David Foster Wallace

Former award winning author, David Foster Wallace, possessed a renegade spirit that captured the inertia and plugged-in addictive state of our nation, in his novel "Infinite Jest", where future Americans, in a post Limbaugh-presidency world,  exercise their single freedom:  the inalienable right to consume. And if you have any question regarding how he felt about the Limbaugh presidency, here is how he summed up the Bush Administration: "The truth—as I see it—is that the previous seven years and four months of the Bush Administration have been such an unmitigated horror show of rapacity, hubris, incompetence, mendacity, corruption, cynicism and contempt for the electorate..."You get the idea. He was not a fan. 

Anyway, Wallace was one of those rare, brilliant, and highly creative, yet tortured souls, whose acute and unrelenting intelligence and awareness combined with his lifelong battle with clinical depression may have cemented his fate.

"The so-called ‘psychotically depressed’ person who tries to kill herself doesn’t do so out of quote ‘hopelessness’ or any abstract conviction that life’s assets and debits do not square. And surely not because death seems suddenly appealing. The person in whom Its invisible agony reaches a certain unendurable level person will kill herself the same way a trapped person will eventually jump from the window of a burning high-rise. Make no mistake about people who leap from burning windows. Their terror of falling from a great height is still just as great as it would be for you or me standing speculatively at the same window just checking out the view; i.e. the fear of falling remains a constant. The variable here is the other terror, the fire’s flames: when the flames get close enough, falling to death becomes the slightly less terrible of two terrors. It’s not desiring the fall; it’s terror of the flame yet nobody down on the sidewalk, looking up and yelling ‘Don‘t!’ and ‘Hang on!’, can understand the jump. Not really. You’d have to have personally been trapped and felt flames to really understand a terror way beyond falling" -- excerpt from "Infinite Jest"

Addressed to the 2005 graduating class at Kenyon College, the following is an excerpt from one of the best and most unique commencement speeches ever given:

"There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, "Morning, boys, how's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, "What the hell is water?"

If at this moment, you're worried that I plan to present myself here as the wise old fish explaining what water is to you younger fish, please don't be. I am not the wise old fish. The immediate point of the fish story is that the most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are the hardest to see and talk about. Stated as an English sentence, of course, this is just a banal platitude -- but the fact is that, in the day-to-day trenches of adult existence, banal platitudes can have life-or-death importance. That may sound like hyperbole, or abstract nonsense.

A huge percentage of the stuff that I tend to be automatically certain of is, it turns out, totally wrong and deluded. Here's one example of the utter wrongness of something I tend to be automatically sure of: Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe, the realest, most vivid and important person in existence. We rarely talk about this sort of natural, basic self-centeredness, because it's so socially repulsive, but it's pretty much the same for all of us, deep down. It is our default-setting, hard-wired into our boards at birth. Think about it: There is no experience you've had that you were not at the absolute center of. The world as you experience it is right there in front of you, or behind you, to the left or right of you, on your TV, or your monitor, or whatever. Other people's thoughts and feelings have to be communicated to you somehow, but your own are so immediate, urgent, real -- you get the idea. But please don't worry that I'm getting ready to preach to you about compassion or other-directedness or the so-called "virtues." This is not a matter of virtue -- it's a matter of my choosing to do the work of somehow altering or getting free of my natural, hard-wired default-setting, which is to be deeply and literally self-centered, and to see and interpret everything through this lens of self.
[...]

“The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.”
[...]

Because here's something else that's true. In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship -- be it J.C. or Allah, be it Yahweh or the Wiccan mother-goddess or the Four Noble Truths or some infrangible set of ethical principles -- is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things -- if they are where you tap real meaning in life -- then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On one level, we all know this stuff already -- it's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every great story. The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily consciousness. Worship power -- you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart -- you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. And so on.
[...]

And the world will not discourage you from operating on your default-settings, because the world of men and money and power hums along quite nicely on the fuel of fear and contempt and frustration and craving and the worship of self. Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom to be lords of our own tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the center of all creation. This kind of freedom has much to recommend it. But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talked about in the great outside world of winning and achieving and displaying. The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day. That is real freedom. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default-setting, the "rat race" -- the constant gnawing sense of having had and lost some infinite thing.

...None of this is about morality, or religion, or dogma, or big fancy questions of life after death. The capital-T Truth is about life before death. It is about making it to 30, or maybe 50, without wanting to shoot yourself in the head. It is about simple awareness -- awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, that we have to keep reminding ourselves, over and over: "This is water, this is water."

It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive, day in and day out.

"It’s a very American illness, the idea of giving yourself away entirely to the idea of working in order to achieve some sort of brass ring that usually involves people feeling some way about you – I mean, people wonder why we walk around feeling alienated and lonely and stressed out.” -- David Foster Wallace

Read more...

Unconditional Life: Learning From the Heart

In the midst of hopelessness, where life is approximately 400 years behind the United States (ironically, Haiti was the first nation to emulate the United States in 1804 when they broke away from France and tried their hand at democracy), and people suffer from the worst kind of poverty, it's unthinkable that more tragedy could possibly inflict itself on a nation, who, if anything, deserves relief from their dire conditions.

Unbelievable, as it may seem to many of us, the Haitians make up for what they do not have in material goods and fundamental staples, by retaining their faith and spiritual connections. Despite that faith, their hard work, immense suffering, and their efforts to try and take care of one another, something always interferes and sets them back even further.

