Padding.
Is padding good? We pad many things in our lives. Its done at every level of society. But mostly, I see padding as something that is done to us. We have corporations doing it to us, to our detriment. And we also do it to ourselves, usually to our detriment.
What is padding? Its filler, its something that isn't the main ingredient. One definition makes it as an artifact consisting of "soft" or resilient material used to fill, or give "shape" or used to protect or add "comfort".
Let's drop the part about comfort, protection, or shaping. For our purposes here, I'm really only concerned with the other elements.
Television is a prime example of an industry using padding. Look at the commercial breaks in a TV show. The segments frequently now end with a preview of what is coming up. The next segment opens with a recap of what just happened. Are we really that God awful stupid that we have to know what's coming up or we'll forget we're watching a show or switch off it? If its that bad, we should switch it off. Are we too stupid to remember what we just saw before the commercial break? Really?
Click. I fast forward through a lot of TV shows, not just the adverts but the fillers too. By doing that, I save myself hours of viewing time every week. Thank God for Tivo. I find that TV shows now are typically 40-42 minutes long, with the commercials taking up far too much time and many don't even notice the padding, wasting even more. On the up side, I'm impressed with what they can do with a half hour TV show now a days, making it look like an hour show (and calling it such). But the quality suffers nonetheless.
Padding.
Like, fat. Fat is nothing more than padding. Only that's one where we do it to ourselves. We don't need it. Its not pleasant. Its just extra weight to carry around. It clogs our arteries, or its associated with elements that clog them. It costs the U.S. billions of dollars a year in wasted resources: extra material for fat sized clothing, extra gas and jet fuel for lugging the extra weight around, mass amounts of extra food to feed those heavy jowls, not to mention, medical costs, wear and tear on floors, shoes, and it hurts the eyes. And lowers the quality of your own life.
Padding.
Like, Government contracts. Contractors have been padding bills for their Government contracts since the beginning of time. When it gets excessive, the Government, law enforcement, step in and take them down. But typically, its never noticed. Because its done in such a way that it simply can't be noticeable. Its a personal responsibility. A corporate responsibility. But "responsibility" is a dirty word now a days. Make a buck, any way you can; so what if you are unethical, immoral, damage, ruin, or make dirty, Air, Water, Earth? The Environment is there for our abuse and ability to enrichen us in any clever way we can devise. And it decreases the quality of everything Government related for every citizen.
Padding.
Like, at work. Time. We get coffee, but take too long. Stay in the bathroom, too long. Spend more time on a project extending its finish, longer than necessary. In doing these things, we cost the company money, we keep bonuses smaller, we restrict more people being hired, leading to layoffs that are bigger even if only by one person, or smaller paychecks even if slightly so, and less modern equipment. It decreases the quality of work produced.
That's padding for you.
Americans are a padding elite, padding experts, and padding aesthetes.
It can hurt, cost us, ruin, destroy, kill even. So consider, the next time you have an opportunity to skim off the top, to steal a few minutes you really don't need to (and hey, taking some "Mental Health days" off, or a few minutes to maintain your sanity, IS a good thing, but I'm talking about pure waste here); just think about it, and give some back, pay it forward, increase all of our lifestyle quality.
Try giving back. Try just not taking so much.
Be a Hero.
Tomorrow: Padding - The Upside
Monday, June 28, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Work of Art? - from the Bravo Channel
I love, Top Chef. And other "Reality shows": Hell's Kitchen (or Kitchen Nightmares, F-Word, etc.), Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List (deal with it, Kathy's hilarious and no, for the record, I'm not gay, never have been, never will be), Top Chef (as I said), Ghost Hunters, Last Comic Standing, or...Saturday Night Live.
I might add, I do know how to use the fast forward button on some of these shows. But no, not on Ramsey's, Bourdain's, Griffin's, Padme's or Kris William's shows.
This show seems to be produced by the same producer. Or channel. Oh, wait, it is.
From the Bravo web site: "Bravo’s latest stroke on the reality canvas brings Golden Globe and Emmy Award winner Sarah Jessica Parker and her production company, Pretty Matches, together with the Emmy-nominated Magical Elves (Top Chef, Project Runway) and Eli Holzman, to produce Work of Art: The Next Great Artist, an hour long creative competition series among contemporary artists."
