A Verbal Vacine for A Manic Monday

 Relax chill out the spastic

Tune down the sharp sarcastic

Forego extremes and drastic

Reset to calm scholastic

Or Meditate Monastic

Don’t wrap  your soul in plastic

Polyeaster or elastic

Just love life be fantastic

Deep Breathing

Adding Up to Peace +Joy

 Seeking Peace and Joy Adds Up

So holy cow it’s January 12th already and my “new Year’’s Resolutions are sitting patiently by waiting for me to dig in.   Now it could be  that some of us make these resolutions and don’t start on them right away and are starting to feel guilty…let’s visit that a little later.  It may be that we’ve already given up  in which case pat yourself on the back for being an overachiever as research has shown that the majority of all resolutions are abondoned by January 19th sometimes known as National Give Up Day.  Either way let’s figure out what we really. Want to work on and start today but… first….

Let’s figure out why we didn’t start right away… There are probably lots of reasons, however, maybe its mostly about fear of change?  Maybe  let’s explore this by relating it to something most people are taught to fear—MATH.

Yep… you see most people get taught to be afraid of math at some level and then they stop building the foundation to change their level of math skills.  So … let’s substitute  math skills for  life skills and put some stronger math  bricks in your foundation and then in the next couple posts  bring the two together.  Life hacks/ Math Hacks

We are usually taught somewhere around third grade. Or fourth grade the only math hack  we ever learn… so your schools are ripping you off (big shocker).   What’s that Hack?

The rule of 9

When you multiply. Any number  by nine the sum of the numbers in the answer will add up to nine.  While this is true no matter how high you go we are usually only taught up to 9 X 9.  

That’s a good foundational hack, however, it just get’s left there with no building. On top of it and that leads to some uncertainty so let’s expand shall we?  What is almost?  Why 10 of course… So multiplying by 9 is the same  as multiplying  by 10 which is adding a 0 to the end and subtracting  that number multiplying by 1 which is of course  that number.  So let’s say we want to multiply 319 X 9 well that is 3190 — 31990–19  is 71 and 3100 —300 is 2800 so the answer is 2871 and of course 2+8+7+1 is 18 and 1+8 is 9 (remember what we said about the digits adding up to 9?  So instead of multiplying all this numbers you are simplifying be adding a zero and subtracting  and subtracting  shouldn’t scare anyone… 

The  5 Hack 

Now another hack we should all be taught is the 5 hack but we are not.   Now multiplying be 10 is adding a 0  and 5 is half of 10  so take the  you are multiplying by  5 let’s say 1286 just for giggles.  So cut 1286 in half which is 643 and and the 0 there’s your answer so what if it is an odd number …pick the next higher or the next lower number  and do the same thing and simply add or subtract  the 5. So let’s do 6217 for example… we’ll add 1 making it 6218 cut in half that’s 3109 now add the 0 so you have 31090 then subtract the  5 and presto you get 31085

Squaring  numbers that end in 5 … so let’s say  we are going to multiply 25 time 25  the hard way is to multiply 20 times 25  and then add another 5 times 25 or the other way around.   The easy way is to look at the first digit  which. Is 2 and then multiply it by the very next number which is  3 and then stick 25 on the end.  So 25  time 25 is 6 (3X2) 25. Now let’s go to 45 squared  using the same hack it is 4X5 (20) with  a 25 tacked on or 2025 so of course 85 squared  is 7225 etc..  and yes 105 squared is 110 (11X10) 25 11025! 

Just one more for today

Multiplying by 25… 

Now 4 X 25 is 100  and just like  multiplying by 10 adds one  zero… multiplying by 100 adds two  zeros.  Now the trick here is to remember. We are multiplying by 100 divided by 4.. so we add the two zeros and then divide by 4 or divide by 4 first and then  add the zeros.  So let’s take 72 X 25 .. Now 72 divided by 4 is 18 and 25X72 is 1800 Now you say that’s all good but what if the number  doesn’t plot by 4?  Good question… since you are multiplying by  25  your answer has to end in 00 25 50  or 75 so after you divide if there is 1 left  over your answer ends in 25 for example 117 X 25 = 117  divided by 4. Or 29 with 1 left over.. so the answer has to end in 25 which means 117 times 25  is going to be 2925  39 X25  would be 39 divided by  4 which. Is 9 with 3 left over so that is going to end in 75 or 975

The point is …. Math can be fast and fun and easy..however many of us were not taught that… We learned that  there were piles of complicated numbers to be figured out. Carried put in columns and the very least we need a fancy calculator to even come close.. 

