Posts Tagged ‘ego’

A Plea for Open-mindedness

May 18, 2020

Too Many Words

In Journalism school we used to have great fun with headlines, coming up with humorous or nonsensical word plays that would get the reader’s attention. In this case, “too many words” refers to something a relative posted in Facebook with that heading. I’m pretty sure what he meant was that writers/authors/reporters/etc. need to get to the point. So, depending on how long this part of my post is, I may comment more on wordiness as a sidebar.

First Some Definitions

  • Open-mindedness: “Receptive to arguments or ideas” (Merriam-Webster)
  • Bigotry: “Obstinate or intolerant devotion to one’s own opinions and prejudices” (Merriam-Webster)

Examples of bigotry in a sentence: “A deeply ingrained bigotry prevented her from even considering the counterarguments.”

Why Am I Venting?

Prompted by some Facebook sessions a few weeks ago in which I made the mistake of getting embroiled in a political discussion, I decided to vent in this post.

If I had taken my own advice – “don’t discuss politics using social media” – I wouldn’t have participated in the Facebook sessions that upset me. I say that because for me social media is the wrong platform for exchanging that kind of information. I.e., if someone comments in a news feed that so and so did this or something happened that supports their point of view, I want to be able to ask that person, “What’s your source for that information” or “Why do you believe that’s true?”

“You’re entitled to your own opinions, but you’re not entitled to your own facts.” Daniel Levitin

Anyway, back to my “embroiled political discussion”. Before the dust had settled on the Facebook exchanges that lasted several days, yours truly had been thoroughly thrashed and labelled with some very unkind labels (nothing obscene, but much undeserved labels).

For a bit more grist for this mill, check out this Imprimis piece by Amy Wax. You can read all of it if you want, but at least scroll down to the paragraph that begins, “It is well documented that American universities today, more than ever before”. Read that paragraph and the two paragraphs that follow it.

As you may know, Imprimis is a right-biased source. If that bothers you, just forget all that (bias business) for a minute and read the damn article. Amy Wax provides some thought-provoking ideas.

Here’s some music to listen to as you read and a quote to think about:

Antonio Vivaldi: Four Seasons (Spring)
“Truth and lies were irrelevant, what mattered was what people believed.” (A quote from Lethal Agent, a novel by Vince Flynn that I just finished reading)

What’s My Point?

Shouldn’t I be allowed to contradict someone, to express my own opinions and try to ferret out the truth without being lambasted for my own beliefs? And, yes, if I hear a convincing and accurate argument that disagrees with mine, I’m willing to say, OK, you’re right, and I’m wrong.

If you missed this part in the Imprimis piece by Amy Wax, here it is again:

“What those of us in academia should certainly not do is engage in unreasoned speech: hurling slurs and epithets, name-calling, vilification, and mindless labeling. Likewise we should not reject the views of others without providing reasoned arguments. Yet these once common standards of practice have been violated repeatedly at my own and at other academic institutions in recent years—and we increasingly see this trend in society as well.”

Sorry, no pictures this time, but for sure I’ll add pictures in my next blog. I’m done venting (feels great!), thanks for reading and listening. I’ll save the “wordiness” sidebar for another post.

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Adam & Eve in Love!

March 31, 2017

What’s Love Got to Do With It?

Tine Turner: What’s Love Got to Do with It?

The idea for this blog dawned on me in SoCal (southern California) on one of our many trips down to visit relatives and of course get away from the @#$%^&* rain for a few days – I do love that natural  vitamin D! One morning I was enjoying an early breakfast and reading the Wall Street Journal (provided by the hotel). In the “Review”, section was an essay written by Bruce Feiler. It was adapted from his forthcoming book (March 21), The First Love Story: Adam and Eve and Us.

