Charissa’s Comments (group member since Nov 17, 2008)

Charissa’s comments from the Axis Mundi X group.

by JOE HOBART

Abstract. Philosophy 101 Revisited

A professor stood before his Philosophy 101 class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up the very large
and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full? They agreed it was.

So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He then once more asked if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous — yes.

The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and proceeded to pour the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty
space between the sand. The students laughed.
”Now,” said the professor, as the laughter subsided, ” I want you to recog- nize that this jar represents your life”.

”The golf balls are the important things —- your family, your partner, your health, your children, your friends, your favorite passions — things that
if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full”.

”The pebbles are the other things that matter, like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else – the small stuff.”

”If you put the sand into the jar first”, he continued, ”there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your
time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you”.

Pay attention to the things that are important to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out
dancing. Play another 18.

There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party and fix the disposal. ”Take care of the golf balls first. — The things
that really matter. Set your priorities. the rest is just sand” One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented. The professor
smiled .

”I’m glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there is always room for a couple of beers. No matter how hectic you think things are at school, RELAX.

As George Carlin said.... "Mother's milk leads to heroin."

I started out reading pulp sci fi and fantasy, horse stories, Nancy Drew, and even a few Harlequin romances (gasp!). Eventually I was encouraged to pick up headier volumes, and then forced to in college. Now I'm so hard to please with fiction it's embarrassing. People give me books to read and I want to set them on fire sometimes. Luckily no one has tried to hand me "Twilight".

We all struggle along on different paths, reading habits included. A small library should try to be a balance of research materials, literature, and mainstream fic... to try and serve it's community both in ways that are requested and in ways that are subversive!

Big libraries should have EVERYTHING in them. Ha ha ha. No, I'm totally not joking.

Did I mention I'm hard to please? : )

Bunny, I'm glad to know that kind of revolution is happening in upstate New York. I'm not surprised... I hope they figure it out. It is a noble pursuit.

Are any of the people there practicing biodynamic farming? It's sounds pretty wack when you read about it, but I know folks who have had amazing results in reclaiming land that had become unworkable. It is another beacon of hope that we can pull ourselves back from the brink if need be.

http://www.biodynamics.com/

Farming is a hard life. It always has been, and likely always will be. I grew up in farm country, and have been around a lot of farmers and ranchers. My cousin Todd is a hay farmer here in Petaluma. He's a year younger than me and you should hear him talk, he sounds like an eighty year old: "goddamn grape growers, taking up this whole valley, I'm the last real hay farmer in this entire county.." It's hysterical. He came to our Uncle Leo's funeral in a red and yellow, blanket pattern cowboy shirt with pearl snaps. He's the genuine article, that one.

One of the things I hold against Reagan to this day is the way he let the small farmer get muscled out by the corporate farms during the eighties. So many of our farming families went bankrupt and had their farms foreclosed on. Where was the "bailout" then? It was a sad day when the food production in this country was given over to corporate interests, who have applied practices which have sucked the nutritional and cultural value out of the heart of our country. My stepmother's brother, Rich Britt, has suffered through years of chemo and radiation to treat the multiple melanomas he developed due to living in the farm country of Illinois. Monsanto farms soy and corn there, and the chemicals in the groundwater have caused a lot of people there to develop cancer.

Luckily I live in an area where people have understood the value of sustainable farming practices for a long time now. We have access to the highest volume of sustainably grown, organic, free range food in the entire country.

Like most things, people behave more humanely when they are within the communities where they earn their living. This whole corporate culture encourages people to live dissociated from their decisions.

I hope, whatever the future holds, it will mean a return to sustainable farming practices, with the rich, important, traditional farming culture where people live connected to where their food comes from, in tune with the seasons, the cycles of the earth, the song of the soil.

Congratulations to Anna!

Nice little web site she put together there. Nice and simple and to the point, but easy on the eyes. :::applauds:::

:::sings::: ... we just come from a different set of circumstance, I'm up all night in the studio and you're up early on your ranch...

Wow! Okay... I'll put my wooden stake back in it's box and shove it back under my bed. This Creature of the Undead shall walk the earth a while longer.

I loves you guys. : )

So... I've been out of it for quite a while now. Life has undercut my online time. Darn that life. Family, friends and The Plague have conspired to draw all strength and will power from my being, leaving me a blank-minded drone when I stumble at last to my keyboard.

In my absence... things have kind of gone dead here. Or... perhaps things were dying here before that. Perhaps we have explored all the deeper meaning that any of us are really interested in. Perhaps all the political infighting has driven even the most hardy of us from the halls of Axis. Is it the end of Camelot?

My co-moderator has even started his own group. That's how dead this place is.

Shall I put a stake through the heart of this beast and have done with it? Shall I pass the mantle of this forum to another willing soul to remodel and hang a sign "under new management"? Perhaps it is time for me to become just another voice again in the melee... not the traffic cop in the Halls of Mundi.

What say you all? Any thoughts? Any volunteers? Any nominations? Anybody got some chocolate?

Speak.

maybe if there was an exemption if you chose to go to college, but I can't see it being a good thing if people have to wait 4 years before starting college after high school. I could see serving in something non-military being very good for people who don't choose college though. I probably could have really benefitted from something like that.

no no no no no no no no no no no

just

no

Israel has to require service. They fight their asses off to maintain their very existence.

That's right, perv.... I'm the reigning Queen of Pin Up in these parts, and don't you ferget it.

:::cracks her whip:::

perv.

those darn swedes... all up there in the frigid north being all humane and stuff. must be because all the vikings buggered off and bothered other people, leaving the nice, peaceable folks behind. : )

:::applauds:::

nice posts, people. damn.... we got a regular think tank wallowing around in here.

come the revolution we'll probably all be rounded up against the wall and shot.

That is so cool!!! I wanna be a library person!!!

I'm not a regular reader of his strip, but I'm still devastated to know it's ending. I heart Opus 4evah!!!!

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!

NB... I hope you won't stop at responding to Nick's journalism issue... and go ahead and post your list as well.

unfortunately, Nick, that is part and parcel of Freedom of Speech. Even Neo Nazis have a right to print and voice their opinions. The only attempts recently I have seen in an attempt to address anything along these lines is "hate speech" legislation... and that has been met with mixed reactions.

Yes, journalistic integrity has fallen off... as corporate ownership of the media has made it about the sound bite, the spin, the sensationalized headline. There are less biased sources. But usually I cross check news via the internet. Ultimately... it is an imperfect world, an imperfect system... but then again... you have humans running things, so what do you expect? : )

I resent the influence that the media has on our culture in general. I think it is a shiny, fast paced distraction from the deeper things. I think it adds to the isolation that many of us feel. The disconnection. But I have been cynical about the media since I was about 6 years old... so... it's a feeling I've accustomed myself to. I actually stopped watching TV for about 15 years. I rarely read the papers. I think I was happier then.