With It

It's funny. The cliches like "All things must pass", and "When in doubt, do nothing" and "Let go and let God" and "What would Scooby Doo?"... They seem to go in one ear and out the other until one day, they suddenly hit you just right and make sense. And then, you feel like you invented the concept yourself. "This is a totally new, revolutionary thought! I must tell someone!" : )

I started reading a book on Buddhism. Still on the first few pages, but the author gets right into it. He's talking about how a house is not really a house. That if you laid all the materials on the ground, no one would say, "There is a house." He also gives the example of the letter "A". What is the letter "A"? Is it the line leaning right? The line leaning left? The stroke across the middle? And which particular grain of sand is the concrete block? Is there a thing "house" that is laid over these materials like a blanket?

Okay, honestly, I do not get this at all. I can't get my head around it. I can't remember what the realism vs. nominalism debate is about. I can't remember Plato's theories on form vs. ideal. I just know when I read it as a teenager I thought Plato was an idiot. Haha. Ha ha. Ha.

But the thing I did learn, while trying to grasp this is: Thoughts are not things.

Also, "deal with" is not an action verb. Not by itself. Not when used in the sentence "I don't know how I can deal with all this." "Deal with" is meaningful in contexts where it can be replaced by an action verb like "plan" or "pay" or "wash" or "make a phone call".

Thoughts come, thoughts go. I don't have to dwell on them. I have them and acknowledge them and they go away. "Wow, I sure have a lot of work to do today! Yes, you do, let's get started!"; "Yikes, I have bills! Yes you do. Everyone does. That's why you have a job. And I'm lucky, I like it there."; "My Dad is very sick. I know. That's very sad. But he's been a good Dad and you love him. I know. And there's not much I can do about it. Not this minute anyway."; "Fill in the _______. Yes, ________ happens! Okey dokey!"

So thoughts call out for attention, but I don't have to give them center stage or cry or beat myself up or be distracted. I just say yeah or maybe or who knows and they quietly return to their seats. In one lobe and out the other. This is quite a timesaver.

Hakuna Matata! I guess.

Resistance is Feudal

Couldn't sleep last night. But I did decide once and for all that I absolutely would prefer feudalism over anarchy. Better infrastructure. Just sayin'.

Seven Nation Army

Neat dance routine by the contestants of So You Think You Can Dance to the song "Seven Nation Army" by the White Stripes.

Carpe Deus

One of the things I always do is examine my computer to see what the kids have been up to. I make sure they're just playing videogames and doing Facebook, etc. My son's formspring is hilarious. There's one website that's cynical and borderline (failblog) but I allow it because it's really funny and they share the really good ones with me. And they are full-blown teenagers now. Things change.

I found this in the history yesterday: the wikipedia entry for Deus ex Machina. I was so proud.

The way I've seen it in popular culture I thought it meant either artifacts that systems accumulate that cause unintended consequences and give things a mind of their own: ghosts in the machine, gremlins, bugs. Or I thought it was perhaps like the cliche of robots taking over the world. I thought I knew what the saying meant but not really, so I'm glad I read that.

It's helpful to me because I am in a ladies discussion group where we talk about this kind of thing a little bit. Trying to come to terms when neither religious dogma nor skepticism nor nothing at all quite fit the facts as you see them. Deus Ex Machina: God by your own hand.

Have a Day

It's all just the same damned day. --Janis Joplin

Rasputina

Here is the band I saw Saturday night! It was great, but the venue was hot. And crowded. Like a meat sauna. The band was wonderful! Had fun, lost a few pounds! : )

Are Too, Me Too

Had quite a busy day yesterday. Worked late, met some girlfriends for coffee, went to see my Dad (who finally got his trach out again : ) and went to the grocery store.

At the grocery store two employees were stocking items. One was putting away frozen and the other was doing lunch meat I think. I overheard some of their conversation:

1st Lady: You know I have diabetes.

2nd Lady: Me too.

1st Lady: But I don't take shots, I manage it with diet.

2nd Lady: I don't take shots either, but I take {garbled}.

1st Lady: I take that too. But my doctor says if it continues to get worse, I will need insulin shots.

2nd Lady: Me too. My doctor said I will too if I'm not careful...

I thought that was pretty funny. Not that they have diabetes, which is a shame, just the way they were talking, trying to outdo each other by me-tooing each other. Okay, wow, that's not even funny at all, now that it's typed out. Maybe it was the timing? It's all in the timing. As in, it's 10 o'clock at night and I'm bushed and loopy.

Anyway, this made me think of the way women identify with each other. Any pet peeve, they totally know! It bugs them too, we are so alike. My husband drives me nuts... I know, mine drives me nuts too, if I see his socks on the chair one more time, grr!

It feels nice to get some support and she's being a good friend and you have a good friend and you feel better for a while. But I think sometimes it can backfire. Women encourage each other to accept things. We give each other reassurance. Tips on how to make do.

Status Quo Police. (No particular emphasis. I just like how it sounds like "Quid pro quo, Clarice..." : )

They are so ready to be there for you. "I would come down a dark alley just to be there for you!" Not "Hey, you know, this is a dark alley and it's midnight and there's something in the shadows... Why are we here again?"

My friend mentioned that she really didn't want to do {extremely unpleasant chore} with her husband and he should handle it without her. But I didn't miss a beat in throwing out 4 different reasons why it would actually be a good thing for her to do it with him. How it would actually be in her best interests to just do it. ...Wait, what did I just do? I told her later I was sorry that I gave her bad advice. She didn't have to want to do something she didn't want to. If she didn't like something she had every right to just not like it.