Meditations on a New Year

 Meeting Date:  January 7, 2022  7:00 pm

I ran across the following writing in a book on meditations by Robert Walsh.  (The link to the info is below).  As it touches on a couple of my favorite topics, which are 1) everything we do in life matters, somehow and in ways we often cannot know, and 2) the meanings of our lives arise from the summation of our connections and relationships, especially with ourselves, but also with everyone we ever come into contact with.  

The story told here is an elegant way of getting at these same concepts, and includes the idea that we have control of those relationships.  Taking stock of where we are in our life's story at the start of a new year is a good idea, but taking stock continuously, every day, makes just as much sense.  

I often tell my golfing partners that the most important conversation they will have during the round is the one they will have with themselves.  I've played with people who swear at themselves over a disappointing shot, and others that take it all in stride.  Who has the better conversation, and who ultimately enjoys the day more?  Six months from now I doubt I will remember our scores, but I will certainly remember your attitude when we played, and how much fun we had together.  It pays to think about such things.

It Matters

I knew a man who had printed on his stationery this proverb: "Nothing is settled.  Everything matters."  It established a certain ambiance for reading his letters, as if to say:  what you are about to read is to be taken seriously, but is not final.

I remember him and his proverb sometimes, especially when it seems impossible to change the world or myself in any significant way.  Times like the beginnings of new years.

"Sorry, Jim," I say.  "It's not true that nothing is settled.  In the past year choices have been made, losses have been suffered, there has been growth and decay, there have been commitments and betrayals.  None of that can be undone.  A year ago no one knew whether during this year one person would become pregnant, another would get cancer, another would take a new job, another would have an accident, but now it is all settled.

"One day this year I was present just when someone needed me, another day I was busy doing something else when I was needed.  One day I said something to a friend that injured our relationship, another day I said something that enabled a person to see life in a new way.  The best and the worst of those days is now written.  All my tears, of joy and sorrow, cannot erase it."

If I stay with my meditation long enough the reply comes. "Robbie," says Jim, "You have misunderstood the proverb.  It is true that you cannot escape the consequences of your actions or the chances of the world.  But what is not settled is how the story turns out.  What is not settled is what the meaning of your life will be."

The meaning of a life is not contained within one act, or one day, or one year. As long as you are alive the story of your life is still being told, and the meaning is still open. As long as there is life in the world, the story of the world is still being told. What is done is done, but nothing is settled.

And if nothing is settled, then everything matters. Every choice, every act in the new year matters. Every word, every deed is making the meaning of your life and telling the story of the world. Everything matters in the year coming, and, more importantly, everything matters today.

Source: "Noisy Stones: a Meditation Manual"

 

Impossible Questions

 A participant to BQ sent me a list of "Impossible Questions" that we may want to consider for our discussion forum.  Most of these look like questions we have discussed before, but perhaps not in the same phrasing as posed below.  Still, they seem current and important topics to discuss.  Let's pick one and see where it goes.

• Does fate exist?
• Does an ideal government exist?
• Does life have a reason?
• Are there limitations on free speech?
• Are we a minuscule part of intelligent life in the universe?
• Does free will exist, or is every action predetermined?
• What is human consciousness?
• Why do we do things we do not like to do?
• Do atheists make their own gods?
• Can artificial intelligence be creative?
• If judgment is for God, why do we pass judgment?
• Can religious beliefs affect scientific thinking?
• Will a world without reliance on modern technology make any progress?
• Is human potential capable of anything?
• Is death a new beginning?
• Why does God not intervene when evil takes root in people?
• Does belief make God exist?
• Will robots take over the world in the future?
• Does the path to salvation lie within us?
• Are beliefs and superstitions the same?
• Are we the biggest threat to humanity?
• Do parallel universes exist?
• How does one find purpose in life?
• If aliens attack, what will we do?

What is friendship?

Dec. 3 Topic: What is friendship?

For inspiration for tonight's topic I pulled out Socrates Café again.  Christopher Phillips has a chapter called "Friends" in which he discusses friendship with the random collection of strangers that show up for his Cafes and recounts his and their comments on the topic.  It is a wide ranging discussion that covers friendship with ones self, with a single other person, with groups of people, and more.  In my copy it starts on page 90, if you want to review the chapter before our meeting.

