Friday, April 18, 2014

Athletes, Heroes, and Fairy Tales

Welcome friends!

I couldn’t help but notice there’s been quite a lot in the papers recently about that murder case involving South African athlete Oscar Pistorius.  No, I haven’t been following the story at all.  Doesn’t seem like anything I need to know about.  Really more in the nature of a personal tragedy, don’t you think?  Did he do it?  Did he not do it?  I don’t know and it doesn’t really make any difference to me.  Let the lawyers and judge and jury figure it out.  But it did remind me of something I had been meaning to comment upon when this story first hit the news way back whenever it was, which after some reflection I think might also be related to that recent story about conservatives on the US Supreme Court doing away with certain campaign financing restrictions.  Don’t you just love obscure connections like that?  Is it real or just my overactive imagination?  Why don’t you be the judge? ... Sorry but only selected archived (previous year) posts are currently available full text on this website.  All posts including this one are available in my annual anthology ebook series available at the Amazon Kindle Bookstore for a nominal fee.  Hey, we all need to make a buck somehow, right?  If you find my timeless jewels of wisdom amusing or perhaps even amusingly irritating throw me a bone now and then.  Thank you my friends!

Thursday, April 3, 2014

A Secular View On Death And The Afterlife

Welcome friends!

I bet you thought I was going to talk about the US Supreme Court’s recent ruling striking down limits on donations to political campaigns thus ensuring beleaguered rich folk an even more disproportionate influence on our otherwise rather democratic political process.  And when I say the Supreme Court I mean of course conservative members of the Supreme Court.  Do conservatives ever sleep?  But I’ve been getting so heavy recently I thought I might change it up and do a lighter topic despite the depressing news of the day.  If I tried to confront every outrage perpetrated by conservatives as soon as they perpetrated it I’d never have time for anything else.  I’ll get it to next time.  Or maybe the time after that.  Anyway, what set me on my merry way this week was a little visit I had the other day from one of my dearly departed.  I’m talking about in my dreams, of course.  Yes, you may or may not have lived long enough to appreciate it but an unfortunate byproduct of aging is that some of your loved ones no longer appear in the world of the living but come to you only in your memories and sometimes in your dreams.  Well, I guess that can happen at pretty much any age but at some point it becomes all but inevitable.  It got me thinking a bit about life and death and the idea of an afterlife and that sort of thing, which led me in turn to contemplate the role certainty and uncertainty play in religious and secular thinking about death.  Well, OK, maybe that doesn’t sound all that light, but it’s all good.  We all have to die some time, you know, to make room for the young and to discharge our debt to nature if for no other reason.  Doesn’t hurt to think about it now and then... Sorry but only selected archived (previous year) posts are currently available full text on this website.  All posts including this one are available in my annual anthology ebook series available at the Amazon Kindle Bookstore for a nominal fee.  Hey, we all need to make a buck somehow, right?  If you find my timeless jewels of wisdom amusing or perhaps even amusingly irritating throw me a bone now and then.  Thank you my friends!