Back in 2004, that something was Hurricane Jeanne, which left 1,500 dead. In an article, Facing Haiti's Hopelessness, She Helps, Ernest Cooper of the St. Petersburg Times, highlights the missions of one surgeon, Sylvia Campbell, who said at the time, "It's so much sadder than it was before. The Haitians are so much poorer, so much hungrier," and that she is "awed by the Haitian struggle -- and their unyielding humanity". One example amongst so many is when neighbors walked five hours with one woman who need emergency surgery.

"They're such gentle kind people. It's so horrible that they have to go through more tragedy. You wonder how could people survive, yet they have incredible faith, an incredible gentleness to their spirit." -- Sylvia Campbell

Today, once again, it's so much sadder than it was before. Yet, there is no doubt the Haitians will continue to go on, living and loving. These afflicted people exemplify what Dr. Dan Gottleib, host of Voices in the Family on NPR means when he talks about the "gift of hopelessness" in his book, Learning From the Heart

Dr. Gottlieb has experienced his fair share of tragedy. At age 33-years old, he suffered through a car accident that left him a quadriplegic. A couple of years after the accident, he came to a deliberate crossroads in his life. This was the point at which he decided he was going to choose life or death. Taking himself off to his bedroom where he could be alone, he confronted something...a spiritual being, an image of God, the "heart" as he refers to in his book; he's not sure what or who it was that responded to him, only that something did.

At first Dr. Gottlieb said, "OK, I'll live with this if you can give me hope that one day I will walk again."

The voice responded, "No hope...live or die, choose one."

He tried again and said, "OK, give me hope that I will not continue to be as sick as I have been over the past couple of years."

The being responded exactly the same way, "No hope...live or die, choose one."

Everything Dr. Gottlieb asked for received the same response, and so he chose life, unconditionally, the way life was right at that moment. Today, he has a thriving practice, authored several books and hosts a radio show, but that did not come easily or without more heartache, as he lost his sister and then his wife to divorce and shortly thereafter, to death.

Semantically, faith and hope are very similar, except the word hope places more conditions, and is more specific, whereas faith is more general -- confidently believing in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of something or someone, whether it is life in general, a person, an idea, God, etc.

But placing conditions on love and life automatically limits our potential, eliminates freedom, and guarantees failure because there is no doubt that someone, something, or life in general will not measure up to the terms we've imposed. We can't escape it...life, and/or the people in our life will hurt, betray, and disappoint us repeatedly. Does that mean we should give up? Stop loving? Stop living? The easy answer is yes. However, keep in mind that we have, and we will hurt, betray, and disappoint in life and love as much as life hurts, betrays, and disappoints us.

Instead of abandoning hope altogether, Dr. Gottlieb said he can live with the definition of hope Jerome Groopman the author of "Anatomy of Hope" gives, "the belief that tomorrow can be better than today".

The Haitians who live in the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, in circumstances, incomprehensible to most of us, without an education, have learned from the heart. They know that to give up, is to have given up on the only reason for our existence...to contribute to life, that is, to live, and love. Each time we stop loving someone or choose against life, we truly fail, as we have refused to fulfill the one and only reason we exist. It is as simple as that.

Read more...

The Albatross That Binds Us Together

Whether blinking, blaring, or ticking, time machines constantly remind us of the irreversible, rapid, one-way, stream of change, ultimately, carrying all of us along, without regard to race, religion, sexuality, status, or gender. Within this continuous flow of split seconds that is us, the ever moving present becomes our past (decay), as it transforms into our future (bloom), and illuminates the inherent contradiction of human living: that we are born to die.

That's life, when experienced through the uni-directional, linear concept of time.
How cruel is that? Is it any wonder that we will do anything to cover up and distract ourselves from this only inevitable certainty in life? Our tendency to be untrue and evasive about ourselves and our lives is understandable considering none of us are getting out alive. However, is hiding and running from the truth fully living. Could we live more fulfilling lives if we confront the "awful" truth that death is as much a part of ourselves as life?

Just as every millisecond stands between decay and bloom, all of humanity exists in complexity and paradox. We cannot have life without death, love without hate, clarity without confusion, or faith without doubt. Nevertheless, most individuals skim the surface of life, afraid to confront this reality. They do whatever it takes to distract themselves from the way things are.

“If you ask a member of this generation two simple questions: 'How do you want the world to be in fifty years?' and 'What do you want your life to be like five years from now?' the answers are quite often preceded by 'Provided there is still a world' and 'Provided I am still alive.' To the often-heard question, Who are they, this new generation? one is tempted to answer, Those who hear the ticking. And to the other question, Who are they who utterly deny them? the answer may well be, Those who do not know, or refuse to face, things as they really are.” -- Hannah Arendt

Maybe, it doesn't have to be this way as time is a human construct. None of the basic equations in any type of physics include an arrow of time that points in one direction only. In other words, our concept of time does not exist in the universe, however, it's the only way we can make sense of and order our world considering our perceptual limitations.

We think of the past as what no longer exists, and the future as what does not yet exist, meaning the only thing we have is the present. But if that's true, that leaves us with nothing but a fleeting microsecond of time. Moreover, recalling our past, and anticipating and imagining the future, greatly influences how we define our present. Our one-dimensional sense of time is greatly flawed.