What is being suggested here  is that we are probably more likely to feel good about seeking peace and joy through New Year’s change if we start with a simplified scheme that we can feel good about.  

So let’s say you want to eat better…. Start by multiplying  by 10… What?  Adding one zero… eating one piece of fruit or one green vegetable  Then  if you want to get a little more advanced multiple. By five.. Eat one fruit AND. One vegetable .  

Back to the  point about not starting yet… Screw it… You are the master of your own life calendar… start today … Guilt never changed history… and you may have to start again a few times  in order. To figure out what formula works for you.. You may multiply. By 9 by simply  multiplying by 9 but. You may find  it must easier to multiply. By 10 and subtract.  

Seeking peace  and joy or any change or building any meaning  is adding up the pieces from where you stand at any one time.   And after a while  you can start putting some anchors down like knowing that 74 squared is 5476 and 76  squared is 5776 and 88 squared is 7744… the point is practice facing fears to build a foundation  from which to exercise curiousity …  and be sure to show your work!

More Math hacks soon and your new year starts now… 

Peace.

Why social media 10 cc

 The things We Do For Love…Well Maybe

Like walkin’ through the rain and the snow when there’s no place to go”

No this isn’t a recitation of the. 10CC classic and I’m not feelin’ like a part of me is dying… the thing is it’s 3:39 AM and yes my mature adult liquid processing biomechanics have prompted me to side and complete a frequent function.  Which is of course a fancy way of saying once again I’m up to go pee.  And per usual my day begins by checking out the newest episodes of  a couple podcasts, and scanning a few apps to see if there were any  little numbers otherwise called notifications that needed attention.  Then I’m thinking to myself—“Self, why in the world do I care about these notifications and this “social media?”    This leads to. How many hits (downloads and views) have my contributions to social media had lately?  That in turn sparks the pondering of “am I doing social media like oh let’s say this blog for attention or because it’s my way of contributing to the active creation of a culture I want to live in?  

Well clearly it must be a little of both or I wouldn’t have a tote board down on the right hand side of this blog.. and yet this morning it was clear that I usually and almost always check that number to see if my writing is sparking the thoughts or musing of folks who are constantly pounded by worn out simple mass media themes.  Today… it really did hit me that many  people really engage in creating content to make others smile and think, offer public information etc.  Some do this to sell and convince others of things… yet many do this for the reasons I do… for LOVE”

I write this blog and do the podcast and dribble on facebook and twitter  because it promotes LOVE 

L—is for Learning and Laughter

The entire purpose of doing my social media  has only two important  aspects… learning and laughter.

Nothing gets published or distributed if I haven’t learned something that inspires me to share.  But learning  alone isn’t usually quite enough this social media effort encourages  me to find novel ways of connecting everyday things and that for me usually involved a bit of humor.  Oh and humor produces  groans?—well mostly, however sometimes there is laughter.  Laughter. Is incredibly good for all of us so this is a healthcare blog?  Okay let’s not go overboard You know like asking if Dracula always asks for a plasma TV or being concerned. For mummies because they rarely can relax and unwind.  So I do these things for the lounge of learning and sharing that learning and  for the promotion of laughter.

I—Observations and Obligations

Thanks Steve E..This social media  I offer just is a sharing of slightly strained and modified observations designed  to say.. what if we reconsidered things?  What if sorted stuff in slightly different piles prior to putting them on the shelf.  What if we left wiggle room in order to change our minds and experiment with new options? What if we used observations instead of declarations of certainty.  Observations show beliefs without demanding to be declared the winner in the knowledge war.   

Oh and then we do the social media thing because when the universe, the grace of the universal sound, “God” if you will ..the collective soul… provides  a being with some insights they are probably shareable need since generosity is good.. I shouldn’t be the only one learning from my mistakes… in other words we owe each other the lessons we have gathered and to me this is an OBLIGATION of sharing to be done.   

