Madness at Play
WORDS, WORDS & MORE WORDS & COMBINATIONS OF THEM
- ANTHROPOCENE ERA: This is the period of time during which human activities have had an impact on the earth…creating a geological change. – aka Today, the world we live in now. This word was first coined in 2000. Congratulations to us. Climate Change Deniers must have a different word for the period we live in.
- NEO-DARK AGE: (-cem) This could be another term for the above. It is said the original Dark Ages were actually dark. Dark skies from the ashes of volcanic activity. The sun looked like a dim Necco wafer at high noon. A major difference from then is it got colder for some reason. People moved, changed gods – it was a tough time. Maybe it won’t be so bad this time.
- THOSE WHO CANNOT REMEMBER THE PAST ARE CONDEMNED TO REPEAT IT (-G. Santyana 1905) Of course, if you don’t know about the past it could be a difficult experience, once it comes around again. Question: How can we remember something if we do not know about it in the first place? Changing this phrase a bit, what do you think about the following? “Those who do not learn about the present are: 1) …better off 2)…uninteresting dinner partners 3) …subsumed by it 4) …happy fools 5) …are not going to see what hit them when it comes.. 6) Any or all of the previous choices are good.”
- THE INVISIBLE HAND: Do you remember this? Adam Smith said the pursuit of self-interest will lead to the greater good for all – as if guided by an Invisible Hand. That was when things were good. I think what has happened is this hand has appeared and it is now THE VISIBLE HAND (-cem) and it is made into a choke hold. The self-interest idea is not working out for all, after all. Maybe the answer to this is to be found somewhere between the Dark Age and the Anthropocene Era.
- “THE FUTURE IS ALREADY HERE, IT’S JUST NOT EVENLY DISTRIBUTED.” (-W. GIBSON) Where are you with this idea? You good? Is the past still with you? Where is the present? Are you up with it? Is it passing you by? Below are bits and pieces pertaining to current events which, knowing, may help you determine if you are living in the present or someplace else.
THINGS THAT ARE IN THE MIDSTS, OR IN THE MISTS
- Studies show you can eat twelve eggs a week without increasing you risk of heart disease, (But only yesterday if I ate too many eggs I could get a heart attack. Was that ‘Fake News’? All these years not eating eggs, for what?)
- Studies show that women eating fast food four times a week can result in nearly a month longer to conceive. And women who eat fruit three times a day get pregnant two weeks faster than those who don’t. I have not read, yet, about a study that shows what happens to a woman who eats fast food four times a week and eats fruit three times a day…Is the child afraid to come out? With all this eating, does the woman have time to look for a job? Who pays for all this food? Questions need to be answered. I did read where a high fat diet has a toxic effect on the ovaries of mice; but I do not know where this fits in.
- I read on the Sonic Humanisn Spectrum chart where we humans hate the sound of screaming pain more than any other sound. Then comes fingernails on a blackboard. (I did not know there are still blackboards – but the bad memory does linger, I’ll admit.) Then comes the Micro-wave beep. (Nobody asked me what noises I hate. How about someone else’s car alarm going off forever? What about the guy who is sitting next to you in the movie theatre and his coughing sound? Don’t you hate that more than the Micro-wave beep?) Then they rate the sounds we humans like the most. Guess what they are. 1) Baby laugh 2) Birdsong 3) Applause. Did you guess any correctly? (I liked the sound of my own children laughing; but other babies gurgling does not compare with a Hayden Cello Concerto or even anything Johnnie Cash sang. I’ll go with Birdsong as number 2. But Applause? Sometimes who and what is applauded can be as maddening as that guy coughing in the dark.
This is a strange and oft times wondrous place in which we live. There is something in an Iris DeMent song that seems a befitting sign-off for today’s posting;
“Everybody is a wondering about what and where we all came from/Everybody is a wondering ’bout where we go when the whole thing’s done/No, no, the certain is…it’s all the same to me/ I think I’ll jest let the Mystery be.”
Enjoy.
(-cem)