So, once I recognized the format of Top Chef in "WoA", I liked it immediately. They have also tweaked it just right, adding a Mentor, for instance, replacing Thomas Patrick "Tom" Colicchio, in the process moments.
I do wish I had seen the show from the beginning tonight. But I only heard about this from Susanna, today (thanks Susanna). So I set Tivo to record it tonight. But it was already playing when I started to record it. I'll catch it again in rerun (like an hour after its over, after Top Chef).
I mentioned the show to my eighteen year old artist/photographer, college student daughter but she had no interest in yet another reality show. Which I was sad about. The reality show thing, I can relate to. But as with my son, and other young artistic types, there is little desire to immerse oneself as fully as possible into the chosen area of interest.
But I was happy to see she came down toward the end of it and showed at least some interest.
One of the things this show exemplifies is how "artists" can be well, odd. Or, petty, elitist, pretentious. One artist, turned out a professional piece in this episode's challenge. There was a close second in a very standard but professionally commercial design.
Having only seen one episode now (and I'll watch others), and it having been about designing and producing a cover for a Penguin paperback book, it covered aspects of art, professionalism (producing when you are under direction and pressure), and commercialism. Something that many "artists" turn their nose up to; but as the judges pointed out, it was good enough for, "Picasso, Miro, it was an honorable thing to do, to collaborate to make a beautiful book cover".
When I was in college, with high mindedness in the forefront, as an "artist", I felt that I wouldn't compromise my "art" (in my case, wordsmithing). My fellow thespians felt the same. But, one of the greatest things my Theatre Professor ever told us, was:
"Do not sacrifice your making a living over that of your conception of what your "art" should be. There is NOTHING wrong with eating, paying your bills, making a living, while you do your art. Make a name for yourself. Then you can do your art. Because once you are respected in your profession, then you can take the time, and afford, to make what you consider to be your art." He was not saying, sell out. He was just saying, its okay to get paid, to earn a living, you don't really have to starve, albeit a noble pursuit, to be or become, an artist.
Artists tend by nature, to be a protected sort. That, is okay. For some at least, we need that separateness. But its dysfunctional to not be able to adapt. Intelligence, is the ability to adapt to one's environment and excel. The better you can adapt, the more quickly you can adapt, the higher your intelligence therefore, IS.
To act the "pampered elite" is just immature. If, you are God's Gift to the world in an artistic sense (and, really?), then I don't have a problem with it. But then you had damn well better be. God's Gift. Some people are just asinine in their pomposity. They are arrogant, but you know what? I've always felt that if someone were that good, and arrogant, then they had a right to be. I think some people do. I don't think they should act that way, but if they do and they are, as I said, that good, then fine. I'll deal with it and feel humbled in their presence.
I don't feel bad around people like that. In point of fact, I can learn something from them. I would prefer they were all humble and pleasant, but whatever. On the other hand, its also annoying when you are that good at something, and people act like you are acting all pompous when really, you're not. Its their self esteem issue. But that's another story (they were an artist....).
BUT, people who are all arrogant and asinine, and NOT that GOOD, well, they are just asinine and I really can't learn anything from them. Some people just find this is a way to make people THINK they are that GOOD.
But don't be fooled. They're not.
In the end (this is about WoA, remember?), I will watch Work of Art again. I found it fascinating. And, the annoying, older, wacky (insane?), "fish out of water", pretentious, self-proclaimed (and I guess she really is a), "fine art" artist, is no longer there. I won't miss her. Nor will a few of the artists.
Oh, sorry.
SPOILER ALERT! heheh....
Tomorrow: Padding - The Downside
I might add, I do know how to use the fast forward button on some of these shows. But no, not on Ramsey's, Bourdain's, Griffin's, Padme's or Kris William's shows.
This show seems to be produced by the same producer. Or channel. Oh, wait, it is.
From the Bravo web site: "Bravo’s latest stroke on the reality canvas brings Golden Globe and Emmy Award winner Sarah Jessica Parker and her production company, Pretty Matches, together with the Emmy-nominated Magical Elves (Top Chef, Project Runway) and Eli Holzman, to produce Work of Art: The Next Great Artist, an hour long creative competition series among contemporary artists."
