Coming together

One of the most difficult things we constantly deal with is difference in opinion. Let me be clear, almost anything can be a matter of opinion, science religion, politics you name it. Facts may infact be hard to come by. 

Let's take a look at a popular argument, evolution vs. creationism. Creationism believes that the world is a few thousand years old. Pretty much every scientist in the world agrees this is absolutely rediculous. What I'd like to point out is that our proof that the world is billions of years old comes based off of research. This research is what builds consensus and proof, but it is (although super unlikely) possible that all of our research is based off the wrong conclusions, wrong assumptions, perhaps the math itself is altogether not the only answer. The laws of physics are constantly being tested leaving the potential possibility that some if not all of them are missing information that might otherwise explain our answers.

So then let's find a way that both evolution and creationism can live in he same place. Ok, let's say if a person wants to argue with you about creationism, to deflate the argument and move on with a potentially peaceful conclusion would be to say, "I wasn't here 3000 years ago to be able to tell, but if the creation belief is true, then when the earth was created God made it with all the dinosaur bones already in the ground, and the ice records in the poles showing millions of years of existence." If God made the world 3000 years ago, he/she did so with all of this stuff built in.

The issue here is that God could have the created the world yesterday and made our memories to believe we had lived the lives we have lived but this morning was actually our first breathe. I'm doubting you will get a very accepting audience to this second point, mostly because I have tried it with people and I know it goes only marginally well. The point is to move on in the world we all need to get away from the fringes of our understanding and find concrete ways to consistently coexist.

It's fun to argue and yell and be rediculous, but it is more fun to build a better future for our children not sharpen the focus of communal myopic views.

A difficult talk with my children

Today when sitting down to get to work, I got an email revealing the death of a coworker's wife. Truth be told I didn't even know who it was until I looked up his picture. I saw him, knew I knew him, met his now deceased wife at our company Christmas party, and almost immediately I was struck with incredible grief. 

I believe that we all go on, that consciousness continues past the physical death of the body. That we continue is a central belief in many peoples lives, but factually Marilyn is gone today, for my teammate she remains in his mind but is missing in physical presence. This is a difficult thing to handle, to appreciate, to accept. Yet this moment, the last breathe on this planet, is a real moment. A moment we will all experience. Whether or not time actually exists is a valid point, but restricted in our own physical forms time most certainly exists in the context of physical form and there will be a time where it ends.  

How to reconcile this? How do I explain these inevitabilites to my children? My plan is to explain it to them like a race. I run quite a bit and hence I race from time to time, so my children are very familiar with this concept. If life is like an ultramarathon then we can know some basic realities. It's going to take some time, a lot of time, to get to the end (been there). You are going to have some incredible highs, where you feel so amazing you want to laugh and cry at the same time. You will have some crushing lows, like you feel like you would rather lay down on the trail and die. You will eat, drink, meet people, sweat, and hurt. When you get to the finish and cross the line you are happy and relived to be done, so long as you gave it your all. That is what I plan on telling my kids, give your everyday everything you've got. Don't stop living until the race is over, don't settle for a DNF in life, get through it and push all the way to the end, because when you cross that plane, there will be relief and happiness, and if you're an ultrarunner with a family you know they'll be there at the end along with all your friends, and usually in the most beautiful place you can imagine. 

Love the grind, embrace it all, I'll see you all at the post race.  

Use The Force for Religion

Call me silly, and I know you will, but I am genuinely considering teaching my children The Force as their religion. No I am not starting a Star Wars themed church, though dibs I called that shit, I think that discussing the Dark/Light lore with them is valid enough to emphasize the importance of their decisions. That certain choices will lead to a certain livelihood.  It isn't really like this is a novel concept, The Force is in many ways a version Dharma which is the basic concept included within Buddhism and Hinduism as well as other religions.

The Dharma was explained to me once as the life force of the universe that we in turn are effected by and can in fact effect. Further reading led me to dharma being law and order and ultimately what holds together the universe together. Sound familiar? It should because if you replace the term Force with Dharma in any of the Star Wars films nothing would really change. In this way Buddha would have been high in midichlorians and if had access to a lightsaber would have been a Jedi, same thing with Jesus. On the flip side this would also very well explain why bad people are so very capable of not only doing bad things but doing them successfully. They are able to harness the dark side of the force to do bad things, ahem uuuummmm Hitler? 

The best part of this idea I feel is they can actively participate in this thought process by just living. At this point it would be nearly impossible to avoid Star Wars if you were 5 or 3 years old. Now the task at hand will be to get them to choose the Light. More on this later.  

Goals

So the goal is fairly straight forward I'm going to try to write weekly and get the things that are in my head out, so as to better sharpen my focus and hash out ideas beyond my consciousness. I'll include some personal stuff, some vegan stuff, and some existential stuff and really what ever else come to mind. It might not always be good or bad or whatever, but it will be there and it'll make me feel better that I'm trying to do something I constantly think about.

If you see this, you already know your awesome.