thinktoomuch.net

There is only one reality, after all, so what’s all this talk about your reality and my reality? Tonight’s dinner-time TED talk was Rory Sutherland’s Perspective is everything. His slide presented at 2:55 states, as its first point of four:

Things are not what they are; they are what we think they are

Think about that for a moment. Naturally, presenting it like that, it’s quoted out of context. Much rather watch the talk it came from (18:24 in length) to appreciate its context:

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Just about ready to go out for some cycling, someone rings by doorbell. “How odd…” I think, “I don’t get guests? Did they mean to ring my neighbour? And utilities companies shouldn’t be here on weekends?” So I put on some pants and run downstairs to see who it is, rather than just blindly buzzing in the unknown. “Hi! We’re Jehovah’s Witnesses, and we’d like to talk to you about the Bible!” (Not those words exactly, considering I’m living in a German-speaking area.)

Turns out I just had my first visit by Jehovah’s Witnesses! It was all very exciting. They said they want to talk to me about the Bible. I asked if they could come back on another day (since this weekend is packed), likely that got them excited too? I just showed interest, while I expect most people just shoo them away? (Or might it rather be the case of preferring to be shooed away, as that takes less time and effort? *grin*)

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I’m busy reading Frank Herbert’s third Dune novel (Children of Dune). Marvellous fiction! I would consider it mostly political thriller, set in the far future. I’m sure more blog posts will follow from having read these, but today I’m pondering the role of memorised and recited words in people’s lives.

In the Dune universe there is a sisterhood known as the Bene Gesserit. In some senses one could consider them a religious order. One of the most famous snippets of text from these novels is their litany against fear:

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

Various characters recite this litany in their minds when they need to calm their nerves. This part is so well known, I have wondered if anyone has adopted it and made use of it in real life?

There are certainly similar ideas in human history. The first thing to come to my mind was Psalm 23 from the Hebrew Bible:

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Our planet spun around its access 365 times since we last celebrated New Years’ Eve. We travelled around the sun one more time.

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A few days ago I watched One Day, a love story based on an award-winning novel. The movie is a romantic drama, it is not a comedy. Still, some sites include “comedy” in the genre tags, for what John O’Connell calls “comic gloss” (see below).

I usually shy away from Hollywood “romantic” movies, in part due to an aversion to how such movies represent relationship ideals. Sure, we all know movies are fiction, that real life does not work in quite the the same way, but such narratives still have much power in shaping our thoughts on what we expect in life. The emphasis on love-at-first-sight, the “there is only one person in the world for me” mentality, the example narratives of how relationships supposedly progress? I find the typical Hollywood “romantic” movies somewhat harmful.

One Day was not a typical Hollywood romantic movie, something I really appreciated. This would be thanks to it being based on a good novel. Consider the reviewers’ quotes used to represent the novel’s major themes on its wikipedia page:

Writing in The Times, John O’Connell writes, “For, in spite of its comic gloss, One Day is really about loneliness and the casual savagery of fate; the tragic gap between youthful aspiration and the compromises that we end up tolerating. Not for nothing has Nicholls said that it was inspired by Thomas Hardy.” A critic in thelondonpaper observes that One Day “may be a love story, but it’s no fairytale: Nicholls doesn’t shy from the dark side of growing up, the disillusionment, regrets and random cruelty of life.”

That probably says enough, this may be a book worth reading. The movie itself received rather mixed reviews from critics (metacritic: 48, Rotten Tomatoes: 37), suggesting it does not do the book justice. Nevertheless, with my limited exposure to romantic movie genres, this remains one of the movies I really liked, grim as it may be.

Can you suggest other good movies in the genre that I really ought to see?

Every year of this blog’s existence, I wrote a 10 October post, marking the day’s significance for me.

Today we added to its significance.

This post marks the day, let’s leave it in silence – we can talk more tomorrow.

I’m cleaning up this blog a bit. Executive summary in bullet form:

• Does anyone use the MiniBlog in the right sidebar?
• Can you suggest a pen-name for me to use on this blog?
• If you are close to me personally, or just generally care about me (as opposed to this blog’s topics of interest), you may want to following me elsewhere instead — this site is no longer used for personal news. Please ask me so that I can point you in the right direction.

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Grim, a question you might have come across before:

Would you rather lose a loved one in a sudden unexpected accident, or through a long-running terminal disease?

Unlike a philosopher’s dilemma, this is not a quandary that one considers in order to develop some understanding of ethical or moral considerations. Personally I think it is a dumb question, don’t waste your time with it: you simply don’t get to choose such things.

Surely both simply suck.

It’s a question on the same level as the lamest of “what if…” questions. Things happen as they happen, it is up to us to deal with whatever life chooses to throw at us, and simply do so as best we can.

A 2009 article on The Guardian presents arguments against saving the panda as well as arguments in favour:

TV naturalist Chris Packham said pandas might not be worth saving. Mark Wright from the World Wide Fund for Nature is one of the many who disagree.

What do you think? Read the whole article: Should pandas be left to face extinction?

Either way, in the light of Time to Start Giving, I’m going to add the WWF to my list of regular donations.

Today was Pluralism Sunday. Initiated by the Center for Progressive Christianity, Pluralism Sunday is an interfaith effort celebrating religious pluralism, a term used to describe the acceptance of all religious paths and promoting their coexistence (some words borrowed from wikipedia as usual). A part of the first paragraph from the Pluralism Sunday website:

On the first Sunday in May- this year, May 1, 2011 – (or other times during the year) churches around the world dedicate their worship to a celebration of our interfaith world. Progressive Christians thank God for religious diversity! We don’t claim that our religion is superior to all others. We recognize that other religions can be as good for others as ours is for us. We can grow closer to God and deeper in compassion—and we can understand our own traditions better—through a more intimate awareness of the world’s religions.

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