Time to travel back in time.
Consider this. We cannot see ourselves moving through time as we live only in the here and now -- that nanosecond of time. Rewind our life backwards and every minute we go back in time, we erase that much of our memory. However, we will remember our lives ONLY up until that point that we moved backward...not a nanosecond after. So, who is to say we are not moving backward and forward in time? Or in any other direction, for that matter.

Nevertheless, no matter what time is or isn't, until we come up with a better way, this is all we have right now. In order to preserve our humanity, we must confront our existence as it is, in order to make it bearable, not just for ourselves, but for life in its entirety.

"[W]e have cultivated a mass mind and have moved from the extreme of rugged individualism to the even greater extreme of rugged collectivism. We are not makers of history; we are made by history. Longfellow said, ‘In this world a man must either be anvil or hammer,’ meaning that he is either a molder of society or is molded by society. Who doubts that today most men are anvils and are shaped by the patterns of the majority? Or to change the figure, most people, and Christians in particular, are thermometers that record or register the temperature of majority opinion, not thermostats that transform and regulate the temperature of society." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Read more...

Crucial Crossroads: Last Chance for Redemption.

At the beginning of the 20th century, at the last critical crossroads, apparently, the road signs must have been twisted in the wrong direction. Despite the advancement of technology and the increased availability of information at the time, those who were in a position to choose, chose the wrong path, as we are emerging from the most blood thirsty century in history, not to mention, increasing global impoverishment.

Nevertheless, we have been given another chance to redeem ourselves, as the world is still spinning. However, this may possibly be the final opportunity, leaving us with two options: "Evolve or die"

This well-known mantra of Silicon Valley - due to the lightning speed of innovation and change in technology - should be bill-boarded across the nation, because as technology goes, we go. However, because technology is not independent of human beings, we can control the direction it takes by setting up the doctrines that guide its process toward either creating a better humanity or destroying humanity entirely.

We, the United States, along with a few other super powers, will decide the fate of the world simply because we have the political clout. The 3.8 billion people living on $2 per day do not have the time, energy or resources to do much else than avoid starvation, let alone chart the course of the universe.

Thus far, individual greed and the quest for power for its own sake, have launched the globe toward the "no spin" zone. The time has come for individuals to come together in order to innovate our future in the opposite direction, that of protecting human rights and the civil liberties of every citizen, and come to an understanding that justice does not exist at all unless it is all inclusive (rich, poor, black, white, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, gay, straight, male, female, transgendered, etc.)

Instead of committing to the perpetuation of the status quo - corruption and financial manipulation; rule by capitalist elites; profiting at the expense of human beings; unlimited economic growth; dependency on centralized, large-scale systems; concentration of wealth in the hands of the few; violence and scapegoating of the innocent, etc - it's imperative we persist in changing society and the world, ensuring a constant flow of information, so that denial, hiding and suppression cease to thrive.

Seems like a tall order, nevertheless, there are people who are already on the job.

The Global Swadeshi network is one example. Initially this group was a rural movement focused on farming, but the current crisis has convinced the network to move on urban issues as well.

Swadeshi means "own land." Gandhi used the term when referring to economic self-sufficiency. Swadeshi was Gandhi's word for the practice of a way of life which created economic independence, and the pressure towards political independence which this practice created. Global swadeshi is the hope that one day everybody on the planet can enjoy swadeshi, in the sense of owning the things they need to be fully alive and economically self-supporting at this level.

Today, we are standing at the crossroads of a decision, at a point in time, and given opportunity that will not soon come again, if ever. We must decide if we will continue to trust in the lie that present-day powers want us to believe, or take back the authority that is ours to begin with, and use it to seek the values this country was founded on...liberty and justice for all.

Read more...

The Terri Schiavo Dilemma on Wall Street.

Can you imagine if each of us lived infinitely? Change, for better or worse, would never happen. Life would become stale, laborious, and, dreadfully boring. However, fortunately, human beings have a somewhat predictable life span, give or take a few years. This "morbid" process keeps humanity from growing stagnant and antiquated. It compels vibrant and dynamic innovation... the catalyst for evolution. When someone or something interferes with this process, it creates massive upheaval - think Terri Schiavo - but ultimately, life is terminated, for better or for worse, no matter what we do or fail to do.

Not so for institutions. No matter how antiquated, dysfunctional, or corrupt institutions are, there is no lifespan...they can go on forever. Yes, we occasionally tweak our long-established foundations, organizations, customs, practices, relationships, and/or behavioral patterns, hoping that will be enough to keep it from dying out completely. Unfortunately, just as our bodies give out, so do institutions. Keeping them on life support only prolongs the suffering for those of us who are either affected or depend on that institution.

No matter what your belief system, most sane people know human beings did not create Terri Schiavo, or any other human for that matter; therefore, when to stop life support will continue to be an issue because as technology improves, the lines between life and death blur considerably. Since we are strictly vessels through which new life is created, we don't know enough to answer the question of when to stop interfering when a body no longer works the way we think it should.

Nevertheless, we - human beings - do create institutions, and we, not God, or some other outside force, must determine when the institution is not functioning in the best interest of the people. We find this task extremely difficult, possibly because of our own mortality. We develop sentimental attachment to our own creations, but we should take a lesson from God, and learn to let go.

