I have discovered repeatedly that I am not typical. I don't look typical, I don't think typically, I don't act typically.
I am not a typical size, I don't have a typical job history, I don't spend my time typically. I don't read typical books. I don't have typical tastes and preferences.
Given all that, I can't even count on being a atypical. Sometimes I find that something popular is terrific and I like it very much.
I am reading "Man Overboard: A Medical Lifeline for the Aging Male" by Craig M. Bowron, MD. A reader might not feel that an author is trustworthy when coming to statements like "Doctors sometimes refer to the Nether regions of our bodies, named after Dr. Phil Nether, a British anatomist and explorer who discovered them on an expedition to the Central Groin region in 1833." But the comment I want to note here is that "aging is an extractive and reductive process and given its relentless and inevitable nature, it might be the hardest thing any of us will ever do."
I have noted before that Lynn's stepfather, a veteran of Patton's army in WWII, often snarled," Golden years - Hah!"
I would never have selected "extractive and reductive" to describe the process of aging but I find the two terms accurate and helpful.
When I write in my title, the word "intelligence", the connotation is probably the innate sense that humans have of "smarts". That sense has been recognized for a long time. In graduate school, I studied attempts to test intelligence with paper and pencil tests. I also studied attempts by Binet in France and faculty at Stanford University and Wechsler to create formal tests to measure intelligence. But in this post, I am thinking of "intelligence" in the way the word is used in reference to military and national security, the concept of general knowledge about the world and what is happening.
It seems completely accurate to say that humans in general, all over, have better intelligence than ever. The development of speech, writing, the telegraph, daily newspapers, radio, television and, of course, the internet, have all contributed to better communication between all sorts of humans in all locations.
At the same time, information has improved its spread and richness, education has been changing too. In grad school, I read about the slow, steady expansion of education. Of course, Google Search and similar search engine software such as Duckduckgo are providing a wider, deeper amount of information to all sorts of citizens, inquirers and students. But don't forget nursery schools, kindergartens, elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, technical schools, master's programs, doctoral programs, post-docs, distance education, YouTube videos, Kindle books, loaning apps like Libby.
I guess one of the best ways to see the limitations of one's knowledge is to get a PhD. The usual description of the path to a doctor of philosophy degree is to get a bachelor's degree at a four year college, get a master's degree in a year or two (sometimes more) and get the doctor's degree in 3 or more years.
Several people have described the final exam for a doctorate as an occasion of being quite aware of all the things one does not know. That final exam is often an oral one. One's advisor invites professors from one's major and minor. I had two minors, philosophy and psychology. I don't actually remember what philosophy and psychology professors attended my orals. I do remember the realization that those men could ask me ANYTHING !
The usual format is an hour or so of committee questions, then a short discussion while the candidate is not in the room. If the answer is "yes, he qualifies", the person fetching the candidate from where he is waiting, often signals the candidate's success by greeting him with an extended hand and the words, "Congratulations, Dr. _____________" Of course, there is no guarantee that the candidate will be able to answer all the questions. There may be disagreements generally as to the correct answers.
Some of this photos may be of interest.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/19/world/gallery/photos-this-week-april-11-april-18/
Bill
Of the books listed below, the one that seems to have been the most helpful for Lynn and me is Lisa Genova's "Remember". It is about the human memory and it really helps quiet worries about poor memory and a deteriorating mind.
I enjoyed what I read of "Eve: How the female body drove 200 million years of evolution" by Cat Bohannon.
You may get intellectual payoffs from "This Explains Everything", a John Brockman book. Brockman runs the website "Edge". That's not the Microsoft browser also called Edge. He tries to foster deep thinking and exploration of all kinds of intellectual exploration.
"You can't make this stuff up" by Laura Katz. There are quite a few books about not being able to make up stuff. This book is a summary of decades of work as a woman gynecologist and her cases.
I would not have thought I would enjoy "Eighty Days" by Matthew Goodman as much as I did. It is about two New York City newspapers sponsoring two women who compete to see who wins in a trip around the world. This true contest took place in 1889, when the world and human ideas were not what they are today.
