The Art of Listening

There is Goodness in taking a step back from the conversation and drinking in what the world is sharing with you, whether it be the spoken thoughts of friends, current news, or the whispering of nature wherever you happen to be.

Sometimes it takes all ones concentration to find and sometimes one simply stumbles upon that shut up and listen state-of-mind.

Community

“No man is an island” --John Donne

Goodness being a subjective assessment implies there are many individuals personally assessing what exactly Goodness is for themselves, for the ones they are surrounded, and for the actions along the journey that ostensibly will bring greater Goodness personally, for others and the world at large.  

Troy and Abed Connect!
(Community RIP)

That being said, I think it is absolutely important to highlight the mediums themselves within which we seek to nurture diverse Goodness, our communities.

Having evolved as social animals, we are predisposed to communicating with those close to us.  Evolution itself is indifferent to what exactly is being communicated, so long as a thriving next generation adapts sufficiently to its surroundings to reproduce once more.  

From the perspective of human individuals on the other hand (and arguably many other species), we find it useful to exchange a whole range of specific ideas that aren't necessarily concerned with our survival. Humans in particular exchange a wide variety of thoughts that have very little to do with continuing the species, and instead address thriving as individuals and groups for our own sakes, not necessarily our progeny's.

There are many levels of community. At its simplest we communicate with ourselves, perhaps through journaling, contemplating our next life move, or simply reflecting on being grateful (or ungrateful) for what our lives have become or promise to be.  An inner circle of very close friends further permits one to share a unique assortment of private ideas to the benefit of all involved. Slightly larger circles composed of family members or comfortable friends provides a rich zone within which once can celebrate traditions, conversations, and just hanging out, as the moment requires.  Even larger community groups bind us together in cultural ways that can be unifying or divisive.  And so on....the largest groups become global, crossing interests, world views and even in the extreme including species that we keep as pets, harvest for food, or simply occupy the same geographic location or planet. In fact, we may not even be consciously aware that we are members of some of these communities.

At the end of the day, we find ourselves belonging to many diverse, overlapping communities, which one might label Community, an assemblage of numerous and hopefully positive alliances in which we consider carefully, or not, what our next act of Goodness might be.

One War to Destroy Them All!

Okay, it’s time to get a bit more aggressive with my Goodness First ponderings.  

As my blog’s namesake implies, our primary intention is to bring Goodness into this world, for ourselves and others; upon those journeys we are constantly prioritizing what is important in our lives from flossing our teeth (an act of questionable efficacy per evidence based dentistry) to dedicating forty plus hours a week toward a vocation that provides some balance of Goodness of economic and world affirming benefits.

To that ends I declare war (metaphorically) on the non-Goodnesses of the world.  Presidents of the past have declared war on other countries that sought world domination.  Presidents since Johnson have declared a war on drugs (except for those of the alcoholic variety).  President Bush and Obama have declared a war on terrorism (with their own flavor of nationally sanctioned terrorism).  

Each of these wars seem honorable on the surface.  In our imperfect world, one might consider certain complex situations having sufficient non-Good to consider (with great sadness and disregard for inclusion of immense profit margins) that necessity calls upon us (U.S.?) to implement state sponsored violence to turn the tide of the perceived “evils.”

In contrast, I believe the most honorable war is truly metaphorical and truly just!  I propose a massive, unified response that in its awesomeness does not require anything physically violent whatsoever.  And yet, the non-Good adversary I call out is nothing short of the ultimate nemesis of human society: Ignorance.

The War on Ignorance is one that requires our collective attention, especially since working toward such a victory will render all other violent wars simply unnecessary.  The War on Ignorance will require the most developed skills of our human populations and will leverage our economic investment in a future that includes a rich diversity humankind AND all our cousin species AND a consideration of our global environment.  In the War on Ignorance, Education and Diplomacy are the warmachines we need to construct to win the numerous battles ahead.   Educating our children of their history and of what reality consists of and striving toward truer understanding of our world as adults is paramount.  Forging Diplomacy that recognizes each human as an individual while working toward a global society that eschews arrogant speciest positions is equally critical. By focussing on such grand peaceful pursuits we will strive toward the ideals of what civilized society can be!

Ignorance as an adversary is more a plague than a thinking enemy, and I believe the analogy holds, in that we can quarantine and eventually eradicate Ignorance.  Imagine a world where the Trillions of dollars spent toward machinery designed to eviscerate, incapacitate and imprison other humans (and other animals) is leveraged toward the best educational institutions and exploration of our Universe.  Imagine a world where every would be parent examines their heart in conjunction with human population challenges before choosing to have a child.  Imagine a world where thousand year old beliefs perpetuated in divisive cult followings of supernatural entities (religion) is transformed into multicultural appreciation and a ever more unified humanistic ethic.  Imagine a world where each individual is encouraged to explore and create outside the systematic economic enslavement by corporate oligarchs.  