What's this got to do with Wall Street? Well, we should be debating the viability of our current monetary institution, rather than throwing bail-out plan after bail-out plan at it hoping something will restart its engine. It's clear that this system no longer works for the good of the people, if it ever did in the first place. We should really consider transitioning into a new system altogether.

Instead, the Fed is printing money like there is no tomorrow, and it's not working. Banks and everyone else for that matter continue to hoard their money, and the wheels of commerce remain stuck. The crux of the problem is not that those wheels need more grease, it is that those wheels only respond to one type of grease: lending. That is, in order for our monetary system to function properly, credit expansion is absolutely necessary. This system relies on continually renewed bank credit for there to be any money in existence, as money is created and destroyed in the ledgers of banks. To put it simply, in order for our monetary system to function properly, it requires most of our population remain beholden to banks.

However, even if those in control get it moving again, we're still faced with a fragile system that only responds to one remedy: debt. Sure, those with adequate capital will continue to thrive and more than likely profit, while, those of us who remain in a state of indebtedness, will suffer the consequences of this parasitical financial system continuously.

I am afraid that the ordinary citizen will not like to be told that the banks can and do create money. The amount of finance in existence varies only with the action of the banks in increasing or decreasing deposits and bank purchases. We know how this is effected. Every loan, overdraft, or bank purchase creates a deposit, and every repayment of a loan, overdraft, or bank sale destroys a deposit.”And they who control the credit of the nation direct the policy of Governments and hold in the hollow of their hands the destiny of the people. -- Reginald McKenna, at one time, British Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Chairman of the Midland Bank,

"If all the bank loans were paid, no one would have a bank deposit and there would not be one dollar of coin or currency in circulation. ...... Someone has to borrow every dollar we have in circulation, cash or credit. If the banks create ample synthetic money we are prosperous: if not, we starve. We are absolutely without a permanent money system. When one gets a complete grasp of the picture the tragic absurdity of our hopeless position is almost incredible, but there it is. It is the most important subject intelligent persons can investigate and reflect upon. It is so important that our present civilization may collapse unless it becomes widely understood and the defects remedied very soon." -- Robert H. Hemphill, credit Manager of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, on January 24, 1939

“those who, because they hold and control money, are able also to govern credit and determine its allotment, for that reason supplying, so to speak, the lifeblood to the entire economic body, and grasping, as it were, in their hands the very soul of production, so that no one dare breathe against their will.” -- Pope Pius XI wrote in his Encyclical Letter Quadragesimo Anno, in 1931

“Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men’s views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the Field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.” -- Woodrow Wilson,The New Freedom (1913)

Read more...

What's the Good News About the End of Prosperity?

At first glance, not much. I doubt many of us are rejoicing and celebrating in the midst of what appears to be more than a temporary financial setback. It looks more and more like an end to excessively prosperous times. Most of us are feeling anxious about what our future holds, and how this will all play out. This is not good news, or is it?

It can be, if we play our cards right - and even if we don't, however if we choose wrong, we will need a good set of binoculars, perhaps a telescope to see the "good news" at that point.

The abundance of the last few decades has deluded those of us, fortunate enough to experience the successful, thriving conditions, of the boom, into believing that we alone control our own destiny. The wealthier and more powerful we become, the more intoxicated and subsequently, addicted to feelings of that power and our own importance.

At the beginning of any addictive process, the source of addiction generates some type of reward and perhaps exuberance. Similarly, everyone invited to the "party" during prosperous times, will find themselves inebriated by the ambiance of unrestrained high spirits that flourishing times often bring. However, just as the exuberance felt at the beginning of an addiction continues to wain over time, so does the "high" felt at the inception of prosperity.

Human beings, unlike any other living creature, come into this world ill equipped for survival. If we want to endure, we must innovate and create a materialistic world by constructing unique devices (tools) that would otherwise not evolve or come about by natural process.

Paradoxically, as we continue to evolve, much of what we think about and experience has little to do with survival, rather it has more to do with meaning...we search out meaningful experiences, many times despite the risk to life.

We don't have sex solely because it feels good, or to propagate the species...we have sex so that we may feel closer to our partner, which in turn injects significance into our lives. We like to think of ourselves as something more than a bundle of nerves operating from pure instinct...that as Martin Luther King said, "A man who won't die for something is not fit to live".

So, as we continue to evolve, the "tools" and materialistic world we create, in addition to helping us survive, enable us to seek out our "purpose" in life and give us the time to discover what is meaningful to us. Take the creation of the automobile and the airplane for example. We can survive without them, however, the car and the airplane, in particular, save us an enormous amount of time...time we can use to explore the world around us and delve into the mystery of our existence.

Long periods of excessive and escalating prosperity encourages spiritual cannibalism. Human beings inordinately consume and find "meaning" in the very tools and artificial world created in order to help them survive, evolve and explore.

Currently, we Americans are immersed in materialism, consumerism...always in constant pursuit of bigger and better, so that we may prove ourselves to ourselves and to others. We are draining our souls and the souls of our children, who not only inherit the task of cleaning up after us, they will have to replace the "cannibalistic" map we have given them in order to navigate the storm ahead successfully.

So, don't you think it's possible that deep down inside, our subconscious self may be taking delight at the prospect of the potential to replace the frivolousness and carefree self-indulgence that has reigned supreme for the last 20 years with something a little more substantial?

