Beware when you hear the world "realistic" in any conversation that involves morality. Too often are ideals pushed aside to clear a more "practical" way. Uncompromisable virtues are routinely compromised, as pursuing them is seen as to costly.
I'm not suggesting that you not pay attention to reality. On the contrary, the world is where the problem is, so study it as keenly as time allows as you make your decision. Quite often it is the "realist" who isn't paying attention to the world, systematically desensitized to the morally complex situation they are in. Efficiency is a value... not a reality, and those who strive for efficiency beyond all else feel burdened by what they see as the extra mandates of moral actions. Goodness isn't an onerous addition, rather it's the only purusit worth pursuing.
Being realistic and idealistic don't have to be separate mindsets. In fact, no intentional good can ever be done in ignorance of reality. So be realistic.
What you need to avoid is a realism that doesn't allow for change. Don't dismiss a cause simply because it hasn't happened yet. When looking at the history of ideas its pretty clear that huge strides have been made, and we are far from finished.
Also, avoid a realism that minimizes human reality. Solving the problem with homelessness is certainly complex on an economic level, but dismissing the pursuit as "unrealistic" ignores the very real suffering of very real people.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Purpose and Value
In the search for significance, many question the purpose of life. Why am I here? What was I made to do? What am I meant to accomplish?
Get me talking for any length of time, and I'll eventually start talking about purpose. "Purpose orders pain and pleasure," I'll say, "transforming fleeting happiness into lasting joy, meaningless suffering into powerful sacrifice." I have little doubt that there is indeed a purpose to my, and everyone else's, life. Finding purpose bestows power, cultivates fortitude, and fosters energy. Purpose it more valuable than nearly anything else.
All that being said, it is not purpose that makes your life valuable. Nothing ever made this so clear as my nephew Connor.
Connor was fatally brain damaged at birth. What had been an otherwise healthy pregnancy was botched in the delivery room. Faulty monitoring prevented the doctor from responding to dropping blood pressure. The acidity of Connor's blood rose unchecked. When he was finally born by way of the suction device on his head, his acrid blood had destroyed his brain.
Of course, we knew none of this at the time. All we knew was that there was something wrong. Put immediately on life support, Connor was rushed to the best children's hospital in 250 miles. For five days the machines pumped his lungs. The doctors ran tests. Mom and Dad cried. I read him the Hobbit. On the fifth day, the electroencephalograph determined that he had no brain function and never would.
It was Mom, Dad, both Grandmas, and myself in that little room when the doctor brought in Connor, his lungs hooked up to an hand pump gently worked by the nurse's gloved hand. We each held this child in our arms as the pump rasped away. Each saying good bye in our own way. Surrounded by a sea of language, and not a drop that could comfort us or him.
When they pulled out the pump, the final act that would cause this little child to suffocate and die, the room entered into what I can only describe as a twilight. Tony's in agony, repeating over and over, "This is fucked, this is fucked, this is fucked." My mom and Danielle's mom are trying to comfort their children. And Danielle holds her child, asking for nothing more than to have him back inside her.
Connor died in our arms.
Now, if you want to tell me that it is our accomplishments that give our lives value, then you have to look me in the eye and tell me that Connor's life had none. He never walked, he never talked, he never went to school, he never earned a living, he never had children of his own. Apart from the time he spent in the womb, he never even experienced the world. By nearly every measurement of purpose I know my nephew failed.
But his life had value. Not because of some end that he worked for, or some task that he performed, but an immediate, vivid, unstoppable value that sprang up from his life itself. He was not made significant by some calling, or a place in a grand design. He was significant because he was at all.
Never functionalize your humanity. You violate the sanctity that wells up in every moment. Your life has value, priceless value, far beyond anything you could ever say or do. Your successes and failures are important, but they are important because of the way they fit into a long term plan. But you, you have worth that flows out of your being, even as you read this.
Never functionalize the humanity of others. Just as you should never feel without worth, at no moment are the lives of others mere tools to be used. Springing from them is a miraculous and divine value.
Purpose? Generally I say, go get some. It really helps make sucky things not so bad and awesome things even better. But that purpose isn't going to make you more valuable. You have within you a worth that is beyond words. Trust me on this one. Sitting in that little room, holding my nephew, a twilight child, I searched for the words. There aren't any. You, me, and Connor all have the same, boundless price. A value that cannot be traded for anything else.
No task you could ever perform could increase it, and no failure could ever decrease it.
Get me talking for any length of time, and I'll eventually start talking about purpose. "Purpose orders pain and pleasure," I'll say, "transforming fleeting happiness into lasting joy, meaningless suffering into powerful sacrifice." I have little doubt that there is indeed a purpose to my, and everyone else's, life. Finding purpose bestows power, cultivates fortitude, and fosters energy. Purpose it more valuable than nearly anything else.
All that being said, it is not purpose that makes your life valuable. Nothing ever made this so clear as my nephew Connor.
Connor was fatally brain damaged at birth. What had been an otherwise healthy pregnancy was botched in the delivery room. Faulty monitoring prevented the doctor from responding to dropping blood pressure. The acidity of Connor's blood rose unchecked. When he was finally born by way of the suction device on his head, his acrid blood had destroyed his brain.
Of course, we knew none of this at the time. All we knew was that there was something wrong. Put immediately on life support, Connor was rushed to the best children's hospital in 250 miles. For five days the machines pumped his lungs. The doctors ran tests. Mom and Dad cried. I read him the Hobbit. On the fifth day, the electroencephalograph determined that he had no brain function and never would.
It was Mom, Dad, both Grandmas, and myself in that little room when the doctor brought in Connor, his lungs hooked up to an hand pump gently worked by the nurse's gloved hand. We each held this child in our arms as the pump rasped away. Each saying good bye in our own way. Surrounded by a sea of language, and not a drop that could comfort us or him.
When they pulled out the pump, the final act that would cause this little child to suffocate and die, the room entered into what I can only describe as a twilight. Tony's in agony, repeating over and over, "This is fucked, this is fucked, this is fucked." My mom and Danielle's mom are trying to comfort their children. And Danielle holds her child, asking for nothing more than to have him back inside her.
Connor died in our arms.
Now, if you want to tell me that it is our accomplishments that give our lives value, then you have to look me in the eye and tell me that Connor's life had none. He never walked, he never talked, he never went to school, he never earned a living, he never had children of his own. Apart from the time he spent in the womb, he never even experienced the world. By nearly every measurement of purpose I know my nephew failed.
But his life had value. Not because of some end that he worked for, or some task that he performed, but an immediate, vivid, unstoppable value that sprang up from his life itself. He was not made significant by some calling, or a place in a grand design. He was significant because he was at all.
Never functionalize your humanity. You violate the sanctity that wells up in every moment. Your life has value, priceless value, far beyond anything you could ever say or do. Your successes and failures are important, but they are important because of the way they fit into a long term plan. But you, you have worth that flows out of your being, even as you read this.
Never functionalize the humanity of others. Just as you should never feel without worth, at no moment are the lives of others mere tools to be used. Springing from them is a miraculous and divine value.
Purpose? Generally I say, go get some. It really helps make sucky things not so bad and awesome things even better. But that purpose isn't going to make you more valuable. You have within you a worth that is beyond words. Trust me on this one. Sitting in that little room, holding my nephew, a twilight child, I searched for the words. There aren't any. You, me, and Connor all have the same, boundless price. A value that cannot be traded for anything else.
No task you could ever perform could increase it, and no failure could ever decrease it.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Becoming a Better Person
Listening to me will not make you a better person. While morality may be the only thing in the world worth having, it doesn't actually increase your value.
In fact, all it ever does is increase the value of those around you. As you start behaving in a respectful way, you start slowly realizing that much of what you used to ignore is far more significant than you could have ever imagined.
Besides, good person... bad person, these are judgments, and while judgment is not impossible, its usually a lot more trouble than its worth.
No, we are in the business of doing good things. As many as we can, for as many as we can. If somewhere along the line that makes us good people... well... whatever, cuz this was never about getting a reward for what we did. That is actually precisely backwards. We didn't show up today to do good to get good. Rather, we are here to do good as a thanks for the good we already got.
Underlying this notion is an ontological claim. Our goal to destabilized morality's seat in the agent and get it back into the world. Which is a fancy way of saying this: we don't waste our time giving ourself points. Instead we spend all that energy solving the next problem.
If you want to brood about your seat in the afterlife, or the impeccability of your honor, this is not the place for you.
But if you see problems that can be fixed, beauties to be fostered, truths to be revealed, mysteries to be embraced, and most importantly goods to be done...
Well then, lets put our heads together and kick some butt. Hope springs eternal around here, and there seems to be a pretty impressive amount of work to do, too.
In fact, all it ever does is increase the value of those around you. As you start behaving in a respectful way, you start slowly realizing that much of what you used to ignore is far more significant than you could have ever imagined.
Besides, good person... bad person, these are judgments, and while judgment is not impossible, its usually a lot more trouble than its worth.
No, we are in the business of doing good things. As many as we can, for as many as we can. If somewhere along the line that makes us good people... well... whatever, cuz this was never about getting a reward for what we did. That is actually precisely backwards. We didn't show up today to do good to get good. Rather, we are here to do good as a thanks for the good we already got.
Underlying this notion is an ontological claim. Our goal to destabilized morality's seat in the agent and get it back into the world. Which is a fancy way of saying this: we don't waste our time giving ourself points. Instead we spend all that energy solving the next problem.
If you want to brood about your seat in the afterlife, or the impeccability of your honor, this is not the place for you.
But if you see problems that can be fixed, beauties to be fostered, truths to be revealed, mysteries to be embraced, and most importantly goods to be done...
Well then, lets put our heads together and kick some butt. Hope springs eternal around here, and there seems to be a pretty impressive amount of work to do, too.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
The Time is Now
We certainly live in interesting times. The landscape of international economics and politics shifts, information technology grows by leaps and bounds, peoples from all tribes mingle.
It's not uncommon for me to hear members of earlier generations discuss how the world is spiraling downward in the midst of all this change. Failing family structure, moral degradation, and ungratefulness abound. While I do have concerns, I cannot subscribe to this pessimistic view in light of what I consider great strides in the improvements in humanity.
The long shadow cast by racial prejudice shortens daily in the light of openness. Women who once had to endure spousal abuse for their entire lives now have the mobility to put an end to their suffering. Advances in technology and awareness give the voiceless environment a chance to survive the onslaught of human gluttony. And information, information flows faster to the places it needs to be, improving education, entertainment, networking, and business.
Today, each of our power to influence the world is far greater than that of any other people in any other age. Misused, that makes us the most destructive people to ever walk the earth. With unchecked desires and a blind eye to our incidental ravaging we needlessly, heedlessly bring ruin to places we will never hear off and to people we will never meet.
No wonder our elders are worried.
But what if we could use the outpouring of information to educate ourselves concerning our actions, and flex our power for the good? Certainly we aren't destined to be gluttonous despots. If we have the potential to misuse our far reaching power... we also have the potential to use our far reaching power. With a healthy ration of intentionality, why, we could really chance the world for the better.
Step one is of course to restrain our appetites. I once was stunned when I was told by a life long personal finance advisor that almost every client he had ever had, when asked how much money they needed to improve their lives, had answered with a sum of money that was about 20% more than they made. Be they princes or paupers, everybody wanted just a little more. Most lacked the audacity to want, or at least admit wanting, a much more extravagant life. But similarly, and very important to our cause, they also lacked the ability to be content with what they have. While I am not encouraging financial complacency, I find it chiling that a person could achieve that goal, only to readjust their expectations so that their windfall was subsumed by a new notion of what should be. A new notion of what they deserved, and a new set of unneeded desires replaces their old goals. When exactly, would it end?
With this as a lesson in gratitude, we are burdened with the responsibility to curb our desires. Learn to tell ourselves no, be satisfied with what we have, and start striving for goals that promise real and lasting satisfaction for all.
We have vast resources in our reach. We can learn of the consequences of our actions. All we are waiting for is that right time, that moment to spring into action and galvanize the events that will set our plan of a better world into being.
I've got news.
The time is now.
It's not uncommon for me to hear members of earlier generations discuss how the world is spiraling downward in the midst of all this change. Failing family structure, moral degradation, and ungratefulness abound. While I do have concerns, I cannot subscribe to this pessimistic view in light of what I consider great strides in the improvements in humanity.
The long shadow cast by racial prejudice shortens daily in the light of openness. Women who once had to endure spousal abuse for their entire lives now have the mobility to put an end to their suffering. Advances in technology and awareness give the voiceless environment a chance to survive the onslaught of human gluttony. And information, information flows faster to the places it needs to be, improving education, entertainment, networking, and business.
Today, each of our power to influence the world is far greater than that of any other people in any other age. Misused, that makes us the most destructive people to ever walk the earth. With unchecked desires and a blind eye to our incidental ravaging we needlessly, heedlessly bring ruin to places we will never hear off and to people we will never meet.
No wonder our elders are worried.
But what if we could use the outpouring of information to educate ourselves concerning our actions, and flex our power for the good? Certainly we aren't destined to be gluttonous despots. If we have the potential to misuse our far reaching power... we also have the potential to use our far reaching power. With a healthy ration of intentionality, why, we could really chance the world for the better.
Step one is of course to restrain our appetites. I once was stunned when I was told by a life long personal finance advisor that almost every client he had ever had, when asked how much money they needed to improve their lives, had answered with a sum of money that was about 20% more than they made. Be they princes or paupers, everybody wanted just a little more. Most lacked the audacity to want, or at least admit wanting, a much more extravagant life. But similarly, and very important to our cause, they also lacked the ability to be content with what they have. While I am not encouraging financial complacency, I find it chiling that a person could achieve that goal, only to readjust their expectations so that their windfall was subsumed by a new notion of what should be. A new notion of what they deserved, and a new set of unneeded desires replaces their old goals. When exactly, would it end?
With this as a lesson in gratitude, we are burdened with the responsibility to curb our desires. Learn to tell ourselves no, be satisfied with what we have, and start striving for goals that promise real and lasting satisfaction for all.
We have vast resources in our reach. We can learn of the consequences of our actions. All we are waiting for is that right time, that moment to spring into action and galvanize the events that will set our plan of a better world into being.
I've got news.
The time is now.
Claims, Evidence, and Warrant
A claim is a statement of truth. It concerns some issue, and it makes a point.
Evidence is the data, experience, objects, and events that support the claim. They can support the truth of the claim, or they can disprove competing claims.
Here's the tricky one. Warrant is the underlying value set that determines what counts as evidence. Warrant is built out of the worldview of the investigator, and is what casts legitimacy on different kinds of evidences and diminishes the legitimacy of others. Consider the difference between the warrant of scientific pursuit and the warrant of judicial proceedings. In science it doesn't count as evidence if it cannot be repeated and falsified. Whereas in law enforcement, the event is past (and the courts are not likely to encourage anyone to repeat the event), so testimony, specific artifacts, and even motivations are seen as evidence.
Why this all matters... When talking about different aspects of human being, be it study of human culture, empirical inquiry, personal reflection, or divinity... different data, experience, objects, and events are going to, at times, count as evidence and at others not. Depending on the warrant.
I was talking to Kristen recently about her time in Medjugorje. When discussing an experience in the presence of a Locutionary, Kristen attested to having a particularly powerful spiritual moment. She went into the details of the encounter, reflecting on her personal, spiritual, and emotional states at the time. After saying this, Kristen says:
"I don't have any evidence, but..."
Now, knowing what we do about warrant, is it true that she doesn't have evidence? It depends.
According to scientific warrant, does she have evidence? No. She has no specimens, no read outs, no way of recreating the scene.
