When constant gloom becomes my style
I stack my woes up in a pile
The line moves slow it’s single file
Every step seems like a mile
And each request gets a denial
So then I choose a different aisle
Simply toss my friends a smile
And Life improves for quite awhile
Ignore and shun those selfish swine
Who sell us “what is yours is mine”
Seven friends did not eat nine
In life expect a crooked line
Do things that send chills down your spine
Replace your tea cups with a Stein
Sing loud your song dismiss the whine
I’ve got enough take some of mine
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For some to swim must others sink?
Are views the clearest from the brink?
Perhaps it’s time to pause and think
Let our righteous egos shrink
Write words in chalk and not red ink
Change darker hearts again to pink
Who will have the grace to blink
And cast aside this poison drink?
Now wait just a minute you say? Are you kidding me? Don’t you think seeking peace and joy might line up on the side of freedom of ideas? Isn’t it important to express ourselves if we aren’t going to get all tangled up and disturbed? Doesn’t this seem to contradict the notion of encouraging folks to attempt to limit what’s available in the libraries in our schools? Well…..
Let’s throw some facts and ideas around shall we?
To start with the American Library Association (they know a thing or two about books and libraries and such)
Does a survey regularly and what real data show them about people in the U.S. is that in any given year each of us may start reading around 13 books a year. However, we only finish 5 of them. Now in any given year in the modern era there are 150 million books in print. So if any given person is only reading 5 out of 150 million goess what there is only a 1 in 30 million chance that a person reads any given book from cover to cover including the offensive parts. Wait you say we only mean these “new books that have that strange stuff in them”.. Well alright in any given year about 4 million new books get published so the chance a given book gets scanned before it’s banned is 1 in 800,000. Now if our school libraries had more math books perhaps we would all already know these odds, however, there doesn’t seem to be a public outcry for more math books…just saying. In fact down below there are some other “outcry” suggestions… but not quite yet.
Most “books to be Banned” lists contain more than 5 titles so odds are that the folks who want them banned haven’t read them, their families haven’t read them, their kids have never heard of them, and since most school libraries have pitiful budgets once these books are known as controversial they are likely to be stolen and then they won’t be replaced.
Now let’s stick with people being concerned about what’s in the school library for a minute. Before recent days parent’s didn’t seem to care and most parents were far more more likely to know where the football/soccer fields and the basketball floor was than where the library is let alone what’s in the library. So maybe finding out where the library is could be a good first step? Let’s keep moving shall we? Now.. how many parents out there would like to demand that all controversial books be pulled just so students don’t stumble upon one? Well that sounds okay… until… until we have a bunch of books that don’t have recent interpretations of the universe in them. Do we recall that Galileo was tossed out of the church with his book supporting the crazy notion that the Earth and the planets revolve around the sun? He and his book could have been burned for such craziness. Okay you say we don’t mean that kind of book. You mean book full of violence, sex, wars, disasters, demons, people who wentarainst societal norms you know that kind of book? How many copies of the Bible would you like us to pop into the dumpster?
Now…let’s not get all snarky… okay.. we absolutely should focus upon what all children and youth need to learn to be successful contributors to society. Does that include how some people should have sex with some other people or that kids need to worry about whether or not they have the right body parts? Well this might come as a bit of surprise to some folks, however, it seems like human beings have been able to learn about sex without any books at all and the evidence seems pretty clear on that. There wasn’t a gigantic population explosion right after the printing press was invented. Also it wouldn’t seem that teachers have so much time that they need to explore whether Billy should have curvy hips because Francine would honor his feminine side if s/he did.
If we want to expand what schools are going to teach let’s do that. How about beginning with changing a tire? Oh and. If public transit ever gets efficient we might not need to teach that so let’s teach kids how to fix a toilet or unclog a drain in other places because you might not ever use algebra to figure out when the train coming from Chicago is going to pass the farmer. Driving his tractor while listening to willie nelson somewhere in Indiana, but the first time your old college friend and his sister comes to visit your toilet is going to act up for certain.
