I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
September 05, 2013 - 12:33 p.m.
I am going to stop putting off writing now. I can pretty much start every edition of Wise Madness that way. It's one of those days that I'm not sure what I'm going to write about. Like The Lord of the Rings it will be a tale that grows in the telling.
The first day of school had some hitches. I as I said yesterday I don't have a copy of the new edition of the textbook. What I'm going to do is hope it hasn't changed too much and copy homework problems from the old book and give them to the class. I forgot to emphasize to them that they should read the new book. My guess is that very few students actually read the book, they just do the homework if they do that. I realized that I forgot to teach them the most important thing, how to tackle a math problem that they can't do. The right reaction is not to give up. it's to go through your notes and see how the teacher solved a similar problem. If that doesn't work go through a similar problem worked out in the text book. In a class like this there are not original problems. They are pretty much all problems done before with just different numbers. They should be able to do them all except for the odd word problem here and there.
Since I didn't copy the homework before class I had to scan it and email it to them. That meant setting up blackboard. That is far easier than it used to be. The menus are still often unintuitive and the help isn't good but I figured it out. One thing I couldn't see is a way of making the blackboard account for two classes identical. I have two sections of the same class, I want the pages the same. You'd think there'd be an easy way of doing that. I could then copy last year's page onto this year's and have everything set up for the entire semester.
Then I went clothes shopping,. I have to do more. Marshall's in Chelsea closed so I went to T,J. Maxx. I basically buy clothes twice a year, once for school and once for summer. If my stuff wasn't in storage I wouldn't have bought anything. I have lots of clothes I like there.
I stopped at Fairway and got my U-Bet. They had it. The great U-Bet shortage is over. How many of you breathed a sigh of relief?
Have you noticed that I have not been too happy lately, I pretty much went from the Falcon Ridge high into a funk. It isn't even a mood thing. I have pretty good reasons to not be happy. I'm still a cheerful hobbit. I really have had a tough time and part of that is losing things that help me get through tough times.
I think not having therapy this week is affecting my writing. I'm letting it out here. The problem with that is that I can't be too explicit.
So it's time to go outside myself. Time to discuss what's I think about, not what I feel. Good thing that I actually write notes now and then. This is something I've been saving for a day when I don't have much to write about.
According to the most recent Pew poll only 2.4% of the population is atheist and 3.3% agnostic. Another 13.9% don't believe in anything 13.9% believe in nothing in particular but those are not kindred spirits but undecided. The numbers are on the rise as the survey shows but it's still a small minority. And like most minorities we get asked stupid questions that can border on rude depending on how they are asked. The archetype is "Why don't you believe in god?" I don't go around asking people why they DO believe in god. People don't go up to Catholics and say, "Why are you a Catholic?" People would probably ask it of Unitarians if people that would ask it knew what Unitarians were.
When I'm asked I usually say the truth, "Because I don't see any reason to believe in god and I'd need a reason." I often get things like "I feel sorry for you" back. I decided to come up with snappy comebacks that are still true to the question though like a good Jew I often answer a question with question.
- For the same reason you don't believe in Zeus.
- For the same reason I don't believe in Leprechauns
- The proper question is why do you believe in god?
- There is no evidence for god whatsoever.
- Which god?
- Do you ask people why they don't believe in ghosts?
- If he existed and wanted me to believe in him I would.
- I had no need of that hypothesis - Pierre-Simon Laplace
- If he exists I'll answer when he asks me.
And that reminds me it's Rosh Hashanah. I'm not going to wish anyone a happy Rosh Hashanah because if they believe then they shouldn't be reading this. I actually used to own a shofar. I thing I gave it away. Maybe it's in storage.
I'm planning on going dancing again tonight. Tara O'Grady is performing at a free dance in the streets of Park Slope. Dancing Under the Stars, OUTSIDE on 4th Street at Fifth Avenue, Park Slope Brooklyn- Bring your swing dancing shoes! 7:00-9:00pm. I did not get up the nerve to ask anyone. Hopefully there will be single woman around. It's not too late. If you want to dance with me let me know.
Which reminds me of something that made me happy yesterday. I actually ran into a friend in the street. I can't say who the friend is or where because he or is that she (I have to be cagey) testified against the mob and is in witness protection. I love this person and don't want to get anyone killed. But it did make me very happy to run into her or is that him.
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018
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Horvendile September 05, 2013
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