"Brief Answers to the Big Questions" by Stephen Hawking, the very famous British cosmologist, told he had developed Lou Geherig's disease, related to Parkinson's nerve disease. He was told at age 20 that he would live five more years. He died recently at age 76. He said that he had spent his life traveling through the universe, amid black holes, he is a clear, helpful, upbeat writer.
Children's books have been in the news lately. Reading and being read to were among the best experiences of my childhood. Whether you once read you once read "Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White or not, it is time to read it again, maybe with a grandchild beside you. School and children's librarians can help find the oldest greatest and the most recent greatest of kids' books. Don't kid yourself: you are still pretty much a kid.
Two more: Any of Dan Buettner's books. Try "The Blue Zones American Kitchen" but any of his will be helpful. He is an explorer of places in the world that have consistently harbored groups of people who live longer, healthier lives than average, places he calls "Blue Zones". More recognition is focusing on physical hydration as a major factor in good living at older age. On that subject, try "Quench" by Cohen, MD and Bria. Our bodies bug us less about thirst but it is very important to health to get the right amounts of water.
I found I could definitely afford teachers' college. After a couple of years, they asked, "Are you aiming to teach in K-6 or 7-9?" I said "7-9". After all, I was too mature for little kids. They handed me a sheet of course names. "This paper lists the courses you must complete". Me:"I thought I would get some choices." They said,"You want choices? Choose K-6" and I did.
I taught the 5th grade for four years. I liked it. I got the class with the lowest average of 4 classes. I liked teaching them and discovered all sorts of skills and abilities they showed.
I got a warning: "This state requires an advanced degree beyond the basic 4 year degree within ten years of beginning teaching." I began graduate school, attending at night. I got a grade of A in my first statistics course. My graduate school advisor told me about a program to get a PhD, the highest degree, with scholarships provided. I applied, got accepted, got the degree, and we moved to another state where I taught teachers for 37 years.
Lynn's stepdad was a veteran of Patton's army in World War II. In his later years, he would snarl every now and then, "Golden years - HA!" I see so much optimism, cheeriness and smiles in ads and photos that it was a pleasure to read this comment today in "Man Overboard" by Craig Bowron, MD:
"Getting older is an extractive, reductive process and given its relentless and inevitable nature, it might be the hardest thing any of us will ever do."
A friend responded to my report of Stephen Hawking's idea that artificial intelligence can be expected to make such a capable assistant that it will be like being two people: "I certainly don't need two of me. I can hardly stand one."
The title of this post, "Recently coined words", can be used in search engines, such as Duckduckgo, to find some words that are being used by others but have just recently been invented.
I am interested in human imagination as well as sensitivity to language and connotations of words and signs. I think recently invented words that show imagination and are also successful at conveying intended meanings show people's brains at work. I should mention that I am only working in the English language. The American linguist John McWhorter and his Great Courses and books have been a help in understanding the ups and downs of English language changes.
Just today, I saw there is a web site and associated products under the name "Techlicious". As a person who spends much of his time reading, perusing book titles new and old by use of a computer, a tablet and occasional use of a smartphone, I admit that some "tech" has given me delicious thrills and knowledge. Great word!
My book club is going to discuss Stephen Hawking's book "Brief Answers to the Big Questions". You probably know Dr. Hawking:
He is the British scientist that was told well before his 25th birthday that he would die within 5 years. He did die but at the age of 76, in 2018. I know that his "A Brief History of Time" has been a best seller but until recently, I had not read any of his writing. When I did read his Answers book, I was impressed at how clear, down-to-Earth and readable his writing is.
I finished the Answers book today. I read the most sensible and promising comment I have found about artificial intelligence. He was discussing AI (the rapidly expanding field of artificial intelligence). He asked if you have ever wished you were more than just one person. I have heard busy women and men say just that: "I wish I was more than one person" or "I wish I was two people". He says that AI will grant that wish soon when we have good robotic "assistants" available.
We watched "The Poison Squad" about Dr. Harvey Wiley, a chemist. The Poison Squad was shown, I guess, in episodes on the PBS show "American Experience" but after trying, we found it more convenient to watch it on Amazon Prime. There, it is available as a single movie. It's about going from food and drink manufacturers going about the business of selling their products without supervision to working with government oversight and laws to protect the consumer. Harvey Wiley was born in 1844. He became a chemistry professor and was appalled at what he could show about the American food supply and the chemicals and additives in it. As an adult, he tried to complain and warn and was repeatedly told he had no right and no authority to question and publicize his complaints and warnings.