V—Vanity

Look… I do this because I believe  I have something to offer and that what gets put out into the seeking peace and joy universe has value (another V word).  I could and often do.. share  a lot of my content in non-socal media ways… but these social media platforms  show me the data.. They show me that others have used some of their valuable time to read or listen.  In short, they stroke my vanity and answer the question… does anyone out their  understand or want to understand  my mind, my spirit, and frailties?  Well over the past four years some 40,00 individuals or bots have spent an average of 8 minutes a week  taking in my observations and if you trust the analytics…every little bit of what I sling out hits the fan of at least 48 people per day every single day… So… maybe  my vanity creates value?

E—Exploration

Doing these social media prompts me to explore things I never would have researched and shared without the outlets I take advantage of.  For example I’m preparing to look at a very in-depth  social media campaign on  aging and things like community-based and nursing home care.  To do this I have started to explore all types of angles including the economics.  Doing this led me to comparing our social treatment of the price of gas to the cost of nursin home or institutional care.  So  doing this has revealed that the way we determine. And publish consumption numbers related to gasoline  allows folks to present use  at anywhere between about 350 gallons per capita to around 500 and some would even say it’s closer to 700 gallons… Each one of these numbers  is true in it’s own way… so … when someone says they only want the facts let this be known… the facts are only step one… exploring what the facts mean to others and to you is where the richness lives.   So we explore to find facts and then explore  these facts and our souls to offer and share meanings… So “seeking Peace and Joy” prompts me to explore a little and then explore some more…. 

Summing up.. 

My social media  is one of the “things We do for Love”.  If you are reading this you are doing it with me… ooops that sounds kind of creepy and probably has weird social connotations… but seriously… let’s keep loving each other  enough to learn, observe, use our vanity to create  valuable content and keep exploring always instead of being afraid… 

Yes… as we approach a new year…

Keep “love—ING. EACH OTHER 

Love you all… just not all at once LOL. See you in 23

Eight Line Rhyme—Holiday Edition

Days ago the retail dash

Wrapping Paper  now in trash

Piles of gifts but low on cash

Still seeing lights but some won’t flash

Budgets? well they’re mostly ash

The Grinch gave back the ole’ who hash

Now chips and booze we find our stash

As we await the New Year’s Bash

-Holiday Scene

Four forces four years

So this concludes the entries about the four forces that I think sneak up on us these days and I wrote about these as a conclusion to four years of thinking about seeking peace and joy and what things I have become aware of ironically today is the solstice which begins a time when there will be more light in each day it is also four days until Christmas where more spiritual light begins for many people so that’s enough of the number four read the below check your awareness and tomorrow starts a new year a new day a little more light I hope merry Christmas happy four happy solstice

 

What Will you Do in These Waking Moments?

Well… I left these last four entries hang in order for almost all the regular readers here to have plenty of time to read and think… now, as promised, some concluding remarks…sort of.

It makes some sense to prattle on about the four forces in the order. We placed them out on the table, however, they are forces that mingle so some combinations will be offered out of order.  

Industrialization and seeking peace and joy

The world has —all 8 billion of us—built the most productive  human race in the known history of the planet.  We’ve formed processes and people that can produce material goods  in an amazing fashion.  We’ve as a planet adopted the narrative  that “if you work hard enough you can have  more and more” and that more is better (of course some are claiming the counter to this saying minimalism  is the way to go.)Yet the irony here is that those preaching  the minimalist approach seem to attempt to preach it more everyday to more people all the time and appear to be arguing that we need  this life theme to replace our current one.  There doesn’t seem to be  a middle ground being offered… again dualism seems to be winning out.   there also down’s seem to be any recognition that what is minimal to one might just be extravagant. To someone else… We don’t seem to hear anyone  suggesting that some folks need a lot of props to write and tell their life stories while others  just need a piece of chalk and a sidewalk.  Why is it that we are afraid to adopt complexity and ranges of successful. Paths?  If we admit there could be lots of life stories to choose from do we create a threat to our security?  Is  there a fear in trying to put together our peace and joy puzzle if it has 100 pieces and can once together look like four different things instead of pulling out the same old 10 piece puzzle that can only look like a sailboat?  

Science—really?  