It seems to be a sort of common sense topic, where we all must share a common definition of friendship, right?  A friend is, ...?   What?   How might it be defined?  Is "friend" someone you know along a continuum of contact and comfort somewhere between being an acquaintance and someone you love?  Or is friendship something else, something not necessarily related to love?  Look up the definition of friendship and you will find all sorts of answers, some that might apply to our discussion, and some that do not.

In the movie, "When Harry Met Sally" (made famous for the scene in the diner when the woman says, "I'll have what she's having."), the author uses an unusual interview convention to introduce the audience to couples telling stories about when they met, and when they fell in love.  The couples mostly have a very clear point they both can point to where the love part happens, separate from the friends part.  The term "falling in love" is used.  Scientists study what goes on inside our brains when we fall in love, if you want took up those sorts of things.  But I digress.

Back to friendship.  If we were to pull together a Venn diagram to categorize everyone we know, and have circles containing those we know only slightly, those with whom we would call ourselves acquaintances, those with whom we are friends, and those whom we love, who would be in which circles?  What are the criteria we use to put people into these circles, and what happens to move someone from one to another?   Are other circles needed to define other sorts of relationships?  Those we want to get to know better?  Those we know but want to be separated from?  Those we hate?  Relationships can be complex.  Read Ask Amy in the paper every day and you will know what I'm talking about.

And finally, a connection to the season.  The miserable life that Scrooge lives is made worse by his being apart and separate from all those people with whom he might have been friends, and only when he does finally join in friendship with everyone around him does he find personal happiness.  Is the pursuit of friendship in broad community the ultimate purpose of our lives?

Additional Info:

If you Google friendship there is a host of information available.  For example, one site suggests there are 4 levels of friendship.  1) Acquaintance,  2) Peer Friend,  3) Good Friend,  and 4) Best Friend.  This seems to acknowledge that we all feel differing levels of closeness to certain of our friends.  We might want to work on ways to define or identify the characteristics of each of these levels, and yes, I feel a Venn diagram coming on.

Another site suggests there are 3 kinds of friends.  1) Friends of utility:  this exists between you and someone who is useful to you in some way.  2) Friendships of pleasure:  this exists between you and those whose company you enjoy.  3) Friendships of the good:  these are based on mutual respect and admiration.

So, whether kinds of friendships interests you, or levels of friendship, or the 15 ways to tell if someone is really your friend, there are many ways we can get at this topic.

Stoicism as a way to cope

 How do we navigate the modern world without becoming too tied up with what is going on?  The stoics held themselves aloof from most issues, and developed a philosophy of keeping a calm exterior and holding the internal mayhem inside so people could not see it.  

There are famous Greeks who promoted the stoic viewpoint and have many books written about it.  Does one of them resonate with you?

What Are Your Love Languages?

Meeting:  Nov. 5:   At the Oct. 22 meeting this topic was suggested for our next meeting.  I pointed out that this was not a Socratic sort of question, but after so many years of doing Meaning of Life discussions, I'm ready for a change now and then.  The discussion will be lead not by me, but by the person suggesting it, so I offer a brief summary of the topic as I understand it, and provide links to additional websites that might help to shed light on it.

If you Google tonight's topic you will find offers for books of essentially that title, free and paid websites that promote and explore it, and much, much more.  Spreadsheets that show you how to communicate, what actions to take, and what to avoid when pursuing the 5 languages.  You can take a quiz that will show you what your personal love language is.  And much, much more.  (It was suggested that we all take the quiz before the meeting, to get some personal baseline information about ourselves.)

The 5 languages are (by most accounts): 1. Words of Affirmation, 2. Quality Time, 3. Physical Touch, 4. Acts of Service, and 5. Receiving Gifts.  These short, categorical statements hint at far larger topics that will be explored during our discussion time, revealing the inner workings of your personality in this very important field of your life. You may end up adding the vocabulary and perspectives to develop and improve any areas where you may feel deficient.

Or maybe not.  What do I know?  

Note the date:  November 5.

Calendar Changes

 As we move into the 2021 holiday season and we were all checking our calendars, it was clear that a 2nd and 4th Friday schedule for Big Questions was not going to work.  Therefore, we are switching to a 1st and 3rd Friday schedule for November and December this year.  So far I only have 1 topic identified, and this posting will follow shortly, but please note the change in the dates.

Getting to know you...

