Posted inCurrent affairs Philosophy

I’m outraged about outrage — let’s calm down

Aren't you getting tired of people being outraged about, well, everything? I sure am. And this means I'm getting tired of myself, because I've got a hair-trigger Outrage Gun that doesn't go a day without firing self-righteous bullets of condemnation. Driving around today, channel surfing among various satellite radio news/talk channels, plenty of topics pushed my outrage button. I can't stand Republican grandstanding on how Obama is handling the Libya situation. Right-wing talk show host Lars Larson said "The only good cougar is a dead cougar." Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is going ahead with his union-busting bill even though a…
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Posted inPhilosophy Science

When mind wanders, happiness departs

I used to work with a highly creative and socially conscious guy who told me once that he was always thinking about something. Driving his car, brushing his teeth, eating his dinner -- most of the time his mind was occupied in pondering how to make the world better while his body was doing something else. This probably made him more productive, but not more happy. Such is the conclusion of research I came across today in the New York Times: "When the Mind Wanders, Happiness Also Strays." Whatever people were doing, whether it was having sex or reading or…
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Posted inPhilosophy Tango/Dance

Learning the Hustle offers lesson in living

For me, learning how to dance means a lot more than just gaining some skills in moving around the hardwood to music. After all, life is a dance. And dancing is part of life. Last night Laurel and I had a private Hustle lesson with Lora at Salem's RJ Dance Studio. Lora has an impressive background in dance and music. At this stage in our dancing lessons, her central critique of me -- which is entirely accurate -- is that often I don't follow the beat or rhythm of a dance. I'm pretty good at getting steps down, though. With…
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Posted inPhilosophy

A vegetarian kills a squirrel. And cries.

I haven't eaten a bite of meat in over forty years. Yet today I killed an innocent animal. A gray squirrel, which I mistook for a not-innocent California ground squirrel -- who are continuing to drive us nutty (their newest trick is chewing voraciously on the bark of several much beloved trees in our yard, which could kill them if they're girdled.)When my air gun arrived last year, I talked about how bad I felt when, as a pellet gun toting kid, I shot a songbird. Today was no different when I found that the smallish squirrel that had been…
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Posted inPhilosophy

Dog and cat videos show humans how to live

We humans are animals. That's a fact. Biologically, we're members of the Kingdom Animalia. Dogs and cats are our kissing cousins (in a sense).Today I came across two You Tube videos featuring a dog and a cat that made me realize how much other animals have to teach us. Since for most of my life I've shared a home with dogs and/or cats, I already knew this. But these videos had a special message for me -- maybe because I'm becoming increasingly attracted to wordless wisdom, the lingua franca of pets and us.Last night my wife said she'd read about…
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Posted inPhilosophy

Stepping from hard pavement onto soft earth

Every day the dog and I take a evening walk. Sometimes it's a two-mile loop on paved roads in our rural neighborhood. Other times we head off on paths on our property that lead to a trail around a lake.I'm always struck by how different it feels to take even a single step on hard asphalt or concrete, compared to walking on much softer dirt or grass. I'm jarred by the one, relaxed by the other.Nature is, well, natural. So rather paradoxically, the relaxation I'm talking about is marked by an acute alertness, just as the jarring I feel as…
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Posted inPhilosophy Tai Chi

Doing nothing, do everything: Taoism is cool!

I'm a big fan of doing nothing. My wife can testify to that, especially when she feels its time to attend to some household chores and I've got something less vigorous on my day's to-do list. Like napping. So I couldn't pass up going to a talk by Qiguang Zhao at Salem's Willamette University yesterday. I heard about it from a fellow Tai Chi student, who emailed me that Qiguang was going to speak about "Do Nothing and Do Everything." From a Taoist perspective. Ah, nice. I figured the talk would offer me more ammunition to fire at anyone who…
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Posted inPhilosophy

What today taught me about life

Some days I feel like I've haven't learned anything about life. Other days, like today, I sense some sort of semi-coherent message in disparate events -- with some sort of being a pointer toward my basic cluelessness.Which, of course, won't stop me from attempting to describe what today taught me. (If bloggers only wrote about what they were sure of, the blogosphere would become a word-vacuum.)This morning I picked up a book I'd read a while back, "The Untethered Soul." Thumbing through the pages, I came across some highlighted passages that elicited a yes in my psyche.Billions of things could…
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Posted inEntertainment Philosophy

Life lessons from Michael Jackson’s “This Is It”

Whether or not someone has a philosophical bone in their body, he or she likely will enjoy "This Is It" -- a documentary featuring rehearsal footage of Michael Jackson preparing for a monumental concert tour.I do have philosophical bones. And they loved this well-reviewed movie as much as the non-pondering side of me.Over on my other blog I opined that "This Is It" is a great movie. Also, a terrific philosophy. We're always waiting for It to arrive in the future, or wondering what happened to It in the past.Meanwhile, life -- It -- keeps yelling "Here I am! Here!…
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Posted inPhilosophy

What makes something “fun”?

Some would say that nothing is less fun than pondering the question, "What is fun?" However, I'm the sort of person who enjoys ponders, and fun is about enjoyment, so I'll press on.I got to thinking about fun recently by -- no big surprise -- having fun! This year Laurel and I broke our usual no Halloween costume habit. Salem's RJ Dance Studio invited people to costume-up at a Friday night open dance. So, we did.   Laurel was a creative vision in blue, accessorizing with a feather boa and over the top makeup. I took a more minimalist approach,…
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Posted inPhilosophy

Ageless consciousness or perpetual immaturity?

