A decade reflection

I'm sitting by dim lamp light at a table in a mountain cabin far away from the 100 degree weather of my hometown.  I can hear the stream babbling by the cabin just 20 yards from the front door.  Windows are open letting in the fresh mountain air that makes for good sleeping.  The canyon I'm staying in is quiet.  It's blue moon night, so I can really say that I was away in the mountains once, in  a blue moon.  The sides of the mountains on either side of the cabin are invisible because the darkness outside is so black.

I like being comfortable, relaxed, hidden, unbidden, and off the beaten path.  Many people call it being off the grid.  I wouldn't since I have internet access, but at least I don't access the internet unless I want to.  It's not a necessity here.

My mind certainly clears when here.  The last time I was here was 10 years ago.  The English saying is "What a difference a year makes."  Now if I extend that by ten times - what an immense difference 10 years makes.  So, I have taken the time to review the last ten years while I have been here.  The decade started in a desert area and ended in a metropolitan area.  I am gainfully employed for only half the amount of time now than I was 10 years ago.  My outlook on life has changed fairly radically.  I had a middle of the road kind of philosophy that swerved to the left on most issues.  My beliefs about religion, politics, and work day issues have mostly changed by almost 180 degrees.

The saying is that the only constant in the world is change.  It's true.  Raise any issue, such as marriage, raising teenagers, managing money, working, or vacationing, and I can tell you what a departure my words would be now compared to 10 years ago.  Things solidified for me a little over 5 years ago.  It hasn't been the same since.  I have a good life, an acceptable life - not always what I have wanted, but what I can live with.  The last 10 years could have been better, but they could certainly have been worse.  The thing I wanted most in life didn't happen during this period, but wanting something and getting it are two different matters.

I need to live in both the literal and figurative place where waking up each morning is worth it.  I have reached that place.  And sitting here by dim lamp light at a mountain cabin table far away from 100 degree weather drives home these thoughts.

Foreign events

I have passed this road no less than a couple of hundred times.  I have passed it so often that I know how to pronounce its name by heart.  Finally, I drove down the road to see what this Wat was all about.  The spire is symbolic to the Buddhists for the reverence that should be shown to the deity, the higher power.  The design of the temple courtyard and the temple itself is conducive to conveying a humble spirit, a decent journey in life, and reaching as close as possible to Nirvana.

So be it.  Such is Buddhism.  Any concept I have of Buddhism is only from what I have read, not from experience.  So, my limited knowledge is not enough to make me an authority on Buddhist beliefs at all.  It seems like a really strange religion.  Its tenets are foreign to the American way of thinking mainly because its eastern flavor of seeking takes time, seems to lack direction, and takes away from the pursuit of making a living or becoming happy because of its total neglect of anything material.  The words Wat Buddharatanaram  are indicative of how far away from American idealism this religion is since they are written in a way that is unmistakably NOT English.

I ponder the things that have happened in life more than I should, trying to analyze them, thus to understand them.  Many events defy my understanding.  They are as foreign as the near-eastern words are from English.  I don’t stand for them.  I didn’t train to accept them.  They don’t represent me in any way.  Yet they happen.  I can’t control their happening or the way they happen.  Anymore, I just refer to such events as my Buddharatanaram events or moments.  They make me a more accepting person to refer to them that way.  I sure don’t understand them, but I have to live in the same country that they are in.

The logic behind the motive behind the words

It's one thing to look at words and see what was said.  It's quite another to look at words and see why something was said.

If someone were to say, "I enjoyed the trip. Nothing really happened other than I was a little cold most of the time," and then subsequently you came into knowledge that during the entire trip snow covered the ground, the cabin had only a wood stove in the main living area, and each night for two weeks the temperature fell below 32 degrees.  It would be easy to see that what was said was either an understatement about weather conditions or that the speaker wanted to emphasize enjoying the trip even against nature's odds of trying to spoil it.

Why someone would say something this way is not so clear.  This is the domain of pragmatics where context is important.  For example, the words might be a part of a joke, so that understatement (a little cold) contributes to the humor being created.  Or, the speaker is trying to spare the listener's feelings because the listener had paid for the speaker's trip.  Or, the speaker is trying to brag about her or his prowess in extreme conditions.  Or, the person speaking didn't want to ridicule the poor living conditions the listener has to endure regularly due to the listener's inability to pay for a better way of life.