I pulled out my copy of "Socrates Café" by Christopher Phillips for inspiration for tonight's discussion topic.  If you have not added this book to your library, you should.  It is a well written book on many philosophical topics, and it presents the information in a very accessible way.  

Socrates famously said, "Know thyself", which has been expanded into, "An unexamined life is not worth living."  Phillips has a short section titled, "Know thyself at thine own risk", in which he recounts an evening's discussion with Café attendees on this very topic.  One attendee contends that a person can really only come to know who they genuinely are while in some kind of crisis.   Everyday living, he says, does not give us the insight we needed to know who we fundamentally are.   Phillips counters that it would be necessary for the group to agree on a workable definition of crisis, if this were true, and perhaps everyday life provides many sorts of crises that could provide the insight needed.  

In the back of my mind I'm thinking that there are certainly life-changing crises we face not on a daily basis, but perhaps only several times in our lives, that put who were are to the test, in some way.  In other words, I like the basic idea of a "crucible of fire" sort of crisis revelation of who we fundamentally are, but is that the only way it might happen?  Don't we learn about ourselves without crisis?  Or are we simply  not paying attention?

Do you know who you are?   Are you living your life in harmony with your inner self?  This line of thinking evokes the Becoming and Being discussions we have had in the past.  Become who you are.  Life is a process of Becoming, with the goal of eventually Being, or living in harmony with your genuine self.  

How do you get to the point where you know who you are?  Philosophy, of course. 

Alternate Endings to SWSOSWG

 As we discussed last week, Kay and Cyril's plans might have gone off as they envisioned, but maybe things didn't work out perfectly.  The several possible futures presented in the story offer utopia and dystopia alternatives, but certainly not a full range of possibilities.

I would like to suggest that we all come with a short story or 2 that extends the range of possible unanticipated futures that Kay and Cyril might have found at the age of 80, or sooner, that could have affected their decision to carry through with their Suicide Pact.  How else might things have happened on Kay's 80th?  What if Kay did not notify her daughter of their plans?  What if they both stage a fake suicide, but in fact they survive and run off with new identities.  What if Cyril gets cancer earlier than they planned, and suffers terribly for it?  Or any other possible scenario you might think of.  

Once we have something to share, drop a copy into the comments for everyone to see, or send it to me (if you have written something) and I can share it with the Usual Participants ahead of the meeting date.

Thanks for your thoughtful participation.

Here is a story ending submitted by Judy.  Another called Harmony, also by Judy.

Here is an overview, and an alternate ending by Des.

And a new ending by Vickie.

Note:  I have disabled all links in this blog as of 10/11/21, for safety and security reasons.  Please contact me directly in the comments below if you want to have access.

Does living our lives without preparation make sense?

A book was recommended to me, called Should We Stay or Should We Go (no question mark, for some reason).  The Author is Lionel Shriver, copyright 2021.  It is a story about Cyril and Kay in the UK who look into the future and decide that the risks are too great that they will spend their Golden Years in complete dotage with dementia or cancer, or worse, and decide to call it quits at age 80 (looking forward from age 51).  This is driven by dealing with their parents who did actually have dementia and cancer, and worse, and suffered terribly, and were a burden on the British Health System for many years.  Watching them in decline was a big deal for Kay and Cyril, and they made a Pact not to go down that path themselves.

The book poses a series of alternate possible futures for the 2 heroes, some that are better than expected, and some that are worse.  In one possible future Kay takes the pills and dies, and Cyril lives on, but has a stroke that paralyzes him and relegates him to a bed for many years, helpless and a total drain on the system, which he despises.  In another possible future a global cure for cancer and all diseases is found and they live forever, but maybe not all that happily.  After all, if there is nothing that will kill you, and you are perpetually 25 years old, what is there to live for?  After 500 years (or more), and you have done everything and tried everything, what is left?

I have summarized the book by chapter, since that is how the possible futures are presented, and I have struggled to find the Big Questions in each of them.  The text is well written, and I recommend reading it.  Spoiler Alert:  I tell it like it is, and Cyril and Kay variously live and die in each chapter, depending on how things turn out.  I left out a ton of well written prose, which I really liked, so dive in deep and enjoy what I found to be so great.

But back to the BQ:  Is it, What is our purpose in life?  What is our duty to others?  Does life have a meaning?  Is there a force that directs our lives?  Do we have free choice?  Does true love transcend our lives?  (True love is a theme that weaves itself through the stories and is a warm, wonderful connection that Kay and Cyril grasp from time to time.)  Or perhaps another question?  One that pops out to me is:  Why are our kids such shits!  Or at least Cyril and Kay's kids are.  