The title, "The Poison Squad" came from the public after people learned he had engaged a group of young healthy men to sample the foods he knew were steadily given added substances that degraded the foods and made them dangerous or worse. After years of work, the author Upton Sinclair, born in 1878. wrote the novel The Jungle in 1906, describing the conditions and practices in the Chicago stockyards. The outrage and disgust that followed helped Wiley's efforts to have the American food supply reliably cleaned up.
I saw a boy practicing hoops in his driveway. In one hand, he held his smartphone while he dribbled and shot and retrieved and shot with the other hand. I stopped and said to him that I hadn't seen basketball players holding a phone in one hand. Later, I saw he had both hands free. No phone.
Schools have trouble with phones stealing attention. Many bar phones. Some use signal jammers.
As I have mentioned here and there, I like to take a look at what historian Heather Cox Ricardson writes in her daily "Letters from an American". https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/
She is a historian that concentrates on current American government activity and some of the history involved. She titles her more or less daily posts one day late. Much of the time, I am not especially interested but sometimes, she seems very helpful and original. For instance, you can click here to read or hear what she wrote about the Arizona law on abortion.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-9-2024-827
Her point is that the law was constructed for the purpose of improving the behavior of men.
It is surprising how much is indicated by the word "meanwhile". That word stresses that while our hero or our villain or just our attention was occupied with this subject, another event of importance was happening over there. In a early morning hour, I read CNN's Five Things, Walt Hickey's Numlock News, take a glance at Heather Cox Richardson's take on what happened yesterday but meanwhile, surprising things are happening in Montana, Miami and Milan. I can't keep up with it all. All sorts of research, breakthroughs of great import and further research that utterly fails to show anything valuable, happen meanwhile. I like to check NPR News Headlines for news that isn't picked up by other sources that I look at.
I like to practice taking a cue from people's statements that Xers are Y by mentally adding that I could find some Xers who are anti-Y.
Apr 9, 2024 2:03:42 PM Bill Kirby <olderkirby@gmail.com>:
Not Dwight D. Not the 34th US President. Not the Supreme Commander of US forces in Europe in WWII. But the handwritten letters that spell his last name. Why are they important? Because when written out in handwriting, they are an ideal selection of letters to get a modern ballpoint pen, working and writing clearly.
Lynn's knitting group came over and many of them carried solar eclipse glasses. They let me look through a pair during the eclipse and I saw just what I was seeing on NASA tv on my computer monitor. There were warnings everywhere not to look at the sun and moon dance directly and I didn't. When I looked through somebody's official viewing glasses, I saw just what I saw on my computer monitor on NASA live.
I wasn't scared and I didn't think an alligator was eating the sun but I may have been brainwashed. Doesn't feel like it.
There was an article in the Stevens Point Journal about a case where a fire that destroyed a home was suspected of being started by a child playing with a lighter. It was a novelty lighter, maybe shaped like a truck or something, that seemed like a toy. A child in a local 2nd grade knew her grandfather was involved in local politics and she said to him that he should pass a law against novelty lighters that look to little kids like they are toys.
Sixteen years later, the governor came to her school and signed the new law banning novelty lighters.
It is no surprise that human memory has limitations. Somebody in my book club recommended "Remember" by Lisa Genova. I am reading that book aloud to Lynn now. I like the way the author explains that being unable to remember something is part of what our memory is built to do. When a husband and wife look through a photo album together, one of the pair often mentions memories of meals, comments, troubles and fun that the other person has not remembered.
I taught a course over the years called Tests and Measurements. It considers the job of structuring tests and grading of student performances on tests and projects. I wrote a book "Grading, Testing and Instructional Format" for use by students in the class. Sometimes, I would hold a copy in my hand and ask who had read a given chapter. Hands would go up. I would point to somebody with their hand in the air and ask "Did you read this chapter?" The student would say they had. I would say,"Ok, the first three words at the beginning are "Students have sympathized". Then, I would ask: "What is the next word?" They NEVER knew!