By the way, my recommendation is that you read the article if you’re a WSJ subscriber, or just use this link and check out the video interview with Bruce Feiler. I think the essay is a very thought provoking piece, especially if you’re married and (hopefully) in love or perhaps recently fallen in love. Rather than get off on a side trail about my opinion of how important love is or what it means, I’ll just let Bruce Feiler’s ideas speak for themselves. I may summarize his ideas along the way. Also, if you have a Bible handy, it might help you to better understand if you read Genesis chapters 1 and 2 and for good measure 1 Corinthians 13 (the “love” chapter) in the New Testament. It’s a lot to digest, but I’ll provide some bullet points that might help.

Here’s a totally irrelevant (but wonderful) quote to get you started. I saw this on a napkin dispenser at MOD Pizza in Beaverton, Oregon on March 28th while I was eating my pizza, enjoying a beer, and making some notes in my blog notebook.

Bob Dylan, Poet Laureate and Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016:
“May you’re your heart be always joyful.
May your song always be sung.
And may you stay young forever.”
Karen O and the Kids: All is Love (from Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack)

Quoting from Bruce Feiler’s Essay

“In December 1867, Mark Twain was touring Jerusalem when he visited a room in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre identified as Adam’s tomb. He was overcome with emotion. ‘The fountain of my filial affection was stirred to its profoundest depths,’ he wrote. Twain became obsessed with his oldest ancestor, at one point urging planners in New York to replace the Statue of Liberty with a monument to Adam. He went on to write a half-dozen pieces about the first couple, including Extracts from Adam’s Diary and an Autobiography of Eve.”

“Adam, in Twain’s retelling, is initially uncomfortable with Eve. It used to be so pleasant and quiet here, he says, ‘I foresee trouble. Will emigrate.’ Eve is equally unimpressed with Adam. ‘He talks very little. Perhaps it is because he is not bright, and is sensitive about it.’ (who says Twain didn’t have a sense of humor!) But slowly the two come around. ‘I see I should be lonesome and depressed without her’, Adam says. Eve echoes his feelings: ‘I love him with all the strength of my passionate nature…It is my prayer, it is my longing, that we may pass from this life together.’”

Patti; Tuck & Patti: Love is the Key

Adam and Eve in love? Really? Who would think such a thing?”

Feiler goes on to say that several very famous people would agree that, yes, they were in love, and that, given the transitional state of the family for the last 30 centuries – major changes with high divorce rates, lifestyles in our hyperconnected world – maybe Adam and Eve could offer some guidance.

Some Bullet Points in Summary of Feiler’s Ideas

Obviously taken out of context (you really need to buy the book or get a copy of the WSJ essay), here are some more thoughts, quoted and/or paraphrased from the essay.

  • The first couple have been victims of a long campaign of character assassination. One reason is that we rarely read the opening chapters of Genesis with the idea that Adam and Eve might be in love. He goes on to explain this important point in detail.
  • Who is God’s chosen sex, man or woman? If you read and compare Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, the answer appears different. Feiler elaborates, then concludes by saying they are entirely equal.
  • In support of the equality idea, if you look at Michelangelo’s famous painting in the Sistine Chapel, it is Eve, not Adam and not God who occupies the exact center of the room. In the third panel, the two figures (Adam and Eve) reach together for the forbidden fruit. They are not estranged, they are partners.
  • Milton’s Paradise Lost was a step-by-step argument that Adam and Eve were equal.
  • In Shakespeare’s words, “Love is not avoiding conflict; it is about overcoming it”.
  • The most underappreciated aspect of Adam and Eve is how they continually return to each other after periods of separation. They start life united, then Eve goes off alone. She could remain apart but instead returns to Adam. Once out of Eden, they could split, but instead they stay together.
Beatles: And I Love Her

Some Final Thoughts

The Bible is the first to put a man and a woman at the start of the human line. God can’t procreate. He needs human partners – starting with Adam and Eve – for humanity to succeed.

Feiler concludes his essay by saying that the first couple struggled too, yet they found a way to heal their wounds and forgive their wrongs.

