the measure

Ravi Patel (of Meet the Patels) has a new show called Ravi Patel's Pursuit of Happiness. it's a travel show where he tackles different theme each episode rather than a new destination. 

in one, he focuses on work-life balance. he goes to south korea with an equally workaholic friend and there they "die," give their own last words, and go to their own funeral. in ravi's self-eulogy he says that he read of a "Buddhist philosopher who said, the measure of one's happiness in life is the extent to which, by the time he's passed, he's contributed to evolution."

I often think that the point of participating in anything is to make it better. people should feel like you've made their life better for having been friends with them. your work should be better for having employed you. your team better for having you on it. your club for having you in it. this betterment can be big or small. you can bring in huge profits to your company, or you can be a pleasant co-worker that everyone likes to have around. you can be team leader or club president, or you can always bring a main course and extra napkins and utensils to potlucks. holding doors open, letting people in front of you in line, getting off the phone for the cashier, saying please and thank you to everyone. these small things count. 

most of us won't have a big effect on the world, and that's okay. but I would hate for anyone to actually think the world would be better place were I dead. hell, I wouldn't even want someone to think their day would be better were I not to exist. we're here, so let's make the best of it. 

scared

Guys ask why women are so pissed off. Even guys with wives and daughters. Jackson Katz, a prominent social researcher, illustrates why. He's done it with hundreds of audiences:

"I draw a line down the middle of a chalkboard, sketching a male symbol on one side and a female symbol on the other.
Then I ask just the men: What steps do you guys take, on a daily basis, to prevent yourselves from being sexually assaulted? At first there is a kind of awkward silence as the men try to figure out if they've been asked a trick question. The silence gives way to a smattering of nervous laughter. Occasionally, a young a guy will raise his hand and say, 'I stay out of prison.' This is typically followed by another moment of laughter, before someone finally raises his hand and soberly states, 'Nothing. I don't think about it.'
Then I ask the women the same question. What steps do you take on a daily basis to prevent yourselves from being sexually assaulted? Women throughout the audience immediately start raising their hands. As the men sit in stunned silence, the women recount safety precautions they take as part of their daily routine. Hold my keys as a potential weapon. Look in the back seat of the car before getting in. Carry a cell phone. Don't go jogging at night. Lock all the windows when I sleep, even on hot summer nights. Be careful not to drink too much. Don't put my drink down and come back to it; make sure I see it being poured. Own a big dog. Carry Mace or pepper spray. Have an unlisted phone number. Have a man's voice on my answering machine. Park in well-lit areas. Don't use parking garages. Don't get on elevators with only one man, or with a group of men. Vary my route home from work. Watch what I wear. Don't use highway rest areas. Use a home alarm system. Don't wear headphones when jogging. Avoid forests or wooded areas, even in the daytime. Don't take a first-floor apartment. Go out in groups. Own a firearm. Meet men on first dates in public places. Make sure to have a car or cab fare. Don't make eye contact with men on the street. Make assertive eye contact with men on the street.”

 ― Jackson Katz, The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help (The first man to minor in women's studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, holds a master's degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a Ph.D. in cultural studies and education from UCLA.)

i read this and related to the women, but, strangely, also very much to the men. honestly, i don't normally think about my physical safety, even when i travel alone.

from the above list, i only do two. 1. hold my keys in between my fingers to use as a weapon and 2. meet men on first dates in public places. the 1st i haven't done in years. I honestly don't remember the last time I did it. as for the 2. well, i don't date anymore. but when i used to i would put dating profile time, "real" name, phone number, and meeting place into my gcal so if i went missing, my friends could look up who i last went on a date with.

these lists make me wonder if 1. there's something wrong with me or 2. people (in this case, specifically women) aren't too scared. i too have been sexually assaulted. i suppose that it wasn't a violent thing by a stranger means i don't have an increased fear of random men. but i don't seem to have much of a fear of them at all?

i remember once saying to r that i don't know the last time i was scared of a person. i'm scared of all kinds of stuff, bugs especially. i also startle easily, and am not particularly brave, yet, most people seem harmless to me. i wonder why that is, and if i'll end up regretting not having that fear.

censorship

The Real Reason We Need to Stop Trying to Protect Everyone’s Feelings

I have always thought that we should not (and DO not) have complete freedom of speech. there should be truth in advertising and in newsprint and much much more. people should not be allowed to write terrible hateful things in public. people should not be allowed to use public forums to say incendiary or untrue things.

it's true that "your feelings are your problem, not mine — and vice versa." (to a point anyway.) we don't need to listen to every opinion and make room for every hurt feeling. there isn't the time, energy, or need for such. but people should be held accountable for their actions and words.

fyi, this quotation? wow:
“There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running around with lit matches.”

igen

Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?

