Just The Facts

The Rise of The Internet has created new levels of factualness for information.  Here are a few:

Reproducible, peer-reviewed, scientific research results. - this one's been around since the enlightenment, and is generally considered the gold standard of factualness.  The internet does report these, but they are frequently boring, so are given low priority in search engines, especially if the news is depressing but not fear-inducing.

The results of 'shocking new studies'. -  on any one of a number of attention-getting subjects, typically cancer, a pandemic flu, or how your breakfast cereal may be changing your gender.  These facts might be gold, but look closely fool.

Saw it on Facebook/Twitter/YouTube. - now the most common means of communicating 'facts', or their interpretation.  If your friends think it's real, or cool, or cute, or just plain awesome, then so must you.  Pass it on, and do so with a post that would make anyone not pressing 'Like' seem racist.

Note that I did not mention Wikipedia.  I like Wikipedia, even though referencing it is an act of faith in a humanity that doesn't really deserve it.  I always put on my special 'Wiki Glasses' when I surf to the Wiki.  They are rose-colored, and they make everything believable, and that's a fact.

Let The Hard Rain Fall

On one of my trips lately, I watched a local TV News anchor exclaiming what an exceptionally wet Winter they'd had.  Actually, that newsman was complaining about it.

It's true this Winter, and most especially the Spring that followed, has been wetter and snowier than typical, in some places more so than in any time since recording started in the 1890s.  But is that surprising?

Between the let's-not-call-it-Global-Warming and the self-inflicted human tragedies (Boston; West, Texas; collapsing sweatshops in Bangladesh; Newtown), there has been plenty of reason for the World to Cry, if you will.  Yes, I did just say that very unscientific thing:  there is something about this natural place we inhabit that picks up and reflects, and right now what it is reflecting is reason enough for lakes of tears, whether rained hard from the heavens or piled frozen in snowy drifts.  We have earned a blizzard of symbolic sorrow.

And then there is still the scientific argument of Let's-Call-It-Global Chaos. Today it is raining in Southern California not even a week after a blazing hot, dry, windy spell sparked wildfires.  When those fires broke out, Wisconsin was being blasted by a near-blizzard. Very Chaotic indeed.

But Unseasonable Rain sometimes is needed.  The rain today has put an end at least for a while, to fears of more fires; and helped extinguish what is left of the ones already burning. 

Rain also helps us mourn and reflect, perhaps leading to better decisions and behavior.  At times when we humans are behaving our worst, a big dousing may knock sense into us.

Let The Hard Rain Fall while it may.

Let It Bring You Down

There are times when Hope seems exhausted.

When Humanity seems a failed experiment.

The Boston Marathon Bombings are a quintessential example of one of those Times.

I'm not sure we will ever discover what motivated the horrific events that unfolded on Monday, April 15, 2013; and if we do I'm not hopeful we'll make good and appropriate use of that knowledge.  Would we be able to look into the mind of someone capable of such an act and discover anything but dark malevolence from which no good lesson could be learned?

Selfishly, Personally, this represents a real kick in the guts.  Just as I've become skeptical we will ever have a functional Congress again - or that Peace will ever find a home in the Middle East, this happens to sap what little optimism I have left.

If the idea of Little Kim Un waving a nuke in our faces and threatening to wipe us off the face of the Earth isn't enough to Bring You Down, then surely this modern Boston Massacre must be.

As it should.

There are some events for which stiff upper lips and stoic resolve aren't helpful.  There are some events for which the only healthy response is sadness and tears.

Think of the innocent lives lost and the lives forever changed.

Let It Bring You Down

Body Image: Our Lying Minds

It's hard enough to change yourself for the better.

Losing weight, muscling up, getting your cardio in the pink; all these things take the kinds of focus and persistence few of us are capable of scraping together for longer than a weekend.

So, it doesn't help that our Minds conspire against us, by lying to us through our own teeth.  It does this through something called 'Body Image'.

One of the most extreme examples of the mind playing tricks with Body Image is, of course, the medical syndrome called anorexia.  That's when people stop eating and become mere skeletal shadows of their formerly healthy selves, all the while still seeing themselves as overweight.  Their skewed Body Image tells them they are fat when they are on death's door from starvation. 

More common, and less immediately dangerous, is the flip side of anorexia; being overweight yet having your mind signal you are skinny as a rail, starving, and about to slip out of your clothes and slide down a crack in the floor.

This happens at the most inopportune times, like when you are trying to stick to a diet.  Sadly it never seems to happen when it might be useful; for example, when you will be the center of attention at an event and could use a morale boost.  Feeling skinnier than you are at those times would be nice, but no, your mind saves it up and lets loose when you need it least.