Oh and while it’s okay to learn how to play kickball or dodgeball because there’s not enough scary stuff coming at us outside of school
Maybe our physical education could include learning how to brush our teeth, eat, drink and wipe ourselves with both or either hand. You see most. Of us are going to break a wrist, burn our hand, dislocate a shoulder etc at some point and these are very handy life skills to know before getting out there among the masses.
Well let’s summarize a bit before this becomes the sequel to War and Peace—we would have said “The Grapes of Wrath” but it’s been banned in some places—
The attempt to ban particular books may point some needed attention at school libraries. On the other hand banning a few books in the total population of available books when people only read a thimble full off books in the bath tub of available books seems pretty inefficient. Oh and if we throw in the 3.75 million YouTube videos added as an information source banning books seems like we are placing a postage stamp sized “caution sign” on a dirt road that sits right next to a wide open superhighway where cars are going80 miles per hour.
There are ideas that are better discussed in homes and other places than in schools not because kids aren’t going to have ideas about things, however, most of these ideas have been shared throughout history way before the printed book and by people who didn’t have to grade papers and have lunchroom duty already. Well and in terms of handling body parts that don’t seem quite right with school curriculums… well I have this small bump about two inches left of center on my chest—should I find the shop teacher and ask if I like Billy or Barbie better will I feel okay ablout the bump? And I have other body parts that I’d like to change…but oh well… I don’t need a library book about that.
So how about we compromise…. If we are going to form committees to ban books then let’s form some to expand knowledge. If you want to ban a book you have to read it in from of someone who wrote the book and ask if you are getting the point and if you are.. then you can ban the book if and only if you write a book to replace it.
Maybe in the end we could all just understand that schools are a learning resource, books are some ideas we shared but won’t demand everyone to agree upon, and that we work hard to find purposes that we can agree upon and then determine what information, analysis , and learning might be needed to address these purposes regardless of what type of people have what types of bodies are involved. Oh and when push comes to shove let’s accept the ideas of Marx—Groucho not Karl… who tells us
Outside of a dog the book is a man’s best friend—inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.”
Mother Nature reveals kindness over malice
The sky fills up with jewels
For princes queens and fools
This sight we call aurora Borealis
Some got stoned the others got drunk
So bored with the robotic junk
Horn swayed like an elephant’s trunk
While the sax master laid down some funk
Put to shame ancient disco and punk
The tensions from mid-day just shrunk
Went home chanted prayers like a monk
Mind at peace calmly slept in my bunk
Worldwide we all have been drinking the Kool-Aid for almost a century. It has been97 years since eddy Perkins from Hastings Nebraska invented the stuff by experimenting in his mother’s kitchen and somehow General Mills and now Kraft have been able to sell a colored, sort of flavored, powder that really only has somewhat of a taste due to the massive portion of sugar that gets added when you make it or in the case of “sugar-free” the amount of artificial sweeteners in the stuff. While it generally has a great reputation among parents because it’s cheaper and marginally better than. Straight up pop for kids has been used in one of the largest mass cult based “suicides?” In history. So..maybe our thinking on Kool-Aid is divided?
But moving from the drink to the phrase… it’s part of seeking peace and joy to ask oneself “am I comfortable with what I believe?” Also we often ask “what about all the Kool-Aid I’ve been given over all the past experiences in life and is it time to stop just drinking the same stuff from the same sources? Well that is certainly something to ponder and maybe we could start by mixing up some grape (my personal favorite) and pouring it in a glass… but wait a full glass may have way too much sugar in it so let’s stop at about half a glass alright?
Oh No!! Now we fall into the classic Is the glass half empty or half full puzzle? Which brings us around to another insight into seeking peace and joy.
Inevitably we fall into this debte/argument because the answer depends upon your perspective. Like whether you are an optimist or a pessimist. Alas my friends.. the real question is “Why is it so important to hang on to this dualistic debate. Isn’t it time to ask a few deeper questions—like what would it take to stop using our valuable time on such matters? This whole debate gets settled or moved forward in no fewer than 4 ways.