Let’s say  we go into our favorite neighborhood  establishment  where everybody knows. Your name… no not Applebee’s …. And we had a hankering for a Long Island Iced Tea.  Would we know if it tasted good or not—I believe so.  Would we like it  if we had to judge the taste of it  by drinking each of its elements or ingredients separately?… If the bartender set each out  clearly and said drinking each one after the other is the same as taking  in the potent cocktail… would you say or think damn right?  The point is… do we get meaning about experiencing by breaking things apart and defining  things that way.  if you even say “not always” then maybe seeking peace and joy requires knowing and using  a lot of different lenses to view things, a lot of different tempos to play the notes, or setting off down a lot of different roads to see what destinations might be out there or more importantly what journeys  are awaiting a curious mind.  The science story goes hand in hand with the industrial story… Yet if we only had one book to learn from what richness would our education lack?  

Dualism in foreign affairs (and in the ways we understand others etc.) 

It’s hard to admit  we want to belong. And we want to be different just like everybody else.  We want to be afraid of the same things as others why… because at it’s simplest core… in an attention economy we have elevated  to mythic status the importance of what other people think about us.  If we just wanted to share what is unique about  you what would social media look like or would we even have  it?  It’s hard to tell others what we experience and who we are without telling people what you are not… I’m not a Democrat or a Liberal.. or A conservative or a Republican or a socialist or  a Methodist or a New York Yankees fan.  These may be all good things to know…but what does that tell you  when it comes to knowing  which shoe I put on first?  Getting to know someone isn’t easy…but really getting to know someone is the best compliment  you can give them in some ways.  However, imagine trying to learn about someone  by starting  the questions you ask them by saying things like… Whall we go out to dinner—You don’t like pineapple pizza do you?  Or “I was going to wear a green shirt you hate green right?”   Sure that sounds  odd…but how often do we speak the loudest about the things we think others  will hate with us?  Maybe  we start seeking peace and joy in the company. Of others by exploring three, four, or five, things about them  instead of repeating the same old paper. Or plastic questions?  The point here is not just that we overuse defining people by learning about. What they don’t like—we often use the same questions  and they are way too often  either this or that choices.  We seemingly feel comfortable with forcing the extremes to be put out there front and center.  Now when things are interconnected  so often in today’s world we are left  dazed and confused  if the cause of something  (or the blame for something) isn’t clear and simple.  It is hard to seek peace in a world of complex challenges if we expect simple and clear paths and solutions so maybe expecting  dual contexts just doesn’t help?

Now I’ll get to the media  matters in a second… right after a little summary. You see  seeking peace. And joy isn’t as easy as it used to be.   Why?  Because the huge “stories we tell ourselves” the forces so to speak became such a part of our contexts that it  became like breathing or blinking—you are experiencing. It most all the time, yet aren’t really aware of the meanings being constructed with it.  

Now let’s talk media… You see media once was the great smoother.  It taught generation after generation. In this world the same industrial/scientific/dualistic story/myth for a century or more and now well now… competing stories and media interference and static create a whole new era where  the youth build their own worlds to live in and they mingle the virtual and the actual physical worlds.  A poor child in  the real world can be a wealthy game player.   Now in the world of JFT and crypto… the greedy and the wealthy are once again trying to gain control of the narrative and evidence suggests  it could happen, and then again maybe not LOL?

As the old narratives fall apart they become like the highway  that you used to drive without noticing it until  the pot holes  started  giving you flats….   

so what conclusion  are there… 

The forces that have brought our ship to here remain pretty  large, however, now we can and probably will become aware of them as they fall to pieces.   In seeking peace and joy it might be best if we are aware of the forces we have ridden and start to experiment  with new ideas..you know stay ahead of the curve so to speak… At the very least start to admit these things aren’t the same and that we live in a world where acceptance and negotiation  are going to be far mor the norm than ever before … Fortunately  acceptance allows us to gain the most from change, bargaining allows  us the chance to clarify our  true values, and adopting  different views lets us see many  more aspects of life and thus have a lot more chances to see what is possible and good.  

anyway… read the four previous entries and be ready  to salute the forces that  have flooded your soul and then let your awareness provide. The light for many paths  open on the seeking peace and joy journey.  

Peace. 

Is it us versus them again? four forces part four

This or That =- Right or Wrong - Us or Them

Well the last few posts have been dedicated to primal influences in our (U.S. and Western) culture that influence how we make meaning of things and thus seek peace and joy in life.  So far we have considered industrialization which has dominated  our work lives and educational systems, science or more specifically the scientific method which has dominated the way we gather and evaluate knowledge and elevated the notion that predicting and controlling how parts of a whole act can provide the Truth and what should be believed, television (or more generally the multimedia-visual input we bring into life using broadcast systems to present things on a screen and now we are looking into the fourth force—the tendency or need to look at foreign affairs and nearly everything else regarding  others as a “dualism.”  