As Dr. Genova would say, "Of course they didn't remember. They hadn't formed a memory of the next word."
Older people, like me, say, passed the age of 80, are famous for leaving behind a pen, a smartphone, a cup of tea or coffee in the living room while they walk into the computer room. I know exercise is good for me and I tend to get up and walk back and look for my pen or phone or cup. But, sometimes I preplan! So, HA! I practice leaving a pen in BOTH the living room and the computer room. Now, I am working on NOT carrying the living room pen into the computer room. Smart, huh?
Last night, we watched "You've Got Mail" again. It brought the excitement we felt when we first encountered email. It was before texting was available. It was amazing!
Today, we happened to lose our internet for 4 or so hours. Ironic! It certainly emphasized how much we depend on our connection.
It happened again. I wondered about men's interest in being a mercenary. I looked up "What mercenaries are available today?" I even used Duckduckgo, a search engine that advertises private searching and blocked trackers. I don't play video games and I don't like or follow popular music. Still, looking at the first page or two of results, I found that those results were about a video game. Some links explained that I would love the game. Others let me know about places I could buy the game, including less expensive second-hand versions.
Sometimes, when I have a question, I find that instead of answers or estimated answers, I get lots of information about a band with the name of some of the main words in my question.
Let's say that I am a politician and that I want to hold public office. I am not saying I would be a good candidate, just imagining what it could be like. I guess it helps if I have an idea for what seems like it would be an improvement in our lives and I want to explain my idea and that you and your friends and relatives should vote for me so I can work to make my idea a reality in my city or state or country. I appear in some forums to explain my plan and to try to persuade you that my ideas and personality would be an asset to you and others.
I guess this situation is similar to my owning a small business and being interested in convincing you to buy raisins or shoes or something from me. It is just that the product I am advocating as a politician is me, my impulses, my approaches to questions. I use my history and accomplishments. A big factor is that problems and proposals and complaints that arrive later cannot be known now, although there can be attempts at predictions.
Politics and commerce seem to me to have fallen into a pattern of communicating what is on their agenda, not mine. I am fairly elderly and if they hold the floor and stay with subjects they think will persuade me to buy their message and their product long enough, I may well expire before I get to explain what if anything I want from them.
This message comes from a citizen that is fatigued by the increasing load of messages and offers that are presented to me and my wife that we try to wade through.
My daughter and her husband bought me Storyworth for Christmas. That company sends me a question each week. I write an answer. They send it to her and collect my answers. Later, they will offer me copies of the answers in a little book.
This week, their question was "Who inspires you?" It has prompted me to think about inspiration. I feel I am inspired by someone when I want to be like them, when I want to develop a skill they have or they make me think of having. It can be tricky. A serial killer or an arsonist can inspire me to avoid hurting or killing people or burning their property. Some female faces make me immediately think of kissing them but I don't think that I am being inspired. I'd rather use the word "attracted" or maybe "drawn".
I looked up "inspire" and found that it is related to "breathing in". When a person inspires me, I am breathing in something. That something can be an intangible. When I see a baby that seems jubilant about being alive and I realize I too am alive, I can feel jubilation from the baby's presence and my interpretation of what I see.
I don't have any doubt that much of my inspiration has come from reading authors. Some has come from colleagues and friends. I ended my list of inspiring people with these links to books that have been important inspirations:
https://sites.google.com/view/kirbyvariety1/reading-list-1983,
I did the research for my doctoral dissertation in the years 1965 -1968. One of the most helpful authors were Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. Tversky died in 1996 and Kahneman died last week. You might well have never heard of these two men but in certain fields of thought, they are quite famous.
Kahneman's book "Thinking: Fast and Slow" is about the same area as my dissertation. Kahneman is sometimes said to have been an important founder of the subject of "behavioral economics", what makes people do what they do with their buying and selling. My degree is in the subject of "educational research methods". Deciding what to teach, deciding how to teach that material/subject and deciding how to assess the learning that takes place can be considered to be a matter of planning and expenditure of human energy and communication and assessment.
Much of the world is happy and tranquil but parts are very much not. I hope your area is the way you want.
