The small things

September 8, 2022 John Corrigan

I can remember watching a great sci -fi series called The Fringe on TV. The series protagonist was the son a scientist and played by Joshua Jackson. The unit that the scientist, his son and an FBI agent were part of investigated cases that happened on the fringes of reality. The show lasted for five seasons it was created by JJ Abrams and was a blast to watch.

One of the story arcs of the show had the protagonist traveling into another dimension. Parallel dimensions are explained brilliantly by Neil Degrasse Tyson in this video. Basically (very basic indeed for sure watch the video by Neil Degrasse Tyson) if you imagine everything you know to be reality the earth, the solar system, the galaxies the super clusters all of that has a copy that exists in a different plane if you can imagine a stack of plates our existence is in one plate and other existences are in the other plates. Switch out existence with dimension and you have parallel dimensions. You are in all these dimensions but somethings are different.

In the TV show The Fringe the dimension that he show traveled between had coffee but it was incredibly expensive. Coffee seems small and inconsequential but it is truly a blessing for me. I enjoy every drop of coffee and sometimes I can (insert gasp here) take it for granted, until I purchase some gas station coffee then I realize how good my coffee at home is and I fully appreciate good coffee again.

Life can get complicated, messy and busy, so much so that we take things like coffee for granted.. Don’t do that, gratitude is inarguably good an good for you. Gratitude makes you happier and healthier and it is free!

If you feel like you need something to be grateful for find a cup of coffee (not from the gas station) and take a sip. If coffee doesn’t work look in the mirror. You are very special. The odds of you being born are 1 in 400 trillion! You really are special everyone really is and no matter what that agro a$@hole says you deserve a trophy. Be grateful that you are you and here on earth.

There is always room

September 7, 2022 John Corrigan

My youngest in now in college but I can remember when she was in elementary school and we had just finished eating a pretty big meal. I mentioned that I was “completely stuffed” and wouldn’t even dream of eating anymore. My youngest made a similar comment, later however after seeing an advertisement for ice cream voiced that she wanted ice cream now. I asked her how this could be possible and she replied that, there is always room for ice cream. My wife also let me know that food and ice cream do not stay in the same place in your stomach. We laughed and somehow ate ice cream together.

There have been times when I felt so exhausted and tired and still had to find a way to work and I did many have. How do we do it? How can we go on when we are “done”? Everyone is motivated by different stimuli. I have seen office workers who keep photos of loved ones at their work space as motivation for enduring, I have also seen photos of dream house and cars in the same spaces.

Whatever inspires us one thing is universal we can all find more space for going on, there is always room for ice cream.

Only God

September 6, 2022 John Corrigan

I remember growing up and seeing a key chain. The key chain belonged to my maternal grandmother and I think it said something like “only God can make a Tomato”. I think I am really not sure what the vegetable was, I know it had to do with the sovereignty of god and faith. My grandmother and mom were huge proselytizers for the Christian faith, my mother still is.

I remember hating tomato’s growing up I have come around to tomato’s and enjoy salsa and tacos however you will not catch me eating a BLT.

Last weekend was a holiday weekend here in the United States and my wife, 2 dogs and three kids all left the city and spent time in our camper near the river. While swimming in the river and walking the dog I thought about how foolish we humans are and I thought about that keychain. Humans have been given almost everything they need to survive and thrive from God, nature, mother earth or providence depending on your belief system and humans have paved it over.

The tomato key chain and our weekend enjoying the natural world also makes me think about the poem trees by Joyce Kilmer

Trees

BY JOYCE KILMER

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

Don’t get me wrong humans are capable of many amazing things even creation, but all of humanity’s acts of creation pale in comparison to what has already been created and perhaps the best thing humanity can do is participate not in destructive creation but disruptive innovation and environmental conservationism.

Disruptive innovation and environmental conservationism focus on being a responsible citizen of the earth and understanding that we were given everything we need to not only survive but thrive.

Altogether now

September 2, 2022 John Corrigan

Yesterdays wordle answer was fungi. This got me to thinking about how amazing trees are. Did you know that the trees use fungi to communicate with each other sort of like a world wide web? Scientists are calling it a wood wide web. There is an amazing article in the Smithsonian magazine all about some research into trees. I think the more we learn about trees the more we will respect them. I am a firm believer in the power of education. Education provides an understanding and respect for what we study.

