First Blog

Fish metaphors are part of the language.   We use them every day, mostly because they work so well. Note few of them are current, as fishing activity has declined. Here is your starter list. Your goal? To use a fish metaphor each day, though others may call the fishy.  Most of these you know. Most are fun and easy, like "shooting fish in a barrel." ·      ·         He is just a small “fry,” nothing to worry about. Here “fry” refers to newly hatched fish eggs, tiny things hardly worth a mention. ·         She has bigger “fish” to fry. Here “fish” refers to a normally small object. ·         Don’t tangle with that “shark.” Here “shark” refers to a dangerous, ruthless opponent. ·         Jump the “shark.”  Reach a point at which far-fetched events are included merely for the sake of novelty, indicative of a decline in quality. ·         By any other name, he is a “killer whale.” Big and terrible. ·         That’s a “whale” of a problem. As in big! A problem not eas

  In case you haven't noticed, racism is rampant in America, in fact everywhere. What is remarkable is that the tag “racism” has been applied to almost every activity. Whatever you do, whatever you think, you can be charged as a racist. Here’s a list of racism types from only a few minutes of searching. None of these are made up, and there are many more. • Systemic/Institutional • Environmental • Institutional • Individual • Internalized • Interpersonal • Everyday • Scientific • Micro-aggression • Corporate • Sports • Religious (aka discrimination) • Educational • Structural • White privilege I used to think being fair and reasonable to everyone was acceptable, but I guess not. 

This is the result of a 25-year study of people in their middle age.  Just like for muscles, sleep is the period where the body cleans the brain from toxins, this time for various proteins associated with Alzheimer's and dementia in general. If you don’t get enough sleep, the toxins linger and even build up. Even sleeping badly for one night affects your brain, a whole week affects your brain more. There seems to be ample evidence that sleep deprivation over long periods can result in Alzheimer’s. The moral of this story is to GET YOUR SLEEP now. https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/20/health/sleep-dementia-risk-study-wellness/index.html Remarkably, my mom always told me "you can't make up for lost sleep." This was common "folk medicine" advice at the time.  Nonsense, the younger me thought.  Just sleep more the next night.  Maybe, just maybe, she was right! Yikes.

In previous posts I discussed impossible problems and what we do about them.  Some people think they are rare, and perhaps we should focus on the countless problems we can at least try to solve.  Here is an update on just the language aspect of impossibility.   If you think impossible problems are exceptions to the rule, consider the list below. Each suggests some facet of problems for which solutions are unavailable. Our language is infused with impossibility. Our world is covered by impossibility as a glacier covers the ground. Our lives live with impossibility, and we make due.   This is possibly a triumph over impossibility.

  From C. S. Lewis, British writer (Narnia) and theologian, we are instructed,  Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny. In fact, what Lewis misses here is that while some hardships "polish" the stone, too many hardships grind it down. 

  What are the differences between theory and conclusion? At first blush, this seems a simple question.  But not quite. Eventually some conclusions fail, but theories do as well.   A theory is a “framework” to explain certain phenomena. It contains premises or axioms, and basic conclusions about what may be true, what may happen, and the like. Conclusions are basically what follows from the basic theory. When accepted, they become a part of the theory. Therefore, the theory evolves and grows. Examples include all the sciences, math, and even psychology. It can happen there become multiple theories that begin with assumptions but diverge into different theories. These include sociology, economics, and even psychology. Unstated here is just how conclusions are formed. In sciences, there are experiments, observations, and derivations. However, in religion, there are these but also revelations to be accepted upon belief. In advanced science, constructs are formed for which no experim

  Do lies boomerang? As a kid, you learned this well. When you were caught, there was big trouble like no allowance, no TV, no going out.   Yikes, the lie boomeranged.   But everybody knows lies are part and parcel of politics.   This brings up… The age-old story: The lies are told; the lies are believed; the lies are exposed. So, we come to the age-old question: If a lie boomerangs in a forest and nobody sees it, did it actually happen? Nope! Politicians like to position their lies a step ahead of boomerang exposure, i.e. beyond recompense. This is the classic lie playing it safe. It is one of the most curious, almost paradoxical, ways of telling the political truth.   In politics, the lie becomes truth if exposure is delayed .

  In politics, two kinds of people talk to you. ·         The first kind talks to you like an equal, trying to show you their viewpoint. ·         The second kind talks to you like you are the student needing to learn what’s right. To whom do you listen?

  Moral shortcuts.   Moral shortcuts are aphorisms that sum up states of goodness in only a few words. They are instant retorts, reports, or pronouncements given without explanation and analysis. They appeal to feeling good, hardly saying why, without content, and without depth. They are words meant to resonate in the mind.   They are weak, often vague aphorisms.   Moral shortcuts live a saltshaker to be spread to give flavor!     Beware of empty politicians telling us … A.       It is the right thing to do. B.       This is not who we are. C.       We are on the right side of history. D.      We have formed a commission to study the issue. E.       We’re here to help you. F.        They are friends, not competitors. G.      Let us reimagine … . Some buy every time, nodding in agreement. Some ask, “Is this the best you can do?” Ala, morality is in the air, often attached to extreme measures, sort of an essential sweetener to a distasteful medicine. Really, they want

 The restaurant paradox on COVID.  You are quarantined or sequestered. Restaurants are closed. You crave social contact from the outside or with friends. You invite people to your home. No masks, close contact, loud voices, belching and sputtering all night - like for three-four hours.  COVID is in the air. Elsewhere else you go to a restaurant. Masks are worn to the table and from. You are separated from other guests. The conversation is subdued. In one-two hours, your social need is satisfied. You go home mostly safe, happy. ----------------------------------------------- On knowledge .  An investment in knowledge sits idly by until just that moment it's needed. Then, big interest is paid – sometimes in money and satisfaction but better in tickets to ride. If your plan is to learn it when you need it, you’re running late. For one thing, if you don’t know it, you will not know you need to know it.

  Dream States At this point, with most of the well-defined problem-solving techniques explored (in a previous post), we delve into the great known unknown, the mind’s secret weapon, the dream.   Therein lies a power most certainly unknown. Let’s begin at the movies. What happens when you watch an intense movie late at night?   Your mind is absorbed in the pictures, dialogue, and sounds of the film.   Your mind still dwells on these, computing, digesting, and ruminating on all of these even into sleep. In your dreams, your subconscious mind recalls all these thoughts but convolutes them as only dreams can. Maybe you wake up with yourself a part of the distortion. Maybe, you make it through the night of restless sleep but your wake troubled. Dreams fade quickly, happily.   Has this happened to you?   To me, many times. As a pre-teen, my dad took me to the movie, The Man with the Atom Brain .   The imagery and plot of that movie stayed with me for years. Welcome to one aspect of cr