Universal Varieties of Nirvana

Gretel and Zuzu visiting the graves of their great-great-great-great-great grandparents today. Gretel gathered some plants to put at their graves and then I saw her putting them at other graves. I asked why she was doing it and she said it's because Martin Luther King said you are supposed to be nice to people you don't know. I thought I could trick her. I asked if we have to be nice to bad people. The question wasn't even out of my mouth before she said, "Yes! We have to care about everyone." And of course it's true. Good lesson.

February 15, 2020

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Hey Buddhists, it's February 15, and you know what that means- Nirvana Day! This is the day that Buddha was said to have reached total nirvana, after the death of his physical body.

https://youtu.be/QECJ9pCyhns

February 15, 2014

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One of the few films I've seen over the last few years worth rewatching is Eugene Jarecki's documentary, The King. It's a film tracing Elvis's ups and downs as a metaphor for the decline (perhaps?) of America. Jarecki travels the country in Elvis's Rolls Royce talking to celebrities, unknown musicians and regular people musing on the philosophy of America, Elvis as myth, and relation of the two. There are endless odd juxtapositions and connections made in such a wide variety of ways. I'm enthralled by it. 

A moment that just caught me... Elvis's hairdresser and stylist recounts one of the most transformative moments of Elvis's life. They were driving through the Arizona desert on Route 66 and Elvis was staring off and was almost startled by a cloud- "Look, what the HELL is Joseph Stalin's face doing in that cloud???" The hairstylist said that the likeness was unmistakable. Elvis made the bus pull over. He went out in the desert with the hairstylist and told him that it was as if a lightning bolt just came out of that cloud and hit him... he saw in an instant that God is not real, God is simply another name for love, that he was wasting his life making teenie-bopper movies and he was done with it, it was time to do something meaningful with his life.

As he recounts this we see a wide variety of quick montage shots- Billy Graham, the desert, Manson, the Rolls, Scientologists, faith healers and garbage Elvis films. Metaphors on top of metaphors on top of metaphors. Just remarkable. 

This scene was just after Ashton Kutcher recounted his own experience with fame... that he reached a level of fame disproportionate to what he had actually achieved professionally... that it puts you in a box where you either have to sell yourself out (my words) in order to pay to maintain that level of fame, or just go away. (While he's talking a tour bus drives by with people yelling "we love you Ashton," proving his point, and he reluctantly acknowledges them.) And the scene was just before Elvis's great comeback special. 

Are WE due for a comeback? Are we actually in decline? Elvis hated the term "comeback." If you'll allow me- do we need to make America great again or keep it great? It's one or the other, right? I guess it takes a Colonel Parker (the carnival barking clown) to tell us which way is up... you know, the guy who ripped off Elvis for half his money, the guy who took something genuine and corrupted it into pure commodity. Or was Elvis's corruption temporary? Or his own fault to begin with? Could Elvis be made great again? Can we be made great again? Maybe some metaphors are getting crossed? I guess the answer is up to us.

It paints Elvis as a complicated figure, analyzed by all sides. I love Chuck D of Public Enemy talking about the nonsense of cultural appropriation- to paraphrase, "if some black person is playing Beethoven, they can't accuse him of ripping off white music." Genius. It makes no difference where something came from if it's good. All culture is cultural appropriation. Everything is interrelated. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is not ours, it belongs to everybody.

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Further reflections after rewatching it:

-Thinking about the Faustian Bargain... the devil gives you everything you want and all you have to do is sell you're soul to him. It's in the Bible. Elvis sold his soul to the Colonel. Trump wants the country to sell it's soul to him- "what do you have to lose???"

-When Elvis used to leave his movie shoots, the Colonel used to put a blanket over him so the girls wouldn't see him and go berserk. Then later he wasn't as popular and The Colonel would still put a blanket over his head, but so Elvis couldn't see that there were no girls.

-Love the scene with The Wire's David Simon telling Jarecki the Rolls Royce is a bad metaphor he's chosen, thst he should have used an American car, one of Elvis's Cadillacs... that the Rolls represents him as the Vegas Elvis, the old and broken down Elvis, the too big for himself Elvis... and meanwhile the Rolls is broken down as he's being interviewed, and then Simon realizes. 