I —yes I am starting with an open admission that this is a lifelong battle topic for me.  I have never understood the gravitation that most people have toward categorizing  other humans, where they live, and how they behave  in a manner that is either like me or completely the opposite  of me… Nonetheless just because I don’t quite understand this need it doesn’t make it any less powerful  and so observations  about it seem to be called for.  

Now that I am of an age and all humans  of an age, I can look back on a “lived through history.”  I can therefore remember  personally being taught that the communists the Russians  were evil and wanted to take over  the world.  We were in the space race with them, we were in the arms race with them, We wanted to stop their advance and the advance of communists everywhere on the planet because once one country falls the next one could and would fall to these evil thinkers who are godless and such.  Because we believed this  so completely we held atomic bomb attack drills in school where we had to get under our desk and “duck and cover.”  This meant we spent real school time teaching kids that a wood or metal desk would protect them if they were the target of an atomic weapon attack.  However, if that were true why didn’t we just build our school out of that stuff our desks were made of?   Oh and we were supposed to be quiet—why?  We’re there some secret  red spies in third grade who had a hot line to the folks in Red Square  waiting to reveal our strategic location? Wait..I digress..

Well the point is that as time went by the Russians power and influence lessened and communism didn’t quite work out the way it was drawn up in real world terms.  We learned that the Russians weren’t that great after all we could beat them in hockey and we made  them tear down a wall in Germany.  We beat them to the moon and we had better jeans and video games than they do… In short we couldn’t fuel what we did based upon beating them at something anymore.  So now what. Well given recent historical events we find it really tempting to hate the Russians again but it’s not the old Russia.  We could hate China but we pay them to build our iPhones cheap and so we can maintain a high profit margin.  China  pretends at communism  but not when playing in the international market.  So … with the lack of a global enemy we have faltered a bit in having something to be unified over.  What then has happened?

Well that’s simple… we’ve turned that need to compare and divide on ourselves.  We are either “red” or blue… Why can’t states be purple  or yellow or aquamarine?  Crayons come in big boxes with a sharpener built in (how many times  did you ever use that?  The big question is..why do we crave this simplicity?  Are we afraid to live in the complicated stew of trying to understand people. Rather than trying to control them?  It is easier to urge and oppose rather than understand and cocreate our circumstances.  For so many people we have not been taught how to take advantage of the pieces of a puzzle to form a beautiful picture when just sorting things into two piles  is so much faster.  When survival of humans wad more dependent upon identifying creatures that could and would kill us dualism was a bit more important however, the last I time I looked I wasn’t brushing my Wooly Mamouth  loincloth and chanting around this new-dangle cooking appliance called fire.  

Okay the purpose of this entry isn’t to cast evaluations of humans out there …it is designed to bring attention to the notion that dualism is  something shaping the ways we seek peace and joy and bring meaning to our experiences.  

Now…that we have illustrated these four forces… it becomes time to provide some “implications” and that is the business of the next entry…. 

 

What were watching last night Universal Force Part III

 The Four Sorces Part III —“Television”

Well we’ve sort of looked at industrialization/standardization as something that dominates or did dominate the workplace and our schools along with the narrative that if you try harder. And compete you will do better and better etc…. Then we looked at how defining the world in terms of science has  led to advances, however it also encourages us to break all things into little pieces, assume that these pieces always equal the whole and that we can predict and control the world and the people in it.  The implications for seeking peace and joy  related to these two forces alone  are staggering  and yet there  are more things to explore before a “summary” of sorts might be offered and the third of these epic forces is ….”Televison” and the changes. In it that are fundamentally altering the world.   Let’s tune in shall we?

Let’s take a stroll down memory lane shall we Uncle Milty?  Unlike “cultural products like say painting, theatre, music, dance,oh and let’s say books “television is a new deal.  Oh and it got it’s start during the New Deal and just barely.  If you are 75 or older there is a good chance. You remember not having a television in your house.  If you are in your 60’s  you grew up with only two or three channels and you developed some expertise  in going out of doors and spinning your attendance so that the “snow and shadows  could be reduced.  If you grew up  just a few years later you had “cable and three channels went to 20 or 30 and then to 60 then 100 then if you lived in the right place and had the right paycheck around 500 channels.   Well and now “television”  is “streaming digital”  where this thing we call a television offered tens of thousands of shows/movies/sounds when you want to watch it.  Oh and since this includes  YouTube and tick-tock… we are able to watch virtually unlimited content everywhere all the time.  

