Selling addictive happiness

Now if I were going sell a drink to the public that contained a drug that was addictive, I would find it hard to find many buyers for it other than the current market of drug users.  But what if I could create a jingle that had pleasant, modern music and appealed to the young crowd so that I could hook them for life and make money hand over fist.  People would surely call me the pied piper and strenuously condemn my agenda.

I think it has happened, though.

Yeah!!!  Open happiness.

You'll start and end your day with this drink.  You share it with friends... and more friends... and more and more friends.  It's a drink that has everyone's name on it.  It's for both genders and all races. You might even fall in love while you're drinking it.

And the best part... You'll keep coming back around.

Coming back (as in continuous)     around (as in continuous)    keep (as in continuous)     will (as in the future)

Right... addictive.  But's it's the best selling drink in the world.  And we're happy about it.  We love to open happiness.

Be careful, Poppy

I was walking out the front door for work the other day with my granddaughter right behind me.  She was wishing me a good day and was going to close the door behind me as I left.  It was one of those very cherished moments grandparents get once in a while.  She looked up and told me as I was heading for my car.  "Be careful, Poppy.  Don't step in the poop."  One day she had stepped in dog poop in the front lawn.  So, she was warning me about it.

I chuckled and told her I would be careful and then left.  As I reflected on that interchange, I chuckled again, but I also thought that it was a great metaphor for the day.  Every day there are times when I am not paying attention to the ground I step on, metaphorically, the time that passes by.  So, occasionally something is said or done that affects me that I should have seen coming or that I could have avoided if I had been paying attention.

So my granddaughter of 3 years had some good advice for me.  Whenever, I don't look down and step on gum or poop, I always just shake my head, offer one of those common expletives, and then comment on how I wished that hadn't happened.  Yep, it's great advice as I leave for the day - each day, as a matter of fact - Be careful, don't step in the poop.

10th verse, same as the first

It's an interesting phenomena.  People repeat themselves under certain circumstances.  I suppose the most recurrent circumstance for repetition of stories or information is from those people called the elderly.  They repeat the stories that happened to them so often that they become hard to be around. A person can recite by heart what the stories are as soon as the elder person begins to talk.  This happens for a variety of reasons, but one is that in their world they no longer encounter events that cause the brain to remember.  Their world has become narrow.  Some people like to blame the effect of age on the brain, but the last word is not in on the role that age alone plays in the memory process.

But today, a person who was half my age told me a story that he has told on two other occasions.  So, what is the reason he wanted to take up about 20 minutes of my time recounting something he was well aware of having told me?  Generally, people speak unprompted for the reason of selling themselves, of showing that they have importance and value.  They want to take up your time convincing you that something they did sets them apart from the crowd and you should be proud to have them as your friend.  I have told him of his value the first two times he told the story.  He apparently needed to have that verified yet again.

After the 3rd time, I usually find a quick escape from the scene, but if not, at least from the story.  You don't have to toot your own horn anymore.  If I am with you by choice, you have importance to me.  It's really that simple.  Save your breath, pipe down, and join me with the matters at hand.  We're friends already.

Rotations

Time is important, but it has its place.  We have to be places on time and start our various daily activities on time.  Otherwise, our world would operate in chaos.  On the other hand, when we don't have these timed activities in life, why do we bother with measuring the time?

The most regular untimed activity in life is our sleep cycle.  (Even if we set an alarm, the time during the sleep cycle is not consciously noticed as being timed.)  After we sleep, we wake to feel more rested than before regardless of the amount of time that has passed.  Sometimes our bodies are fine with shorter amounts, sometimes with longer or more frequent periods.  Whether short or long though, we feel better than if we had missed this untimed activity.

During our waking hours, however, we choose to measure time.  Generally,we fill it with hours that have monetary value assessed to the hours.  But there is also time, measured or not, in which we are not charging for our labor?  Do we simply pass it doing things we enjoy, or do we pass it by filling it with more timed activities?  And what is the effect on our bodies and minds if we measure the time for activities?  Are our bodies and minds more relaxed and rested, as during sleep, or more worn?

The Earth in reality just spins on its axis and rotates around the sun.  I suppose we have  gained a lot by counting the number of rotations of the Earth around the sun because it gives us some idea of the length of our lives, the amount of time an era contains, and helps us with segments of our days so that we can act in harmony with each other and accomplish some things as a society.

But, really, other than the amount of time we charge out for our labor, I think more harm is done than good when we micromanage those segments of the Earth's rotation so that we can "pack in" a whole lot of activities to attend.  Maybe we're better people for it.  We learn  how to manage our lives from some of those activities as the number of rotations around the sun accumulate.  But, I really think quality of life disappears when we micromanage our leisure segments of time.

