Dark night of the turkeys

On the contrary, saying “underwear” solves the whole problem. I am a big fan of solutions that answer the questions we did not ask, thus making the questions we ask unnecessary. Possibly even stupid, if we are lucky.

I have been lucky enough to get a few comments lately, mostly from someone using the pseudonym Turkey. That reminds me of something I just read the other day:

During Thanksgiving, many turkeys are killed and eaten. Shortly thereafter, each year, winter comes. Thus, killing turkeys causes winter.

Spurious connections like these are everywhere, thus conspiracy theories, superstition and many of the daily mistakes of ordinary people. Ooh, that reminds me of the other turkey quote:

“Based on projections from the previous months, we turkeys look forward to the Thanksgiving season with great confidence.”

Even if something is obvious, even if it is self-evident, it may still be wrong. This is why we need ever higher (or wider) perspectives. The higher our point of view, the wider we can see, and the more connections. More about that in a separate post, Light willing.

I keep thinking that if someone disagrees with what I say, it is caused by my failure to communicate. If only I could explain what I see, it would be self-evident that it is the truth (as far as it goes). But that is just how I see it now. When I meet someone who sees things from a higher perspective than I do, I try to get to where they are, at least in theory. For this reason, whatever I say now may seem stupid to me if I live another decade. Hopefully long before that. On the other hand, I do recognize stupidities of my own past in other people, and that is not meant as an offense. On the contrary, it is a message of hope. If I can see things I didn’t, then so can others. I am not some kind of avatar who just pretends to be human. My journal over more than a decade bears that out, in case anyone would ever be in doubt. Not that I think there is much doubt yet, more’s the pity.

Speaking of slaughtering turkeys, I certainly have no intention of even hurting the feelings of the local Turkey. Rather, my intention is to increase the happiness of all and one, for this life and the next.

On that note, I tend to believe that happiness, unlike pleasure, can be carried over from one life to the next. Pleasure is of the body, but happiness is of the soul, if not spirit. Actually I think a deeper word is needed for the spirit, such as “enlightenment”. That is what we all want deep down. But some get caught up in pleasure, the first level of happiness, and chase it and it alone for the rest of their lives. Others get caught up in the joys of the mind, the next level, and that is where they stop. In each case, the one who stops at an outer level will feel that proceeding inward would cost them their happiness, while actually even a modest happiness at a deeper level far exceeds an intense pleasure at a more superficial level.

This is obvious, right? Truth, self-evident? Now if only I can JUST DO IT.

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Then again, I just got another comment from someone else. It asks why bra is singular and panties plural. I guess what really matters to people varies. I also guess a teacher of English could answer that on their feet.

But I am not a teacher of English. I am perhaps a teacher of the obvious, of what you already knew but never thought of before. (Such as, if in doubt use “underwear”.) At least that is my own favorite way of learning, being reminded of what I did not know I knew. But I can’t be a midwife of the soul before I have given birth to myself. Or that’s what the voices in my head tell me. (And here I thought constipation was as bad as it comes…) I sure have a lot of obviosity left to learn. Perhaps if it becomes Thanksgiving all year I may still have time to learn some of it. As it is, I keep confusing turkeys and black swans. Thanks, Taleb.