Thursday, August 18, 2011
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
it's been a while
and with being said, i think this man said some things last week that i've been striving to define, outline and "flat out" put into words.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Food for The Eagle
By Adam Savage
Good evening.
I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to read my speech from my new iPad.
Yep. I'm not only a humanist, I'm also an early adopter.
I want to start by saying that, to me, any discourse from me about how one can live a moral existence without religion or the church would sound improperly defensive. That there's an opposite to be defended is absurd and based on a provably false premise. So let's dispense with that.
(To be clear: I'm referring to the humanist axiom "Good without God," whereby "good" means morality. It's provably false that there exists no morality outside of religion, therefore the statement sounds defensive to me.)
By what route does anyone come to believe what they believe? We all like to imagine that it's based on a set of logical facts, but it's often a much more circuitous route.
For me it was pretty simple. I'm actually the fourth generation in my family to have no practical use for the church, or God, or religion. My children continue this trend.
Here are a few things I've learned.
Prayer doesn't work because someone out there is listening, it works because someone in here is listening. I've paid attention. I've pictured what I want to happen in my life. I've meditated extensively on my family, my future, my past actions and what did and didn't work for me about them. I've looked hard at problems and thought hard about their solutions.
See, I order my life by the same mechanism that I use to build things. I cannot proceed to move tools around in the real world until my brain has a clear picture in it of what I'm building. The same goes for my life. I've tried to pay attention. I've tried to picture the way I want things to be, and I've noticed that when I had a clear picture, things often turned out the way I wanted them to.
I've concluded by this that someone is paying attention—I've concluded that it's me. I've noticed that if I'm paying attention to those around me, to myself, to my surroundings, then that is the very definition of empathy. I've noticed that when I pay attention, I'm less selfish, I'm happier—and that the inverse holds true as well.
I think one of the defining moments of adulthood is the realization that nobody's going to take care of you. That you have to do the heavy lifting while you're here. And when you don't, well, you suffer the consequences. At least I have. (And in the empirical study I'm performing about interacting with the universe, I am unfortunately the only test subject I have complete access to, so my data is, as they say, self-selected.) While nobody's going to take care of us, it's incumbent upon us to take care of those around us. That's community.
The fiction of continuity and stability that your parents have painted for you is totally necessary for a growing child. When you realize that it's not the way the world works, it's a chilling moment. It's supremely lonely.
So I understand the desire for someone to be in charge. (As a side note, I believe that the need for conspiracy theories is similar to the need for God.) We'd all like our good and evil to be like it is in the movies: specific and horrible, easy to defeat. But it's not. It's banal.
There's a quote I love: "Evil is a little man afraid for his job." I always thought some famous author said it, but I asked my 200,000 followers on Twitter today, and it turns out that Roy Scheider said it in Blue Thunder.
No one is in charge. And honestly, that's even cooler.
The idea of an ordered and elegant universe is a lovely one. One worth clinging to. But you don't need religion to appreciate the ordered existence. It's not just an idea, it's reality. We're discovering the hidden orders of the universe every day. The inverse square law of gravitation is amazing. Fractals, the theory of relativity, the genome: these are magnificently beautiful constructs.
The nearly infinite set of dominoes that have fallen into each other in order for us to be here tonight is unfathomable. Truly unfathomable. But it is logical. We don't know all the steps in that logic, but we're learning more about it every day. Learning, expanding our consciousness, singly and universally.
As far as I can see, the three main intolerant religions in the world aren't helping in that mission.
For all their talk of charity and knowledge, that they close their eyes to so much—to science, to birth control education, to abuses of power by some of their leaders, to evolution as provable and therefore factual (the list is staggering)—illustrates a wide scope of bigotry.
Now, just to be clear. If you want to believe, or find solace in believing, that someone or something set these particular dominoes in motion—a cosmic finger tipping the balance and then leaving everything else to chance—I can't say anything to that. I don't know.
Though a primary mover is the most complex and thus (given Occam's razor) the least likely of all possible solutions to the particular problem of how we got here, I can't prove it true or false, and there's nothing to really discuss about it.
If Daniel Dennett is right— that there's a human genetic need for religion— then I'd like to imagine that my atheism is proof of evolutionary biology in action.
