When the little one is upset, Daddy comes running to the rescue. Most of the time the comfort of my hand will soothe his anxiety, but only one person can quell his hunger: his mother. This is dedicated to mine.
While I'm tempted to write on the life giving prowess of my mother, this is something Sunshine (and females generally I imagine) can appreciate more. For me, it's all about life lessons and in this area she was not poor. One attribute that I value in myself over any other is one I inherited from my mom. As I've written before, prejudice is long from gone and to enter into an interracial marriage just 12 years after it was nationally legalized is the truest testament to my mother's wisdom with regards to appraising people.
Growing up I had friends that were white, black, mexican, chinese, japanese, indian, etc... Never once did I hear a sly comment made with reference to their ethnic background or cultural practices. In fact, even with regards to her acquaintances the same was true. Even with the horrible drivers in the bay area, only once in my lifetime did she get visibly upset, but again, her comments were only directed towards their actions, nothing else. And so, from the source of my sustenance, I learned that people are to be judged by their actions and not their cultural differences. This has proved invaluable.
You see, that books are to be judged by more than the art on the cover spans more than just its analogy to people. To critically assess information generally is a talent that takes practice to perfect. My mother was essential in this area. While most of my generation are completely and irrevocably committed to science as if it were a religion, my mother taught me that science too is not without emotion. It is not perfect, it makes mistakes. It's comforting coat of verifiability was not to mask the fact that public opinion - the greatest and most fickle variant in the universe - had a hand in what was to be considered truth. Newton was right: an object in motion tends to stay in motion until acted upon an outside source. However, nineteenth century scientist were wrong: Morphine is likely not a good way to kick an alcohol habit! (And later they would prescribe herion to help people kick their morphine habits) At the same time, she never once restricted me from loving and learning all I could about science. To quite the opposite, she aided in and encouraged my venture to the fullest extant of her abilities; devoting time, money and sleep towards my journey to a truthful and flourishing life.
For some time now I've been exceptionally happy with everything and I have someone that deserves thanks. And while we may continue to disagree on the letter of the law, we see the same spirit. It is on this branch where we nest and where we return to after flying through the world, my mother and I.
Thank You
~ Namaste ~
Friday, April 22, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
Parents (Part 1 of 4)
In case you've been under a rock somewhere and still haven't heard, Alexander James Stroman was born on April 8th, 2011 @ 3:31 am weighing in at 9 pounds and 11 ounces, stretching out 22 inches. One week later he and Shine are both healthy as can be and I'm the happiest dad the world has ever known. So with the arrival of my beautiful son and my induction into the league of fathers and Sunshine's admittance into the consortium of mothers, I find it fitting to start my first ever multi-part blog with a tribute to parents.
I could go on all day about my own father if I did not first limit the scope of my conversation. As such, I would like to tell you about one of the most important life lessons he has taught me. It started years ago, late at night in a field somewhere now unknown to me. I barely remember any details but the sky was clear and we were out with a number of amateur astronomers star gazing. The universe was unfolding in front of me and my little mind could barely comprehend the vastness of what I was looking at. But I wanted to. I wanted to take in all the stars and planets. I wanted to know all about nebulas and constellations, black holes and naked singularities. I wanted to be an astronomer.
My dad's response: "I don't care what you choose to be as long as you are the best you can be at it."
While this may not be his exact words, they are what stuck with me and I would like to elaborate on what it meant to me. To be sure, it is slightly different than what some fathers tell their sons, often creating much stress and anxiety later on. He did not tell me to be the best, he told me to be my best. With this, he emphasized that while results matter, so do intentions. I continued to learn about space and did several projects on the planets and the solar system and to this day, if an astronomical special comes on TV, I'm bound to find myself glued to the tube til its over. But even as a child I realized that my dream of becoming an astronomer would conflict with another goal of mine: to be a father.
I cannot tell you when I came upon this thought, but some time very early in life I became entranced with the magic of life and how the responsibility of fatherhood came with benefits no other profession did. And it worried me that, as an astronomer, I would basically become a night owl - which with my limited knowledge of familial types, meant it would be a hard profession on my family. You see, one of the greatest things a parent can do is to spend time with their child. My father, for one, made it a priority to go to at least one field trip per year when I was growing up, often making it to multiple. This being no easy feat as his job was very demanding. For this I admired him. He did not spend as much time with me as either of us would liked, but from what I saw, he thoroughly enjoyed his work and I loved hearing as much as I could about it. To me, he wasn't just doing his best, he was the best at what he did - if for no other reason than being able to balance an incredible work load and family.
And so, with astronomy out of the question I was without a profession to work towards. Later I would bounce around from music teacher to math teacher to psychologist to elementary school teacher to hotel manager and finally to philosopher. I really liked this last one but I was torn. What is a philosopher? While that question alone deserves its own blog, essentially, a philosopher is what I am as a foundation. From there I will build a character that I would be happy to associate with as my being. As for an occupation, I've decided to become an "expert potential extractor". This, like fatherhood, takes many forms but in short it entails that whatever I do, I will help people - using all of my love for astronomy, math, music, art, psychology, management and philosophy - to become the best _______ they can be. My life's work will be to pass on the message my father passed on to me not just to my son (and future children), but to all those whom I have the pleasure of meeting.
To this end I would like to give a shout out to my father for being the best father he could be!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Rollerblading and Prejudice
AJ Update:
As many of you may recall, I predicted that he would be born on April 1st. This is looking pretty likely considering he hasn't come yet.
And he better not be late again because the 2nd is our wedding anniversary.
The Persistance of Prejudice:
If you have known me for more than six years then you already know how important rollerblading is. It is not just an activity. It is a way of life.
It began, much the same as with many of you, with the rollerskates that attach to your shoes and are horribly dangerous (and these are for kids?!) and the occasional trip to CalSkate (yeah, you know what I'm talking about =). It didn't exactly stand out in the beginning. At first, as with most physically active boys, it was more of the mainstream sports: basketball, football and, my favorite, baseball. I enjoyed these activities, but they were frustrating for many reasons I do not here want to hash out. However, it was a fateful trip to the snow that would change everything. While coming down a black diamond course at the tender age of 12 or so I twisted my knee and had to coast the rest of the way to the bottom sitting on my board. A few hours after sitting in the first aid room nothing solid came from the on site medics. A trip to the doc's didn't reveal anything either, but I would not be able to run again as I had before and would continue to feel pain in my right knee to the present day. My excuse to quit sports I had grew tired of had finally materialized.
It was not long after that I longed for strenuous activity again and found few that catered to my status of not quite injured, but not quite well. I had grew tired of competition and longed for an activity we're I could compete against myself and no one else. In this way, I was sure to make friends without having to worry about being better or worse than any of them.