-Is America heading for an OD like The King, ready to slump off the toilet and die in what should be our prime? Ethan Hawke pointed out that at every turn Elvis chose money. Are we always going to choose money? The Rolls Royce, an English car... we revolted against England because they had a King. Mike Myers asked why it's good to be a king, and why is Bruce Springsteen The Boss? Don't we hate the boss? We no longer have a king, we just have a president who wishes he was a king and operates as a king. He used to be the boss who fired everybody. These metaphors are deep!

-Related... what's the number one reason people say they support Trump? The economy. Of course it's important, but maybe there's more to consider.

-The key thing I remember from my great-grandma was that she loved Elvis. Elvis always seemed old and she was old so it seemed to make sense, but one day I did the math and realized she was in her late 40's at the time Elvis was famous. She had been pregnant at 15 with my grandma, raised 5 kids, and then her husband died in his early 50's. I think Elvis was a way to reconnect to something inside herself that was suppressed. He provided her comeback! 

We have that chance too, but which Elvis do we want to be? The film ends with a dreadful TV performance... he's fat, drugged up, slurring (huh, just like us!)... but then he belts out an all-time performance of Unchained Melody. He still had it in him. He ends with a smile. There's still good in us- we can do that too!

February 15, 2020

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The poor fact-checkers, can they retire already? It's time to assume falsehood and let the fact-provers have their turn.

February 15, 2019

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David Foster Wallace would be so disappointed in us. In this criticism of the McCain campaign of 2000, he points out our internal war between our "deep need to believe" and our "deep belief that the need to believe is bullshit"... didn't even contemplate our deep need to actually believe bullshit.

DFW- "Telling the truth even when it hurts him politically," which of course since its an ad means that McCain is trying to get political benefit out of his indifference to political benefit? What's the difference between hypocrisy and paradox? Unsimplistic enough for you now? The fact of the matter is that if you're a true-blue, market savvy Young Voter, the only thing you're certain to feel about John McCain's campaign is a very modern and American type of ambivalence, a sort of interior war between your deep need to believe and your deep belief that the need to believe is bullshit, that there's nothing left anywhere but sales and salesmen."

February 15, 2019

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Some people agree with Trump, some people disagree with Trump, but I think there's one thing that everybody can agree on- this is best he is capable of doing.

February 15, 2019

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"You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you."

Well it IS about him. He might be vain but he's also right.

February 15, 2018

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Too much news! The least of 10 stories today was Trump's response to a question from a Jewish journalist about rising anti-semetism in the US. His answer began identically as, I'd imagine, his answer would have been to any question ranging from "Why is there something rather than nothing?," to "Who put the bomp in the bomp-buh-bomp-buh-bomp?"

Trump- "Well, I just want to say that we are, you know, very honored by the victory that we had -- 306 electoral college votes. We were not supposed to crack 220. You know that, right? There was no way to 221, but then they said there's no way to 270. And there's tremendous enthusiasm out there." 

For what it's worth, then he really got into the substance. Haha, fake news.

February 15, 2017

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Soon-To-Be-Not-President Trump blames the current media storm on fake news and intelligence leaks. Odd combination! If it's fake news the intel leaks must be false, so who cares? But if the intel leaks are to be worried about, then the reports on them are real news. What Soon-To-Be-Not-President-Trump is really saying, as always, has no more depth than- "If it's negative toward me, it is by definition wrong."

February 15, 2017

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Don't let the lollipop fool you, she could kill you with her bare hands.

February 15, 2017

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Andy Borowitz- "If Trump and Pence are both impeached then Paul Ryan will be President, which is a shame, because I always felt his true calling was to be an assistant manager at a small-market branch of Enterprise Rent-a-Car."

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Craziest thing...a bunch of perfectly formed snowflakes on my sidewalk.

February 15, 2016

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So get this. A month ago I somehow summoned every last ounce of my courage and picked up an injured hawk that was laying on his back in the middle of a busy street. Sloth and I took it to a bird sanctuary and I just found out it was released!

February 15, 2016

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The actual sizes of various different deep space objects. If they were brighter, this is how they would appear in our night sky. The images are in scale with one another, including the Moon, but not to the Milky Way background.

