Boogeyman
Every movement needs their boogeyman.
Every movement needs their boogeyman.
We define ourselves, in part, by who we aren't.
Our opinions are powerful. They affect others, sometimes more than we realize, and no one can take them away from us.
#Belief #Communication #PersonalDevelopment #Philosophy #Wellbeing
“It doesn't seem to conventional-minded people that they're conventional-minded. It just seems to them that they're right. Indeed, they tend to be particularly sure of it.”
—Paul Graham in Orthodox Privilege
I subscribe to the daily Mutts comic by email. A recent message included a quote by Marc Bekoff which resembles something I wrote in Saying goodbye to Taggy.
I wrote the following:
All animals are conscious. All animals feel comfort and pain. In that way, we are equal.
Bekoff put it differently:
Although other animals may be different from us, this does not make them less than us.
I don't know which version I prefer.
I dreamed about Taggy last night. Taggy was a beloved cat who passed away recently. It feels wrong to call her a cat, really. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to call her a friend or a non-human person. In any case, I shared the longer story earlier.
I don't remember much about the dream, except that I was so relieved to see her again. I also remember other black cats approaching me, to my annoyance. I find it beautiful that, even in my dream, I was able to tell the real Taggy from the impostors.
Do we really connect with other souls in our dreams? I don't personally think we do. I would like to believe it, though. I'd like if Taggy had really been there with me, making her true self known.
How do things change? Slowly, then all at once.
This paraphrases Ernest Hemingway and Cory Doctorow.
Never say of anything, “I have lost it,” but, “I have restored it.” Has your child died? It is restored. Has your wife died? She is restored. Has your estate been taken away? That likewise is restored. “But it was a bad man who took it.” What is it to you by whose hands he who gave it has demanded it again? While he permits you to possess it, hold it as something not your own, as do travelers at an inn. —The Enchiridion of Epictetus
Some might find these comments on death to be callous and blunt. I find them helpful. The default is nothingness. We are lucky to have others while we do. Moreover, reality is what it is, whether we like it or not. We can either fight reality, an impossible task, or we can find some way to live in harmony with reality. It’s easier said than done, but it’s our only real option.
“Trust arrives on foot and leaves on horseback.”
—Dutch proberb
#Belief #Communication #PersonalDevelopment #Philosophy #Quotes
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. I love that phrase.
Here's a new one. Many working clocks are wrong infinitely many times per day. How can that be? There are infinitely many decimal numbers between 1 and 2, and unless a clock has a sweeping second hand, it can't correctly represent any of them.