So, once I recognized the format of Top Chef in "WoA", I liked it immediately. They have also tweaked it just right, adding a Mentor, for instance, replacing Thomas Patrick "Tom" Colicchio, in the process moments.
I do wish I had seen the show from the beginning tonight. But I only heard about this from Susanna, today (thanks Susanna). So I set Tivo to record it tonight. But it was already playing when I started to record it. I'll catch it again in rerun (like an hour after its over, after Top Chef).
I mentioned the show to my eighteen year old artist/photographer, college student daughter but she had no interest in yet another reality show. Which I was sad about. The reality show thing, I can relate to. But as with my son, and other young artistic types, there is little desire to immerse oneself as fully as possible into the chosen area of interest.
But I was happy to see she came down toward the end of it and showed at least some interest.
One of the things this show exemplifies is how "artists" can be well, odd. Or, petty, elitist, pretentious. One artist, turned out a professional piece in this episode's challenge. There was a close second in a very standard but professionally commercial design.
Having only seen one episode now (and I'll watch others), and it having been about designing and producing a cover for a Penguin paperback book, it covered aspects of art, professionalism (producing when you are under direction and pressure), and commercialism. Something that many "artists" turn their nose up to; but as the judges pointed out, it was good enough for, "Picasso, Miro, it was an honorable thing to do, to collaborate to make a beautiful book cover".
When I was in college, with high mindedness in the forefront, as an "artist", I felt that I wouldn't compromise my "art" (in my case, wordsmithing). My fellow thespians felt the same. But, one of the greatest things my Theatre Professor ever told us, was:
"Do not sacrifice your making a living over that of your conception of what your "art" should be. There is NOTHING wrong with eating, paying your bills, making a living, while you do your art. Make a name for yourself. Then you can do your art. Because once you are respected in your profession, then you can take the time, and afford, to make what you consider to be your art." He was not saying, sell out. He was just saying, its okay to get paid, to earn a living, you don't really have to starve, albeit a noble pursuit, to be or become, an artist.
Artists tend by nature, to be a protected sort. That, is okay. For some at least, we need that separateness. But its dysfunctional to not be able to adapt. Intelligence, is the ability to adapt to one's environment and excel. The better you can adapt, the more quickly you can adapt, the higher your intelligence therefore, IS.
To act the "pampered elite" is just immature. If, you are God's Gift to the world in an artistic sense (and, really?), then I don't have a problem with it. But then you had damn well better be. God's Gift. Some people are just asinine in their pomposity. They are arrogant, but you know what? I've always felt that if someone were that good, and arrogant, then they had a right to be. I think some people do. I don't think they should act that way, but if they do and they are, as I said, that good, then fine. I'll deal with it and feel humbled in their presence.
I don't feel bad around people like that. In point of fact, I can learn something from them. I would prefer they were all humble and pleasant, but whatever. On the other hand, its also annoying when you are that good at something, and people act like you are acting all pompous when really, you're not. Its their self esteem issue. But that's another story (they were an artist....).
BUT, people who are all arrogant and asinine, and NOT that GOOD, well, they are just asinine and I really can't learn anything from them. Some people just find this is a way to make people THINK they are that GOOD.
But don't be fooled. They're not.
In the end (this is about WoA, remember?), I will watch Work of Art again. I found it fascinating. And, the annoying, older, wacky (insane?), "fish out of water", pretentious, self-proclaimed (and I guess she really is a), "fine art" artist, is no longer there. I won't miss her. Nor will a few of the artists.
Oh, sorry.
SPOILER ALERT! heheh....
Tomorrow: Padding - The Downside
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Gasland - FRACing our nation - Special Edition
I'm watching Josh Fox's documentary, Gasland. He claims that the FRAC process where high pressure water and stabilizing chemicals are shot deep into the ground beneath shale deposits to free up natural gas, has contaminated some of our rural areas throughout the nation. Some people can not even shower in their well water, let alone drink it. Some people's animals and livestock are losing hair and being made very sick.