This a Sunday and you can view CNN's Photos of the Week by clicking this link:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/28/world/gallery/photos-this-week-march-21-march-28/
As I understand it, evidence points to a time when some of my ancestors used all four of their limbs to walk and move generally. I have read repeatedly that going about on just two legs enabled animals to develop hands. You might think that having hands is nice and all, but what are we going to do with them?
The answers are surprisingly complicated. Roughly, the answer is "everything." I said to a physical therapist that I had read that back and spine problems might be less for humans if we gave up walking on two legs and returned using all our four limbs for walking but he said he didn't want to give up walking on two legs ("bipedalism"). My hearing has gotten poor and I often can't tell what someone said. People my age often find that their eyesight isn't as good as it was. People my age have memory problems, too. I try to keep pen and paper handy to write a note about something I want to remember. Those thoughts bring me to hands, using them to make notes.
Once I start thinking about hands and paying some attention to them, I realize how much I can do with them. I do use them to make the letters in this blog post. I do use them for carrying things. I do use them to pour and cut and use cutlery. I am impressed with the way my fingers and my brain cooperate in picking up and carrying several objects at once, without thinking about how to do that. It almost seems that my hands do important things on their own. There is a book "The Hand" by Frank Wilson.
I mean by "open collections", arrangements to gather or collect without any provision for capping or halting the gathering. My clothes and my pocket handkerchiefs have no lid, no top, no maximum. My Kindle books and my blog posts have no halting number. I did get informed by Google Sites that my website Kirbyvariety was close to maximum allowed size but I started Kirbyvariety2 successfully. I have a large collection of Kindle books and a large collection of posts on my blog Fear, Fun and Filoz.
One thing that I appreciate is a collection that is searchable. Often, a sign that a searching arrangement is in place is an icon of a magnifying glass:
The presence of such an icon usually means I can search for a given word or phrase and the computer will find every instance of that word in the document or collection I am searching. Sometimes, I can search for a number or a date as well.
My wife recently questioned my collection of bound, paper books. She asked if I ever use them and I admitted that the answer is "not much". Similarly, what about my collection of old shoes? Why am I keeping 18 pairs of worn-out, rejected shoes? The process of collecting is smooth and easy: the shoes I am wearing get criticized for being too old and beat-up. I buy a new pair to look more acceptable but the older pair might come in handy when my shoes get wet and need to dry. So, I add the pair to my collection. Don't worry: I do plan to get around to getting rid of some of them.
I attended an excellent presentation on Zoom today. Larry Oathout, the director of our Portage County Libraries, spoke on the modern public library and what it offers people. It is a bit hard to say what it offers. It is easier to see what you want, especially if you want to know something, to ask a librarian if you can find what you want in the library. Of course, these days, books can be found there. There are some people who don't like books. They can't read or they can't read English or they can't see. Even for such people, it could be valuable to visit the library and to learn to find its website on the internet and check that out.
Much is made these days of the "digital" services but I think maybe that word puts some people off. The digital services are also computer services but they are also tablet and smartphone services. So, if you have a smartphone like an iPhone, or a tablet like iPad or Kindle Fire, or a laptop like an Asus, there are many ways to use that device to take advantage of today's library.
The local public library has taken to loaning items you might not expect, such as a colander or tool of some sort.
She got her driving license. Of course, we older, more experienced folks realize that it is more than a license to drive a car. It is also an ID for air travel and for many other forms of accepted identification, that is, documented verification of name, age and some other variables.
We have four greatgrandchildren and two of them now have driver's licenses and are permitted to operate large, heavy vehicles that travel at high speeds. These vehicles allow drivers to reach points well beyond walking and even biking distances. Plus, cars can easily carry quite large loads that are too heavy and bulky to carry by hand.
We hope the new driver uses good sleep habits and steadily stays alert to learning what other drivers, wild animals such as deer, and road conditions are up to.
I like reading a good book. There are many in my own collection. There are many in the local library. I could buy some good ones and I have. How can I choose a good book?
There are many films we could watch on Netflix and other channel/companies. How do I choose which to watch?
