June 1, 2022: Deception

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth. Niels Bohr

Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised or a little mistaken. Jane Austen

Deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance. Oscar Wilde

Deception is ubiquitous. Trying to rid ourselves, others, or the world of it is folly. It is instead a difficulty to be properly understood and used for good purpose, as in blending in for survival or when needed in the stealth of war. But to use deception to nail ourselves or others to a religious, political, or economic symbol, is to lord it over others because we can. After all, what good is any kind of currency, be it secular or spiritual, that tramples others to stand taller?

Let’s indulge a bit. What about the deception of our objective reality? Believing may be seeing, not just the other way around. Look how many times we thought objective reality was nailed down, only to find someone had reasoned and tested and found an entirely different explanation. Does all revolve around the earth? Does Euclidean geometry work in curved environs? Is gravity pulling stuff together or is it stuff bending space and that creates gravity? Is the speed of light the fastest thing we can measure or is the expansion of space moving so quickly light cannot keep up? If so, does that mean light from great distances simply cannot reach us because we’re more and more separated? What if space expands so fast and far no light other than our own star reaches us? We’d be surrounded by a vast emptiness—no starlight at night.

Let’s wade into love and emotions. What if love of another is simply memory? If one has dementia, do they love the one they’re immediately with? Does that mean love is ephemeral or that it simply is, regardless of who we think is or was our mate? Certainly, we keep finding love of one thing or another.

Apparently, homage and fealty can seem a bit tricky to nail down, yet we revere them so much we set a pretty strident standard. That can be a lighthouse guiding us to rocky shores.

Okay, forget it—let’s have a practical suggestion relative to practicing democracy? I’m not even close to the first to say this, but it still seems more than important to say again: Pay attention to whom is running for Secretary of State as they are the keeper of the votes, the count, and the certification. Democracy is not solely in the hands of the voters, but also in the hands of those who certify the voters and their votes. Best to keep in mind that our vote is not all there is to it, though that vote and it’s certification will shape both our subjective and objective reality, as least for a while.

The Bumper-Sticker Corner: Finite & Infinite Become Acquainted, Part I

How did cries of manifest destiny become cries of “you will not replace us”?
When did the Red Pill actually become the Blue Pill?

The Wizdum Corner: Finite & Infinite Become Acquainted, Part II

The student asked the teacher, “How do we avoid all the dangers of the world?” The teacher replied, “Don’t be there, don’t do entanglement?”

“Nothing and All?” said the teacher. “Besides, I am a teacher, not the teacher. “Somedays we do well, somedays not. And the doer and the days are not always good at the same time.”

“However the torture, the entanglement, came to be, whether wisdom or dumbdom, it’s a divine wonder, yes?”

The Personal Corner: Finite and Infinite Become Acquainted, Part III

Yesterday was full of near overwhelming stimuli about properties and conversations about wellbeing. My dreams last night were about my present freedom, opportunity, and responsibility. In this finiteness, I cannot blow it. I cannot choke. I do not have unlimited room to screw-up and correct it. It was like I’m was in my own musical a ’la Oliver Twist or Little Orphan Annie. I was a near 75-year-ragamuffin, street urchin longing for a shot at pulling myself out of so many different kinds of poverty. Done right, I’ll get to dance with infiniteness. I’ll get to breathe. I’ll get to make a good contribution. Screw it up and I’ll leave a necrotic mark and not just for me, but for my family as well. And then they will try to overcome what I could not.

It’s one thing to overcome ancestral choke points, another to not pass them along in the first place. It may always be one thing or the other, but erasing stigmas is at least clearing the slate.