There are those who claim Josh is making this up, here is one site:
http://www.jlcny.org/site/index.php/news/latest-news-articles/
192-debunking-gasland-the-movie?gclid=CICAnbuzuaICFQdkgwodGyNG4Q
But aside from what he says in the documentary, not even listening to him, listen to the people he interviews. Look at what they show, like being able to light their tap water on fire. The news station broadcasts, talking about the same. Regardless of the article from the web site above, something is wrong. This hasn't reached Washington state yet, but it could, its creeping across the United States to the Pacific Northwest.
There has been some movement from the Government:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/energy/6874538.html
From there, they said: The chemicals make up less than 0.5 percent by volume of the overall mix but often include hazardous substances such as acids and materials used in cleaners and antifreeze.
That's good to know.
Its claimed that Josh is lying about the exclusions of these Gas companies from clean air laws. Regarding that:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/propublica/assets/natural_gas/colburn_testimony_071025.pdf
Check out her site at:
http://www.endocrinedisruption.com/chemicals.introduction.php
Video of her:
http://splashdownpa.blogspot.com/2010/04/world-renowned-scientist-dr-theo.html
Interesting interview of her at Mother Jones:
http://motherjones.com/politics/1998/03/theo-colborn
The EPA has requested $4.3 million in 2011 for hydraulic fracturing research. February 18, 2010:
Also on Thursday, Waxman said past data received from Halliburton and BJ Services indicates they used diesel fuel in their fracturing fluids between 2005 and 2007, possibly violating a voluntary agreement with the EPA to stop using diesel.
Smith said BJ Services told its operations to stop using diesel but that some inadvertently used it for a few jobs, the last one in 2007. BJ reported the incidents to the EPA and took measures to prevent recurrences.
Halliburton spokeswoman Cathy Mann said in an e-mail that the agreement with the EPA only covered the use of diesel in fracturing jobs in coalbed methane formations and not other kinds of formations, such as shales.
This was from the chron Energy web site.
The Pro Publica site for Journalism in the public interest:
http://www.propublica.org/feature/broad-scope-of-epas-fracturing-study-raises-ire-of-gas-industry
says, Broad Scope of EPA’s Fracturing Study Raises Ire of Gas Industry.
A federal study of hydraulic fracturing set to begin this spring is expected to provide the most expansive look yet at how the natural gas drilling process can affect drinking water supplies, according to interviews with EPA officials and a set of documents outlining the scope of the project.
Here are those documents from the EPA:
http://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabproduct.nsf/a84bfee16cc358ad85256ccd006b0b4b/ 4caa95a38952145f852576d3005daa17!OpenDocument&Date=2010-04-07
The oil and gas industry strongly opposes this new approach.
The EPA is undertaking the study in response to a wave of reports [4] of water contamination in drilling areas across the country and a Congressional mandate issued in an appropriations bill last fall. The agency had previously examined hydraulic fracturing in a 2004 study that was limited in scope and was widely criticized.
http://www.propublica.org/series/buried-secrets-gas-drillings-environmental-threat
I don't have any more to say about this. Not really, its speaks for itself. First, watch Josh's documentary Gasland. Even taking it with a grain of salt, it has import. Adding the Government's attitude, and the Gas industry's attitude, pretty much says it all. Along with the execs that visited people in their homes to tell them the water was safe to drink but when offered a drink of the water, refused. And it wasn't just one guy, nor was it one incident, nor one family.
Something is up. Something doesn't just smell in Denmark but across the nation. We really need to stop corporations from polluting our natural resources.
When people complain about this, they are told they have to prove it. One family, with good water for thirty years, signs a document to allow FRACing on their land, then immediately, their water turns bad, beyond bad; but they have to prove it?
We need our country back, if we ever had it. The corporations shouldn't be exempt from reality. People should be, if it comes to that.
Tomorrow: Work of Art - The Bravo Channel
There are those who claim Josh is making this up, here is one site:
http://www.jlcny.org/site/index.php/news/latest-news-articles/
192-debunking-gasland-the-movie?gclid=CICAnbuzuaICFQdkgwodGyNG4Q
But aside from what he says in the documentary, not even listening to him, listen to the people he interviews. Look at what they show, like being able to light their tap water on fire. The news station broadcasts, talking about the same. Regardless of the article from the web site above, something is wrong. This hasn't reached Washington state yet, but it could, its creeping across the United States to the Pacific Northwest.