Each of these scenarios may seem like a stretch ("I know perfect's not for real. I thought we might get closer." --Rush), alas, society is what we make of it, not what some system of artificial rules dictates to us, whether those mindless rules be economic, religious, or even evolutional. (I'll save free will for another post)

In any case, I ask you to take a step back and contemplate the core ideals you subscribe to, ideals that rely on what is Real and Good, not on dogma that has been preached and reinterpreted again and again since humans first created myths as a substitute for (though perhaps a heart felt stepladder to) real knowledge and wisdom.  Together we can do it, we can aggregate the best evidence available to permit us to act wonderfully in the present and to design an amazing future that thrives for all humans, animals, plants (and AIs?) alike.

What idealistic effort might you nurture to help win the War on Ignorance!?!?

From Blah to Goodness in One Easy Step

I will keep this week’s post short.  

Goodness, it can be argued, is a state of mind, one we all assuredly seek.

I’m also sure we all find ourselves at numerous times dazed and confused, looking for inspiration on the journey, or simply just in need of some method to help us through a sluggish, mind numbing, WTF moment.   

Playing music from a favorite band, taking in a fluffy magazine article, a viral video chuckle break, or going for a walk amongst patient trees are all techniques I’ve used.

And with that, I ask for your favorite blah moment killer.

Laughter - Cards Against Insanity

At Goodness First it is generally my intention to ruminate positively upon the journey that is life.  I delve into pertinent subtext to hopefully enhance understanding toward informing choices along this journey.  In this entry on adult humor, I sense from the start I may be grabbing at proverbial quicksilver, alas I’ll make a passionate attempt to do so. (note: humor of the child variety, in my opinion, is a bit of a different breed, so I’ll reserve discussion on topic for a future post),

In the novel Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein posits that humor harnesses suppressed human pain and that laughter is that uniquely human characteristic of releasing the related psychological pressure.  I think there is quite a bit of truth in that conjecture.  Think of any joke you’ve told a friend or comic strip you've read, and beneath the surface someone (or some anthropomorphized animal) is suffering, often from real world ignorance, sexual ineptitude or ineffective criminal prosecution….let alone outright cartoonish, physical violence.

You say you want some evidence, my critical readership? Okay, how does this serve: over the past couple years Cards Against Humanity has become a very popular party game in several of my circles.  In fact, I cannot think of another activity which has more consistently provoked laughter from people of all personality types, political positions, and adult age ranges.  (save those who blush at simply hearing the F word...sorry Mom, this game is not for you)  

Briefly, the game provides cards that list a mix of famous people, historical events, and more importantly non-pc, outlandish, and even perverse situations.  Then, in Apples to Apples fashion, people submit their best (or worst) card to a random query, which when combined create competing scenarios that press the absurd to excessive levels in every direction imaginable. Without exception, laughter, groans and chortled expletives broil throughout this process. (an example card combo is shown below. I kept the example fairly tame for you F-word blushers)

To my knowledge the "Dildos" ultimate wild card does not exist.

In aggregate, the elements within Cards Against Humanity scenarios, I think, reinforce Heinlein’s conjecture. Specifically, this particular game gives us permission to confront the absurdity of the reality we live in and then release the pent up toxic energy we've accumulated from countless current event atrocities, political nonsense, and even the common pain in our personal lives. 

As with any twisted joke that makes us double over in fits of laughter, our humanity is enhanced. Each nose-spurtling snigger refreshes our over-saturated minds by clearing out a little of the scandalous vitriol we've absorbed. Subsequently, we can smile a little more cheerfully, and continue on the challenging journey before us of ratcheting up the Goodness in the all too often laughable world around us.

Looking forward to your responses, even if they amount to 
“Stop over-thinking things, Brian, and just laugh :P”.

The Journey and the Journal

This past week I walked past a life milestone having graduated from Arcadia University with a Masters in Education.  Music trumpeted, blossoms fell, speakers spoke, robed graduates walked, families gathered. The glitter and pomp of such formal ceremonies seek to memorialize a moment on the timelines of our lives.  Such life celebrations span our whole lives, from birth to (and sometimes beyond) death in the form of birth dedications, graduations, engagements, weddings, award banquets, roasts, reunions and funerals.

All these waypoints barely begin to represent the continuum which is our life journey.  And all too often we fail to take the time to reflect upon the gemstone instants that in aggregate make life worth living.  Perhaps in some way, the most animalistic experience of life is to live life moment to moment wholeheartedly, as Robert Redford’s character pointed out regarding wildlife in Out of Africa.  Alas, we are human!  And human beings are arguably the animal capable of the most complex thinking of any animal. Taking time to appreciate our experiences along the whole spectrum of suffering to ecstasy is so important!

As I continue to flesh out and share my vision of the journey that is Goodness, I  highly recommend setting aside some time to journal.  Even if done once weekly, journaling about the happenings in our sphere is the most personal of celebrations. Who knows, recording ones emotional and intellectual reflections may one day transform into a worthy autobiography, nevertheless, the real treasure in this act is not what is left behind, but how mindful journal entries of personal memories, principles and dreams can be leveraged continually into action on our ongoing, albeit finite journey in this world.

Please share any thoughts you might have on the experience that is journaling.

Defining First

Okay, I kinda defined Goodness (barely) in all its relative glory in my last Goodness First installment.  It seems natural, since the blog IS entitled Goodness First, to take a stab at defining First as well.  Well duh, First comes before Second.  Mission accomplished.  