"12th-graders in 2015 were going out less often than eighth-graders did as recently as 2009." they're also dating, going out, sexing, pregnant-ing, sleeping less and getting their drivers licence later. they're also more likely to be depressed, suicidal, and feel lonely.

remind me, yeah?, if i ever have kids, to take away their phones at a certain time of night, and give it back sometime after they get ready for school.

btw, "Asked by our parents, 'When will you be home?,' we replied, 'When do I have to be?'” OMG YES. tho apparently this is not kids today. oy!

When breath becomes air quotations

need a good cry? read this book: Paul Kalanithi - When Breath Becomes Air
dammit, read this fucking book anyway.

"And medical schools have discontinued the support of the practice of robbing graves to procure cadavers--that looting itself and vast improvement over murder, a means once common enough to warrant its own verb: burke, which the OED defines as 'to kill secretly by suffocation or strangulation, or for the purpose of selling the victims body for dissection.'" p47

"An alcoholic, his blood no longer able to clot, who bled to death into his joints and under his skin. Every day the bruises would spread. Before he became delirious, he looked up at me and said, "it's not fair--I've been diluting my drinks with water.'" p77

"The root of disaster means start coming apart, and no image expresses better the look in a patient's eyes when hearing a neurosurgeon's diagnosis. Sometimes the news so shocks in mind that the brain suffers an electrical short. This phenomenon is known as a "psychogenic" syndrome, a severe version of the swoon some experience after hearing bad news... One of my patients, upon being diagnosed with brain cancer, fell suddenly into a coma.  I ordered a battery of labs, scans, and EEGs, searching for a cause, without result. The definitive test was the simplest: I raised the patient's arm above his face to let go. A patient in a psychogenic coma contains just enough volition to avoid hitting himself. The treatment consists in speaking reassuringly, until your words connect and the patient awakens." p90-91

"The word hope first appeared in English about a thousand years ago, denoting some combination of confidence and desire." p133

"If the weight of mortality does not get lighter, does it at least to get more familiar?" p 138

"Moral duty has weight, things that have weight have gravity, and so the duty to bear mortal responsibility pulled me back into the operating room." p151

"...mercy trumps justice every time." p171

and finally: "I don't want to learn about your worries by accident." because this is how how my deepest worries are usually expressed.

between the world and me quotations (other)

ta-nehisi coates - between the world and me

"Marriage was presented to us as a shield against other women, other men, or the corrosive monotony of dirty socks and dishwashing." (65-66)

"She said to me, 'You take care of my daughter.' When she got out of the car, my world had shifted. I felt that I had crossed some threshold, out of the foyer of my life and into the living room. Everything that was the past seemed to be another life. There was before you, and then there was after, and in this after you were the God I'd never had. I submitted before your needs, and I knew then that I must survive for something more than survival's sake. I must survive for you." (66)

"Perhaps struggle is all we have because the god of history is an atheist, and nothing about his world is meant to be. So you must wake up every morning knowing that no promise is unbreakable, least of all the promise of waking up at all. This is not despair. These are the preferences of the universe itself: verbs over nouns, actions over states, struggle over hope." (71)

"The robbery of time is not measured in lifespans but in moments. It is the last bottle of wine that you have just uncorked but do not have time to drink. It is the kiss that you do not have the time to share, before she walks out of your life. It is the raft of second chances for them, and twenty-three-hour days for us." (91) [my bold]

