would release excess gas and could cause an explosion. BP was rushing to move on to another well. So, hey, its just an oil rig, lets cut corners. It had something to due with removing drilling mud from the drill pipe prior to shutting down the well and the impact that might have on allowing gas to seep out. In the end, the Transocean employees caved to the BP official's desired changes.

The mechanic told investigators that later that night he was down below in the engine room and heard the gas alarms sound off and the engines begin to accelerate. Then came the first of two large explosions and the rest is history.

Excuse me?

It would seem that once again, we have the lesser intelligence (due to monetary based regulatory corporate oversight) overbearing onto the direct greater intelligence. Does that negate the responsibility on the oil platform people? No. But if you've ever had management pressure you to go against what you knew to be best practice, you know what its like. After a while you can even cave when you don't want to. You get a feeling like, not again and oh fine, whatever, damn fools!

But in this case, it costs. Money. Environment. Lives.

Thanks BP. Keep up the good work. Save a buck where ever you can. Don't look long term. Nope, no sense considering any PR, fiscal, or corporate (corpse?) effectiveness.

Media Thinploitation vs Social Obesity Promotion

Should people be paranoid about their weight?

Should people accept who they are and be happy with their condition?

No doubt, people should feel good about themselves. But then, people shouldn't feel good about themselves at times, either.

If I fail my final exam to graduate, SHOULD I feel good about myself? If my marriage fails because I had an affair, SHOULD I feel good about myself? If I weighed 90 pounds all my life, and I start eating and not exercising and one day I wake up and realize, "Hey, I'm 230 pounds"; SHOULD I feel good about myself?

Should I just say, "Well I'm a good person and I'm fat, so I'm OK!" If I have always been 250 pounds and I'm short, SHOULD I feel good about myself? Just accept the condition? IS that healthy? Physically, of course not. Mentally? Emotionally? Even if it could be considered healthy, and only if it makes you want to commit suicide could it be considered healthy, it is still somewhat delusional. When you accept your shortcomings, don't you set an example for others?

Doesn't being overweight cost everyone something? Flying on an airline is a prime exemplification of this. If you are not to pay for an extra seat, then everyone would need to chip in on your bulk. If you are healthy, in shape, and have perhaps too much muscle, well, OK, I suppose I can let that one go. But hey, you too are costing us (probably) Mr. Musclebound. Do YOU really need all that extra muscle? Or is it just there to stroke a questionably healthy ego? Getting back to the point, if you are just lugging around useless amounts of fat, well, I'm not so willing to chip in on your hobby. You are costing us, in food, fuel, healthcare.

Or should I think about what happened to my self discipline. My motivation. My self respect? And do something about it? Is aesthetics something to consider?

Is it good to just accept me for "who am am" now? Or, should I buckle under and get to work? Get busy, change my life, if that's what is making me fat. Or stupid. Emotions, as my son likes to say, can make one stupid. If I have test anxiety, I can fail a test. Stupid, because I knew the answers, I just allowed my emotions to mask them from me so I don't have to deal with the possibility of failure. Emotions, get in the way of rationality.

Is it good for people to be paranoid about their weight? I would argue, that a little of anything is OK, or maybe even healthy; but too much, is just destructive. So being a little paranoid about your weight is productive. But being too paranoid, just as in being too accepting, is counterproductive.

There is definitely a bias in media and advertising about being thin, perfectly muscled and beautiful. But all it should be is just a goal to shoot for. Something to attain, a direction, nothing more. Don't expect to be that, who has the time for that? These are models, people paid to be perfect, so of course they have the time to do all that.

After all, it is fun to watch, and frankly its fun to be, or to be around. But just because you aren't like that, doesn't mean you should go the opposite direction either. "If I can't be beautiful, I'll just shoot for being lazy, unattractive and overindulging?" Thereby shooting for a lack of effort and just doing whatever feels good?

No. I don't think so. If for no other reason than to put a little effort in a positive way into being better, simply makes you feel good. We need to choose our self-indulgences. So choose one that makes you healthier.

As a culture, we really need to stop being such babies. Cease the self pity parties in the head and start with the boundary settings and the "effort parties" on body and mind. Work, or if that scares you, play, but play hard, and play healthy. And eat food. Real food. Right combinations, right proportions.

Got it? Do it! Be IT! But have fun with it.

Even if you can't ever be that perfect person, you can certainly try and you can certainly BE, more than you can be. And without, joining the Army. Its worth the effort and after all, you DO deserve it. Everyone deserves being healthy, and attractive. Because being healthy IS attractive.

Don't get me wrong. I don't mean, be perfect: perfectly toned, perfectly beautiful.