Enter: Speed Skating
For those of you who haven't watched the winter olympics, speed skating is where you go around in circles at speed up to 35 m.p.h. In the olympics it is done on ice, but in warmer climates it is also done in a roller rink. The local team (Calskate) was fortunate to have an ex-world medalist as an instructor and was very diverse. We had people from 4 to 70; Boys and girls; prissy people and tattooed; some who competed and some who liked the exercise. Heaven.
I joined their organization and within a year of intense training I had strengthened my knee to almost preinjury levels. What had definitely increased though was my concentration. By this time I was consistently giving the top three skaters (two of whom were "world class") a run for their money. With lots of pushing they got me to compete. Within a year I quit.
Enter: Aggressive Rollerblading, a.k.a. Blading, a.k.a. Tearing S*** Up
I highly dislike the term aggressive rollerblading because most of us are far from aggressive. But it is the term that is most well known for the small group of people who use rollerblades to create art in motion. Somewhere between 14 & 15 some friends and I began this activity and had little knowledge of how it would transform us. Within a year or two, we had accumulated better skates, cool videos for inspiration and skate parks starting popping up in our area. But one park would change everything. The Fremont Skate park near lake elizabeth was one of the first places we saw Jon Julio and Fabiola DeSilva. The godparents of modern day rollerblading who must have been in their mid twenties at the time. Within a few months we would actually find ourselves at Jon's house in Milpitas, hanging out with over half of the "pro" skaters we had come to idolize. It's really hard to translate this. These weren't uber-cool kids who we were fortunate enough to know, they were regular Joe Shmoe's, just like us. Thanks to skateboarding and the like taking up the limelight, we got to enjoy the shade of the lesser known. In the years following these encounters we would come to meet bladers from around the states and around the globe. It is like the tightest knit church you'd ever find. If we went to a city and found bladers, we had a place to stay. If we found bladers visiting our city, we'd put them up at our house. I can't say this is true of any other sport. And this is how we came to know it wasn't just a sport: it was a way of life.
Because of this cult status, there were sure to be those who were, to say the least, confused about us. For simplicity's sake, I will narrow it down to the rift between skateboarders and bladers. If you aren't aware of the rift, it is not far from being like that of whites and the recently freed slaves of the post civil war era, only where the slaves outnumbered their masters, the bladers of the world are far outnumbered by skateboarders. We would go places and get harassed, yelled at, called names, etc... While everyone else in school was taught about the civil rights movement and how prejudice is fading from our lives, we were caught in the middle of the new battle ground: prejudice between cliques.
In reality, this type of prejudice is the original kind. Racism being fairly new in the history of mankind, the older forms tended to revolve around groups that were often united by common activities or ancestors. We were living smack dab in the middle of a resurgence of old school ignorance and hatred. Imagine pulling up to a park, miles from your home and there are 30 or 40 skateboarders and no bladers. As you and two of your friends approach the park you are met with stares from everyone, even the 10 year old off in the corner. But we wore our activity with pride. It allowed is to view the normal world of buildings, rails and ledges as a canvas for our art form. The funny thing about the rift is that we too once owned skateboards. We knew what they were doing was not so different from what we were doing. So we let our feet do the talking.
At first it was difficult. It's bad enough to get made fun of upon arrival, but when you are starting out and suck, its even worse. Over time though we would get better. In fact, at one point, we arguably were among the top unpaid bladers in south bay area* (I must note there is a difficultly with saying this because bladers view their activity as an art form and as such there is little objective ground to say who was better than who). As I mentioned before, the community was small and tight knit. It really began to change our outlook on things when we'd go places and get recognized. But just as we got our start and inspiration by the humble pros we met years earlier, we knew that our status had responsibilities. We were the face of rollerblading in our area. If behoved us, then, to bridge the gap.
We would go to parks, still outnumbered by skateboarders, but able to outperform them on many levels. A few of them would even have respect for what we were now able to do. It was important for us, now at this point in our skill, to not shun the skateboarders for their earlier ignorance. In fact, the better we got, the more respect I had for talented skateboarders for I knew the difficulty of the tricks that both of us attempted. In fact, I do think that in the hay-day of rollerblading (2002-2006 roughly) we saw a fairly strong acceptance of bladers amongst skateboarders in our area and I believe that my friends and I had a large role in this change.
Is the problem solved then? Sadly no. As some friends and I went to the park yesterday, I noticed on the sign that read "FOR SKATEBOARDS, ROLLER BLADES AND ROLLER SKATES ONLY" that roller blades and roller skates were crossed off. It may seem insignificant to the outsider, but imagine going up to a restroom and someone wrote "WHITES ONLY". It still stings. But this only means that we must press on. Like racism, few people will still make fun of us to our face or in public, but by the various graffiti we see we are aware that we have work to do.
In fact, we all have work to do. Prejudice anywhere means that our minds are still far from their potential. At this point in our lives, we do not have the time or bodily abilities we once had. It is time then to pass to torch. Would I like to see Alexander rollerblading? It's hard to say. The activity does have an exceptionally high risk of injury. Each of my friends and I have ended up in the hospital at one point (I even broke a finger while rollerblading in Paris). One friend in particular and I have both lost some memory to concussions. But then again, some of the other lessons we've learned beyond standing up to discrimination with dignity and humility were about standing up to one's own fears. How many times can you say that you faced death? Willingly? With composure? I've fallen down a flight of stairs, hitting my forehead twice along the way. My friend has been knocked out after attempting a rail. Two friends of mine have fallen off a roofs. Were we stupid? Maybe. Insane? Likely. But we each came to learn that a life lived worrying about death is no life at all and that this lesson alone has the capability to destroy prejudice for the power of prejudice is rooted in fear.
So it is fortunate that before Alexander is born I learned one of the most important lessons and the third tenant of Practical Philosophy:
3. In order to create life, you must first be free from the reigns of fear.
~ Namaste ~
As many of you may recall, I predicted that he would be born on April 1st. This is looking pretty likely considering he hasn't come yet.
And he better not be late again because the 2nd is our wedding anniversary.
The Persistance of Prejudice:
If you have known me for more than six years then you already know how important rollerblading is. It is not just an activity. It is a way of life.
It began, much the same as with many of you, with the rollerskates that attach to your shoes and are horribly dangerous (and these are for kids?!) and the occasional trip to CalSkate (yeah, you know what I'm talking about =). It didn't exactly stand out in the beginning. At first, as with most physically active boys, it was more of the mainstream sports: basketball, football and, my favorite, baseball. I enjoyed these activities, but they were frustrating for many reasons I do not here want to hash out. However, it was a fateful trip to the snow that would change everything. While coming down a black diamond course at the tender age of 12 or so I twisted my knee and had to coast the rest of the way to the bottom sitting on my board. A few hours after sitting in the first aid room nothing solid came from the on site medics. A trip to the doc's didn't reveal anything either, but I would not be able to run again as I had before and would continue to feel pain in my right knee to the present day. My excuse to quit sports I had grew tired of had finally materialized.