Well I've got some good news!
If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now,
It's just a spring clean for the May queen.
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run,
There's still time to change the road you're on.
Well I hope so!
And it makes me wonder....Stairway to Heaven by Led Zepp

Oh yeah, isn't this the song where when you play it backwards you can hear Satan? And the problem with that is? Of course you can hear Satan if you play it backwards but that's not important because when you play it forwards - the way it's supposed to be played - you hear the opposite of Phil Gramm...I mean the AntiChrist. You hear God...that's what I hear anyway.

Read more...

Are We Evolving?

From the Age of Enlightenment, secular humanism arrived basically rejecting the belief that a relationship with the divine is necessary to bring out the best in human beings. Once we achieve a certain level of prosperity -- education, adequate supply of material goods to meet our needs, good health etc. -- the more our humanity will emerge and cruelty and oppression, something that will always exist, will fade into the background. However, if the last century is an example of how far we've come, as the 20th Century manifested an unprecedented scale of evil juxtaposing what could be referred to as the height of civilization, it appears the secular humanists could be wrong and that we have not evolved.

Currently, we have the technical and material capability to see that everyone's most basic needs are met, yet two billion people live on a diet of rice alone. Destruction and violence are widespread all across the globe, and the more technologically proficient and prosperous we become, the more our humanity seems to hibernate.

Intensified progress seems to be bound up with intensified un-freedom. Throughout the world of industrial civilization, the domination of man by man is growing in scope and efficiency. Nor does this trend appear as an incidental, transitory regression on the road to progress. Concentration camps, mass exterminations, world wars, and atom bombs are no “relapse into barbarism,” but the unrepressed implementation of the achievements of modern science, technology, and domination. And the most effective subjugation and destruction of man by man takes place at the height of civilization, when the material and intellectual attainments of mankind seem to allow the creation of a truly free world. -- Herbert Marcuse, Eros and Civilization, 1955

Could it be that with prosperity comes complacency? The better off we are the more smugly conventional we get. We assume a morality that doesn't exist and that our own existence is proof of that "morality". Presuming we are moral just because we are is one of the reasons so much evil exists in a world of plenty, imho.

Read more...

Flight From Death: The Quest for Immortality.

Flight From Death: The Quest for Immortality is an excellent documentary introducing the work of cultural anthropologist, Ernest Becker, author of Pulitzer winning book, Denial of Death.

"The essence of normalcy is the refusal of reality." -- Ernest Becker

Read more...

Defining Life Beginning and End

Presidential nominee Ron Paul, an obstetrician for thirty years, who has delivered 4,000 babies is convinced life begins at conception and he is not making a political, moral or religious statement; he is making a scientific statement.

I can assure you life begins at conception. I am legally responsible for the unborn, nomatter what I do, so there's a legal life there. The unborn has inheritance rights, and if there's an injury or a killing, there is a legal entity. There is no doubt about it.

Determining when the fetus is "viable" outside the womb is often used as a measure of when "life" begins. There is no doubt that future advances in medical technology will continue to reduce the time a fetus is dependent on the womb for survival, thus, lowering the legal definition of when life begins. Should our definition of when life begins depend on future scientific achievements or should we use our common sense and determine the beginning of life by the beginning of life?

Our current and future capability should have nothing to do with determining when it's OK to terminate "life". Sophisticated ultrasound and other technological breakthroughs show the roots of human behavior begin to develop only a few weeks after conception. The embryo's brain begins to bulge right away. At five weeks, the cerebral cortex is deeply creased and convoluted. At nine weeks, the embryo can bend its body, hiccup and react to loud sounds. At week ten, it moves its arms, "breathes', amniotic fluid in and out opens its jaw, and stretches, yawns, sucks, and swallows as well as feels and smells. From 12 weeks gestation, the baby appears to be “walking in the womb” and between 13-15 weeks the baby can taste. By the end of the second trimester, he or she can hear. These little creatures sure keep busy and sound full of life to me.

Life the condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms, being manifested by growth through metabolism, reproduction, and the power of adaptation to environment through changes originating internally; the animate existence or period of animated existence

New evidence shows that fetuses can feel pain by 20 weeks gestation and possibly earlier. Don't you think it's better to err on the side of the baby feeling pain earlier?

My mother told me I was operated on at three-months old with no anesthesia because infants didn't feel pain. Well, guess what? They do. No wonder I feel so strongly about this issue as I'm sure anyone older than 25-years old who has had the great privilege to be sliced open in the first couple months of post womb experience would. Supposedly we are not able to remember pain, well, I do! I remember the pain!

Maureen L. Condic, a assistant Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Utah, in her article, Life: Defining the beginning by the end tries to answer the question, "What does the nature of death tell us about the nature of human life?"

The medical and legal definition of death draws a clear distinction between living cells and living organisms. Organisms are living beings composed of parts that have separate but mutually dependent functions. While organisms are made of living cells, living cells themselves do not necessarily constitute an organism. The critical difference between a collection of cells and a living organism is the ability of an organism to act in a coordinated manner for the continued health and maintenance of the body as a whole. It is precisely this ability that breaks down at the moment of death, however death might occur. Dead bodies may have plenty of live cells, but their cells no longer function together in a coordinated manner. We can take living organs and cells from dead people for transplant to patients without a breach of ethics precisely because corpses are no longer living human beings. Human life is defined by the ability to function as an integrated whole-not by the mere presence of living human cells.

