Pursuit of Money

Everyone says they want to be happy. The Declaration of Independence proclaims people have a right to pursue it. We say we want others to be happy, our children to be happy. And on and on . Unfortunately, in a competitive society, there are problems with happiness. It just doesn’t fit with the rest of the ethos .

For one thing it cannot be quantified. There is no “standard unit of happiness” as there is for money or distance. You cannot say a person with eight units of happiness is better off than one with two. How then, can you tell who is winning ?

We also prize property, which like other possessions, tends to be stable. Unfortunately happiness is a kind of transient illusion. It can appear for no apparent reason, and vanish just as quickly. We can’t store it in land holdings or a bank vault .

Worst of all, it is fickle. Clearly a person with more dollars is better off than a person with fewer. A clear winner (we like winners!) But somehow a beggar with the right attitude can actually be happier than those refusing to give him alms. Irrational! Yet we all want happiness.

And we work really hard hoping and believing that more money will bestow more joy. I guess sometimes it does. But that “sometimes” is pretty annoying .

Exaggeration and Lies

Exaggeration is often welcome in conversation. We love to claim we caught the biggest fish, had the worst day of our lives. Casual talks with friends are lighter if we stretch the truth, or even invent things out of whole cloth .

But that is entertainment. Serious discussions are not aided by stretching facts to fit desires. Unless, I suppose, you are a lawyer … Seriously, using exaggeration to win an argument is a time honored practice .

The problem is when exaggeration turns to lies. If someone says the water tastes bad, fine. If they say it is dangerous to drink, that should require proof. Lies and truth require more than merely saying something is so .

Unfortunately, in the heat of the moment or when trying to achieve power, exaggerations slide easily to lies taken as facts, for exaggerated goals without foundation or nuance. So we get orations, such as “gypsies are ignorant dirty thieving people and should all be run off or shot on sight.” No proof, no nuance, but unfortunately effective especially when combined with other equally shaky statements like “we would all be better off if there were no gypsies.”

We used to think “lying” politicians were bad, but now we seem to believe “exaggerating” ones are merely cute .

The Good Life

A list of what constitutes a “good life” is almost infinite. Security, health, purpose, achievement and all kinds of immediate desires driven by situation and often stoked by envy. Constructing a comprehensive list would be impossible .

Nor does it help that our mercurial consciousness juggles the proportions all the time. If we are very secure, we may desire adventure. If we have all we could possibly want all the time we may be bored. As we age, the possibilities and strength of desires mutate deeply .

Often in younger days there are immediate massive problems that overwhelm all others. Some are illusions, but they seem real at the time. At times the jumble is so chaotic that our wishes become simple, like just getting a decent meal or a good night’s sleep .

So for an elder to outline “a good life” to anyone else – especially someone less old – is malicious. One thing I think becomes clear wisdom is that conditions vary, and the past is rarely a reliable guide in matters of the soul. Anyway, there are enough puffed up guides out there to satisfy anyone’s curiosity. I wouldn’t trust them -, but then, I’m not you .

I adjust and remember and immerse myself in my own “good life” and wish you luck with yours .

Conservative Follies

Liberals imagine a better world that is based on shiny visions of what might be. Conservatives fear that the best world has already passed them by .

Both positions, of course, can be silly, especially in extremes. Liberals tend to optimistic views of people that have little reality in experience. Conservatives dream fondly of a past that never was.

As someone who reads a lot of history and science, the one thing I fully believe is that nothing stays the same for long. Our bodies are seething masses of churning chemical reactions. We age. Life evolves. And yet – it does not do so too quickly, our DNA was billed to be mostly conservative.

Conservatives say they fear change and simply want to return to when things were better. They usually confuse what was actually happening in those olden days with their own visions of what they believe should have been happening .

It’s an old, old story. From first shards of clay texts, there were those predicting disaster (because the stupid younger generation ignored the most important rituals and beliefs.) Age of gold devalued to silver through bronze and iron to maybe sand.

Unfortunately, for all of us, things do keep changing. Even more unfortunately, we have a lot less control over events – especially from beyond our limited circle – then we would like to believe .

Scientist

Until recently, scientists were heroes of the age. Now they are often mocked or even reviled. Science, which used to be the jewel of our culture, is now disdainfully ignored by those who trust common sense and intuition. What happened ?

Many would say “hubris.” But that’s too simple. The definition of science enlarged to include – well – almost everything “good.” Products were “new and improved” by science. All of our problems would be solved by science. A true scientist, certified, by definition must always be right.

And, of course, that was all malarky. Science does depend on a lot of “real” things – observation, logic, experimentation, and – not least – sorting things into a useful and sensible pattern. As does – for example – common sense and personal experience. But nothing is infallible. And all human activities are complex probabilities in an unknowable future .

I accept the scientific structure of physical reality. Within reason, I try to behave as a scientist. I do not _ like many – reject this knowledge and the wonders it delivers. However, I also utilize common sense, personal observation, and probability calculation in navigating my enchanted conscious existence. The best of many worlds, mixed into grateful excitement .