If we were to predict our individual futures, what would we predict?  How long will we live?  What sort of quality of life will we have?  Is a poor quality of life worth living?  Would we be better off to pick a date where we still have all our faculties and decide to end it on a high note?  What would we give up?

It is tempting to say that a life lived well and ended at the right time is far better than a life lived only OK and hung onto long past its "used-by date" would be.  Live fast, die young, and leave a good looking corpse!

Big Questions Resumes Tonight!

 Sorry for the late posting, but I wanted to get something in the blog, at least.  After a summer's hiatus, our friendly gathering of philosophical thinkers is starting up again.  2nd and 4th Fridays at 7:00.

There are lots of potential Big Questions in the news these days, so I haven't picked one yet.  We can choose one when we all get together.

Hope to see you there.

The Value of Considering Big Questions

A reader sent me the following message:

The following is why Big ?'s is so valuable to me.

"We are much involved, all of us, with questions about things that matter a good deal today but will be forgotten by this time tomorrow—the immediate where's and when's and how's that face us daily at home and at work—but at the same time we tend to lose track of the questions about things that matter always, life-and-death questions about meaning, purpose, and value. To lose track of such deep questions as these is to risk losing track of who we really are in our own depths and where we are really going.:

Frederick Buechner, b. 1926

The Tree of Life

 Adding to the positive reception we had for last night's poetic approach to our topic, the group wanted to tackle the Tree of Life as a theme for our next meeting.  As a first entry, here is something that has been submitted.

COME TO THE TREE OF LIFE

by Nancy Miller

COME, COME TO THE TREE OF LIFE, 

COME WITH YOUR JOYS AND COME WITH YOUR STRIFE.

COME IF YOU’RE SHORT, ROUND, SQUARE OR TALL,

THIS TREE CAN GIVE KNOWLEDGE AND COMFORT TO ALL.

THIS TREE HAS ROOTS AS DEEP AS ITS HEIGHT,

IT’S NURTURED BY TRUTH, COMPASSION AND LIGHT.

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE HAS EFFECTS ON OUR TREE,

SO GOOD STEWARDS OF EARTH WE HELP EACH OTHER TO BE.

COME LITTLE CHILDREN AND PLAY IN IT’S SHADE,

AND LEARN OF THE WONDERS SPIRIT HAS MADE.

AND LISTEN TO STORIES THAT MAY MAKE YOU THINK,

THAT DECISIONS AND CHOICES, THEY ALL HAVE A LINK.

COME IF YOU’RE SEARCHING FOR MEANING OR TRUTH,

COME IF YOUR NAME IS WAMBE, OKALEEN OR RUTH.

COME HOLD HANDS AND FEEL RELIEF FROM YOUR STRAIN,

AND TIL YOU COME AGAIN, KEEP PEACE AND LOVE AFLAME.

Send any submissions to me directly, or add them to the comments below.

The Tree of Life, No. I        Desmond

The leaves arrayed around her shoulders and on her sides,

The stem started at the nape of her back and spread upwards,

Spreading left and right, with the trunk below and branches above,

Suggesting a phylogeny of relationships that may be true, or not.

I wondered why such a lovely, young woman would tattoo her back in this way,

And permanently adorn her body with this statement that seemed to be beyond her years,

Honoring the past and connecting with the future in ways known and not known,

Suggesting connections that may be real, and many that only may only be imagined.

We all feel a need to be a part of something big, starting before us, and lasting long after.

We see our fore bearers in ourselves, in our siblings and our off-spring, all around us.

Life moves unceasingly onwards, carrying all of us with it, winnowing and selecting,

Using life’s challenges to promote the fit and discard the rest, heartlessly.

Just as branches are shed as the tree grows, so does the tree of life grow through the strong,

Discarding the weak branches and shaded, the formerly beneficial but now not so much,

To support the greater good, the larger purpose, the overall plan, larger than leaves or needles,

To live again, longer and more productive, surviving against all odds.

DANCE WITH THE TREES by Nancy Miller ACROSS THE MILLENNIUMS, NATURE HAS EVOLVED VARIETIES ABUNDANT, SEPARATE FROM NOTHING ARE HER NATURAL CONTINUOUS ACHIEVEMENT. AND YES, IT WOULD ALL GO ON TO EXPAND AND CHANGE AND SWIRL, EVEN IF IT WERE UNOBSERVED IN ITS ABILITY TO CONTINUOUSLY UNFURL.