There may be no purpose, but its always good to have a mission. And I know of one fine allegory for an excellent mission should you choose to charge yourself with one: Carlos Castaneda's series of books about his training with a Yaqui indian mystic named Don Juan. There's a lot of controversy about these books being represented as nonfiction. But if you dispense with that representation, and instead take their stories as allegories, they're quite lovely.
At the end of The Eagle's Gift, Don Juan reveals to his student that there's no point to existence. That we're given our brief 70-100 years of consciousness by something the mystics call "The Eagle," named for it's cold, killer demeanor. And when we die, the eagle gobbles our consciousness right back up again.
He explains that the mystics, to give thanks to the eagle for the brief bout of consciousness they're granted, attempt to widen their consciousness as much as possible. This provides a particularly delicious meal for the eagle when it gobbles one up at the end of one's life.
And that, to me, is a fine mission.
Thank you.
— Delivered to the Harvard Humanist Society, April 2010
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Food for The Eagle
By Adam Savage
Good evening.
I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to read my speech from my new iPad.
Yep. I'm not only a humanist, I'm also an early adopter.
I want to start by saying that, to me, any discourse from me about how one can live a moral existence without religion or the church would sound improperly defensive. That there's an opposite to be defended is absurd and based on a provably false premise. So let's dispense with that.
(To be clear: I'm referring to the humanist axiom "Good without God," whereby "good" means morality. It's provably false that there exists no morality outside of religion, therefore the statement sounds defensive to me.)
By what route does anyone come to believe what they believe? We all like to imagine that it's based on a set of logical facts, but it's often a much more circuitous route.
For me it was pretty simple. I'm actually the fourth generation in my family to have no practical use for the church, or God, or religion. My children continue this trend.
Here are a few things I've learned.
Prayer doesn't work because someone out there is listening, it works because someone in here is listening. I've paid attention. I've pictured what I want to happen in my life. I've meditated extensively on my family, my future, my past actions and what did and didn't work for me about them. I've looked hard at problems and thought hard about their solutions.
See, I order my life by the same mechanism that I use to build things. I cannot proceed to move tools around in the real world until my brain has a clear picture in it of what I'm building. The same goes for my life. I've tried to pay attention. I've tried to picture the way I want things to be, and I've noticed that when I had a clear picture, things often turned out the way I wanted them to.
I've concluded by this that someone is paying attention—I've concluded that it's me. I've noticed that if I'm paying attention to those around me, to myself, to my surroundings, then that is the very definition of empathy. I've noticed that when I pay attention, I'm less selfish, I'm happier—and that the inverse holds true as well.
I think one of the defining moments of adulthood is the realization that nobody's going to take care of you. That you have to do the heavy lifting while you're here. And when you don't, well, you suffer the consequences. At least I have. (And in the empirical study I'm performing about interacting with the universe, I am unfortunately the only test subject I have complete access to, so my data is, as they say, self-selected.) While nobody's going to take care of us, it's incumbent upon us to take care of those around us. That's community.
The fiction of continuity and stability that your parents have painted for you is totally necessary for a growing child. When you realize that it's not the way the world works, it's a chilling moment. It's supremely lonely.
So I understand the desire for someone to be in charge. (As a side note, I believe that the need for conspiracy theories is similar to the need for God.) We'd all like our good and evil to be like it is in the movies: specific and horrible, easy to defeat. But it's not. It's banal.
There's a quote I love: "Evil is a little man afraid for his job." I always thought some famous author said it, but I asked my 200,000 followers on Twitter today, and it turns out that Roy Scheider said it in Blue Thunder.
No one is in charge. And honestly, that's even cooler.
The idea of an ordered and elegant universe is a lovely one. One worth clinging to. But you don't need religion to appreciate the ordered existence. It's not just an idea, it's reality. We're discovering the hidden orders of the universe every day. The inverse square law of gravitation is amazing. Fractals, the theory of relativity, the genome: these are magnificently beautiful constructs.
The nearly infinite set of dominoes that have fallen into each other in order for us to be here tonight is unfathomable. Truly unfathomable. But it is logical. We don't know all the steps in that logic, but we're learning more about it every day. Learning, expanding our consciousness, singly and universally.
