In recent years I’ve realized there is more to meets the eye when it comes to learning, understanding, and knowing. Perhaps, these three cannot be fathomed, and so they are confused and looked upon as one. I’ve attempted to put in plain words the differences I see, but words fall short. A few days ago I fell into another discussion with Luke (older son) and my wife when I blurted out “people don’t learn anything.” My word, in writing that down just now, I don’t even agree with myself! (I confess, I often blurt stuff out, which in the wake produces grist for my mind’s mill. ) Continue reading ‘Learning What You Know’
Chimp mother climbs a tree for food while carrying her dead infant.
There are a couple of articles in recent issues of Science News, Chimps may be aware of others’ deaths and Neanderthal genome yields evidence of interbreeding with humans, that challenge the universal myths of human uniqueness. Our uniqueness is expressed overtly as in the Christian ‘created in God’s image’, or simply implied by an attempt to nail down ‘origins’(1).
I suppose the Tao Te Ching’s disclaimers let us off that hook somewhat, e.g., ‘the way that can be spoken of is not the constant way‘… and ‘… one who speaks does not know‘, and finally, ‘… are you capable of not knowing anything?‘ Hmm? Continue reading ‘We’re Not So Different After All’
Grandma, 82, reading the paper
The use of chairs in the West is ubiquitous. One of the most important life style changes I ever made was giving up my use of the chair fifty years ago. Chairs (and sit down toilets) are good examples of my motto, ‘short term pleasure attracts long term pain; short term pain attracts long term pleasure‘. The physical ease a chair provides gradually robs the body of an important part of its natural capability. Over time that bring long term pain. This is easy to see, for example, by comparing older Western people with older Japan people. Continue reading ‘Chairs: One of Our Big Mistakes’
I suppose we all know that gossip and hysteria play a role in the news – any and all news. How much of the news is gossip and hysteria is the question.
Obviously, gossip and news correlate and so strictly speaking they are the same. Sure, news is supposed to be a serious attempt to get the truth, and gossip is more about passing around frivolous hearsay. But, as they say, one person’s serious is another person’s frivolous. A recent article in Science News, Making informed decisions about mammograms, sheds light.
Continue reading ‘Gossip, Hysteria, News’
Our money is family money… really. It is one big pot from which each takes as needed. This is radically different from the independent model upon which my parents raised me. I did chores for which I got a salary. I suppose the idea here is to prepare the me (their child) for the employer – employee relationship that would lie ahead.
That was not to be my model for raising my kids. Here, everyone in the family did / does ‘chores’, but not as some ‘job’, but rather as part of what needs doing as part of practical daily living. A shared life involves shared responsibility (which makes life feel more shared). Here, each takes on what they are most naturally capable of doing. ‘It happened to us naturally.’ Continue reading ‘The Family Purse’
A recent issue of Science News has an article on the group behavior of social animals. I’ve always been dumbfounded by how well we, as social animals, are able to manage the logistics in dynamic civilizations composed of millions of individuals. I know, ’supply and demand’ plays a big role in this. Still, it mystifies me(*). This article, Swarm Savvy: How bees, ants and other animals avoid dumb collective decisions, sheds light on this for me somewhat by extending the mystery to all social animals. Continue reading ‘Group Think’
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