I remember when I was….
The USS United States is a great cruise liner. No, it is the fastest cruise liner, and it represents the US entry into the commercial liner industry. Not really, it does not exist any more. It is now “mothball” in a port in the US, not to be used any more.
During the 1950s, in its maiden voyage, The USS US was the fastest liner around. Its purpose was to carry troups around the world in a wartime event, but practically speaking it would serve to carry passenger around the globe in one of the fastest vessel that sailed the ocean. It represent the pride of the American ship industry due to its speed. But a short 17 years after its maiden voyage, it was put up and kept out of commission due to rising operation cost.
So, lost and not forgotten, the ship rest on bobbing waters, until the builders heirs, sons and grandchildren of the ships operators, and passengers are now calling for a revival of the ships services. In the past these people enjoyed the thrill, romance, and time when cares and feelings were put aside for just a brief time. While that long by gone days are wispfully thought about the issue of trying to bring back that moment is still being debated.
Money is a strange by product of lost memories. Once we experience a content and happy sensation, we always long to bring it back, if not only to capture it in a time capsule and preserve it forever.
Time move on, different factors affect a different point in time, too many factors. And to try to recapture a certain time would be unreasonable to have happen. Each factor changes another factor until the myriad factors that once came together, now no long exist.
So to think that we can capture a moment in time when we are most contented and happy is not going to happen. Live each moment like it will never happen again, enjoy the time that one is involved in, for good times and bad times, and then move on. Use the mental snapshot call memory to capture the moment because it is impossible to turn back time.
moral: live now, live well, live forever in your memory.
When in the course of human events, one places so much expectation or have no expectation in another, we are pleasantly surprised, a little glow of bliss surrounds us.
June, my 10 year old daughter, surprised me not only in her writing but in her depth of understanding in her own work. So I would like to share some of her work with others.
Vigil 
Every day by her husband’s grave.
She stands, with no one to talk to
Except those who will not talk back.
She has not passed, though
She knows as her statue stands
By her husband’s grave,
Someday his statue will stand by hers.
Mirror
I am a deceiving object.
I have the ability to make people
Young again.
Most of the time I am bright and pure.
I have seen always the young,
Never the old.
I realize I am a liar.
I am not truthful.
In me is a gray heart.
I give people what they want,
But I have to lie to do it.
Moral: Excellent is never where expect to be, when you expect it.
Filed under: philosophy, profound thoughts, thinking, truth | Tags: motivate, heart, head, mind, conscious, philosophy
When in the middle of the forest, when a tree falls, and no one is there to hear the sound, is the sound actually there? This is an old age question and philosophers have pondered this question for a long time.
The adage can also hold some truth for those who are passing on an act of kindness. Do they do so because it is the right thing to do as dictated by their heart, or is it an act that is motiviated by their head.
If one is hermit and lives alone, with no responsibilities, he only has to think of how he would move through the day for himself. Each action that he takes only impacts himself and the things around him, plants and animals. He moves through his daily ritual with an unconscious effort as he has done so many times before. His life is very predictable. He gives reverence to the plants that impacts him and pays attention to the animals that he meets, and should he need to consume them, he expresses appreciation for their contribution to his life. So goes the daily life of the hermit, until, he must interact with another human being.
Now the many years of solitude must give way to a new arrival. Confusion and moreso, distrust follows. If the human is smaller or non threating, the hermit may feel a superiortiy over it, since the human can see that he can vanquish the small being. If the human is larger, then fear and distrust sets in the mind of the hermit. So, how can the hermit extend generosity and kindness to the other human? How can the hermit truly give to the other human? This can be done with feelings from the heart, and not the mind.
The mind tells us from the many years of breeding and learning how to react to social settings. The heart is the only tool that does not give us any clues as to how we should behave. The heart introduces us to many emotions that links two people together, yet these emotions would not exist if there were only one person. Emotions like hate, jealousy, envy, etc need two people to exist before the emotions can occur.