As far as I can see, the three main intolerant religions in the world aren't helping in that mission.
For all their talk of charity and knowledge, that they close their eyes to so much—to science, to birth control education, to abuses of power by some of their leaders, to evolution as provable and therefore factual (the list is staggering)—illustrates a wide scope of bigotry.
Now, just to be clear. If you want to believe, or find solace in believing, that someone or something set these particular dominoes in motion—a cosmic finger tipping the balance and then leaving everything else to chance—I can't say anything to that. I don't know.
Though a primary mover is the most complex and thus (given Occam's razor) the least likely of all possible solutions to the particular problem of how we got here, I can't prove it true or false, and there's nothing to really discuss about it.
If Daniel Dennett is right— that there's a human genetic need for religion— then I'd like to imagine that my atheism is proof of evolutionary biology in action.
There may be no purpose, but its always good to have a mission. And I know of one fine allegory for an excellent mission should you choose to charge yourself with one: Carlos Castaneda's series of books about his training with a Yaqui indian mystic named Don Juan. There's a lot of controversy about these books being represented as nonfiction. But if you dispense with that representation, and instead take their stories as allegories, they're quite lovely.
At the end of The Eagle's Gift, Don Juan reveals to his student that there's no point to existence. That we're given our brief 70-100 years of consciousness by something the mystics call "The Eagle," named for it's cold, killer demeanor. And when we die, the eagle gobbles our consciousness right back up again.
He explains that the mystics, to give thanks to the eagle for the brief bout of consciousness they're granted, attempt to widen their consciousness as much as possible. This provides a particularly delicious meal for the eagle when it gobbles one up at the end of one's life.
And that, to me, is a fine mission.
Thank you.
— Delivered to the Harvard Humanist Society, April 2010
Monday, October 05, 2009
Saturday, June 27, 2009
june 2009 :: video comp
sorry it's been so long.
this is a lot of rowan, but later, it's a lot of rowan and sage. those girls LOVE each other :)
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
hey ain't heavy, he's my brother.
sorry, that song has been stuck in my head since this morning.
i can't place when this was ... i think it was from when dad and i took chunks out of the tree in the front yard. anyway, it's alway neat to me when my littlest niece is entertaining my youngest daughter :)
rowan's first birthday and the beginning of the present openings.
mom and aunt marilee feeding rowan diet coke. mmmmmm, diet coke.
rowan eating her birthday cupcake :)))
that being said, let's get to the films...
i can't place when this was ... i think it was from when dad and i took chunks out of the tree in the front yard. anyway, it's alway neat to me when my littlest niece is entertaining my youngest daughter :)
rowan's first birthday and the beginning of the present openings.
mom and aunt marilee feeding rowan diet coke. mmmmmm, diet coke.
rowan eating her birthday cupcake :)))
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
catch-up :: vinegar, salt and tomatoes
STUGGLE!!! it's hard being a baby.
i've been remiss lately in posting videos, and for that, i apologize.
that being said, here are three that i find make me the happy.
first, here's rowan with pa over memorial day/waskom crawfish-boil weekend.
she was soooo sleepy...
and now, here's rowan's FIRST dip in her new pool (courtesy of mom and dad :) thank you!))
finally, here's sage and rowan in the pool. we convinced sage to, "go ahead and get on in!"
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
schilling
hey kiddos.
i don't write here much and i'm okay with that. i'm a busy boy.
which leads me to the content of the entry.
i DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH TIME to do stuff i want to do.
examples:: spend quality time with the wife, the daughters, the yard, the side business, friends and family.
ugh.
i want to be self-employed, or at the very least, wealthy,... which i'm not.
albeit, i'm trying the best i can to be self-employed. it's tough.