What does the nature of death tell us about the beginning of human life? From the earliest stages of development, human embryos clearly function as organisms. Embryos are not merely collections of human cells, but living creatures with all the properties that define any organism as distinct from a group of cells; embryos are capable of growing, maturing, maintaining a physiologic balance between various organ systems, adapting to changing circumstances, and repairing injury. Mere groups of human cells do nothing like this under any circumstances. The embryo generates and organizes distinct tissues that function in a coordinated manner to maintain the continued growth and health of the developing body. Even within the fertilized egg itself there are distinct "parts" that must work together-specialized regions of cytoplasm that will give rise to unique derivatives once the fertilized egg divides into separate cells. Embryos are in full possession of the very characteristic that distinguishes a living human being from a dead one: the ability of all cells in the body to function together as an organism, with all parts acting in an integrated manner for the continued life and health of the body as a whole.

Embryos, fetuses, babies or whatever term you choose, are unique human organisms. As Ms. Condic pointed out, life is not determined simply by a group of living rather by the ability of various cells to function as a coordinated organism.

From the landmark case of Karen Ann Quinlan (1976) on, the courts have consistently upheld organismal function as the legal definition of human life. Failure to apply the same standard that so clearly defines the end of human life to its beginning is both inconsistent and unwarranted.

Read more...

Born in the USA

After 9/11, I discovered how much I really love this country and at the same time, how much I hate it. Prior to September 11, I took America for granted, insulated from the oppression, suffering and paucity the majority of people around the globe are subject too every day, I focused on my infinitesimally small world as if every streak of lightening streaked, clap of thunder clapped and gust of wind gusted contingent upon the events in my minuscule microcosm.

Unwittingly, I relied on "American decadence" as a gauge to measure my standing on a narrowly defined quality-of-life spectrum, always falling short, no matter how hard I tried. Valuing prosperity and material advancement above all else, I completely overlooked the fact that I had already bounced off this spectrum. No wonder I felt as if I were spinning my wheels. I was trying to achieve something that was handed to me on a silver platter the day I became an American citizen, that is, the day I was born.

Can every American citizen, born in the USA, claim the same? Obviously not to the same extent; I cannot claim the same "good fortune" as someone like let's say, Paris Hilton, but overall, most would agree being born here offers more advantages than being born anywhere else in the world thanks to our Founding Fathers and the many others, often unacknowledged, who worked so hard to make this country great. Unfortunately, there are far too many tragic exceptions to this born-in the-USA rule, exceptions that should not exist, in a country with our massive wealth and power.

However, I feel the same way about my family...as much as I love them, there are times when I "hate" them, just as I'm sure they hate me on occasion. I'd be suspicious of anyone who claims not to have felt the full spectrum of emotion regarding something about which they care deeply. Our capability to feel the entire range, from hate, anger, and sadness to joy, happiness, and love is what makes us human.

I would never give up on either my family, friends and/or humanity, nor my country, the world and/or the entire universe for they underpin and validate who and what I am, wealthy or poor, healthy or sick, for better or for worse, until death do us part.

Read more...

Or So He Thought.

Written by a good friend who occasionally posts on here, but wishes to remain anonymous and has no desire to have a blog.

A friend, I'll call Scott played by all the rules, listened to his mother, tried to be a good father, son, husband, employee, citizen. He ate the right foods, exercised every day, wore clean underwear, worked hard for a living, drove the speed limit, looked both ways when crossing the street and made sure to cast his vote in every election, even if he had no clue his chosen candidate's platform. He was voting, that's all that mattered because he had learned that it's doesn't really matter which button you choose, only that you made an appearance, or so he thought.

As a father, Scott coached his kid's teams, volunteered a great deal of his time to athletic associations his children were affiliated, attended all of his children's sporting events and followed his parent's example right down to the woman he chose to marry, or so he thought.

Scott's goals in life consisted of becoming an instrument to carry out the "law". He desired to become a policeman, a secret service man, part of the military police...anything that would allow him to take the reins. He failed to follow through with those career goals, mostly because he fell in love, or so he thought with the woman he was to marry, to have children with, in order to carry on his parent's legacy, the legacy he learned he'd better follow to stay free from harm, or so he thought.

So, Scott followed the money trail. That way, he could provide for his family, and create the "storybook" life he had dreamed about, only this time it was his turn to grasp the reins, or so he thought.

He had a blueprint to follow and come hell or high water there was no deviating, even when the times, environment and circumstances swerved considerably. He could not, for he was taught to revere the rules, not to think about them. That's why he had to grab those reins as fast as he could. They provided ballast, to keep his flimsy boat from hitting an iceberg, or so he thought.

So, Scott unquestioningly and uncritically accepted those arbitrary authoritative, prescribed directions for conduct, and wanted to honor them by punishing those who might cause his "guardrails" - tradition, custom, ways of behaving - to disappear. Those same guardrails that served to define who he was; that saved him from pain and kept him from harm, or so he thought.

After all, what would he base his decisions on? How would he develop a course of action? And worst of all, how would he predict an outcome? In other words, he would be cast adrift with nothing to hold on, or so he thought.

