Identity and Reality

I have the suspicion that “getting on board” with a philosophy and “buying in,” literally, to show support has less to do with the money or time one spends involved with an activity, and more to do with the power of having real conscious men and women focusing on a better world. There could actually be a special pride ('spe-ci-al like species, not 'speh-shul, but I might be making that word up) in us that can charge forth out of the ruin of what has both never been, and always was the common goal. There's one planet. There's one species on the planet that has been able to illustrate their notions about the wobble with which our spinning rock revolves around the Sun daily, and there's value in that. We have acquired tremendous means of destruction to defend against the perpetual enemy of the future to no avail... we die anyway. What if we stop acting like our children will have a different world to live in than we have? What if we acknowledge reality instead... Primary Source Reality.

I say we stop making decisions that affect the one and only planet we all have to share into the future as though the realities of those choices are inconsequential. I say you who tell us lies for the sake of money should feel the shame of doing so only as long as it takes for you to tell the truth. I do not blame anyone for making poor choices. I will simply choose not to rely on that one source alone.

What is of utmost importance to my idea of the way I'll teach my daughter about life is not that if she were to try hard enough she could be absolutely perfect to everyone around her. What is of utmost importance is the fact that nothing anyone has ever tried, or ever will try has ever been a failure. Lives are never lived in vain, we just find more consistent expectations. Thomas Edison remarked that he hadn't failed a thousand times, but had “... successfully discovered a thousand ways to not make a light-bulb.” That is my philosophy of life experience as well. If I want a better world, I've got to live to my ideals within a broad reality. The only way the coming generation will have a chance at living in peace is if we truly believe that it will happen. Then we may more easily allow ourselves to openly and honestly discuss identity and reality. As long as glaring tribalism, or nationalism , or rugged individualism ignores the sameness of our planet's life systems, the relative ease with which one may understand much more fulfilling philosophies of life fades into that selfsame ignorance.

A shock to culture - "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell

I've just finished reading "Outliers," by Malcolm Gladwell. To those of you who might read this and don't know me, I've been reading and writing for about 18 years, and have recently found a reason to believe in the idea of a better world. This book does a wonderful job of describing a balanced way with which to consider one's self on the road to the phenomenon of identity. It asks wonderfully specific questions, the likes of which would likely help steer our culture toward that better world. Since I don't think I can be any more appreciative (cynics you know I love ya), I'll place my spoiler alert here.

"Culture of Honor" was perhaps the most meaningful thing I've explored in my recent re-education. The idea that my status put me high on the social ladder (height notwithstanding) due to the importance in rural communities of my grandfather's and father's experience, profession and occupation as ministers of faith was not new to me, but it was very hard to permit myself to say.

Preachers taught sermons to crowds at church. Then they taught preaching to their family at home. It is a cerebral environment that lends itself easily to curiosity. So, the reason I haven't drank myself to death, become a raging drug addict, or otherwise broke the rules of life as I could understand them was not due to a fear of reprisal at the hands of an angry god... it was because I thought about the consequences of my actions. That's not to say I always took good care, but that's a detail.

The fact is, I have very little fear of speaking to crowds and it's not just because I'm terribly narcissistic. I grew up with the expectation of a life speaking to crowds. I have found a great deal of value in being able to do what most people fear more than death.

It seems that many of our opportunities in the pursuit of a better world could be served by understanding the stereotypical aspects of seeming individual circumstances. I'm writing this review not with the assumption of impressing anyone, but rather as a signal of value to those looking for a relevant resource along the way. This book should be much closer to the foundation of education, thereby relieving the constraints we apply to our creating a better world that have to do with our acquired culture.