It was not long after that I longed for strenuous activity again and found few that catered to my status of not quite injured, but not quite well. I had grew tired of competition and longed for an activity we're I could compete against myself and no one else. In this way, I was sure to make friends without having to worry about being better or worse than any of them.
Enter: Speed Skating
For those of you who haven't watched the winter olympics, speed skating is where you go around in circles at speed up to 35 m.p.h. In the olympics it is done on ice, but in warmer climates it is also done in a roller rink. The local team (Calskate) was fortunate to have an ex-world medalist as an instructor and was very diverse. We had people from 4 to 70; Boys and girls; prissy people and tattooed; some who competed and some who liked the exercise. Heaven.
I joined their organization and within a year of intense training I had strengthened my knee to almost preinjury levels. What had definitely increased though was my concentration. By this time I was consistently giving the top three skaters (two of whom were "world class") a run for their money. With lots of pushing they got me to compete. Within a year I quit.
Enter: Aggressive Rollerblading, a.k.a. Blading, a.k.a. Tearing S*** Up
I highly dislike the term aggressive rollerblading because most of us are far from aggressive. But it is the term that is most well known for the small group of people who use rollerblades to create art in motion. Somewhere between 14 & 15 some friends and I began this activity and had little knowledge of how it would transform us. Within a year or two, we had accumulated better skates, cool videos for inspiration and skate parks starting popping up in our area. But one park would change everything. The Fremont Skate park near lake elizabeth was one of the first places we saw Jon Julio and Fabiola DeSilva. The godparents of modern day rollerblading who must have been in their mid twenties at the time. Within a few months we would actually find ourselves at Jon's house in Milpitas, hanging out with over half of the "pro" skaters we had come to idolize. It's really hard to translate this. These weren't uber-cool kids who we were fortunate enough to know, they were regular Joe Shmoe's, just like us. Thanks to skateboarding and the like taking up the limelight, we got to enjoy the shade of the lesser known. In the years following these encounters we would come to meet bladers from around the states and around the globe. It is like the tightest knit church you'd ever find. If we went to a city and found bladers, we had a place to stay. If we found bladers visiting our city, we'd put them up at our house. I can't say this is true of any other sport. And this is how we came to know it wasn't just a sport: it was a way of life.
Because of this cult status, there were sure to be those who were, to say the least, confused about us. For simplicity's sake, I will narrow it down to the rift between skateboarders and bladers. If you aren't aware of the rift, it is not far from being like that of whites and the recently freed slaves of the post civil war era, only where the slaves outnumbered their masters, the bladers of the world are far outnumbered by skateboarders. We would go places and get harassed, yelled at, called names, etc... While everyone else in school was taught about the civil rights movement and how prejudice is fading from our lives, we were caught in the middle of the new battle ground: prejudice between cliques.
In reality, this type of prejudice is the original kind. Racism being fairly new in the history of mankind, the older forms tended to revolve around groups that were often united by common activities or ancestors. We were living smack dab in the middle of a resurgence of old school ignorance and hatred. Imagine pulling up to a park, miles from your home and there are 30 or 40 skateboarders and no bladers. As you and two of your friends approach the park you are met with stares from everyone, even the 10 year old off in the corner. But we wore our activity with pride. It allowed is to view the normal world of buildings, rails and ledges as a canvas for our art form. The funny thing about the rift is that we too once owned skateboards. We knew what they were doing was not so different from what we were doing. So we let our feet do the talking.
At first it was difficult. It's bad enough to get made fun of upon arrival, but when you are starting out and suck, its even worse. Over time though we would get better. In fact, at one point, we arguably were among the top unpaid bladers in south bay area* (I must note there is a difficultly with saying this because bladers view their activity as an art form and as such there is little objective ground to say who was better than who). As I mentioned before, the community was small and tight knit. It really began to change our outlook on things when we'd go places and get recognized. But just as we got our start and inspiration by the humble pros we met years earlier, we knew that our status had responsibilities. We were the face of rollerblading in our area. If behoved us, then, to bridge the gap.
We would go to parks, still outnumbered by skateboarders, but able to outperform them on many levels. A few of them would even have respect for what we were now able to do. It was important for us, now at this point in our skill, to not shun the skateboarders for their earlier ignorance. In fact, the better we got, the more respect I had for talented skateboarders for I knew the difficulty of the tricks that both of us attempted. In fact, I do think that in the hay-day of rollerblading (2002-2006 roughly) we saw a fairly strong acceptance of bladers amongst skateboarders in our area and I believe that my friends and I had a large role in this change.
Is the problem solved then? Sadly no. As some friends and I went to the park yesterday, I noticed on the sign that read "FOR SKATEBOARDS, ROLLER BLADES AND ROLLER SKATES ONLY" that roller blades and roller skates were crossed off. It may seem insignificant to the outsider, but imagine going up to a restroom and someone wrote "WHITES ONLY". It still stings. But this only means that we must press on. Like racism, few people will still make fun of us to our face or in public, but by the various graffiti we see we are aware that we have work to do.
In fact, we all have work to do. Prejudice anywhere means that our minds are still far from their potential. At this point in our lives, we do not have the time or bodily abilities we once had. It is time then to pass to torch. Would I like to see Alexander rollerblading? It's hard to say. The activity does have an exceptionally high risk of injury. Each of my friends and I have ended up in the hospital at one point (I even broke a finger while rollerblading in Paris). One friend in particular and I have both lost some memory to concussions. But then again, some of the other lessons we've learned beyond standing up to discrimination with dignity and humility were about standing up to one's own fears. How many times can you say that you faced death? Willingly? With composure? I've fallen down a flight of stairs, hitting my forehead twice along the way. My friend has been knocked out after attempting a rail. Two friends of mine have fallen off a roofs. Were we stupid? Maybe. Insane? Likely. But we each came to learn that a life lived worrying about death is no life at all and that this lesson alone has the capability to destroy prejudice for the power of prejudice is rooted in fear.
So it is fortunate that before Alexander is born I learned one of the most important lessons and the third tenant of Practical Philosophy:
3. In order to create life, you must first be free from the reigns of fear.
~ Namaste ~
Monday, March 28, 2011
Eminem
AJ Update:
He is officially late for his birthday!!
We read online that watching something funny enough to make you pee you pants may help... it didn't. Thanks anyway Jo Koy
Eminem:
When it comes to role models, Marshall Mathers would seem the least likely of personas to win any awards. However, in a age where glossing over the truth is all the rage, here stood a man who had the balls to hold up a mirror to society. When no one paid attention, he dared to turn it on himself. I won't pretend to know who he really is, but in any case, it has always been his lyrics that have been the inspiration anyway so let us look at the articulate evolution of one of the most philosophical fathers of my time.
"I lay awake and strap myself in the bed
Put a bulletproof vest on and shoot myself in the head (BANG!)
I'm steaming mad (Arrrggghhh!)
And by the way when you see my dad? (Yeah?)
