A Child Called Humanity

Some fragments....will update

Mental Tools we can use to our betterment
Imagination helps us see the bigger picture. Facts, logic, science, knowledge. Problem Solving.

Metaphors to understand complex concepts in our own terms.
Stop value judgements. They impede learning by triggering our oldest way of thinking - fight or flight.

Ways of thinking as paths - trails - made through an area - a forest, a desert, whatever it is you know - it is all essentially the same as it is you immediate habitat.

We are still growing.

We are a beings within a single giant being.
Science and perspective of history, we cannot ignore the truth.
The truth will lead to true happiness.

We are gullible. We can be lied to.


Humanity as an individual.

The Culture argument.
-spreading into monoculture - it's a fight for inclusion, and even remembrance.
-negative histories - psychological reactions - just as a child learns from their shame, and in adulthood must get past it and redeem themselves to flourish, so must we all as  Earthlings. No matter the length of struggle, no matter the investment, no matter the passion - fighting amongst ourselves must end. We are not children in the scheme of our species - it is time to grow up.

But that requires an alteration to the ego. A redefinition of identity, not just as our names, as our families, as our communities, as our nations, as our quirks and preferences - but first and foremost as a citizen of this planet. Perhaps millenniums from now a descendent of earth will sigh with relief, sworn in as a being of another planet - happy finally to belong in a way our species may have never allowed - or the opposite as we welcome natives of other planets -  and still for them we push on.

When I am sad I just imagine these possibilities and I find a way to somehow help that future to exist - willing it into being. That makes me feel like I should stay alive.

-Variation of earthlings - the future perspective will be zoomed far out.
-Not cultures of earth, but seen as earth culture. We cannot expect to be so individually appreciated as distinguished between Chinese and American and Indian and French kind of human. Space is the next great adventure - the next big move. While we've grown enough to realize this, we've also grown to know that we don't know - and need to find out. If you have never imagined the logistics, the details, that might go into an alien scenario, there has never been a time before when it was closer to mattering.

There is a specific, knowable form and behavior - recordable.
We must continue to review and revise. To grow.
Not just to get closer to the truth, but because the truth changes. Circumstance changes.
Agreeing on human rights today does not guarantee everything will be the same tomorrow.
That is the choice we make. That is a pride we may share. Doing good because good is good.
False prides. False.
Even in progress we are susceptible to mistakes.

My teachers (where did she get this stuff from? how does a person become this kind of person?)
And their teachers....
heroes. inspirations. friends. kindred spirits. 

A combination of high and low language - in other words - so all points are clear. 

0, 1, 2, 3 levels of advanced civilization (big think)


As we (not just creatures, not just inhabitants, not just natives, not just beings, but citizens) of planet earth

These are our pure, true instincts which - by all accounts - we cannot seem to surpass:
-Need for love and belonging.
- One side of the spectrum is family, the other may be simply feeling of positive contribution, if not appreciation and respect, by others. Sex, an early instinct, can be one manifestation of this need but like our need for .... it can be something else.

Because I Said So [Ken Jennings]

I'm currently sitting in Powell's, waiting for Ken Jennings to show up. He' s promoting a new reference sort of book that was inspired, in part, by Reddit. Or, to be more clear, it was compiled with some of their suggestions.

Exciting, but honestly my head hurts, my back and shoulders are aching, and I've gotten hungry, these shoes while free are killing my feet, and I kind of want to go home but won't because I really, really want to do something with my stupid fucking self.

I need to get out more. The day has not disappointed me.

I have an hour to wait and not much battery life.

My notebook is totally full. I need a fresh one.
I spent the afternoon in the library up the street. I printed resumes and read a book published by Amnesty International about the current state of human rights throughout the world. For one, it was very well organized which I immensely appreciated. Second, with a way of their own...lingo, phrasing...the information was devastating, to anyone who'd give a minute to care.

All these books can make me question whether I really have anything to say that hasn't already been said. I wonder if the real problem is that nobody is listening. I wonder if I'm more part of the problem than any solution. I carry on though. The prospect of somehow spreading this information and the very real, very current experiences of nearly forgotten people does provide a hope.

I want to make the world a better place...there's nothing else worth doing.

In Argentina they threw nuns to their deaths from airplanes.
In America they executed a potentially innocent man and still keep 150 people locked up in Guantanamo Bay.
In Tunisia, they escaped across the Mediterranean Sea in substandard vessels only to be shipped back to their living nightmare by Italy...runaways handed back to their abusive parents.
Africa is fucked.
Asia is also pretty fucked.
All over, the world is not America.
But even America is pretty fucked, in its own special way.
All over, there are still people fighting wars that - as a progressive, liberal, 20- something of the 21st century - I' d thought were already won. Even in the US too, however, we're still giving a shit about all the wrong things. Sexuality, race, gender, styles, persuasions. At least we don't kill each other over it (much).

I see so many pieces, so many possibilities. For my future, for the future' s future.
All entwined like a knotted necklace, a strand of gold in chaos.

Looking around, it'd be nice to have a copy of this book everybody's here to hear him read. I need a fucking job. I absolutely love Bear, but it's not right for me to keep living as we have since last August. It destroys me and that hurts us. Goddamnit why can't something just be good and work out? I don't want to worry anymore. If wishes were fishes...there wouldn't be any more suffering than the pain of disagreement.

Just as a side note, me and one other couple are the youngest people here by a solid decade...