So what does this all mean for seeking peace and joy?

When TV was young it was a unifying force.  Everybody knew that everybody was watching one of  three nationally shown shows and a few local shows.  We all had something to follow in common and talk about the next day…. A whole country was wondering. Who shot J.R.?  We all watched as the riderless  horse led the mourning masses to the eternal flame and we all knew  the name Archie Bunker Hawkeye Pierce, and who rode trigger.  And then there were reruns… and millions still watched the same shows where people ent to places where everybody knows your name and had questions on their minds like  will Ginger, the skipper and his little buddy and the professor get off that darling island this time?  Sure some of us wondered  how there were six kids when Mike and Carol never touched each other in the bedroom and wasn’t it amazing that Lude and Laura never had to pass gas or tinkle?  anyway the older generation went from radio  where all programming was pretty local to a media that was pretty unified and so our cultural experience  of entertainment  became a common thing we could share.   And then…. 

Technology started giving us more and more choices and more and more decisions and more and more  and more and more and more and is still giving us more until  now the programming  we could access and produce went from a narrow range. To something that offered much but also drives us  into smaller and smaller  bunches and where we fight not to produce  similar things but to produce unique things and hope that  we gain a little fame  or go viral so to speak.   The same thing.holds true for print media or digital print data… In short seeking peace and joy with others has become far for complex as we once  could believe in what we watched however now we can watch anything we might choose to believe.  

In short this thing known as the TV once pulled us together  and now it often leads us to be staring  at a screen by ourselves.   We may alll think of TV as if it is what it was when we grew up… and depending when you grew up that’s an entirely different thing than it is now.  And yet… what we see on these screens is still a dominant. Force in how we look at the world and when we look at it too.   When some of us grew up it was the six o’clock news or the 10 o’clock news and now everything is breaking news. 24 hours a day.  Oh and sports?  Well we used to watch one baseball game a week and maybe a couple of pro football games and one college  game a week.  We had that in common along with that poor guy crashing off the end of that ski jump feeling the agony of defeat.  

We’ll talk more about this force in the summary, however for now. Let’s all take a moment to think about how TV/video has changed in our culture  and in our ways of understanding the things we experience.    This whole discussion  will continue after these brief messages at the same bat time and on the same bat channel.  

We Interupt. Our Irregularly Scheduled Program-

 We Interupt. Our  Four-Part Series where the Next Topic is “Television—for a Sunday/Monday 8-line rhyme 

Hark ye crooks collecting fees

Stop selling fears it’s a  disease

Don’t worship greed with so much ease

And spreading debt through mock degrees

We vow to no more bend our knees

We’ll lift our heads and say -Oh Please 

Blood from our stones you shall not squeeze

Today’s that day we choose to seize 

Economic Policy

Too many robots? Should we stop?

 Four Forces of Nature for the Modern Era —Part I—Industrialization

Don’t Worry We’ll get to the seeking peace and joy part in about 700 words or so… However, skipping  right to that would be the same as riding a roller coaster  that only had one hill and only went straight… let’s not glorify such  adventures shall we?  

As stated in the previous entry the next four entry  will feature what might be characterized as major influences on the environments in which we bring  meaning to our experiences,you know, the factors that shape  the landscape we walk around in every day and factors that are so invasive  and engulfing that they are in some ways like water is to fish or Amazon is to new credit card  holders?  

It’s hard to label these  four ideas… are they factors, forces,themes?   Wells funny little wizard (Jedi) informs me that “force it is we will choose young Skywalker….

So the first Force  we will ponder is INDUSTRIALIZATION

Now since “industrialization” is a long word we’re going to use a couple of shortcuts for it.  Moving forward it will be known as “the BIG I”. Or IA for “the Industrial Age and of course  IR will be the code for the Industrial Revolution.   Now we might not use the short forms all the time—you know it depends upon how tired these fingers get.  