Solzhenitsyn - To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he's doing is good, or else that it's a well-considered act in conformity with natural law. (98)

between the world and me quotations (race)

ta-nehisi coates - between the world and me

"Fully 60% of all young black men who drop out of high school will go to jail." (27)

re: Queen Nzinga, "who ruled in central Africa in the 16th century, resisting the Portuguese... When the Dutch ambassador tried to humiliate her by refusing her a seat, Nzinga had shown her power by ordering one of her advisers to all fours to make a human chair of her body." (45)

"The enslaved were not bricks in your road, and their lives were not chapters in your redemptive history. They were people turned to fuel for the American machine." (70)

"You cannot forget how much they took from us and how they transfigured out very bodies into sugar, tobacco, cotton, and gold." (71)

"The truth is that the police reflect America in all of its will and fear, and whatever we might make of this country's criminal justice policy, it cannot be said that it was imposed by a repressive minority. The abuses that have followed from these policies--the sprawling carceral state, the random detention of black people, the torture of suspects--are the product of democratic will." (79)

"All my life I'd heard people tell their black boys and black girls to 'be twice as good,' which is to say 'accept half as much.'" (90-91)

"I am ashamed I made an error, knowing that our errors always cost us more." (97)

"Destroying a black body was permissible--but it would be better to do it efficiently." (112)

"She compared America to Rome. She said she thought the glory days of this country had long ago passed, and even those glory days were sullied: They had been built on the bodies of others. 'And we can't get the message,' she said. 'We don't understand that we are embracing out deaths.'" (144)

enemies

"you have enemies? good, that means you stood up for something, sometime in your life" - winston churchill

this quotation has ALWAYS bothered me. a lot of people use this quotation as an excuse to be an ass. okay, having enemies means that you disagreed with someone. but that doesn't mean you were right. maybe you're an idiot. maybe you're on the wrong side of history. maybe you're just an asshole and you have enemies because of your personality, not because of your beliefs. and anyway, not everyone liked mother teresa and a shit ton of people revered hitler.

also, being right about something doesn't give you a pass on manners. good for you, being an animal rights activist, but you shouldn't throw paint on people. and right on, you gay rights believer, but don't beat up homophobes. there's a right and wrong way to make enemies. make sure you're making them respectfully and righteously.

leaning away from god

thank god no one from my small group reads my blog, but i think i more naturally tend towards buddhism than christianity. true buddhism is human centered (even self centered), while a lot of monotheistic religions seem to be more god centered. and that it's more of a philosophy than a religions probably appeals to me. the basic tenets of buddhism also really speak to me:

(1) to lead a moral life
(2) to be mindful and aware of thoughts and actions
(3) to develop wisdom and understanding

a lot of small group is focused on "what does god want from/for me?" "what does god mean when he does this?" "what does the bible say about that?" i just can't get myself to care about him, his intentions, or his word. i feel like if you were to ask a christian to describe christianity in under a minute, their definition would talk more about god, jesus, the church, than on what it actually *means* to be christian (which, to me is basically to live life according to wwjd). buddhists tend not to proselytize, and while a lot of them certainly worship buddha, i feel like their under-one-minute definition of their religion would focus more on the philosophy of the religion rather than the structure of it. i like that.

also, from what i've seen. a lot of christians missions trips are more focused on spreading the word of god than actually helping people. (that's an unfair way of putting it, i know, because christians believe that spreading the word of god is the best and most important way to help people. but i think that's a easy justification for those of us who live with more than enough money, food, shelter, health care access, education, etc) the buddhist missions trips i've heard about go to disaster areas to help out and *not* talk about their religion unless asked. that's pretty cool.

when speaking of christian missions, i'm always reminded of the desmond tutu quotation: “When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.” i don't think that applies so much in today's world, but has it ever applied to buddhists?

i wonder if there are any buddhist "life group" equivalents in our area?

random article: Big Drop in Share of Americans Calling Themselves Christian

sea quotations

all taken from Donovan Hohn's book Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea & of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists and Fools Including the Author Who Went in Search of Them

Wallace Stevens - "The wilderness rose up to it, / And sprawled around, no longer wild."

Lieutenant Parry - "Success in my enterprise is by no means essential to our joy. tho' it might have added something to it; but we cannot, ought not to have everything we wish."

Herman Melville - "When seamen fall overboard, they are sometimes found, months afterwards, perpendicularly frozen into the hearts of fields of ice, as a fly is found glued in amber."