But, there's no reason we can't try to beautify the world by being healthy and happy. It actually takes effort to be fat and ugly. Its just that its easy to not notice it because we are punching our pleasure centers to do so. So put some effort into not going in that direction. I'd rather be around a bunch of healthy, happy and not really beautiful, not fully well toned people, than a bunch of perfectly toned, gorgeous but unhealthy, unhappy people. Both types of people should just try to come a bit more to the center. If its your job, well, then you chose that profession and you should do your best at it; still, don't become psychotic over it.

Don't stress about it, just think about it. ACTUALLY, think about it. Put some effort into it and try. The biggest issue with not looking good is related to weak motivation, or a lack of motivation; basically, a its a lack of self discipline. Something I see running rampant now a days. Much of that comes from two things. Being unhappy with your life and not being busy enough; that is at least, not in the right ways. Yes, there is the push button mentality, but I think there is more to it than just that.

The problem with being unhappy is that most people aren't willing to make the changes they need to redirect the course of their life. They feel trapped, they don't want to change, they fear change, they have a million reasons why they can't change. Because it seems like to change for the better is just too hard, that we aren't good enough to be able to achieve it. So we might as well not try.

Regarding not having enough to do, many of us either have too much to do in order to survive our lives, or we THINK we have too much to do. The first is insidious, the second is simply delusional. Neither sadly, is unusual.

Either of those issues requires rethinking our position in life. Step back. Examine it with a critical eye. Ask people. Get opinions, and don't ignore them if their responses aren't fun to hear. Then, consider what you can do to invoke some change, the needed change. And consider that Change is good. Sometimes getting rid of that "blob" in your life, whatever that may be, is a good thing. You can almost feel the relief, just thinking about it. That fresh Breath of Life appears to you, appeals to you, in just your considering the possibility of that blob no longer being there weighing you down.

That blob can be a spouse, a job, a lifestyle, what we do to relieve our misery in life, a relative, a friend, or even a child. Some of those, are not so hard to cut from your miserable life. Some are, like children. But, you brought them into this world, you need to deal with them. And hopefully you feel you want them. Sometimes, in actually dealing with them, in making their situation a prime priority, you find relief right there. Its a motivation, an orientation, a purpose. Is that what you are lacking? Purpose? Think.

Whatever in the world you decide it is, do something. If you are going to do something any way, as doing nothing IS doing something after all; then pick a path of positive acceptance. Not least resistance, and not one of simply accepting what is. When what is simply is not good, nor healthy, not pleasant, and not really, desired.

IF, you have your lot in life and you can never change it, then indeed, be happy anyway. Only then accept it. Make the best of it. But you know what? Of all the people in the world, those who fall under that umbrella, are maybe 1% of 1% of 1%. And guess what, you probably do not fall into that category.

So, stop being so accepting of the negative and start doing what needs to be done in the way of the positive. If you do need to do something, and you probably do, as typically we all do, the first step is to stop thinking about it, and start doing it.

Then you can start feeling sorry for those others who aren't doing any thing about it and know that people aren't feeling that way about you any longer.

And start feeling good for someone who did do something about it.

You.

[It was pointed out to me the word "stupid" can be misunderstood as it is used in context here. Look, if you're too stupid to understand the intent, I'm really not overly concerned. I'm not saying that fat people are stupid. I'm saying that everyone is highly intelligent about something; sometimes its just hard to find what that might be. I do personally suspect however that if one chooses to be fat, that is stupid. Or, lazy. Its really one in the same. Its quite normal not to choose be "less than", unless there is something wrong. Choosing otherwise, is abnormal. Speaking of which, try tightening those abs; it all comes easier after that.]

BP's Gulf of Mexico Environmental Donation - The BP Oil Spill Fiasco

I've tried to avoid this one. I hate speaking on something I don't know much about. No, truly. Its the Truth!

I did hear something this week, though. BP said that they will pay, "all "legitimate" claims". First, what in the Hell is a "legitimate" claim? Sounds reasonable on the surface, but that is what thier spin doctors are paid to do, generage rational sounding statements so you don't think/look beyond the surface meaning. Even if they are being above board, even if they pay more than they need to, there will still be those "gray area" types of claims. There always are.

So what about after that? The US government has said that people won't be held in the lurch after that. I took that to mean that once BP stops paying, or for the people they claim to not be "legitimate", the government will step in and take care of it.

All I wanted to do here was to agree with that.

After all, the US government thought all this was OK. They even thought we should do more off shore drilling. Note Govenator Arnold, also note his back peddling. Therefore, were there to be an accident (oh no, wait, there was!), then the US Gov payout department, should indeed be backup for payments for BP. But once the US Gov starts considering THAT idea, they are smart, I think, they will start to realize that means they could be paying BP's ethic financial responsibilities. So how do they feel about that. Seems unreal doesn't it, its happening all over again. Katrina, without the act of God.

Still, all seems real to me.