Chris Pollitt

There have been several international efforts over the years to try and make the world a better place:

• International Global Warming Treaty (Kyoto)
• International Ban on Land Mines Treaty
• International Criminal Court
• International Tobacco Control Treaty
• (and likely others)

And in every case, the U.S.A. not only adamantly refuses to join these initiatives, it tries to kill them.

In addition, the U.S.A. has a long history of unprovoked attacks on foreign nations:

• North American First Nations (1775-1890)
• Canada (1812)
• Mexico (1846-1848)
• Spain (1898)
• The Philippines (1899-1902)
• North Korea (1950-1953)
• Vietnam (1965-1975)
• Iraq (1990-1991)
• Afghanistan (2001-2002)

All this points to a nation that is out of control. What can be done about it?

• Educate yourself and others
• Write letters to the decision makers
• Vote (or Run for Office if you are able)
• Make informed decisions when purchasing products and services
• Sign petitions
• Join Marches
• (and more, be creative!)

It’s time to act.

1 Timothy 6

6 And religion does make your life rich, by making you content with what you have. 7 We didn’t bring anything into this world, and we won’t take anything with us when we leave. 8 So we should be satisfied just to have food and clothes. 9 People who want to be rich fall into all sorts of temptations and traps. They are caught by foolish and harmful desires that drag them down and destroy them. 10 The love of money causes all kinds of trouble. Some people want money so much that they have given up their faith and caused themselves a lot of pain.

The bit from the above that I want to focus in on is the line “we won’t take anything with us when we leave”. Now I would contend that we do indeed take stuff with us when we leave. Not physical things of course but important things none-the-less: namely skills and knowledge. Now you may say that any skills or knowledge that we may collect while on this side may be of no use on the other. I disagree. I think that wisdom is universally applicable as is the skill of unconditional love. What do you think?

OK so here are a few links I’ve found that I like:

• The MegaPenny Project gives you an idea of what big numbers look like.
• This is about why it’s important to vote(flash required)
• And here is where I got the previous two sites from

So Happy New Year! I know it’s been a while since I posted. It’s not that I haven’t had any bloggable thoughts, but rather that I have been lazy. In any case, I had something semi-interesting happen today at lunch time. I was having lunch at Subway when a Police officer walked in (they need to eat too it turns out). Anyway, you could feel the atmosphere change in the room (my state of mind certainly changed). It’s obvious why: he (it was a male in this case) has the power to arrest, hurt and even kill you. Not that he will of course (after all, you’ve done nothing wrong — at least not that he knows about), but that doesn’t change that fact that your mindset and even behaviour are altered when you are around those with visible power. So here comes my thought: how would we feel and act if God were in the room with us? I suppose it depends on our perception of what God is like. Of course, God is omnipresent and so is in the room at all times, it’s just that we cannot sense God’s presence. Perhaps not a new thought, but something to think about.

Here is a quote I recently pulled off of Slashdot:

History is curious stuff You’d think by now we had enough Yet the fact remains I fear They make more of it every year.

This got me to thinking of another quote:

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Which made me think:

We as humans certainly have more than enough history to enable us to never make another mistake again if we’d only learn to draw on the history we already have.

Sadly however, a final quote comes to mind:

History teaches us that history teaches us nothing.

At first glance, the above may appear to be an oxymoron as, by definition, miracles are rare occurrences. There is another way to define them however, which is: miracles are (beneficial) events which cannot be explained¹. By using this definition, miracles abound. To narrow the discussion, let’s pick a very common example: apples. How does an apple seed, which is about the size of this capital “O”² cause many millions (or was that billions) of molecules to spontaneously organize themselves into not just an apple³ but in fact into an apple tree which in turn produces numerous apples over its lifespan. Part of what makes this a miracle is that apples are not just usefully for food, but they are (almost universally) considered to be tasty as well⁴. If this is not a miracle, I don’t know what is. I think the reason it is overlooked so routinely is because it is so, well, routine. This in no way takes away from its miraculousness. Just a thought from my brain to yours…

-Chris

Footnotes:
1. Sure there may be theories or partial explanations but when you get right down to it, the phenomenon remains essentially unexplainable.
2. At least on my screen. 😉
3. Which would be highly miraculous in itself!
4. As opposed to say Brussels sprouts for example.:-D

Today’s philosophical conundrum is: do electrons live? Or to put it another way, what physical difference is there between a living thing and a non-living thing? Surely at the atomic level, nothing, since all matter is made up of atoms. So then, we have the following argument:

1) All living things are made of matter

2) All matter is composed of atoms

3) Atoms are not alive (according to the most widely held definitions)

Therefore, life (whatever it may be) is not itself a physical thing, but only manifests itself through physical things. What are the ramifications of this? Well, for me it points to the concept that life transcends matter. In other words living things (which by the way includes you and I) have a life entity (or soul if you will) that in all likelihood can survive physical death. So now, (assuming you are still with me), the question becomes, what happens to this life force after physical death?

For an answer to this question, we need to seek out research conducted on those whom have come close to death or those whom have been temporarily clinically dead, and subsequently revived via external means (usually via electric shock to the heart). Here, definitions come in to play. See here for a definition of clinical death. Has any such research been done and if so, where is it. Well, happily, the answer to the first question is yes and the answer to the second question is provided in the links below. Remember that this research may necessitate a change in world view on your part and so it will be necessary to keep an open mind when reviewing this material.

* The International Association for Near-Death Studies

* The Near Death Experience Research Foundation

* Who’s Who in NDE Research

Here is a snippet from the first book (mentioned in my last posting) about how we regard our work days.

I think it’s quite interesting.

Now the great and profound mistake which my typical man makes in regard to his day is a mistake of general attitude, a mistake which vitiates and weakens two-thirds of his energies and interests. In the majority of instances he does not precisely feel a passion for his business; at best he does not dislike it. He begins his business functions with reluctance, as late as he can, and he ends them with joy, as early as he can. And his engines while he is engaged in his business are seldom at their full “h.p.” (I know that I shall be accused by angry readers of traducing the city worker; but I am pretty thoroughly acquainted with the City, and I stick to what I say.)

Yet in spite of all this he persists in looking upon those hours from ten to six as “the day,” to which the ten hours preceding them and the six hours following them are nothing but a prologue and epilogue. Such an attitude, unconscious though it be, of course kills his interest in the odd sixteen hours, with the result that, even if he does not waste them, he does not count them; he regards them simply as margin.

This general attitude is utterly illogical and unhealthy, since it formally gives the central prominence to a patch of time and a bunch of activities which the man’s one idea is to “get through” and have “done with.” If a man makes two-thirds of his existence subservient to one-third, for which admittedly he has no absolutely feverish zest, how can he hope to live fully and completely? He cannot.

One of my favourite authors is Arnold Bennett. Of all his writings, it’s his non-fiction that appeals to me. Specifically, the book called “How to Live”, which I know sounds rather presumptuous. This book is actually a collection of four books combined into one volume. The four separate books are as follows:

• How to Live on 24 Hours a Day
  

• The Human Machine
  

• Mental Efficiency and Other Hints to Men and Women
  

• Self and Self-Management
  

These books can be purchased (quite cheaply) at ABEBooks .

The first book can also be found at Project Gutenberg .

So here I am with my first bit of truly good, nay great news: Vancouver Bikes Grind Guatemala Corn

In small Cakchiquel and Quiche villages in the highlands of Guatemala there is a new way to grind corn, thanks in part to the staff and volunteers of Our Community Bikes. What, you may well ask, is OCB doing in Guatemala?Un poco historia…

See here for the full story.