For many reasons, mostly vain and of no particular importance to anyone other than me, I decided to drop a few pounds this year.  These are pounds I spent a good deal of the past 4 years packing on, so deciding to shed such hard-won fat was not done lightly.  

With gritty resolve I began the task and was immediately rewarded with success.  And my Mind rebelled...

Unless I looked in a full-length mirror while standing naked on a groaning scale, I couldn't shake the certainty that I was fading away into nothingness; that I was starving myself.  My Mind kept telling me, "You look good enough; feel how loose your pants are, how baggy that shirt.  Enough is Enough.  Go eat a Pizza."

So far I've been able to resist these false advisements, but it hasn't been easy.  The vast difference between how blubbery I really am and how trim my Mind says I am, is a constant challenge to that aforementioned focus and persistence. 

(Side Note:  it was my mind that made me use the words 'advisements' and  'aforementioned' - see what I'm up against?)

Under The Wire

I've always had a tendency to leave things until the last minute.  I'm hoping the same pattern will hold for my death - as Last Minute as Possible.  Might as well have one thing benefit from procrastination.

Not much else really does.  Certainly nothing involving running a government.

Yet, the End of February finds our leaders out on the brink, procrastinating.

What a sad way to end a dangerous but fascinating month.  How often do we get to feel such relief as an asteroid big enough to take out Texas misses us by a cosmic hair's breath, while at the same time getting hit by another one not world-ending, but still big enough to cause damage and injury?

The cosmos takes its best shot and we survive, only to gut ourselves through political gamesmanship coupled with cowardly procrastination.

Well, I guess that's organic life for you.  Inconsistent, except to be consistently self-flagellating.

But I shouldn't end on a negative note.  There is still time left in February; from where I sit typing there's a little more than an hour.  Something good can still come in, just under the wire.

January Must End!

Welcome to the End of January.  About time too, right?

We can now safely forget all of that 'resolution' nonsense and get down to what we really enjoy.

Goodbye Guilt built from End of Year angst.  Hello unadulterated New Year's Hope.

February is the Real beginning of the Year, and it helps the transition by being such a brief month, most of the time.  February is succinct.  Welcome to its beginning.

The Good Life, Defined

Everybody wants the 'Good Life', so just what does that mean?

Heath - Your health is an important aspect of the 'Good Life'.  You can't be living happily if you are on death's doorstep, or have become an inert sofa ornament through disability.

Here's a definition of good health to think about:  You are in Good Health if you have no condition that may end your life, causes severe disability, or which requires regular medical intervention (tests, surgeries, therapy, prescription medicines) to prevent either of those outcomes.  For my diabetic friends, or anyone out there with a chronic medical condition the treatment of which has become seamlessly integrated with their lives and causes no distress, I'll give you a pass on this one.

Relationships - Another big one.  If you feel totally alone in this world, or wish you were, it's a good sign you have relationship issues.  This can lead to clinical depression and the urge to watch Fox News incessantly, either of which can lead to declining health, both mental and physical.

Money - Oh, Boy, here we go.  This one has been a difficulty for many of us since the Great 2008 Don't-Call-It-A-Depression Recession.  Things that can make it worse include college age children, a passion for sports cars and/or motorcycles, and the obsessive need to own the latest electronic gadgetry.  Of course, health issues (see above) can add to money worries.  So can relationships: any significant other that comes with some or all of that baggage can be added to the list.

Signs that Money concerns have degraded your life include: foreclosure notices, repossession of  your car, your significant other has divorced you, or you've begun watching old Futurama episodes that you've seen 100 times.  (This can also be old 'Two and A Half Men' episodes.  If you are watching old Seinfeld episodes you truly are in extremis - seek medical assistance).

Purpose - This one's a little subtle.  Not everyone will tell you they need a purpose to be happy.  I think they're nuts.  Without purpose we drift through life, blowing wherever the winds of change take us, which is usually to the sofa to watch old Futurama episodes. Find a purpose, you find a Life.

Fear - Well, it goes without saying you can't have the Good Life if you have too much fear, right?  Try to minimize fear in whatever way seems most acceptable to you, except for: maintaining a home arsenal that would cause envy in most smaller countries, living in a bunker, or appearing as a regular on 'Doomsday Preppers'.  And by the way, if you are already doing any of those things you aren't living the Good Life, no matter what your agent tells you.

Here's wishing you continue the 'Good Life' through 2013 and beyond. And if not, and Life becomes unbearable, move to Belgium.  I hear they've got an easy exit if you want one.