But, given a context, why did someone use the word, "enjoy" if that were really not the case?  Why would someone say, "Nothing really happened," if something happened "most of the time?"  If the context is plain, it helps to understand the motive, but to ask why someone would use a circuitous way of speaking would yield information other than motive.  Perhaps a person's style is round-about because of a self-esteem problem.  Circuitous speaking means that a person has room for error in speaking since she or he is not assertive enough to speak with certainty.  Perhaps a person thinks that minimizing the conditions enhances the emotions (s)he feels about the trip.  Or perhaps the person wanted to lie about how (s)he felt about the trip for whatever reason by enhancing enjoyment and diminishing the cold.

The word choices definitely had a reason for being chosen.  Establishing context is the first step in understanding the reason.  Focusing on the semantics also helps to narrow in on the motive of the speaker.  But the word choices are indicators of something more exact, the bedrock that produces motive, the logic behind the motive.   One has to consider why "nothing really happened" instead of "nothing happened?"  Does the word really strengthen the statement of fact?  Or is the speaker hedging?  The only thing that happened was in the speaker's mind, not in the real world.  Why make a general statement, "Nothing really happened," and then negate, maybe refine, the statement with "other than" unless the speaker wants to highlight a negative quality?  Why use the words, "the trip," which is inclusive of the whole time, then say that something was not enjoyable "most of the time" except to further highlight the negative quality of the trip?

The answers of course tell you about the personality of the speaker and the pattern of logic he has used.  And that information is the well guarded secret most people want to keep from listeners.

Sorting through facts

I was speaking with a young adult tonight who mentioned in the course of the conversation that he had quit school very early in life.  By the time he was 15, he wanted to return to school, but it was too late for him.  So, he has paid for it with hard work the rest of his life.

He's not alone by any stretch of the imagination.  Most young adults in the U.S. don't really like school well enough to choose more education after high school.  Roughly 25% of young adults didn't really like education enough to finish high school, and about a third of that crowd decided to drop from school before that.  The National Center for Education Statistics has a lot to say about education buried in the numbers it has compiled for over 50 years.

I feel for my young friend who is working so hard to make ends meet.  But, he has made the best of life.  Really, he has done quite well over the last 3 years.  He is in business for himself and seems pretty happy with his family of 6.  On both of those counts he has much on his educated counterparts.  He works hard, but he plays hard and holds family time at a premium.  In addition, he is currently learning to read and write in a second language. 

I really don't know what the quality of life is for the vast majority of people without much formal training.  But, if the people in that category are as industrious and resourceful as the man I spoke with, I think that I will gladly trust what comes for the last part of my life.  I can sleep with that.

A narrow line of vision

Sometimes I am reminded of an event that I was a part of by someone who has a clear memory of it.  I try really hard to remember the details of the event, but usually to no avail.  What has happened?  Has my brain deteriorated?  Is someone trying to plant a memory for an event that never happened?

Sometimes, if it's one of my family, the memory difference or gap is merely a matter of perspective or maturity at the time.  But at other times, it seems that anything could have happened because truly I have no memory of that event.

Tonight one such mention was made of an experience my son had.  I was with him at the time of the event that had been brought up.  I didn't think that the experience happened in the way that was being told.  I was there, though.  I should have known.  It's possible that the person telling of the event totally confused two events and told the wrong one, or that we snapshot the event from different aspects and so, in the retelling, only one aspect showed through.  Maybe my memory of the aspect of the experience and the other person's perspective of the aspect could both be true.

Our judgment is only as good as our information - at least that is how the saying goes.  But what if our judgment is wholly colored by the aspect our memories snapshot.  That changes the whole game.  And, if that's true, then all of life in our memories is not reality as a whole, but merely a slice of much more robust reality. 

That makes me a little more understanding.  And I also realize how arrogant I was when I was younger.  My how youth is wasted on the young.