BUT OUT OF RANDOM CHANCE AND LIFE’S DELIBERATENESS TO BE,

A TINY SEED EMERGED WITH BREATHTAKING AND GLORIOUS CAPACITY. AND EVERY STEP IN EVOLUTION SO IMPORTANT, INTERWOVEN, LIKE THE ROOTS BENEATH A TREE,

ROOTS THAT ARE UNSEEN BUT CRITICAL TO PRODUCE YOU, A BLESSED FIVE SENSED ENTITY.

BECAUSE NO TWO SEEDS ARE EVER QUITE THE SAME, UNIQUENESS ABOUNDS AS FROM DIFFERENT LIFE’S JOURNEYS WE SEEK AND CLAIM.

AND IN TIME REFLECTIONS CHANGE IN THE MIRRORED PANE,

JUST AS FROM ROOTS THE SAPLING GREW, WE TOO ARE NURTURED BY THE SOIL, THE SUN, THE RAIN

SEE THE TREES, SO MAGNIFICENT, SO BEAUTIFUL, SO GRAND. THEY HOLD THE SOIL, GIVE OXYGEN AND FRUITS AND FROM THE SUN THEY KEEP YOU FANNED. YOU BREATHE THEIR OXYGEN, BUILD WITH THEIR WOOD AND TAKE THEIR FRUIT WITH YOUR HAND. BORN OF THE SAME STUFF, YOU AND THE TREES DANCE THE DANCE OF LIFE ACROSS TIME AND LANDS.

The Tree of Life

Trees are much like people, though way more patient.

People are, in some ways, like trees

From a seed…

    …we both start, carrying much of our life’s framework provided by our parents.

To a seedling…

    …struggling to survive, depending on resources provided to us.

To a sapling...

    ...getting our roots and feet on the ground.  Being shaped by our surroundings. Starting to learn how to fit in our world.

To a tree…

    … young.  Growing, competing, learning.

    …middle aged.  Raising young, teaching, building girth (at least some of us)

    .…elderly.  Sharing wisdom and experience.

    …declining.  Reflecting, giving back.

We both draw nourishment from the earth, eventually returning to the earth

But trees do not get hung up by politics, social views and other human created social constructs.

We should be more, live more like trees.

-       Joel Swanton

Twenty-three

by Vickie Swanton

When you are born, are you the person you should be? If a boy claims she knows she is a girl, who are we to dispute? Do we know better than she? How can we be so different? Are you a princess? An antagonist? A firefighter? What of an antagonistic firefighter princess? How many layers make up your being? Do I see your reflection in my mirror? Do you question life’s meaning? Do your actions show a passion and steadfastness? Would you protect your loved ones with all you have? All you are? Are we similar? The 23rd chromosome determines so much, and yet so little. If life’s meaning is procreation, then it is everything. If instead, the importance lies with happiness and love, then it is next to nothing. We are the same.

The Tree of Life

by Gayle Simmons

With branches reaching high as roots reach deep,

The tree of life shows us a mirror.

Above balances below, now balances before.

There is a connection.

Through its roots the tree of life carries tales:

The most hopeful acts, the darkest deeds before

That encourage and nurture, that discourage and harm.

The tree of life brings all into the light to help us live in the now.

The Interconnectedness of All

 Thank you all for your efforts to prepare a poem or statement for our meeting Friday night, May 28.  As promised, I present your poetic works here.  The topic was the interconnectedness of all existence, based on the UU 7th Principle.  Here is what you shared:  (I will update this as the documents are shared with me)

Tony

What is the connection between you and me

Between sky and earth, or the bird and bee

I believe it is there, but does that make it so

Is belief enough, or do I have to know

Nancy

(waiting for your creation to be sent to me)

Gayle

(also waiting for you to send me your creations)

If others come up with something they would like to share, I would be happy to add your contributions here.

Can we trust our perceptions?

 A classic problem with ancient (Greek) philosophy was the untrustabilty of direct experiences of the world around us.  There were many, many ways in which our perceptions seem to fool us into thinking what we see is real, when it is not.  Classically, the optical illusion of a stick in a glass of water comes to mind.  The refraction of the water makes the stick appear to have a bend at the point it enters the water, when it clearly does not if it is pulled out.  Another is that drinking wine makes the floor tip left and right, making walking difficult.  Heat waves make the distance look like it is wet, when it is not.  That sort of thing.

