On my grandson's 7th birthday, we spoke about love. I asked him whom he loved most. He said he loved 99% of all the people he knows. I then said that maybe he didn't understand love; and his 5 year old brother chimed in: "Maybe you don't understand love."...
Every US President is memorialized in the collective consciousness in simple terms. Franklin Roosevelt = the depression, WWII; Truman = nuclear bombing of Hiroshima; Eisenhower = General; Kennedy = assassination; Johnson = Vietnam War; Nixon = Watergate; Ford = placeholder; Carter = peanut farmer; Reagan = optimist; Bush = Desert Storm; Clinton = Monica Lewinsky; Bush = 9/11, Gulf War; Obama = Obamacare; Trump = fake news, political incorrectness. Of these associations, fake news will have the most profound and likely longest lasting affect on society. Today, most Americans realize media is a means to political and commercial ends; as such, it's skewed; essentially, propaganda. This realization is an awakening that forces many to think independently about political issues. Thinking independently is highly unusual. But that's what the populace in in 2020. It decided it had had enough of the profane Trump. It bought into the Democratic Party's labeling of Trump as a Fascist, white-supremist, misogynist, anti-Semite, Nazi, etc. However, the populace also considered the anti-capitalist Democratic platform and said "no" to that by voting in more Republicans to Congress. Illegal immigration was not an important issue. Had it been, the populace would have overwhelmingly voted for Biden as the Democratic Party's anti-capitalistic platform would have made the US an unattractive destination for immigrants. On balance, Trump, profound and profane, will have had the most significant affect of any recent president....
Desiring that which is not now available leads to suffering as it keeps us from being grateful for what we have. Moreover, suffering distracts us from keeping our eyes open for when what's not now available or alternative show up....
With enlightened masters from Jesus to Buddha to Rajneesh to Rebbe Schneerson to the Dalai Lama and countless others with flocks of disciples, it is curious that when these enlightened ones transitioned from this world no equally enlightened disciple emerged to replace them. Perhaps a disciple, like a drone, cannot turn into a queen bee by following her lead. Perhaps it's hard to see the light under the shadow of an enlightened master. Perhaps the road to enlightenment is a narrow road that doesn't allow a disciple to walk side by side with their master and partake of the panoramic view of life. Or maybe a chick needs to give birth to itself by cracking open the eggshell in which it developed; otherwise, cracked open by the enlightened master, the chick might not survive its birth. That is, enlightenment is not a relay race with the passing of the baton but an individual journey one needs to travel alone. Though a road map, the writings and teachings of an enlightened master, can be helpful; following enlightened masters will never get us to the divine destination where they reside. As Menachem Mendel Schneerson said at his inauguration as the Rebbe in 1951: "Now listen, Jews. Generally, in Chabad it has been demanded that each individual work on themselves, and not rely on the Rebbes. One must, on their own, transform the folly of materialism and the passion of the 'animal soul' to holiness...
Those who are smart are best at remembering, quickly analyzing and arguing about matters passed. The wise are best at predicting things to come. The smart shed light on the past. The wise light the road forward. The smart have highly developed senses of seeing and hearing; often with underdeveloped senses of smell, taste and touch. In the extreme, they are idiot savants, able to do one thing extraordinarily well and not much else. The wise ones are generalists. They have more equally developed senses which allow them to know things from different perspectives. Having many perspectives is the essence of wisdom. Especially developed is their nose, the forwardmost of our senses. The nose knows when things smell right or not. It's easier to determine who is smart than who is wise as intelligence is judged ex-post and wisdom ex-ante. Society is geared to recognize intelligence more than wisdom and elevates those deemed smart to high positions in society. As such, in the short-run the smartest are more successful than the wisest. In the long-run, however, those who are conventionally smart are less likely to survive as circumstances change; for it's not survival of the smartest but survival of the wisest. The wisest are best at seeing changes before they are obvious and can either adapt to a changing environment or change their circumstances where they can better adapt....
"We believe we make our choices, but no -- they make us." Our choices reflect how we see ourselves. How we respond to the consequences of our choices defines us. When how we see ourselves is not aligned with how we respond to the consequences of our choices, we make poor choices....
When the sea is calm and clear all there is to see is in the sea. As reflections from our mind, the sea (1) (1) Proto-Germanic "saiwaz" (sea) is the etymology of the word "soul."...
"When I was in college I told my grandfather I had just met a boy and was in love with him. Immediately came the questions: 'He's from a good family; he's white; he's black; he's Jewish; he's Christian; he's smart...
Everything is a unique manifestation of God. Therein lies the beauty of everything. If we don't see this beauty, we don't know what we're looking at. If we think we know, we make fools; nothing funnier than that....
"Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it into fruit salad." Classifications help organize and provide artificial meaningfulness in an otherwise overwhelming universe but often fail to provide insight into the true nature of the objects classified as everything is unique....