No really, the implied context of "First" is that we evaluate the Goodness of a thing before pursuing an action as an individual or community or planet  to our greatest ability, including the Goodness of choosing what to prioritize first in the continuum of our lives.

That last sentence might be sufficient; however, let’s ratchet up the interesting nature of the discussion and look at something a little bit deeper regarding temporal reference systems.  In other words why in the world are we still stuck in a world of BC and AD?!?!

This past weekend I attended the Franklin Institute’s Pompeii exhibit, which was a worthy albeit crowded archaeological learning experience, with a pinch of Disney entertainment thrown in for good eruptionary measure.  So, here I was standing in the modern era surrounded by two thousand year old, well preserved artifacts with placards meticulously designed by professional historians and each and every one included the BC or AD monikers.  And as you learned in grade school, BC stands for Before Christ and AD After Dead.  Well actually AD really denotes Anno Domini which is Medieval Latin meaning “in the year of our lord.” Really? One English term and one Latin term...smells like a jury-rigged system to me already.

Okay, let’s see, the secular world has chosen to use a calendar system which uses a Zero Year reference aligned to the alleged birth of Jesus (ironically, historians think he was born in 6-4BC) and which was leveraged upon the Western world due to the Christian hegemony and eventually onto the whole planet in the modern era to synchronize cultural, entrepreneurial transactions and just darn to help us communicate calendar time clearly.  So essentially we have a calendar that has a likely incorrectly referenced Year Zero; it has an inherently divisive religious basis, yet, in its favor, it does serve adequately to communicate with other people. Oh, and let's not forget that we're used to the darned AD-BC system as is!

But wait, since when should Humanity settle for a merely adequate system that we're accustomed to.  The whole idea of Humanity working toward greater Goodness includes refining inefficient systems that are inherited as well as dispelling supernatural ideas and foolish traditions that work against increasing the overall Goodness in the world.  Sure, it's an ongoing process, alas I think it’s about time we choose a referential Year Zero that make sense and inspires Goodness in our global culture.

I brainstormed this with my friend Jennifer at the Pompeii exhibit and she suggested Year Zero be the year that Mt. Vesuvius erupted, in part because of her immersion in the exhibit at that moment.  The idea has merit at its core.  Why not pick something that is not connected to any particular culture, religion or nation.  A natural event would be a known point in time and would avoid offending anyone, well except in this case maybe those sensitive to people who died horribly two millennia ago.

My friend also suggested the Earth formation and the Big Bang moment as prospective Year Zeroes, though she then discounted them immediately due to the number of zeroes that might be involved.  Certainly, it would be quite unwieldy to cite our current year as 4,102,103,454 AE (After Earth) or 13,893,343,234 AU (After Universe).  AU has the advantage of having only positive date years, alas even if we use a truncated form, say 234 AU, both of these zero references suffer from the reality that we cannot know these moments in history to the exact (given current scientific methods).

So what Year Zero should we use?  The reference event should obviously be a meaningful and well defined year and it should also be inclusive of all humans, rather than being inherently divisive like the current system (btw BCE (before common era) and CE (common era) is a worthy baby step in the right direction that has been partially implemented...it uses the current Year Zero reference while attempting to defuse some of the underlying hegemonic tensions)  

Well, let's forget baby steps; let’s take a solid rational step toward a sensible reference Year Zero.  Possible ideas:  first homo sapiens born (uncertain year plus the fact that speciesism is not discreet are both issues), contact between old and new world peoples? formation of a heliocentric world view? launch of first satellite? first transistor firing? first heart transplant? first signing of a modern democratic constitution? first airing of an episode of Cosmos (or Gilligan’s Island)? first day of Rush’s first rock album release?  Hmm, all potentially worthy selections….and I wonder what your top recommendations are. (post them in the comments!)

Well, since it is my blog I’ll pick my current leading candidate.  I believe a worthy Year Zero would be the convening of the League of Nations which occurred in 1920 CE.  At its core the League of Nations formation after the first world war conveys the ideals of an inclusive unification with a mindful pursuit of Goodness on an global scale.  Such an event is the perfect reference for everyday use by humans. As Year Zero of the Global Era (GE) our calendar would finally respect all global cultures equally, and even though the League of Nations has disbanded, the effort toward peaceful cultural exchange continues with the United Nations and other organizations worldwide as we recognize our role in a planet that has concerns stretching beyond any single group.  

So here we are.   And as an American I am stuck with AD and BC as well as the Old English measurement system with silly gallons and miles, et al (though I cite metric and CE/BCE dates often myself). In any case, the rest of the world has moved forward with a unified measurement system, and let’s be honest, the US standard system is an adequate system, alas it is also outdated and in the long run will prevent the US from most effectively working with the world. It is time for a global sync! Let’s envision a world together that celebrates our global connections and unifies its efforts toward global and local Goodness! By resetting the reference calendar Year Zero to align with a secularly inclusive event like the League of Nations creation, we can establish a world unity that begins to envision each added year as an intentional step forward toward future years, which inherently are more positive than the last!

Welcome to the year 94 G.E.