Empiricists believe that the world can be known from direct experience.  "Just look around", they say, "and see the world as it really is!"   Can we look at a sunset and understand what we are seeing without understanding about light's interaction with atmospheric particles and low angle refraction?  Can we see a human birth and understand all the biologic and physiological phenomena at work, all at once?  Experience gives us access to certain sorts of phenomenon, but at a sort of macro level, at least historically.  Science helps us to see progressively small things, aiding this perspective, but still, it all ends up as people seeing things they can understand and observe directly.

Rationalists say that they can know things just by thinking about them.  Certain logical and mathematical concepts are true because they must be true if the world conforms to the logical necessities of math and logic.  We don't need experience to know that 2+2=4.  Or that cause and effect are real.  Physicists seem to spend a lot of their energy in working out that certain cosmological phenomena must be this way or that, based on what we know of the fundamental principles of matter and energy.  Observation is so frustratingly difficult in these galactic spaces that logical evaluation is a much better course of action.  

Where has direct experience of the world around you failed you?  Can you say you can really trust your senses?  Is logic a better basis of understanding in some cases?  Come prepared to discuss these and other examples of your interaction with the world around you, and how you have been fooled from time to time.

Atheism in Modern Times

 I threw this topic up as a placeholder as it was suggested as a topic at the last meeting.  I have been busy enough with all the good weather of the past 2 weeks that I have not been able to do any research on this topic yet, and I don't have that time now, unfortunately.  I will be opening the Cafe on Zoom tonight at 7 pm and will be glad to curate a discussion of this topic,m or any others we come up with.  If anyone has time to look up links and commentary today, please add them in the comments section below and we can all share in them tonight.

Death With Dignity

 Before I get to this week's serious topic, I'd like you all to click on this link for a quick reminder of why Socrates is considered the greatest philosopher of all time.  Once you have a chance to read this comic, please come back for a real discussion.

Death with Dignity

Washington state has a Death With Dignity law, signed into law in 2008.  The state provides a website that deals with the law's provisions and parameters, and links to reports that detail how people have used the law to receive legal prescriptions that end life.  The reports show demographic data including ages of those who have used the drugs, types of diseases they may have had, and many more bits of data that provide insights into the motivations that informed the decisions to use the drugs.  Take a few minutes to explore the linked site above, and get familiar with the data provided there.

The decision to chose a time of death that an individual may make is not really a philosophical question in a Socratic sense, at least at first glance.  If, as a common example, a person has a cancer that causes chronic pain, and the best medical advice is that the disease will take the life of the person within a certain time period (the law requires such a diagnosis, with less than 6 months to live), a patient might want to end his/her suffering as soon as possible.  This was the intent of the law in the first place.  Gather friends and family, say goodbye, and take a pill.  The suffereing stops in the patient, and the greiving can start with everyone left behind.  The uncertainty is ended.  Importantly, the dignity of the patient is preserved, as they stay in control of their lives until the end.

Here is a link to a discussion of Physician-Assisted Death, comparing the philosophies used to pass laws into action for the State of Oregon, and Holland.  Oregon used a perspective that emphasised the autonomy of the individual at the core of their legislation, whereas Holland used easing pain and sufferning as the basis of their law.  Washington's law follows the example used by Oregon.  I prepared a summary chart that compares and contrasts the various issued raised in the paper.  It came out very small, so I hope you can read it.

We can discuss the various aspects raised int he paper during our meeting Friday night.  If you get a chance to look at the original paper, there is a Life Quality Questionairre on Pages 75-79.  16 simple questions that can help you assess your life.  For you writers out there, there is an essay section on the last page.

This looks like a good topic.  See you Friday!

What is happiness?

 As a follow-up to our discussion on humor I thought we might try and discuss happiness.  I've dipped into this pool of thought before with mixed results, but every time is different, isn't it?

Rather than spending a lot of time writing about happiness, research on happiness, types and degrees of happy, and so forth, I recommend that you go onto YouTube and search on happiness and watch a few of the presentations there.  People study human happiness in a variety of ways.  Subjects take tests and surveys, researchers think up tricky tests that challenge a common sense sort of happiness ideal, and the results are not necessarily what you would expect.  

