Thursday, September 25, 2008
Back to School
Wow, I really am a terrible blogger, as well as a terrible student. It's been a long time since I've written anything in this blog... that makes me sad. Not only have I not written in a while, but the only time that I do write in this thing is when I have numerous other things to do. I don't write when I have immeasurable time on my hands during the summer, but somehow I feel the need to do so as soon as school starts. Nothing wonderfully profound is happening in my life (or in my brain), so there isn't much to write about. As soon as I start reading crazy psych books there will definitely be some material. That's about all I got.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
All the World is a Stage
I was surfing blogs and I came across this passage from the blog "Wilson Boys 3" and it made me think:
"Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don't make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won't be applauding... When you help someone out, don't think about how it looks. Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively.That is the way your God,who conceived you in love,working behind the scenes,helps you out." Matthew 6:1-4 (in the bible)
The old adage "the world is a stage", in my opinion, doesn't go out the window with this quote. The way I interpret this is that the world is a stage... we're just not the actors. We need to stand back and admit that there are more beautiful performances than our own. I know that I would much rather be backstage making sure everything ran smoothly, or better yet, in the audience observing something truly beautiful for the first time and hoping that tickets for the next show aren't sold out... because their going fast.
"Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don't make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won't be applauding... When you help someone out, don't think about how it looks. Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively.That is the way your God,who conceived you in love,working behind the scenes,helps you out." Matthew 6:1-4 (in the bible)
The old adage "the world is a stage", in my opinion, doesn't go out the window with this quote. The way I interpret this is that the world is a stage... we're just not the actors. We need to stand back and admit that there are more beautiful performances than our own. I know that I would much rather be backstage making sure everything ran smoothly, or better yet, in the audience observing something truly beautiful for the first time and hoping that tickets for the next show aren't sold out... because their going fast.
Jokes
I may randomly sprinkle my blog with random jokes that I may find amusing. Mostly to entertain me... but... if others enjoy them... well that's good too. Oh look! A joke!
A Stanford research group advertised for participants in a study of obsessive-compulsive disorder. They were looking for therapy clients who had been diagnosed with this disorder. The response was gratifying; they got 3,000 responses about three days after the ad came out... All from the same person.
Oh psych jokes...
A Stanford research group advertised for participants in a study of obsessive-compulsive disorder. They were looking for therapy clients who had been diagnosed with this disorder. The response was gratifying; they got 3,000 responses about three days after the ad came out... All from the same person.
Oh psych jokes...
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Balance
A couple things this week got me thinking... they made me make some observations about how the world works. The first thing was a joke I got from my Cousin which is as fallows:
Once upon a time in the Kingdom of Heaven, God was missing for six days. Eventually, Michael the archangel found him, resting on the seventh day. He inquired of God, "Where have you been?"
God sighed a deep sigh of satisfaction and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds, "Look Michael, look what I've made." Archangel Michael looked puzzled and said, "What is it?"
"It's a planet," replied God, "and I've put Life on it. I'm going to call it Earth and it's going to be a great place of balance." "Balance?", inquired Michael, still confused.
God explained, pointing to different parts of earth, "For example, Northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth while Southern Europe is going to be poor; the Middle East over there will be a hot spot" God continued, pointing to different countries "This country will be extremely hot and arid while this one will be very cold and covered in ice."
The Archangel, impressed by God's work, then pointed to a large land mass and said, "What's that one?"
"Ah," said God. "That's Wisconsin, the most glorious place on earth. You'll notice that it is made in the fashion of my hand, the Hand of God. There are beautiful lakes, rivers, sunsets and rolling hills. The people from Wisconsin are going to be modest, intelligent and humorous and they are going to be found traveling the world. They will be extremely sociable, hard working and high achieving, and they will be known throughout the world as diplomats and carriers of peace."
Michael gasped in wonder and admiration but then proclaimed, "What about balance, God?" "You said there would be balance!"
God replied wisely, "Wait until you see the idiots I'm putting around them in Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois and Iowa."
Being from Wisconsin, I thought this was hilarious but it did point out something important about society: its polar nature. The second excerpt that I read emphasized the true importance of this seemingly mundane observation. The excerpt came from a document telling an origin story of Ethiopian Christianity; the story is called the Kebra Negast and the excerpt goes as such:
"That which fools heap up the wise consume. And because of the wickedness of those who do evil the righteous are praised; and because of the wicked acts of fools the wise are beloved."
