While discussing life with a friend the other day the word evil came. He sees America as an “evil empire” that commits acts of torture that surpass anything al-Qaeda has done. I think he was referring to all the bombs dropped over the last 100 years. In any case, this provided grist for my mind’s mill. For starters, the idea of evil immediately brings to mind the Tao Te Ching chapter two: “The whole world recognizes the good as the good, yet this is only the bad”. ( Ha! No wonder Taoist thought has never caught on.)
When I look around me, I see no evil or ugliness in nature. Nature is just self right as the Chinese ziran (自然) puts it. Continue reading ‘See No Evil’
This is a two-in-one post. Does that mean this is going to be twice as confusing? Could be… I bit off more than I can chew probably (I have the flue today). At least it is a rather post short if you don’t count the Science News quotes.
I’ve long touted the benefit of watching for mysterious sameness. Seeing differences, while often stimulating, is just not as satisfying in the long run. Being able to discern differences enhances survival… up to a point. For example, being able to distinguish a snake from a crooked stick. On the other hand, imagining mountains of difference out of actual mole hills of similarity is just plain counter productive and stressful. The recent Science News article on human relationships, Getting to not know you, offers evidence of the wisdom to let mole hills remain mole hills, or as they say, let sleeping dogs lie. Continue reading ‘Let Sleeping Dogs Lie’
A non-neurotic nitpicking conversation
Noticing differences really aids survival… up the point of diminishing returns. Continuing along this path is counterproductive and eventually leads to anxiety of some sort. Of course, in the wild, such discernment would seldom turn as worrisome.
Civilization, in taming the wilderness, removes natural stresses that would otherwise counterbalance us, and before we know it, we’ve become neurotic nitpickers in one way or other. Continue reading ‘Balancing Difference With Similarity’
I’ve noticed over the years that there’s always something ‘wrong’, no matter how ‘right’ things seem at first. There is a seemingly endless supply of issues to fret over. After we resolve the pressing life and death issues, you’d think we could relax and appreciate that success. Alas, no sooner one problem is solved, we find another to fret over. Continue reading ‘The Worry Gene’
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