(no subject)
Dec. 7th, 2009 06:06 amThe three most immediate things going on with me right now are good conversations with ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
blackmonkeymage and barking_iguana, and being sick.
blackmonkeymage and I had a long IM chat on the subject of motivation. I'm not sure *he* got there, but it lead me to a sitori about how I decide what "fundamental" is. Let's say I eat a particular food because I like the way it tastes -- is that fundamental? How did I decide to like that particular taste? One can *always* question further -- but "I like this" is what's really fundamental. It may not have been at some earlier point in history, but *right now*, this food tastes good to me, and that's what reality is.
More important toblackmonkeymage is learning to take what he can from school without getting obsessed with the power-politics of it. I agree with him that said politics is infuriating, but it's also beyond his powers to materially affect, and so IME he should be concentrating on what he can get out of it for the purpose of increasing his power to affect things.
This actually comes *from* my conversation withbarking_iguana, who pointed out that the values I was positing as possibly-fundamental (kindness, reason, and action) could also be considered tools to achieve some *other* goal. He's right; my experience with the UU's here is full of people who are kind, reasonable, and active, but to no particular purpose. If this leads you to an image of a bunch of good-hearted, liberal headless chickens, you're about right.
Since I was coming at this from a review of Judaism, the missing underlying question is "what do we mean by YHVH?", which has always been a mystical experience. And one which, despite being born into the tribe, I've never had, nor do I know anyone who has. My best construction of it from reading is that God (to move to the equally-undefined English) is the anthropomorphosis of the whole of the universe, including but not limited to myself. As people, we relate better to things we perceive as other people.
And with those two thoughts, if I don't get started doing some exercises for my neck, it's not going to stop hurting. So I'll get back to yez-all later.
blackmonkeymage and barking_iguana, and being sick. blackmonkeymage and I had a long IM chat on the subject of motivation. I'm not sure *he* got there, but it lead me to a sitori about how I decide what "fundamental" is. Let's say I eat a particular food because I like the way it tastes -- is that fundamental? How did I decide to like that particular taste? One can *always* question further -- but "I like this" is what's really fundamental. It may not have been at some earlier point in history, but *right now*, this food tastes good to me, and that's what reality is. More important to
blackmonkeymage is learning to take what he can from school without getting obsessed with the power-politics of it. I agree with him that said politics is infuriating, but it's also beyond his powers to materially affect, and so IME he should be concentrating on what he can get out of it for the purpose of increasing his power to affect things. This actually comes *from* my conversation with
barking_iguana, who pointed out that the values I was positing as possibly-fundamental (kindness, reason, and action) could also be considered tools to achieve some *other* goal. He's right; my experience with the UU's here is full of people who are kind, reasonable, and active, but to no particular purpose. If this leads you to an image of a bunch of good-hearted, liberal headless chickens, you're about right. Since I was coming at this from a review of Judaism, the missing underlying question is "what do we mean by YHVH?", which has always been a mystical experience. And one which, despite being born into the tribe, I've never had, nor do I know anyone who has. My best construction of it from reading is that God (to move to the equally-undefined English) is the anthropomorphosis of the whole of the universe, including but not limited to myself. As people, we relate better to things we perceive as other people.
And with those two thoughts, if I don't get started doing some exercises for my neck, it's not going to stop hurting. So I'll get back to yez-all later.