So, when one wishes to pass forward an act of kindness, there first must be another who is the recipient of the act. And when one passes the act, there must a mental act that exist to motivate the action. And when the mind dictates the heart now must take a back seat to the mind. Therefore the act of kindness is not truly an act of kindness, but is motivated by the mind and one is waiting for another to acknowledge the act, and when that occurs there are strings attached to the act.
Moral here: give from the heart, where there is no recognition except yourself, or give from the mind and wait for the results.
While watching the morning TV program, the wife said that the white painted mantel would look good in another color. So I suggested peach. Why peach you ask? Herein lies the thesis for discussion, recycling.
Here in Houston the community is beginning to think Green, which is another color. Every emphasis is on recycling, and ways to conserve on energy, ironically in the countries epicenter of energy thinking. Houston is known for its use of energy, since it is the second largest city in the US, yes, interms of size, second only to Oklahoma city, which stretches many miles in all direction. Houstonian uses a lot of gas, go everywhere to get nowhere, as explemplifed by the evacuation efforts from the last hurricane storm.
Now the problem comes back to haunt them and they are making an attempt to save, recycle via turning in old computers, newspaper , and right paint.
At the recycle center, one can go and get free paint, sometimes he has a choice of color. These are good paint that have been discarded due to choice of color. So what is one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. I found the color I liked and brought it home to my mantel.
The moral here is: go search and you shall find.
Filed under: health, philosophy, profound thoughts, thinking | Tags: analog, digital, meditate, pay attention
After the joy of birth, and the fumbling around to discover what needs to be done, the real challenge of raising a baby begins. You know that dropping food on the floor, and the persistent screaming has got to stop, otherwise your nerves will not take it. Yet slowly as the baby turns into a toddler, life in the real world begins to take shape for the youngster.
My daughter has a nickname for my grandson, Stop It. Every other word is punctuated with Stop It. Now the only response the kid has is to see if the words Stop It is there before he continues on with his actions. If the words are not there, he goes on doing what he likes and if the words are there, he stops what he is doing and waits a few second before his mischievious nature takes him off into another direction.
So begins the life and development of the human child, a combination of digital stops which eventually stretches out into a series of analog practices that forms his/her life. As children turn into young adults, their lives are governed by adults who tell them the things they must do. The youngster pieces together these series of request into a flowing pattern until they make sense in his life, a series of digital request that forms an analog picture of a persons life.
So, now as an adult there are fewer request from others as to what one should, or need to do, and the only request are from either employers or mates. Patterns set in and one begins to appreciate his analog life and does not think about his digital life until. Until is the time that problems begin to develop. Problems are when issues that one has not ever experience comes into his life. These problems could be a lost of value/money, lost of mate/social relations, lost of family, etc.
In an analog world this is a disruption of ones life. People go into tail spins and struggle to find meaning in problems, yet all the time they wish for answers. they may turn to a sold foundation of religious precedent or to others who have experienced the same problems. But how they take these advice from others, will depend upon how they come out of their tailspin.
The many religious sects would tell on to pray, meditate, surround one in silence, and pause. This is where the digital phenomenal comes back into play in ones life. “Stop it” is only 20 or 30 years ago when ones care taker caution one to take heed of what he needed to pay attention to. One needs to realize that his analog actions and life need to take a back seat to his digital teachings. Stop, look, and listen and become you own voice from the past, pay heed, repair the problem and move on.
Filed under: health | Tags: Add new tag, compost, dirt, garden, health, taoist
Houston Texas is not only known for its humid weather, Houston Rocket, YaoMing, but also known for its collection of mosquito. While this collection of insects attack its human baits, some would wonder why I am building a “Taoist garden” in Houston.
Taoism is the concept of balance, harmony, ying/yang, “leave it alone” and let nature take its course. Well, since it is so difficult to understand, why not build a garden around this concept. So therein lies the challenge, how to put everything together without doing anything. This can be hard work.