Scott never gave up on his dream of holding a position of authority. He fulfilled his desire first through coaching his children, then by taking positions on the board, then the ultimate, refereeing. For what other position in life gives so much authority? Never mind that those you have authority over are all of ten-years old or that 14-year olds comprise 90% of the referee population. The referee's word is the final word and if you don't like it, he can admonish you, punish you, do whatever he wants to you short of murder, or so he thought.

Scott grew evermore confident of himself as things seemed to go his way...to the point that he began to embody the code of conduct he had learned to adhere. The "rule of law" no longer applied, only the "rule of Scott", or so he thought.

Years ago, Scott looked upon what he had created, his family, his children, and just as God proclaimed when looking upon the Garden of Eden, he proclaimed, "Life is good", however that was before he became God. His grip back then allowed for slack and he could appreciate his children and his wife for what they added to his life and he could loosen his grip, because they, his family, rarely resisted...they just went along for the most part. Yes, they argued and sometimes fought for their way, but in the end, he knew it was his way or the highway, or so he thought.

The kids grew up, his wife no longer went along and the more power Scott gained the more he wanted. The more money Scott made, the more he "needed". Now, the very people Scott clung too, were the very same people who were now holding him back. They no longer wanted to live this "blueprint" Scott insisted they live. He learned his wife no longer wanted to emulate his mother, that she was tired of skimming the surface of life, and keeping up appearances...the very essence of what it was to be part of his family. He saw her as the enemy now for in his mind her very presence might annihilate the "guardrails" Scott felt he could not live without, or so he thought.

She must be destroyed...that was the only way he could avoid the "abyss", he imagined he would fall into as a child if he dared to create his own code for living. Every breath Scott took was taken in fear of this deep, immeasurable vast chasm of the unknown and the sole reason he abhorred anyone who seemed to possess depth of intellect, emotion, or knowledge. He knew he couldn't murder her body...he was above the law, however that might be taking it a little too far. No, he must go further. He must destroy her soul, her spirit, or so he thought.

Scott, with the help of his origins, set out to render his wife useless. Without going in to all the gory details, his wife became his ex, his children, pawns he used to accomplish his mission, and as a result were caught in the path of his trajectory.
As much as he thought he loved his children, he only loved what they represented...a chance to control his past and define his future. They couldn't provide that for him anymore so his "love" ceased to exist. He tried to keep up appearances but even that was getting old and once the mask came off,and the guardrails evaporated, Scott disappeared. It never occurred to him that purposefully letting go of the reins, rails and all the externals he trusted with all that he was, could save his life, perhaps even allow him to chart his own course. Anchored in one place, clinging to outdated guardrails and false appearances, Scott inadvertently made himself vulnerable to the arbitrary forces all around us, and so he was caught.

"That room — once you enter it, you never really leave. You can forget you're there, you can go on as if you hold the reins, that the course of your life, yea even its length, will reflect the force of your character and the wisdom of your judgments. And then you hit an icy patch on a turn one sunny March day and the wheel in your hands becomes a joke and you no more than a spectator to your own dreamy slide toward the verge, and then you remember where you are." - Tobias Wolff, from his new book Our Story Begins

Tragically, Scott's intense fear as a child, a fear he dressed up as hubris later on, gave formation to the outline that defined his hollow existence and devoured any resilience he may have had left.

Read more...

You Can't Blame the Obese and the Smokers For Everything

With all this talk of banning the corpulently gifted from eating in public; flying on airplanes; riding on amusements; boating in Disney, etc. and banning the smokers from existing at all, we should keep in mind that both groups keep cost down. We cannot blame our rounder or our oxygen challenged citizens for increasing health care expenditures nor can we blame them for the senior citizen population exploding beyond our capability to take care of them. Nope, we can blame our vain, fitness-obsessed, self-disciplined, population who want to live forever.

It is true, until the age of 56-years old, annual health expenditure is highest for obese people. At older ages, smokers incurred higher costs. However, because of lower life expectancy, lifetime health expenditure was highest among healthy-living people and lowest for smokers. The "More-to-Love" category held an intermediate position.

Although obesity prevention leads to a decrease in costs of obesity-related diseases, this decrease is offset by cost increases due to diseases unrelated to obesity in the people who are in constant search for the fountain of youth. Obesity prevention and eliminating those who like to inhale may be an important to improving the quality of live, but it is not a cure for increasing health expenditures.

Here's another interesting study about climate change, sex ratio and longevity.

The theory that natural selection has conserved mechanisms by which women subjected to environmental stressors abort frail male fetuses implies that climate change may affect sex ratio at birth and male longevity. Using time series methods, we find that cold ambient temperatures during gestation predict lower secondary sex ratios and longer life span of males in annual birth cohorts composed of Danes, Finns, Norwegians, and Swedes born between 1878 (earliest year with complete life tables) and 1914 (last birth cohort for which male life span can be estimated). We conclude that ambient temperature affects the characteristics of human populations by influencing who survives gestation, a heretofore unrecognized effect of climate on humanity.

Read more...

Parents of Most Severely Wounded Soldier Go Broke Taking Care of Him

TAMPA, Florida: He lies flat, unseeing eyes fixed on the ceiling, tubes and machines feeding him, breathing for him, keeping him alive. He cannot walk or talk, but he can grimace and cry. And he is fully aware of what has happened to him.

