Law and Order

When people lack teachers, their tendencies are not corrected; when they do not have ritual and moral principles, then their lawlessness is not controlled. -- Xun Zi – Confucian philosopher


People are born good but need a positive environment in order to fully prosper with the “Way”, Xunzi argues that it is only the environment which can save a person from immorality.

LAWLESSNESS

I was driving down the road and looked at my speedometer, the school of cars was doing about eight miles an hour over the maximum speed limit, with a few strays weaving in and out to gain position. I thought to myself when the cat is away the mouse will play…no enforcement. Why must man reject authority, think outside of the orthodox box, think of themselves as above the laws of the land, and just do whatever it is that suits their fancy, contibute to the lawless behavior and have little concern for the safety and welfare of others, just because nobody with authority will witness it, they wouldn't be punished. I sounded like an old man expressing desires that the denizen acheive progress into a higher plateau of awareness.

Why is it so hard to obey the speed limit? It doesn’t matter what the posted speed limit is, people exceed it by at least five miles an hour, more if they can influence other drivers by pushing them or making frustration gestures. Is it the effects of the caffeine, the peer pressures, or the competition. Are they still lawless and immature jerks when they are not behind the wheel, usually not.  Usually they return to their non- Andretti normal-selves, hidden in the deep recesses of their complex minds during the driving experience. Is it that childhood sing-song “Well, everyone else is doing it….” rationalization? Do I have to say, “If Johnny jumped off the cliff, would you jump off the cliff too?”

I think it just must be some sort of a ‘venting’ personality that drivers acquire once they get behind the wheel and their engines start, “Gentlemen, start your engines.” Venting is O.K., much better than holding all of your frustrations in, then reaching the point of explosion, enduring internal rants of a silent cacophony of antisocial schizoid hysteria I suppose, or going completely nuts, losing it, and shooting people like they do in Southern California. Does it do any harm? probably. Is it safe?, no, not really. Why don’t we change the laws, make the speed limit seventy again, would people supersede the limit to eighty miles per hour then… yes. It’s just the way things work, but I don’t like it.

Maybe Xun Zi was right. We live in a poor environment, we have no teachers, we need role models, we need to re-think our principles, fully prosper by following the path, learn to know ourselves and control the animal instincts within us, and avoid the influences of the crowds in an unmonitored environment. We need to save ourselves from a mortal immorality, become better people, far above the animals and insects of the world, and take our places on the throne, instead of becoming carrion on the battlefields of unfufilled desires, incessant frustration, and  constant confusion.  We need to survive be alive, mobile victors, and undead; where we have the ability to write the history of our actions as we see it, as it really happened, clean and right, without feeling guilt or remorse. The way that we were intended to live our mortal lives. To better understand ourselves and why we do the things that we do, control them, become disciplined and resist the temptations to fall back into the fold, uneducated and without a doctrine. People, slow down, smell the roses, enjoy life and reduce your stress, chose the right because you want to, not because you have to, be what you should be, happy and enjoy the time you have here. Peace.

The Writing Process Reviewed

I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all. ~Richard Wright, American Hunger, 1977

Everyone can write, it just takes a little practice to get good at it. You can start out by following a recipe, follow the step by step instructions, be sure to include the right amount of all the ingredients, in the right order! This will get you going. Then you have to add a little personal flair, put in a little of your own 'secret sauce", and exercise working with your weak points, they will never get better if you don't,  lift those pens and wiggle those fingers in a nice little dance on the keyboard. Don’t have any fear, if you need a little time to think, be sure to take it! After all that’s where writing comes from in the first place, your mind, thinking, your research, your thoughts and ideas. If those aren’t there…. Then you are just doodling, and that’s fine…it’s called pre-writing in high society, but then when your mind kicks back into gear, rev up those motors, give it the gas! And go baby go! Cause sometimes you run out of gas, and there ain’t nobody goin' to help push ya up the next hill, you got to build up your momentum….

..and that’s how you write! 'dat’s the process..now go and do it! don't be shy, everything is going to be just fine.