Which came first …the industrial  age or the industrial revolution?    Was it mentality of standardizing  everything so that we could build more faster and with more similarities than ever before?  Bottom line—-who cares?  You can read all about  some of the first inventions  that heralded in the Industrial Age.  For the purposes we are pondering  the only thing that matters is not how much cotton we could pick, how many yards of wool we could weave, or how many Model T’S  we could roll out as long as you wanted black—We are talking “industrial philosophy or the philosophy  of industrialization.  You see at some point  we started to value standardized things and standardized people to make these standardized things.  Thing because the prizes we sold to  tell people how “good” or rich they were and boy did things sell—and they still do.  However, in order to make these  standardized things in standardized  ways we had to create humans that were standardized too.   So… we had to start putting all the square , triangular, and polygonal people and their beautifully diverse talents  and spirits  into a machine to achieve the uniformity required.  How did we do it?   We did it with schools… When did all students  go out into the world?  Well when they completed 8 or 12  grades for the most part unless our machine needed specially shaped parts to crank out products and then we used colleges and specialized programs to add apiece in here Ann’s there and had special ceremonies  to tell people that they are now just the way we want them to be.   One of the challenges in seeking peace and joy these days is that the human robots we create in schools no longer fit the systems we use to produce most goods in a way that pushes the productivity curve.   So schools are failing but they sure worked well for a good long time.  

What  else did we standardize?  

The success Narative  or put most simply…. If you work hard and find  the right job match you wil succeed and if you try harder you will succeed even more and the more you succeed the better your life will be and the better person you are.  Holy crap did this story work very well … in fact we decided that capitalism  would be the economic  game we adopted in America because it so well fits the  industrial call to produce more and to try hard to succeeed more.  We  are so tied.into this that even in our creative social media experiences  we seem to be rewarded  when we have more “friends” Followers, or links in our networks.  More  is better… 

In the industrial era you could (notice it is past tense sort of). You can be secure (or you could) and always find someone you were out performing so you could feel good.   You could almost always have more things than the generation before you and more than some of. Your neighbors depending on how you decided to define “neighbors.”  Oh and this is/was a sweet system of thought and actions until very recently…  While some would argue that we have moved  beyond the Industrial Age… I’d say not so fast…. Companies and their owners or the people who profit from them are still valuing unified  narratives and robotic  workforce mentalities and in fact so much some are pretty much just going with actual robots.  

We hear a lot about how some kids today don’t want to work. Or work hard and that back in the day we worked hard etc… There is always  a little truth in these types of statements…. However, are companies the same as they were?  Are paths to “success” the same I’m not so sure… Even more worth  pointing out is … now pay attention we’re about to use an odd metaphor an analogy so to speak… some symbolism…

Have you ever been drinking or watched someone who was and it became evident that you or someone let’s say your goofy uncle herb  was obviously blasted and drinking  more let’s say that 9th Jack and Coke wasn’t going to make him one bit funnier?    Well maybe we are getting to the point where humans can’t get any more “industrial”.  After all in the U. S. We are now producing as much in one month as we produced  in a whole year in 1950.   The average person  (or someone in their family) carries a computer  that is far more powerful than the one used to send a rocket to the moon)  and does that in their pocket.   We eat more, we travel further either in person or via remote experiences, and we have access to more information input  every day than all the generations that came before us had combined.  Maybe,,,, just maybe… as a spiritual and living being… we’ve reached the end of of our rainbow when it comes to this industrial path?  

Okay… the SEEKING PEACE AND JOY. Perspective

The Big I  was are bridge to all kinds of experiences and the canvas upon which we drew the pictures that symbolized  what it all means.  Now however, the bridge that the big I was  going from the start of our lives all the way  through to the end is falling out from beneath our feet…. We don’t understand the nature of the change and we can’t build a parachute  with the tools we have…. So many of us keep falling thinking… when will things be “normal” again..  So what if… 

Falling is the new human experience?   Can we as individuals and as collections and groups of people  “normalize  more ambiguity?  I believe we can… however we are going to have to adopt three  mantras…. These are

Uncertainty does not equal or have to signal fear.  Uncertainty can be an invitation to adventure  and new colors in your crayon box.  

Second —Not all people NEED to believe in the same overarching  concept of success or “productivity” We don’t need too many more ways to watch video or get around the world or foods to eat or goodness knows weapons to kill stuff with.  We don’t need to be right we only need to be authentic.