I don't feel my age (60). But when I ponder my inner sense of self, it seems that I don't feel any age.That said, often I'll admit to having an adolescent personality. But since I'm a man, this pretty much is taken for granted. (Witness my instant infatuation with iFart.)Plus, it's obvious that if we're going to feel like we're a different age than what we are, it's going to be a younger age, since we have no experience with being older. So when people say "I don't feel my age," I suspect they're referring to what I said above:Consciousness…
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Posted inPhilosophy

Lusting our way into older age

It's starting to happen. That moment I've been fearing for the latter part of my 59 years. Which happened today at Salem's LifeSource Natural Foods. Though spoken softly by the clerk, I could hear him clearly. Even with my aging ears."Would you like the discount?" I ignored the guy. Kept on with swiping my VISA card. I thought, Dude! The sign at every register says "Ask for our senior discount: 62 years and older." For one, am I asking??!! For two, do I look anywhere near 62? Come on!" Well, I guess I do. But I've got no intention of…
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Posted inPhilosophy

Atheism isn’t a religion, Thom Hartmann

Usually I agree with Portland's Thom Hartmann, Air America's progressive talk show host. But this morning he kept saying that atheism is a religion – that not believing in God is a belief system. That's ridiculous. It shows that no matter how smart and articulate Hartmann is, he's got some blind spots. Those logic-obscurers likely stem from his Christianity. Not being a regular listener of Hartmann, I didn't know before today that he's a Christian. But he told a caller that he prays every day. And not to some universal being, but to a personal God. This probably explains why…
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Posted inPhilosophy

Atheists should be revered, not discriminated against

O' Oregon, I love you because you're (relatively) godless. And now here we have the Brookings Elks Lodge banning a sweet eighty year old woman from the premises because she's an atheist. This smacks of the Bible Belt, not the Live Green and Mainline Lattes Belt. Deeply disturbing. Today Oregonian columnist Margie Boulé had a follow-up. In "Atheists run up against 'last bias'" she points out that Americans say they'll vote for all sorts of presidential candidates, but not someone who fails to profess a belief in God. A recent poll conducted by USA Today/Gallup found that Americans are overwhelmingly…
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Posted inPhilosophy

How to make time slow down

Time speeds up as you get older. Almost everyone I know says this is true. I sure do. And it's damn unfair. Why should children, who have their whole lives ahead of them, experience time moving more slowly than semi-geezers like me (I'm 59), who don't have anywhere near as long to live? I frequently feel like screaming, Hey life! Flip things around! Those kids should be the ones who sense time flying by, while older people get to string out the days they have left. One of my best friends from elementary and high school died recently. He was,…
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Posted inPhilosophy

The Tao of napping

It's nice to see that napping is getting the scientific respectability that it deserves. Napping has proven health benefits: Naps can restore alertness, enhance performance, and reduce mistakes and accidents. A study at NASA on sleepy military pilots and astronauts found that a 40-minute nap improved performance by 34% and alertness 100%. * Naps can increase alertness in the period directly following the nap and may extend alertness a few hours later in the day.* Scheduled napping has also been prescribed for those who are affected by narcolepsy.* Napping has psychological benefits. A nap can be a pleasant luxury, a…
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Posted inPhilosophy

The Tao of Tajuan Porter

It's confirmed: University of Oregon basketball star Tajuan Porter is a Taoist sage. I'd suspected as much while watching the Ducks beat UNLV yesterday. Freshman Porter, who's only 5' 6", beautifully manifested wu-wei—effortless doing. A master of wu-wei is said to have "soft and invisible power" over things. Indeed. St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bryan Burwell said that Porter was "a blur, a wisp and a vapor." I decided to confirm Porter's Taoist eminence through his own words. Here's what I found. My comments on #12's simple, yet profound, statements are in italics. On playing in the expansive Edward Jones Dome:"A…
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Posted inPhilosophy

An agnostic Taoist on Christmas Eve

Well, with just three hours to go on the west coast it looks like Christmas has survived the war against it. Which, of course, pretty much existed only in the addled outlook of Fox News and Bill O’Reilly. Speaking from the agnostic Taoist perspective, I look forward to celebrating the birth of Jesus by enjoying a vegetarian buffet at Salem's Marco Polo restaurant and opening a few presents that I bought for myself that are being wrapped by my wife at this very moment. As I did earlier today for a few gifts that she bought for herself. This year…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Philosophy

What’s God got to do with lost climbers?

Hope I don’t sound heartless when I say to the relatives of the climbers lost on Mt. Hood, “Please, keep God out of your news conferences. Don’t use this tragedy as a platform for your religious faith.” Today Frank James, brother of climber Kelly James, said on Fox News: We are waiting and praying. Certainly there is a lot of praying. There are from time to time, tears. From time to time there is laughter…Our faith is strong. Our faith is three-fold. We have faith in Kelly, and Brian, and Nikko. We have faith in the rescuers. And we have…
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Posted inPhilosophy

My radio interview about the changing face of faith

Last night I channeled myself on a radio interview with two mediums. Marcel and Lenny had me back for another chat about churchless faith on their Achieve Radio program, “In Good Spirit.” Who knew that in the past few months I was fated to have so much contact with a couple of mediums, after a lifetime of psychic skepticism? Well, maybe Marcel and Lenny. But I don’t know, since I’m still skeptical. Which brings to mind my favorite part about the interview: I didn’t say “you know” nearly as much as last time. Before the phone rang to connect me…
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