According to religious warrant, does she have evidence? Of course! With personal, spiritual, and emotional reflections on the matter, her actually being there is vastly more valuable than any read out could ever be... within a religious context.
She even has decent evidence within traditions that value ethnographic data. Additionally, the entire community surrounding Medjugorje adds a kind of evidence that is highly respected among even harder social sciences.
In short, never let anyone bully you by telling you you don't have proof. You may not have the proof they want, but remind them that all proof exists within an intellectual context. The direct answer to a prayer is all the proof I could ever hope for... but keep in mind that without an avid prayer life... such "evidence" is meaningless.
Side note: you can tell a lot about what a person will ever believe by looking to the warrant they hold. If someone only accepts physical evidence to solve all problems, they are unlikely to come to claim that the universe is made through love. My favorite annoying thing to ask atheists and agnostics is if they have ever prayed for more faith. They tend to give me a look, and ask why they would pray if they weren't sure there was anything to pray to. I tell them to pray, "Oh, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!" (I think its in Mark.) They tend not to be impressed.
I realize it's totally ridiculous, but it's my little way of pointing out the importance of warrant.
Evidence is the data, experience, objects, and events that support the claim. They can support the truth of the claim, or they can disprove competing claims.
Here's the tricky one. Warrant is the underlying value set that determines what counts as evidence. Warrant is built out of the worldview of the investigator, and is what casts legitimacy on different kinds of evidences and diminishes the legitimacy of others. Consider the difference between the warrant of scientific pursuit and the warrant of judicial proceedings. In science it doesn't count as evidence if it cannot be repeated and falsified. Whereas in law enforcement, the event is past (and the courts are not likely to encourage anyone to repeat the event), so testimony, specific artifacts, and even motivations are seen as evidence.
Why this all matters... When talking about different aspects of human being, be it study of human culture, empirical inquiry, personal reflection, or divinity... different data, experience, objects, and events are going to, at times, count as evidence and at others not. Depending on the warrant.
I was talking to Kristen recently about her time in Medjugorje. When discussing an experience in the presence of a Locutionary, Kristen attested to having a particularly powerful spiritual moment. She went into the details of the encounter, reflecting on her personal, spiritual, and emotional states at the time. After saying this, Kristen says:
"I don't have any evidence, but..."
Now, knowing what we do about warrant, is it true that she doesn't have evidence? It depends.
According to scientific warrant, does she have evidence? No. She has no specimens, no read outs, no way of recreating the scene.
According to religious warrant, does she have evidence? Of course! With personal, spiritual, and emotional reflections on the matter, her actually being there is vastly more valuable than any read out could ever be... within a religious context.
She even has decent evidence within traditions that value ethnographic data. Additionally, the entire community surrounding Medjugorje adds a kind of evidence that is highly respected among even harder social sciences.
In short, never let anyone bully you by telling you you don't have proof. You may not have the proof they want, but remind them that all proof exists within an intellectual context. The direct answer to a prayer is all the proof I could ever hope for... but keep in mind that without an avid prayer life... such "evidence" is meaningless.
Side note: you can tell a lot about what a person will ever believe by looking to the warrant they hold. If someone only accepts physical evidence to solve all problems, they are unlikely to come to claim that the universe is made through love. My favorite annoying thing to ask atheists and agnostics is if they have ever prayed for more faith. They tend to give me a look, and ask why they would pray if they weren't sure there was anything to pray to. I tell them to pray, "Oh, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!" (I think its in Mark.) They tend not to be impressed.
I realize it's totally ridiculous, but it's my little way of pointing out the importance of warrant.
Concerning the Reality of Santa Claus
Its something that has broken the heart of many a child. The magic of Christmas stifled in a moment of unveiling. Perhaps it was the accidental discovery of a stash of presents. Perhaps it was a midnight encounter with not too stealthy parents. Too often it's an innocent shattering comment from an older sibling or school mate that brings the fantasy to a screeching halt.
Santa Claus isn't real.
The stories, the reindeer, the milk and cookies... all of it... a farce. In the end it turns out to be nothing more than a culture-wide charade. I mean, we do eventually get over it. Maybe the trust is broken a bit, but we are still getting presents, and we continue in the little game. We don't tell the younger kids, and by the time we are adults, we are so enchanted by the fantasy world of our own youth that we go to great lengths to conjure the phantasmagoria for the younger generation... all for that whiff of nostalgia.
I think it terribly ironic that when you actually face the truth, it is the disbelief in Santa that is childish, not the other way around.
Wait, what?
Yes, Santa is real.
I realize this is not a popular opinion for those over the age of seven, but hear me out. Something is real if it actually exists. While it is true that Santa isn't physically real, meaning he doesn't exist in the physical world, it is a tragic misstep to count him out of all reality.
The things in our heads, are, after all, real. Once again, the idea of a ball is differently real than a ball in your back yard, but no less real. Ideas, dreams, hopes, imaginations, fancies, plans, expectations, emotional experiences, sensations... these are all real. That's why they matter so much. Since Santa exists in the mind of even one person, he exists.
But Santa is real in even more ways. True he can be found in our minds, but he can also be found amid our minds. Santa is a communal notion, spanning the imaginations of many. This mimetic aspect gives jolly ol' St. Nick a wider and more persistent existence.
Finally, Santa is also real because he is a social construct. The idea of the man in red is not a passive thought, but one that evokes action. The legend carries a prescription, a behavioral imperative that we then carry out. Consider the notion of Justice. Nowhere in all the world can you find a physical piece of Justice. Symbols and examples, perhaps, but no actual Justice. No, Justice is an idea, an ideal even, that is communally negotiated and made manifest by human action. In the same way Claus is a collectively authored idea that we make real by playing the part, from buying the gifts to eating the cookie. Just like handcuffs and judge's mallets.
So, while Father Christmas may not be physically real, he is real in that he exists in our minds, amid the minds of a community, and is physically manifested by human actions. But don't tell your brother. I don't think he's ready to know the truth.
Santa Claus isn't real.
The stories, the reindeer, the milk and cookies... all of it... a farce. In the end it turns out to be nothing more than a culture-wide charade. I mean, we do eventually get over it. Maybe the trust is broken a bit, but we are still getting presents, and we continue in the little game. We don't tell the younger kids, and by the time we are adults, we are so enchanted by the fantasy world of our own youth that we go to great lengths to conjure the phantasmagoria for the younger generation... all for that whiff of nostalgia.
I think it terribly ironic that when you actually face the truth, it is the disbelief in Santa that is childish, not the other way around.
Wait, what?
Yes, Santa is real.
I realize this is not a popular opinion for those over the age of seven, but hear me out. Something is real if it actually exists. While it is true that Santa isn't physically real, meaning he doesn't exist in the physical world, it is a tragic misstep to count him out of all reality.
The things in our heads, are, after all, real. Once again, the idea of a ball is differently real than a ball in your back yard, but no less real. Ideas, dreams, hopes, imaginations, fancies, plans, expectations, emotional experiences, sensations... these are all real. That's why they matter so much. Since Santa exists in the mind of even one person, he exists.
But Santa is real in even more ways. True he can be found in our minds, but he can also be found amid our minds. Santa is a communal notion, spanning the imaginations of many. This mimetic aspect gives jolly ol' St. Nick a wider and more persistent existence.
Finally, Santa is also real because he is a social construct. The idea of the man in red is not a passive thought, but one that evokes action. The legend carries a prescription, a behavioral imperative that we then carry out. Consider the notion of Justice. Nowhere in all the world can you find a physical piece of Justice. Symbols and examples, perhaps, but no actual Justice. No, Justice is an idea, an ideal even, that is communally negotiated and made manifest by human action. In the same way Claus is a collectively authored idea that we make real by playing the part, from buying the gifts to eating the cookie. Just like handcuffs and judge's mallets.
So, while Father Christmas may not be physically real, he is real in that he exists in our minds, amid the minds of a community, and is physically manifested by human actions. But don't tell your brother. I don't think he's ready to know the truth.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Social Exchange Theory and Divine Insurance Policies
One of the most famous theories in the discipline of communication is Social Exchange Theory. Very simply put, humans evaluate the costs and benefits of each relationship, and pursue those relationships that give them satisfaction from within this economic mindset, and leave relationships that fail to yield more benefits than costs.
Basically, people will suffer pains in a relationship, but only in so far as they are outweighed by the pleasure. The theory also predicts that people compare the satisfaction levels that they could be getting from alternate relationships, and pursue the opportunities that promise the most overall beneficial path.
It's pretty straight forward, and it seems to be an intuitive approach to the movement of human relationships.
Right...
Let me take a deep breath.
Ok.
I fucking hate Social Exchange Theory. It reduces a wildly complicated process of virtues and values, and creates an economy of the human spirit. I trade these things for those things. It utterly fails to describe my experience of relationships. I also think it fails to describe my behavior.
Now, don't get me wrong. I do things that benefit me. I spend time with people I enjoy. I like it when people do things that make my life easier. I also do things for others. I suffer pain for the sake of ends that are not directly my own. But to connect these two aspects of human interaction in a mercantile way fails to account for the reality of relationships.
First off, there's loyalty. Many of the things I do for others is out of a sense of loyalty. I put up with crap from people I am duty bound to simply because I have an obligation, and not because they are heaping rewards on my life. The proponent of SET has a few responses. They could say that my loyalty restricts my options, and therefor limits my actions. But it doesn't actually eliminate my options, those options are still options, I just choose otherwise (going against the theory). They could also try to cast loyalty as one of the benefits I get from the relationship. What? I don't seek relationships to reward me with loyalty. I am loyal, a personal characteristic that concerns relationships, but to say I get loyalty from relationships I stay in is to put it precisely wrong. I maintain relationships because I am loyal.
Eventually, as you measure scenarios by SET you get a rapidly increasing list of very weird benefits and costs. Not having to face disappointment as a benefit. Loyalty as a benefit. Rejection of cultural values as a cost. SET started off saying, "The reason people stay in or leave relationships is because of an analysis of benefits and costs." If in the process of applying the theory every reason people stay in or leave a relationship becomes a benefit or cost, then SET ends up saying, "The reasons people stay in or leave relationships is because of the reasons they stay in or leave relationships." Read it again. We call this a tautology in the game, and tautologies aren't highly thought of as explanations. Useful for communicating an underlying ideology, but not as a outward description. "Cost and reward" have to mean something different than "the reason's people stay or leave relationships," in order for the theory to have descriptive power. If they don't, SET isn't actually a theory, but rather a paradigm that casts human interaction as economical.
A subtle but important difference. A theory is something used to explain, describe, and predict objects, people, and events. It can be systematically tested, and disproven. But a paradigm... a worldview... now that's a different animal. Worldviews aren't the sort of thing that are proven or disproven, but rather can only be roughly compared to other worldviews. Even rough comparisons are fraught with difficulty, as worldviews 1.) tend to support themselves circularly, and 2.) often contain beliefs concerning warrant, that is, they have opinions about what counts as evidence, and finally, 3.) usually include claims about what the most important goals are, that they, unsurprisingly, pursue better than other worldviews.
But, despite the difficulties, we will do our best. Is SET (or should we rechristen it Social Exchange Paradigm? SEP? Out of respect, lets not.) a legitimate way of looking at the world? I think not. I think one could view everything from within this lens... but this vision distorts the realities of what is actually going on inside the minds of many people.
It is true, I think, that many people do make economical decisions concerning relationships. But not everyone, and I also believe that even economically minded people will move into other decision making models in certain situations. It just doesn't capture the love, fear, compassion, dignity, duty, goodness, and spite that motivates human actions. People also stay in and leave relationships to uphold oaths, fulfill unspoken commitments, be a support system, cause pain, seek spiritual truths, simplify situations, challenge the other, and a whole host of other reasons that are not economical.
Just because SET can look at these things, casting them as cost and benefits, doesn't make it an adequate characterization of the events. There are events beyond a logical, self serving model. Even if an equation can be constructed about the ways an action is logical or self serving, it does not make the story true.
SET fails to vividly represent the scope of human behavior.
Another way of measuring a paradigm is by looking at the reality it creates. SET encourages a selfish model, placing the importance on the person, and assigns them a moral freedom to move in any way that way that most benefits them. Give birth to a child who whines? Eats too much? Votes Republican? If they don't benefit you enough to overcome the trouble they cause... move on. What?!?
What about a worldview that encouraged the moral treatment of all, devoted to seeking the good of the self, as well as the other, and looked at all the gifts and resources available and tried to assign, develop, and release them toward the service of the greatest good? While this doesn't capture the experience of all people, either... if you value human thriving, goodness, and equity, isn't it a better goal?
At this point I would like to turn my attention to another economical model that describes what I feel is a fundamentally non-economical situation. I like to call it the Divine Insurance Policy.
Many religious people seek spiritual reward by suffering through earthly situations. They concern themselves with learning the rules of God, and abide by those rules so that they receive the promise of impossible reward. Consider a stripped down version of Christianity. Do good things, that way you get into heaven and live forever in paradise.
Ok.
Deep breath.
Here we go.
What the fuck?!? How is an act a good one if your reward is infinite pleasure? Any person capable of thinking strategically on a timeline would choose temporary suffering in exchange for eternal satisfaction. Only the impatient, ignorant, or non-believing would act otherwise.
Trust me, this is a bad way of approaching this issue. Ever met a self-righteous person, so convinced that they have earned their way into heaven, that they are incapable of treating those who are different with compassion or reflecting critically on their beliefs and behaviors? It's sick. All we have to do is make these payments of church attendance, intellectual submission, and do some things we don't want to and we earn our way into heaven.
Earn?!? The Christian vision of heaven is so much more than anything we could ever accomplish by our own actions, and it was made real to us by a sacrifice more beautiful than we could ever deserve. No belief we could ever entertain, nor any act we could ever perform, could lead to the salvation wrought by Christ's death on the cross.
And what does Christ ask in return for a debt we could never pay? That we be like him. That we listen to the Father for the best ways to serve others, and that we not hold them indebted to us by the things we do.
Love unconditionally. Refuse to meter out your devotion, compassion, and service only to those who can return the favor. Make your commitment to the well being of all things unbreakable, so that even in the darkest hours you work for the good of the world.
The gifts of God are not to be measured by economy. Human interaction is not to be measured by economy. Fuck, while we're at it, let's stop measuring wealth and human success economically. Economies serve those who have and enslave those who don't. Break the system. Spend your money to create the world you want to see, give to the needy, and refuse to lose sight of the blessings in your life. You don't deserve even 1/10 of what you earn when compared to the work environments and compensations on the world stage.
Shatter any notion of earning anything. Instead be thankful for the things you have, and when you have undazed yourself from the dizzying awe that comes from staring into the infinite vastness of the things for which you can be grateful, do your best to be thankful.
P.S. - Being thankful, in case you were wondering, means putting all your amazing gifts to work. For you, for God, for everyone.
Basically, people will suffer pains in a relationship, but only in so far as they are outweighed by the pleasure. The theory also predicts that people compare the satisfaction levels that they could be getting from alternate relationships, and pursue the opportunities that promise the most overall beneficial path.
It's pretty straight forward, and it seems to be an intuitive approach to the movement of human relationships.
Right...
Let me take a deep breath.
Ok.
I fucking hate Social Exchange Theory. It reduces a wildly complicated process of virtues and values, and creates an economy of the human spirit. I trade these things for those things. It utterly fails to describe my experience of relationships. I also think it fails to describe my behavior.
Now, don't get me wrong. I do things that benefit me. I spend time with people I enjoy. I like it when people do things that make my life easier. I also do things for others. I suffer pain for the sake of ends that are not directly my own. But to connect these two aspects of human interaction in a mercantile way fails to account for the reality of relationships.