1. The Moon.

2. Andromeda Galaxy.

3. Triangulum Galaxy.

4. Orion Nebula.

5. Lagoon Nebula.

6. Pinwheel Galaxy.

7. Sculptor Galaxy.

8. Supernova remnant 1006.

9. Veil Nebula.

10. Helix Nebula.

11. Sombrero Galaxy.

12. Crab Nebula.

13. Comet Hale-Bopp (c. 1997)

14. Venus.

15. Jupiter.

16. International Space Station.

Image by u/aerospacerocket on Reddit.

Original photograph http://bit.ly/1cJp0PR

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Is it just a coincidence that our baby's mouth is custom-made for cleaning dirty pacifiers?

February 15, 2014

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The Breyer's Grasshopper Pie ice cream I just bought is delicious. It would be unimaginably gross though if they simply changed the name to Toothpaste Spit.

February 15, 2011

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On this day in 1898, the battleship USS Maine exploded and sunk in Cuba, killing about 274 of the ship's roughly 354 crew, pushing the United States to declare war on Spain.

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On this day in 1972, while serving as President of Ecuador for the fifth time, José María Velasco Ibarras was overthrown by the military for the fourth time. Maybe learn your lesson dude.

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On this day in 1992, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced in Milwaukee to 15 terms of life in prison.

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Kant- "He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."

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The first draft of the complete human genome was published in Nature, on this day in 2001.

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On this day in 2003, I participated in against the Iraq war take place in over 600 cities worldwide. It is estimated that between eight million and 30 million people participate, making this the largest peace demonstration in history.

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A meteor exploded over Russia on this day in 2013, injuring 1,500 people as a shock wave blew out windows and rockex buildings. Somehow it happened unexpectedly only hours before the expected closest ever approach of the larger and unrelated asteroid 2012 DA14.

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A little baby Galileo Galilei joined us on this day in 1564.

"I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him."

I first heard that quote in high school and it's rang through my head ever since.

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Jeremy Bentham joined us on this day in 1749. He never left us, if you know what I mean.

"Create all the happiness you are able to create; remove all the misery you are able to remove. Every day will allow you, --will invite you to add something to the pleasure of others, --or to diminish something of their pains."

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Susan B. Anthony was born on this date in 1820. Fifty-nine years later to the day, President Rutherford B. Hayes signed a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court. About a hundred years after her birth women got the right to vote.

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Mathematician and philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead, joined us on this day in 1861.

"Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance is the death of knowledge."

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John Trudell joined us on this day in 1946.

"I'm just a human being trying to make it in a world that is very rapidly losing its understanding of being human."

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Matt Groening joined us on this day in 1954.

"Solitude never hurt anyone. Emily Dickinson lived alone, and she wrote some of the most beautiful poetry the world has ever known... then went crazy as a loon."

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The inimitable Chris Farley joined us on this day in 1964.

"I don't know what the future holds. All I know is, I'm good today. Real good."

Also...

"I want to live fast and die young."

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Incidentally, Stephen Hawking was born on the 300th anniversary of Galileo's death and Chris Farley was born on the 400th anniversary of his birth. What does it mean?

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Other notable birthdays- Ernest Shackleton (1874), Cesar Romero (1907), Art Spiegelman (1948)1964 – Chris Farley (1964), Shepard Fairey (1970), Miranda July (1974)

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The actress Ilka Chase left us on this day in 1978.

After reading her novel, a fellow actress commented to her, “I enjoyed reading your book. Who wrote it for you?” Chase replied, “Darling, I’m so glad that you liked it. Who read it to you?”

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We lost Richard Feynman on this day in 1988. His last words were, "I'd hate to die twice. It's so boring."

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Remember that we aren't so different. Here's a list of 400 human universals. UNIVERSALS!

http://condor.depaul.edu/mfiddler/hyphen/humunivers.htm

February 15, 2015

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NRDC- ‘I Will Vote No’ — Susan Collins Says She’ll Oppose Scott Pruitt to Lead the EPA

Any chance there are two other Republicans who believe the head of the EPA shouldn't be someone who is suing the EPA?

http://on.nrdc.org/2lj6DQN

February 15, 2017

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New York Times Opinion- Ignorance Is Strength by Paul Krugman

Doozy from the article:

"In some ways this cluelessness may be a good thing: malevolence may indeed be tempered by incompetence."

...and...