A trip through languageland

I received a call from my friend and scholar buddy today.  It's always a pleasure to speak to him.  We mainly talked about, as we do each time he calls, his endeavors in his field - his conferences, papers, courses, etc.  So we talked today about those and his newest project.

Recently, I heard that one of the professors at a local theological seminary had dubbed my friend the best Greek scholar in the area.  Hmmm, I thought.  The next time we speak, I'll just check out whether I can keep up with him in a discussion or not.  Today was this next time.

We talked about his newest project and his upcoming class in the Fall semester.  In particular, we talked a while about the discourse structure of the Greek works he was teaching.  Nice.  I always learn a thing or two from such conversations.  Once in a while, I get to throw in something so that it looks like I have a contribution to make.  We differ mostly differ in the online tools we use and in the authorities that have been in our backgrounds.  But, we mainly enjoy comparing notes from our different approaches to language.

By the time we finished, we had touched on the nature of tone in indigenous African languages, the Hasa language, the Pame/Xixuay language, Greek, Spanish, and English.  It was a nice little trip... and, I didn't fare so poorly I'm glad to report.

Now, where are you?

In the middle of the desert, it's a little hard to do some of the basic things - walk for any distance, drink water, cook a meal, and orient yourself as to where you are headed.

People don't live in the desert for those reasons.  People live where there is food and water aplenty, they can easily get to places they need to go for shopping, work, and play, and can establish themselves in their work and avocations.   I have to admit that I have ended up in a place where all of the ingredients for living a full and more-than-adequate life exist everywhere around me.

But, being here is paradoxical like being alone in a crowd or being thirsty in the middle of the ocean.  Why, you say?  I'm in the middle of the desert where it's a little hard to do basic things...

Really?

Something's going on.  I just don't know what it is.  I hear various theories of what it is, but information is sketchy.

Fact 1: In 1989, a man named Bob Lazar had an interview with a reporter in L.A. in which he spoke of reverse engineering an actual UFO at Area 51.  He was really lighthearted about what he did, seeming not to care about ramifications for revealing such classified information.   25years later the same reporter interviewed Lazar again, but this time Lazar was not so indifferent to the ripple effect of his actions.  He was hesitant and said he regretted revealing the information he had recounted.  Over the last 25 years, every record of his college experience and work record had been expunged.  It's almost as if he never existed.  Now, people just relegate Lazar to the looney bin.

Fact 2: One of the pieces of evidence Lazar offered in his original interview was that the UFO he worked on was powered by Element 115.  He even gave the physics of how it worked.  Was that unusual?  Well... that element didn't exist, and officially still doesn't exist.  In 2006, scientists began to theorize about the element, but only started experimenting enough to know that it could exist.  They called it Upupentium.  How did Lazar know nearly two decades ahead of the idea that Element 115 existed?  Was he that good of a physicist?  Of course, there's no record of his college career, so we don't know.

It's intriguing.  The next thing you know, I'll be hearing about an alien base of operations on the dark side of the moon.  Oh, wait.  There  is that rumor already.

Eschewing the typical

August: Osage County

The film is worth watching.  It is very good at showing about how every family rolls.  The characters are stereotypes of the kind of people one would find in every family.

The clip below I particularly like because it hits home personally.  I have to deal with the same scenario on a recurring basis.  The son shows how loving he truly is.  His mother comes in and spoils it all by castigating him.  The conversation following the incident between the dad and mom, starting at 2:40 is the one I could have any given day.  It's so sad in a way.  But it's also so typical.

I have a daughter I love very much.  She shows how loving she can be regularly.  But, she receives castigation on a regular basis.  It would be good for me to have one of those "fat, Irish ass" moments with the perpetrator.

I totally can identify with the line saying, "I don't understand this meanness."  I react by longing to be around someone who is cheerful and encouraging.   I better understand these two attributes.

Changing what you see

If you change the way you see the world, then you change the things you see.

It's a pretty incredible world that is available now.  Many can't see what is being offered.  That's more than a shame.  Google Glasses are old news.  The next generation of computing is now seamless with the real world.  It will change the things a person sees - guaranteed.  I plan for my granddaughter to be educated only in places that offer what is available now so that her future is not on the streets regretting what other children with parents of foresight provided for them.