As with beauty being in the eye of the beholder, happiness seems to have a similar sort of personally identified kind of relationship we each create for ourselves.  There is an axiom that we all create our own happiness, and some of the research presented in the talks seems to bear this out.

If you decide to log in and participate on Friday, March 26, that would make me happy.

Addenda:

I looked up Happiness on Ted Talks (not the plus one, by the way), and found a pod cast that included a talk given by Barry Schwartz where he talks about the relationship between having lots of choices in life and happiness.  He concludes that having a little bit of choice increases happiness, but having a lot of choices decreases it.  He uses the salad dressing shelves at the grocery store as an example.  He reports that there are 175 different salad dressings there, and the process of selecting just one to take home with you can cause paralysis.   Selecting just one leads to regret that the one you bought was not actually the one you wanted.  You end up disappointed rather than happier, due to the many choices.  To listen takes 12 minutes, and it is worth your time.

Here is another link.  I posted on the topic of Happiness Sauce in October, 2012.  Click on this link to find a coherent and helpful discussion, at least in my opinion.

What is time?

Note that the date is changed!  The meeting on Feb. 26 was cancelled due to my reaction to the second shot of Covid virus vaccine.  I'm better now, so we can pick this topic up again.  March 12!  7:00.   

It has been a little while since we have tackled a classically philosophic topic.  While "What is Time?" is not exactly a "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" quality topic, it can be a little esoteric and hard to "get into" for many people.  Hopefully my introduction here will help.

 "What is time?  If nobody asks me, I know; but if I desired to explain it to anyone who should ask me, then plainly I know not."  St. Augustine

 Time is usually broken down into 3 general categories: things in the past, things in the future, and the miniscule moment that separates them.  We like to think that this beautiful, fleeting moment we live in as being a moving, flowing snippet of time with essentially zero duration since the past follows so quickly after it, and the future is yet to be.  A razor's edge, is how I like to describe it. 

 Science measures the passage of very small durations of time by using the vibration of molecules, and large amounts of time by using the speed of light as a reference.  The human mind can perceive time only in what I would call practical terms, limited by the speed we take in perceptional information and processes it in our minds.  In that context the speed of thought might actually be very slow. 

 One metric I have always liked is that our minds can stitch together images into a flowing, coherent pattern if the images change at a rate of 22 frames per second or higher.  In the old days of movie film, if the film projection slowed to below 22 FPS, the images would appear to the audience to be jumpy and disconnected on the screen.  Typically films would be made at 30 FPS, avoiding this problem.  If that 22 FPS rate is true, then maybe the speed of thought is 1/22nd of a second?  Cognitive science measures the speed of neuron synapse info transfer at a much higher rate, so let's table this for now and maybe come back at it from another angle in a separate BQ.

 We normally see causal events in a common sense sort of way, where something happens and events follow due to this initial event.  A stone thrown into a pond creates ripples on the surface.  We understand this process because we are looking backwards, into the past, and we infer the movement of time from the motions we see. 

 But what if time is not moving, and we only infer the motion because of this perceptional frame of reference.  What if we take out the idea that the "present moment" is special in any way, but rather is just one of an infinite number of frames of reference we can perceive at any one time.  If we take motion out of the process, can we create a description of time that does not move?  Philosophers with way too much time on their hands have done this by suggesting that space-time might be composes of individual frames, each of infinitesimally small in duration, but connected much like the 2-dimensional frames on a movie strip.  These frames, they say, are actually 4-dimensional blocks.  They are composed of the 3-dimensional universe plus a 4th dimension of time.

 Ok, admittedly this is getting a little strange to think about.  If these block frames exist, and they include the past and the future, does that mean the universe is already set?  It leads us back towards issues of Free Will and predestination.  As always, things seem to be interconnected.

 My suggestion is to give this topic a good start, and let's see where it goes.  Are there movies you've seen that play with time as a plot theme?  Interstellar comes to mind for me, but time in that movie is handled by Einstein's special relativity, for the most part.  Time travelling stories often deal with time manipulation.  What comes to your mind?  How about The Lake House starring Sandra Bullock and Kenau Reeves.

What is your life's story?