There has been some movement from the Government:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/energy/6874538.html
From there, they said: The chemicals make up less than 0.5 percent by volume of the overall mix but often include hazardous substances such as acids and materials used in cleaners and antifreeze.
That's good to know.
Its claimed that Josh is lying about the exclusions of these Gas companies from clean air laws. Regarding that:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/propublica/assets/natural_gas/colburn_testimony_071025.pdf
Check out her site at:
http://www.endocrinedisruption.com/chemicals.introduction.php
Video of her:
http://splashdownpa.blogspot.com/2010/04/world-renowned-scientist-dr-theo.html
Interesting interview of her at Mother Jones:
http://motherjones.com/politics/1998/03/theo-colborn
The EPA has requested $4.3 million in 2011 for hydraulic fracturing research. February 18, 2010:
Also on Thursday, Waxman said past data received from Halliburton and BJ Services indicates they used diesel fuel in their fracturing fluids between 2005 and 2007, possibly violating a voluntary agreement with the EPA to stop using diesel.
Smith said BJ Services told its operations to stop using diesel but that some inadvertently used it for a few jobs, the last one in 2007. BJ reported the incidents to the EPA and took measures to prevent recurrences.
Halliburton spokeswoman Cathy Mann said in an e-mail that the agreement with the EPA only covered the use of diesel in fracturing jobs in coalbed methane formations and not other kinds of formations, such as shales.
This was from the chron Energy web site.
The Pro Publica site for Journalism in the public interest:
http://www.propublica.org/feature/broad-scope-of-epas-fracturing-study-raises-ire-of-gas-industry
says, Broad Scope of EPA’s Fracturing Study Raises Ire of Gas Industry.
A federal study of hydraulic fracturing set to begin this spring is expected to provide the most expansive look yet at how the natural gas drilling process can affect drinking water supplies, according to interviews with EPA officials and a set of documents outlining the scope of the project.
Here are those documents from the EPA:
http://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabproduct.nsf/a84bfee16cc358ad85256ccd006b0b4b/ 4caa95a38952145f852576d3005daa17!OpenDocument&Date=2010-04-07
The oil and gas industry strongly opposes this new approach.
The EPA is undertaking the study in response to a wave of reports [4] of water contamination in drilling areas across the country and a Congressional mandate issued in an appropriations bill last fall. The agency had previously examined hydraulic fracturing in a 2004 study that was limited in scope and was widely criticized.
http://www.propublica.org/series/buried-secrets-gas-drillings-environmental-threat
I don't have any more to say about this. Not really, its speaks for itself. First, watch Josh's documentary Gasland. Even taking it with a grain of salt, it has import. Adding the Government's attitude, and the Gas industry's attitude, pretty much says it all. Along with the execs that visited people in their homes to tell them the water was safe to drink but when offered a drink of the water, refused. And it wasn't just one guy, nor was it one incident, nor one family.
Something is up. Something doesn't just smell in Denmark but across the nation. We really need to stop corporations from polluting our natural resources.
When people complain about this, they are told they have to prove it. One family, with good water for thirty years, signs a document to allow FRACing on their land, then immediately, their water turns bad, beyond bad; but they have to prove it?
We need our country back, if we ever had it. The corporations shouldn't be exempt from reality. People should be, if it comes to that.
Tomorrow: Work of Art - The Bravo Channel
If Jesus had Twitter....
Jesus (to Peter): did you pick the stuff up for dinner tonight? Judas is complaining you never get enough olives
Peter: Yeah, yeah, I got enough olives! Tell Judas he can suck my olive pit
Jesus: He said, you already did that for him. Whats that supposed to mean?
Peter: Oh, Elohay! I'm gonna kill that little bastard. I'd stone him but you know, he holds the purse. Who's idea was that anyway?
Jesus: Don't be such a sore Simon. Be nice to Judas. 1 day he'll do great things for us. He does manage our money, no 1 else can
Peter: Well, fine. Whatever. So, who's coming tonight
Tomorrow: Gasland. FRACing.
Jesus: Usual suspects
Peter: Will Mary be there?
Jesus: Knock it off!
Peter: I'm just asking
Jesus: Yes, she'll be there
Judas (to Peter): Did you get enough olives?
Peter (to Judas): I would have but I wasn't given enough...MONEY!