First off, there's loyalty. Many of the things I do for others is out of a sense of loyalty. I put up with crap from people I am duty bound to simply because I have an obligation, and not because they are heaping rewards on my life. The proponent of SET has a few responses. They could say that my loyalty restricts my options, and therefor limits my actions. But it doesn't actually eliminate my options, those options are still options, I just choose otherwise (going against the theory). They could also try to cast loyalty as one of the benefits I get from the relationship. What? I don't seek relationships to reward me with loyalty. I am loyal, a personal characteristic that concerns relationships, but to say I get loyalty from relationships I stay in is to put it precisely wrong. I maintain relationships because I am loyal.
Eventually, as you measure scenarios by SET you get a rapidly increasing list of very weird benefits and costs. Not having to face disappointment as a benefit. Loyalty as a benefit. Rejection of cultural values as a cost. SET started off saying, "The reason people stay in or leave relationships is because of an analysis of benefits and costs." If in the process of applying the theory every reason people stay in or leave a relationship becomes a benefit or cost, then SET ends up saying, "The reasons people stay in or leave relationships is because of the reasons they stay in or leave relationships." Read it again. We call this a tautology in the game, and tautologies aren't highly thought of as explanations. Useful for communicating an underlying ideology, but not as a outward description. "Cost and reward" have to mean something different than "the reason's people stay or leave relationships," in order for the theory to have descriptive power. If they don't, SET isn't actually a theory, but rather a paradigm that casts human interaction as economical.
A subtle but important difference. A theory is something used to explain, describe, and predict objects, people, and events. It can be systematically tested, and disproven. But a paradigm... a worldview... now that's a different animal. Worldviews aren't the sort of thing that are proven or disproven, but rather can only be roughly compared to other worldviews. Even rough comparisons are fraught with difficulty, as worldviews 1.) tend to support themselves circularly, and 2.) often contain beliefs concerning warrant, that is, they have opinions about what counts as evidence, and finally, 3.) usually include claims about what the most important goals are, that they, unsurprisingly, pursue better than other worldviews.
But, despite the difficulties, we will do our best. Is SET (or should we rechristen it Social Exchange Paradigm? SEP? Out of respect, lets not.) a legitimate way of looking at the world? I think not. I think one could view everything from within this lens... but this vision distorts the realities of what is actually going on inside the minds of many people.
It is true, I think, that many people do make economical decisions concerning relationships. But not everyone, and I also believe that even economically minded people will move into other decision making models in certain situations. It just doesn't capture the love, fear, compassion, dignity, duty, goodness, and spite that motivates human actions. People also stay in and leave relationships to uphold oaths, fulfill unspoken commitments, be a support system, cause pain, seek spiritual truths, simplify situations, challenge the other, and a whole host of other reasons that are not economical.
Just because SET can look at these things, casting them as cost and benefits, doesn't make it an adequate characterization of the events. There are events beyond a logical, self serving model. Even if an equation can be constructed about the ways an action is logical or self serving, it does not make the story true.
SET fails to vividly represent the scope of human behavior.
Another way of measuring a paradigm is by looking at the reality it creates. SET encourages a selfish model, placing the importance on the person, and assigns them a moral freedom to move in any way that way that most benefits them. Give birth to a child who whines? Eats too much? Votes Republican? If they don't benefit you enough to overcome the trouble they cause... move on. What?!?
What about a worldview that encouraged the moral treatment of all, devoted to seeking the good of the self, as well as the other, and looked at all the gifts and resources available and tried to assign, develop, and release them toward the service of the greatest good? While this doesn't capture the experience of all people, either... if you value human thriving, goodness, and equity, isn't it a better goal?
At this point I would like to turn my attention to another economical model that describes what I feel is a fundamentally non-economical situation. I like to call it the Divine Insurance Policy.
Many religious people seek spiritual reward by suffering through earthly situations. They concern themselves with learning the rules of God, and abide by those rules so that they receive the promise of impossible reward. Consider a stripped down version of Christianity. Do good things, that way you get into heaven and live forever in paradise.
Ok.
Deep breath.
Here we go.
What the fuck?!? How is an act a good one if your reward is infinite pleasure? Any person capable of thinking strategically on a timeline would choose temporary suffering in exchange for eternal satisfaction. Only the impatient, ignorant, or non-believing would act otherwise.
Trust me, this is a bad way of approaching this issue. Ever met a self-righteous person, so convinced that they have earned their way into heaven, that they are incapable of treating those who are different with compassion or reflecting critically on their beliefs and behaviors? It's sick. All we have to do is make these payments of church attendance, intellectual submission, and do some things we don't want to and we earn our way into heaven.
Earn?!? The Christian vision of heaven is so much more than anything we could ever accomplish by our own actions, and it was made real to us by a sacrifice more beautiful than we could ever deserve. No belief we could ever entertain, nor any act we could ever perform, could lead to the salvation wrought by Christ's death on the cross.
And what does Christ ask in return for a debt we could never pay? That we be like him. That we listen to the Father for the best ways to serve others, and that we not hold them indebted to us by the things we do.
Love unconditionally. Refuse to meter out your devotion, compassion, and service only to those who can return the favor. Make your commitment to the well being of all things unbreakable, so that even in the darkest hours you work for the good of the world.
The gifts of God are not to be measured by economy. Human interaction is not to be measured by economy. Fuck, while we're at it, let's stop measuring wealth and human success economically. Economies serve those who have and enslave those who don't. Break the system. Spend your money to create the world you want to see, give to the needy, and refuse to lose sight of the blessings in your life. You don't deserve even 1/10 of what you earn when compared to the work environments and compensations on the world stage.
Shatter any notion of earning anything. Instead be thankful for the things you have, and when you have undazed yourself from the dizzying awe that comes from staring into the infinite vastness of the things for which you can be grateful, do your best to be thankful.
P.S. - Being thankful, in case you were wondering, means putting all your amazing gifts to work. For you, for God, for everyone.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
The Democratic Dollar
Never underestimate the number of votes you get. While the United States may only elect one president every four years, and each of us only gets one vote a piece in such a race, we have many more than that.
...and I'm not talking about senators. I'm talking about money.
In a capitalistic society, each dollar spent is a vote, a bid for the success of that particular business and a word of support for the industry that the dollar went to.
Spend your money on the kind of world you want to see. Support the products you want to see more of. Buy from companies that are run the way you like. Finance industries that you believe improve humanity and the world you live in.
Worry less about what you are getting with your dollar. Worry more about what you are doing with your dollar.
...and I'm not talking about senators. I'm talking about money.
In a capitalistic society, each dollar spent is a vote, a bid for the success of that particular business and a word of support for the industry that the dollar went to.
Spend your money on the kind of world you want to see. Support the products you want to see more of. Buy from companies that are run the way you like. Finance industries that you believe improve humanity and the world you live in.
Worry less about what you are getting with your dollar. Worry more about what you are doing with your dollar.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Impossible Hopes
Too often we let the weight of the realities of the world press us down. We have hope, this passing fancy, that in the end everything is going to be all right. But secretly we know, deep down, that things are going to keep sucking, just like they suck right now.
Hope seems only ever to thrive when that which is hoped for is clearly possible. Take away the seeming possibility that you can achieve your hopes... and all hope is lost. While this may seem only natural, of course you can't hope for something that can't happen... it also makes hope fail precisely at the moment when you need it the most. When facing the inevitable.
Foster invulnerable hope. Try to hope for impossible things. Now, don't go hoping for impossible things you shouldn't have, like for power beyond measure, or for people to change so that they love you. But develop in yourself a ludicrous strain of hope that is capable of attaining a vision of wildly, unlikely, and downright impossible events of moral, intellectual, personal, spiritual, physical, and social triumph.
This will tend to improve your mood. It will also improve your thinking. Too often people decide what is possible before even ever giving it a shot. In my short life I have hoped for many audacious things, and many of them turned out to be actually possible.
Why do people give up hope for the impossible? They don't want to be fools. They don't want to get caught believing in something that could never come to pass. What an arrogant bunch of bull. All they succeed at is never being wrong.
I'd gladly be wrong, and hope for something that was never going to be, if it meant that I also accepted and helped actualize events that seemed impossible but actually were tenable. If my audacious hope makes me a fool, so be it. It also makes me unbreakable, innovative, and positive.
An unbreakable, innovative, positive fool. I'll take it.
We often think that our hope fails when it should. That when the light finally fades away, that it is now the time when despair should take hold. When carrying a valuable, heavy object, and someone drops it, do we all think, "Well, he dropped it when he should." No, we think, "If he had been a bit stronger, he wouldn't have dropped it." Don't wanna drop large, expensive things? Go to the gym. Take responsibility for your strength.
We should feel the same responsibility to our moral strength. When we fail ourselves or our commitments we should take it as a sign that we need moral exercise. Go to the moral gym, as it were. Use the spiritual communities in your life to motivate your personal growth. Find people you look up to and ask what they do to stay in morally excellent condition. Consider the activities that hone your spirit into things you want to become.
Push yourself. Don't hide behind self descriptions that limit your potential or lower the standard of conduct you have committed yourself to.
Now, keep in mind that moral cultivation can be satisfying, but it is ultimately for serving the world. Don't become overly proud about your accomplishments, and don't put your inner conditioning as a higher priority than serving the outside world. Also, keep in mind that you do not achieve good on your own, but hone yourself to be an ever greater instrument of God's work.
Hope seems only ever to thrive when that which is hoped for is clearly possible. Take away the seeming possibility that you can achieve your hopes... and all hope is lost. While this may seem only natural, of course you can't hope for something that can't happen... it also makes hope fail precisely at the moment when you need it the most. When facing the inevitable.
Foster invulnerable hope. Try to hope for impossible things. Now, don't go hoping for impossible things you shouldn't have, like for power beyond measure, or for people to change so that they love you. But develop in yourself a ludicrous strain of hope that is capable of attaining a vision of wildly, unlikely, and downright impossible events of moral, intellectual, personal, spiritual, physical, and social triumph.
This will tend to improve your mood. It will also improve your thinking. Too often people decide what is possible before even ever giving it a shot. In my short life I have hoped for many audacious things, and many of them turned out to be actually possible.
Why do people give up hope for the impossible? They don't want to be fools. They don't want to get caught believing in something that could never come to pass. What an arrogant bunch of bull. All they succeed at is never being wrong.
I'd gladly be wrong, and hope for something that was never going to be, if it meant that I also accepted and helped actualize events that seemed impossible but actually were tenable. If my audacious hope makes me a fool, so be it. It also makes me unbreakable, innovative, and positive.
An unbreakable, innovative, positive fool. I'll take it.
We often think that our hope fails when it should. That when the light finally fades away, that it is now the time when despair should take hold. When carrying a valuable, heavy object, and someone drops it, do we all think, "Well, he dropped it when he should." No, we think, "If he had been a bit stronger, he wouldn't have dropped it." Don't wanna drop large, expensive things? Go to the gym. Take responsibility for your strength.
We should feel the same responsibility to our moral strength. When we fail ourselves or our commitments we should take it as a sign that we need moral exercise. Go to the moral gym, as it were. Use the spiritual communities in your life to motivate your personal growth. Find people you look up to and ask what they do to stay in morally excellent condition. Consider the activities that hone your spirit into things you want to become.
Push yourself. Don't hide behind self descriptions that limit your potential or lower the standard of conduct you have committed yourself to.
Now, keep in mind that moral cultivation can be satisfying, but it is ultimately for serving the world. Don't become overly proud about your accomplishments, and don't put your inner conditioning as a higher priority than serving the outside world. Also, keep in mind that you do not achieve good on your own, but hone yourself to be an ever greater instrument of God's work.
Broken splendor
Never hesitate to be who you are.
Humanity is a work of broken splendor, and you are no exception. Strive to overcome your shortcomings and develop your blessings, but at the end of it all, embrace what you actually are. Even as you fail you are part of something great.
God uses broken tools. Worry less about being worthy of God's love, and focus more on being ready to do God's will.
You can never be great enough to stand in God's presence, so be small enough to hear God's voice.
Humanity is a work of broken splendor, and you are no exception. Strive to overcome your shortcomings and develop your blessings, but at the end of it all, embrace what you actually are. Even as you fail you are part of something great.
God uses broken tools. Worry less about being worthy of God's love, and focus more on being ready to do God's will.
You can never be great enough to stand in God's presence, so be small enough to hear God's voice.
Guilt vs Biology
I often defend the value of emotions and spirituality in the face of humanistic and scientific ideals. This does not mean I don't like academics and technology. Nothing could be further from the truth. The first step when determining what is good is to determine what is real. Science (in cooperation with spirituality) really assists in this regard.
In fact, there are situations where our emotions are ineffective ways to alter our behavior, and a little bit of knowledge is actually all we need.
This story is about trying to loose fifteen pounds. I should get something straight. I've never had a serious weight problem. I'm active, and I usually eat pretty healthfully. In fact, there was a time of my life where I couldn't have gained weight. But as I got older, I started putting on a little fat on. Wasn't a huge deal, just five pounds at a time.
During this process, I tried to loose the weight. I did what I think most people do. I got fed up with the situation, I set a pound goal, then used diet and exercise kinda randomly to achieve that end. Oh, and my motivation? Guilt.
The guilt diet never worked for me. Maybe I'm no good at making myself feel guilty (though, I'm Catholic... how bad can I be?). What ever the reason, it just never worked.
Then, out of the blue, I went on the most effective not a diet ever. I had become interested in the biology behind exercise, metabolism, and eating. In pursuit of this end I created a spreadsheet (at the time I was also learning about Excel). The sheet worked like this. For every thing I ate I'd enter its caloric value. Excel would add that up for each day. I'd enter my current weight, which would be used to figure my daily caloric burn just for being alive. Then I would enter the amount of calories that any exercise I had done that day had burned. Subtract.
At the end of the day I'd have a total, positive if I'd eaten more than I'd used, negative if I'd eaten less. Then, day to day, it would keep a running total, the net gain or loss over the whole process.
I had no particular goal in mind. I never guilted myself. Instead, I started looking at my eating and exercise as it actually was. I'd eye that soda and think, "Worth a twenty minute walk?" And sometimes I'd go for it. Sometimes I wouldn't.
Just being actually aware made such a difference. Knowing I'd be entering it later made me conscious of how much I was eating, and what I was eating. Seeing all of my food and movement laid out in complete honest also gave me a sense of what I was actually doing.
At no point did I have to resort to guilt, bribery, deal making, willpower, or self denial. The biological truth, typed out in front of me, was all the motivation I needed. Without ever setting a goal, I achieved more than all those failed guilt diets in the past. I lost fifteen pounds, and have more or less kept the weight off to this day.
This is not a weight loss section. Rather, this anecdote is a testament to the fact that our emotions alone are not always the most effective tool for achieving our goals. Use the knowledge at your disposal. Be strategic. Throwing pity parties and going for the guilt trips is not the only way to change your behavior.
Sometimes knowing what actually is is all the motivation we need.
In fact, there are situations where our emotions are ineffective ways to alter our behavior, and a little bit of knowledge is actually all we need.
This story is about trying to loose fifteen pounds. I should get something straight. I've never had a serious weight problem. I'm active, and I usually eat pretty healthfully. In fact, there was a time of my life where I couldn't have gained weight. But as I got older, I started putting on a little fat on. Wasn't a huge deal, just five pounds at a time.
During this process, I tried to loose the weight. I did what I think most people do. I got fed up with the situation, I set a pound goal, then used diet and exercise kinda randomly to achieve that end. Oh, and my motivation? Guilt.
The guilt diet never worked for me. Maybe I'm no good at making myself feel guilty (though, I'm Catholic... how bad can I be?). What ever the reason, it just never worked.