The Kebra Negast made me realize that the world isn't arbitrarily full of opposites, in order for one thing to exist, there needs to a contrary. This necessary polarity is a driving force that I take for granted far too often. In order for there to be evil there must be good, in order for their to be hot there must be cold, in order for there to be an up there needs to be a down, in order for a person to be right another must be wrong, and in order for me to enjoy my large meal... someone else must starve. Without one thing, there is nothing to compare the other one to and that thing would not exist. If we took away the one sensation of temperature (warm/hot), there is only cold and therefore we would not measure temperature; or if we only took away the temperatures that we would consider warm, there would be left a spectrum of cold, the highest temperature of which we would call warm. We would call 40 degrees Fahrenheit hot because it isn't near as cold as 2 degrees Fahrenheit.
Admittedly, not everything is as black and white as this observation makes it seem, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't, to some degree, let one determine some motivations. What I'm saying is this: if one has in mind that everything that they think of has, in their mind, been compared/contrasted with something else (most likely unconsciously), then they can try to determine what experience they were using to come to that conclusion. In theory one could learn a great deal about themselves through exploring the motives that drive their everyday actions/words.
Once again, this goes back to my talk about construction of views; if one can consciously think about the frame from which they see the world, they can know more about themselves. If one can know ones self, they can apply that knowledge to the world around them, building on that foundation.
Once upon a time in the Kingdom of Heaven, God was missing for six days. Eventually, Michael the archangel found him, resting on the seventh day. He inquired of God, "Where have you been?"
God sighed a deep sigh of satisfaction and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds, "Look Michael, look what I've made." Archangel Michael looked puzzled and said, "What is it?"
"It's a planet," replied God, "and I've put Life on it. I'm going to call it Earth and it's going to be a great place of balance." "Balance?", inquired Michael, still confused.
God explained, pointing to different parts of earth, "For example, Northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth while Southern Europe is going to be poor; the Middle East over there will be a hot spot" God continued, pointing to different countries "This country will be extremely hot and arid while this one will be very cold and covered in ice."
The Archangel, impressed by God's work, then pointed to a large land mass and said, "What's that one?"
"Ah," said God. "That's Wisconsin, the most glorious place on earth. You'll notice that it is made in the fashion of my hand, the Hand of God. There are beautiful lakes, rivers, sunsets and rolling hills. The people from Wisconsin are going to be modest, intelligent and humorous and they are going to be found traveling the world. They will be extremely sociable, hard working and high achieving, and they will be known throughout the world as diplomats and carriers of peace."
Michael gasped in wonder and admiration but then proclaimed, "What about balance, God?" "You said there would be balance!"
God replied wisely, "Wait until you see the idiots I'm putting around them in Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois and Iowa."
Being from Wisconsin, I thought this was hilarious but it did point out something important about society: its polar nature. The second excerpt that I read emphasized the true importance of this seemingly mundane observation. The excerpt came from a document telling an origin story of Ethiopian Christianity; the story is called the Kebra Negast and the excerpt goes as such:
"That which fools heap up the wise consume. And because of the wickedness of those who do evil the righteous are praised; and because of the wicked acts of fools the wise are beloved."
The Kebra Negast made me realize that the world isn't arbitrarily full of opposites, in order for one thing to exist, there needs to a contrary. This necessary polarity is a driving force that I take for granted far too often. In order for there to be evil there must be good, in order for their to be hot there must be cold, in order for there to be an up there needs to be a down, in order for a person to be right another must be wrong, and in order for me to enjoy my large meal... someone else must starve. Without one thing, there is nothing to compare the other one to and that thing would not exist. If we took away the one sensation of temperature (warm/hot), there is only cold and therefore we would not measure temperature; or if we only took away the temperatures that we would consider warm, there would be left a spectrum of cold, the highest temperature of which we would call warm. We would call 40 degrees Fahrenheit hot because it isn't near as cold as 2 degrees Fahrenheit.
Admittedly, not everything is as black and white as this observation makes it seem, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't, to some degree, let one determine some motivations. What I'm saying is this: if one has in mind that everything that they think of has, in their mind, been compared/contrasted with something else (most likely unconsciously), then they can try to determine what experience they were using to come to that conclusion. In theory one could learn a great deal about themselves through exploring the motives that drive their everyday actions/words.
