Jeopardy. You know the game show. You know the game. You get an answer and you have to find the right question. To be fair, categories are defined. Like "Anatomy," for example.
An answer might be: The system in the brain that regulates emotions.
The question would be: What is the limbic system?
But what do we do when the questions are just not right? Here is an answer, for example:
A 77-year old former pedophile, paroled sex offender/rapist driving his favorite antique hearse kills a man riding a motorcycle on a rural highway.
The question might be: What is irony? What is injustice? Or the question might be:
What did an internet search for your biological father's name turn up?
Sometimes, asking the right questions...well, it's just not right.
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Friday, March 8, 2013
This Morning 3/6/13 The Question is as Important as the Answer - One
We live in a time of great technological and ecological change. The Ecosystem, which is the Earth's biotic and abiotic environments, and the Biosphere which "represents the role of living organisms and their remains in controlling and interacting with the other spheres in the global biogeochemical cycles and energy budgets"(1) are going through what could possibly be labeled a "midlife crisis."
It is estimated the age of the Earth is 3.5 billion years. Humans began appearing relatively late in relationship to most other forms of life. In the context of a clock, we arrived in the last 30 seconds of the 11th hour. Yet, our arrival has utilized the non-renewable resources of our Earth at an alarming rate.
The questions we ask about the overall effect of the human species on the Earth's resources can lead to some pretty difficult answers.
Is is necessary to ransack the Earth's resources to support our species?
Are humans that important in the universal panorama that ransacking a planet is justified?
Are humans that important in the universal panorama that ransacking a planet is justified?
If rabbits are considered ultra-over-breeders, how do we rank when the human population has doubled to 7 billion in 40 years?
How long remains before it is too late to change?
We must also ask personal questions.
Because we know we all die, does it make us less or more likely to live without consideration of consequence?
How selfish am I regarding my personal use of resources?
Am I status quo?
Is there anything I can do today to harmonize with the Biosphere?
None of the answers are easy. But all of the questions are important, and asking the right questions is essential.
(1) http://www.eoearth.org/article/Biosphere?topic=58074
Monday, March 4, 2013
This Morning 2/26/13 When the Fire Speaks
Six women gathered around the domed-shaped lodge where, inside, a ceremony would commence to purify their minds, bodies and spirits. Prayers would be said and songs would be sung in the ancient language to heal places and people known and unknown.
The effects of this ceremony and those like it are assembled in our conscious minds and in the basic constructions we imagine as "meaning." Meaning is essential to comprehend, to justify, and ultimately, to accept the temporal nature of life as we know it. We can explain our senses and our thoughts as a reflection of the ultimate truth of any situation, but empirically, there is no proof of anything. There is only what we think and how we feel. These are constructs of belief.
The women believe in something greater then themselves. Some call it a higher power, some call it Creator, some call it the Spirit world where their ancestors exist in a different form, yet still completely conscious of this world. Some believe in sentient awareness as the accompanying gift of the Spirit world. As if being dead has a reward: you get to know everything.
As the fire burned in the pit designed to contain it and the wood platform of stones it heated, the wind began to dance. The dance came from the west - the horses came running fast with the bear trailing behind, grunting as his brown fur moved back and forth in waves against the blue sky. A powerful sound was heard when these beings together reached the eastern gate just in time for the first spark from the fire to set the lodge ablaze.
The women moved in harmony like a song waiting to be sung. One covered the fire, one ran for water, one prayed, one grabbed the shovel, one called the fire department, one held the space for the horses and the bear to work together that no one would be harmed. It was a beautiful ancient song.
The ceremony to purify the minds, bodies and spirits of the women had commenced in a way unexpected and unknown in the construction of what they believed. What if this was also ceremony? The unexpected opportunity to understand that songs are not always sung the way we imagine. That prayers are not always prayed the way we know. That the effects of what we do cannot always be quantified by what we believe.
When the fire speaks, we must leave understanding as we know it. We must open.
The effects of this ceremony and those like it are assembled in our conscious minds and in the basic constructions we imagine as "meaning." Meaning is essential to comprehend, to justify, and ultimately, to accept the temporal nature of life as we know it. We can explain our senses and our thoughts as a reflection of the ultimate truth of any situation, but empirically, there is no proof of anything. There is only what we think and how we feel. These are constructs of belief.
The women believe in something greater then themselves. Some call it a higher power, some call it Creator, some call it the Spirit world where their ancestors exist in a different form, yet still completely conscious of this world. Some believe in sentient awareness as the accompanying gift of the Spirit world. As if being dead has a reward: you get to know everything.
As the fire burned in the pit designed to contain it and the wood platform of stones it heated, the wind began to dance. The dance came from the west - the horses came running fast with the bear trailing behind, grunting as his brown fur moved back and forth in waves against the blue sky. A powerful sound was heard when these beings together reached the eastern gate just in time for the first spark from the fire to set the lodge ablaze.
The women moved in harmony like a song waiting to be sung. One covered the fire, one ran for water, one prayed, one grabbed the shovel, one called the fire department, one held the space for the horses and the bear to work together that no one would be harmed. It was a beautiful ancient song.
The ceremony to purify the minds, bodies and spirits of the women had commenced in a way unexpected and unknown in the construction of what they believed. What if this was also ceremony? The unexpected opportunity to understand that songs are not always sung the way we imagine. That prayers are not always prayed the way we know. That the effects of what we do cannot always be quantified by what we believe.
When the fire speaks, we must leave understanding as we know it. We must open.
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