Well, okay, that’s not quite true. I probably know more about Afghanistan than most Americans. But that is a perilously low bar, and does not really imply anything worth bragging about, and if the bar is not compared to other Americans but is my knowledge of this country useful or sufficient, well … it ain’t, on either count.
I saw someone suggest on Twitter earlier today that the one thing we could have done to avoid what’s going on right now in Afghanistan would have been to elect Al Gore in 2000, and I have some sympathy for that argument. I saw another that suggested that Biden has simply decided to be the President who takes the hit for a result that was going to be inevitable whenever we decided to leave, and that the main thing the policies of…
SORRY–The following from a questionnaire given to undergraduate students in a philosophy seminar on death is not funny, but I thought interesting. (Shibles, Death, 1974, 16-17)
DYING IS LIKE...A one-way ticket to another place, going to sleep without contemplating awakening, being born again –into a world less confining, nothing ever seen before, humiliation, hush-hush, a play, something I’ve never tried before, cosmic traveling, the ultimate trip, a final orgasm, like nothing else, falling asleep or getting knocked out, falling, entering another world, the end of a mysterious dream, a long sleep, a permanent place, nothing, being trapped in a box, fallen apple rotting in dirt, waiting for the answer, stopping and maybe starting, getting it over with, feeling yourself being the snake you killed as a little boy, letting go, making the last turn, filling the last blank, becoming the 360th degree, [no answer], going beyond, an eternal dream, beginning of the end, an infinite voyage, explosion of a super nova, being born, comma in a sentence, nightmare, ultimate in tranquil meditation, turning off a faucet, finding that the end of the tunnel is a deep dark hole, falling in a void, stone rolling and coming to a stop, bricks falling through air, a child swallowing a bottle of sleeping pills, falling asleep and never waking, leaving this life for another, driving 140 miles per hour into a snowstorm, being in a cement-block room, looking up through a long hole, hell, a nap after eating, a sunset, finding out what it’s really like, walking into a different room alone, letting go of your security blanket, leaving this world for another, not being, I don’t know, coming to the end of an existence, extinguishing a match, unplugging T.V., turning off a light, passing out, stepping off the orange, cutting off the power of a trolley car, closing-night of a theatre, finale, deep sleep, ending of physical senses, nothing you could ever conceive of or experience, walking into a cave and forgetting to come out, screaming at the top of your lungs and no one hearing, dropping a pin into the ocean, finding out that people are laughing at you, jumping off the high dive, a large magnet pulling on a small magnet until all its energy has been drained, trying to advance a genetic strain and failing, death is like almost nothing, feeling embarrassed, turning off a loud radio, having a mental block, getting lost, sleeping, breaking a movie film, taking an old car out on the road not knowing whjat’s going to happen next, waiting to go on a vacation, coming down from amphetamines, watching a blind person fall, dry heaves, listening to the static of an old-time radio and having the plug pulled out….(ibid, 16-17)
OUCH — Freud underwent 33 painful, life saving surgeries for his throat cancer. (Ibid, p 253)
There is no evidence for mind and so minds cannot be “read.” (ibid, p 389)j
OH DEAR–Ecclesiastes 1:18 “For in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” (Ibid, p 357) [Hide this from the kids]
Avoid alliterations, even if they’re manna for morons.
Avoid cliches: they’re like death warmed over.
Never generalize.
Hold those quotes. Emerson aptly said, “I hate quotes. Tell me only what you know.”
Don’t write one-word sentences. Ever.
Recognize the difference between the semicolon and the colon: even if it’s hard.
Do you really need rhetorical questions?
Be concise; try expressing your thoughts with the least possible number of words, avoiding long sentences–or sentences interrupted by incidental phrases that always confuse the casual reader–in order to avoid contributing to the general pollution of information, which is surely (particularly when it is uselessly ripe with unnecessary explanations, or at least non indispensable specifications) one of the tragedies of our media-dominated time.
Don’t be emphatic! Be careful with exclamation marks!
I’ve been having troubles with the editing programs, and upon two recent occasions I posted, then briefly took down my posting to add something. In the meantime I got responses, but I couldn’t comment or reply to them because they were no longer connected. I tried to respond but no dice–the post didn’t exist any more. One of these days I’m going to find out how to delete an erroneous photo in Gutenberg. It says “Replace” but unclear which photo it wipes out. I long for the old-fashioned DELETE.