Three and this all for todayWe need  to throw out the idea that people’s lives  always reflect cause and effect experiences that move “forward” in a linear  manner…. 

Well … that’s enough for today.. we’ll come back to this in “some other rumblings’. At the end of this four part pogo sticking. Through philosophy.   

Peace.  

Tired of thinking outside the box try just underneath the triangle?

 How to live Outside the Triangle (Box?)

This podcast called “Akimbo” by Seth Godin strikes  a chord this morning and the Seeking Peace and Joy Universe needs to use this chord over and over just like CCR uses the same three chords over and over why?… because it worked then and it works now.   

So in the next  four entries  this blog will focus on  concepts that have shaped  our stories so much that we may not even realize they are coloring our world.  But today is just the intro and it will be brief and hopefully a little whimsical.  The four themes to be explored in coming muses are:  (at the bottom so read on)

For now if you can think outside the box and get solutions, what  happens when you do other things in proximation to other shapes?   

For example what happens if you sing outside the triangle?  What results when you write outside the octagon?  Who will fall all over a painting when  we paint just below the parallelogram?  Who benefits if we scribble  above the square?  How lovely would life be if we dialogue inside the diamonds or verbalize adjacent to the ven diagram?Will we fail if we predict beneath parabolas? How many problems get simpler if we share hints amidst hexagons?  

Okay don’t get all bent out of shape— the next four entries will look at seeking  peace and joy in the. Context of  

1. Industrialization 
2. Our current cultural use and stance on science
3. Television and its evolution. And 
4. Dualism in foreign. Relations

Okay… this has been enough rambling around the rhomboid  for now… more soon 

Learning to Read (or fly)

 Learning to Read and Reading to Learn

Just a few minutes ago  aconcept came into my awareness.  You have to learn to read before you can read to learn. In turn, that means someone has to learn how to teach you to read and maybe  someone has to teach you how to read to learn.  Now that means someone  had to learn how to teach you to read to learn and someone had to read about learning  to teach you how to read to learn and you could choose to learn how someone teaches. Others to learn or read in order read to learn.  Confused yet?  So which comes first?—the learning or the reading?   Neither I suspect… maybe it’s the wanting to understand  what others think and say and wanting people to say what they think so we all can think about  what others say?  Oh so.. does that mean we all learn more if we answer some questions and question some answers?   …and

If we learn lessons do we pass them along?  Do we do this often enough?  It seems in the seeking peace and joy universe it’s important to do so… and  there’s this song I wrote a few years back, however  when I was thinking about all the ideas above, I couldn’t remember if I have really ever shared the lyrics to that song and somehow  right now seemed like a good time to pass these lessons along.  So Here we are

Lessons

I’ve learned great lessons from professors and books

Graceful half-drunken women and burned out fry cooks

I thought it was time that I passed them along

So I sat up one night and I wrote down this song….here it goes

The wiser i get the more that I’ve found

Your body just carries your spirit around

And there’s a new circus around every turn

The best thing to do is pay attention and learn

And pass all these lessons to the next passer by

Try to enjoy life and understand why

But if why eludes you don’t wallow in frets

Don’t let your butterfly wings get weighed dow with regrets 

(Chorus so of) 

And breathe and stretch and dance your own dance

And laugh and smile when life gives you the chance

V2

You’ll rarely finish but you’ll often restart

Take your brain with you but follow your heart

And don’t compromise on the things you might change

Understand.normal but celebrate strange

Don’t chase the chaos nor worship control

But run it full throttle when you’re on a roll 

(Chorus)

V3

I’ve heard sermons in bar roooms  and in churches learned  shoulds

But some of the best prayers I’ve ever heard were whispered in woods

And don’t be afraid to believe in forever

But be careful with words like always and never

Don’t shake your fist in the mirror when your patience wears thin

Every dream has its time don’t let apathy win

(Chorus)

V4

You will try to help many but you can’t walk in their place

You can’t battle their  demons especially ones they won’t faceThese are my lessons nearly all that I know

And if you learn half of these well you’ll find your glow

And Once you fink this  well you will go far

To sum it all up…you’ll become who you are 

And you will have learned how to  chorus.. Anyway I’ve asked you read enough today and hope it was to learn… I’ve learned  just buy thinking about  it… Peace.