Chaos Theory.
I had a service call yesterday where nearly everything went wrong. I won’t bore you with the details.
What gets to me is that how I find myself in a situation where I cannot affect any reasonable solutions. That offends my sensibilities to the core. Yes, I’m a control freak, and I always have been. I have, over the years, learned how to become one with the Chaos, but it still bothers me.
All I want is for things to work right, preferably the first time. And, when they don’t work, I want the ability to make it work.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Monday, April 09, 2007
To Zen, Or Not To Zen
I complain to my friends. Frequently. Often it’s about being in exile from my homes, friends, career of choice, and so on. It’s also about what I describe as a pointless, soul-desiccating job.
Today, I’m trying to spend the morning applying my Buddhist lessons to my situation and overcome the limitations I inherited from my Calvinist upbringing.
The job may not be the best, but it is work. It pays the bills and gives me a sense of purpose. It’s even something I do well, for which I should be happy. My career of choice is still out there. Even if every day I feel more and more left out of it and increasingly irrelevant, I may have the option to get back into it.
The waiting is the hardest part.
Today, I’m trying to spend the morning applying my Buddhist lessons to my situation and overcome the limitations I inherited from my Calvinist upbringing.
The job may not be the best, but it is work. It pays the bills and gives me a sense of purpose. It’s even something I do well, for which I should be happy. My career of choice is still out there. Even if every day I feel more and more left out of it and increasingly irrelevant, I may have the option to get back into it.
The waiting is the hardest part.
Friday, April 06, 2007
Non Sequitur. Non Serviam. And The Value of De-Escalation.
Yes, it has been a very long time since I’ve felt I had anything to say. I gave up on my movie reviews, more or less. It’s not that I’ve stopped watching my movies, but I found it increasingly difficult to keep up with the challenge of having anything interesting to say about them.
I have to say that the installation of my DVR has changed the way I watch TV. I set my favorite shows to record, and watch when I want to and can. I can also look out two weeks into the future to find the movies I want to see. I do wish that the IMDB “On TV” feature was easier to use.
In the meantime, I’ve been struggling with some profound issues of personal responsibility and behavior. Well, maybe it’s not all that profound, but it is what I think of when I’m not thinking of anything else.
At what point does an individual have the moral responsibility to reject the environment in which he finds himself? And once that rejection is considered, in what form should that rejection manifest itself?
While writing this, and I will get back to my main point(s), I am watching the news conference with the Brits released from their unfortunate captivity. One point that becomes amazingly obvious to one such as me is the value of de-escalation. Yes, the crew could have opened fire on a vastly superior force that had comes upon them with intent, but they didn’t. And now, despite the propaganda that is seen (by most) clearly as lies, they are all alive, cheated death, and cheated the original intent.
With apologies to Robert Asprin, as noted in Another Fine Myth, “In times of crisis, it is of utmost importance that one not lose one’s head. – Marie Antoinette.”
I don’t condone cowardice, as such, but I do appreciate the need, sometimes, to execute some geo-political jujitsu.
Now, where was I?
I’m going to start by putting this out here for reference. I have a lot to say about this, but I need to start with a baseline.
Non sequitur: It Does Not Follow. See various definitions and discussions at Wikipedia, The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, and especially The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. (courtesy Bartelby).
I especially like the definition from AHDEL: “An inference or conclusion that does not follow from the premises or evidence.”
Non Serviam: I Will Not Serve. Wikipedia’s current (ha!) entry has the following references as a starting definition: “Spoken by the protagonist, Stephen Dadelus in James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, after his decision to follow the life of an artist, rather than that prescribed to him by the Roman Catholic Church, it is an allusion to Lucifer's assertion to Yahweh in Milton's Paradise Lost, first chapter. Lucifer states that it is better to reign in hell than submit in heaven.”
If the premise for a decision, or choice of action, is faulty, at what point does an individual have the responsibility to reject the decision, the action, decider, and the actor?
I have to say that the installation of my DVR has changed the way I watch TV. I set my favorite shows to record, and watch when I want to and can. I can also look out two weeks into the future to find the movies I want to see. I do wish that the IMDB “On TV” feature was easier to use.
In the meantime, I’ve been struggling with some profound issues of personal responsibility and behavior. Well, maybe it’s not all that profound, but it is what I think of when I’m not thinking of anything else.
At what point does an individual have the moral responsibility to reject the environment in which he finds himself? And once that rejection is considered, in what form should that rejection manifest itself?
While writing this, and I will get back to my main point(s), I am watching the news conference with the Brits released from their unfortunate captivity. One point that becomes amazingly obvious to one such as me is the value of de-escalation. Yes, the crew could have opened fire on a vastly superior force that had comes upon them with intent, but they didn’t. And now, despite the propaganda that is seen (by most) clearly as lies, they are all alive, cheated death, and cheated the original intent.
With apologies to Robert Asprin, as noted in Another Fine Myth, “In times of crisis, it is of utmost importance that one not lose one’s head. – Marie Antoinette.”
I don’t condone cowardice, as such, but I do appreciate the need, sometimes, to execute some geo-political jujitsu.
Now, where was I?
I’m going to start by putting this out here for reference. I have a lot to say about this, but I need to start with a baseline.
Non sequitur: It Does Not Follow. See various definitions and discussions at Wikipedia, The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, and especially The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. (courtesy Bartelby).
I especially like the definition from AHDEL: “An inference or conclusion that does not follow from the premises or evidence.”
Non Serviam: I Will Not Serve. Wikipedia’s current (ha!) entry has the following references as a starting definition: “Spoken by the protagonist, Stephen Dadelus in James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, after his decision to follow the life of an artist, rather than that prescribed to him by the Roman Catholic Church, it is an allusion to Lucifer's assertion to Yahweh in Milton's Paradise Lost, first chapter. Lucifer states that it is better to reign in hell than submit in heaven.”
If the premise for a decision, or choice of action, is faulty, at what point does an individual have the responsibility to reject the decision, the action, decider, and the actor?
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