HOWEVER,
i DO have time for you... and will MAKE TIME (the family will understand)::
new business... ToPher Designs™.
wanna hear about it???
thought you would.
if not, read further...
need something done image/design-wise/graphical?
a logo, a business card, an invitation or an entire marketing stratagem>>???
call me.
better yet, email.
or you could still call me.
right now, it's tophermusic@gmail.com
(214) 293-6820 cell
i'll let you know when the site is up.
it's coming along nicely though.
nevertheless, i'm easy to work with and will do the best i can to discuss with you "what it is you want to achieve" with whatever artistic direction you need me to provide.
can't think of anything?
i can help with that too.
i rock.
so do you.
let me hear from you.
or your friends.
i have a neat voice. it's rightfully confident.
i don't write here much and i'm okay with that. i'm a busy boy.
which leads me to the content of the entry.
i DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH TIME to do stuff i want to do.
examples:: spend quality time with the wife, the daughters, the yard, the side business, friends and family.
ugh.
i want to be self-employed, or at the very least, wealthy,... which i'm not.
albeit, i'm trying the best i can to be self-employed. it's tough.
HOWEVER,
i DO have time for you... and will MAKE TIME (the family will understand)::
new business... ToPher Designs™.
wanna hear about it???
thought you would.
if not, read further...
need something done image/design-wise/graphical?
a logo, a business card, an invitation or an entire marketing stratagem>>???
call me.
better yet, email.
or you could still call me.
right now, it's tophermusic@gmail.com
(214) 293-6820 cell
i'll let you know when the site is up.
it's coming along nicely though.
nevertheless, i'm easy to work with and will do the best i can to discuss with you "what it is you want to achieve" with whatever artistic direction you need me to provide.
can't think of anything?
i can help with that too.
i rock.
so do you.
let me hear from you.
or your friends.
i have a neat voice. it's rightfully confident.
Friday, May 08, 2009
even more rowan fun...
what can she do with sleepiness? how about a keebler chocolate cookie?
watch and see..
watch and see..
Friday, May 01, 2009
laughing :: fun :: and laughing
this cracks me up everytime i watch it...
from earlier this evening,... i present,
sage and rowan::
from earlier this evening,... i present,
sage and rowan::
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
non family post :: amazing music video
Playing For Change | Song Around The World "Stand By Me" from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.
turn it up.
simply incredible...
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
april 18-19 2009 COMPILATION
just good stuff with the girls.
by the way, elaina, my dear wife, channels Jo Anne Worley at the drop of a hat... well.
been a while..
rowan's two favorite things. eating and grining. and being cute.
and that GRIN!!!!!
i love her.
mannequin walk... and just being rad...
she's GOING to walk soon :))))
Monday, April 06, 2009
rowan and the ugly baby-doll
rowan, elaina and i playing with the ugly doll. rowan is seemingly amused, trying to give it a bottle and even giving the ugly thing a kiss at one point. at the very least, it had elaina and i in hysterics :))
Friday, March 27, 2009
rowan :: breakfast toy and such
good evening. here's a video elaina took this morning after rowan finished breakfast. we have one of those, what i like to call, "Doctor's office waiting room toys." she seems to like it.
on another note, when i went in to get her this morning, she'd scratched her right cheek; evidently time for another nail clipping. i swear, they grow faster than weeds.
here's the vid::
on another note, when i went in to get her this morning, she'd scratched her right cheek; evidently time for another nail clipping. i swear, they grow faster than weeds.
here's the vid::
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
new videos :: FINALLY!!!
new ones... enjoy!
rowan EATING...
rowan EATING MORE...
rowan and sage playing in the "CAVE"
sage riding her brand new bike!!!
but this, truly, is my favorite!!!!
rowan helping me work::
rowan EATING...
rowan EATING MORE...
rowan and sage playing in the "CAVE"
sage riding her brand new bike!!!
but this, truly, is my favorite!!!!
rowan helping me work::
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
rowan and family video update
reading the paper...
rowan trying to crawl with some age assistance...
and finally, rowan happy and being rowan in the morning...
rowan trying to crawl with some age assistance...
and finally, rowan happy and being rowan in the morning...
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
video time
rowan making funny noises.
sage reading to rowan and singing abc's.
rowan being cute and getting sleepy.
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
pictures of late
sorry it's been so long since i've written. i've posted a few videos (below) but have so many more to sift through before i can upload or share. anyway, all is good, the holidays were great and now we're all back to work. so.
here's a pic from the holidays with carl and rowan::
i don't have an account with flickr, so i'm not sure how to link directly...
but regardless, check out the latest family pics HERE::
http://www.flickr.com/photos/smalltownbeatnik/
rock on,
t
here's a pic from the holidays with carl and rowan::
i don't have an account with flickr, so i'm not sure how to link directly...
but regardless, check out the latest family pics HERE::
http://www.flickr.com/photos/smalltownbeatnik/
rock on,
t
Video TIME!!!
this is what happens when i have our seven month old and mommy has to go to the store...
