Yes, I often come back to this. The profoundly problematic interaction of genes and memes that can produce literally countless combinations of variables in the lives of each of us as individuals. Some at birth and others throughout the course of our life from the cradle to the grave. And then the equally [at times] convoluted part where sometimes some things are beyond our control but then other times other things are not. It may well be a miracle that we are able to communicate our lives to each other as well as we do.
Yes, well put. You are able to live a rewarding life given the things that you can’t control and the things that you can. How can that not be the basic goal for all of us?
Clearly, to the extent that someone is able to avoid medication, they should. And then the part where drugs become just one more commodity that others are able to sell in order to make lots and lots of money. So, naturally, from their point of view, the more pills and injections and doses the better. It always comes down to thinking through your own situation to the best of your ability and [hopefully] finding doctors that you truly trust to give you the best advice.
I live in a really nice brick apartment complex near the water. The rooms are typical of most apartments here: living room, dining room, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. But, for me, the center of the universe is my recliner. On either side of it is my stereo, the stack of books I am currently reading, my magazines, the television, my laptop, the internet and cable modem.
Of course I can’t help but wonder how you would describe your own living quarters.
Now, in hardly ever leaving my apartment, my days are all pretty much the same. I am either online, reading, watching a movie, listening to music, tuning into PBS, HBO and the Science Channel, or doing crostic puzzles. For years now, and I still never ever get bored and, in having become my own best friend, am quite comfortable with the life I live.
Now, there’s a long story. Going back to a marriage in which my ex-wife left me for another woman, and then straight out of Kramer vs. Kramer, she left with her lover Jackie. And for a few years I raised Jessica on my own. Then she was back and it was joint custody. Then a really, really complex twist in which Jess and I don’t really see each other anymore. We’re still in touch…but barely.
Ill try another youtube video. And include another song from 666 to see if that too is “blocked”.
Aphrodite’s Child “Loud Loud Loud” youtu.be/37nZHiVoh9Y
“Break” youtu.be/ZIBgX2m18sA
Aphrodite’s Child is really not a folk band, but these two songs are kind of “folkish” to me.
The man who created the band is Vangelis Papathanassiou – or just Vangelis to most of us. He created what, to my ears, is one of the most beautiful songs of all time: youtu.be/C9KAqhbIZ7o
The love theme from Blade Runner. I can’t help but wish that you could see the video that goes with it. The interaction between Harrison Ford and Sean Young.
Yes, all of this seems reasonable for all practical purposes. If only in those communities/nations that do not revolve around “might makes right” i.e., theocracies, monarchies, dictatorships, survival of the fittest mentalities…or those communities/nations that do not revolve around “right makes might”, i.e., more or less totalitarian communities/nations that revolve around one or another authoritarian ideological agenda.
The U.S. and the U.K., with or without a Constitution, have evolved historically into the third type of government: a democracy rooted in the rule of law. Revolving more or less around moderation, negotiation and compromise.
This works for me as the “best of all possible worlds”, but…
…but I am still no less fractured and fragmented given my own reaction to what I call “conflicting goods”. Or what William Barrett called “rival goods”:
“For the choice in…human [moral conflicts] is almost never between a good and an evil, where both are plainly marked as such and the choice therefore made in all the certitude of reason; rather it is between rival goods, where one is bound to do some evil either way, and where the the ultimate outcome and even—or most of all—our own motives are unclear to us.”
Yes, now it comes back to me. Didn’t you offer us an opportunity to choose which picture you would use as your profile pic? I can’t remember what the other ones were but…but was the one you did choose as a result of what those here suggested or was it all on your brother’s shoulder?
Let me think about that…
I do remember responding to a few of your posts. But you’re right: why now for a more extended conversation?
Well, having thought about it some, as you may or may not know, I have a fascination with dreams. In particular how they relate to the debate revolving around free will and determinism. So I clicked on your post originally because it was about dreams.
But then I started thinking: Dreams? How can blind people dream?! Again, I have almost no experience with blindness other than through film characters who were blind. And, to the best of my knowledge, dreams never came up in these films.
And, truth be told, I am still not really able to imagine dreams that did not involve sight.
Given that, if you ever have any particular vivid or exceptional dreams down the road, I really would be interested in your attempts to describe them as you experienced them.