The key is to "enjoy" our time in the sun rather than merely to be busy during our time in the sun.  And, that means that some of our little slices of life neatly packaged on some kind of regular basis should be curtailed so we can enjoy the moments that occur in unmeasured amounts.

One more story

I was speaking to a Chinese young man yesterday.  I have visited with him regularly for the last 3 months.  He has a good sense of humor, a more-than-average knowledge of the world, and a decent skill in video games.  He comes from a home of privilege in China.  He's currently studying in the U.S.  

I asked how he was doing in school, and he told me about his classes.  But, he said he was failing in English.  We continued talking because I wanted to know what kinds of activities he was having trouble with in English.  It was the usual regimen: novels, short stories, vocabulary, Shakespearean plays, essays, etc. 

 

Before he had come to the U.S. he had taken English in China.  But, he had been poorly prepared.  His listening skills were almost non-existent, but they taught him grammar well enough for basic understanding of simple sentences.  He did well in his studies in China, but has struggled mightily in the U.S. because of the language barrier.  Biology, American History, and English are virtually impossible to understand because of the academic jargon used by the books and teachers.

So, when I thought of trying to read the Elizabethan English of Shakespeare, of trying to slug through 150 or more pages of a novel in a short period of time, of trying to write essays in competition with native English speakers when verb tense, pronoun case, and SVO order pose huge problems, I had to just shake my head in disbelief.  Of course, the school he attends put him in ESL classes.  I think he understands the stigma.  American students in this elite school vie for spots at Ivy League schools and prestigious state schools.  They don't really give him much attention because he's the foreigner in ESL class who won't bump them from their spot in getting ahead in life.

This sad snapshot depicts a really broken approach to education.  It defies understanding that a screening system for international students' understanding of English is not in place for both receiving and sending countries in an exchange program.  And I am appalled that a grading system of averaging would be applied to anyone who has little understanding of the nuances of spoken language and the academic wording of written language. 

 

I am certain that this year's experience will not hold this young Chinese student back in the long run because his spirit and background will allow him to rise higher.  But the picture could have been and should be much, much different.  The stigmas that our schools' grading systems put on people often aid young people in having a less than healthy view of themselves and their capabilities.  At times like this I wish I had a magic wand.

For alien curiosity-seekers

Jimmy Kimmel had the president on his nightly talk show several days ago.  While visiting with the president, Kimmel asked the president an area 51 question.

All former presidents have outright denied that alien life exists.  Obama's reaction was different.  He didn't deny aliens existed.  The problem is that Kimmel's show is supposed to be entertainment where people relax and laugh at people's funny experiences or at jokes told.  So, when Obama made statements about ETs, this context made it difficult to discern the meaning of the president's remarks.

Obama's  three statements were:
1) The aliens won't let that happen - to reveal all their secrets.
2) They exercise strict control over us.
3) I can't reveal anything.

One of the best ways to tell the truth without lying, is to tell something straightforwardly in a context where it sounds absurd.  Of course, it is really not.  So, three times the president told the truth, but it sounded absurd.  One can hear the audience laughing in the background.  They didn't believe it.

The most telling piece of evidence is the answer to the question Kimmel asked.  He said if he were to ever be elected president that he would go through all the files on Area 51 and UFOs to find out what happened.  Then he asked the president, "Did you do that?"  Jokingly, Obama said that that was the reason Kimmel would never be president.  Eveyone laughed.  Then shockingly, Obama said that aliens would not let that happen.

Kimmel was talking about Area 51 and UFOs.  Obama used the words aliens.  People who write essays, novels, and research worry about variation of terms, but in spoken language, that is not the primary concern.  Redundancy of terms is the usual rule in spoken language, that is, the second conversant repeats the term(s) of the lead conversant when it is his turn to elaborate in the conversation.  Some people don't, but most do.  Obama didn't.

The reason?  Maybe he wanted to cut through the chase and not play the game of continuing the very light-hearted chatter about Area 51 and UFOs.  He uses the word alien so that they could move quickly through the segment, bring it to an early end, and move on.  Maybe, Obama wanted to say the word alien so that in the joking context of the show, he could tell the truth, make it sound absurd, and move on without further prompting more questions from Kimmel.

Or maybe, he assumed Kimmel was talking of aliens.  Many other kinds of activities happen at area 51. Hovercraft is merely one of them.  In addition, it is only rumored that aliens have been kept at Area 51.  Obama could have left the whole discussion in the realm of rumors and responded very nebulously.  He also could have hedged and deferred to sensitive information the government keeps.   But he didn't.  He was straightforward from start to finish, ending with "I can't reveal that."  The obvious meaning of that statement is that there is something to reveal.