Judas (to Peter): Bitch bitch bitch
Peter: Yeah, yeah, I got enough olives! Tell Judas he can suck my olive pit
Jesus: He said, you already did that for him. Whats that supposed to mean?
Peter: Oh, Elohay! I'm gonna kill that little bastard. I'd stone him but you know, he holds the purse. Who's idea was that anyway?
Jesus: Don't be such a sore Simon. Be nice to Judas. 1 day he'll do great things for us. He does manage our money, no 1 else can
Peter: Well, fine. Whatever. So, who's coming tonight
Tomorrow: Gasland. FRACing.
Jesus: Usual suspects
Peter: Will Mary be there?
Jesus: Knock it off!
Peter: I'm just asking
Jesus: Yes, she'll be there
Judas (to Peter): Did you get enough olives?
Peter (to Judas): I would have but I wasn't given enough...MONEY!
Judas (to Peter): Bitch bitch bitch
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Vanishing Point
I saw Vanishing Point on a double bill with dirty Mary and crazy Larry at the Rialto theater in Tacoma back in 1974. Even though Vanishing Point was made two years earlier. They remade Vanishing Point in 1997. I love Viggo Mortensen's work, but Barry Newman did an excellent job.
We were sitting at my girlfriend's parents house one Saturday and I was feeling a bit, well, suicidal. So, in an attempt to cheer me up, my girlfriend and her brother took me to see a double feature. None of us had heard of either movie, but Peter Fonda was in one of them. So, we just took a chance. Both movies, arguably end in suicide.
They were entertaining, but the endings were just all wrong for my state of mind. Have you ever had that happen? You don't think you can handle one more thing going wrong, and then it does. And then the second feature comes on and you think this will be better and then it too ends in grief.
And so you sit there, in realization, stunned, disbelieving. You think, "I don't believe this. I needed some consoling and all I got was consolation prize, second best, worst best even."
What do you do? Go kill yourself? Or, let it roll around in your head, banging from corner to corner until it finally knocks some sense in you and you simply start to laugh.
And that's the rub, isn't it. Sometimes, when things are so bad, you think nothing could be worse, you have to have a sense of humor about when it finally does get worse.
Otherwise, just what kind of person are you?
Tomorrow: If Jesus had Twitter
We were sitting at my girlfriend's parents house one Saturday and I was feeling a bit, well, suicidal. So, in an attempt to cheer me up, my girlfriend and her brother took me to see a double feature. None of us had heard of either movie, but Peter Fonda was in one of them. So, we just took a chance. Both movies, arguably end in suicide.
They were entertaining, but the endings were just all wrong for my state of mind. Have you ever had that happen? You don't think you can handle one more thing going wrong, and then it does. And then the second feature comes on and you think this will be better and then it too ends in grief.
And so you sit there, in realization, stunned, disbelieving. You think, "I don't believe this. I needed some consoling and all I got was consolation prize, second best, worst best even."
What do you do? Go kill yourself? Or, let it roll around in your head, banging from corner to corner until it finally knocks some sense in you and you simply start to laugh.
And that's the rub, isn't it. Sometimes, when things are so bad, you think nothing could be worse, you have to have a sense of humor about when it finally does get worse.
Otherwise, just what kind of person are you?
Tomorrow: If Jesus had Twitter
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Why the sea?
Is a body of water the unconscious?
What do you think?
I've found in my life that I simply cannot feel at peace if I don't live near to a large body of salt water, like the Ocean. I've lived most of my life on Puget Sound and that seems to be as far as I can get from the Ocean. I've lived inland several times, even once or twice in the desert, which I loved.
But in the end, I found I really couldn't live in the interior of a continent. I lived in Illinois for a while. I hated it. Flat ground forever, wind picks up momentum and you get winds that you can lean into at a ridiculous angle without falling down.
Spokane Washington, has "75 lakes within a 25 mile radius". I thought if I heard that again, after four years, I drown myself in one of them. I've been a SCUBA diver since 1970, and fresh water dives tend to be lame.
According to Jung (Carl Gustav), this is the "collective unconscious", where the archetypes of our culture reside, typically represented by lakes or other bodies of water in our mythologies, or in some cases a fluid container of some sort.
So is that what it is? I need to be near my collective unconscious? Maybe.
