Today I have spent a large portion of the day working on cleaning out my office or as I like to call it: “My own personal set for a documentary on Crazy Cat Lady Hoarders who have OCD”. I don’t think that I am actually a hoarder, though I must admit that my ongoing conversation with my cats about the lunacy of the Anti-Vax movement doesn’t leave me much wiggle room on the whole ‘Crazy Cat Lady’ thing.
I am passionate about learning, when I find a subject that interests me, I go all out and that of course leads to purchasing books which of course I become attached to and given the whole ADD thing… I have a lot of books. My bookshelves are as much a testament to my pursuit of knowledge as they are to the wide range of my interests. A look at the books that fill my office and I think a sane person would wonder at just what kind of person I am. There are books on Alternative Lifestyles, Astronomy, Beauty, Makeup, the Paranormal, Romance Novels, Religion, History, Mathematics, The History of Science, Travel, Writing, Cooking, The Science of Cooking, Quality Assurance, Metrics, Software Development, Database Development, Project Management… and a few cool books on Fetish Photography and Japanese Rope Bondage for good measure. In addition to the books, I also subscribe to and read about 30 magazines - if you were to lay them side to side, they’d be the literary equivalent of Sherman’s March To the Sea… cutting a swath across the Georgia countryside; leaving many to wonder what kind of person reads ‘The Economist”and ‘W’ with the same sense of excitement?
Anyway, back to the cautionary tale… The Seductive Powers of Woo…
I am guessing that this post is going to turn out to be a lot different than what I am setting out to write. Yesterday I had a lovely chat with the woman who delivered the presumably yummy pizza to the house - I say presumably because thanks to the POLLEN COUNT that makes my little town of 27 churches and no bookstores the physical equivalent of the 9th ring of hell… you know what that is… the ring where your sinuses slam shut and your eyes bug then your head explodes, I was unable to eat said pizza because the sight of it made me gag.
Today loaded up on a self designed cocktail of Benadryl, Singular and Cherry Kool-Aid I find that I am able to function once again. The conversation touched on a few things, most significantly my view that the LSH and I are actually just large children who are able to indulge ourselves and we do. The house is a testament to the power of the Id gone wild. And yet, as I wandered through the house after midnight I found myself thinking that I have actually grown up, that I am an adult, with an adult’s ability to think, and to make rational decisions. I pride myself on my ability to think and although he is a charming, handsome beast, it was the LSH’s ability to calmly analyze things that first attracted me to him. We may have the toys, but we are also two people who are deeply committed to the causes that are important to us.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things
I am sure that there are children running around who are selfless but for the most part the children that I know, are lovely, curious, intelligent little beasts who view the world as their playground, what they want, what they need and what they think form the foundation for their reactions. When we grow up we realize that the world does not revolve around us, that other people have feelings, needs and wants that don’t always coincide with our own. If we are to be successful we learn to deal with others - difficult bosses, the wacky friends, and the people near and dear to us who have views that we cannot agree with.
Which leads to the meat of today’s post… Putting Away Childish Things
If, I was the type of person that believed in “Hell” in a traditional sense (yes, I know) I would say that HELL is like the line in the Squirrel Nut Zippers song… “Lose your face, lose your name and get fitted for a suit of flame”.
I am struggling with a disease that has systematically stripped me of all the things that I used to define myself on a personal level. I am vain creature, to me drought, famine and pestilence do not compare to watching my skin get dry and flaky, to having my once thick and glorious mane of hair become thin and brittle, and while there are other changes, the worst has been the brain fog that on bad days makes me incapable of remembering the most basic of facts or carrying on a conversation about anything but the weather.
Now, I want you to remember that I have already stated that I am a shallow creature, this will not be one of my lofty posts or rants. Last night I sat next to the Snarky Man Beast (who is usually the Long Suffering Husband) and while we watched “The Lost Gospels” and “Banned From the Bible” I surfed the net looking for hair care products.
This began as a review of Bruce Hood’s new book: “Supersense: Why We Believe the Unbelievable” but has evolved into a bit more as the things I write tend to do. If you would like to read a killer review of the book, you can find it at PodBlack’s site by clicking here! I also wrote a review of the book on Amazon’s site which you can read here!
I think that the release of the book is timely. We are facing a lot of tough issues here in the United States (yes, I recognize that times are tough worldwide, I am choosing to limit the scope of my writing to the United States) and as history has shown, when things get tough… the not so tough fall back on the not so rational. A few days ago I read a story that one of my Facebook friends posted about “The Psychics of Wall Street” and after a few deep breaths I was able to re-read the story to see what I could gain from it. I have to admit that I am still having trouble figuring out why anyone would consult a psychic when it comes to financial decisions, although given the bloodbath that is the Stock Market I can concede that a psychic is probably no worse than some of the stock brokers, or the hosts at CNBC that were offering advice before the crash.
When belief is brought up as a subject I think the vast majority of people assume that the discussion is going to be about religion. Bruce’s book does a great job of highlighting the fact that belief goes far deeper than just religion. I am sure that you can do the 6 degrees of separation exercise and come up with someone who scoffs at organized religion but carries a crystal, a talisman, worships trees or believes in ghosts or luck or karma … you get the picture.
Our society is a society of ‘believers’. Our entertainment caters to the beliefs that the vast majority of us have, we read weekly magazines that report that while belief in god is passé, the belief in plumbers who pump the septic tank of the supernatural is cool. Even a show like “The Mentalist” has caved to the need the general public has for woo-woo. As I have told (not ranted) the LSH by airing episodes where the Mentalist is confronted by ’something that could be proof of the paranormal’, the skeptical take, the message that there is nothing to the claims of psychics is diluted. My least favorite episode was about a medium who at the end of show did a classic cold reading where she told Patrick Jane that she had heard from his dead wife and child. Keep reading…
In theory I should be one with the entire Tea Party movement. I have fairly old school Libertarian views when it comes to the role of government. It should devote itself to paving roads and keeping a standing Army for defense. In a perfect world, there would be no need for the government to become involved in things like energy, research, health care, social security… I am sure you get the picture. It has been my experience that the involvement of government in any enterprise equals a mind numbing bureaucracy that loses site of it’s mission and quickly becomes a monstrous beast intent on it’s own survival. That is the theory. The reality is that I recoil on a physical, intellectual and emotional level from the nonsense that I heard being spouted at these Tea Parties.
“Facts are stubborn things.” - Ronald Reagan
I adored Ronald Reagan, he appealed to the idealistic Objectivist that I was in my youth. It was very easy to embrace his simple view of how things should be when I was at University safely cocooned from the realities of the outside world by the grace of being born into the family that I was. Small Government that did not interfere in the lives of the people was a good thing. It was the 80’s and let’s face it… “The Future’s So Bright, I Have to Wear Shades” really did make a great theme song.
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