Panpsychism

Excerpted from an article Discover by Avery Hurt:

Panpsychism is the idea that consciousness did not evolve to meet some survival need, nor did it emerge when brains became sufficiently complex. Instead it is inherent in matter — all matter.

In other words, everything has consciousness. Consciousness is not limited to humans and other animals. Plants have it, too. It doesn’t stop at living things, either. Stones and stars, electrons and photons, even quarks have consciousness. According to some versions of the theory, the universe itself is conscious. (This variety of panpsychism is known as cosmopsychism.)

You can read the full article HERE. 

I didn't know there was a word for it, but that's sort of what I've believed all my life.

A Discernible Narrative Arc

The excerpt below is from a book review Anil Gomes wrote for The Guardian, available online HERE.  Although I have heard this same thought expressed many times by writers as diverse as Kurt Vonnegut and Thic Nhat Hahn, there's something about the way Gomes words it that hit me in a more direct way:

Consider the fear that your life is a failure: (Kieran) Setiya suggests that this only makes sense if you think of life as having a discernible narrative arc, one which culminates in the completion of some long-travelled quest. But you need not characterise it this way. Many of the things that make life worth living are processes not projects, activities not quests. If I set out to run a marathon, then I open myself up to failure. But if I concentrate on the experience of running, then I partake of something valuable no matter the distance I cover. The value of a project lies in its completion; the value of a process lies in the activity itself. Fear of failure involves emphasising one at the expense of the other.

Same As It Ever Was

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Appendages

“The main business of humanity is to do a good job of being human beings," said Paul, "not to serve as appendages to machines, institutions, and systems.”  ~Kurt Vonnegut, in Player Piano

If That's Gone

"I am going to see what happens if I let go. Then I’m going to see, who am I? Or am I just this person that was defined by what I did? And if that’s gone, if you have to make up yourself, who are you?"  ~Paul Simon (source)

The Perception of Chaos

Excerpted from the essay "Peril" by Toni Morrison, in Burn This Book ©2009:

I have been told that there are two human responses to the perception of chaos: naming and violence. When the chaos is simply the unknown, the naming can be accomplished effortlessly—a new species, star, formula, equation, prognosis. There is also mapping, charting, or devising proper nouns for unnamed or stripped-of-names geography, landscape, or population. When chaos resists, either by reforming itself or by rebelling against imposed order, violence is understood to be the most frequent response and the most rational when confronting the unknown, the catastrophic, the wild, wanton, or incorrigible. Rational responses may be censure, incarceration in holding camps, prisons, or death, singly or in war. There is however a third response to chaos, which I have not heard about, which is stillness.  Such stillness can be passivity and dumbfoundedness; it can be paralytic fear. But it can also be art.

 

Me, Too

I Am
by Mike Frawley

I am a soldier of the world
choosing no sides I lay no blame
carrying nothing but this smile
armed with peace I take my aim

I am a child of the universe
far brighter than any star or sun
I share a sacred bond with you
for we are not two we are one

I am a friend to all who suffer
sight for those lost in blindness
even if they burn with hatred
my only action will be kindness

I am a student of great truths
will walk with love arm in arm
helping any who welcome her
to all others I will do no harm

Don't Sweat

Sherman's Lagoon is on the web HERE.

Maybe…

Cat and Girl is on the web HERE.

"On every issue."

Excerpted from Eddie Cantor's autobiography The Way I See It, written in 1959 when he was 67 years old:

To me, neutrality's a crime.  A sin against yourself and your society.  Know what "neuter" is?  Something sterile.  Impotent.  Incapable of making life.  You can't stay neutral and make much of any life.   A person has to pick his side and fight for it.  On every issue.  I think it's better to be in the wrong than never in the running.

That's the exact opposite of my experience.

The older I get, the more I think, "This is something I really don't need to trouble myself with.  I don't have to form an opinion or pick a side; I can just let this one go."

Solopsism

Ironically, Bucky is not the only one who sees the world through that lens.

Get Fuzzy is on the web HERE.

Along the Way

"When families get together to remember their times together, the conversation has a way of moving easily from the tragedies to the funny things. You'll mention someone who has passed away, and there'll be a moment of silence, and then somebody will grin and be reminded of some goofy story. Life always has an unhappy ending, but you can have a lot of fun along the way, and everything doesn't have to be dripping in deep significance."  ~Roger Ebert, from his review for Terms of Endearment

Critics and Cynics

We don’t have a lot of Social Critics these days.  We do have a lot of whiners, though.

Even though he’d be kind of a load if he lived next door to you, I think America could use a few men like Diogenes of Sinope.