A garden by its very definition has plants in it, supported by dirt and water, sun, etc. So in planning my garden, I had to begin with dirt. Where does dirt come from, from dissolving stones and rock, but that would take too long, millions of years. No time, so I commenced to build dirt from composting. At first, I dragged all the oak leaves from under the tree to a location in back of my garage, which was a foresight that I had because of the fear my wife had for mosquitos. I left the leaves there in a pile for 3 years and nothing happened, except I looked at the leaves and leaves stared back. A well intended friend came by and studied the leaves and told me that oak has tannic acid in it to keep the leaves from breaking down, so I needed to leaves down. At first it was daunting by hand, then with a blower, and finally with an electric lawnmower, the leaves were mulched down.
The second step was to raid the local Starbucks for their coffee grinds, which in itself was a messy job since the leaked inside my car, which now smells like a coffee distillery. With the grinds layered into the leaves, the process was not complete with out some “green”, vegetable, grass cuttings, orange peels, etc. With each layer about 2/3 inches thick, the decomposing begins. So now instead of years, we have good dirt fit for a “Queen Bees” garden.
What is to come next is very interesting. For a preview goto: www.realteachers.org/retire/rock.htm
Is your head in a Fog?
It is funny how people interpret the fog. At times it is perceived as confusing. Other times one realizes that he can not see well in a fog. Both of these observations are true.
Today, my friend and teacher, talked about how it was unwise to exercise in the fog. Since she is from China, the people there are plagued with pollution. At times the fog they experience is more smog than fog. Fog by its very nature is water driplets expanded over a large area. But when it is mixed with the pollution, people rightly so interpret that as being harmful to the body. It goes into the lung and forms water pockets in the lung and thereby causes breathing problems.
So without proper experiments, this problem can not be conclusive. However, the health of the body is important, so excercise with caution and understand the consequences.
Sincerety, loyalty, and consideration.
Confuscius, thought several thousand years ago, about man’s relationship with his fellow man, and came up in a very brief concept of sincerety, loyalty, and consideration. He said for man to real relate, govern, and deal with others, he must have these qualities. And hopefully, others that he related to, would strive to have and develop these qualities.
So for several centuries, the Asian countries, and it’s people strive to develope and abide by these practices. Yet in a shallow overview of the people, many of these qualities do not seem to exist anymore. Why? Difficult to answer, but perhaps the challenge of survival and the pursuit of money is more paramount than living qualities for life.
If you say it, try to mean it, otherwise keep quiet.
Bad for my eyes.
I asked my daughter, 10 years old, what to write about and she suggested “why are you so ugly?” Is this a rhetoric question or just a statement. How thin is the line between beauty and ugly?
I was watching the Marilyn Monroe videos on Youtube, and it is incredible how many people commented on her beauty, not only in the way she looked, but also on her inner beauty via her soft spoken and sincere answers to questions. While during her time period, most people have accepted her as the example of beauty. Then comes the contrast as to what is ugly.
When the public is not exposed to a situation, then when they are made aware of the situation, in ones amazement, he quickly labels it as being ugly. It is the the easiest and quickest way of making a rash observation. If he should have time to think, then soon the veil of ugliness falls.
So, beauty is in the eyes of the exposed beholders.
Time waits for no man, but for a pig it is no big deal.
Today was definitely a waste of time on the internet. I spent at least a half an hour viewing the senseless, interjections of words into a phony web site call Onion News Network, ONN. The work was very clever and skillfully deployed. The actors had their speech dubbed with comments from a scripted source, and while the lip sync was good, the comments were completely out of the intent of the message.
I was bemused and entertained at least for a short time.
So if I had an infinite amount of time, I would waste my whole life on senseless skits. This is indeed profound, until we wake up and realize how much of our lives are wasted on useless skits.