Magic

When I was a boy, “magic” had been confined to church. After world war II, everyone assumed “Yankee ingenuity” could fix anything, often with little more than “string and bailing wire”. Farm boys were all mechanical geniuses, City kids knew how to outfox anybody. All was – or would soon be – knowable and under control .

As examples, we fixed our own flat tires, changed oil. When a TV or radio didn’t function, I’d take vacuum tubes out to test and buy at Radio Shack. Even later, I knew how transistor “gates” worked and could program in binary (zeros and ones) or assembly. TV or newspaper news was limited, trustworthy, opinion confined to editorial pages .

Now? It’s all magic. Even mechanics can’t fix new cars, God himself couldn’t repair a broken circuit board. I have no idea how quantum computers work, nor how AI is programmed. And all sources of “news” are slanted and suspect .

In fact, once again, we inhabit a world of magic as profound and (possibly) as dark as anything in the Middle Ages. We know how to (mostly) talk and provide services for money, shop, consume, and be entertained. A few “experts” know a lot – or claim they know a lot – about increasingly tiny bits of esoterica .

That makes the residual child in me quite uneasy. Without understanding I still believe real control is impossible .

Face Blind

In an era of mass production and conformity, it may be easy to forget how different people actually are – both physically and mentally. And how that shapes their outlook on the world. Individuals are treated very much as if they are the proverbial “bricks in the wall,” identical in possibility and hope .

Of course when we think about it that is not true. Short people simply will not be basketball stars. And so on. Talents and handicaps vary. Much depends on the time and situation into which one is born. That is all common sense, easily agreed on. What it means and how much it is actually important is a whole other matter.

As a trivial example I am face blind – I cannot recognize people from their visage. Not really much of a problem, but it tended to limit me to being comfortable only in small groups and otherwise treating everyone as anonymous strangers. Today, with virtual AI eyeglasses doing facial recognition, it would even be correctable, like lenses for 20/20 vision. But in my times, I realize it truly shaped my response to life .

I worry, then, that the iron homogenization of computerized capitalistic rule is ignoring such basic human facts. A society composed of people finds ways to deal with such diversity. Rigid “scientific” silicon-based laws may not .

Ripples

Our minds can do amazing acrobatics. They can weave complex stories out of anything. Today, for example, I am thinking about ripples and life .

Ripples are pretty gentle and meaningless variations on a water surface. I love watching them on a bay, or as a brook tumbles along. They may sparkle if sunlight hits correctly. Perhaps they indicate something underneath, or merely that a puff of wind is passing by. Impossible to predict, infinitely numerous, gone in an instant, and replaced by another ripple. Sometimes alone, often in sets. And …

But, wait, how does that relate to life? Well I realize how many of the events of our own lives are very like those ripples. Beautiful, constant, but often rapidly gone and meaningless as other events crowd in .

It is important, I think, to help keep events in perspective. We need to know when something is not simple and fleeting. That is one of the true tricks of success, and often very hard to realize. Is that pretty ripple just a delight, or does it disguise a huge wave or other danger ?

Fortunately, this morning it seems that everything I notice is simply of ripple nature. I can lean back and enjoy the patterns .

Flash Tsunami

Earthquakes and tsunamis often strike without warning, many times in places where they occur only every hundred years or so. These days, there are often warnings. But they seem to be more and more a metaphor for the various “flash” events created by an instantly interconnected world

You can, for example, be sitting quietly on a bench in a deserted park and be suddenly surrounded by a crowd. Maybe just having fun, maybe robbing everyone in sight, maybe engaged in gang warfare. The point is, it’s a lot of people suddenly appearing at a small place without warning. Only their social media knows why .

Similarly, there can be flash shortages of almost any good or service as advice or warnings go viral and everyone grabs as much of whatever as possible, paying much more than usual. Frantic hoarding clearing shelves instantly .

And of course there is the mental flash information known as “memes”. Suddenly everyone “knows” something they never knew before. Maybe true, maybe false, usually irrelevant but when thousands or millions of people are affected, even mental illusions have an impact .

It seems that such social flashes are more and more frequent. Almost like the “good old days” of the unexpected earthquake or tsunami .

Sainthood

We often describe someone who is extremely gentle and kind as a “saint”. Sainthood, on the other hand, is a much fiercer designation, at least in Western tradition.

To achieve Catholic sainthood, after all, may require (these days) proof of miracles, but actually connotates a fairly fanatic personality. Rigid adherence to an internal moral code, often at the cost of common social sense is a given. Following one’s belief regardless of what others may think or do .

That’s fine and dandy as long as the internal moral code agrees with our own. But if the moral code differs, the saint (in our eyes, or those of the church) quickly morphs from being holy to being an obstinate heretic or the devil personified .

I never quite understood what ancient saints – crucified, torched, fed to lions, or shot full of arrows – actually accomplished. Stubborn folks. The medieval European saints are a little more fun – usually local nature spirits and gods cleaned up a bit and turned into good parishioners .

No matter what, true sainthood even in Eastern religions often means a complete break with normal society. That hardly fits with most modern ambitions.

And, as always, those who most try to be a saint are those least likely to become one .