19 June 2007

News from Hollywood...

Holy shit.

This completely boggles my mind. Is one of the big nine actually talking about a television program as if it were real? As if it had any bearing how we should rule ourselves? I'm still reeling a little bit and rubbing my eyes and going 'WAH?' a la Jon Stewart.

I even read the article from globeandmail.com and I still can't figure it out. I want so desperately to believe that legitimate lawmakers and the judicature were just going through some playful banter.

I can see part of what was being argued. Should the allowance of beyond-Geneva-Conventions methods be shown on television as praised with no repercussions? I would say no, since we are (vainly and foolishly) trying to set a moral example for the world, we ought not let people think we can get away with the awful for a good cause. And if it were kept to that, fine.

But there is a line out there, that we all know and feel, and it is the borders of reality. There is a great difference between what is actually present and happening in the world and what are the fictions we create to either understand or at least get through those realities. Once those fictions are spoken of as if they actually happened, and if they have even remote bearing in our lives, then we are back in Socrates' cave.

To inaccurately quote a line from Rocky and Bullwinkle, when Rocky was pursuing a train. Here are the conductors:
"I think I'm going crazy, Edgar"
"Why's that, Jonesy?"
"Because if squirrels are chasing us, we must be nuts."

12 June 2007

Marcus Aurelius...

Just opening up my book of Marcus Aurelius' reflections, I came across this:

Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.
[Book 4, Part 17]

It seems oddly appropriate after my previous post.

While on the topic, I would recommend The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius to anyone. It is broken up into small thoughts and ideas that speak volumes. Nearly every single phrase is applicable to life somewhere. It has given me more wisdom and has reaffirmed other ideas I have attempted to live by. Also, for some reason, it is a calming book. I can open it up to any page and lose myself for a little bit. One passage, and I neurons are flying in all directions, removing me from a moment and I cannot help but to simply contemplate. It's lovely.

I'm in Heaven...

Yesterday evening, I was cooking dinner. I had some giant kosher hot dogs on the grill, and the sun had sunk low enough in the sky to shade part of my deck. So, while the dogs were cooking, I sat down on a padded chair next to my son, and read the newspaper. He, in all his adorability, took on of the other sections of the paper to 'read' too. There was a pleasant breeze putting the shade at a perfect temperature. My beautiful wife came out to join us, reading her favorite author. There was nothing beyond that deck that concerned us in any way. It was a perfect slice of time that froze, and I watched it and consumed it for what felt like all the time in the world.


I do not know when or how, but long ago I ceased to believe in an afterlife. It simply does not make sense to me, and it comes across as a rather egotistical notion to think that of all the creatures to which we are kin, that for some odd reason, we may be granted eternity. We are all bound by the same laws of life and death, physics, thermodynamics, genetics, etc. To think that we have been given even more beyond our gifts of reason and mastery of earthly materials is rather presumptuous.

My studies have also confirmed that others see the idea of eternal damnation/salvation as I do. Namely, it is only a tool created and perpetuated to keep people in line. The reward of an eternal life beyond one's current misery by following the rules and listening to people in charge certainly sounds like false hope. The master will always tell the slave, 'next go around, you'll be free.'

However, the touch, the spark of the divine is not absent from my life. I just do not see a time for me to exist beyond where I am in this form. Nor do I want it. There are too many questions, too many different sets of rules, to know exactly how to wind up in the good portion of an afterlife.

The lack of a beyond is not a point of depression for me. It is quite the opposite; it is a motivation. This is all I have. Why do poorly and wrong in this life, then? It's my one chance to live. It is short, and above all, finite. I have no control over that. But I will have a say in whether it will be nasty and brutish.

I do believe in heaven and in hell, of sorts. For me, they do not coming in the hereafter, I rise into and delve into both during moments of my life. There are times when the soul boils when experiencing or witnessing something terrible. It can be personal or impersonal, but it makes one squint at an indefinable pain that exists only on a metaphysical level. Hopefully, those moments are rare, especially so they are never dulled. When dulled, the awful may happen beyond what one should reasonably have to put up with.

There are in life those opposite moments, too. Those times in hell do get burned into the mind, yes. The heavenly, though, are encapsulated in the heart. They are those moments when, even as they are happening, you can step outside of yourself and watch and realize that you are in fact in heaven. And they are remembered well, too. Those moments in heaven become treasures that can be returned to whenever wanted, and more importantly, when needed.

So yesterday evening I was cooking dinner, and I wound up in heaven.

07 June 2007

What a Wonderful World...

Looks like human beings still remember how to make the world around them a good place. And this time, it happened in my neck of the woods.

05 June 2007

A Slow Day...

I can't help but feel a little disappointed.

How am I supposed to break this to my son?

01 June 2007

An Apology...

I must apologize to my teeming masses of readers and groupies for not having my usual amounts of larger, more legitimate posts of my own thoughts as of late. Being in education, this is by far the most busy time of year and my personal life is somewhat full during the latter half of May as well. Rest assured, there will be more coming, especially with summer vacation around the corner. I am slowly but surely researching into the current immigration debate, namely because what I keep hearing and reading is becoming increasingly troubling.

Bless your hearts for continuing to return and bearing with me.

It Begs the Question...

Am I a douchebag?

Of course, in my fanciful and carefree days of adolescence, I used the term regularly on friends and offensive people alike.

I particularly like the basic definition by Grant Barrett being "somebody who can't help but to be an asshole."