Tell him that I slit his throat, in this dream I had"
My Name Is
The Slim Shady LP
I must admit, I can't say whether I would let my 15 year old listen to Eminem. I guess it would vary depending on his level of maturity. As for me, it was a light into my own life. If you listen to the whole album you will realize that it is dedicated to all of the bullies (both real and psychological) he encountered growing up. This particular lyric from his first major album articulated two important points for me. The first, that each of us are always in the best position to sabotage ourselves. We can protect ourselves from multifarious attacks from others from many angles, but each of us knows how to hurt ourselves better than anyone else ever could. The second part is admittedly extreme, but I took it metaphorically. While rappers and musical artist of all types got mad at the industry, the police or the man, here was someone directing his anger at the source. His father abandoned him so why should he take it out on others? Here was a highly intelligent person, as was evident by his vocabulary and structure of poetry, but lacked a moral compass that pointed that same direction as everyone else. While I would later grow to appreciate this variation, it also impressed upon me the importance of parents to lead by example.
"When you don't give a f***, when you won't just put up
With the bulls*** they pull, cause they full of s*** too
When a dude's gettin bullied and shoots up his school
And they blame it on Marilyn (on Marilyn).. and the heroin
Where were the parents at? And look where it's at
Middle America, now it's a tragedy"
The Way I Am
Marshall Mathers LP
This one, though it highlights the parents again, played a different role for me. Could someone like Eminem inspire these kids? In his previous album he ranted on and on about taking revenge on bullies. Obviously this was the perspective the mainstream media took. But there were problems with this view. The columbine kids didn't target bullies, they were taking their rage from bullies out on people at random. This highlighted that the problem of violence in schools was much more complex than spawning from a single source. And most importantly, could these thing be happening because we were to blind that such things don't happen in middle-upper America? Then again, when I turn on Real World or any of the other emerging reality shows (based on middle-upper America), all I saw was drama and violence over things as trivial as taking someone's hairbrush. There was no teamwork or self sacrifice or any other the other virtues that we as a society have a responsibility to pass on to our youth. This is when he first began to hold to mirror up to us. We didn't listen.
"It's funny
I remember back one year when daddy had no money
Mommy wrapped the Christmas presents up
And stuck 'em under the tree and said some of 'em were from me
Cause daddy couldn't buy 'em
I'll never forget that Christmas I sat up the whole night crying
Cause daddy felt like a bum, see daddy had a job
But his job was to keep the food on the table for you and mom"
Mockingbird
Encore
When the public refused to see its own reflection in the mirror he held up, he turned it on his self. Here his talents really began to shine through. Here, after two albums of trash talking his on and off wife, he acknowledges that through all of the crap they've gone through, he isn't completely blind to the good that spawned from their relationship. First, despite all the issues he would take up with Kim, he mentions over and over again that Hailee Jade is worth all of the issues that have spawned what was otherwise a doomed relationship with Kim. From here on out, he would turn his attention to working out his personal issues public through his music. Whether intentional or not, it would do the double duty of forcing him to shed illusions as the public could see him in a fuller light and at the same time, we might just see the parallels between him and us.
Every song on:
Relapse
This album was an eye opener. It was sad for me and many of my fellow Eminem fans. Cracked out on all kinds of drugs, we got to see that talent alone would not see one through life. That humans do not actually have tiger blood, that drugs really do ruin lives when done in excess. Fortunately, after some time to reflect, we would have his magnum opus...
"It was my decision to get clean, I did it for me
Admittedly, I probably did it subliminally
for you, so I could come back a brand new me you helped see me through
And don't even realize what you did, believe me you
I been through the ringer, but they could do little to the middle finger
I think I got a tear in my eye, I feel like the king of
my world, haters can make like bees with no stingers
and drop dead, no more beef flingers
No more drama from now on, I promise
to focus solely on handlin my responsibilities as a father
So I solemnly swear to always treat this roof, like my daughters
and raise it, you couldn't lift a single shingle on it!
Cause the way I feel, I'm strong enough to go to the club
or the corner pub, and lift the whole liquor counter up
Cause I'm raising the bar
I'd shoot for the moon but I'm too busy gazin at stars
I feel amazing and I'm not afraid."
Not Afraid
Recovery
There's little need to explain this one, but let me say this: No more can you judge a book by its cover can you predict its end by its beginning. He had a talent and like all talents he could use it for the benefit of others or himself. I think this anthem song of his tells which he choose. If his lyrics are any reflection of who Marshall Mathers really is, then he is a father first, a friend second and mentor by accident.
~ Namaste ~
He is officially late for his birthday!!
We read online that watching something funny enough to make you pee you pants may help... it didn't. Thanks anyway Jo Koy
Eminem:
When it comes to role models, Marshall Mathers would seem the least likely of personas to win any awards. However, in a age where glossing over the truth is all the rage, here stood a man who had the balls to hold up a mirror to society. When no one paid attention, he dared to turn it on himself. I won't pretend to know who he really is, but in any case, it has always been his lyrics that have been the inspiration anyway so let us look at the articulate evolution of one of the most philosophical fathers of my time.
"I lay awake and strap myself in the bed
Put a bulletproof vest on and shoot myself in the head (BANG!)
I'm steaming mad (Arrrggghhh!)
And by the way when you see my dad? (Yeah?)
Tell him that I slit his throat, in this dream I had"
My Name Is
The Slim Shady LP
I must admit, I can't say whether I would let my 15 year old listen to Eminem. I guess it would vary depending on his level of maturity. As for me, it was a light into my own life. If you listen to the whole album you will realize that it is dedicated to all of the bullies (both real and psychological) he encountered growing up. This particular lyric from his first major album articulated two important points for me. The first, that each of us are always in the best position to sabotage ourselves. We can protect ourselves from multifarious attacks from others from many angles, but each of us knows how to hurt ourselves better than anyone else ever could. The second part is admittedly extreme, but I took it metaphorically. While rappers and musical artist of all types got mad at the industry, the police or the man, here was someone directing his anger at the source. His father abandoned him so why should he take it out on others? Here was a highly intelligent person, as was evident by his vocabulary and structure of poetry, but lacked a moral compass that pointed that same direction as everyone else. While I would later grow to appreciate this variation, it also impressed upon me the importance of parents to lead by example.
"When you don't give a f***, when you won't just put up
With the bulls*** they pull, cause they full of s*** too
When a dude's gettin bullied and shoots up his school
And they blame it on Marilyn (on Marilyn).. and the heroin
Where were the parents at? And look where it's at
Middle America, now it's a tragedy"
The Way I Am
Marshall Mathers LP
This one, though it highlights the parents again, played a different role for me. Could someone like Eminem inspire these kids? In his previous album he ranted on and on about taking revenge on bullies. Obviously this was the perspective the mainstream media took. But there were problems with this view. The columbine kids didn't target bullies, they were taking their rage from bullies out on people at random. This highlighted that the problem of violence in schools was much more complex than spawning from a single source. And most importantly, could these thing be happening because we were to blind that such things don't happen in middle-upper America? Then again, when I turn on Real World or any of the other emerging reality shows (based on middle-upper America), all I saw was drama and violence over things as trivial as taking someone's hairbrush. There was no teamwork or self sacrifice or any other the other virtues that we as a society have a responsibility to pass on to our youth. This is when he first began to hold to mirror up to us. We didn't listen.