 I had a dream last night that I moved to a new house in the Midwest.  In my dream I met a new neighbor, and to explain to him who I was I recounted an abbreviated resume of where I have lived, what I have done, what schools I attended, where I have traveled, my family and their accomplishments, and so forth.  This list of items then, in effect, provided a sort of definition of who I am. 

This rang a bell for me when I considered a past BQ topic, what gives our lives meaning?  I recall a meeting maybe 20 years ago when a group of us discussed a list of possible answers to that question that I passed out earlier in the evening that included things like, Life is a journey; Life is the pursuit of pleasure; Life is pain; Life is meaningless; Life’s meaning is to fulfill God’s plan, and many more.   The act of sitting down and considering the ways we react to each of the possibilities in the list provided a kind of feedback that we might not otherwise see.  

Do I think life is a journey?  Yes, a journey we take step by step, every day.

Is life the pursuit of pleasure?  Yes, but more than just pleasure, and pleasure in moderation.

Is life pain?  At times, but it gets better.  And there are many kinds of pain and not all are bad.

The idea that each of us could be somehow defined by the lives we have lived and the actions we have taken through our lives makes sense when we look backwards and examine the decisions we made and consequences of those decisions.  Our “cause and effect” brains can see the billiard balls bumping into each other, each contact affecting both in some way.  We may have made a decision to take a new job, for instance, and that decision had lots of consequences.  Making that decision was important in many ways and affected many people who were not so obviously going to be affected.  You can see it looking back, but you didn’t see it when you anticipated possible outcomes. 

I was recently asked to think of a decision or action I took that had a large impact on my life, and to share that action with a small group.  In the context I am trying to create in this narrative, this life altering decision or action might be seen as defining, in an important way, who I am today.  My life’s story, and the stories of all those around me, has been affected by that one decision I took, and stopping to think about it can be cathartic. 

What is your life’s story, and does it define you?

Nature vs Nurture: A Philosophical Perspective?

During the last session it was suggested we talk about (human) development in terms of the contributions that come from genetics (nature) and from the environment (nurture).  I added the term human in this statement, as I don't recall that the topic was limited only to people as first suggested.

My first reaction was that this was less a philosophical topic and more one for psychology or some other field.  Behavior, learning, language, etc. fall into the field of psychology, which gladly accepts it.  Here is a link that lays out the nature vs nurture argument in psychologically clear terms, and identifies the key players in their origin and development.   John Locke's use of the term tabula rasa in 1690 to describe human mental development at birth as a "blank slate" upon which our environment (through learning) will provide the information to write upon it really set the argument rolling for this dichotomy of ideas.

Genetically, the viable product of an egg and a sperm will be an offspring that is related to the parents constrained only by the DNA/RNA/enzyme and protein manufacturing capabilities of the resultant cells.  When I taught Intro. to Biology we dedicated a week to the basics of genetics, including genes and how they determine growth and development of an organism.  We did a fruit fly experiment where we crossed red and green eyed flies, who also had a gene for either smooth or crinkly wings.  We then counted how many flies had the various characters and determined dominant and recessive traits.  Studies of the presence or absence of features like this make a strong case for a fundamental genetic basis to physical characteristics, which I think we can all agree upon.  

Looking for references that shed some additional light on this phenomenon, I ran across this Ted Talks Blog where the relationship between our neural network and its reaction to our environment is explored.  The author says that our genome reacts to the environment we put ourselves in, acknowledging the interaction between environment and our DNA, and suggests that the right sorts of stimuli we may encounter might enhance our cognitive abilities.  Our brains are continually making new neurons, he says, and our environment can influence how they grow and develop.  Hanging out with smart people will make you smarter?  Makes sense to me.

So rather than a dichotomy of influencers, nature and nurture both play a role in human development (of course), and this is an on-going and dynamic process we can influence as individuals.  

Here are a couple of things you might want to look up before our next meeting.

1.    Studies of the separation of twin babies separated at birth, who subsequently grow up in very different environments.  What case studies can you find?  How does the influence of genetics (nature) play out in the individuals?  Can we draw conclusions about the influence of the environments (nurture) on their ultimate development?

2.    There was a time when this was a very hot topic.  People in he past have been obsessed with the idea that language was learned by babies because of their environment, but if this stimulus could be taken away, the infant would innately use what was called a natural or Adamic language.  Accounts of this being tried find their was into the literature: babies may have been actually used in these experiments where all language was withheld from them just to see how they would develop.  Here is a link to the Wiki summary of 4 such studies.