Then, out of the blue, I went on the most effective not a diet ever. I had become interested in the biology behind exercise, metabolism, and eating. In pursuit of this end I created a spreadsheet (at the time I was also learning about Excel). The sheet worked like this. For every thing I ate I'd enter its caloric value. Excel would add that up for each day. I'd enter my current weight, which would be used to figure my daily caloric burn just for being alive. Then I would enter the amount of calories that any exercise I had done that day had burned. Subtract.
At the end of the day I'd have a total, positive if I'd eaten more than I'd used, negative if I'd eaten less. Then, day to day, it would keep a running total, the net gain or loss over the whole process.
I had no particular goal in mind. I never guilted myself. Instead, I started looking at my eating and exercise as it actually was. I'd eye that soda and think, "Worth a twenty minute walk?" And sometimes I'd go for it. Sometimes I wouldn't.
Just being actually aware made such a difference. Knowing I'd be entering it later made me conscious of how much I was eating, and what I was eating. Seeing all of my food and movement laid out in complete honest also gave me a sense of what I was actually doing.
At no point did I have to resort to guilt, bribery, deal making, willpower, or self denial. The biological truth, typed out in front of me, was all the motivation I needed. Without ever setting a goal, I achieved more than all those failed guilt diets in the past. I lost fifteen pounds, and have more or less kept the weight off to this day.
This is not a weight loss section. Rather, this anecdote is a testament to the fact that our emotions alone are not always the most effective tool for achieving our goals. Use the knowledge at your disposal. Be strategic. Throwing pity parties and going for the guilt trips is not the only way to change your behavior.
Sometimes knowing what actually is is all the motivation we need.
Prophecy and Oath
What is the difference between speaking a prophecy and speaking an oath?
The prophet relies on special insight to predict events yet to come, an impressive act of temporally reversed causation.
The honorable, too, speaks of events yet to come, but lacking foresight must rely on commitment to their word and ordinary series of events to see their claim come to pass.
Both are soothsayers. The prophet sees fortune yet to pass and proclaims. The honorable proclaims, then sees to it that said fortune comes to be.
The prophet relies on special insight to predict events yet to come, an impressive act of temporally reversed causation.
The honorable, too, speaks of events yet to come, but lacking foresight must rely on commitment to their word and ordinary series of events to see their claim come to pass.
Both are soothsayers. The prophet sees fortune yet to pass and proclaims. The honorable proclaims, then sees to it that said fortune comes to be.
The Power of "I'm fine"
One of the most common events in human interaction is the "How are you?" - "I'm fine." pair. Exchanged between family members, friends, coworkers, strangers at the gas pump. Despite being about one of the fundamentally most important aspects of humanity... the status of our very existence, this question response pair can mean almost nothing more than, "You speak English and are close and lucid enough to respond?" - " Yes."
Not that there's anything wrong with what it has come to mean. There are many interpersonal events that are formalized to the point where their meaning changes.
In this particular instance, there may be a golden spiritual opportunity. Here's how. When someone asks, "How are you?" take the chance to say something that is actually true. Don't let the moment of true human sharing to pass with the wave of a formalized expression. If you're fine, say fine. But if you are great, tell them you are great.
After you get used to actually telling the truth, move on to being a little more expressive than third grade vocab. Go for words like frustrated, superb, apathetic, lethargic, and morose. Take a momentary pause, then use the exactly right word. Develop your ability to vividly assess and describe your personal state.
Now you are ready for the third step. Start exaggerating a bit. If someone asks you when you are superb, go for spectacular. Unmotivated? Laxidasical. Sorrowful? Woebegone. Just amp up the emotional charge behind each of your emotional adjectives.
Got that one? Next is the true art. Start saying not what you are, but half way between where you are and where you want to be. But don't lie. That's right. If you are having a fine day, but want to be doing great, go for good, and at least for the duration of your response, be good. Take the moment and the adrenaline boost from boldly proclaiming your new state to take you to that next emotional plateau. Remember, don't lie. This isn't a fake it till you make it philosophy. Mean it.
Having mastered the linguistic emotional rally, you are finally ready for the last trick. When someone asks you how you are, respond in a way that gives you the greatest possible emotional range. Try interesting, unbelievable, and vivid. Words that don't pin you down to a good or bad, happy or sad. As you shape them in your mouth, let them be a little personal reminder that the sum of your human experience can never be adequately accounted for by a single word, and that in any given moment you are more than the scope of all language could ever see.
In my experience this process is intensely powerful. While it was certainly only one of the enlightening influences on me (supported by friends, health, spiritual mentors, and the grace of God being the key others) it was a major contributer to what unchained my emotional life from the constrains of an ordinary range. As my words became more and more vivid, my inner life brightened. I found that when I spoke of where I wanted to be, my mood would boost in that moment to match my words, and that through the day I would gain amazing emotional inertia. My language and my attitude would leapfrog to impossible heights.
When I finally unleashed my status with the vague language I was very used to my words creating emotional space. The phrase "Unbelievable" became a mantra for evoking a truly unbelievable state of being.
Perhaps this all sounds a bit too weird, or that it would never actually work. Different tricks do, after all, work differently for different people. But what, if I may ask, is the danger of trying? All that is at risk is your placid devotion to answering the question "How are you?" with an unsubstantial response.
Not that there's anything wrong with what it has come to mean. There are many interpersonal events that are formalized to the point where their meaning changes.
In this particular instance, there may be a golden spiritual opportunity. Here's how. When someone asks, "How are you?" take the chance to say something that is actually true. Don't let the moment of true human sharing to pass with the wave of a formalized expression. If you're fine, say fine. But if you are great, tell them you are great.
After you get used to actually telling the truth, move on to being a little more expressive than third grade vocab. Go for words like frustrated, superb, apathetic, lethargic, and morose. Take a momentary pause, then use the exactly right word. Develop your ability to vividly assess and describe your personal state.
Now you are ready for the third step. Start exaggerating a bit. If someone asks you when you are superb, go for spectacular. Unmotivated? Laxidasical. Sorrowful? Woebegone. Just amp up the emotional charge behind each of your emotional adjectives.
Got that one? Next is the true art. Start saying not what you are, but half way between where you are and where you want to be. But don't lie. That's right. If you are having a fine day, but want to be doing great, go for good, and at least for the duration of your response, be good. Take the moment and the adrenaline boost from boldly proclaiming your new state to take you to that next emotional plateau. Remember, don't lie. This isn't a fake it till you make it philosophy. Mean it.
Having mastered the linguistic emotional rally, you are finally ready for the last trick. When someone asks you how you are, respond in a way that gives you the greatest possible emotional range. Try interesting, unbelievable, and vivid. Words that don't pin you down to a good or bad, happy or sad. As you shape them in your mouth, let them be a little personal reminder that the sum of your human experience can never be adequately accounted for by a single word, and that in any given moment you are more than the scope of all language could ever see.
In my experience this process is intensely powerful. While it was certainly only one of the enlightening influences on me (supported by friends, health, spiritual mentors, and the grace of God being the key others) it was a major contributer to what unchained my emotional life from the constrains of an ordinary range. As my words became more and more vivid, my inner life brightened. I found that when I spoke of where I wanted to be, my mood would boost in that moment to match my words, and that through the day I would gain amazing emotional inertia. My language and my attitude would leapfrog to impossible heights.
When I finally unleashed my status with the vague language I was very used to my words creating emotional space. The phrase "Unbelievable" became a mantra for evoking a truly unbelievable state of being.
Perhaps this all sounds a bit too weird, or that it would never actually work. Different tricks do, after all, work differently for different people. But what, if I may ask, is the danger of trying? All that is at risk is your placid devotion to answering the question "How are you?" with an unsubstantial response.
Day Ten
Things have been keeping pretty good pace. I'll say that the more social life I have the less I write. No wonder there... likely the reason I never wrote back at home, surrounded by concentric friend circles.
A few more Within Tradition posts recently. I guess I'm defending my spewed ideas from the ravages of the criticism that blows in the world around it. Liked the edge on the end of The Supernatural Mind. Hope it reads as well as it wrote.
Overall, I'm a stoked I'm still writing.
A few more Within Tradition posts recently. I guess I'm defending my spewed ideas from the ravages of the criticism that blows in the world around it. Liked the edge on the end of The Supernatural Mind. Hope it reads as well as it wrote.
Overall, I'm a stoked I'm still writing.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Love
The most powerful act in the universe is love.
There is no other aspect of humanity of divinity that carries so much raw dignity and potential.
Devote yourself unquestioningly to the well being of the people in your life. Never falter in your conviction to improve the quality of their world. When they are gone, make their memory part of the very foundation of your world.
For what is the purpose of striving if there is no one to benefit from your success?
What is the point of accumulation if there is no one to share it with?
What end does power serve if there is no one to protect?
I've never found another reason.
Which is fine.
I've never needed to.
There is no other aspect of humanity of divinity that carries so much raw dignity and potential.
Devote yourself unquestioningly to the well being of the people in your life. Never falter in your conviction to improve the quality of their world. When they are gone, make their memory part of the very foundation of your world.
For what is the purpose of striving if there is no one to benefit from your success?
What is the point of accumulation if there is no one to share it with?
What end does power serve if there is no one to protect?
I've never found another reason.
Which is fine.
I've never needed to.
The Supernatural Mind
When it comes to studying the mind, we live in interesting times. While people have been reflecting on what it means to be people since the very beginning, the academic study of the internal world is much more recent. Psychology is about a century old, and science of human neurology worth mentioning is even more recent.
The story goes a little like this. Our brain is made up of about 100 billion neurons. These little guys transmit electric impulses back and forth. These neuro-pathways are what allow us to perceive, interpret, remember, react, reflect, and decide. While they are certainly still working out the details, a complete understanding of biology, chemistry, and electricity seems to offer a complete explanation of the function of the human brain.
First off, great job! The work that has been done so far promises of great work to be done in the future, and what a blessing to have such insight into our inner workings. Consider the advances in medicine alone!
But there is something lurking in the midst of my joy about repairing brain damage. A dull feeling of dread, a nagging worry, a sulking sullenness. Its as though the last mysterious place on earth is getting a cell phone tower and a Starbucks. The inside of my head... the one place that was always private... the one place that was mine.
A physical account of the mind. It threatens to tear down that last shroud of mystic humanity that made me different than the rock or the lightning storm. And the worst thing about this scientific explanation? Its good, and getting better every day. Founded on collaborative investigation, total honesty concerning successes and failures, and systematic observation.
Damn.
What recourse do we, the mystical, mythical, mystery seeking people of the world have? All our dreams, desires, beliefs, and convictions... all laid bare on the laboratory table... all being explained by strangers in white, sterile coats. Is there any hope in the face of this explanation? Actually, there is.
The physical explanation is, after all, only an explanation. It may even be a true explanation. But what it is not is the actual phenomena of our minds. The experience of being human is undeniably immune to capture by webs of words (and it is poets, not scientists, that come closest). No matter how excellent the picture of our inner world gets, it is still only a picture. And it isn't the only one.
In the thousands of years discernment and commitment to what is holy, many other pictures of the inner experience have been painted. Within these splendorous halls of religious renderings of the human mind I find breathtaking insight into the nature of my own existence.
The religious accounts of the mind are no less broad, and no less detailed. Perception, intuition, belief formation, action, reasoning, and emotions are all accounted for. While the methodology is less outwardly empirical, any religion worth its salt and light is founded on collaborative investigation, total honesty concerning successes and failures, and systematic observation also.
Isn't two explanations a bad thing? If there are two different accounts of the same mental event, doesn't one of them have to be right?
No.
How many times have you been engaged in the debate about creation? Perhaps the origin of the universe... perhaps the origin of humankind. In this debate we usually face of two competing explanations. One is a divine story about an immensely powerful creator (or creatrix) that built (or birthed) all things. The other is a scientific story about the physics and biology that contributed to the development of life on earth.
Some people subscribe to one, some the other, but a remarkable number of people believe both. Children, philosophers, doctors, students, and farmers... all with wildly disparate educations and backgrounds... have all told me that both of these stories are true. That God, working with wisdom, created a world that moved within God's rules, but also moved with God's graces. God uses physical laws to make the universe, they say. God uses natural selection to create humanity.
Grace is the key. God moves sublimely through the events of the world, disrupting nothing in God's wake, but permeating every event with the Eternal Will.
I didn't want my mind explained by the scientists because I wanted it to be more than the rock or the lightning storm. What pride. I am no more than a slab of granite or a crack of thunder... and by that I am no more than something that is cupped in the ever-present and loving hands of God. No event, be it a bonding of atoms or salty drop of tears, is outside the pervasive presence and directive intention of the Divine.
So which is true? Do I have a brain, triggered by and triggering chemical and electrical responses for the sake of its own survival? Or do I have a mind, authored and sanctified by a righteous creator so that I may seek perfection through holiness?
Say it with me. Be you children, philosophers, doctors, students, or farmers, say it with me.
We have both.
The story goes a little like this. Our brain is made up of about 100 billion neurons. These little guys transmit electric impulses back and forth. These neuro-pathways are what allow us to perceive, interpret, remember, react, reflect, and decide. While they are certainly still working out the details, a complete understanding of biology, chemistry, and electricity seems to offer a complete explanation of the function of the human brain.
First off, great job! The work that has been done so far promises of great work to be done in the future, and what a blessing to have such insight into our inner workings. Consider the advances in medicine alone!
But there is something lurking in the midst of my joy about repairing brain damage. A dull feeling of dread, a nagging worry, a sulking sullenness. Its as though the last mysterious place on earth is getting a cell phone tower and a Starbucks. The inside of my head... the one place that was always private... the one place that was mine.
A physical account of the mind. It threatens to tear down that last shroud of mystic humanity that made me different than the rock or the lightning storm. And the worst thing about this scientific explanation? Its good, and getting better every day. Founded on collaborative investigation, total honesty concerning successes and failures, and systematic observation.
Damn.
What recourse do we, the mystical, mythical, mystery seeking people of the world have? All our dreams, desires, beliefs, and convictions... all laid bare on the laboratory table... all being explained by strangers in white, sterile coats. Is there any hope in the face of this explanation? Actually, there is.
The physical explanation is, after all, only an explanation. It may even be a true explanation. But what it is not is the actual phenomena of our minds. The experience of being human is undeniably immune to capture by webs of words (and it is poets, not scientists, that come closest). No matter how excellent the picture of our inner world gets, it is still only a picture. And it isn't the only one.
In the thousands of years discernment and commitment to what is holy, many other pictures of the inner experience have been painted. Within these splendorous halls of religious renderings of the human mind I find breathtaking insight into the nature of my own existence.
The religious accounts of the mind are no less broad, and no less detailed. Perception, intuition, belief formation, action, reasoning, and emotions are all accounted for. While the methodology is less outwardly empirical, any religion worth its salt and light is founded on collaborative investigation, total honesty concerning successes and failures, and systematic observation also.
Isn't two explanations a bad thing? If there are two different accounts of the same mental event, doesn't one of them have to be right?
No.
How many times have you been engaged in the debate about creation? Perhaps the origin of the universe... perhaps the origin of humankind. In this debate we usually face of two competing explanations. One is a divine story about an immensely powerful creator (or creatrix) that built (or birthed) all things. The other is a scientific story about the physics and biology that contributed to the development of life on earth.
Some people subscribe to one, some the other, but a remarkable number of people believe both. Children, philosophers, doctors, students, and farmers... all with wildly disparate educations and backgrounds... have all told me that both of these stories are true. That God, working with wisdom, created a world that moved within God's rules, but also moved with God's graces. God uses physical laws to make the universe, they say. God uses natural selection to create humanity.