I wrote my dissertation on choice theory and methods but it takes too long to list advantages and disadvantages of reading each book. I can apply those writing and judging methods to 4 or 5 candidates for reading. I can ask my wife which appeals to her.
I was impressed when my 4 or 5 year old greatgrandson was able to make a satisfying choice of videos to watch after seeing the artwork on the box.
We all do many things by "gut".
If you want to see CNN's Photos of the Week, click here.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/21/world/gallery/photos-this-week-march-14-march-21
My friend said that when she had just gotten her driving license, her mother asked her to get some groceries. She drove to the store and bought them. When she was putting the food away, her mother came in and said,"Oh, you're home. I didn't hear your car." Oops! Out of habit, she had carried the groceries home, leaving the car where she had parked it.
Our young friend has a 4 year old son. He is very interested in science,
especially astronomy. He has learned about black holes. She tells us that he wants to dress as a black hole for Halloween.
I have two prompts for myself to write today. They are related to each other, both having to do with modern smartphones and their use. I do own a reasonably smart phone. It is a Motorola phone, not the ubiquitous iPhone. Every time I see or hear "Motorola", I am only ten years old again, listening to The Lone Ranger on my bedroom table top radio.
In our house, we have Panasonic phones for our landline and I encourage their use, although with my deteriorating hearing, if someone calls and leaves a message, I often cannot decipher what they said to our answering machine. Many electronic tasks in a modern household are explained by instructions that assume I have a smartphone quite close at hand and am familiar with everything it can do.That idea is far from true.
I am still vibrating with excitement over email. I remember the excitement I felt in about 1990 over my discovery of email. I realize that many friends and relatives don't look at email accounts for the good reason that nothing happens in them. It's "texting", you silly old guy!
Yesterday, Thursday, March 21, 2024, is the first day in 15 or 20 years that I didn't post in my blog Fear, Fun and Filoz and I didn't notice. We went out to dinner and talked with friends there so it was a bit of an unusual evening. This morning I saw that my prompts notebook had no entry, not even the day and date for yesterday. I looked at the blog page and Wednesday, the 20th, has an entry.
If you looked for an entry for yesterday, I didn't provide one. I am sorry for me that I didn't keep up my string but I am not too tearful over it. When I have taken trips and I suspect I might not have access to the internet, I have intentionally skipped, but not plain oversight and forgetting.
I do urge keeping a blog. I think it helps notice one's own life as it happens. You can run one for free on Google's Blogspot and on WordPress. If you search, you may well find many others. If you start one, be careful about what you post.
I like to think of myself as an open-minded guy interested in "good ideas" and "progress" toward a good life. But sometimes, I see signs that don't support that picture. Sometimes, I get quite annoyed with the simple passage of time. Today is Wednesday, March 20. I just get that fact firmly in mind when the fact gets out-of-date and WRONG. It will get to be time for bed rather quickly and when I wake up in the morning, I will have to clear that fact out of my head and memorize the day as being Thursday, March 21.
I was reading about Americans who call themselves "conservative" and what people drawn to that group have said their basic beliefs are. I read that a basic belief is that a smart citizen keeps his eye on the government and works to keep it smart, unobtrusive and limited. I can't find any more obtrusive aspect of my relations with the US government than its imposition of time zones and dates. I have read that before the American development of its railroads, each town looked to the sky and took the moment the sun was at its most overhead position to be noon. So there were multiple "times" all over the place, not even considering the reliability and steadiness of clocks and time calculations. I'm a time-conscious guy, maybe even time-dominated, but I would like my government in the land of the "free" to get off my back and not change the damn date every damned day!
I am surprised to find that it is already spring!! The Spring equinox occurred hours ago!
I like to try to keep things simple so I use the 21st of certain months for the official change of seasons. But you know…. THE BEST LAID PLANS OF MICE AND MEN GANG OFT AGLEY
We try to keep track of things but nature, including that of our bodies and heads, is complicated. As Pope Gregory XIII found when his astronomers had a little chat with him about the calendar. Today is the 19th, so the mental adjustments needed to accommodate when I find that it isn't Thursday as I expected aren't burdensome. It is still cold and sunny outside. I don't expect there will be riots demanding that the days be restored in 1582. I learned in graduate school that people were horrified and angry that 10 days had been removed from their lives. They angrily demanded those days be restored. The days were not "restored".