Weird.
But I do love the life here, beach life even more so. Life near the ocean, or in my case, the Sound, the living creatures in the water, the incredible sunsets, the fresh air, the all around magnificent visions.
Awesome. Simply, awesome.
Tomorrow: Vanishing Point
What do you think?
I've found in my life that I simply cannot feel at peace if I don't live near to a large body of salt water, like the Ocean. I've lived most of my life on Puget Sound and that seems to be as far as I can get from the Ocean. I've lived inland several times, even once or twice in the desert, which I loved.
But in the end, I found I really couldn't live in the interior of a continent. I lived in Illinois for a while. I hated it. Flat ground forever, wind picks up momentum and you get winds that you can lean into at a ridiculous angle without falling down.
Spokane Washington, has "75 lakes within a 25 mile radius". I thought if I heard that again, after four years, I drown myself in one of them. I've been a SCUBA diver since 1970, and fresh water dives tend to be lame.
According to Jung (Carl Gustav), this is the "collective unconscious", where the archetypes of our culture reside, typically represented by lakes or other bodies of water in our mythologies, or in some cases a fluid container of some sort.
So is that what it is? I need to be near my collective unconscious? Maybe.
Weird.
But I do love the life here, beach life even more so. Life near the ocean, or in my case, the Sound, the living creatures in the water, the incredible sunsets, the fresh air, the all around magnificent visions.
Awesome. Simply, awesome.
Tomorrow: Vanishing Point
Monday, June 21, 2010
The God Experience
What is, the Sense Presence?
Rather than ask ourselves, IS there a God. Let's ask ourselves, Why? Why is there, why should there be, why do we think we need a God? Why?
As an animal, you would not recognize yourself. You would not recognize your death. You cannot contemplate your final demise. "You", does not exist. You are one with the world and the world with you. You live in the moment, the ultimate existentialist.
The Mirror Test is one way to differentiate between humans and animals. A few animals can pass this test, but there are yet other denominators to consider, such as contemplating your death, or beyond.
And so we have to ask ourselves what is God. A pan dimensional being? A Creator, able to alter natural laws. More? Maybe. Maybe not.
Is God omniscient? Omnipotent? Omnipresent? Not necessarily.
One could argue, God could have created everything, then disappeared forever.
Or never existed to begin with. Then the Universes are just random happenstances.
Yet still, if we can contemplate things greater than ourselves and our mortality, surely we can envision God. But if we do, is God actually there?
There is a condition known as, Sense Presence. By invoking this condition we discover a situation, not unlike that of experiencing God. By placing magnets over certain parts of the brain, we evoke the feelings, the visuals of a presence.
There is some interesting work being done by neurologist Dr. Michael Persinger. He sees religious belief as "a cognitive virus".
When we cross that pathway from animal, to creature with a greater capacity of brain power, we start to contemplate our, self; our aloneness, our mortality, our limited lifespan. This realization, this "Eden Awareness", this lack of animalness, creates anxiety, where there once never was any.
This is a serious anxiety that causes untold intense difficulties.
The natural thing at that point, is to have, or generate, a counterpoint. To have a feeling, or a belief of something outside of ourselves that goes beyond, that takes up the slack for our newly discovered limitations, and it must continue forever.
Something that is everywhere. That knows, everything. Sound familiar?
Persinger said: "Suppose you can anticipate your personal demise. Well, that precipitates tremendous anxiety, and anxiety is devastating to cognitive processes. So from a natural selection point of view, you can see why individuals would have been selected if they could minimize that anxiety,"
He further explains, "The minute a person can affiliate themselves with this concept of infinite and forever, there is no personal death, and consequently there is no reason to have anxiety. You can see why people become addicted to it." -- from Robert Hercz October 2002 issue of Saturday Night magazine (pages 40 to 46) [from Katinka Hesselink.Net].
So, it is clear that we certainly had a motivation for creating a God figure. We need it, Him, Her, whatever. We need that vessel of unlimited foreverness to contain our anxiety, our fear of what is coming. So, does God exist? He has to. Otherwise, we self destruct.
What about atheists? Do they need God? They say they don't. But they have God anyway. For to push against, to deny, to eliminate, is to have. They have still lived their lives up to the point of denial, in having that God, knowing of God's existence, the surrounding theology, philosophy, psychology.