If I were advising someone on truth value, I would say the truth was told.  But, since the forum was Jimmy Kimmel Live, a not-so-serious talk show, the hunt for alien life will continue.

That Ku-u-ntry accent

I was sitting in front of a restaurant in a small town today waiting for my daughter to pick me up. She had to park a distance from the restaurant and was picking me up due to a disease that strikes my leg periodically and makes it hard to walk.  While I was waiting on her, I stood leaning against a pole listening to people around me speak.

Several of the local townspeople were carrying on a conversation.  I wasn't paying much attention to the topics they covered, but I was noticing their distinct country drawl.  The pace of the speech and the lengthening of the vowels, like the long o sound and the short a sound, marked their dialect.  A lot of people view that speech as stigmatized and further relate style of dress and type of job to their stigmatized speech in a way that is very condescending and disrespectful.

I admit that my first reaction to that variety of talking is not one of prestige, but then, if I think about it any length of time at all, I find it is merely another way of speaking and should not have  a + or - prestige value attributed to it.  Who am I who could render a judgment in the first place on people I don't know and whose lives I know nothing about?

I know people play games with language all the time, categorizing people as prestigious or intelligent or educated or poor or oppressed (and all the other value judgments that can fall neatly into categories) based on accent alone.  They shouldn't.  Period.  I'm glad to have heard that variety of English today.  It keeps me in touch with my beginnings and reminds me who I am at my core.

Life just... goes on

I have read two contemporary short stories recently.  I don't know that they are representative of the literature that will shake out as the sign of these times, but if they are, a couple of traits stand out.

The first story is about a high school girl sitting in class, bored out of her skull.  She is called from class by the police who inform her that her mother has died.  She is taken to the morgue to identify her mother's body.  The story at this point goes into a narrative of the girl's thoughts about her life with dear mom.  Mainly it was about all the dysfunction that happened between the two of them.  At the end the police deliver the young woman back to her school.  She goes to her next class, and the story ends.

The second story is about men at a barber shop watching a man being beat by a couple of other men.  The men make comments about whether people deserve the treatment they receive in life because of their own actions.  Finally, one of the men leaves the shop, stops the beating to ask directions of one of the beaters, then continues on his way.

The main feature of the stories is that life is mundane.  Even though important events happen, life is too strong, or even if events presented themselves where they could help to make the world better, they don't engage because life merely continues on its march through time.  People's actions to change anything are overwhelmed and buried over time, so nothing to change its course happens.  The other feature is about the main characters.  They have no cause in life, or they don't have an interest in engaging anyone or any event in order to brighten, change, or provide enrichment to their otherwise mundane, isolated lives.

While I do see those tendencies in a lot of people around me and in certain types of group behavior, I would hope that it doesn't form the core of a majority of society.  If it does, the world of 1984 will happen without question.  If it doesn't, the world of Star Trek and Star Wars, where good is still a cause worth fighting for, will have a chance of appearing on our horizon.

Game changer is here

Meanwhile, Curiosity, the Martian rover, is just getting underway again with its extended mission assignments.  It is finally at the base of Mt. Sharp.

We have just entered (that is not "about to enter") the cusp of the phase that transforms reading and writing to the next evolutionary phase in communication and the transmission of information.  This has been possible for a little while in movies and cinematography, but now it has real world applications.  This will only grow in capability, completely nudging out the need to read and write except at the most basic and semiotic levels.

The article for this picture is found here.

Holographic technology of scientists examining Mars from different angles, but 360 degree angles, allows scientists from around the world to  "meet" on Mars through their holographic figure, study the terrain, and talk to each other in real time.  In January, NASA and Microsoft teamed together to make this study of Mars possible.

Such a meeting truly will change the style of dialog in the scientific community.  Pictures are not sent back for scientists to debate in written journals.  Streaming live feeds and points of reference for the holographic figures allows debate and conversation with spoken language in both real time and in recording.  That recording will be logged, transmitted, and open for view for other scientists who want to join the debate.  The only thing written might be the title and date of the file in an electronic database.

People have thought I was kidding.  2017 is just two years away.  That's the end of the 10-year war that traditionalists have waged for keeping reading and writing at the forefront of education at every level.  I am very proud to see that the breakthrough moment has come from the top level.  It will trickle down from there.  Exciting stuff!  This is important for space exploration without a doubt.  But its implications for wider application is absolutely a game changer!!!

