We Mourn Virginia Tech

The terrible shootings in Virginia have shocked me, and reminded me of my thankful enculturation. Anthropologically, an observer is much more successful if they can effectively ignore their intellectual and moral upbringing and observe objectively. However, we are human, and it serves to remain so. It's important to maintain the thoughts and feelings at your core of existence as well. These might get in the way if you can't separate them at will, but they are still important to have. That is, their existence is crucial, lest you fall into sociopathy, but being able to compartmentalize gains you a skill in helping you become a useful observer.

This last week I've mourned the victims at Virginia Tech. The heartbreak, the loss of innocence - I've been left speechless. Here's a fair essay about it. Last night I heard that the previous day was the most violent in Iraq to date. It's also important to remain objective. 300 lives in Baghdad is a larger number than 33 in Virginia. They are both atrocities. They both need to be stopped.

Note: It wasn't an American bomb that destroyed the marketplace in Baghdad (although the CIA certainly has been training the use of these explosives for decades.) It was our actions in this war that created the anarchic situation in Iraq however, and it is our responsibility to put an end to it.

RIP, Dr. Kevononnegorkianut

Kurt Vonnegut influenced me from the age of 13, when I read Slaughterhouse 5. I don't really understand how people can not understand the horrors of war. They have the same access to 'The Red Badge of Courage,' 'Hiroshima,' and 'Catch-22' that I had. It's an intentional ignorance, isn't it? Denial of the horror of the wars of the world? How many wars are going on as of today 4-12-7? I'm guessing 30! What's your guess? I was off by a bit.

Kurt Vonnegut used his gift to help people think. He understood how important life was, and how important it was to live.

Work hard to make the world better! Play hard, so that you are better at it.

The Taste of Money

Don't eat money. I won't talk about why. When I was a kid I could accidentally do magic. I could put a penny in my mouth, suck on it, and turn it into a dime. I didn't do it very much. I didn't realize it was really special. And, thankfully, I was instructed not to put money in my mouth. It is not healthy. When I tell this story people cringe. I hope you are not cringing.

Yesterday we did our taxes and got that pleasant surprise of some money back. Of course it's already our own money, but the pleasantness is still pleasant.

Poverty affects more people on this globe than it doesn't. Economically, since even the fattest of us fears it, humans continually strive for more. Even the most philanthropic, the Bill and Melinda Gates' of the world, still achieve heights of wealth that are literally incomprehensible to a majority of the planet before topping out and giving back. Almost all of the philanthropy in the world is by people who are still earning more than they give. That is, their net worth is still increasing. (Over the last decade or so Ellison and the Gates' and many others are really and truly retiring into their philanthropy and giving more than they are getting from investment. Hopefully this will continue and amplify. It could be a real lever in equalizing the differentiation between the rich and poor.)

Instinctively, people with access to modern society strive for a level of wealth that will provide a certain level of comfort. People will wish for alleviation of hunger, safety from random criminality, shelter from the environment, and enough leisure time to relax and have relationships. The last one in general is a necessity, because mental health is still needed for survival. This should cost about $10,000 a year. (See this article in Mother Jones.) After that, it's all gravy, and one's foci should be the same as Bill and Melinda's: happiness, and goodwill.

Now we just need to get people to start at our lower number, instead of $1 billion.

Dystopian Feelings

I had a flash the other day. I was just walking down the street, and I started thinking about the future. Not an individual future, not our destiny, I just randomly thought about what our world will probably be like in 43 years. There'll be around 9 billion people, with significantly less arable land and potable water due to our radically altered warming earth. The second derivative of the population growth and temperature increase curves will only zero when we approach the constraints of our environmental system. There's no reason to believe it won't be terribly violent. It could be peaceful - I hope for (and work for) peace - but our species has never shown that it can handle a change in a peaceful way, so there's little reason to expect it. Disease may be great. Technology could be stifled. Authoritarianism may become even more prevalent.