Those in the field of education should demand to lead, to take this technology to the children and young adults who will take the seamless world of reality and irrealis to a whole quantum height above the world now.

The norm has been for education to lag about 10-15 years behind what technology has offered.  It was fortunate that most people were in the same boat.  But this time is different.  Education will not be turning out what the business world has to have and has to offer if it lags behind.  And that will make education irrelevant.  It almost is already. The work force has dwindled.  Fewer people are working full time hours.  College graduates aren't working in their career fields.  It is up to educational leaders, especially those who are experts in their field, to totally ignore the voices that tell them that schools are okay, change is gradual, schools will change with the times or that the school is already on the leading edge.  It's different this time.

The educational application is shown in the video below from 11:15-14:15.  It's simply astounding.  Those who possess the skills of this kind of learning will indeed lead, change, affect, and innovate for all others on the Earth.

Five years in virtual time is the same as 25 years of real time.  Schools will be divided in 5 years.  The ones who prepared will lead.  The ones who plodded will exist no more.

The town square

Town Square is usually a term to denote a one block area with a city courthouse in it from the 1920s through the 1950s, and around the four opposing sides of the street are lines of store fronts decreptoit from age.  Town Square doesn't conjure up ideas like upscale, trendy, ungodly rich, or opulent.

Within a radius of 20 minutes from my house are 4 town squares.  The closest is 8 minutes away.  It fits the usual concept and is called historic Oak Street.  It has restaurants and novelty stores down a street that ends at a courthouse.  The buildings and houses are really old even though they have been restored.

Another town square is about 10 minutes away and follows the same pattern, the historic section of Main St. with old houses and restored brick buildings containing well established businesses and restaurants with a couple of novelty shops thrown in.

About 15 minutes away is a third town square, but this one is modern.  The oldest shop is a little over 10 years old.  It is located on a major thoroughfare, so it is heavily trafficked. It is a shopping center with 20 different eating places and double that number of places to shop.  It's called a town center.

The town square 20 minutes away is much different from the other three.  It is actually called Town Square.  At its center is a courthouse, but it is fairly new about 20 years old.  Unlike the historic sections, honeycombed modern streets weave in and around stores - all kinds of stores.  But, they all have one thing in common.  Let me explain.

In a recent visit to this square, I ate in a Mexican food restaurant.  I split the food in the meal with another person, but I paid $40 for the one dish, $3.50 for teas, $8.99 for the appetizer, plus the obligatory tip of 20%.  I do have to say we were waited on hand and foot though.  We walked across the street to an apparel store.  T-shirts started at $125.  Polo shirts began at $189, and some of the silk shirts and other rare fabrics placed the shirts at above $350.

The ladies' store across the street had the same kind of offerings.  I didn't try the jewelry store, but the costume jewelry store had the prices of a jewelry store selling the normal stock of diamonds.  The cars in the two parking garages and designated parking areas bore the labels Audi, Infiniti, Lexus, Mercedes, Cadillac, and BMW.  A person can stay the night in the Hilton in the square if need be.  Businesses vary from Central Market and Whole Foods to Brighton, Sephora's, Soma's and Malouf's.  There are two fountain areas with trees and benches (miniature parks) where live music plays during the summer months fairly often.

I come often to this town square.  I particularly like eating at the Cheesecake Factory there and a hamburger place called Snuffer's.  I browse and occasionally buy a shirt from Brooks Brothers and another locally owned men's wear shop.  I have to do business there to register my cars and frequently use the postal services in the square.  Investment bankers have offices there if a person wants that service.

It's really refreshing to go there.  People are overly nice and easy-going.  The many stores and park areas are relaxing.  And I probably need to mention that this town square is different in another way.  Of all the towns and cities in the U.S,, this town square belongs to the 6th wealthiest city in the entire country.  I love going to my historic Oak and Main streets closer to my house to eat and shop on occasion.  I even like catching a movie and meal at the town center a quarter hour away.  But, there is nothing like the movie, shirt, or dinner from the Town Square just a short 20 minute journey down the road where the concepts of upscale, trendy, ungodly rich, and opulent are the norm.