I listen to a radio station that gives little ditties for blurbs throughout the day. They are supposed to be humorous, sometimes sarcastic. A person pretends to be a caller speaking to an answering machine. Every blurb starts off with "Hey Jack." Today's blurb was supposed to be funny, but it had that ring of truth in it where humor eases the pain of hearing something profound.
"Hey Jack, today I found the truth, but it didn't make any sense."
This has certainly been my experience over the last 20 years. People's truths seem to be contradictory sometimes, or incomplete, disconnected from reality, shallow, unproven, or notional. Even the hardest core truths from my teenage years and early 20s now seem oversimplified and untrue. Certainly they were untested. The landscape is different now.
I'm not saying I have found the truth because sometimes truth comes in multiples. Truth now seems so relative, a lot less absolute. And, I've found that my truth doesn't make sense always with what other people find to be true. Imagine that.
It was an interesting project. I had read about this before, but had never really pursued it. I had often wondered if it would be easy or hard. Now I know.
Is there such a thing as deceptive advertising? Of course, the answer depends on perspective, as do most things in life. I heard the commercial (but not the one above from YouTube. This one is just an example of representing the possibilities) and tried to decide from that if I thought anything was deceptive. A lot of things came to mind. But I had to evaluate the possibilities so I had to analyze with more than the ear.
The bottom line was to defend a position on whether the commercial was deceptive or not. I had often wondered if it would be easy or hard to defend a position about deception in a commercial. Yep, it was a piece of cake. And, like everything dealing with perspective and interpretation, it leaves others thinking how can you sleep at night? Easy. I just wash my hands after its over. On to the next thing.
I needed to do 100 things today. But instead, I did only one thing. Here it is in the middle of winter in one of those mid-winter breaks from the cold weather. So far, the month of January has been 10 degrees on average lower than normal. Then we hit this 4-day pocket of warm air. It was a lovely 72.
My granddaughter wanted only one thing - to go walking. That's usually what we do in warm weather. She loves it. We go to the creek, find some rocks to throw in the stream, wander aimlessly down the creek watching birds, airplanes, and stray cars that come by. It's a good hour before we return to home base.
I needed to do 100 things, but only one was accomplished before work today. It was worth it to walk with such an angel who sees no evil around her, who soaks in everything she discovers on her walks, who says hi to all the walkers on the trail regardless of age, who still has the exuberance of living each day to its fullest that so many of us have forgotten how to do.
It relaxed me to be with her. I didn't once worry about what was not getting done. The rest of my day went well, but mainly because I did one thing not 100... the one right thing, the linchpin of my day.
I get lost in art, usually. It liberates my mind. It helps me see something from many different angles. It allows me to see that possibilities exist that I haven't bothered to see before. It allows me to think, If that is true, then why is my present thinking true?
Some pieces are more thought-provoking than its sister pictures, and then there are those that make me click the pause button. I have to take in the symbolism and the message before going to the next.
In the video above, the picture changes every 5 seconds. There are about 68 pieces of modern art. Enjoy the next 4:00 of your life. You're going to have your mind liberated.
A church in Florida is named Relevant Church (one in Atlanta too for that matter). I guess that's good. But, to me it's a sad thing that a church has to use the word relevant as a separate word in its name. That tells me some things about the culture I live in.
It tells me first of all that people in Florida don't understand that the word church implies relevancy. Quite the opposite, I think. It is checked out from people's lives, has an aging population, and is otherwise engaged in serving itself. Doctrines are no good because they don't connect to one's daily life. Wouldn't that be something if the other churches in Florida all put irrelevant in front of their names? I guess they already do since it seems to be implied in the name.
I think a ton of people know what the Floridans know about the word church. In the semantics of that word is the word irrelevant. While that is not the same as dying, it has the same effect. Modern people want something that is needful and efficient. Until that happens, I believe groups of people socializing in a needless, inefficient way will go the way of the obsolescent buildings that contain them.
I mean, if you have to put the word relevant in the name on the sign...
