Tag Archives: culture

Gnuday

What’s a gnu?

Not much. What’s anew with you?

What does anything have to do with anything?

Gnats fly up to, bounce against and land on the window screen material (vinyl? metal?) that, if raccoons and squirrels had not scratched dime-sized holes/tears, would act as a shield against mosquitoes entering the sunroom when we slide the glass panel windows “open” on warm, sunny days and cool evenings — what, if any, is the correlation between the ambient temperature in the backyard and the number of gnats that fly into the space occupied by window screens?

Would my writing differ if, as now, I can see a reflection of my “bust” (upper torso, neck and head) in the reflective surface of the laptop computer screen due to the angle of the local star’s energy in the visible wavelength connecting the eyeball’s reverse image of me to the mental image of me with which I constantly grow accustomed to its aging skeletomuscular shape?

The hairs on the surface of Earth — trees in their winter garb — do not block the Sun’s rays from hitting me while sitting here today (and by “sitting here today,” the present instantly becomes the past for no one but the self that was typing the last sentence experienced the moment with itself in the moment).

I is the artificial construct that lives as if it exists and doesn’t exist at the same time…yet how does this “i” experience life other than as a temporary confluence of deeply yet shallow humour, satire that treats this self as if it’s a creator and butt of its own jokes to carry a self-contained bubble of self-referential material to its permanent divergence of sets of states of energy one day?

And yet also take itself seriously enough to set imaginary points in the interaction of sets of states of energy during what we call the future [“goals,” “milestones,” “deadlines,” etc.] in hopeful declaration of success.

I exist alone in this personal meditative moment on a Sunday morning, what my subculture has taught me is a traditional day of rest, knowing neither mortality nor immortality, understanding that what once seemed like permanent states of existence — grandparents, great-uncle/aunt, father — no longer exist, giving hints that the state of the universe we call life does not guarantee permanence for individual examples of life.

To be fully awake and clear of the cloud that constitutes constantly-refreshed mental energy indicating one’s local exposure to clues about one’s place in the social hierarchy has filled many a fictional page and cinema screen.

We are not free from deriving nourishment out of living beings whose existence is directly tied to the energy of our local star.

We have not created beings with stuff not found in this universe.

We are manifestations of small spinoffs of not only the solar system but also the galaxy which spun out of the “ocean foam” of the universe.

We seek proof of life elsewhere when we could just as easily seek how to create new states of existence elsewhere that don’t have to resemble anything we think of as life today.

The trees outside the window will exist in one form or another for millions/billions/trillions of years after I’m gone — perhaps a few of them will thrive because of the exchange of states of energy between me in some form and them in another — we will be unrecognisable as our former individual selves, as it should be.

The subculture of my childhood wanted/wants me to believe in an eternal manifestation of self, which one can argue is a good way to instill the need to live a “good,” “moral,” “ethical” life if one’s actions in the ten, twelve or fewer decades/years one is alive set the place one will exist for the next million/billion/trillion years after one’s set of states of energy have dispersed (when one is dead and living in the afterlife).

I have no argument with organisations that teach stories about supersets of existence which can neither be proven or disproven.

We accept and learn to live by all sorts of different methods for coping with our tenuous place in the universe.

However much we hold on to one set of beliefs, we know others exist who live just as successfully as us and don’t follow or believe us.

Therefore, as we explore the universe in proxy form now and in personal form later, let us establish a baseline of understanding that translates across all subcultural belief sets.

Thus ends today’s coaching to self in anticipation of the next meditation about when organisations, like individuals, have violated the core purpose(s) of the [sub]culture and face the need for transparency in how to apply corrective behaviour that has a lasting effect on the organisations and the [sub]cultures they adversely affect.

All in planning for a future where we, as human beings, may or may not exist in the same form as settlers/colonists on the Moon, Mars and beyond, realising that our new selves will always face the Law of Unintended Consequences in one form or another as a corollary to Murphy’s Law.