I try to leave out the parts that people skip. ~Elmore Leonard American Novelist and Screenplay writer

“I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.” – Socrates

THE END  ...THE BEGINNING...

Not every end is the goal. The end of a melody is not its goal, and yet if a melody has not reached its end, it has not reached its goal. A parable.” – Frederick Nietzsche

Our course has almost ended, we knew that it would come someday, the final paper has gone through all the stages of development, modification, reflection, review, proofreading… and now the grading shall begin.
Our futures will be brighter because of the work we have done here, the lessons learned, the application of those lessons to the work must now begin, better products, better communication, better understanding, and better lives. Our dividends have matured; we reap the bounties of our labor, glory in the fruit of the harvest, rest, reflect and then move on. Thanks everyone for your support and sharing your thoughts, your human thoughts and feelings. May the force be with you always, live long and prosper. Grok on...and on and on...keep writing.

“This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”--Winston Churchill

Let the Rain Come Down, Let the Rain Come Down, Let the Rain Come Down on me

"I’m an excellent driver." – Raymond Babbitt (Dustin Hoffman –Rain Man 1988)


Do you sometimes feel like everybody is an idiot, you are the only sane person in the world, everyone else is crazy. They’re the ones that are crazy, not me. It’s like living in Raymond Babbitt’s world, your mind is so much keener than anyone else’s, they don’t understand it at all and it’s an useless effort to try to explain it to them, it’s a waste of time, yet another frugal cause. Then you can’t remember how to tie your shoes, so you go buy some cheap penny loafers and put dimes in the slots because you heard that it was good luck.

I accept minimum wage employee incompetence at the cash register, you check out and the penny loafer bill is $13.67; you give them a ten and five dollar bill and seventeen cents, three nickels and two pennies, and they wonder why. You think to yourself, do they ever forget how to tie their shoes too, which string goes where, something about around the tree and back down the rabbit hole, or was that Alice in Wonderland? Am I in some sort of rabbit hole, an hallucinogenic trip, some brain in a bubbling jar of green liquid with wires attached to it, leading to somewhere in a dark room, to an  "Ender's Game" simulator, left here and forgotten after the battle with the Formics, did we lose? Maybe I'm unattended and just imagining all of this, the universe, the entire world, people, penny loafers. Why do they call them that if you put dimes in them? Is that why it’s so crazy all the time, it's my brain in a bubbling jar of green liquid dream? Did Einstein often forget to put on his shoes and walk in the New Jersey snow, or was that just something my mother told me when I was young to make me feel better, more normal? I was so strange, I am so strange, why do we want to be normal? Idiots that can't figure out that I like quarters and not nickles and pennies, I can still use dimes for the penny loafers, maybe it's me and not them, maybe I should put the two quarters in the penny loafers then give her the dollar as a tip; make her think she is doing a great job, make her feel normal. Prove that I have love, a body and am really walking around in a real world wearing penny loafers with quarters in them instead of a brain in a bubbling green jar, without a body, a brain that doesn't need shoes, a brain that doesn't need to know what coins to put in his shoes, or even need to know how to tie shoe strings. It just sits there in a bubbling green jar going crazy, making up crazy stuff, making up the Universe, making up shoes, shoestrings, coins. Why doesn't my brain just dream that the penny loafers cost $14.98, put the two pennies in the penny loafers, keep it succinct and simple. Do brains in a bubbling jar even have a mother? I’m leaning towards the brain in the bubbling green jar theory lately, it makes a lot more sense. An Avatar in this unreal world.

This week we learned how to shorten our three page rough drafts for the seven page minimun length Final Project, make them clearer, easy to understand, simple, succinct in APA format with 30% references and 70% original thought about a subject that you haven’t a clue about until two months ago. “Ten minutes to Wapner. We're definitely locked in this box with no TV. (Raymond Babbit, Rainman, 1988).” Two more weeks until the Composition II for Healthcare Professionals course will have concluded. Three terms to an Associates Degree in Medical Assistance, that should be interesting, more crazy people, more normal people, just like -- that’s the way things are supposed to be. Let the rain come down on me, let it come.