The cultural aspects of sacred books don't seem to figure much into the practice of the people using those books. People seem to want to do the things specified in the books even if the culture of today doesn't use or even think about practices specified from ages and ages ago. I had a discussion with a young man not long ago, who was not particularly knowledgeable of the Bible, comparing the laws of the Old Testament with another ancient law code (Hammurapi's) and with modern American laws. He had no trouble at all commenting about how things had changed and how modern laws were so much better, more humane than the old laws of both the codes.
He thought, for example it was much more humane to have prisons than to kill or mutilate (like taking a hand off). Expediency in dealing immediately with the crime wasn't a consideration for him over having another chance. He thought it was much better to wait time than to have swiftness of punishment. I noticed also that he didn't have any trouble with some of the laws being outdated or not in step with modern lifestyle. For example, one law said that if a groom was disappointed with not getting a virgin for a wife, he should produce the sheets from the wedding night. He mentioned that that law was of particular notice for being very out of touch with today's reality.
Finally, he spoke of the two law codes from the ancient world using the phrase tagged to the end the laws that they were in effect "for all time." American law has a better system he thought because of the built-in mechanism to change laws with an amendment process.
If I have a main beef with modern religion, it is that it doesn't account for what has happened in the world since the sacred book was written. God is unchanging they say. Well, even if that is true of God, it isn't the case for humans. When we moderns look up at the skies, for example, in our world, we know that the sky looks like it revolves around the Earth but it is because of the Earth's movement mainly, but also its movement in conjunction with other bodies. We know distances between planets and stars. We know exactly what the surface of at least two other celestial bodies look like because we've been there. We know that our system is heliocentric, not geocentric. We know what other galaxies' shapes are and our galaxy's place among other star systems is (one of trillions). We entertain life existing on other planets rather than dieties coming to our own.
There's a disconnect in the world today with that of a view from a previous time. And, not a small one as exemplified in the paragraph above. Orientation is unequivocally different. The change in laws systems is a great analog to point out the disparate viewpoints between two cultures separated in time. That's really bothersome to me and the reason why religion seems to be, like the bodies in the universe, moving away from position it has held as the center of modern life.
For every story there is a back story. It's always interesting to hear what happened for events to come together, to know what went on behind the scenes before the show started.
So what happened to make the Phillip Phillips the American Idol choice of 2012 and one of the most popular idols in the aftermath of his win? The back story is that he grew up in a "no-nothing" swamp town of less than 3,000 people after age 12. The median income of the town was roughly $29,000. Only 10% of the population was 10 or younger. It didn't appear that this boy would make anything of himself. He didn't even pick up a guitar until age 14.
His brother-in-law taught him how to play the guitar. That, too, usually doesn't usually mean the person being taught will end up in the category of "really talented." He grew up in the 90s and early 2000s listening to the 60s and 70s music of Jimi Hendrix and Led Zepplin. Really! However, he graduated to the Dave Matthews band after learning to play the guitar, which is reflected in his own style.
How he became great is simply a matter of family values. His family was all about being close and enduring to the end once something is started. America was ready for this no-nonsense, determined personality, appreciating his risk in using his own style, and his down-home, home-spun kind of singing. If that's what America was looking for, then Phillip was the perfect candidate. America not only liked his style but his determination because he had a very painful bout with kidney stones during the competition that would have caused most people to drop out of the contest. But viewers wanted to show their love for that family value of finishing something and finishing strong against adversity. That's the back story for a young man who was in the right place at the right time.
Back story is important. Phillip Phillips had the right background at a time that America wanted exactly what he had to offer. Right time, right place was the catalyst for his ingredients. And Phillip Phillips is now a rising star.
It's not often I dedicate space to write about two losers.
I need to go back to 1975. Loser number 1 (L1) graduated with an economics degree from a little college in Connecticut that no one ever hears of. He took all that knowledge of economics and hired on as a $25 a game assistant to a head coach in the NFL. Yeah, a loser would do that. In 1976, L1 switched teams, but still coached in one of those assistants to the assistant loser positions. He repeated his losing act in 1977.
I mention 1977 because that is when loser number 2 was born (L2) in an average-sized town in California. He went to a private high school, but he didn't really graduate with an economic advantage over anyone else. After graduation his hopes ran high because he was drafted by the Major League Baseball team Montreal Expos. That faded rather quickly as happens to all losers.