Just so you have fewer electrifying surprises:
My sister explained. She had a burglary. They came through a window. They stole her brain. I actually didn't believe her. Turns out she was referring to less speed in her memory retrieval. I sympathize with her but everyone I know who is over 80 has similar experiences. What is the name of that actress? I always like her. She was quite popular. I know I know her name but I can't get it to come to mind. It is on the tip of my tongue. I think she had an affair with that actor. She was the mother of what's- his-name.
I told my sister that there are moments when my lunch friends, all retired professors, are all sitting at the lunch table with their heads tilted back, gazing upward. They are trying to make brain juice run down to their tongue, enabling recall.
When listening to a statement, a plan, a defense, an attempt to persuade, I am often taken with the idea of changing a sentence that includes the word "the" to the word "a".
Many people in the US are naturally drawn to whatever is exciting, outstanding in some say. I guess it is a natural psychological tendency. It is difficult to state a superlative without using the article "the". Which book is your favorite? Which team will win? Which artist did you like THE most?
I am impressed with the more relaxed, less argumentative feeling that comes along with change in the little words. Which book did you like? Which team will do well? Which artist did you like? Having played with this sort of change, I have learned that it doesn't take much to invite broader, more open thinking. If I add plurals, as in Which artists did you like?, I open the door to different sorts of liking: dramatic, original, memorable, etc.
We practice being "right" with good reason. We want to be a source of useful, solid information. When I ask what book is your favorite, you are asked to scrutinize your reactions and tease which author, athlete, date, subject, food REALLY is your favorite? You have to unlease your careful comparer and weigh carefully. So you can't answer until you have carefully weighed your reactions to "Oppenheimer" and to "Barbie".
Many books, videos and other tools aim at helping people develop a helpful attitude toward life and difficulties. I recommend developing an attitude based on a life as a path of adventure. When we awake in the morning, we are beginning a day that has never been lived before. If you want, you can emphasize similarities between what happens one day and what happens another. Some people hope that the basic list of daily events doesn't change and that the quality and details of the day stay very much like what happened on other days.
But if you are old enough, you can remember what happened five or ten years ago. It may be obvious that these days are quite different. You can compare today or yesterday with days just after you were born, or as you started school or in the first days after agreeing to marry your partner.
There has never been another you with your body, your hopes and doubts, interests and fears and there never will be.
Being you is an adventure!!
I attended a L.I.F.E.round table of open discussion today. I think a rectangular table is okay. My lunch group of all retired men used to sit at a round table and after we moved to a location that didn't have one, there were some mild complaints and wishes to find one again. My hearing is worse than it was and too many statements and comments sound like the speaker has a mouthful of muffling mush. If I ask about a word I didn't get, I usually get a calm, polite repetition but I know that can get annoying.
I suspect a criminal gang, a group of scientific researchers or a family facing a monetary shortfall sit and talk in somewhat similar ways. Small groups talking together are one of humankind's main tools for solving problems and lifting spirits.
I was born in the US a while back and I am now rather old. I have been abroad some, but basically I am an American. That means in addition to my natural basic impetuosity and male readiness, I learned that a fundamental measure of life proceeding as it should is immediacy. When I type, it should be FAST! When I cook dinner, I should prepare it FAST! When I calmly sit back and enjoy the day, the moment, my life, I should get deeply in such enjoyment FAST!
I am confident that seeking, promoting immediacy has its limits and downsides. I learned from the very helpful book "Incognito" by David Eagleman (only $7 in Amazon ebooks or borrow from a library) that there is far more to me than just my mind. The important parts of me, the parts that are needed to keep alive, are often unconscious. A stethoscope can detect my heart rate and other devices can measure this or count that but many essential processes are not directly detectable nor controllable.
It is fully true that respiration, balance on just two feet, digestion and processes I am not aware of all matter to my old, wrinkled body. There are sort of inbetween factors that are mostly outside my mind but are still quiet influencers that exert some control that is difficult to notice and very difficult to modify like habits, unconscious effects of hormones, levels of fatigue.
Despite all that, not everything needs to be immediate.
