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So, what are the three scariest words in the English language? They're not "I love you" as many would have it, and in spite of the claims of millions of men worldwide, they're not even 'hold my purse". Give up? I'll bet you even shied away from using them just then. They're "I don't know". It seems that people are becoming increasingly hesitant to admit simple lack of {tag knowledge}. "Ignorant" has become a scathing epithet, even though each and every one of us qualifies for it. We are all ignorant. We have to be, since none of us is omniscient. The admission of {tag ignorance} is the most enlightening thing that a person can do - it paves the way for {tag learning}; it frees us from unreasonable expectations. In short, it's what makes us human. People seem to have become so used to always being right (just ask them) that there seems to be no room left for honest ignorance, for the simplicity of learning something new for no reason other than because we didn't know it before. I'm proud to be ignorant because, to me, that means that I'm capable of {tag growth} rather than stagnation. I once read that the moment anything in nature ceases to grow is the same moment at which it begins to die. I don't know about you, but I'm nowhere near ready to start dying, so I'm going to embrace ignorance, actively seek it out, each and every day!
Remember, ignorance is curable; stupidity is terminal.
{tag nescience: }
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I've been pondering the whole concept of {tag mortality} again. I'm not planning on indulging in it anytime soon, but I've been thinking about it nonetheless. I've always heard it said that we all die alone. I started looking into that and, after crunching some numbers from the CIA World Factbook, I discovered that not only isn't it true, we actually head into the beyond accompanied by approximately 151,399 others (Blue Öyster Cult notwithstanding). It's not so much a brave solitary march into the echoing emptiness, but a chaotic mob scene the size of Sherbrooke, Quebec all flooding into the beyond each and every day. St. Peter must have a system for directing traffic on par with the Los Angeles International Airport to handle that much incoming traffic. Now, if you believe in {tag reincarnation}, there's even more than that in outgoing traffic, but I don't feel like doing the math right now; in fact the mere thought of co-ordinating that many transient souls is giving me a headache.
The other great debate is about whether there is or is not an {tag afterlife}, and how that should affect our behaviour. I guess the bottom line for me is that if the only thing driving my behaviour is what happens to me (maybe) 40+ years (I hope) down the road, that's not a terribly powerful motivating factor. I'd rather base my present behaviour on the current state of gain vs. loss in the present or, at least, the very near future. Be that as it may, that's straying off the point of the existance of an afterlife. I see two possible outcomes here: IS and IS NOT. If the latter is true, and there IS NOT an afterlife, then it's all moot anyway because nothing at all matters, so what's the point? However, if there IS an afterlife, I'd really rather have my ducks in a row long before I get there since I just hate those kinds of last minute surprises. So, I guess all the weight comes down on the side of acting like there will be an afterlife and thereby hedging your spiritual bets.
Now, if there IS an afterlife, I found myself wondering what it's like. Personally, I kind of like the view of the ancient Egyptians, in that the afterlife is just a "better Egypt", where we have all the good from this life, with none of the bad. Everything that's important to us, and everyone we loved, will be waiting there for us. Granted, there's that nasty little "heart vs. feather" bit before they let you in, but if you live in preparation for it (and hope to get just a bit overlooked in the 151,399 other heart-feather weigh-ins), then that should be a breeze.
Of course, if there really is nothing beyond death, then this is all irrelevant and I've just drivelled away 55 minutes towards oblivion . . . . {tag mortality: } |
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Incongruous Idiosyncrasies |
| "The amount of {tag eccentricity} in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of the time." |
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--John Stuart Mill
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I like {tag unusual} people. Not the scary-unusual, but those who are just slightly tangential to consensual reality. They make me think, make me question, and help my mind from fossilizing around a rigidly restricted view of the world.
It's through these people that wonderful things can happen, new things can be discovered, and the world made infinitely more interesting. Often the eccentrics of today become the pioneering trendsetters of tomorrow; suddenly they go from oddballs to visionaries, which must be a disconcerting transition for them, to say the least!
The eccentrics, the people who don't care how others view them, are the primary hope for change and {tag growth} in any society. Without the spark of the offbeat things would become flat and stale and lifeless. I worry horribly when I see evidence that it is becoming less and less acceptable to be weird, or even somewhat different. Conform, comply, concur; smile and nod and don't ever let anyone know that you don't agree with the majority. Not ever, whatever you do!
I used to worry about being different, about not fitting in or being "normal". Lately I find myself worrying more about how it's becoming less and less acceptable to do anything but conform. I've been bombarded with words like "appropriate" and "professional" and it disturbs me to realize that these are being used as verbal clubs to enforce {tag conformity} within a peer group, not given their meaning according to any dictionary. Is it "appropriate" to ostracize friends because they don't happen to be part of the stratum to which I'm now supposed to belong? Is it "professional" to renege on past promises because it might be uncomfortable for me to live up to them in changed circumstances? Oh my, what would people think of me if my behaviour was inappropriately unprofessional?! Maybe they would think better of me? Perhaps? Perhaps not.
This probably won't win me any popularity contests, but I find it both {tag appropriate} and {tag professional} to treat others as genuine warm and living human beings, no matter how that's viewed by others or what it might do to my standing in their eyes. Yes, and even if it is at times inconvenient or difficult. I have to live with me and with the decisions and actions that I make; it might not always be easy, but there it is.
Hmmm, maybe that's why I like eccentrics so much - birds of a feather, and all that . . . . {tag conformity: } |
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