What about not ever knowing about God? Take 1974s, The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser by
Werner Herzog. A movie based upon the true and mysterious story of Kaspar Hauser, a young man who suddenly appeared in Nuremberg in 1828, barely able to speak or walk, and bearing a strange note. Later it was found had been held captive his whole life. He was a Tabula rasa, a blank slate. In the film, he was taught about manners, society, God. He questions everything, until someone in the village can no longer take his questioning the unquestionable and kills him. But he had no anxiety about Life. Why? Because, it has more to do with society, than the individual.
Still, what is this, Sense Presence? Keep an ear out for it in the future. I suspect and submit that it will turn up some interesting considerations.
Tomorrow: Why the Sea?
Rather than ask ourselves, IS there a God. Let's ask ourselves, Why? Why is there, why should there be, why do we think we need a God? Why?
As an animal, you would not recognize yourself. You would not recognize your death. You cannot contemplate your final demise. "You", does not exist. You are one with the world and the world with you. You live in the moment, the ultimate existentialist.
The Mirror Test is one way to differentiate between humans and animals. A few animals can pass this test, but there are yet other denominators to consider, such as contemplating your death, or beyond.
And so we have to ask ourselves what is God. A pan dimensional being? A Creator, able to alter natural laws. More? Maybe. Maybe not.
Is God omniscient? Omnipotent? Omnipresent? Not necessarily.
One could argue, God could have created everything, then disappeared forever.
Or never existed to begin with. Then the Universes are just random happenstances.
Yet still, if we can contemplate things greater than ourselves and our mortality, surely we can envision God. But if we do, is God actually there?
There is a condition known as, Sense Presence. By invoking this condition we discover a situation, not unlike that of experiencing God. By placing magnets over certain parts of the brain, we evoke the feelings, the visuals of a presence.
There is some interesting work being done by neurologist Dr. Michael Persinger. He sees religious belief as "a cognitive virus".
When we cross that pathway from animal, to creature with a greater capacity of brain power, we start to contemplate our, self; our aloneness, our mortality, our limited lifespan. This realization, this "Eden Awareness", this lack of animalness, creates anxiety, where there once never was any.
This is a serious anxiety that causes untold intense difficulties.
The natural thing at that point, is to have, or generate, a counterpoint. To have a feeling, or a belief of something outside of ourselves that goes beyond, that takes up the slack for our newly discovered limitations, and it must continue forever.
Something that is everywhere. That knows, everything. Sound familiar?
Persinger said: "Suppose you can anticipate your personal demise. Well, that precipitates tremendous anxiety, and anxiety is devastating to cognitive processes. So from a natural selection point of view, you can see why individuals would have been selected if they could minimize that anxiety,"
He further explains, "The minute a person can affiliate themselves with this concept of infinite and forever, there is no personal death, and consequently there is no reason to have anxiety. You can see why people become addicted to it." -- from Robert Hercz October 2002 issue of Saturday Night magazine (pages 40 to 46) [from Katinka Hesselink.Net].
So, it is clear that we certainly had a motivation for creating a God figure. We need it, Him, Her, whatever. We need that vessel of unlimited foreverness to contain our anxiety, our fear of what is coming. So, does God exist? He has to. Otherwise, we self destruct.
What about atheists? Do they need God? They say they don't. But they have God anyway. For to push against, to deny, to eliminate, is to have. They have still lived their lives up to the point of denial, in having that God, knowing of God's existence, the surrounding theology, philosophy, psychology.
What about not ever knowing about God? Take 1974s, The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser by
Werner Herzog. A movie based upon the true and mysterious story of Kaspar Hauser, a young man who suddenly appeared in Nuremberg in 1828, barely able to speak or walk, and bearing a strange note. Later it was found had been held captive his whole life. He was a Tabula rasa, a blank slate. In the film, he was taught about manners, society, God. He questions everything, until someone in the village can no longer take his questioning the unquestionable and kills him. But he had no anxiety about Life. Why? Because, it has more to do with society, than the individual.
Still, what is this, Sense Presence? Keep an ear out for it in the future. I suspect and submit that it will turn up some interesting considerations.
Tomorrow: Why the Sea?
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