Grace is the key. God moves sublimely through the events of the world, disrupting nothing in God's wake, but permeating every event with the Eternal Will.
I didn't want my mind explained by the scientists because I wanted it to be more than the rock or the lightning storm. What pride. I am no more than a slab of granite or a crack of thunder... and by that I am no more than something that is cupped in the ever-present and loving hands of God. No event, be it a bonding of atoms or salty drop of tears, is outside the pervasive presence and directive intention of the Divine.
So which is true? Do I have a brain, triggered by and triggering chemical and electrical responses for the sake of its own survival? Or do I have a mind, authored and sanctified by a righteous creator so that I may seek perfection through holiness?
Say it with me. Be you children, philosophers, doctors, students, or farmers, say it with me.
We have both.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Morality and the Supernatural
The boundaries of the physical world are closing around us fast. It seems that every week a new genetic expression is discovered, linking what was a week earlier thought to be a personality quirk or character trait to a force of brute biology.
Humans are, its seems, is a product of causal bio-chemistry.
This manifests in a handful of ways. For starters, the traits that manifest through life are attributed to biological factors. The talent for snowboarding, the ear for music, or the knack for public speaking... all genetic.
Moreover, the processes of the mind and the instincts of the body are accounted for as purely physical events, destroying the possibility for freewill. Experiences stream through the senses, are interpreted by the brain, which fashions a response (built from other biological and experiential factors). Freedom, in effect, is gone.
Many clever philosophers try to argue nuanced rebuttals to defend freedom within this physical picture of the world. I applaud them, and hope one of them gets the argument to stick. Honestly, there is no single event of my psyche that is more obvious than my freewill, and I resent any explanation of the world that rejects this immediate truth.
Perhaps I am not clever. I do not defend freewill from within the account of the physical world. Instead, I reject the notion of a purely physical world.
By asserting the existence of spiritual states, entities, and energy, I cleave the world. Sure there is physical stuff happening. But above, below, and all around it, the breath of the spirit moves and animates all things. This makes the fractures both physical accounts of the human.
One, it frees the will of humanity. If the will is not a physical state, but rather one that exists within the person (persons, under this model, are a lot more than just physical), it can be free of the little electrical proddings in the brain. Certainly influenced by them, but not dictated.
It also frees the expression of human traits as gifts, rather than genetic traits. While those genes may be the most proximal cause, the original cause is much more abstract than genes or cell separation. The spark of the Divine animates our bodies, allowing the manifestation of our biologies to follow from our spirit.
This also changes we purpose our gifts should serve. With no freedom or intention in our creation, that which we excel in has no more purpose or reason than we do. But in a world of non-physical minds and godly creators... well, we are called to unleash our gifts in a powerful to transform the world to become a greater vision of glory.
Morality, then, because its operator (the will) and its tools (gifts) becomes a supernatural act, not beholden to physical laws. We can be unstoppable. We just have to unchain ourselves.
Humans are, its seems, is a product of causal bio-chemistry.
This manifests in a handful of ways. For starters, the traits that manifest through life are attributed to biological factors. The talent for snowboarding, the ear for music, or the knack for public speaking... all genetic.
Moreover, the processes of the mind and the instincts of the body are accounted for as purely physical events, destroying the possibility for freewill. Experiences stream through the senses, are interpreted by the brain, which fashions a response (built from other biological and experiential factors). Freedom, in effect, is gone.
Many clever philosophers try to argue nuanced rebuttals to defend freedom within this physical picture of the world. I applaud them, and hope one of them gets the argument to stick. Honestly, there is no single event of my psyche that is more obvious than my freewill, and I resent any explanation of the world that rejects this immediate truth.
Perhaps I am not clever. I do not defend freewill from within the account of the physical world. Instead, I reject the notion of a purely physical world.
By asserting the existence of spiritual states, entities, and energy, I cleave the world. Sure there is physical stuff happening. But above, below, and all around it, the breath of the spirit moves and animates all things. This makes the fractures both physical accounts of the human.
One, it frees the will of humanity. If the will is not a physical state, but rather one that exists within the person (persons, under this model, are a lot more than just physical), it can be free of the little electrical proddings in the brain. Certainly influenced by them, but not dictated.
It also frees the expression of human traits as gifts, rather than genetic traits. While those genes may be the most proximal cause, the original cause is much more abstract than genes or cell separation. The spark of the Divine animates our bodies, allowing the manifestation of our biologies to follow from our spirit.
This also changes we purpose our gifts should serve. With no freedom or intention in our creation, that which we excel in has no more purpose or reason than we do. But in a world of non-physical minds and godly creators... well, we are called to unleash our gifts in a powerful to transform the world to become a greater vision of glory.
Morality, then, because its operator (the will) and its tools (gifts) becomes a supernatural act, not beholden to physical laws. We can be unstoppable. We just have to unchain ourselves.
Determination
Sure you're determined...
Determined to do what?
Strength of character, if it is going to effect good in the world, must be oriented with sensitivity, lest it bring nothing but harm.
Determined to do what?
Strength of character, if it is going to effect good in the world, must be oriented with sensitivity, lest it bring nothing but harm.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Moral Drift
Our ability to do good is firmly rooted in our notion of what is real. The world is the stage of moral action, and those who live in it are the beneficiaries.
Our perception of what is real is build around a whole series of beliefs, attitudes, habits, and collected experiences. The countless times we fell as children, all the ways one object bounced off another, and the myriad emotional reactions we've had (plus... everything else) all coalesce together as a view of the world.
Of course, this thing can change. New ideas and experiences make changes to one part of the web, and may have an impact in other places. One of the dangers concerning moral drift is the subtle process of slow exposure to a particular behavior that erodes our sensibilities about the issue.
Avoidance of this slow process can be avoided by habitually checking in with a set of core beliefs. By revisiting the center of your values you can prevent the drift.
Caution. The process of going astray from the good is, psychologically speaking, identical to the process by which someone realizes that some false good they used to strive for is actually empty. We should not hold to false goods. So, if you feel yourself drifting, you need to consider very hard the moral reality at hand, asking real and difficult questions about that is good. You may find that something that once was held as a moral truth is actually an illusion. You may also find that a desire generated by a poor aesthetic orientation to the world is drawing you toward a dangerous road. Be honest. Then either make the change, or prevent the drift.
There is another form of moral drift that is not so subtle. Sometimes you are placed in worlds vastly from our own. Warfare, travel, new cultures, new jobs, education, children, loss of children... they all have the powerful ability to alter your humanity. It's important to know that you should not resist all chance that these things offer. In fact, you should do our best to be vulnerable to the experiential wisdom that such vastness offers.
But on a moral front, there are dangers. Since the pillars of human perception are built on habit, a sudden and complete alteration of our sensations threatens your sense of what is morally real. Suddenly all of the things you knew were wrong become shaken. You take a group of good boys from Wisconsin, put them in the jungle, deprive them of sleep, starve them, shoot at them, make them kill, and in six months they are wearing necklaces of the ears of slain women and children.
Knowing the power of moral drift, of course I my heart goes out to those boys from Wisconsin. I don't automatically assume that they were all monsters lurking beneath a facade. In most cases, you put those boys back in their homes, and they not only stop wearing fetishes of death, but they become endlessly sorry for what they did.
So while I have no hate for the wrong that is done in these radical situations, I ask, "What can be done to prevent it?" Just because I can understand it, doesn't mean I have to submit to its power.
One way to prevent moral drift in situations vastly different from your life is to swear oaths. Sometimes your honor, and your commitment to your word is the only thing that gets you through. By letting those words echo in your minds can be a very direct reminder of something you once thought was key to your moral well being.
Another trick that can work is by finding a small way of giving ourselves sensory comfort. A small talisman that you wear. An object you turn over in the palm of our hand. A phrase you whisper to yourself. These experiences, while small and seemingly insignificant, can offer a little piece of home and give you rest.
Our perception of what is real is build around a whole series of beliefs, attitudes, habits, and collected experiences. The countless times we fell as children, all the ways one object bounced off another, and the myriad emotional reactions we've had (plus... everything else) all coalesce together as a view of the world.
Of course, this thing can change. New ideas and experiences make changes to one part of the web, and may have an impact in other places. One of the dangers concerning moral drift is the subtle process of slow exposure to a particular behavior that erodes our sensibilities about the issue.
Avoidance of this slow process can be avoided by habitually checking in with a set of core beliefs. By revisiting the center of your values you can prevent the drift.
Caution. The process of going astray from the good is, psychologically speaking, identical to the process by which someone realizes that some false good they used to strive for is actually empty. We should not hold to false goods. So, if you feel yourself drifting, you need to consider very hard the moral reality at hand, asking real and difficult questions about that is good. You may find that something that once was held as a moral truth is actually an illusion. You may also find that a desire generated by a poor aesthetic orientation to the world is drawing you toward a dangerous road. Be honest. Then either make the change, or prevent the drift.
There is another form of moral drift that is not so subtle. Sometimes you are placed in worlds vastly from our own. Warfare, travel, new cultures, new jobs, education, children, loss of children... they all have the powerful ability to alter your humanity. It's important to know that you should not resist all chance that these things offer. In fact, you should do our best to be vulnerable to the experiential wisdom that such vastness offers.
But on a moral front, there are dangers. Since the pillars of human perception are built on habit, a sudden and complete alteration of our sensations threatens your sense of what is morally real. Suddenly all of the things you knew were wrong become shaken. You take a group of good boys from Wisconsin, put them in the jungle, deprive them of sleep, starve them, shoot at them, make them kill, and in six months they are wearing necklaces of the ears of slain women and children.
Knowing the power of moral drift, of course I my heart goes out to those boys from Wisconsin. I don't automatically assume that they were all monsters lurking beneath a facade. In most cases, you put those boys back in their homes, and they not only stop wearing fetishes of death, but they become endlessly sorry for what they did.
So while I have no hate for the wrong that is done in these radical situations, I ask, "What can be done to prevent it?" Just because I can understand it, doesn't mean I have to submit to its power.
One way to prevent moral drift in situations vastly different from your life is to swear oaths. Sometimes your honor, and your commitment to your word is the only thing that gets you through. By letting those words echo in your minds can be a very direct reminder of something you once thought was key to your moral well being.
Another trick that can work is by finding a small way of giving ourselves sensory comfort. A small talisman that you wear. An object you turn over in the palm of our hand. A phrase you whisper to yourself. These experiences, while small and seemingly insignificant, can offer a little piece of home and give you rest.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
The Moral Intellect
Use your brain.
Morally difficult situations are precisely that... difficult. Very often there is some tension of values, a moment where your priorities are at odds. Most people don't steal food when they have enough money to buy it. With money, they can fulfill their desire to eat and their conviction to not stealing (or desire to no get caught). Take away the money, and the situation becomes conflicted. Now the desire to eat is pitted against the aversion to stealing.
Fortunately, not all moral problems need be solved by violating a priority. Sometimes they can be solved creatively. Just because there doesn't seem to be an answer, doesn't mean there isn't one. Perhaps you haven't thought of it yet.
One of the troubles with being creative in times of moral crisis is that frustration, anger, confusion, and despair tend to hamper the reflection process.
Also, having conflicting feelings about an issue can cause your thinking to oscillate in an unproductive way, lurching back and forth between extremes. A little mental maelstrom can be good for teasing out the limits of the issue, but if it continues it promises dangerous consequences. Not only can it make it difficult to think in any productive way, it threatens to destabilize you sense of what is real.
Now, it hardly helps someone who is freaking out to tell them to calm down. Instead of trying to attack your emotions, just work with them, but make them do actual work.
Here's the plan. Grab a pen. Find something to write on. Write down this question: "What is real?" Draw a line under it, and proceed with the answer.
Describe, bullet by bullet, the reality of the situation. Keep in mind that how you feel and what you want is part of what is real. Describe all the states, no matter what kind of real it is. Start with the thing that is most present in your mind, and then start trying to describe other elements of the situation
Your second question is: "What is good?" Knowing this, your mind will start to jump over to this question while still answering the first. This is ok, and you can take a few interludes, but keep writing on the first. Remember, how can you possibly know how to get things where they should be if you don't know where they are? So finish up with question one.
Question two then. Your answers to this don't need to be one for one reactions to each reality. If you've bulleted right, then they collectively describe the situation. So just read them over and consider what the right choice is. Write it down. Start general and move toward the specific. Don't really fret about the order, but as you finish try to end with some things you can do now.
Do them.
Morally difficult situations are precisely that... difficult. Very often there is some tension of values, a moment where your priorities are at odds. Most people don't steal food when they have enough money to buy it. With money, they can fulfill their desire to eat and their conviction to not stealing (or desire to no get caught). Take away the money, and the situation becomes conflicted. Now the desire to eat is pitted against the aversion to stealing.
Fortunately, not all moral problems need be solved by violating a priority. Sometimes they can be solved creatively. Just because there doesn't seem to be an answer, doesn't mean there isn't one. Perhaps you haven't thought of it yet.
One of the troubles with being creative in times of moral crisis is that frustration, anger, confusion, and despair tend to hamper the reflection process.
Also, having conflicting feelings about an issue can cause your thinking to oscillate in an unproductive way, lurching back and forth between extremes. A little mental maelstrom can be good for teasing out the limits of the issue, but if it continues it promises dangerous consequences. Not only can it make it difficult to think in any productive way, it threatens to destabilize you sense of what is real.
Now, it hardly helps someone who is freaking out to tell them to calm down. Instead of trying to attack your emotions, just work with them, but make them do actual work.
Here's the plan. Grab a pen. Find something to write on. Write down this question: "What is real?" Draw a line under it, and proceed with the answer.
Describe, bullet by bullet, the reality of the situation. Keep in mind that how you feel and what you want is part of what is real. Describe all the states, no matter what kind of real it is. Start with the thing that is most present in your mind, and then start trying to describe other elements of the situation
Your second question is: "What is good?" Knowing this, your mind will start to jump over to this question while still answering the first. This is ok, and you can take a few interludes, but keep writing on the first. Remember, how can you possibly know how to get things where they should be if you don't know where they are? So finish up with question one.
Question two then. Your answers to this don't need to be one for one reactions to each reality. If you've bulleted right, then they collectively describe the situation. So just read them over and consider what the right choice is. Write it down. Start general and move toward the specific. Don't really fret about the order, but as you finish try to end with some things you can do now.
Do them.
Uncertianty
Chaos is freedom.
Anxiety is strenght.
When the world is at its most uncertian, it is most vulnerable to your certainty.
So center yourself.
Choose.
Act.
Anxiety is strenght.
When the world is at its most uncertian, it is most vulnerable to your certainty.
So center yourself.
Choose.
Act.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Good Without Evil?
As nearly every nefarious evil doer in every 80's fantasy movie will tell you, you can't have light without darkness, joy with out sadness, good without evil. They tend to go on to say something about needing each other, and then they usually get smited by a shining sword (or a unicorn horn, or a beam of light, or the power of love, or something).
Its an important question, because if its true, then those of us who want to do good in the world are in for some major disappointment. Imagine if every time you helped someone with their groceries or gave blood, you actually caused something horrible to happen. As the universe sought balance it would undo the ultimate good of our actions.
Its more than just an fantasy cliche. I've met people who really believe this. I've even met people who wanted to believe it because it was optimistic! Wow, major downer.
Ok, lets consider. Clearly there are some dichotomies that must have one for the other. Right and left, for instance are defined in relation to each other. Up and down are similar. I'm pretty sure inside and outside rely on the other.
Now, what about light and dark? Even though they are cast as opposites, it dosn't seem to me that they are strictly reliant on the other for existence. Sure, a gradiation in the lighting needs brighter for darker to make sense, but light and dark could be separate. A universe with no suns, no phosphorescent anything, would be dark. No light anywhere, just totally dark. Clearly not all opposites need each other to exist.