"A vessel's center of gravity is analogous to the metronome's sliding weight. You can adjust it by adding or discharging cargo or ballast water. Make the center of of gravity too low and the ship will be "stiff"; a stiff ship is stable, but like a metronome set to allegro, it will jerk violently back and forth in short, quick rolls. Makes the center of gravity too high and the ship well be "tender," rolling steeply, righting itself slowly. With every roll the crow's nest will swing way out over the water to starboard, then way out over the water to port, describing long, but-wrenching arcs." (p245)

"Preventing liability is the second most important part of the captains' job, after ensuring the safety of his crew." (p246)

brain quotes

all from dr. norman doidge's book the brain that changes itself: stories of personal triumph from the frontiers of brain science

"...a powerful signal has greater impact on the brain. when we want to remember something we have heard we must hear it clearly, because a memory can only be as clear as its original signal. finally, merzenich discovered that paying close attention is essential to long-term plastic change. in numerous experiments he found that lasting changes occurred only when his monkeys paid close attention. when the animals performed tasks automatically, without paying attention, they changed their brain maps, but the changes did not last. we often praise 'the ability to multitask.' while you learn when you divide your attention, divided attention doesn't lead to abiding change in your brain maps." (p68)

"on disturbing study showed that the closer children lived to the noisy airport in frankfurt, germany, the lower their intelligence was. a similar study, on children in public housing high-rises above the dan ryan expressway in chicago, found that the closer their floor was to the highway, the lower their intelligence. so merzenich began wondering about the role of a new environmental risk factor that might affect everyone but have a more damaging effect on genetically predisposed children: the continuous background noise from machines, sometimes called white noise. white noise consists of many frequencies and is very stimulating to the auditory cortex. 'infants are reared in continuously more noisy environments. there is always a din,' he says..." (p81-82)

"a major reason memory loss occurs as we age is that we have trouble registering new events in our nervous systems, because processing speed slows down, so that they accuracy, strength, and sharpness with which we perceive declines. if you can't register something clearly, you won't be able to remember it well." (p86)

"as we age, we stop seeing clearly, not just because our eyes fail but because the vision processors in the brain weaken." (p90)

"pornography's growth has been extraordinary; it accounts for 25 percent of all video rentals and is the fourth most common reason people give for going online. an msnbc.com survey of viewers in 2001 found that 80 perent felt they were spending so much time on pornographic sites that htey were putting their relationships or jobs at risk.' (p103)

"the usual view is that an addict goes back for more of his fix because he likes the pleasure it gives and doesn't like the pain of withdrawal. but addicts take drugs when there is no prospect of pleasure, when they know they have an insufficient does to make them high, and will crave more even before they begin to withdraw. wanting and liking are two different things.' (p107)

"...subjects who had done physical exercise increased their muscular strength by 30 percent, as one might expect. those who had only imagined doing exercise, for the same period, increased their muscle strength by 22 percent." (p204)

btw, this is not the most interesting book ever, but you really should read it if you're interested in how our brain works. lots of really interesting studies are mentioned. you'll be surprised at some of the crazy stuff out brains can do!

tread lightly

quotations from eric blehm's the last season which is about randy morgenson, who "was legendary for finding people missing in the high sierra... then one day he went missing himself."

alden nash - it's hard to feel sorry for a man who's standing on his own weenie.

radny morgenson - "that a humanoid god willed all this into existence simply to glorify himself (a bit too egotistically human), and/or for us, his greatest creation, and our pleasure, use, misuse, seems not either to fit... I wish only to be alive and to experience this living to the fullest. to feel deeply about my days, to feel the goodness of life and the beauty of my world, this is my preference. i am human and experience the emotions of humanity: elation, frustration, loneliness, love. and the greatest of these is love, love for the world and its creatures, love for life. it comes easily here. i have loved a thousand mountain meadows and alpine peaks. to be thoroughly aware each day that i'm alive to be deeply sensitive to the world i inhabit and the world that i am, not to roam roughshod over the broad surface of this planet for achievement but to know where i step, and to tread lightly. i would rather my footsteps never be seen, and the sound of my voice be heard only by those near, and never echo, than leave in my wake the fame of those whom we commonly call great."