L1 ended up with the New York Giants working as an assistant to the defensive coach with special teams and linebackers. He had this loser, unnotable job for 8 years. L2 in the meantime went to Michigan after washing out in the baseball pros, tried out for football, and was 7th on the depth rating chart for the University of Michigan. What a loser. He even went to a psychologist to cope with his failure as an athlete.
The great coach Bill Parcells had mercy on L1, giving him a chance at being a defensive coordinator. He showed a little promise, but Parcells moved on. Cleveland, in 1991 decided to take a chance on L1, but true to his losing nature, he won less than 50% of his games as head coach, so he was dismissed. Loser coach, loser team. He hooked up with Parcells again to be his assistant coach, just trying to hang on.
L2 didn't quit football at Michigan, but his first two years were bench-riding years. He worked hard and moved up the depth chart, but not to a starting position. Finally, he was given a chance to starts his last year to play and he won some, but he had the knack of being behind at the end, he pulled out most of them, but he was not seen as having a lot of talent. Accordingly, given his choice to turn pro, he was taken in the sixth round of the 2000 draft, #199 to be exact, the equivalent of being 7th on the depth chart. Loser.
That was the same year that L1 got caught up in a squabble between the New York Jets, New England Patriots, and Bill Parcells. As a result of some last minute swaps and trades and squabbling, L1 ended up being the head coach again at New England. New England who? Yeah, a loser team. Drew Bledsoe, a very decent quarterback, couldn't even pull the Patriots from their faltering status. Bledsoe started for the team with three backups. Yeah, backup #4 was L2
The year 2000 was no magical year. L1's record that season was 5 wins, 11 losses, like his losing Cleveland head coaching days. L2 never entered a game but did work his way up to #2 quarterback. Nevertheless #2 is a bench position. Right, benchrider - Loser!
SOMETHING HAPPENED.
In the second game of the 2001 season, in the fourth quarter, Bledsoe was injured. L1 sent L2 into the game. Oh, good call. Loser number 1 sends loser number 2 into a game.
Tonight Tom Brady and Bill Belichick go to the Superbowl for the 6th time in 13 years. Unprecedented. They have all kinds of NFL history records between the two of them. The New England Patriots have superseded all other franchises in many ways. If L1 and L2 win, both will go into the history books as the best ever, the most elite of all NFL history.
Yep, losers - posing as the most successful winners in the most popular sport in America. Hopefully, that is a story to give everyone hope. It should give hope on several levels. One level is to enjoy the satisfaction of working with people that complement us. Another is to work with someone who can showcase talent. Another is to see enjoyable fruits from your labor. When we are L1 or L2, we can at some time know that something will happen to give us satisfaction, to showcase our talent, and to see enjoyable fruits from our labor.
Three counties in north Texas, Dallas, Tarrant, and Denton, have about 10 million people within their county lines. Considering the population of the United States, that's but a drop in the bucket, about 3%. If I compare the number 10 million to the world's population, it is not even a drop in the bucket, but a microscopic fragment of dust, 1.5 of 1%, or .00015.
That's about the same number of Catalan speakers in the world. They're from a region of Spain known as Catalonia, in which the main city is Barcelona. People know Spanish there, certainly, but they nearly all know Catalan. The number of speakers of Catalan is approximately 10 million. So my chances of meeting someone who speaks Catalan, a language spoken by 1 1/2 of 1 percent of the world's population, living in a country across the Atlantic Ocean in a small area of a small country in Europe. would be minuscule, almost non-existent.
A few days ago, I was in my little pocket of the world working. I was introduced to a young lady. I asked her where she was from. "Barcelona," she said. "Do you speak Spanish?" I asked. "Yes, and Catalan, too," she replied.
Imagine my surprise and my first thought. It's my lucky day. 1 in about a 50 million chance. I should play the lottery. Her accent in English was an interesting mix of three languages. She was in the U.S. with her husband who was here on a work visa. Wow, Catalan - I should be so lucky. The language will probably disappear over the next couple of centuries and be subsumed by the surrounding Spanish language. But, lucky me. I got to hear a language spoken by some of the fewest speakers in the world.
Now if I were to judge my luck for the coming year on this experience... no, I probably shouldn't go that far.