"It's funny
I remember back one year when daddy had no money
Mommy wrapped the Christmas presents up
And stuck 'em under the tree and said some of 'em were from me
Cause daddy couldn't buy 'em
I'll never forget that Christmas I sat up the whole night crying
Cause daddy felt like a bum, see daddy had a job
But his job was to keep the food on the table for you and mom"
Mockingbird
Encore
When the public refused to see its own reflection in the mirror he held up, he turned it on his self. Here his talents really began to shine through. Here, after two albums of trash talking his on and off wife, he acknowledges that through all of the crap they've gone through, he isn't completely blind to the good that spawned from their relationship. First, despite all the issues he would take up with Kim, he mentions over and over again that Hailee Jade is worth all of the issues that have spawned what was otherwise a doomed relationship with Kim. From here on out, he would turn his attention to working out his personal issues public through his music. Whether intentional or not, it would do the double duty of forcing him to shed illusions as the public could see him in a fuller light and at the same time, we might just see the parallels between him and us.
Every song on:
Relapse
This album was an eye opener. It was sad for me and many of my fellow Eminem fans. Cracked out on all kinds of drugs, we got to see that talent alone would not see one through life. That humans do not actually have tiger blood, that drugs really do ruin lives when done in excess. Fortunately, after some time to reflect, we would have his magnum opus...
"It was my decision to get clean, I did it for me
Admittedly, I probably did it subliminally
for you, so I could come back a brand new me you helped see me through
And don't even realize what you did, believe me you
I been through the ringer, but they could do little to the middle finger
I think I got a tear in my eye, I feel like the king of
my world, haters can make like bees with no stingers
and drop dead, no more beef flingers
No more drama from now on, I promise
to focus solely on handlin my responsibilities as a father
So I solemnly swear to always treat this roof, like my daughters
and raise it, you couldn't lift a single shingle on it!
Cause the way I feel, I'm strong enough to go to the club
or the corner pub, and lift the whole liquor counter up
Cause I'm raising the bar
I'd shoot for the moon but I'm too busy gazin at stars
I feel amazing and I'm not afraid."
Not Afraid
Recovery
There's little need to explain this one, but let me say this: No more can you judge a book by its cover can you predict its end by its beginning. He had a talent and like all talents he could use it for the benefit of others or himself. I think this anthem song of his tells which he choose. If his lyrics are any reflection of who Marshall Mathers really is, then he is a father first, a friend second and mentor by accident.
~ Namaste ~
Saturday, March 26, 2011
The Sanctity of Communication
AJ Update:
None really, he's still chill'n in the tummy.
I'm guessing he's waiting for the rain to let up so please, stop rain dancing people!
Respect All Communication As Sacred:
Hands down, my favorite class at Cal was one of my first: Philosophy of Language with Professor John Searle. Especially in an era were the internet stands to obliterate all formal rules for it's use, it behoves us to take a moment and reflect on not just language, but communication in general. And so, the second tenant of practical philosophy is as follows:
2. Communication is communion between godheads.
While my first tenant about the relationship between choice and destinations is debatable on grounds of interpretation, this tenant springs from my spiritual beliefs. As such, I cannot prove it in the same sense as the first. Then again, my aim here is not to prove anything, but to only show the benefit of such thinking. However, if your beliefs prevent you from accepting what I have to say, please take this as an offering, a glimpse inside the mind of a gentile.
In Hinduism, there is a beautiful story about how we all came to be. (For the sake of brevity, I will omit much, though I encourage you to read the Vedas for yourself as they are wonderfully written) God, existence, the eternal spirit that is the universe - whatever you call It - chills alone for some time. However, God gets bored knowing everything there is to know and so once in a while she goes into hiding. Each time she goes into hiding, a universe like ours is born. Being God, she's really good at this game (especially having played it so many times). She hides herself as separate, individual consciousnesses. Each consciousness has some of her vast knowledge, but no one consciousness knows it all. Thus, she - we - actually believe ourselves to be separate, individual entities.
(One caveat I should point out about my version: I like the term consciousness, but I do not want to restrict God to only hiding as beings we know to be conscious. She is much more crafty than we are intelligent and she is capable of hiding in all things from people to rocks, from neutrinos to stars.)
Ok, so God's hiding from herself in each of us. How does she expect to find herself? Why, by means of communication! Pulling from the Hindu story, each of us is a godhead. We are a perspective on the universe from the viewpoint of ourselves. I see the universe as it is from over here, you see it as it is from over there. Communion, therefore, is an act of sharing perspectives. Here lies a key point: Perspectives are rarely wrong, though they are often mistaken.
A chemist and a window washer are sharing their perspectives on glass. The former believes it is a liquid, the latter a solid. Are either of these people wrong? It is doubtful. But if they believe that have the same concepts in mind about what constitutes a liquid or a solid, someone is mistaken. The chemist, in his knowledge of the minute, understands liquidity is defined by a certain arrangement of molecules. The window washer, in all of his experience, knows that solid objects have certain marco properties and that glass shares in these properties. Thus, after some time, they realize that they are not at all discussing glass, but are rather debating the proper usage of the terms liquid and solids. As the case may be, neither may be wrong as each has a definition that is relavent to people within their own field.
When we are of two minds about something, usually we do not become violent with ourselves. Part of us wants to take a nap while another part of us wants to go to the gym. If you think about it, you've likely had this conversation with yourself. You'll debate the pros and cons of each and decide on a course of action. Knowing from the beginning that neither desire alone was wrong, only that one was more appropriate for the situation. In fact, you may very well do both!
However, most moments of discord are rarely of such a benign nature. Let us look at communion between lovers. Here you have two godheads who have come to an understanding that, within the other, lies something divine. Even our sacrament of marriage often involves the combining of two beings as one. We should look then at differences in opinion between lovers, not as a difference between two people, but as an internal conflict within a single entity. When you disagree with your lover, and the communion has become sour, one or both of you have been fooled in the cosmic hide and seek game. Realization that you are conversing with a godhead can greatly change your tone. If you knew in your heart that your lover were God, would you use the language you use? Would your tone of voice change? If you expect your lover isn't respecting the God in you, do not look down on them - rather, are your behaving like a God should? If you understand that you are God and your lover is God, there will never be discord for you will treat you lover as he or she should be treated. If you are disrespected, you will never garner malice for you will have sympathy for your lover, for they have forgotten that they too are God. Can you imagine!?