Four years ago almost to this day, Joseph Briseno Jr. was shot in the back of the head at point-blank range in a Baghdad marketplace. His spinal cord was shattered, and cardiac arrests stole his vision and damaged his brain.

The 24-year-old is one of the most severely injured soldiers — some think the most injured soldier — to survive.

"Three things you would not want to be: blind, head injury, and paralyzed from the neck down. That's tough," said Dr. Steven Scott, head of the Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center at the Tampa VA Medical Center, where Briseno has twice been hospitalized for extensive care. In recent days, Briseno was hospitalized yet again, this time at the Washington, D.C., VA Medical Center.

As a high schooler, Briseno liked the Discovery Channel and CSI, and wanted to be a forensic scientist or investigator. He was 20, attending George Mason University, when he was called up from the reserves and sent to war.

After he was shot, he was flown to Kuwait and then to a military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. His parents and two sisters rushed to his side.

"They told us, 'Prepare for his service.' That's how bad he was," said his father, Joseph Briseno Sr., a retired career Army man.

But he survived. From Germany, he went to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, then to McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia. In December 2003, he went home, to Manassas Park, Virginia, where his parents, Joseph Sr. and Eva, quit their jobs to care for him.

"All our savings, all our money, was just emptied ... the 401(k)s, everything," said Joseph Briseno, who took a new job a year and a half ago to make ends meet.

Various charities, especially Rebuilding Together, raised money to renovate their basement, supply a backup generator for the medical equipment, and install a lift so they can hoist "Jay," as they call him, into a chair and bathe him in a handicapped accessible bathroom.

"If you asked me this from the very beginning, if we can handle it, I wouldn't lie to you. I would say no, that there is no way. There's no way that we're going to learn all these things. But my wife and I, we learned everything. We are the respiratory technician, we are the physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists ... his wound care nurse," Joseph Briseno said.

"It's a lot of work and it's hard, and some days are harder than the other days. But we don't take this as a burden for us because he's our son. We will do everything for him."

The family has help from VA-provided nurses, but not around the clock. Jay's mother and father often do overnight duty, making sure their son is turned every four hours so he does not develop bedsores, which can become infected and threaten his life. If they do not turn him and keep him on schedule, he does not sleep well and becomes agitated.

At the Tampa VA, a nurse taught Jay Briseno to swallow his saliva — a big step that allowed him to have some pureed foods instead of just tube-feeding. He has not been able to handle any solid food, though — his injuries are too profound.

More recently, the Tampa staff tried to wean him from the respirator. This involved painstaking therapy to strengthen his diaphragm by placing weights on his belly and gradually increasing the air pressure on the machine to try to create resistance and muscle strength. So far, it hasn't worked.

He has had other trials: surgeries, procedures and medications for bladder problems, high blood pressure, the opening for his breathing tube, dead tissue on his tongue — even an ingrown toenail. The latest is the bone disease, osteoporosis.

He can respond to questions by grunting or grimacing, and occasionally can say "mom" or "go," but not consistently. He often opens his mouth.

"We believe he is very frustrated because he wants to say something. Those are the hardest times for us, especially when he's sick or not feeling well. He just lays there. We don't know what's wrong with him," Joseph Briseno said.

They pray that he will continue to improve, not get worse. And they hope to move to Tampa, where they believe their son can get the best care.

"We always have hope. One day at a time — that's the way we live our lives," the elder Briseno said. "We're so lucky to have him. He was a very good son from the very beginning. God gave Jay to us and he's a blessing to us."

Read more...

Outsourcing Your Life

Offshore outsourcing has transformed the way U.S. companies do business. Now, some early adopters are figuring out how to tap overseas workers for personal tasks. They're turning to a vast talent pool in India, China, Bangladesh and elsewhere for jobs ranging from landscape architecture to kitchen remodeling and math tutoring. They're also outsourcing some surprisingly small jobs, including getting a dress designed, creating address labels for wedding invitations or finding a good deal on a hotel room, for example.

Such "personal offshoring" is still new and represents a tiny fraction of the more than $20 billion overseas outsourcing industry. But management consultants and economists say it's likely to evolve into a larger niche as offshore workers identify the opportunities. Thanks to instant messaging, computer scanners and email attachments, any work that doesn't require meeting in person has the potential to be done overseas.

Read more...

Angel of the Garbage Dump

Hanley Denning knew she wanted to dedicate her life to helping people, so she went to Guatemala City in 1997 to learn Spanish hoping that would make her a more effective social worker when she came back to the United States. Instead, Ms. Denning found her life’s calling, when a nun and a priest took her to the city dump, dug into a ravine, where she saw hundreds women (some with babies on their backs) and children, literally searching through the garbage.

Ms. Denning decided she must do something to help these poor people. She called her parents and asked them to sell all her possessions. In 1999, after her parents raised $5,000 from the sale of her assets, Hanley founded the non profit Safe Passage program, and set up a school in a small abandoned church at the dump, and ministered to the poor.

Denning's work was featured in the film "Recycled Life," which was nominated for an Oscar in January. But just five days before the nomination were announced, she was killed in a car accident.

Read more...

Internet Provides Pathways to Help People Make Big Decisions

The internet helps maintain people's social networks, and connects them to members of their social network when they need help. 60 million Americans have turned to the internet for help with major life decisions.

Read more...

Life Explained Through Graphs and Charts.

Unique, if nothing else.

Read more...