My recent post on memories of grad school brought me to my bookshelf today and left me wondering how it is that solid truths can be forgotten or overlooked or ignored. I became a new parent in 1963 and by 1965 I needed help with the parenting enterprise. I found Dr. Haim G. Ginott’s Between Parent and Child hugely helpful. Although I’m far from perfect and didn’t utilize it as much as I wish I had, if I had another chance I would keep the book under my pillow.
I have a habit of hanging onto important books from my past and present, so found Ginott’s book awaiting my re-perusal on my shelf. I’ll share a few underlined sentences:
The niceties of the art of living cannot be conveyed with a sledgehammer…
It is not helpful to ask a child, “Why did you do it?” He, himself, may not know his motivation, and pressure to tell ‘why’ can only result in another lie.
I’m not sure I spent sufficient time reading Ginott’s section on responding to jealousy among siblings. He writes, Children do not yearn for equal shares of love. They need to be loved uniquely, not uniformly. The emphasis is on quality, not equality.
He learns about his emotional likeness by hearing his feelings reflected by us. It is more important for a child to know what he feels than why he feels it. When he knows clearly what his feelings are, he is less likely to feel “all mixed up inside.”
When a child tells of an event, it is sometimes helpful to respond, not to the event itself, but to the feelings around it.
When a child promises to take care of a pet, he is merely showing good intentions, not proof of ability. A child may need, want and love a pet, but rarely is he able to take care of it properly. The responsibility for the life of an animal cannot be the child’s alone.
And so forth. I really like the one above because I was told I let the parakeet die when in the second grade and haven’t forgotten it….SORRY. I couldn’t get rid of the inappropriate images.
“The goal is to help people,” said Enrique Veiga, the 82-year-old engineer who invented the machine during a harsh drought in southern Spain in the 1990s. “The goal is to get to places like refugee camps that don’t have drinking water.” The devices made by his company, Aquaer, are already delivering clean, safe water to communities in Namibia and a Lebanese refugee camp. “In the villages we visited in Namibia, they were astonished, they didn’t understand, asking where the water came from,” he said.
The machines use electricity to cool air until it condenses into water, harnessing the same effect that causes condensation in air-conditioning units. While other water generators based on similar technology require high ambient humidity and low temperatures to function effectively, Veiga’s machines work in temperatures of up to 40 Celsius (104F) and can handle humidity of between 10% and 15%. A small machine can produce 50-75…
My experience of grad school was peaceful, with hope for the future. I was in the clinical psychology program at Georgia State University back in the early sixties. My kids are surprised that I never heard of Bob Ross, but I heard a lot about Fritz Perls, Transactional Analysis, T-groups, guided imagery, empathy and Psychosynthesis. I remember one of my professors saying to me, “Thank you for the gift of your anger.”
The department treated us to experience with several kinds of therapy groups. We were blessed.
I recall taking an evening course for two semesters during which we lay on the floor in threes and each received a lengthy “tap over” from the other two, before switching. Sounds like a fairy tale, doesn’t it? Graduate school was one long centering experience. I remember feeling depressed the day I received my degree.
As I look around me today, it is as though it was all a dream. Where is centering, mirroring, empathy and respect for ourselves and others, our lovely planet besmirched and dirtied by destructively delusional and angry inhabitants? I had group and individual psychotherapy, and later when asked what I got out of it, I did not hesitate. “Love.”
–Unconditional positive regard, no matter what, and it did not result in an abusive personality. Au contraire!
Shared views and histories: I’m not sure just how to structure it, but this is my first attempt.
Two questions I’ll ask myself and share. You can too, or not…
What verbal message did I receive as a child about ethics and who told me?
Have I internalized that message as a goal, modified it or rejected it?
MY RESPONSES: When I asked my grandmother if we hated Hitler, she said, “We don’t hate him–we just hate his ways.”
Whenever I recall her words I get a good warm feeling, probably because I love her for it. And yes, as far as I know I have internalized it. With the single exception of holding an emotional grudge against someone who has insulted or discounted me, I have never used my position in the work force to harm anyone.
Anyone else want to share? Sorry if I’m not structuring this the right way.
My recent post on memories of grad school brought me to my bookshelf today and left me wondering how it is that solid truths can be forgotten or overlooked or ignored. I became a new parent in 1963 and by 1965 I needed help with the parenting enterprise. I found Dr. Haim G. Ginott’s Between Parent and Child hugely helpful. Although I’m far from perfect and didn’t utilize it as much as I wish I had, if I had another chance I would keep the book under my pillow.
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