Why Are We Frozen?

Most of us have frozen our thinking, making our view of the world stable, consistent, and understandable.  It makes our world familiar and safe.  We will stick to our thinking, hold on to it with a death grip. draw our swords to defend it, unleash tirades to argue away all other views.  We love it when others agree with us, and hate it when they don't.

But do our static thoughts actually fit the dynamic universe we live in?  Our environment changes from moment to moment like the light and shadows on my wall.  The light changes, the wind changes, the seasons change...  even mountains change.  Why do we then try to put everything neatly into a box and say with all our hearts that this is the way things are?  Why do we try to stop the sun from moving?   Why do we think we can control the wind or the weather?  Why are we so satisfied with jars of peaches in our pantries?  Truth, what ever it is, surely cannot be bottled and put on the shelf.

What would happen if I simply let go of certainty, and admitted that I don't know, that I don't have the answers?  What would happen if I let my thoughts thaw out and become as fluid as water?  I don't know...

Dead End

There are times... when I just hit a dead end.  I can't go forward and I hate going back; so I stand here frustrated.

My 4-year old grandson does not have the same feeling about dead ends.  He explores every possibility of a maze.  He knows the goal is to find the way through, but he also does not want to leave every other path way unexplored and unmarked.  He visits every part of the maze with great delight.  In the end, you really can't find the one correct path on his page.

My son-in-law, I believe, does not look at dead ends the way I might.  He comes to the end of the road and looks at the opportunity to go off-road!  (He has a jeep, an ATV, and, if they don't work, hiking boots.)  Road?  He doesn't need a road!

Ultimately, it doesn't matter what the signs say, dead ends are just in my mind.  I will turn around and get on with the journey.

Just don't follow me thinking I know where I am going.

the problem of being connected

There is a problem with being connected to the rest of the world, to seeing global news on the TV and internet, and to knowing what is happening to others around the world.

I see innocent men, women, and children suffering, in the depths of deprivation because of war or natural disasters; but there is so little I can do.  I can donate a little to a fund to help.  I can write my elected representatives.  Really, I can do very little.  I feel my humanity being torn away from me as I watch these scenes reported in my living room.

If it were closer, I could offer my assistance, but it's on the other side of the globe.

Part of me would just turn off the news and cut the cables that connect me to the rest of the world... I would hide in the woods, living off the grid...  Would that restore my peace of mind or my humanity?

They say to think globally, but act locally.  That is doable, but it hasn't seemed to reach far enough.  I can see much farther than I can ever reach.  And that is the problem of being connected to the world.

My Sphere of Experience

I live inside a tiny bubble of experience.  Within this sphere are all the things that I can actually see, hear, touch, and otherwise sense.  Beyond my personal experience are the stories that I can learn from others.  Without being there with them, I have to imagine what they tell me about things beyond my horizon.  I have no direct knowledge of what they tell me, but if I can trust them, and trust my imagination, I can learn many wonderful things from them.

If necessary I can go see for myself, bringing the event witnessed by another into my personal experience.  I can look at any evidence that the person may have collected from the event he/she witnessed.  Lacking objective evidence, I can also check what is reported to me from beyond my bubble with what I have experienced, and maybe verify it (make it "true") for myself.  Perhaps more than one trusted person reports the phenomenon.  The least favorable way of verifying some claim is to compare what I imagine it to be with some other imagined thing.

It is hard to live inside such a small bubble of experience.  There are a lot of things that I just don't know... but a lot that I imagine.

Human: a simple definition.

Human: an animal that digs, moving dirt and rocks from one place to another.

I am an example of a human (at "Glitter Mountain," AZ)

Another example. 

ObamaCare

The Affordable Care Act, aka: Obamacare, has sure benefited us.  A high deductible health insurance policy that would have cost over $1,200.00 per month, and taken almost half our retirement check, only costs us about $300.00 per month.

Thank you everyone, for helping us have decent health insurance.  Thank you.

Interest Rates

Just me, but I would love to make more interest on our savings...  I don't know what effect it would have on the rest of the economy, but it would good for us.