Never explored

Things orbit the Earth all the time.  We're used to it.  Thousands of satellites give information to governments and companies every second of every day.  We wouldn't really have some of our beloved cell phone features like Skype and weather radars without those orbiting machines above our heads in an atmosphere we can't see through.

So, what was the big deal last Friday when the news reported another orbiter dropping into orbit?  OH, it was not our planet.  Ever heard of Ceres?  Yeah, that planet.

We've orbited Mars a number of times, so again, what's the big deal?  The orbiter dropped into its orbit of Ceres on Friday to map a planet that most people have never heard of.  Ceres, you say?  Yeah, a little over 300,000,000 miles away... out there in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter... circling the sun with hundreds of other fragments of the solar system exactly in the position predicted for a major planet.  It's never been explored.

People are ecstatic about Dawn's, the orbiter's name, mission there.  On approach to the planet, Dawn snapped hundreds of pictures.  They show two bright spots in the craters of one side of the planet.  Also, vapor has been detected coming from the planet.  Now wouldn't that be just be the irony of the century!  We find life on a little dark planet that wasn't even discovered till 1851 and ignored completely because it's only one of those "fragments" out there floating around between the two larger and more interesting planets Mars and Jupiter.

Stay tuned.  In April, Dawn will be a mere 8500 miles above the planet photographing it to its heart's content.   

I love undiscovered territory.  I love the surprises it yields, the knowledge it adds, the secrets it reveals, the richness it brings with its freshness.  I have my own Dawn going on, dropping in to observe a recent, latent, ground-floor opportunity.  

I am hoping to find out what those bright spots are.

People remember

I grew up in a totally religious atmosphere.  Doctrine mattered.  In fact, it mattered so much that I was taught that the particular doctrine given to me was exclusively true.

30 years later, I was raising children.  Doctrine mattered less.  In fact, when my high school son asked one time if what the preacher said was only his interpretation, I answered, "yes" because I had learned that truth doesn't come in a box.

Now a third generation has appeared.  What matters?  Not doctrine.  But what is good, right, and true matters.  Even if those are relative terms, one needs to know what is good, right, and true for their time and their place. 

People remember you for the good things you do, the right things you stand for, and the authentic life you live.  That's what matters.

It happened this way

I fell in love with her like one falls asleep... slowly, then all at once.

That's a great line from a good love story, the movie, The Fault in our Stars.  It happens to some people this way. But not for me.

I fell in love with her like someone being presented an undeserved trophy... unexpectedly, but cherishing every moment.

That's not a line from any written love script for any movie.  It happened to me this way.  I am grateful for those moments.

When grayed out

As I passed the downtown area on the freeway, the fog was very heavy.  Every skyscraper had only the first 12 or so stories visible.  The higher 40 stories had disappeared into the clouds of the fog that had set in over the area.  The usual beautiful architecture and color of the buildings were shrouded and gray.

Occasionally events turn foggy.  The usual color of life is grayed out, and the normal layers of my life can't be seen past a certain point.  At these times I have to exercise extreme caution because my journey on life's highway requires people to rush on by without noticing how many stories there are or the careful craftsmanship and color that are missing.

But fog and occasional events are short-lived.  Beauty and color return.  Skies are blue.  Nothing is hidden.  The cold mist of the fog turns to the warm rays of the sun.  Life resumes in its normal way.  The fog is a good reminder of what life can be like when all is scaled down and one-dimensional.  It's not fun, but it turns to warmer weather sooner than later.

I like reminders, though.  Life is more basic for a short while.

Referencing our lives

I had a talk with my nephew the other day, a rather long one.  Subjects came and went as we talked, but mostly the topics ran along the vein of the idea of why and why not people do things and why and why not truth might change from time to time.  It's always amazing to younger people how the world has changed just in their lifetimes, much less over long periods of time.  I remember well the awakening that occurred to me as I went through adulthood.

Realization is a great happening in the brain and it happens over time, never all at once simply because a frame of reference takes a little time to establish and comparisons to that frame take time encounter. I have noticed, however, that some people encounter comparisons to their frames of reference and resist any change in themselves.  They become less malleable over time.  They usually stand as beacons of a day gone by, and they seem to have less and less to do with the world.  Others learn about frames of reference and learn how to compare and glean what is best for them as life changes over and over.

At one time, the word "paradigm" was popular and took over the idea of frames of reference.  But, it has diminished because it, too, is rather rigid in its meaning.  Frames of reference has more of a flow to it as if one has the need to change the frame from time to time.  Frames are not good or bad - they're just frames yielding the characteristics of points in time.

Picture albums are probably good symbols for frames of reference... people's changes are noted and tracked.  In the same way frames of reference are good symbols of our essences, and it's good to review the frames from time to time.