And so, while the union between lovers is special, it need not be unique. We are all godheads and so any speech act between any of us should be viewed as communion between gods. Every word, every letter, e-mail or facebook post, every explicative, every complaint, every parcel of communication is for a God, about a God and from a God.
Let us then keep in mind that communication is the sacred act of sharing between two parts of God who have forgotten their unity and see where this leads us.
~ Namaste ~
None really, he's still chill'n in the tummy.
I'm guessing he's waiting for the rain to let up so please, stop rain dancing people!
Respect All Communication As Sacred:
Hands down, my favorite class at Cal was one of my first: Philosophy of Language with Professor John Searle. Especially in an era were the internet stands to obliterate all formal rules for it's use, it behoves us to take a moment and reflect on not just language, but communication in general. And so, the second tenant of practical philosophy is as follows:
2. Communication is communion between godheads.
While my first tenant about the relationship between choice and destinations is debatable on grounds of interpretation, this tenant springs from my spiritual beliefs. As such, I cannot prove it in the same sense as the first. Then again, my aim here is not to prove anything, but to only show the benefit of such thinking. However, if your beliefs prevent you from accepting what I have to say, please take this as an offering, a glimpse inside the mind of a gentile.
In Hinduism, there is a beautiful story about how we all came to be. (For the sake of brevity, I will omit much, though I encourage you to read the Vedas for yourself as they are wonderfully written) God, existence, the eternal spirit that is the universe - whatever you call It - chills alone for some time. However, God gets bored knowing everything there is to know and so once in a while she goes into hiding. Each time she goes into hiding, a universe like ours is born. Being God, she's really good at this game (especially having played it so many times). She hides herself as separate, individual consciousnesses. Each consciousness has some of her vast knowledge, but no one consciousness knows it all. Thus, she - we - actually believe ourselves to be separate, individual entities.
(One caveat I should point out about my version: I like the term consciousness, but I do not want to restrict God to only hiding as beings we know to be conscious. She is much more crafty than we are intelligent and she is capable of hiding in all things from people to rocks, from neutrinos to stars.)
Ok, so God's hiding from herself in each of us. How does she expect to find herself? Why, by means of communication! Pulling from the Hindu story, each of us is a godhead. We are a perspective on the universe from the viewpoint of ourselves. I see the universe as it is from over here, you see it as it is from over there. Communion, therefore, is an act of sharing perspectives. Here lies a key point: Perspectives are rarely wrong, though they are often mistaken.
A chemist and a window washer are sharing their perspectives on glass. The former believes it is a liquid, the latter a solid. Are either of these people wrong? It is doubtful. But if they believe that have the same concepts in mind about what constitutes a liquid or a solid, someone is mistaken. The chemist, in his knowledge of the minute, understands liquidity is defined by a certain arrangement of molecules. The window washer, in all of his experience, knows that solid objects have certain marco properties and that glass shares in these properties. Thus, after some time, they realize that they are not at all discussing glass, but are rather debating the proper usage of the terms liquid and solids. As the case may be, neither may be wrong as each has a definition that is relavent to people within their own field.
When we are of two minds about something, usually we do not become violent with ourselves. Part of us wants to take a nap while another part of us wants to go to the gym. If you think about it, you've likely had this conversation with yourself. You'll debate the pros and cons of each and decide on a course of action. Knowing from the beginning that neither desire alone was wrong, only that one was more appropriate for the situation. In fact, you may very well do both!
However, most moments of discord are rarely of such a benign nature. Let us look at communion between lovers. Here you have two godheads who have come to an understanding that, within the other, lies something divine. Even our sacrament of marriage often involves the combining of two beings as one. We should look then at differences in opinion between lovers, not as a difference between two people, but as an internal conflict within a single entity. When you disagree with your lover, and the communion has become sour, one or both of you have been fooled in the cosmic hide and seek game. Realization that you are conversing with a godhead can greatly change your tone. If you knew in your heart that your lover were God, would you use the language you use? Would your tone of voice change? If you expect your lover isn't respecting the God in you, do not look down on them - rather, are your behaving like a God should? If you understand that you are God and your lover is God, there will never be discord for you will treat you lover as he or she should be treated. If you are disrespected, you will never garner malice for you will have sympathy for your lover, for they have forgotten that they too are God. Can you imagine!?
And so, while the union between lovers is special, it need not be unique. We are all godheads and so any speech act between any of us should be viewed as communion between gods. Every word, every letter, e-mail or facebook post, every explicative, every complaint, every parcel of communication is for a God, about a God and from a God.
Let us then keep in mind that communication is the sacred act of sharing between two parts of God who have forgotten their unity and see where this leads us.
~ Namaste ~
Friday, March 25, 2011
Failure to Launch?
AJ Update:
Got back from the doctor and all is well but he just may arrive after his March 27th due date (I told her he'd arrive on April 1st!)
Parenting with Parents:
We often come across the misled article referring to my generation as late bloomers, lazy, dependent and unoriginal. While the last description may well ring true, the others are highly mistaken. Our generation may likely be the most philosophically inclined since the French revolution. The generations that have come before us have continued to build on top of foundations laid before them. We on the other hand aren't so sure that the foundations have been laid properly.
This isn't simply the rebellion and revolting that is typical from generation to generation. No, what is transpiring as we speak is a spiritual revolution of the deepest order. And it just may work!
Children, once independent and fending for themselves, believe they will do things differently. However, many of our parents short comings derive from this attraction to independence. As Shine and I ventured to do things our own way, we too battled the propositions that were laid before us: Go it alone and struggle financially or remain at home and struggle for control. We, in all of our infinite wisdom, choose the latter.
Why? Look at the most obvious contradiction of our parents generation:
We must be humble enough to know that we are not the ones to teach our children about life, like our parents tried to teach us. No, rather it is the parents' job is to teach children about love. Life itself will teach children about life. When parents try to, it comes up short sighted and narrow, mainly because life isn't simple enough to be taught by one person, one book or one experience. When parents try to, they end up with a child who thinks they understand what life is about by their teens. Then the parents turn around and wonder where this arrogance came from. Suckers!
Realize that part of being a good mother or father means being a good wife or husband, being a dependable sibling and/or cousin and by being a respectful son or daughter to your own parents. It means loving with all your heart, those in your inner most circle. This doesn't mean you never hurt these very people. It means the pain you inflect is never an end in itself. People who love, must inflict pain. But the pain is not some kind of life lesson that builds character. Rather, it is the necessary by product of truth. The kind of truth only family members can pass on. And unlike the lessons of life, the lessons of love can come from a single source. One parent with limitless love for his or her child is infinitely greater then two (or more?) parents who fight constantly.
For these reasons, people from whom love overflows - whether they are young or old, dark or light, hetero or homo, single or paired - make for the best parents. Alexander will be born amidst a geyser of love, flowing from an eternally renewable source within his home.
Thus, we will entrust you, wanderers of this earth, to teach him about life. We have faith, you'll do him well.
