Day # 196 And the wrap...

I meant to wrap up my long digressions on the nature of good and evil, really I did.  I was momentarily side tracked by the impending doom of the human race, but since that danger seems to have passed for the moment I will carry on.

In the aftermath of Nietzsche and, with it, the death of God, one must turn to other sources to deal with the nature of evil in the world.  Short of abandoning everything to the Existentialists, one could look to meta-physics.

(This is the guy.  You can blame him, although he would tell you that we all did it.)



Without a creationist view of the cosmos, one has to turn away from a dualism based on deities.  What then is the nature of evil?  How does it relate to good?  An oft-cited meta-physical view of the nature of good and evil is that evil exists only in the lack of good.  Evil exists, but it has no essence.  Evil is the destruction of good rather that the opposite of good.  If human beings stop creating evil, it ceases to exist.  Thus, evil depends upon good to exist, but the reverse is not true.  Good has essence.  This view is based on the premise that humans know what good is and, in the actions we value, in our mores and our social systems, we strive to advance good in the world.

I have to say that I derive a certain degree of comfort from this philosophical outlook.  Stripped of the trappings of good gods and bad gods, of light and darkness, it is a blessing to think that we, all of us scurrying little insects, have the essence of good blended into our beings.  It is only when we go against our essence that we are capable of evil.

Whether or not this is true, it is a lovely idea.

Day # 196 Breaking News

Despite my news boycott, I find that stories of a certain enormous import quickly make their way into my consciousness   Today one such story broke through into my little world with the clarity of a cut diamond.

I have to buy a Blu-Ray player.  I never wanted a Blu-Ray player.  My high definition television rocked my little visual world to a level I did not think possible.  Despite the incredible detail imparted to the faces of the young and the restless, my current level of technology falls short in the face of all this new shit that's come to light, man.

"The Big Lebowski", the source of all things Dude-istic, is coming out on Blu-Ray.  As if that were not enough, there is a special 28-page book to accompany the disc, which, of course, makes it more of a Must Have.  Must have, must have, must have!!  I mean really, like, why else do I have a job if not to consume things?  What do you think I'm going to spend my money on?  Certainly not the Eagles Greatest Hits.

Day # 193 Filters

What gives a news story enough impetus to bypass news media altogether and travel by word of mouth?

It hadn't been a day before I heard about the Governator's marital infidelities with the babysitter.  The aftermath of the earthquake in Japan has apparently disappeared from the public discussion altogether but who Schwarzenegger is having sex with is able to transcend media delivery and make its way into my life by word of mouth.

The royal wedding was distilled down to the single important question of how Kate got into that dress.

Oh, and the end of the world.  That seems to have some serious legs.  Although no one was actually taken up, its seems that a few people volunteered to go.  Poor bastards.  They missed the announcement that the day has been pushed back to October 21st.

I am informed by sources extremely close to home, in fact at home, that all of the news issues out there pale in comparison to the last Oprah show.  In fact The Kid and I were exiled out into the rain whilst the last show aired.  It was that or suffer through the vale of tears that my living room became.

I couldn't tell you if Newt is in the race or out of the race but neither can anyone at Fox or CNN so I guess that isn't news either way.

The wander ways of the Terminator's tool, Judgement day, Kate's butt, Oprah's finale and Newt's follies.  I guess I'm really not missing that much.

Day # 191 Stuff

I have stuff.  George Carlin has my number.  I love my stuff.  There are two types of stuff that I love the most:  Motorcycles and Guitars.

Now that I am a geezer I realize that I have more than a few of both types of stuff. At the same time that I have gathered about me motos and axes aplenty,  I am actively developing strategies that will allow me to live and work abroad.  It is obvious to me that these two pursuits, acquiring and travelling, are not compatible with each other.  Something, it seems, has to give.

The other day I made a list; a list of my guitars and my motos.  I love making lists.  Checklists get me through complicated projects.  I cannot, for instance, say to myself "I'm going to build a new race bike" and then set about to do it.  I can, however, make a list of all of the things I need to buy, build or scavenge that will amount to a race bike.  Once I have the a list, I can start down a path of checking off this item or that item until, surprise, there is a new race moto sitting in my shop.