First, why is it so hard to either fillthe. Glass up or empty it rather than starting an argument? Second, Does it matter how much is in the glass if no one is going thirsty? If you count air as a valuable substance on the planet—and most folks really wouldn’t do well without it—isn’t the glass always full or overflowing? Finally, is the person or people in charge of choosing the glass creating a problem that might not exist with a little forethought?
Bottom line.. Kool-Aid tastes great if you like sugar and there are worse things for your health over time.. for example bacon is sugar free? Oh and no big arguments seem to happen over Kool-aid because there are enough flavors for everyone and if the person next to you picks that black cherry instead.. well nobody gets all bent out of shape. Also maybe we might start thinking about asking different questions when it comes to the things we choose to argue about. Maybe the glass is neither half empty nor half full. Maybe we need to figure out what is important to say is in the glass, how we are going to share what’s in there, and also maybe we could rethink what size glass we. Really need so that everyone has enough to drink?
Sometimes fighting about the answers is not as worthwhile as finding some different questions?
Well it’s “Derby Day” and “Star Wars” Day. So it would seem that all horses running in the 150th edition of the Kentucky derby should have been required to have a Star Wars themed name. And we’re talking the original trilogy here not the cash grab prequels or hangers on just trying to milk the Milkyway for all it’s worth. It’s hard to say what these Star Wars names would be—maybe Yoda Fastest Pony and Obi-wan a different race but not this one?Perhaps Leia bet down for the win?
Anyway, about 20 fine horses will be called to the gate and the bell will sound the crowd will cheering the most exciting two minutes in American sports will be underway.
Now for those of us not that familiar with the sport of kings it’s good to know the Kentucky Derby is the first leg of the “triple crown.” However, when one thinks of horses and legs four sort of comes to mind —right? If a horse with three legs won now that would be a story. Before we could all bet on everything including the over and under on how many nose hairs Taylor Swift pulls before the third concert on every tour the Derby was by far the most popular betting event of the year and it makes sense.
The Derby and Seeking Peace and Joy
You see it seems that everybody wants to have a horse in that race or a dog in that fight. When we are working on something we want to get out of the gate fast, hit the ground running, and stay on the fast track. As things go along we really want to be hitting our stride and we most certainly want to be strong in the home stretch and no matter what we want to win even if it’s just by a nose. Then again no matter who or what is entered most of the time the rats keep winning the rat race and maybe we can win even if we. Don’t finish first. After all sometimes it’s just important to be in the right “place” and to “show” up. When others need you. After all the jockeying for position and chasing each other’s tails it often seems like we wind up running in a circle, ending up with tiny bits of worthless paper, and end up with a bunch of racers a lot like u—tired and hoping to find a nice quiet field to rest in.
Maybe the key to the whole thing is to understand that the horses don’t really care if they are in a race or what colors they have for a brand. They don’t care who is scheming to win or lose depending upon how they perform. They appear just to get out there and be the best version of the creatures the universe intended without worrying about the horse next to them running a little faster. Maybe we should just eat a few more carrots and apples and breathe deeply and fly like the wind.
Finally here’s some Peace and Joy Betting Advice…
So off to the track we all go
We arrive with a fistful of dough
Got great tips from my buddy
But it rained track was muddy
So our picks didn’t win, place, or show
May the 4th be with you
May the force be with you
And today..
May the horse be with you!
So starting tomorrow pay attention to how many times you see something with wheels on it. Let’s include bikes, trikes, strollers, cars, trucks, trains, planes, and well of course suitcases which are a relatively new wheeled object. Did we overlook skateboards, rollerblades, roller skates, and those funky shoes with the wheelie the heels? Yep count them too and then think about the invention of the wheel.
According to an AI source the wheel as we know it was “invented in about 4,000 BCE. However, in some ways it is hard to believe that prehistoric—don’t we really mean before we wrote stuff down?) Certainly the first people on the planet had histories? They couldn’t have mastered living in the moment all the time—right? Okay back to the wheel.. or the grindstone now there’s a wheel. It seems reasonable that some folks used an old log to help move heavy things by sitting the heavy thing on the log and pushing? Okay so they didn’t draw a sketch of it in their cave. They were busy hunting huge buffalo and running from grizzly bears and didn’t have time to scrape stick figures on the cave with berry based paint every night. Plus circles are hard to draw—you don’t think so grab an etch-sketch and give it a whirl.
