Question: Do people who enjoy being scared more than average enjoy hot sauce more than average? It just occurred to me that they are a similar kind of animal.
All around us, day in and day out we are suffused with messaging to be our best selves. As Henry Rollins sang “Do it, don’t think about it, do it!” (which Nike immediately stole and turned into their own “Just Do It” ad campaign). Self help books instruct us in a miriad of ways about how to visualize our goals and how to achieve them, despite the odds. After being dragged to church the preacher has us pray as a way to reach our goals, no matter what. I remember thinking at this time that I guess that I should leave my wife and kids to reach my goals, unachievable otherwise. This “Achieve your goals, no matter what” mantra that life gives us causes tension and is probably the root cause for many broken homes. Many of you have endured from me over the years an expression of this tension. My massive mental bag of goals, such as having hours a day to play my piano, ride every skatepark in the world, yada yada, have given me nothing but grief. I have great kids and a hard ass May as...
I’ve got a concept to augment our free market capitalism society. A few months ago I posted an idea along the lines of the star system for better drivers being given privileges to access the fast lane, where the worst drivers would not be given this privilege at all. I now realize that we could extrapolate this system to greatly improve the equitability of our society. We can balance out and reward those who do good and penalize those who do harm. We could improve general morality by increasing taxes on those caught in a lie on any public media such as TV, social media, podcasts, or YouTube. Those demonstrating goodwill by helping those less fortunate, donating time at shelters, or doing other good deeds will be given a leg up on winning the lottery or getting lower taxes. Politicians would be heavily taxed and loose other benefits if they aren’t being truthful. Any out right lie would get them banned from office. A very honorable politician would be compensated. If you do ...
I’m reading Tolstoy’s ‘What is Art’. In it he mentions a definition of art as having five parts as the five senses: taste, smell, touch, hearing, and sight. I would further stratify sight into the spatial 3D form of sculpture, and lastly of matter in motion. Now for my insight. The perfect work of art: It would have to waft a heavenly scent, if tasted would have unlimited depth in complex exquisiteness, it’s motion giving to some, boundless erotic appeal, yet to others, give a sense of of hilarious strength and giving. The colors all in perfect complimentation leaving the onlooker the feeling of having the full spectrum of the depth of there soul rendered before them to perfection. As this perfection in creation blows your mind right in front of you, it begins to sing. A full harmony chorus tapering to an incredible single note that breaks your heart, not only for the one note, but the crafted story of its brethren propelling that one note to its immense height.