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Chinese fortune cookie, international edition

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Changing expectations

While driving through/across countryside and city lanes, my eyes saturated with enervating signs of early winter, a word I had searched for in my wandering thoughts the previous two days popped into my mental vocabulary list: infallible

in·fal·li·bil·i·ty
inˌfaləˈbilədē/
noun
the quality of being infallible; the inability to be wrong.
“his judgment became impaired by faith in his own infallibility”
(in the Roman Catholic Church) the doctrine that in specified circumstances the pope is incapable of error in pronouncing dogma.
noun: papal infallibility; plural noun: papal infallibilities

How many organisations get twisted out of shape in order to protect the image of infallibility? [You, the reader, can supply your own answer, based on personal experience and mass media exposure.]

Wouldn’t it behoove us, in these organisations, to identify those who willfully or consistently stray from the core purpose of the organisation; provide training opportunities for improvement and a transparent method for supporting those who stray a chance to find meaningful, more personally-suited work within the organisation or a helpful pointer to a path for better opportunities elsewhere rather than use hidden methods to protect square pegs trying to pound themselves into round holes?

Accidents happen and how we address them in our overall economy as well as in the workplace signals to citizens the willingness to be honest with each about making a single mistake.

TQM, Six Sigma, and other programs designed to increase quality are good examples of rewarding people for improving how we work together using easy-to-comprehend processes based on the core purpose(s) of an organisation; the opposite are legal rulings that punish an individual or organisation for a mistake (those who willfully/dishonestly/maliciously go against an organisation they voluntarily joined or are a part of, however, should face legal/social/organisational evaluation* (with further assessment of personality traits for where those individuals might better serve the community, if not in the organisation itself**)).

*anything from job/department transfers to arbitration/mediation to drug therapy/hormone treatments to behaviour modification techniques like weekend retreats, prisons, juvenile detention facilities, community service or drug rehab centres.

**the question remains about the mixture of personality types that constitutes a thriving community — what may be unacceptable behaviour in one subculture is viable in another — how willing is an organisation to facilitate the transfer of an individual to a subculture that may be in opposition to the organisation but better serves the community?

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I have traveled this thought trail before but am reviewing my thoughts to see if anything more innovative has appeared.

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Holidaze

Every word posted here sends ripples through the local manifestation of the universe.

The energy associated with the ripples will, according to observable data and scientific hypotheses, slowly dissipate — atoms/molecules bumping into each other, their subatomic particlewaves sharing the energy until it has split into enough shares that the dilution has rendered the original stream of energy into background noise, the pink slime of aethereal ephemera.

Growing up in family traditions, one decides (if one has any actual belief/action in free will) whether to reenergize the traditions for passing on to the atoms/molecules/people/subcultures around oneself.

In the Northern Hemisphere, when our planet approaches a certain place in orbit, we traditionally invoke images of both snowy fields and dry deserts while talking about Santa Claus and the birth of a relatively obscure infant of desert tribe lineage.

Some people counter these images with their own newly-founded traditions such as the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

What do we want in life?

Do we desire happy, healthy social connections?

Since no one is an island, dependent on the surrounding environment for sustenance in one way or another, on what do we replenish our energy sources?

If the source of much of one’s childhood centered on the teachings of text with contradictory information, allowing those wisest amongst us to pick and choose which portions of the text are relevant for today’s receptive pupils, should one pick and choose how to reinterpret the text for personal edification/gratification?

If one’s personality leads one to live a happy, healthy life with a tendency to be kind to others, can we say which came first, one’s innate personality traits of “goodness” or one’s immersion in a family tradition that removed “bad” habits and replaced them with good ones?

This morning, when densely-packed water droplets moving en masse through the sky blocks the direct rays of our local star, giving a bluish-gray hue as background light, the origin of our universe or ourselves as a created/evolved species is not nearly as important as how one chooses to treat others as moral/ethical equals until proven otherwise.

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