Humans on Mars? Of course, and it will happen in my lifetime if it happens somewhere between now and 2040. If Elon Musk has his way, it will happen in the next decade. We'll see.
But when we do land on Mars, it will be, as it always is, a tribute to all that has gone before, to the foundation that has been established. And, what has gone before? Oh, at this point it has only been all the rover landings and probe landings that have been sent. We have found out much from the 23 missions. For example, 6 of those missions were not successful. They were mostly in the early going of trips to Mars. But, each failure was important because of what we learned. The successful trips were important for the same reason. We learn either way.
But we know more about Mars than merely our own missions provide. At the moment, along with the six operational orbiters and landers around and on the planet, India has an operational orbiter and the European Union has an operational lander collecting information, a lot of which we don't have or know. China will try again; they lost a mother ship and orbiter in 2011 as did Russia. Both countries will send again as soon as their economies become robust again.
For all countries, 51 missions to Mars have been attempted and less than half of them have been successful. I'm impressed with the tenacity of the human spirit. I think it has always been this way. Which is a message to me if I think about it. I have tried a number of endeavors in my lifetime. Some of them didn't work out, probably at least half of them, just like the Mars missions. The ones that haven't worked out have taught me much about people and life. The U.S. has been successful on its last 7 trips. I hope that kind of success rate after early failures will be true of my experience too. Once a person learns, success follows. I'm counting on that.
In 8 minutes you can experience what the world is about to be like - not in 100 years from now, nor even in 25 years from now. But now, next year, and about 5 years from now.
This should radically, I say RADICALLY, I mean RADICALLY change the way education approaches preparation for the next generation. Underestimating these certain directions in experiencing the world won't merely set a person back in being a productive member of society, it will relegate him to an unrecoverable disadvantage in quality of life and ability to generate income for normal, regular day-to-day living. Underestimation of this direction will sink one's boat to the bottom of the ocean.
I didn't think I would live so long as to see a self-driving car, but it's here. It's not commercially productive yet, but we're on the five-year countdown now. That's the average time it takes to go from convention show floor to dealership show floor. All those buttons and knobs have changed to icons in a display. Everything is regulated by touching and setting parameters, never by turning or twisting or pushing anything - wipers included. All of this since 2007, the advent of the iPhone.
And now cars can see. At least, that's the way to say it using human analogy. Sensors are everywhere on a car so that it can drive itself. It calculates speed, road position, and objects ahead, behind, and to the side microsecond by microsecond.
Amazing. And it will impact the world. And it will impact how a person lives and works in the world. And it will completely leave behind those in the world who don't want to join the new direction the world has taken. And I pity them because they will be fossils in less than a New York minute!!!
Chris Young's lyrics in his song I Hear Voices represents a great principle of psychology. The original term used in the discipline was inner talk or self talk. There are various other terms now used, but the idea is the same. "Voices" is as good a term as any. It represents what guides our actions and decision making.
I know what guides me in these ways. There are fewer and fewer decisions made and actions taken that I have to think about for any length of time. It's easier too project outcomes or plausible scenarios. There is a logic this line of thinking follows. Computer programmers have dealt with loops and nested loops for years - the "if => then" loop.
I think the voices have changed for me over the years. Experience does that for a person. But I still have voices I listen to. The self talk is more assured. Every day I act and make decisions.
Sometimes new years are merely extensions of the year gone by. And at other times new year's bring with them things that are really new. This year I have a couple of new ventures that I have never done before, never tried before, and never saw coming before now.
Experiences are supposed to build so that one leads to another and that leads to another, building block style. But some experiences just happen as anomalies. They don't seem to be connected or so loosely connected that the true connection is lost at first glance. My normal experience is the former. This year, however, the latter is going to happen.
In some ways, I can see great promise. In other ways, I can see setback. If the ventures work, it will alter my path. If they don't work out, it will force me back onto the old trusted path of the past. All of my formal training will get put to the test in ways that I hope have prepared me well. It's a little like pilots trusting their instruments when landing in fog when they can't see the runway. I'll just have to trust my training.
I have always heard the saying that people need a little something of the new and a little something of the old in their lives. The last two and a half years I have had a little something of the old. So, here goes in 2015 - a little of the something new. Bring it!