pig facts

couple things i learned from matt whyman's - oink: my life with mini-pigs

a female pig is called a gilt

farmer and man talking about raising pigs. farmer tells man he that they live for six months before slaughter. man is surprised. farmer explains that "Pigs grow quickly. You don't want them getting much bigger. With boys, the taste is rich and succulent around now. But if you leave it until they hit puberty the meat can get a bit whiffy. At least that's what women say. It's called boar taint. Something to do with the hormones, but apparently men aren't so troubled by it. Can you imagine that? Sitting down for Sunday dinner with your other half, only she's gagging as you carve and you can't see what the fuss is about?" (p30)

cia quotes

all quotations from evan thomas' the very best men: the daring early years of the cia

"But the difference between the two organizations represents a divide that ran through the CIA for decades, a fundamental conflict in the role and mission of an intelligence agency. Clandestine operations embrace two separate activities. One is covert action—seeking to influence or change the way a country is governed. The other is espionage—secretly gathering information about a friend or foe. The two missions attract different sorts of personalities. Covert action operatives, like the ones who worked for OPC, tend to be activists. Results are more important than process. Espionage operators, like the ones who worked for OSO, tend to be more passive. They are cautious, prudent, careful. The goals of covert action and espionage are often in direct conflict. Covert action is almost by definition noisy, since operatives plunge themselves into the struggle for power. Espionage must be quiet to be effective. It never announces itself,' writes Thomas Powers. The foreign government official who is on the payroll, feeding the CIA secrets, must never be identified as an agent. yet covert action is also risky--it tends to 'go wrong' and expose spying networks carefully laid by espionage operators." (p41-42)

Paul Nitze - "In history, everyone religion has greatly honored those members who destroyed the enemy... Doing in the enemy is the right thing to do. Of course, there are some restraints on ends and means. if you go back to Greek culture and read Thucydides, there are limits to what you can do to other Greeks, who are part of your culture. But there are no limits on what you can do to a Persian. He's a barbarian. The communists were barbarians." (p91)

[he] "could appreciate the idea of the leap of faith, but he could not make the jump himself." (p200)

"The CIA officials looked pained and exasperated; they were good soldiers, they weren't going to point any fingers, but really, how could the senators be so naive? The CIA executed policy; it did not make it. Of course, the CIA had obtained authorization. But such things are never written down, nor are they to be ever acknowledged. That is why presidents have secret intelligence services: to perform secret acts that are supposed to be kept secret." (p230)

antarctic quotes

all taken from dr jerri nielsen's book ice bound: a doctor's incredible battle for survival at the south pole


from a 35 year-old navy polar manual "which contends that motivation is the most important factor when selecting a crew for a polar expedition. The author divides the pool of applicants into five types: He likes men (there were no women at the Poles in those days) who 'go with a specific interest, to be professional explorers, for scientific research, or the adventurous.... type who has to go "just because it is there." Less desirable because they are easily disillusioned are the idealists, the ambitious, and the glory-seekers. His second category is the 'escape artist' who signs up to 'evade family troubles with sweethearts, wives, or in-laws.' Others go to escape financial or family responsibilities, or jobs they hate. This type 'is either a good man or almost totally useless on the Ice.' There are also the 'money savers,' and 'drifters' who go because they have nothing better to do at the moment. Either can be a good man 'because the charms of isolation and beauty of polar regions puts reason in his being.' 'Least desirable' and 'most dangerous to themselves and others' are 'martyrs, sadists, homosexuals' (this, again, was the early sixties), those with strong subconscious suicidal or masochistic complexes, 'to whom a rugged life of isolation sometimes appeals.' The author concludes that the happiest candidate for the ice is a type of escape artist--'the rugged individualist who finds modern urban life intolerable with its TV and newspapers,...world crisis and crime...Many men who have never met the almighty in church meet him occasionally at the operating or delivery table, but really get to know him at the ends of the earth." (p77-78)

"Our memories were all deteriorating as chronic hypoxia ate away at our brain cells. Studies done in Antarctica showed a decrease in short-term memory of 13 percent in those staying through the winter. And that study was done at sea level! The effects on long-term memory had not been studied." (p126-127)

James Evans - "Wood comes from forests. Styrofoam comes from hell."