Once again, this goes back to my talk about construction of views; if one can consciously think about the frame from which they see the world, they can know more about themselves. If one can know ones self, they can apply that knowledge to the world around them, building on that foundation.
Judgement
Let's talk about judgement... and I don't mean the wrath of God kind (though it may be referenced), that's a different blog entirely. I mean the kind of judgment where we look at a person and/or have a conversation with that person and immediately after (or during) this experience we begin to make assumptions about that person. First of all I'm going to quote a very wise person (I don't know who said it first) "to assume makes an ass out of u and me". To assume something about a person is the first mistake, because, though you may be right sometimes, you just look like an ass when you're wrong. I'm not trying to sit up on my high horse here and say that I don't judge people, because I know I do and, to be quite frank, I feel like an ass when I do. As I mentioned in "Construction of Views", as human beings, there is no way for us to know the "truth". That is why we shouldn't assume that we "know" something about a person; they can never know the truth about themselves, let alone someone else. Similar to religion, we should not be discouraged by the fact that we cannot know the truth, but take joy in knowing that it exists.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Construction of views
A discussion that we had today in my religious studies class really struck a chord with me. Part of the reason it did was probably because it had formed because of something I wrote on my midterm. My professor quoted my answer to spur some conversation. The question being answered was about how people put religious texts into a "convenient context", meaning whatever works best for us at the time. My quote was this: "No matter what, as humans, we will always perceive things in our own context and think what we will, whether we are right or wrong." Soon after the Prof. read this to the class one of my classmates posed the thought that my idea assumes that there is a right and wrong. At first I agreed that the last part of the statement seemed to contradict the first half and that it should possibly be omitted from my idea, but after I thought about it for a little bit I decided that the second half should stay. There is a right or wrong, it's just not something that human beings can truly know (we're not talking about someone's opinion that is right or wrong, it's from a higher power). That is what religion is for... it is a lens through which we attempt to view the what can't be viewed; I know this seems like a very pessimistic statement (that we can't know the truth), but the usefulness of religion is not in its accuracy of the true forms, but in its faith that those forms exist.
I'm going to head in a slightly different direction now... same quote but different train of thought; this one kind of relates to how we learn. A statement my professor made got me thinking about this. He kind of disagreed with my quote, at least in the context of studying religion. He said something along the lines of: "In order to study religion we need to pull away from our own framework and try to view things from another framework." I agree with him; in order to study something, one needs to view it as objectively as possible. The part about his statement that I disagree with is "pull away from our own framework." The way I see it, one cannot be perfectly objective of a situation. Even if you try to be as objective as possible, you still present what you have found in your objective viewing within the context of what you know, automatically biasing you. "What you know" includes a pretty wide spectrum of ideas... including language; by simply thinking about something in English symbols one is biased. The only thing we can do when trying to come to any conclusions is gather as many views as possible, biased or not, and make them into a whole new framework.
Profound statement of the day: Learning is all about construction... the more complex and numerous the materials put in are, the more beautifully complex the product will be. Enrich.
I'm going to head in a slightly different direction now... same quote but different train of thought; this one kind of relates to how we learn. A statement my professor made got me thinking about this. He kind of disagreed with my quote, at least in the context of studying religion. He said something along the lines of: "In order to study religion we need to pull away from our own framework and try to view things from another framework." I agree with him; in order to study something, one needs to view it as objectively as possible. The part about his statement that I disagree with is "pull away from our own framework." The way I see it, one cannot be perfectly objective of a situation. Even if you try to be as objective as possible, you still present what you have found in your objective viewing within the context of what you know, automatically biasing you. "What you know" includes a pretty wide spectrum of ideas... including language; by simply thinking about something in English symbols one is biased. The only thing we can do when trying to come to any conclusions is gather as many views as possible, biased or not, and make them into a whole new framework.
Profound statement of the day: Learning is all about construction... the more complex and numerous the materials put in are, the more beautifully complex the product will be. Enrich.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Welcome!
Welcome to my blog. I'll do my best to write whenever I have any thoughts that I find profound in any way. My goal for this blog is to find me. I've discovered as of late, that in order for me to be able to effectively relate to others and begin to understand them, I must continually do my best to relate to myself. This blog is a record of things that I see in my everyday wanderings that help and hinder my ideas about my life. I hope that the contents of this thing, at the very least, amuse you, and at most, open some sort of door in your mind. Let the semi-coherent ramblings begin!
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