If you ever begin to feel like you are becoming apathetic or even cynical educate yourself. Learn as much as you can about everything and you will discover that education is like a sympathy machine.

Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family
Kofi Annan

One thing that seems to always be present in everything I have learned is that.. everything is connected and when those connections are broken society breaks down. Education informs, creates sympathy and connects us to each other. beings working together to learn more and become more, helping each other in person on line and in life. Just like the trees that send messages through the fungi humans do the same. We let others know about the changes in the weather and traffic patterns. We encourage each other and we learn from and about each other.

Imagine where society would be today if, we focused on connections through education opposed to division through polarization of beliefs.

Watches

September 1, 2022 John Corrigan

When my wife and I started dating I was a huge fan of watches. I have all kinds of watches and time pieces different styles colors and brands. I went for two months once and never wore the same watch two days in a row. When Apple released the Apple watch I bought the first generation and last year for my anniversary my wife bought me the newest Apple watch (best anniversary gift ever). My wife has joked with me on more than one occasion about the watches, not about my obsessive nature but because I have never believed in time. I am not alone in this believe that time does not exist and it is not a crackpot theory like the flat earth one either. Think about time and try to define it…. Impossible right?

Time may not exist however we can run out of it and I am always wishing that I had more of it in my day.

Time is a created thing. To say “I don’t have time” is to say “I don’t want to”

Lao Tzu

I have a list of things I want to do and I often find that I have issues with getting everything done that I want to do. I know I am not alone in this predicament. Instead of time management I beleive I need to focus more on priority management. If I can place the correct priorities in the correct order chance are high that I will be able to reach my goals.

The great athletes never focus on the clock when they are competing. Ignoring the clock can help us fool our brains.

You can accomplish anything I really believe that I believe that more than I believe that time is real.

All that wander

August 31, 2022 John Corrigan

My wife and I are excited, we are in the midst of planning a road trip. We love to get in the camper and explore. There is a lot to be seen and when we are out exploring it feels like we are doing what humans were meant to do.

About 10,000 years ago is the first time humans started engaging in agriculture and abandoned there nomadic nature. People began to settle and domesticated the ancient wolves. Humans developed more food than they could eat and were able to free up time and other resources to build shelter, cities and modern infrastructure.

On its face farming seems to be a good however when I am traveling with my wife I often wonder if farming has been a good or bad thing for society and the world as a whole. Many ecologists argue that agriculture was truly the beginning of the end for humanity on the earth. Farming consumes about 69% of the earths fresh water, and more than half the planets sustainable land has been used for agriculture (essentially destroyed with chemicals). Agriculture supporters would argue that responsible land use is paramount however I have never seen a responsible use for land that has lasted for more than twenty years. Because of greed and overpopulation crop yields are never enough and responsible agriculture is abandoned for more. There is still come confusion surrounding life expectancy prior to and after agriculture as well, not really certain agriculture has helped lengthen or make humans lives better. The one big bright thing that has come from agriculture is the ancient wolf becoming the domesticated dog.

While I lament the loss of the nomad lifestyle I enjoy and try to learn as much as I can from my dog.

Dogs are mans best friend and they know how to live.

Dogs live in the moment – So should we

Dogs play everyday no matter what – So should we

Dogs love unconditionally – So should we

Dogs are always loyal – We should be also

Dogs enjoy life – So should we

The will to what now?

August 30, 2022 John Corrigan

I have been reading Noam Chomsky lately I am in the middle of a great book of his titled, “Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance (American Empire Project)”. The book is a good read, Chomsky lays out the groundwork for a thesis which is, the United States of America has engaged in an an Imperial Grand Strategy since the beginning of the second world war and that the strategy has been developed since the days of George Washington and his conquest of the Iroquois nation.

Hegemony is the dominance of one society over another. It is hard to argue against the fact that the United States has not been in the Hegemony business. English is the most widely spoken and used language in the world. 1.5 billion people in the world speak English and the current population of the United States of America and the United Kingdom is only 396 million. Some will argue for American exceptionalism and that the ideas of democracy and a republic are so lofty that others 1 billion 1 hundred four million people are so taken with republican ideas and democracy that they speak English. Keep in mind that democracy was invented in 500 BCE in Athens and some would argue that the French ideas of democracy. liberty and equality are almost identical to those of the United States. Why doesn’t the whole world speak French then? Some would argue that the French have abandoned colonization while the United States has embraced it with wars on almost every continent disguised as peace keeping, nation building, liberation movements.