"There are three kinds of twilight, Civil, Nautical, and Astronomical, which begin when the sun is 6, 12, and 18 degrees below the horizon (respectively). To give you a sense of how dark each one is: at the end of Civil twilight the brightest stars are visible and the horizon is clearly defined. At the end of Nautical twilight the horizon is no longer visible, and at the end of the Astronomical twilight the indirect illumination from the Sun is less bright than starlight." (p147)

animal tibits

all quotations take from the book by stacey o'brien - wesley the owl: the remarkable love story of an owl and his girl

"Owls are very sensitive and easily stressed... Tragic behavior wasn't unusual for owls, who are emotionally delicate, even in the wild. For example, owls mate for life, and when an owl's mate dies, he doesn't necessarily go out and find another partner. Instead, he might turn his head to face the tree on which he's sitting and stare fixedly in a deep depression until he dies. Such profound grief is indicative of how passionately owls feel and how devoted they are to their mates." (p3)

"When describing both the act of defecating and the substance of fecal matter itself, biologists prefer to use the scientific term “poop.” It’s both a noun and a verb. A popular field of biology called scatology is the study of scat, which is not to be confused with mere poop. Although technically they’re the same, we call it “scat” if we are studying it to learn something about the health and diet of an animal. When the animal has pooped on us or has ruined something with his pooping, we tend to use the term “shit,” as in, “Oh, man, he just shit down the back of my neck.” So if it’s on the ground, it’s poop. If it’s under your microscope, it’s scat. If it’s running down your neck, it’s shit." (p22-23)

"The evidence that all species of animals with a brain have emotions is overwhelming. I've observed that all intelligent animals have emotions, including reptiles, brains are less complex than those of mammals. People who work with reptiles are well aware of the risk of depression in captive snakes and lizards of all kinds. Turtles and tortoises are especially prone to it. If a snake gets depressed, his life is immediately in danger, as he will stop eating. I once rescued a snake that had to be tube fed for a year before he began to eat on his own again, after having an owner that did not provide proper stimulation for him. Snakes will also stop eating if they have a traumatic event with a mouse. Reptiles are cold blooded, meaning that they cannot control their own body temperature and are dependent upon their environment to provide a heat source. If they can't raise their temperature, their metabolism becomes so sluggish that they cannot defend themselves against even a mouse. Careless snake owners have been known to toss a mouse in with the snake and not supervise. If the snake is cold, the mouse can eat the snake alive and the snake can't respond. If the snake survives such an episode, it will have such a fear of mice that it will no longer eat. It can take up to a year of tube feeding before the snake gains the courage to face another mouse. If an animal of such low intelligence is this emotional, how much more does a highly intelligent animal feel? Even a reptile needs an “enriched” environment — and it's vital for more intelligent creatures. Animal keepers try to enrich the captive animal's life — make it more interesting — to prevent disorders like obsession/compulsion (incessant pacing in a cage is a good example) and depression." (p47-48)

"Some people feed their cats a vegetarian diet, but then let the cat outdoors (which they shouldn't, since cats are a leading cause of the decline in songbirds, after habitat loss and the continual poisoning of the environment), so that the cat hunts... to compensate for its dietary deficiency. If the "vegetarian" cat is kept indoors, he first goes blind, then dies of complications due to malnutrition." (p85)

"Most people get their appendix out before going into remote areas... What would happen if you were six weeks away from help and you got appendicitis? You'd die. It's not worth the risk, so most people just have it out." (p125)

"The most impressive experience, to me, was one involving an African gray parrot who had a large vocabulary and chattered to himself constantly. The owner was set up in a completely separate building, far from the parrot, and given a series of cards that neither she nor the parrot had ever seen. There were two cameras -- one on the parrot and one on the owner, with a timer running. Then the owner picked up a card and looked at the picture on it. It was a blue flower. The parrot, at that same time, began to talk to himself about blue flowers, pretty flowers. Then the owner picked up a picture of a boy looking out a car window and the parrot's chatter changed to “Do you want to go for a ride in the car? Watch out. The window is down. Look out the window. I am paraphrasing, but the conclusion of the experiments was that animals and humans were using telepathy." (p202)

good advice!

Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you. Hebrews 13:17

[haha, i've never quoted the bible before. i don't actually know how to do it! pretty sure i'm not supposed to use quotation marks. and i think the verse numbers thing is supposed to be after, not before the quotation. but is it supposed to be in parenthesis or something? hard to look up when you don't even know what these things are called!]

i like this quotation. i think very often we don't have confidence in our leaders. we double guess them and think we know better when we generally don't know the whole story! and, unless they are corrupt, i think they generally try to do well by us.

speaking of which. this isn't just leaders like bosses or team captains. it's our president, cops, parents, doctors, anyone in charge, anyone who is responsible for someone else. it's good to keep in mind. we should respect our leaders more. (i'm not at all saying that we should trust them blindly.)

the second half of the verse is just as good as the first. it's important to be a JOY to work with, and to work for. i feel this way a lot. it may be my job to serve you or whatever, but it is not my job to take your shit. and the more annoying you are, the less likely i will do a good job for you. i'm not so petty that i will purposely do a bad job, but you best believe i will not go out of my way to do you any favors. and yeah, i will drag my feet, and not do as good of a job. because i'm a human and you're an asshole.

lost heart of asia

quotations from colin thurbron - the lost heart of asia: an intimate portrait of uzbekistan, tajikistan, turkmenistan, kazakhstan, and kirghizstan, the five central asian republics

"I found myself launching a plea for tolerance. Why should one religion hold a monopoly on truth, I asked? Faith was a matter of private conscience... My evangelism for tolerance began to sound fanatic."

"'Islam is the last revelation... Fist came the Jews' book, then the Christians' book, and fainlly the Koran. The Koran is the last word of God. It was right at the time for Jews and Christians to believe as they did. They had nothing else. But now it is our way which his right...'
"I said pedantically: 'The Communist doctrine came later than Islam, but didn't disprove it. The last book isn't necessarily the right one. Your own Traditions come later than the Koran, but they don't superseded it... The Jews believe that the first is best... because it's the original.'"

both from page 74

the weight of nothing

quotations from steven gillis - the weight of nothing

this is apparently a quotation from a book called "the rebel":
"The logic of the rebel is to want to serve justice so as not to add to the injustice of the human condition, to insist on plain language so as not to increase the universal falsehood, and to wager, in spite of human misery, for happiness. [page 219]"

"Love is a kite on a string... Always tugging and ready to take off. [page 236]"

sacrifice

quotation from frank dikotter - mao's great famine: the history of china's most devastating catastrophe, 1958-1962

mao believed that during a famine "it is better to let half of the people die so that the other half can eat their fill." i know that a lot of people who disagree with this statement, but really, isn't this the best way? why share meager and much needed resources just so everyone will suffer? isn't it, in some ways, more humane to kill the weakest so that the strongest can live longer? i guess that a big problem with this type of thinking is that it eliminates the possibility of unexpected change in the situation: donated food, reversal of bad weather, whatever... you can't unkill someone now that an hour after their murder, help arrives.

there's also the huge problem of who to kill first. the sick and feeble (of body) would probably be the first since their bodies are already compromised. the really old (especially women who are post-menopausal) would probably go next since they are of less "physical value" to society (they may be the keepers of our history but they sure can't do heavy lifting). next should probably be the mentally challenged who aren't good with physical labor. and of course, you should at some point start eliminating children. as long as the adults aren't permanently sterile, they can also produce more kids. men should probably also be eliminated more than women since most women can only have one kid a year while men have no such limitations. in the very end you should be left with a handful of youngish men and a larger group of women.

it's easy for mao, in his nice house with plenty of food and blankets and family secure, to say that to sacrifice half a nation so the other half can prosper is the right thing to do. but who could ever be so cold? the "best" solution would be for volunteers. and before you scoff at that, remember that seniors in japan did it as did the inuits (maybe). of course, no infant or mentally infirm would volunteer themselves so we really are left to murder, not suicide.

and on another topic, tho certainly related, if you're interested in learning a bit about cannibalism, this was a pretty good read.