"Or consider the current G.O.P. panic over health care. Many in the party seem shocked to learn that repealing any major part of Obamacare will cause tens of millions to lose insurance. Anyone who studied the issue could have told them years ago how the pieces of health reform fit together, and why. In fact, many of us did, repeatedly. But competent analysis wasn’t wanted.

And that is, of course, the point. Competent lawyers might tell you that your Muslim ban is unconstitutional; competent scientists that climate change is real; competent economists that tax cuts don’t pay for themselves; competent voting experts that there weren’t millions of illegal ballots; competent diplomats that the Iran deal makes sense, and Putin is not your friend. So competence must be excluded."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/opinion/ignorance-is-strength.html

February 15, 2017

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Mother Earth- 10 Pro-Gun Myths, Shot Down

I can't shake the belief that I'd be safer if I had a gun in the house and just used all the appropriate safety precautions. But I can't shake this either:

"For every time a gun is used in self-defense in the home, there are 7 assaults or murders, 11 suicide attempts, and 4 accidents involving guns in or around a home."

I'd have to be safe enough to get them down to zero, zero, and zero or I'd be more apt to do more harm than good.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/01/pro-gun-myths-fact-check/

February 15, 2018

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Mother Jones- Trump, Who Made It Easier for Mentally Ill People to Buy Guns, Blames Mental Health Issues for Florida Shooting

Not that this was predictable or anything...

"Almost exactly a year ago, Trump signed a law to revoke an Obama-era gun regulation that made it more difficult for those with mental illnesses to acquire guns. Media was not allowed to attend the bill signing event."

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/02/trump-who-made-it-easier-for-mentally-ill-people-to-buy-guns-blames-mental-health-issues-for-florida-shooting/

February 15, 2018

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Ignoring for a minute the self-evident and predictable results of making it easier for mentally unstable people to get guns... assuming these lawmakers are purely selfish and think strictly in terms of short-term political goals, how did they think this was in their best interest? Maybe I'm the idiot, maybe it WAS in their selfish, short-sighted interest. Their voters aren't going to use this information to vote them out in November, are they? I might even be too optimistic to think that some of them will stay home vs actually voting for the party that wanted to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally unstable. I might be too optimistic but I can't shake it, when I step back I think I have too much belief that humanity will do the right thing. Once enough people lose that, we're done. Maybe enough of us have?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/congress-trump-stymied-obamas-mental-health-gun-control-rule-192935462.html

February 15, 2018

Postscript- My thoughts are evolving on this. If mentally unstable people are required to turn in their guns, fewer people will seek help.

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The Hill- Coulter fires back at Trump: ‘Only national emergency is that our president is an idiot’

Typical lefty, stuck in her liberal bubble, with her head up Chairman Mao's ass.

http://hill.cm/KSoFgob

February 15, 2019

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Excellent podcast with Paul Bloom... after about 20-30 minutes of reflections on Trump, they go into inequality (inequality isn't the issue, it's poverty and unfairness), the relationship between wealth and happiness (turns out you DO get happier with the more $ you make), the downside of fame, psychological impediments to noticing progress, etc. All kinds of great psychological insight, I'm listening to it again.

https://samharris.org/podcasts/185-february-7-2020/

February 15, 2020

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Vivian Maier

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Schopenhauer- "The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists in not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of the general public at any particular time… A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short."

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Sopranos:

Christopher- "My Aunt Josephine had colon cancer. Her whole asshole rotted out."

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Penn Gillette "God works in mysterious, inefficient, and breathtakingly cruel ways."

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Thomas Wolfe, You Can't Go Home Again- "Something has spoken to me in the night...and told me that I shall die, I know not where. Saying: "[Death is] to lose the earth you know for greater knowing; to lose the life you have, for greater life; to leave the friends you loved, for greater loving; to find a land more kind than home, more large than earth.”

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Vonnegut- "There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don't know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president."

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Nicholas Murray Butler- “Many peoples' tombstones should read 'Died at 30, buried at 60.'”

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Lincoln- "Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally."

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H.L. Mencken- "Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable."

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Steinbeck- "Farewell has a sweet sound of reluctance. Good-by is short and final, a word with teeth sharp to bite through the string that ties past to the future."

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Jim Jeffries- "A dry vagina is an impotent vagina… you’re not a complete woman and you should be ashamed of yourself!"

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Perhaps the wisest thing anyone has ever said:

Black Elk- “Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being. And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy. But anywhere is the center of the world.”