Now, would the strange creature that lived in darkworld know that it was in the dark? No, probably not. Similarly a resident of lightworld would not really have an experiance of darkness, and never really be put through the trials of wandering around in the dark. Its very possible that they could completly ignore the fact that they were surrounded by lighting, and not likely to be grateful for the boon.
How, then, do we know if 'good and evil' are like 'left and right' or 'light and dark'? Lets look a bit deeper.
Right and left are in reality two distinct ideas along the same axis. They are defined as opposite. To go even further, right and left don't exactly exist in the world, but are rather ways of understanding the world. There is not phenomena of leftness... no event in the world that is leftward. I think that is the same of up and down, and inside and outside. Now, I'm not saying that feet aren't inside shoes, or that one shoe isn't the right one. Clearly things exist that are right and inside. But right and inside themselves are human notions, categories used to describe physically existent objects.
What about light and dark? I believe that light is a event in the world, an actual phenomena caused by factors in the world. Dark, on the other hand, is the absence of light... a human notion. This is why light and dark can be true without the other, because instead of being two parts of a spectrum, they are in effect a way of saying X or not X.
Now the 20 dollar question: are the notions of good and evil human ideas that don't exist in the world apart from humans trying to describe events? Or is good an event in the world, and is evil the absence of good?
I suspect disagreement on this issue. Some are likely to say, "Of course they are human notions! Consider the man on the other side, who sees left as right and right as left. Get on the other side of a moral issue and right is wrong and wrong is right! Cultures define different things as right and wrong, and without the notion of punishing the bad there would be no reward of the good."
On the other side, I imagine them saying, "No, good is the world in its right state (be that a utilitarian notion or a proximity to the divine... whatever). Evil is the lack of good (a disordered world or distant from God)."
Formulate your opinion.
I think there's room for a nuanced opinion here. If you have read any other of the posts here, you probably suspect that I am of the second persuasion. You would be right. I believe in the reality of good, and that the good is the right functioning of the world. By extension then, there can be all good without any evil, that would just look like everything in order. But I do believe that there are cultural versions of morality... and since those are human ideas defined in opposition... I guess you can't have a cultural good without a cultural ill.
One further concern...
Would you know if you lived in a utopia? Would people appreciate it? Yes, yes you would. Part of a perfect world is gratitude. Besides, if the people in an all good were acting all good, in accordance with reality, that would probably indicate that they have a perfect understanding of the world. They would know that they were living in right order with the universe.
And besides, even someone clueless about their utopia would, ummm, still live in utopia. Not a bad place to be ignorant!
Its an important question, because if its true, then those of us who want to do good in the world are in for some major disappointment. Imagine if every time you helped someone with their groceries or gave blood, you actually caused something horrible to happen. As the universe sought balance it would undo the ultimate good of our actions.
Its more than just an fantasy cliche. I've met people who really believe this. I've even met people who wanted to believe it because it was optimistic! Wow, major downer.
Ok, lets consider. Clearly there are some dichotomies that must have one for the other. Right and left, for instance are defined in relation to each other. Up and down are similar. I'm pretty sure inside and outside rely on the other.
Now, what about light and dark? Even though they are cast as opposites, it dosn't seem to me that they are strictly reliant on the other for existence. Sure, a gradiation in the lighting needs brighter for darker to make sense, but light and dark could be separate. A universe with no suns, no phosphorescent anything, would be dark. No light anywhere, just totally dark. Clearly not all opposites need each other to exist.
Now, would the strange creature that lived in darkworld know that it was in the dark? No, probably not. Similarly a resident of lightworld would not really have an experiance of darkness, and never really be put through the trials of wandering around in the dark. Its very possible that they could completly ignore the fact that they were surrounded by lighting, and not likely to be grateful for the boon.
How, then, do we know if 'good and evil' are like 'left and right' or 'light and dark'? Lets look a bit deeper.
Right and left are in reality two distinct ideas along the same axis. They are defined as opposite. To go even further, right and left don't exactly exist in the world, but are rather ways of understanding the world. There is not phenomena of leftness... no event in the world that is leftward. I think that is the same of up and down, and inside and outside. Now, I'm not saying that feet aren't inside shoes, or that one shoe isn't the right one. Clearly things exist that are right and inside. But right and inside themselves are human notions, categories used to describe physically existent objects.
What about light and dark? I believe that light is a event in the world, an actual phenomena caused by factors in the world. Dark, on the other hand, is the absence of light... a human notion. This is why light and dark can be true without the other, because instead of being two parts of a spectrum, they are in effect a way of saying X or not X.
Now the 20 dollar question: are the notions of good and evil human ideas that don't exist in the world apart from humans trying to describe events? Or is good an event in the world, and is evil the absence of good?
I suspect disagreement on this issue. Some are likely to say, "Of course they are human notions! Consider the man on the other side, who sees left as right and right as left. Get on the other side of a moral issue and right is wrong and wrong is right! Cultures define different things as right and wrong, and without the notion of punishing the bad there would be no reward of the good."
On the other side, I imagine them saying, "No, good is the world in its right state (be that a utilitarian notion or a proximity to the divine... whatever). Evil is the lack of good (a disordered world or distant from God)."
Formulate your opinion.
I think there's room for a nuanced opinion here. If you have read any other of the posts here, you probably suspect that I am of the second persuasion. You would be right. I believe in the reality of good, and that the good is the right functioning of the world. By extension then, there can be all good without any evil, that would just look like everything in order. But I do believe that there are cultural versions of morality... and since those are human ideas defined in opposition... I guess you can't have a cultural good without a cultural ill.
One further concern...
Would you know if you lived in a utopia? Would people appreciate it? Yes, yes you would. Part of a perfect world is gratitude. Besides, if the people in an all good were acting all good, in accordance with reality, that would probably indicate that they have a perfect understanding of the world. They would know that they were living in right order with the universe.
And besides, even someone clueless about their utopia would, ummm, still live in utopia. Not a bad place to be ignorant!
The Moral Heart
There is endless power withing the many chambers of the human heart. Being ignorant of the potency of your emotional life is great folly.
Happiness does great good. It showers those around you with joy, helping them see the blessings that put you in your buoyant mood.
Beware. Irresponsible happiness can make you ignore the suffering of others, estranging them in their time of need.
Sadness does great good. It demonstrates the value of what has been lost, teaches smallness, and is one of the tenderest moments of humanity.
Beware. Irresponsible sadness can make you ignore the blessings that exist in the world, even in the midst of your time of need.
Anger does great good. Pious indignation at injustice is a powerful catalyst for change, empowering the angry and intimidating the wrong doer.
Beware. Irresponsible anger can turn you into a monster, wrecking harmful havoc in the lives of those around you.
Sympathy does great good. It develops our ability to learn from other people, as well as offering them emotional respite.
Beware. Irresponsible sympathy can soften your ability to criticize what is actually wrong.
Excitement does great good. It heightens the energy of situations, galvanizing them, making them more powerful and intense.
Beware. Irresponsible excitement can distract you from things that are actually important and can force events that should not yet happen to prematurely occur.
Calm does great good. It smooths out the human experience, and softens the senses to the point where they can perceive subtle truths.
Beware. Irresponsible calm can cause you to ignore the pressing issues in your life, lazily letting you fail to act when you need.
Courage does great good. It empowers you to act when you would otherwise hesitate.
Beware. Irresponsible courage can lead you to ignore your own well being and resort to unnecessary means.
Fear does great good. It fills your blood with power and allows you to act in a powerful way, manifesting your most basic desires.
Beware. Irresponsible fear can paralyze a person beyond action, or worse, strike out against false foes.
Happiness does great good. It showers those around you with joy, helping them see the blessings that put you in your buoyant mood.
Beware. Irresponsible happiness can make you ignore the suffering of others, estranging them in their time of need.
Sadness does great good. It demonstrates the value of what has been lost, teaches smallness, and is one of the tenderest moments of humanity.
Beware. Irresponsible sadness can make you ignore the blessings that exist in the world, even in the midst of your time of need.
Anger does great good. Pious indignation at injustice is a powerful catalyst for change, empowering the angry and intimidating the wrong doer.
Beware. Irresponsible anger can turn you into a monster, wrecking harmful havoc in the lives of those around you.
Sympathy does great good. It develops our ability to learn from other people, as well as offering them emotional respite.
Beware. Irresponsible sympathy can soften your ability to criticize what is actually wrong.
Excitement does great good. It heightens the energy of situations, galvanizing them, making them more powerful and intense.
Beware. Irresponsible excitement can distract you from things that are actually important and can force events that should not yet happen to prematurely occur.
Calm does great good. It smooths out the human experience, and softens the senses to the point where they can perceive subtle truths.
Beware. Irresponsible calm can cause you to ignore the pressing issues in your life, lazily letting you fail to act when you need.
Courage does great good. It empowers you to act when you would otherwise hesitate.
Beware. Irresponsible courage can lead you to ignore your own well being and resort to unnecessary means.
Fear does great good. It fills your blood with power and allows you to act in a powerful way, manifesting your most basic desires.
Beware. Irresponsible fear can paralyze a person beyond action, or worse, strike out against false foes.
Struggles with Relativism
People will disagree with your devotion to the good. Most of them are grumpy. Its very rare you get someone who is devoted to doing bad. It is the third group that will cause some complexity...
Relativists.
Fear not! Let them know that you love relativism, and that without it, you wouldn't do as much good in the world as you do.
Relativity concerning human issues springs from many sources. Relativism identifies the aspects of human life that seem to be universal, but are actually relative to the situation. This attitude can be used to question the universality of truth, goodness, beauty, reality, and value. The statement goes something like this:
"Sure, X may be true/good/beautiful/real/valuable in this situation, but in another place, or with other people, or if events had been otherwise, it could actually be false/bad/ugly/unreal/valueless."
The relative question has been asked by many people in many ages. Sociologists, historians, theologans, scientists, philosophers, psychologists, as well as punks, musicians, hitmen, cartoon artists, civil war reenactors, and rennesance faire cast members.
Now, not all versions of relativism are generated in by the same ideas. In fact, there are many paths to this particular notion. The Sapir-Warf hypothesis is an example of linguistic relativsm. A vast number of deconstrutive thinkners, from Nitche to Fish, have postulated accounts. Post modernism, liberalism, secularism, and post colonialism have all been interpreted as having roots in or leading to relativism. It even emerges in faith traditions that allow for multiple interpretations of the divine, and especially in faiths that believe in multiple realities.
While any one of these traditions can give a nuanced account of their particualr skepticism of the absolute, I find that it can really be summed up like this: One guy says, "Things are like this." Relativist says, "If we changed the assumptions and looked at it differently, wouldn't it seem, and perhaps even be, different?"
Thats relativsim in a very small nutshell. I encourage you to learn more. No one quite agrees when discussing this topic, which both plauges and oddly supports the ideology.
Why are we worried about it? Relativists often take issue with people who claim to be working with the truth, the beautiful, the real, the valuable, and the good. And for good reason, too! People often fervently work toward one and, working because of a particular truth, and if that thing were not true... well... wouldn't their life be going the wrong direction?
Consider it yourself. Imagine the person who is always right, constantly impinging their world on the world of others. Shouldn't they be a little more realistic about differences between people?
Here is the particular problem with this project: it relies on all of what relativist might have issue. We are diligently seeking the good, endlessly learning what is real, orienting ourselves toward the beautiful, trying to be mindful of what is true, and striving to want what is actually valuable. If any one of these notions are destroyed, the whole project fails.
So here are a few philosophical possiblilities;
1.) Relativism is false
2.) Relativism is true, some of the time
3.) Relativism is true, depending on how you look at it
4.) Relativism is true about everything
Having covered the bases, the argument concerning relativism can continue to rage, and we'll know where we stand no matter what.
If its #1, we don't have to worry. Our system of absolutes is safe.
It its #2, we have some work to do. We assert that there are some ultimate truths, beauties, (you get the point), and that those are ones that should be striven for no matter what. Concerning the particulars of a situation, we check in the the abosolute truths we know, and ask if the particulars are in violation of things we are confident of. If they are, revise. If not, let it be.
If its #3, we go out for drinks (now, I don't drink, but I'll go with you and order a Sprite).
And if its #4...
Fret not! All is not lost. If it's true that what we value depends, and there is no underlying truth to be had, we can still do good. Here's how. Assert the truth. Things are relative because people can have different notions about an issue... so change their notions. Strive to create the ideal mindset in a world that was created by a morally lazy author. If truth is dependant on human perception, alter the perceptions of other so that it entails the world we want to create. Just because things got deconstructed doesn't mean we can't reconstruct them!
And when they ask us why, we clearly communicate our values. Its not that relativism is non critical, its that the critique changes depending on the underlying values. So speak clearly about the values that you espouse. Say, "I value all things, and I strive to put the world into right order by avoiding the most suffering and creating the most satisfaction. I value goodness, even more than the truth of relativism, and will use all things to do the greatest possible good." Having said that, let them mull it over in their heads. What are they really going to do about it? Its not like they can tell you you are wrong.
Relativists.
Fear not! Let them know that you love relativism, and that without it, you wouldn't do as much good in the world as you do.
Relativity concerning human issues springs from many sources. Relativism identifies the aspects of human life that seem to be universal, but are actually relative to the situation. This attitude can be used to question the universality of truth, goodness, beauty, reality, and value. The statement goes something like this:
"Sure, X may be true/good/beautiful/real/valuable in this situation, but in another place, or with other people, or if events had been otherwise, it could actually be false/bad/ugly/unreal/valueless."
The relative question has been asked by many people in many ages. Sociologists, historians, theologans, scientists, philosophers, psychologists, as well as punks, musicians, hitmen, cartoon artists, civil war reenactors, and rennesance faire cast members.
Now, not all versions of relativism are generated in by the same ideas. In fact, there are many paths to this particular notion. The Sapir-Warf hypothesis is an example of linguistic relativsm. A vast number of deconstrutive thinkners, from Nitche to Fish, have postulated accounts. Post modernism, liberalism, secularism, and post colonialism have all been interpreted as having roots in or leading to relativism. It even emerges in faith traditions that allow for multiple interpretations of the divine, and especially in faiths that believe in multiple realities.
While any one of these traditions can give a nuanced account of their particualr skepticism of the absolute, I find that it can really be summed up like this: One guy says, "Things are like this." Relativist says, "If we changed the assumptions and looked at it differently, wouldn't it seem, and perhaps even be, different?"
Thats relativsim in a very small nutshell. I encourage you to learn more. No one quite agrees when discussing this topic, which both plauges and oddly supports the ideology.
Why are we worried about it? Relativists often take issue with people who claim to be working with the truth, the beautiful, the real, the valuable, and the good. And for good reason, too! People often fervently work toward one and, working because of a particular truth, and if that thing were not true... well... wouldn't their life be going the wrong direction?
Consider it yourself. Imagine the person who is always right, constantly impinging their world on the world of others. Shouldn't they be a little more realistic about differences between people?
Here is the particular problem with this project: it relies on all of what relativist might have issue. We are diligently seeking the good, endlessly learning what is real, orienting ourselves toward the beautiful, trying to be mindful of what is true, and striving to want what is actually valuable. If any one of these notions are destroyed, the whole project fails.
So here are a few philosophical possiblilities;
1.) Relativism is false
2.) Relativism is true, some of the time
3.) Relativism is true, depending on how you look at it
4.) Relativism is true about everything
Having covered the bases, the argument concerning relativism can continue to rage, and we'll know where we stand no matter what.
If its #1, we don't have to worry. Our system of absolutes is safe.
