2004.08.30
Huh, thanks for your comments.
I'm trying to figure out if there is any established belief system that comes close to matching my piecework one:
- Consciousness is an illusion, or at least not nearly as much of a "thing" as our animal selves have us believe.
- You should be nice to people.
- You can't always trust your instincts.
- What you see is pretty much what you get viz a viz the universe, spirtuality is mostly poetry and metaphor on top of mundane matter, emergent phenomena that, admittedly, science alone is pretty bad at getting handle on.
- "Interesting" and "Non-trivially Unique" are two of the few self-evident "goods" in the Universe, along with more obvious things like kindness and love.
- The universe is interesting, and you should try to observe as much of it as possible.
- Moderation in everything is key, including moderation. Therefore:
- It's good to follow a life path that corresponds to your strengths and interests. A good course has one stretching one's abilities to meet self-goals and challenges, but without spending too much time worrying struggling for unobtainable goals.
I don't like the Bhuddist idea that everything is suffering and longing, or the Daoist notion that one's instincts are always trustworthy....
Thanks for listening to me ramble,
Kirk
--I'm not sure who exactly I was writing to last November, but I still feel that's a pretty good summary of my core beliefs.
Photo of the Moment
--Hard to see in all the glare, but according the the Salem Willows' Arcade's Love Tester, I "HAVE 'IT'". |
Article Quote of the Moment
But the sad truth is, the real difference between Democrats and Republicans is that their celebrities are, like, actually famous and ours are, well, singing weirdly erotic songs about Our Savior.I heard Evanescence, who do two very good songs ("Going Under" and "My Immortal") used to have more of a Christian vibe, and sometimes their lyrics have that same odd ambiguity. (Of course "U2" did that pretty well. Amazing how just a simple gender swap in "Mysterious Ways", portraying the holy spirit as feminine, masked the lean of the message from me for years.)