Jo S. Wun's Blog, page 13
October 13, 2011
Tender Sympathy With Care
I know she cannot hear me now,
I know it makes no sense,
But it's so very hard to change,
From present, to past tense.
Her neurons cannot tell to mine,
That they have ceased to be,
That there'll be no further input,
No added memory.
But let me just pretend a while,
That she really can still hear,
That I can touch her smiling face,
Can feel her body near.
You may catch me talking to her,
You may hear me cry out loud,
You may see the tear stains on my cheek,
See me running from the crowd.
Yes, it is an open wound,
That's plain for all to see,
But don't try to disinfect it,
That swab won't set me free,
This pain is all I have now,
Don't take it from me yet,
Don't tell me time's a healer,
This pain I will forget.
I don't want your pure white bandage,
Don't make me beg, or plead.
Don't prescribe that 'magic potion'!
I don't want that quackery.
I'm sorry, have I offended?
Have I been insensitive?
Have I gone and hurt your feelings,
When all you did was 'give'?
But when a gift is thoughtless,
To what does it amount?
You may think it just a cliché,
But it IS the thought that counts.
Grief Beyond Belief
There's an excellent Facebook page which has been set up to support people who are grieving the loss of a loved one, but who hold no religious or supernatural beliefs. You won't find anyone peddling clichés like "they've gone to a better place" here. The guidelines on the "Info" page make it clear that any such comments are not welcome and anyone making comments of that nature will be asked to remove them or, if they refuse, have them removed by the administrator. The idea is to provide a safe space for atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, skeptics, humanists and other non-believers to grieve the loss of loved ones. Non-atheists are welcome to participate, providing they follow the guidelines in the same way that everyone else does.
I hope that none of my readers are in circumstances where Grief Beyond Belief would be an appropriate place to visit, but if you are, then I highly recommend it. Come to think of it, I recommend a visit whatever your circumstances. If you like what you see then make it known by 'Liking' the page - even if you don't feel able to make comments to support those who have suffered a loss, just knowing that there are a lot of people who support the page is a comfort.
October 12, 2011
Free From Apple's iBookstore
The Jeremy - Snaps Of The Dragon is in the Apple iBookstore, available for download to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, and to your computer with iTunes. And it's free.
United Kingdom: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/isbn9781452325811
USA: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/isbn9781452325811
Australia: http://itunes.apple.com/au/book/isbn9781452325811
Canada: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/isbn9781452325811
France: http://itunes.apple.com/fr/book/isbn9781452325811
Germany: http://itunes.apple.com/de/book/isbn9781452325811
Please note that although it is available from non-English sites, it is only available in English.
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October 11, 2011
EZ PZ Takedown
If you've read my post entitled From Siddhartha To Deepak Chopra then will know my opinion of Mr. Chopra. He's reviewed Richard Dawkins' (some professor sort of chap, I hear) latest book, The Magic Of Reality, and apparently dissed it in his usual style. I haven't read either the book, or Deepak's review, but I have read PZ Myers' post about Deepak's review, on his Pharyngula blog. PZ characterizes the review thus:
Shorter Deepak: “Richard Dawkins didn’t endorse my quantum bullshit, therefore The Magic of Reality sucks!”
He goes on to take it apart in his own inimitable style, but this classic bit of PZishness caused me to (dare I say it?) laugh out loud:
I could go on and on about the stupidity of Deepak’s review — every paragraph is like the evacuations of an elephant with diarrhea — massively feculent and slimy, of a quality that will not even appeal to the neighborhood dung beetles.
Go read it, for the full PZ experience.
October 10, 2011
So You're That Boy From Queens?
The boy in question, is Richard Feynman. If you haven't heard of him then it's tempting to say "shame on you!" But then I'd have to admit that I wasn't really aware of his existence, or at least not that I remember, for a large part of my life, despite growing up in a world he helped to shape.
If you are not aware of him, he was a scientist, thought by many to be of the same calibre as Einstein. He was into quantum mechanics and all that weird stuff which, despite its weirdness, has had such a large impact on our lives. But that's not why I'm writing this - if you want to know more about all that stuff, and his life history, then Wikipedia is as good a place as any.
The reason I'm writing this post is because of his New York City accent. I watched the three videos below after reading this post at Open Culture, and I suspect it was down to my 'British ears', but I struggled to understand what he was saying at times. It seemed incongruous, in a charming way, that I was having trouble understanding such a brilliant man, not because he was talking 'above my head', but because he grew up in Queens (and I grew up in the Home Counties of England).
If you have the same trouble figuring out what he's saying as I did, persevere. A beautiful mind is putting thoughts into words.
The Feynman Series is a companion project of The Sagan Series
https://www.facebook.com/thesaganseries
October 8, 2011
Insomnia Blues
Well, I woke up this morning,
(It was the middle of the night),
I'd dreamt of some dire warning,
(I could do without that shite).
Brain lit up, 'round the hippocampus,
Like a hungry pack of dogs,
Just bitchin', snappin', 'n' creatin' a rumpus,
Slaverin' on my mental cogs.
So it's hello ceiling, old friend,
Your empty canvas beckons.
And the creeping shadows, they all portend,
The deeds of fiends and felons.
Maybe it was the Dalai Lama?
Crashed in while astral planing,
He is the one sings Hari Rama?
Material things disdaining?