It its #2, we have some work to do. We assert that there are some ultimate truths, beauties, (you get the point), and that those are ones that should be striven for no matter what. Concerning the particulars of a situation, we check in the the abosolute truths we know, and ask if the particulars are in violation of things we are confident of. If they are, revise. If not, let it be.
If its #3, we go out for drinks (now, I don't drink, but I'll go with you and order a Sprite).
And if its #4...
Fret not! All is not lost. If it's true that what we value depends, and there is no underlying truth to be had, we can still do good. Here's how. Assert the truth. Things are relative because people can have different notions about an issue... so change their notions. Strive to create the ideal mindset in a world that was created by a morally lazy author. If truth is dependant on human perception, alter the perceptions of other so that it entails the world we want to create. Just because things got deconstructed doesn't mean we can't reconstruct them!
And when they ask us why, we clearly communicate our values. Its not that relativism is non critical, its that the critique changes depending on the underlying values. So speak clearly about the values that you espouse. Say, "I value all things, and I strive to put the world into right order by avoiding the most suffering and creating the most satisfaction. I value goodness, even more than the truth of relativism, and will use all things to do the greatest possible good." Having said that, let them mull it over in their heads. What are they really going to do about it? Its not like they can tell you you are wrong.
Day Three
Music was powerful today. Sang for my choir a song called Roll Away the Stone.
They have been saying all our plans are empty.
They have been saying "Where is their God now?"
Roll away the stone see the Glory of God. Roll away the stone.
They have been saying no one will remember.
They have been saying Power rules the world.
Roll away the stone see the Glory of God. Roll away the stone.
They have been saying no one hears the singing.
They have been saying all our strength is gone.
Roll away the stone see the Glory of God. Roll away the stone.
They have been saying "All of us are dying."
They have been saying "All of us are dead."
Roll away the stone see the Glory of God. Roll away the stone.
Anyway, just really simple, and super triumphant. I don't know why, but its somehow in my head as part of this story.
Got Kristen tuned into the project, which promises to be fruitful.
Third day of writing. Not in any danger of stopping. My spew today was longer and better than yesterdays (had some concern I was drying up). I think there is a lot more corpus to this thing than is down yet.
Although, I do think I'm starting to hover around a few... topoi.
They have been saying all our plans are empty.
They have been saying "Where is their God now?"
Roll away the stone see the Glory of God. Roll away the stone.
They have been saying no one will remember.
They have been saying Power rules the world.
Roll away the stone see the Glory of God. Roll away the stone.
They have been saying no one hears the singing.
They have been saying all our strength is gone.
Roll away the stone see the Glory of God. Roll away the stone.
They have been saying "All of us are dying."
They have been saying "All of us are dead."
Roll away the stone see the Glory of God. Roll away the stone.
Anyway, just really simple, and super triumphant. I don't know why, but its somehow in my head as part of this story.
Got Kristen tuned into the project, which promises to be fruitful.
Third day of writing. Not in any danger of stopping. My spew today was longer and better than yesterdays (had some concern I was drying up). I think there is a lot more corpus to this thing than is down yet.
Although, I do think I'm starting to hover around a few... topoi.
Sublime Moments
Have you ever been enlightened?
Experienced moments of divine clarity?
What was it like?
What led you there?
What effect did it have on your life?
Experienced moments of divine clarity?
What was it like?
What led you there?
What effect did it have on your life?
Sunday, August 3, 2008
The Moral Imagination, plus Spew
Never underestimate the role of your imagination in your every experience. Your imagination is more than just the author of fancies. It is the faculty that connects events in your experience. Consider the draft theory of colds. It was an imaginative process that linked the event of the draft and the infirmed catching the cold. That one's easy.
But consider now the germ theory of colds. While it is true (according to our best medical science) that those germs cause colds, is that in any way your experience of the event? Not in the least. Just like the draft leads to colds notion, the germs leads to colds notion is an imaginative event, connecting two events (like the sharing of a drink with a person with a cold and catching the cold).
When considering what is real, keep in mind that any causal picture of the world relies on authoring imaginative connections between events otherwise simply correlated in time and space. Just because they are accurate does not mean they are any less a function of the mind. The goal, then, becomes striving to create useful and realistic imaginations. People who wouldn't share a strangers drink for fear of germs but would have sex with them without a condom don't really have their heads in the right place.
The imagination also highlights and obfuscates aspects of reality. By letting you mind play to one aspect of an experience or another shapes your attitude toward that event. No one cheats while imagining their partner heartbroken, sobbing in the corner. Rather, they imagine the awesome sex they aren't having. Do they ever imagine awkward or bad sex? Nope.
Even subconsciously humans use their imaginations to guide their actions. Be conscious about it. If you find your mind painting one part of reality in great detail, and leaving another unrendered, beware. You are about to fall prey to a self deception.
You can even use your imagination strategically to motivate moral action. When tempted by something, systematically envision the negative or undesirable aspects of that path. When trying to achieve a difficult end, be vivid about your conception of the good end.
Imagine true things. People with vivid imaginations are more likely to respond to distant moral issues. Nearly everyone helps the family member suffering in front of them. But as more distant comes between the actor and the suffering, be that distance be physical or emotional, people stop helping. Foster an intense imaginative world, and use it to create the realities that are not immediately imposing themselves on your world. In this way, you can broaden the scope of your compassion.
Pay attention to the words you use to create categories, for they direct the tenor of your thinking. Few would say, "Cook that flesh medium rare," when ordering a steak, or, "Ouch, there's a piece of meat hanging from my scrape!" when recently suffering from a wound. By creating separate categories through language we create the ability to judge those categories differently even when perhaps they should be treated the same.
Seek to increase the range of your compassion. Consider more than yourself. Consider more than your family. Consider more than your friends and neighbors. Consider more than your country. Consider more than your race. Consider more than your species. Consider everything. Look hard at absolutely everything and ask honestly what its good is. You will soon find that it is very difficult to achieve all goods, but you may start seeing ways where you can dramatically increase the good of something else without too much cost to other important things.
Admit that you can be wrong. Many people defend the unfounded morality of their actions because they don't want to be wrong. While it may be hard to admit that you have been doing ill for your entire life, bullheadedly defending your error and continuing to do ill for the remainder of your life is much worse.
Trust in the learning curb. It is difficult to acquire new moral lifestyles. Acquiring any lifestyle involves learning. Trust me, it gets easier. As you start to get used to it, you pick up tricks, you share other ideas, you get into the groove. While it may be impossible to instantaneously alter every behavior you have to become a beacon of moral perfection, you can start with one or two things. As they become automatic parts of your life, pick one or two more. A lot of us have a while in this life.
You can become a saint. Saints are people. People who didn't let the difficulties of their time pass unaddressed. Do not underestimate your moral potential, or the impact you have on other people.
Respect the role of you mood in determining the manifestation of your altruism. You are more likely to give to others in a moment of gratitude concerning the abundance in you life than you are in a fit of curmudgenliness. Knowing this, be mindful of you mood, and foster activities and relationships that put you in your best moods.
Unlock your gifts. Each of us has bestowed upon us talents and abilities. Develop yours. Focus it through training. Supplement it with skills. Apply it with passion. You will soon find that you have amazing potential. Great works of goodness are still works of greatness. Train.
Put yourself in an ideal environment. Our personalities and spirits need particular influences. Figure out what you need, then seek the people, places, and activities that feed you.
Develop your personal convictions. Even if all your intentional actions aren't toward a moral end, defending a belief or becoming a particular thing against in the face of struggle develops your fortitude.
Personally, I abstain completely from recreational drugs and alcohol. It isn't because I think that using them is bad, or that the people who do them are evil. There are certainly bad uses, but many people I know participate in reasonable usage. Rather, abstainance is a source of personal power, a tribute to self control, and a challenge to be intentional with my attitude. I thrive as a better me, even as others thrive better with drinking and drug use. It has also been like a moral training program, helping prepare me do better choose in the future. Having that control of my lifestyle has helped me change other aspects of my life.
A bad act is one that upsets the right state of the universe. An evil act is a bad act done with maliciousness. While most would agree that an evil act is worse, as it does signify a disordered understanding of the world and a disordered appreciation of the world, bad things are still bad, and should be avoided. Just because you are destroying the environment without maliciousness does not make everything ok. The distinction between bad and evil is about the actor, and not the severity of the act.
Do not take pride in your moral success. Just because you behave in a more moral way than another does not make you better. Remember, doing good is about the world being better, not about you being better. Besides, as any runner will tell you, the desire to look behind you and see the people you are beating only slows you down. It arises out of the desire to stop working so hard if you are substantially ahead. Keep you eye on the goal, and don't focus on where you are concerning the rest of the runners. If you do anything, help them finish the race.
When trying to motivate moral action in others, proceed with care.
People do not react well to bullying. They tend to fight back, and you can often inoculate them to further persuasion. Even if your browbeating is successful, they are probably not oriented aesthetically in the right kind of way.
We can change other people. In fact, we can't help changing other people. Just by being part of their life changes them. What we cannot do is conform them to our particular desires.
If you want someone to behave differently, consider the economy of his or her human energy. No one can invent energy to worry about a problem or act in order to solve it. Any change necessitates an alteration of priorities, and likely a cessation of another activity or worry. If you can make it easier to change, or if you can give them support while the change is made, you will see your proddings more likely to succeed.
Chances are, you probably underestimate your potential. In fact, your estimation of your potential can be your single greatest obstacle. The most powerful times in my life were catalyzed by rejecting my limitations.
Take very seriously the power of a spiritual life in acting rightly. Being spiritual involves creating a relationship with the universe. Spirituality also often exposes otherwise unobserved blessings. Taken within the context of the power of gratitude, imagine what feeling universally grateful might to to someones ability to serve strangers.
Take very seriously the power of a prayer life in acting rightly. Being prayerful involves humility. It also evokes divine power. Consider the transformative power of becoming vulnerable in the face of divinity. Small wonder those with intense prayer lives serve in intense ways.
Signs have power. They communicate the details of a calling and motivate devotion to a cause. Be careful, however. A sign is only a sign if it comes to you. If you spend all your time looking for a sign its going to be an imaginative act whereby you attach significance to an otherwise uneventful event. While this isn't bad in itself, many bad actions have been "justified" by these false signs. Do not arbitrarily invent divine agreement with your desires.
You are not in control. Neither am I. At best, we are gardeners, tending to the world with careful hands, trying to create a healthy environment for that which is to grow. There is another force that causes the actual thriving of the plants, and that is beyond our control. Don't be discouraged by this. Rather, take great comfort in the fact that you aren't responsible for the functioning of all creation, and focus on doing the good you can actually do.
Seek enlightenment. Ecstatic experiences are the pinnacle of beauty, and are often the moments of most perfect clarity. Great truths far and wide have been revealed in moments of fruitful seeking. Enlightenment is also a powerful motivator, serving as a bottomless well of patience and compassion.
Appreciate the beauty of sublime moments. They will end. Ultimately, you are not in control of you enlightenment either. It will come and go by the devices of something greater than you. Best you can do is cultivate in yourself a way of being that makes you vulnerable to the subtle movements of the universe.
But consider now the germ theory of colds. While it is true (according to our best medical science) that those germs cause colds, is that in any way your experience of the event? Not in the least. Just like the draft leads to colds notion, the germs leads to colds notion is an imaginative event, connecting two events (like the sharing of a drink with a person with a cold and catching the cold).
When considering what is real, keep in mind that any causal picture of the world relies on authoring imaginative connections between events otherwise simply correlated in time and space. Just because they are accurate does not mean they are any less a function of the mind. The goal, then, becomes striving to create useful and realistic imaginations. People who wouldn't share a strangers drink for fear of germs but would have sex with them without a condom don't really have their heads in the right place.
The imagination also highlights and obfuscates aspects of reality. By letting you mind play to one aspect of an experience or another shapes your attitude toward that event. No one cheats while imagining their partner heartbroken, sobbing in the corner. Rather, they imagine the awesome sex they aren't having. Do they ever imagine awkward or bad sex? Nope.
Even subconsciously humans use their imaginations to guide their actions. Be conscious about it. If you find your mind painting one part of reality in great detail, and leaving another unrendered, beware. You are about to fall prey to a self deception.
You can even use your imagination strategically to motivate moral action. When tempted by something, systematically envision the negative or undesirable aspects of that path. When trying to achieve a difficult end, be vivid about your conception of the good end.
Imagine true things. People with vivid imaginations are more likely to respond to distant moral issues. Nearly everyone helps the family member suffering in front of them. But as more distant comes between the actor and the suffering, be that distance be physical or emotional, people stop helping. Foster an intense imaginative world, and use it to create the realities that are not immediately imposing themselves on your world. In this way, you can broaden the scope of your compassion.
Pay attention to the words you use to create categories, for they direct the tenor of your thinking. Few would say, "Cook that flesh medium rare," when ordering a steak, or, "Ouch, there's a piece of meat hanging from my scrape!" when recently suffering from a wound. By creating separate categories through language we create the ability to judge those categories differently even when perhaps they should be treated the same.
Seek to increase the range of your compassion. Consider more than yourself. Consider more than your family. Consider more than your friends and neighbors. Consider more than your country. Consider more than your race. Consider more than your species. Consider everything. Look hard at absolutely everything and ask honestly what its good is. You will soon find that it is very difficult to achieve all goods, but you may start seeing ways where you can dramatically increase the good of something else without too much cost to other important things.
Admit that you can be wrong. Many people defend the unfounded morality of their actions because they don't want to be wrong. While it may be hard to admit that you have been doing ill for your entire life, bullheadedly defending your error and continuing to do ill for the remainder of your life is much worse.
Trust in the learning curb. It is difficult to acquire new moral lifestyles. Acquiring any lifestyle involves learning. Trust me, it gets easier. As you start to get used to it, you pick up tricks, you share other ideas, you get into the groove. While it may be impossible to instantaneously alter every behavior you have to become a beacon of moral perfection, you can start with one or two things. As they become automatic parts of your life, pick one or two more. A lot of us have a while in this life.
You can become a saint. Saints are people. People who didn't let the difficulties of their time pass unaddressed. Do not underestimate your moral potential, or the impact you have on other people.
Respect the role of you mood in determining the manifestation of your altruism. You are more likely to give to others in a moment of gratitude concerning the abundance in you life than you are in a fit of curmudgenliness. Knowing this, be mindful of you mood, and foster activities and relationships that put you in your best moods.
Unlock your gifts. Each of us has bestowed upon us talents and abilities. Develop yours. Focus it through training. Supplement it with skills. Apply it with passion. You will soon find that you have amazing potential. Great works of goodness are still works of greatness. Train.
Put yourself in an ideal environment. Our personalities and spirits need particular influences. Figure out what you need, then seek the people, places, and activities that feed you.
Develop your personal convictions. Even if all your intentional actions aren't toward a moral end, defending a belief or becoming a particular thing against in the face of struggle develops your fortitude.
Personally, I abstain completely from recreational drugs and alcohol. It isn't because I think that using them is bad, or that the people who do them are evil. There are certainly bad uses, but many people I know participate in reasonable usage. Rather, abstainance is a source of personal power, a tribute to self control, and a challenge to be intentional with my attitude. I thrive as a better me, even as others thrive better with drinking and drug use. It has also been like a moral training program, helping prepare me do better choose in the future. Having that control of my lifestyle has helped me change other aspects of my life.
A bad act is one that upsets the right state of the universe. An evil act is a bad act done with maliciousness. While most would agree that an evil act is worse, as it does signify a disordered understanding of the world and a disordered appreciation of the world, bad things are still bad, and should be avoided. Just because you are destroying the environment without maliciousness does not make everything ok. The distinction between bad and evil is about the actor, and not the severity of the act.
