Stray thoughts slipping out number I

The only reality is the present,
yesterday is a memory,
and tomorrow is a dream.

V

The Power of Self Reflection

Awareness, something like that can change the course of a person’s life in ways he or she can never imagine.

Self reflection can consist of a dialogue with oneself, a discourse with the soul. Look deep, and yet look far. Farther then any eye can see, deeper then any breath one can take.

Understand one self and self reflection can be best understood by the metaphor of a sculpture. When one is appreciating a fine piece of stone work, one would no doubt pay compliments to the fine detail of the work. Its intricacies and impeccable attention to detail, when Michelangelo was asked how he sculpted his master piece David, he said; he already saw David in the slab of marble, he merely was removing the marble which was hiding him.

Vandalizing marble? Staining canvases? Or creating art?

Two ways to draw a mental image of one self; draw it with the rainbow of your good points, or with the kaleidoscope your flaws. Face the facts, people by their own nature have more flaws then flavor, and it’s always better to have more shades of red then just crimson.

Be true to yourself as you paint, be pessimistic, yet be realistic. When finally your art goes into the gallery of life, ask yourself; is that who you really want to be?

Ants

[Thomas Hobbes]


tech·nol·o·gy can be defined as the branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society, and the environment, drawing upon such subjects as industrial arts, engineering, applied science, and pure science.

But what does it mean to us? What does it mean to you? Technology has affected us in ways we cannot even imagine. One might even ask; are humans "meant" to live like this? We have almost forgotten our primitive ways, or have we? Or has technology changed the way we exhibit or indulge in them. Ants build mounts, we build skyscrapers. Same thing or different? Think you are better then ants just owing to the fact that they build tiny hills whereby you oh great humans can build skyscrapers? But can you, just you and no one else posses every knowledge to build one? No one can. Why? Because that's not how it works. Humans are social creatures, and i meant more just just engaging in recreational activities together. Humans work together for the greater furtherance of our great society. And if left alone, away from the books or means of communications of which we are so used to. We are hardly productive at all.

Why is it so that we need encouragement? Why does cheering work on the majority? Why is it so that the family is the basic building block of any great society? Why can't human simply motivate themselves? Why is it not the PERSON or the INDIVIDUAL is the basic building blocks of any great society?

Lets start with the latter point. The individual cannot exist without the society. There for, it does not exist in the first place. Just like on cannot be father, mother, sister or brother if one simply exist alone.

and for the first point: refer to this famous quote from Thomas Hobbes extracted from his book "Leviathan"

"Considering the life of a person who only rely on his own strengths. In such a condition, there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain, and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation; nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious buildings; no instruments of moving or removing such things that requires much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts, no letters; no society; and, which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of a violent death; and the life of a man; solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short."

In short, technology is the ant hill of our great race, and we are the ants. We are nothing if not part of something greater.


Vernon

Purpose

It is purpose that created us,
it is purpose that connects us
it is purpose that pulls us
it is purpose that drives us, that defines us and binds us.

~ Agent Smith

Rarely are there concepts which are of mammoth significance to us and yet we are completely oblivious to it. Purpose, Aristotle has long ago tackled this problem for us. The question of purpose and what it means to know and not to know it. To know it personally is an arduous journey.
To understand purpose one have to look elsewhere first instead of at oneself. The proper functioning of an entity and its primary purpose. Look at nature, has nature created anything "useless" before? Has there every been a product of mother nature which is truly completely useless? A tree has its purpose and many "sub-purposes" some of them supporting each other. But misunderstanding of it could make it divert from its primary purpose. Below is an example.
Imagine a pen, a pen with a cap used to cover the tip. Imagine it was used to break a lock. Would it be possible? If this pen fails to break the lock, would it then be a "lousy" pen, a failure amongst it's peers? I am sure we have the same answer.
The pen has one purpose, and one true purpose only that is to write. Every aspect of its physical properties have been geared towards that end-state in mind. Its material, light; for ease of writing, the ink ; for staining the paper, to facilitate writing, the tip; to regulate the flow of the ink, etc, etc.
Now look at a human being, a person. Consider ALL of his/her physical properties....

Time and Tide

"Our everyday has been reduced to nothing more then today waiting for tomorrow to happen"
~ Vernon
on how the perception of time has
has changed since 090606.








"To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven" ~ Ecclesiastes

Time, an element of our lives we are always fighting against. Sometimes we are pushing it, sometime are are pulling it. Hardly are are instances whereby we are at peace with it. But like any beast it can be tamed, and like people it can be managed. How to manage or to tame it, unfortunately that is not within the scope of this.... piece.
Remember that our lives are lived in the present, not in the past and not in the future. Do not make the grave error of living in the past or drunk in the prospects of that which has not passed.

Live for yourself and for the moment, act and decide in ways you will not regret. Life has no rehearsals, its a LIVE broadcast. Hit or miss.
These words doesn't tell you how to manage or tame Time, it tells you how to Look at it.

Three cheers to Time, our Bane and our Asset
Vernon

Chance and Randomness

What the vulgar call chance is nothing

but a secret and concealed cause.
~David Hume






Can randomness really exist? Can one believe something so explicit as chance, it is almost as if the concept of chance was fabricated out of convenience. What about being surprised, can we really never be surprised? The fact the we can actually be not surprised is due to the fact; i say fact because it is a fact, that we have taken certain things for granted. That is why we have the capacity to become not surprised. Imagine if everyone never took anything for granted, then every second of the day, every event would shock you to death. Random and suprising events are held to be a sign of our limited knowledge and our convenient nature.

Look back in time, what are the odds of you happening? Your ancestors would have to meet at specific times, marry and have sex at very specific times. The "chances" of you coming into this world are one in a billion. But you are here, you are here reading this. What would "surprise" you even more is if time was to rewind back a few hundred years, things would still unfold the same way. In truth, whatever happened happened and could not happened in any other way. There is no such thing as chance, no randomness just inevitability.

Prologue

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning.

~ Albert Einstein

"The wise separates them from the mass of people who unthinkingly accepts only what they know through immediate experience."
~"Access to Philosophy" By Mel Thompson

Vanity is the bane of knowledge and wisdom. Few are able to bring themselves back to the ever questioning nature of a child, ever present are the fears of being labeled and ostracized. But mightier then both is the feeling of belittlement of being stupid. Paradoxically the greatest fool is he who think he is the wisest.

Fear not the unknown, question immediate experience, for experience is raw wisdom; still untapped and not maximized. Ponder, think and reflect. Never be afraid of asking questions, never be afraid of looking stupid or less knowledgeable. Be ever ready to learn, to yield and to acquire.

With this note, I will end this post and start this blog.