As I said, the other day I made a list, a list of things, the stuff, that I love the most.  In the last column of the list was where the action item lived.  There where three choices:  Sell It, Keep It or Undecided.  Seeing the choices in written down was a revelation.  Is it possible that I could actually part with either a moto or a musical instrument?  For proof I needed to look no further than the Craigslist ad that I placed last week in which I offered up for sale my 1979 Fender Vibrolux amp.  It is true, I swear it!

Have I since sold all of my stuff and renounced the allure of worldly goods?  No, I have not.  I have, however, relaxed, ever so slightly, my death grip on some of my most important things.  I guess there is some real hope that I can let slip the shackles of possession.  The truth is that the only way I part with my stuff is for the reward of further and lighter travel.

College Classes?  Selling off guitars?  The lure of living and working abroad is strong indeed.  

Day # 190 Still here...

The morning has broken and aside from the normal attrition, the world is not lighter by even one fanatic.  It is a lovely dampish Sunday morning, a fine day for playing pooh-sticks. Regardless, I feel a twinge of disappointment that the rapture did not occur and suck the faithful up into the air like so many dust bunnies attacked by a sturdy Hoover.

Well, the world abides and the whole durn human race along with it.  Until we don't, I reckon.

Day # 187 So Far

I suppose this is a progress report of sorts, a look at the shadows cast on the wall of the things I haven't seen.

The avoidance of the daily news continues as does life.  Most of my friends and neighbors have gotten into the swing of things.  They will start a query with.... "Did you read about the thing is Tribecistan?" until they remember and say, "Oh, right, the news thing" and then we move on to something else.

From my perspective in the cave looking at the mere shadows of the news events, it is interesting to see what becomes word of mouth news, which eventually I end up hearing.  The tragic events in Japan were, of course, quickly discussed on a person to person level and so I heard a good bit about those sad happenings.  Interestingly, the recent royal wedding in Old Blighty had even greater word-of-mouth buzz than the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.  I have heard as much on the street about Kate's diet to fit into her dress as I have about radiation from the Japanese nuclear reactor.

Since the end is coming this weekend, it doesn't really matter, but I have not risen from my bed irradiated nor have I lain awake at night and wondered just how Kate did manage to slither into that gown.  In the context of my experiment as to whether the not listening to the news will make me happier, I would have to assert that in this case, yes it has.

Some news is unavoidable, such as the laborious and inexorable countdown to Oprah's last show.  I have to flee the house to miss out on that.

An obvious blessing derived from avoiding the news is the absence in my life of the pre-pre-election shenanigans for the 2012 presidential race.  Donald Trump and Newt Gingrich?  Seriously?  I would have to say that given the choice between living amongst a populace that would elect either of these buffoons or joining up with Harold Camping and company for the final departure on Saturday, I would have to settle for option two.

Wait a minute.  If the hard core believers are vanishing on May 21st, won't that greatly alter the balance of voters in America?  Hey, maybe I should stick around.

Day # 183 No Blues

Today, friend and neighbors, I do not have the Blues.  No I do not.  Can I get a witness?

Although it is a Sunday morning of drenching, persistent and seemingly endless rain, I do not have the Blues.

And why is this so?  How can I be dodging that sure-footed lowdown-ness that ought to accompany a morning such as this?  You might ask yourself, Sisters and Brothers, and rightly so  "How can a man look out his window on a Sunday, his day off from the labours of the week, see a vision that looks frightfully similar to what Noah saw a day or so before his ark actually floated off, and not have the Blues?"  How indeed!

The answer to this conundrum is:  The Rapture.  That's right, the day cometh and not on little cat's feet.  A mere week from today, May 21st, the fanatics are going to Rapture right on off of the planet  O! Blessed day!  So instead of getting all down at the heels about the dampness of my day off, I wrote a little song to cheer myself up.

I'm a-shinin' my shoes ...
Gonna straighten my tie.
Ain't having no blues.... No Sir!
As I waves them goodbye.

Goodbye fanatics...
And you hate mongers too.
Get gone you dogmatics....
Please, please, please don't come back
Whatever you do


Think a sort of hill country blues in the key of E and you've got it.