Do not take pride in your moral success. Just because you behave in a more moral way than another does not make you better. Remember, doing good is about the world being better, not about you being better. Besides, as any runner will tell you, the desire to look behind you and see the people you are beating only slows you down. It arises out of the desire to stop working so hard if you are substantially ahead. Keep you eye on the goal, and don't focus on where you are concerning the rest of the runners. If you do anything, help them finish the race.
When trying to motivate moral action in others, proceed with care.
People do not react well to bullying. They tend to fight back, and you can often inoculate them to further persuasion. Even if your browbeating is successful, they are probably not oriented aesthetically in the right kind of way.
We can change other people. In fact, we can't help changing other people. Just by being part of their life changes them. What we cannot do is conform them to our particular desires.
If you want someone to behave differently, consider the economy of his or her human energy. No one can invent energy to worry about a problem or act in order to solve it. Any change necessitates an alteration of priorities, and likely a cessation of another activity or worry. If you can make it easier to change, or if you can give them support while the change is made, you will see your proddings more likely to succeed.
Chances are, you probably underestimate your potential. In fact, your estimation of your potential can be your single greatest obstacle. The most powerful times in my life were catalyzed by rejecting my limitations.
Take very seriously the power of a spiritual life in acting rightly. Being spiritual involves creating a relationship with the universe. Spirituality also often exposes otherwise unobserved blessings. Taken within the context of the power of gratitude, imagine what feeling universally grateful might to to someones ability to serve strangers.
Take very seriously the power of a prayer life in acting rightly. Being prayerful involves humility. It also evokes divine power. Consider the transformative power of becoming vulnerable in the face of divinity. Small wonder those with intense prayer lives serve in intense ways.
Signs have power. They communicate the details of a calling and motivate devotion to a cause. Be careful, however. A sign is only a sign if it comes to you. If you spend all your time looking for a sign its going to be an imaginative act whereby you attach significance to an otherwise uneventful event. While this isn't bad in itself, many bad actions have been "justified" by these false signs. Do not arbitrarily invent divine agreement with your desires.
You are not in control. Neither am I. At best, we are gardeners, tending to the world with careful hands, trying to create a healthy environment for that which is to grow. There is another force that causes the actual thriving of the plants, and that is beyond our control. Don't be discouraged by this. Rather, take great comfort in the fact that you aren't responsible for the functioning of all creation, and focus on doing the good you can actually do.
Seek enlightenment. Ecstatic experiences are the pinnacle of beauty, and are often the moments of most perfect clarity. Great truths far and wide have been revealed in moments of fruitful seeking. Enlightenment is also a powerful motivator, serving as a bottomless well of patience and compassion.
Appreciate the beauty of sublime moments. They will end. Ultimately, you are not in control of you enlightenment either. It will come and go by the devices of something greater than you. Best you can do is cultivate in yourself a way of being that makes you vulnerable to the subtle movements of the universe.
Utopia
What is your idea of a perfect world?
Is perfection feasible?
Through human effort? Divine?
What sacrifices would you make to create a perfect world?
Is perfection feasible?
Through human effort? Divine?
What sacrifices would you make to create a perfect world?
What you can do...
Take a look at what is going on here. Comment, let me know what you think. At this point many of the ideas are embedded in those giant spew documents. Soon I'll be plucking an idea or three and treating them on their own.
Also very open to ideas about where this project can go. Put it in your head.
Also very open to ideas about where this project can go. Put it in your head.
Power
Don't be seduced by the power cherished by the world around you. Those who amass power are often blind to the paradox that what is powerful is often weak and what is weak is often powerful.
Power is often weak. Potence is often edged and hardened to survive its own use. This rigidity can make the powerful unreactive and prone to shatter.
Weakness is often power. Submission and retreat never harms the enemy, but decimates the battlefield, striking a fatal blow at the ideologies that mustered the conflict.
Value flexibility and smallness. That which is formless can live in truth with any part of the world, and it is in the nooks of the world that the one finds the hidden blue prints of all creation.
Openness is as powerful an act as decisiveness.
Do not dismiss, however, the value of fortitude and intensity. Many problems can be solved by judicious use of obvious power. Break down what needs to be broken, and weather the storms that threaten the good.
Manifest paradoxical virtues. Reject the notion that you are a physical object, capable of only being in one place, and must be only one thing and not the opposite as well. It is within the scope of your humanity to be both great and small, clever and clueless, broken and whole, everchanging and ever the same.
Complexify your language about your emotional life. For instance, saying "I'm happy," or "I'm sad," makes it seem like you couldn't be the other, since you clearly couldn't be both. So learn better words, or make them up, to express your experience. You may even find that a better linguistic approach actually complexifies your actual emotional experiences. What a wonder actually paying attention will do.
When words fail, smile, as these are moments of sublime humanity. Then resort to unreasonable metaphors.
The more you let yourself be, the more you will become. Emotions are not reactions to the world or a power to be harnessed, but the most honest manifestation of you humanity you will ever manage. Revel in them, reveal them, and never revile them. Being behind an action emotionally will contribute to the success of the act and influence the satisfaction associated with it. Nurture and develop your emotional life so that how you feel is colorful, nuanced, and unstoppable.
When you swear an oath, swear to the spirit and the word. Clever misinterpretation of honorable words isn't a novel activity. It does not prove your intellect. Rather, devote your brainpower to trying to discern the original intention of the words, and do your best to move that notion into the present.
Pay attention to what is an oath and what is a casual possibility. Do not sully the powerful act of commitment by assigning unreasonable significance to everything everyone says. Be realistic about what the speaker said about being there at 8:00 pm.
When fulfilling oaths, do so with a willing spirit. If your attitude is sullying the actions required to uphold your responsibility, adjust your attitude. No one wants to be an onerous obligation, and do yourself a favor and prevent the difficultly created by wanting something different than your obligation.
Swear oaths with the fullness of knowledge, beauty, and goodness. Words spoken in this perfect light will lead only toward right action. Realize that since a flawless understanding of the universe will often elude humanity, some commitments will be made erroneously. If a oath must be broken because it will lead to an evil end, recommit yourself to the newly understood good.
Become vulnerable. Foster in yourself a susceptibility to the events in your life when things are promising good. More is learned in a moment of weakness than an eon of strength.
Practice shifting your viewpoint. Exercise your ability to see things from the other side, the other other side, your original side again, the side that sees all sides, and back again. By systematically shifting perception when nothing is at stake you will develop you ability to do it when everything is at stake.
Violence is always wrong. No end ever justifies it. Seek all possible alternatives... creatively, too. Spare no effort or resource in the pursuit of a pacifistic means.
It is never an affront to dignity to be beaten. Pride, posing as honor, seeks to be the victor.
Purpose is the single greatest factor in living a satisfying life. Pain without purpose is arbitrary suffering. Pleasure without purpose is mere happiness. Pain with purpose is intentional sacrifice. Pleasure with purpose is lasting joy.
Be attentive to the resources that regenerate and those that do not. Give freely of the fruits that will replenish, and prevent others from squandering those that will not.
Never underestimate your power to change the world. The myth of impotence causes many moral people to amoralize a situation through despair. It is precisely the collaborative inaction of hopeless people that allow atrocities to continue. Act, and encourage the action of those around you.
Power is often weak. Potence is often edged and hardened to survive its own use. This rigidity can make the powerful unreactive and prone to shatter.
Weakness is often power. Submission and retreat never harms the enemy, but decimates the battlefield, striking a fatal blow at the ideologies that mustered the conflict.
Value flexibility and smallness. That which is formless can live in truth with any part of the world, and it is in the nooks of the world that the one finds the hidden blue prints of all creation.
Openness is as powerful an act as decisiveness.
Do not dismiss, however, the value of fortitude and intensity. Many problems can be solved by judicious use of obvious power. Break down what needs to be broken, and weather the storms that threaten the good.
Manifest paradoxical virtues. Reject the notion that you are a physical object, capable of only being in one place, and must be only one thing and not the opposite as well. It is within the scope of your humanity to be both great and small, clever and clueless, broken and whole, everchanging and ever the same.
Complexify your language about your emotional life. For instance, saying "I'm happy," or "I'm sad," makes it seem like you couldn't be the other, since you clearly couldn't be both. So learn better words, or make them up, to express your experience. You may even find that a better linguistic approach actually complexifies your actual emotional experiences. What a wonder actually paying attention will do.
When words fail, smile, as these are moments of sublime humanity. Then resort to unreasonable metaphors.
The more you let yourself be, the more you will become. Emotions are not reactions to the world or a power to be harnessed, but the most honest manifestation of you humanity you will ever manage. Revel in them, reveal them, and never revile them. Being behind an action emotionally will contribute to the success of the act and influence the satisfaction associated with it. Nurture and develop your emotional life so that how you feel is colorful, nuanced, and unstoppable.
When you swear an oath, swear to the spirit and the word. Clever misinterpretation of honorable words isn't a novel activity. It does not prove your intellect. Rather, devote your brainpower to trying to discern the original intention of the words, and do your best to move that notion into the present.
Pay attention to what is an oath and what is a casual possibility. Do not sully the powerful act of commitment by assigning unreasonable significance to everything everyone says. Be realistic about what the speaker said about being there at 8:00 pm.
When fulfilling oaths, do so with a willing spirit. If your attitude is sullying the actions required to uphold your responsibility, adjust your attitude. No one wants to be an onerous obligation, and do yourself a favor and prevent the difficultly created by wanting something different than your obligation.
Swear oaths with the fullness of knowledge, beauty, and goodness. Words spoken in this perfect light will lead only toward right action. Realize that since a flawless understanding of the universe will often elude humanity, some commitments will be made erroneously. If a oath must be broken because it will lead to an evil end, recommit yourself to the newly understood good.
Become vulnerable. Foster in yourself a susceptibility to the events in your life when things are promising good. More is learned in a moment of weakness than an eon of strength.
Practice shifting your viewpoint. Exercise your ability to see things from the other side, the other other side, your original side again, the side that sees all sides, and back again. By systematically shifting perception when nothing is at stake you will develop you ability to do it when everything is at stake.
Violence is always wrong. No end ever justifies it. Seek all possible alternatives... creatively, too. Spare no effort or resource in the pursuit of a pacifistic means.
It is never an affront to dignity to be beaten. Pride, posing as honor, seeks to be the victor.
Purpose is the single greatest factor in living a satisfying life. Pain without purpose is arbitrary suffering. Pleasure without purpose is mere happiness. Pain with purpose is intentional sacrifice. Pleasure with purpose is lasting joy.
Be attentive to the resources that regenerate and those that do not. Give freely of the fruits that will replenish, and prevent others from squandering those that will not.
Never underestimate your power to change the world. The myth of impotence causes many moral people to amoralize a situation through despair. It is precisely the collaborative inaction of hopeless people that allow atrocities to continue. Act, and encourage the action of those around you.
Day Two
Woke up with endless calm. Something is going very right here. Talked to my mom, Steve, sang with Marylou. Apart from some distracting work drama, the day is solid. Rock climbing is hot, but fun.
Now, while talking to John to fend off the infinitely empty house and I mention my unreasonable clarity, he says, "Yeah, I read it." Its then I realize that at the end of my frenzied writing I posted the document as a whole on my academic Google group. Sparked by the reminder, I start asking John about possible directions.
Long story short, this blog is the result of his suggestions. Its a place that can meter my thinking, create space for expansion, and organize my work. It also externalizes the process, making what might otherwise be a wholly introspective process extroverted.
Now we've started something.
Now, while talking to John to fend off the infinitely empty house and I mention my unreasonable clarity, he says, "Yeah, I read it." Its then I realize that at the end of my frenzied writing I posted the document as a whole on my academic Google group. Sparked by the reminder, I start asking John about possible directions.
Long story short, this blog is the result of his suggestions. Its a place that can meter my thinking, create space for expansion, and organize my work. It also externalizes the process, making what might otherwise be a wholly introspective process extroverted.
Now we've started something.
The Story (of Day One, that is)
Last night, on my late night freeway flying to see an old friend, I was struck by a particularly vibrant idea. It was one of those notions that stood out from the rest of my thoughts, distinct in its energy. Like it was more real than the others.
I want my life to be the complex and beautiful answer to this simple question -
How can I do the greatest possible good?
I didn't want to forget it. I wanted to write it down, or text it to someone. I thought about calling someone and having them write it down, but ruled it out because of the no hands phone laws. Ultimately I decided I would just have to trust in its independent life to reassert itself in my mind.
Hung out with the old friend, met some new ones, and the notion was gone. Not a second thought.
The moment I sat back in my car to fly home through the empty roads of LA (a spooky attribute of midnight driving in the City of Angels) the idea came into perfect clarity once again. It had been waiting. Now I sat, window down, as stars, office buildings, and headlights streak and twinkle, mulling it over in my head. How can I?
By the time I had arrived home, I had moved into a inner realm where fatigue has no power and all my ideas buzz nervously as they wait to be written down. I grab a few things from home, but then proceed to my office. Its my only connection to the electronic world.
Linkin Park is cranked, and so am I. The writing is less a rational pursuit and more of just... spewing. As I'm writing this idea, others start swirling in response. Its all I can do to keep up with it all. I hammer down two and a half hours of notions. No original ideas in this batch. Every one is a thing I've said, thought, acted on, or ranted about.
Pet peeves...
Personal realizations...
Criticisms of society...
Responses to classic philosophical dilemmas...
Calls to arms...
It all just comes out. The I is me, and confidently. The you is similarly authoritative. Even though I've been through each of these ideas in the past, there is something different going on here. A kind of inertia or gestalt to this process, like each of these little gems is contextualized by the others. Like what was a haze or cloud was suddenly becoming very, very solid.
Oh, like a bunch of floating glaciers that had been kinda aimlessly making their way through the flow that suddenly collided, slowly, but with such inertia that they instantly fused to each other. Just like that.
I end, not with the ending, just at the point that I'm confident that I've really started something.
I want my life to be the complex and beautiful answer to this simple question -
How can I do the greatest possible good?
I didn't want to forget it. I wanted to write it down, or text it to someone. I thought about calling someone and having them write it down, but ruled it out because of the no hands phone laws. Ultimately I decided I would just have to trust in its independent life to reassert itself in my mind.
Hung out with the old friend, met some new ones, and the notion was gone. Not a second thought.
The moment I sat back in my car to fly home through the empty roads of LA (a spooky attribute of midnight driving in the City of Angels) the idea came into perfect clarity once again. It had been waiting. Now I sat, window down, as stars, office buildings, and headlights streak and twinkle, mulling it over in my head. How can I?
By the time I had arrived home, I had moved into a inner realm where fatigue has no power and all my ideas buzz nervously as they wait to be written down. I grab a few things from home, but then proceed to my office. Its my only connection to the electronic world.
Linkin Park is cranked, and so am I. The writing is less a rational pursuit and more of just... spewing. As I'm writing this idea, others start swirling in response. Its all I can do to keep up with it all. I hammer down two and a half hours of notions. No original ideas in this batch. Every one is a thing I've said, thought, acted on, or ranted about.
Pet peeves...
Personal realizations...
Criticisms of society...
Responses to classic philosophical dilemmas...
Calls to arms...
It all just comes out. The I is me, and confidently. The you is similarly authoritative. Even though I've been through each of these ideas in the past, there is something different going on here. A kind of inertia or gestalt to this process, like each of these little gems is contextualized by the others. Like what was a haze or cloud was suddenly becoming very, very solid.
Oh, like a bunch of floating glaciers that had been kinda aimlessly making their way through the flow that suddenly collided, slowly, but with such inertia that they instantly fused to each other. Just like that.
I end, not with the ending, just at the point that I'm confident that I've really started something.
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