All this reading and researching into Hegemony and colonization got me to thinking about Nietzsche and his will to power.

[Anything which] is a living and not a dying body… will have to be an incarnate will to power, it will strive to grow, spread, seize, become predominant – not from any morality or immorality but because it is living and because life simply is will to power… ‘Exploitation’… belongs to the essence of what lives, as a basic organic function; it is a consequence of the will to power, which is after all the will to life.
from Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil, s.259, Walter Kaufmann transl.

I am not positive but a will to power concept lacks something that if humanity is to survive needs to have and that is faith in a higher power or humanity. It makes sense that a society that does not have faith in others will find it that societies responsibility to use their perceived power to enforce their cultures and norms on other societies. The United States started with land management and the slaughter of the indigenous peoples and have not taken their foot off the gas pedal since.

Instead of learning from others the United States has tried and is succeeding in homogenizing the entire world. There is little besides voting that I can do to stop the spread of the United States but in my personal life I will try to be more open minded to others and understand that every living being is exceptional and deserves to be treated that way.

We can learn a lot from other living things if we understand that we are not omniscient.

What did you do???

August 29, 2022 John Corrigan

My wife was helping my step daughter write a resume. A good resume will show your education, experience and what you have been able to provide to the companies you have worked for as far as value.

Basically the resume will show what you have done. Let’s say that you implemented a new training program and that program has been used by all trainees you would put something like; “Created and implemented training program responsible for 80 + new managers and supervisors”.

Work and life can become a sort of hamster wheel. We wake up and go through the motions nothing seems to change and we seem to be in the same place we where yesterday. Building or updating resumes gives us a chance to take stock of what we have done professionally and that is important because, even if we do not see it we have done some things.

It is important that you know that your work matters and makes a difference.

No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence
Martin Luther King Jr.

All work should help others, the only work that would not matter then would be work that hurts other. Let us call work that hurts others bad work. So it is good works that matter and if you do good work you will make a difference for others.

Never stop doing the good work you are doing. Godspeed and good luck

It is ok to be….

August 25, 2022 John Corrigan

I am growing up well maybe I am just growing old and because I am growing old I catch myself almost saying what old people say.

It’s because they are entitled
Every old person everywhere

I have to stop when I catch myself almost saying this while complaining about the younger folks. I almost said it then I began to wonder about entitlement and why did I think it was such a bad thing.

Honestly entitlement isn’t all that bad. Everyone is truly special and does deserve to be treated well. I don’t have a problem with someone who wants to be treated well I do however have a problem with someone who does not treat everyone well and that is not entitled that is simply rude.

I do have a problem with someone who does not respect others. Everyone is entitled to being treated well I really truly believe that.

I am growing older so I will still complain about the younger generation but instead of complain about entitlement I will complain about something else.

A simple plan

August 24, 2022 John Corrigan

Do no harm… The hippocratic oath is something sworn by doctors within the United States of America. The later statement is a believe I have had for a very long time and now I have learned that it is false on at least two accounts.

Many medical schools do not have an oath at all that students are made to swear to and The actual Hippocratic oath does not have the words do no harm in it.

I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous.
Hippocrates

Many doctors and medical schools avoid the “do no harm maxim” because it is pretty impossible to actually do no harm. Everything involves risk the question is not about doing harm as much as it is intention knowledge of the subject and common sense.

I grew up and watched the politics of the world unfold. I was in middle school when the United States participated in the Desert Storm war. I was out of high school when the United States invaded Iraq as part of Operation Iraq freedom, I was also out of high school when the United States went to war in Bosnia, and in Afghanistan.

The United States just recently left the war in Afghanistan and faced some harsh critics for the way that the troop withdrawal happened. War has a harmful effect that almost always outweighs the benefits of the war and should be entered in with lots of understanding and extensive thought.

Wars have high risk and many deaths

Wars have never hurt anybody except the people who die. Man has no right to kill his brother.

Not only has war caused great death and pain it has also brought escalation. World super powers have armed themselves to the teeth and actively worked to disarm others. Right now the doomsday clock is at 100 seconds to midnight.

It is imperative that parents and mentors raise children who are slow to make war and quick to make peace.

Do no harm is not always possible but should always be considered