But hey, he's divinely light,
(Does he have a darker side?)
Could he fill me full of fear and fright?
PR image override?
Nah. It must be something else,
Historical? Hmmmm... maybe.
Something deep within my self?
From when I was a baby?
Feral loathing in Los Angeles,
They're trouble, them thar angels;
You can't be sure if it will please,
Karl Marx or Friedrich Engels.
Ah, my thoughts are muddied water,
I'll be sleeping very soon,
Then a pulse in my aorta,
Reminds me of a tune.
Well, I woke up this morning,
(It was the middle of the night),
I'd dreamt of some dire warning,
(I could do without that shite).
October 4, 2011
Averse To Quotes?
Quoth loosely, or spoken verbatim,
Either way we can love 'em or hate 'em.
But one thing, for sure, is a given,
Love 'em, or not, we're stuck with 'em.
A quote or a saying for every occasion,
Some, full on, some filled with evasion.
Too many cooks with many hands (ahem...cough)
Making light work of spoiling the broth.
Some quotes are meant to inspire you,
Conjuring visions; a beautiful bayou?
And then there are plenty of humorous ones,
Full of clever words, and pithy puns.
On Kerouac, the words of Truman Capote,
Cannot be thought kind, not even remotely;
“That's not writing, it's typing,” he said.
(I imagine dismissively shaking his head)
“I had nothing to offer ... 'cept my own confusion.”
Jack was clear on that, he had no delusion.
(Would you find it amusing if he donned a capote,
While typing the words he so cleverly wrote?)
“Art is anything you can get away with.” Er,
that's sure to make the conservatives shiver.
We've Marshall McLuhan to thank for that,
Well cheers, me ol' mate, here's a tip o' the hat.
October 2, 2011
Whole Grain Thinker
After I'm gone,
the world won't mourn me.
But I'm not forlorn, be-
cause the few who knew the man,
who I tried to be,
forgave me (for my 'also ran').
Nobody's perfect,
I've heard many propose.
In their comatose
pursuance of 'who gives a fuck',
they foul the paths and roads.
Sole destroyers (man, does that suck!)
Grumpy old git.
Is that what I've become?
Just a meddlesome
old man with nothing more to do
than spoil all the fun?
Lawks-a-mercy! (tell me it ain't true)
A whole grain thinker,
a tinker of words,
kicking over magic turds.
Looking for what? Lies - beneath
which stagnation girds
the imagination (like a sterile sheath)
[A quick aside,
Before you read the last,
"My sweet 'backside'",
Pronounce it ass not arse]
That's my nutshell,
job done, I'm self-assessed.
"Well, he did his best"
Not the utmost peak of epitaphs?
So write this on my chest:
"His goal was to split the wits from the chavs"
September 30, 2011
Free Will
Firstly, for the duration of this post, let's put aside the question of whether 'God' is a figment of the imagination or not. Let's just go with the idea that 'He' is real.
Secondly, let's also put aside the question of whether we have 'free will' or not. It's an interesting subject, but for this post we'll go with the idea that we do have 'free will'.
Thirdly, to get into the spirit of the thing (no religious connotation intended!), I'll even drop the 'scare-quotes' from now on...
Okay. So, did God give us free will? As I understand it, our free will is an essential part of religious teaching. It certainly is an essential aspect of the Christian doctrine. If God didn't give Eve and Adam free will, then humanity could not have been condemned for those two miscreants' sins. After all, the notion of sin can only exist if we have free will; the ability to choose a sinful action instead of a non-sinful one, or vice versa.
[Hmmm. Perhaps I should have added a fourthly to the intro, about leavimg aside the question of whether it's possible, even if you have free will, to commit a sin if you don't yet have any knowledge of good and evil (because you haven't yet eaten the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil). And while I'm at it, let's not go into the question of Adam and Eve's historocity - we'll just pretend they did exist.]
When it comes down to it, God must have given us free will. And for an obvious reason. Without the ability to freely choose how we behave, regardless of the actual choices we make, be they good or bad, the whole caboodle of sin, and the consequent need for salvation, goes out the window. God could have simply removed the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, or restricted access to it, but he didn't do that because doing so would have removed the opportunity to commit the sin of disobeying him. In effect, removing the tree would have been the same as withholding free will.
Why, then, do so many of His modern day followers seem so intent on removing free will from those of us who don't agree with their version of what's right and wrong? In lobbying the politicians to restrict or remove this or that option from the populous, are they not going against God's will? His will was to give us all free will. How daring they are to go against God's will by trying to remove, or restrict, our ability to exercise the free will He gave us. Oh, I know they'll find this or that justification via some interpretation of scripture, but I wouldn't want to be in their shoes if they have to explain themselves to Him - he has a bit of a reputation for smiting and casting asunder.
I've been waiting for an excuse to include some Frank Zappa, and now I've got it. Isn't free will a wonderful thing...
The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing by Frank Zappa
Listen on Posterous
You Are What You Is available at Play.com
Okay, that's the end of this post so I suppose it's time to get down to some housekeeping. I'm not one for sweeping things under the carpet, but just look at the heap of scare-quotes I dropped!
September 26, 2011
A Gottle O' Gear
Stand Up Guy by Mark Knopfler
Listen on Posterous
See the full gallery on Posterous
Mark Knopfler Shangri-La