Some More Music

Eagles: Love Will Keep Us Alive (Hell Freezes Over album)
Del Shannon: Sea of Love (really old song)
Karen O and the Kids: Building All is Love (from Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack)

noah_loves_the_beach_cropped

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Personas

April 20, 2014

What are Personas- Introduction?

Let’s address the definition first, at least by example what I think a persona is . . .

Wait, push the pause button, just a quick side note about this blog topic. If you looked in the “About” section, under “Themes”, you may have read that People is one of the themes in my blog, actually a main theme, so think of Personas as a People topic. You can push play now.

How about this example . . . you’re a rancher, you get up in the morning, put on a clean pair of jeans and a plaid shirt with sturdy pockets, slip on a pair of comfortable boots, well-worn, but clean, and your hat. You sit down for a cup of coffee and a hearty breakfast, anticipating a demanding day getting ready for a stock sale only two weeks away.

Another persona might be . . . you’re an artist and you make artistic pottery. Your kiln is heating up and you’re making some rough sketches on paper – you don’t always do sketches, but the vision of a new series hasn’t quite clearly formed in your mind. You have a vast mental storehouse of ideas that you can draw on, from experiences in different cultures in Spain, in Mesoamerica, and in more domestic, communal settings. As the kiln continues to heat, you warm to the new ideas for your pottery series.

You get the idea, right. Personas are important I think you’d agree, probably a very healthy thing and a part of yourself that should be nurtured, possibly something that is essential, like the ego.

In one of my earlier blog posts, I described myself as several things – a writer, a grandfather, a photographer, and a runner. Recently I put on my running clothes and said to myself that I was a runner. A foregone conclusion I suppose, given that I ran over 1400 miles in 2013, no brag, just fact and that’s not counting the races that I did, probably another 100 miles. I really like running, for the physical exertion, the mental uplift and therapeutic benefits, and the endorphins, of course. And, make no mistake about it, it’s hard work and some days I don’t feel like running, but even on those days, I make an effort and I run. Like that scene from Forrest Gump where Tom Hanks with his long beard and hair is asked why he runs and he says something like, “I like to run.”

Children too have personas, not just adults – in fact, children can have very interesting and provocative personas, partly I think because they are unfettered by all the mental debris that we so-called adults have accumulated over time. Try this one out, perhaps typical of other children’s personas, but in other ways a unique persona.

This young person likes video games – no surprise there. He likes to play outside with his friends, in a part of the country where the climate isn’t always hospitable – who needs a jacket. He likes to make good grades, especially A+’s. His favorite things to learn about are math and science (especially space exploration). He has two baby sisters and likes to spend time with them. And last but not least in this short list of persona attributes, his favorite season is summer, which relates back to another attribute that I mentioned, playing outside. Later on I’ll relate the personas of others who this young person knows well.

April 20, 2014

He rides a motor bike and patrols a trail where I run sometimes, near a big corporate campus for a running shoe and apparel manufacturer. I’ll call him Cliff (not his real name). I often stop during my run to talk to Cliff. He’s a bit younger than me, actually everyone is younger than me, but we have similar backgrounds in that we were both in the service, Cliff in the Coast Guard and me in the Navy. He retired from the Coast Guard after 20 years of service. He was a Boatswain’s Mate. I had that duty for a while on my ship, so I was familiar with what it was like. We joked about how often things got painted aboard a ship. He told me about his duty on the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge. One of their assignments was to maintain the navigation systems on the river, part of which involved servicing the red and green navigation lights that lined the river. The lights help ships orient themselves while underway on the river. He told me one year the river was so dry you could walk all the way across to the other side. He also served in Puerto Rico and Guam and several other places. I think people with a service background, any service, are interesting because of the stories they tell about their experiences. I highly recommend talking to an ex-service person. Next time I stop to talk to Cliff, I think I’ll ask him how many runners and walkers he gets a chance to talk to.

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