And then I crossed the street. I noticed a funny looking mutt, a golden chihuahuatrevier? I remembered the errand I was on.

Well Respected Man

Food is a good example of equilibrium. I'm not speaking of food in the conceptual sense, that it is necessary for survival. Instead, I'm considering food's more personal effect on us. Today I went to a farmer's market where a local bakery has a shop. It's one of those extremely gourmet bakeries where you can get breads you'd never think of, but the regular old whites and wheats are also amazingly delicious. These are breads that you can put your nose on and inhale an aroma that transports you to a communal timeless orgy of hungry happy enthusiasts, each with eyes closed, a creeping smile accompanying the rising lungs. These are breads with 6 or 10 ingredients. They are meant to be eaten within 24 hours. Day-old is a sad sorrowful tale for an unloved loaf. At this market I bought a loaf of something called Pain de Mie, and a small round. The total was only $4.50! A good loaf of bread costs about the same at the local supermarket, but I get this amazing, fresh delicacy. I can't wait until my wife gets home, so we can eat her birthday bread. I'm making her special artichoke dip to go along with it. The artichoke dip is high fat and delicious, but it also has a ton of artichokes. We stick our bread in it, but we also stick fresh carrots and lightly steamed zucchini in it. So, we get lots of flavor, and lots of vegetables. Delicious, and overall healthy, this meal resonates with equilibrium.

The Rest Will Follow

I'm listening to a band called "... and you will know us by the trail of dead." Some people just call them the "Trail of Dead." They sound like some crazy death metal outfit, yeah? Well, they rock out, but their lyrics talk about the state of life, and the state of the world. Check out the song "Worlds Apart," on the album of the same name. It's about september 11th, and how we are in a candy store throwing a party while everyone else is locked outside. What are we going to do about this? For too long, the answer that those in power give is "Barricade the Door!" Was September 11th a brick thrown at the window? What will we do?

Drrrty

I'm listening to one of Donna Matrix's mixes. It's a break beat mix from 2004. It really gets you moving, twitching, really. In the last hour I've run 6 errands (all from the phone and computer) and organized two aspects of my life. It's Jessica's birthday on monday, so we've been celebrating. Last night she worked a 10 hour day, did a two hour freelance project, then I took her to see some live music. Mew is a danish rock band that sings about giraffes in a high pitched melodic way under booming bass, guitar, and drums. It was an amazing show. Jessica said it was one of the best she's ever seen. I loved it too. She seemed really happy. Then I massaged her into sleep. That's a good birthday present, I hope. She was happy, so today she'll carry it into her work. It will spread. This is why it's important to be happy. This is why music, art, wit, etc. are important. It lets us work better to make the system work better. Contribute!

Coming in from the cold

Popped a CD into my computer today so I could save some songs on my computer. A hidden video that I hadn't expected popped up. It was a story of two young Londoners, single, professional. Lonely. They didn't meet. They were parallel, they passed each other on their routes to work, they ate on different benches in the same park. They didn't meet.

Our lives here are fleeting, and every second counts. Foster love, and create a happiness inside yourself. This will help you to better impact the world. More on your purpose in life later.

Test Run

This is the first entry of this blog, Horror Love Equilibrium Point. That ludicrous title came at me unexpectedly, but has to do with a world perception that I will discuss repeatedly in the future. I hadn't thought of a title, or really thought about the fact that a title would even be needed. Then, there I was, signing up on Blogger. It asked me for a title. "Gee," I thought to myself, "I h'ain't really thought o' one." (I think in conversational conjunctions.) "How'bout 'The Point of Equilibrium Between a Polar Dichotomy of the Realization of Unjust Worldly Acts and Personal Joy and Eudomonia?'" That was too long. Besides, isn't a 'Polar Dichotomy' redundant? Thus the shortened but atrocious title was born.

A note on style: I promise to strike a balance between using annoyingly obscure words like 'eudomonia' and speaking like a slurring gutter punk with a 3rd grade education. I'll link M-W.com also, in case you love words too.