~ Namaste ~
Got back from the doctor and all is well but he just may arrive after his March 27th due date (I told her he'd arrive on April 1st!)
Parenting with Parents:
We often come across the misled article referring to my generation as late bloomers, lazy, dependent and unoriginal. While the last description may well ring true, the others are highly mistaken. Our generation may likely be the most philosophically inclined since the French revolution. The generations that have come before us have continued to build on top of foundations laid before them. We on the other hand aren't so sure that the foundations have been laid properly.
This isn't simply the rebellion and revolting that is typical from generation to generation. No, what is transpiring as we speak is a spiritual revolution of the deepest order. And it just may work!
Children, once independent and fending for themselves, believe they will do things differently. However, many of our parents short comings derive from this attraction to independence. As Shine and I ventured to do things our own way, we too battled the propositions that were laid before us: Go it alone and struggle financially or remain at home and struggle for control. We, in all of our infinite wisdom, choose the latter.
Why? Look at the most obvious contradiction of our parents generation:
* Family is important! *
* It is where you learn about life! *
This is why you must move out & get away from them as quickly as possible! If family is important, then why would you not keep them close? If you are anything like me, you just started listening to what your parents had to say around your 20's. So why, just when your children are ready to learn from you, would you want to push them out to fend for themselves? Additionally, Grandparents are usually looking for company, anyone really, who has time to hang out. Who has lots of time and can find old people interesting? Babies of course! So why when you are starting your family would you run from the exact people who have the patience for your baby when you don't? So our motto will be different!
* Family is important! *
* It is where you learn about love! *
We must be humble enough to know that we are not the ones to teach our children about life, like our parents tried to teach us. No, rather it is the parents' job is to teach children about love. Life itself will teach children about life. When parents try to, it comes up short sighted and narrow, mainly because life isn't simple enough to be taught by one person, one book or one experience. When parents try to, they end up with a child who thinks they understand what life is about by their teens. Then the parents turn around and wonder where this arrogance came from. Suckers!
Realize that part of being a good mother or father means being a good wife or husband, being a dependable sibling and/or cousin and by being a respectful son or daughter to your own parents. It means loving with all your heart, those in your inner most circle. This doesn't mean you never hurt these very people. It means the pain you inflect is never an end in itself. People who love, must inflict pain. But the pain is not some kind of life lesson that builds character. Rather, it is the necessary by product of truth. The kind of truth only family members can pass on. And unlike the lessons of life, the lessons of love can come from a single source. One parent with limitless love for his or her child is infinitely greater then two (or more?) parents who fight constantly.
For these reasons, people from whom love overflows - whether they are young or old, dark or light, hetero or homo, single or paired - make for the best parents. Alexander will be born amidst a geyser of love, flowing from an eternally renewable source within his home.
Thus, we will entrust you, wanderers of this earth, to teach him about life. We have faith, you'll do him well.
~ Namaste ~
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Choice and Destinations
AJ Update:
4 days left to expected due date.
Still chill'n in the womb, but I would too with this crappy weather we're having.
Shine's hungry, I'm tired.
We're as happy as can be =D
More Contemplation:
Choice cannot be explained in a vacuum.
Destinations cannot be explained in their entirety.
It is here that we can best understand the position of every parent everywhere. Assuming you wanted to be a parent (at the least, before you knew what you were getting yourself into), you made a choice. That is, you saw that your future could either be one with or without children, and you took action to make the former a reality. In making this choice, you must have been aware that this choice would effectively affect and limit your choices (close to the point of removal) from here on out.
For instance: If you visit a friend's childless house it is often a fair assumption that the arrangement of their living conditions is a reflection of who they are as a person and where their priorities lie. Visit a friend's house who has children and if you have any sympathy at all, you will look at their living conditions as something they must endure, not create.
A destination is a description of a point in time in its entirety. When you hope to go to the store, there are numerous conditions that are unspoken in that hope. Not only do you hope to arrive at the store, you also would like it to be open; decently stocked; not overly busy; not understaffed; ample parking would be nice; etc... When you have children, you hope to make it to the store... and hopefully without having thrown the children out the window along the way.
And there is a funny thing about having a wish fulfilled. Once fulfilled, you don't get to simply coast - you must strive to maintain it. It is here I believe that most find the root of their anxiety. In the land of choices, people tend to make lots of choices, but rarely do much to maintain any of them. I want to lose weight; I want to go shopping; I want to go to comedy shows; I want _____. I too want things and so the last thing I would do is demonize desire like so many religions and philosophies have done before me. Rather, I would like to practicalize and philosophize these desires: that is, to balance them.
I want a nice car, but not just any. I want an NSX. But I do not simply want the car. The desire alone could entice me to neglect my previously fulfilled wishes and without continued effort to sustain them, they would fall away. Wishes like having a loving wife, having leisure time with friends and family and having children. I could put 100% into fulfilling my wish of getting the car, but if I sacrifice what I have now, then logically, upon getting the car, I will simply neglect it in favor of the new wish of the week. Thus I will put 100% into maintaining my currently fulfilled wishes and if I become increasing efficient, I may have a few % left over to dedicate to my side project. (Despite what sports coaches and motivational speakers everywhere claim, there is no such thing as giving more than 100%, period)
Furthermore, as is apparent to most husbands whose wives roll their eyes when it comes to their "toys", I want the car in such a way as it doesn't come before my maintaining my status as husband and father. Thus, I don't simply want the car. It's much more symbolic than that. I want to be in a position that I've flourished so well at being a husband and father that I've obtained enough excess supplies to purchase a leisure item. Additionally, I've also not made enemies such that'd I'd be too paranoid about damage to my new toy to be able to enjoy it. The object of the choice itself is organic. Should I, in the future, realize a contradiction between my currently fulfilled wishes and this new one, I must be willing to change it or drop it altogether.
Again, this is my path. One may not care much about being a husband, but only a father - or vice versa. I am not here to say what choices are right or wrong. But only to warn that choices can only be made of particulars - and few at that - but never of destinations in their entirety. In trying to control everything, you are in control of nothing.
(As a side note: This goes especially to you business people who check in to my hotel expecting perfection. Perfection is a fictional goal that we strive for because we enjoy striving for it, not a reality that you deserve in any way, shape or form.)
Namaste.
4 days left to expected due date.
Still chill'n in the womb, but I would too with this crappy weather we're having.
Shine's hungry, I'm tired.
We're as happy as can be =D
More Contemplation:
Choice cannot be explained in a vacuum.
Destinations cannot be explained in their entirety.
It is here that we can best understand the position of every parent everywhere. Assuming you wanted to be a parent (at the least, before you knew what you were getting yourself into), you made a choice. That is, you saw that your future could either be one with or without children, and you took action to make the former a reality. In making this choice, you must have been aware that this choice would effectively affect and limit your choices (close to the point of removal) from here on out.