Alright let’s say the wheel gets invented sometime back in Summary or Egypt or china or someplace that gets credit for all the ancient stuff… and all of the sudden one of the clans in the tribe has a thing they can use to move stuff and these people soon find they can build a cart for hauling people. Can you imagine the stir that created? Little boys sitting at the mouth of their caves and huts see their neighboring clans rolling past and there you have it the first time in history one. Family started comparing their wheels with someone else’s and now it’s Ford Vs. Chevy, and all the rest. It wasn’t long and we were starting to use wheels for all types of things. However, what if we hadn’t decided to trust the wheel? How would planes take off or land? Instead of saying “It’s like learning to ride a bike” would we be saying “It’s like learning to hop around with a stick between our legs?Would we pack far smaller suitcases—well maybe, however, where would we be going I mean everything would be by horse or on foot? Oh and how boring would office chairs be?
What’s the SekkingPeace and Joy connection? It seems like there are some choices in life and they include using the wheel to do different things in different ways knowing it won’t always work just like wheels that were made of wood or stone. I mean what if you had some wooden wheels and parked near a beaver dam? Oh and until the first part of the 20th century wheels weren’t filled with air so that created some challenges. Anyway the point is the wheel has changed and we have adapted and changes what we do with it. But it is not only choosing to use something with wheels, it choosing to be a wheel.
Seeking peace and joy, especially in a community, can mean trying to help others move their heavy stuff in life over obstacles and over the course of a long. Journey. We can choose to hold things and people up while we stay grounded. We can choose to carry far more weight than we might be on our own and risk getting a nail and becoming flat, ruptured, and getting thrown on a pile to be tossed into a grinder or worse onto a fire. Yet if you make the choice to be a wheel you might get admired and taken places all around the world and might make little children very happy as they get their first whiff of mobility-based freedom.
Maybe the point here is that we all might have a fuller life if sometimes we use the wheel and sometimes we become the wheel and when we need a moment to relax and regroup then maybe we should just be sitting’ here watching’ the wheels go round and round.
If you are reading this on the day it was posted, then it’s the 319th anniversary of the day in 1705 that Isaac Newton became “Sir” Isaac Newton. This was sort of a big deal for someone who had a couple of obstacles tossed in his 17th Century path including his father passing away about three month before he was born. The source that provided that fact didn’t say how Newton’s father met his demise, however, it adds a little comic relief to imagine his papa was struck down by a torrent of walnuts as his father failed to recognize the universal power of gravity and due to inertia couldn’t rise up and move fast enough to avoid the pounding. Nonetheless (this blog has included “nonetheless” far too many times lately providing evidence that vocabularies standing still tend to continue to stand still.
So Newton provided the empirical/scientific community with three basic “laws of motion and some principles concerning gravity that guided most of our traditional study of physics until Einstein brought up that pesky e=mc squared idea which led to the invention of the flux capacitor by Doc. Brown (Take that AI.
Anyway what were these three laws of motion? More importantly is there modern day evidence showing they were both reliable and observable?
The evidence for this is overwhelming. Every time you make a little more money, everything. You need to survive will go up in price, your car will break down, a filling will fall out etc.
You see these are useful rules or laws, however here are a few that Newton didn’t anticipate and are important to people living now.
For Example
If you carry over that “every action has an opposite reaction does that mean you should make yourself miserable if you want other people to be happy? That doesn’t seem reasonable. If my enemies eat too much will my friends get really skinny? Now science tells us this whole opposite reaction thing is about “conservation of energy” and you’ve used just about enough energy reading this far… so let’s forget the “opposite thing for now and just keep seeking some peace and joy with the hope that when we come across some… we keep seeking and having peace and joy cross our paths.
Oh and maybe we’ll find some better cookies—some Nilla Wafers at least?