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
time o' the year
just wanted to wish you and yours the happiest of holidays and a great happy new year!
love,
toPher, elaina, sage and rowan
love,
toPher, elaina, sage and rowan
Monday, December 08, 2008
so wrong...
this is from WAY back in the day...
and it's so wrong...
but i can't help it. anyway, i'll post more baby/kiddo/family videos in the near future.
my apologies.
and it's so wrong...
but i can't help it. anyway, i'll post more baby/kiddo/family videos in the near future.
my apologies.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Laughs, Chortles, Giggles, Grunts and Guffaws
Rowan cooing and laughing... first time :)
Rowan laughing, talking, laughing somemore and then GRUNTING, cause "ribs be gettin et."
Rowan laughing, talking, laughing somemore and then GRUNTING, cause "ribs be gettin et."
Friday, October 17, 2008
btw (that's "by the way" for us older folk...)
here's a pic from last night when rowan was: drooling, wearing her UT pacifier holder AND the greatness of the brown cords... man those pants RULE!!!
so the btw reference is that the wifey and i came to an agreement. we take a LOT of pics and vid... we rule. the concern was that, we have pics and vid everywhere and nowhere all at once...
SO, i will post and handle the videos.
and elaina will host/post/handle the pictures here.
hope this will work out for everyone.
anywhoozlcheezits,
rock on and have a great-astic weekend.
cheers,
t
Monday, October 13, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
swinging, prunes and the greatness of UT
please enjoy:)
pretty self explanatory,...
here's rowan swinging::
[btw, this is the swing her papa and mamaw gave her 'us' at the shower... as well as the swingset... this was the first time we were able to put her in it :) ]
here's her DIGGING on some prunes (gross...)
and here's a little vid i made extolling the greatness of UT (my alma mater) this past weekend...
pretty self explanatory,...
here's rowan swinging::
[btw, this is the swing her papa and mamaw gave her 'us' at the shower... as well as the swingset... this was the first time we were able to put her in it :) ]
here's her DIGGING on some prunes (gross...)
and here's a little vid i made extolling the greatness of UT (my alma mater) this past weekend...
Thursday, October 09, 2008
juicy baby videos
a sweet one about reading...
btw, by the time i got to the filming, this was rowan's THIRD book...
and here's some with rowan eating banana's for the first time...
btw, by the time i got to the filming, this was rowan's THIRD book...
and here's some with rowan eating banana's for the first time...
Monday, October 06, 2008
baby,... baby...
photos and all that to come later...
but i worked hard on this video... so please enjoy and comment.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
paging dr. howard, dr. fine, dr. howard
it's been a long day and a half. elaina went to the emergency room yesterday at about 2pm with chest pains. she went to her doctor prior and with her symptoms, he urged her to go immediately to the emergency room. i met her there shortly after she arrived. my folks watched the girls and elaina and i waited at the hospital... and waited... and waited... and then we got a room; and waited... and waited... and waited... then she got some x-rays. and then we,... you got it.
by 10pm they deduced she has "minor" pleurisy, gave her some prescriptions and sent us on our merry way. she was down with what we thought was a sinus infection since late last week, but it turned out to have been bronchitis... the pleurisy a result of that.
all seems well for now. i took the day off today to handle getting her car, picking up the baby, getting sage from school, running errands that needed to be done and working from the home office in between. i'm beat, but at least elaina seems to be doing better... and truly, that's all that matters.
now it's off to sage's soccer practice.
cheers.
by 10pm they deduced she has "minor" pleurisy, gave her some prescriptions and sent us on our merry way. she was down with what we thought was a sinus infection since late last week, but it turned out to have been bronchitis... the pleurisy a result of that.
all seems well for now. i took the day off today to handle getting her car, picking up the baby, getting sage from school, running errands that needed to be done and working from the home office in between. i'm beat, but at least elaina seems to be doing better... and truly, that's all that matters.
now it's off to sage's soccer practice.
cheers.
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