For instance: If you visit a friend's childless house it is often a fair assumption that the arrangement of their living conditions is a reflection of who they are as a person and where their priorities lie. Visit a friend's house who has children and if you have any sympathy at all, you will look at their living conditions as something they must endure, not create.
A destination is a description of a point in time in its entirety. When you hope to go to the store, there are numerous conditions that are unspoken in that hope. Not only do you hope to arrive at the store, you also would like it to be open; decently stocked; not overly busy; not understaffed; ample parking would be nice; etc... When you have children, you hope to make it to the store... and hopefully without having thrown the children out the window along the way.
And there is a funny thing about having a wish fulfilled. Once fulfilled, you don't get to simply coast - you must strive to maintain it. It is here I believe that most find the root of their anxiety. In the land of choices, people tend to make lots of choices, but rarely do much to maintain any of them. I want to lose weight; I want to go shopping; I want to go to comedy shows; I want _____. I too want things and so the last thing I would do is demonize desire like so many religions and philosophies have done before me. Rather, I would like to practicalize and philosophize these desires: that is, to balance them.
I want a nice car, but not just any. I want an NSX. But I do not simply want the car. The desire alone could entice me to neglect my previously fulfilled wishes and without continued effort to sustain them, they would fall away. Wishes like having a loving wife, having leisure time with friends and family and having children. I could put 100% into fulfilling my wish of getting the car, but if I sacrifice what I have now, then logically, upon getting the car, I will simply neglect it in favor of the new wish of the week. Thus I will put 100% into maintaining my currently fulfilled wishes and if I become increasing efficient, I may have a few % left over to dedicate to my side project. (Despite what sports coaches and motivational speakers everywhere claim, there is no such thing as giving more than 100%, period)
Furthermore, as is apparent to most husbands whose wives roll their eyes when it comes to their "toys", I want the car in such a way as it doesn't come before my maintaining my status as husband and father. Thus, I don't simply want the car. It's much more symbolic than that. I want to be in a position that I've flourished so well at being a husband and father that I've obtained enough excess supplies to purchase a leisure item. Additionally, I've also not made enemies such that'd I'd be too paranoid about damage to my new toy to be able to enjoy it. The object of the choice itself is organic. Should I, in the future, realize a contradiction between my currently fulfilled wishes and this new one, I must be willing to change it or drop it altogether.
Again, this is my path. One may not care much about being a husband, but only a father - or vice versa. I am not here to say what choices are right or wrong. But only to warn that choices can only be made of particulars - and few at that - but never of destinations in their entirety. In trying to control everything, you are in control of nothing.
(As a side note: This goes especially to you business people who check in to my hotel expecting perfection. Perfection is a fictional goal that we strive for because we enjoy striving for it, not a reality that you deserve in any way, shape or form.)
Namaste.
Monday, March 21, 2011
On the road to fatherhood
With fatherhood officially around the corner, it is high time I release the first in a series of writings on practical philosophy. I abstain from giving this collection any official title at the moment for that would indicate I already understand where I intend for this to lead. This brings me to the first tenant of practical philosophy:
1. You have no choice when it comes to your destination.
With this first tenant, I must already explain three concepts: a) practical philosophy, b) choice, c) destinations.
Practical Philosophy
It is hard to grasp this concept if you haven't majored in philosophy or some other area of study that doesn't not readily lend it self to a career path, but a question that I encountered more than any other is, of course, "What do you do with that?" The simple answer is "Lots", but that doesn't really explain anything. Most with an earnest passion for philosophy have one course when studying it: professorship. Of course others will pursue what may appear as "practical philosophy" and study law. To this second direction, there is some truth in calling it the practical side of philosophy, but this is not the practicality that I am reaching for.
What I aim for is a balance between action (the practical) and contemplation (the philosophical). In general, we are surrounded by practical people for survival requires action. To see the practical in it's purest form, philosophers used to refer to "lower" animals. However, the lack of philosophy that occurs in such creatures is debatable and it is fortunate that technology offers us a better analogy: machines. Any will do, from your smart phone to your calculator. It responds to an external stimulus with an action that is predetermined from a set of rules built into the machine. Absolutely no philosophy takes place. I'm sure you can think of people who remind you of machines, but one can never be sure what is occurring just below the surface. On the other end of the spectrum we have the purely philosophical. Likely because the world we live in is one of action, I cannot think of a pure example of the philosophical, be we all know those who lean to this side. What is known in academic circles as the ivory towel philosopher. For a more common visual, imagine the person who yells at the tv on game day about what a specific team should do and can give you a play by play explanation of why they won or lost, even though this person hasn't stepped foot on the field since highschool, if that.
A word of caution before I go on: it cannot be foreseen whether being purely practical or purely philosophical is beneficial or not, it usually depends on the situation. However, in my case, as in many others, I aim to blend the two for fatherhood requires both. Thus lies the true answer to "what I plan to do with that degree."
At this point in the day, survival requires action and so I must cease contemplation for the moment. Stay tuned for an explication on choice and destinations.
Namaste
1. You have no choice when it comes to your destination.
With this first tenant, I must already explain three concepts: a) practical philosophy, b) choice, c) destinations.
Practical Philosophy
It is hard to grasp this concept if you haven't majored in philosophy or some other area of study that doesn't not readily lend it self to a career path, but a question that I encountered more than any other is, of course, "What do you do with that?" The simple answer is "Lots", but that doesn't really explain anything. Most with an earnest passion for philosophy have one course when studying it: professorship. Of course others will pursue what may appear as "practical philosophy" and study law. To this second direction, there is some truth in calling it the practical side of philosophy, but this is not the practicality that I am reaching for.
What I aim for is a balance between action (the practical) and contemplation (the philosophical). In general, we are surrounded by practical people for survival requires action. To see the practical in it's purest form, philosophers used to refer to "lower" animals. However, the lack of philosophy that occurs in such creatures is debatable and it is fortunate that technology offers us a better analogy: machines. Any will do, from your smart phone to your calculator. It responds to an external stimulus with an action that is predetermined from a set of rules built into the machine. Absolutely no philosophy takes place. I'm sure you can think of people who remind you of machines, but one can never be sure what is occurring just below the surface. On the other end of the spectrum we have the purely philosophical. Likely because the world we live in is one of action, I cannot think of a pure example of the philosophical, be we all know those who lean to this side. What is known in academic circles as the ivory towel philosopher. For a more common visual, imagine the person who yells at the tv on game day about what a specific team should do and can give you a play by play explanation of why they won or lost, even though this person hasn't stepped foot on the field since highschool, if that.
A word of caution before I go on: it cannot be foreseen whether being purely practical or purely philosophical is beneficial or not, it usually depends on the situation. However, in my case, as in many others, I aim to blend the two for fatherhood requires both. Thus lies the true answer to "what I plan to do with that degree."
At this point in the day, survival requires action and so I must cease contemplation for the moment. Stay tuned for an explication on choice and destinations.
Namaste
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