REFLECTIONS: March 2016

Strange Images March 2016

I can't figure out where the TV screen is located.

This must be before cassette players. But how do you prevent scratching the record when you drive over a pothole?

Was this the first all-terrain vehicle? Looks like the wheels are coming off as it rides over a small hill.

This is described as a listening device for detecting approaching aircraft before the invention of radar.

I spent several hours yesterday trying to reinstall the Norton antivirus program on Lynette's laptop. It's free with my cable TV subscription. I think a virus disabled it, very strange.
I had no luck. Even the cable company could not do it. I spent about an hour with them on line and I have to admit they did try. They gave me the Norton helpline. I was too tired to call them yesterday so I'll call today.

Last night I watched the 2002 movie Tangled. I thought it was very good. Two best friends are in love with the same woman. She loves one of them romantically but the other man she only loves as a dear close friend. I won't give away any more of the story.

It reminded my of a similar situation I had in college. I was the man the woman considered as a close friend. The man she loved was a good friend of mine. All I can say is that it was very frustrating and heartbreaking.

That was many years ago and I got over it. After I moved out of town I went out with some other women then met and fell in love with my wife Lynette. I feel things worked out for the best.

Here's a Bob Dylan song Tangled Up in Blue. The first video has the lyrics shown and the second video has the original Bob Dylan singing. If it's too small to read, enlarge the video.

I couldn't download the second video but here's the link:

Bob Dylan - Tangled Up In Blue - YouTube

Back in My Tiny Garden

It's 4 feet by 4 feet. I used to plant tomatoes, cucumbers, snap peas and others. I got the idea for a small vegetable garden from a book, Square Foot Gardening. I did it to cut back from a larger garden I had in past years.

Last year with my health problems I let Lynette plant sunflowers because they were easy and I did not have to get involved.

This year I want to make it an herb garden, maybe in pots or containers. That way I can move some of them indoors when it gets cold.

This is how it looks today, after I cleared out the weeds. It took about an hour. The weather was perfect, not too hot or cold or windy.

Last Fall I threw our Halloween pumpkin into the garden. I was going to put it with the trash but never got to it. I forgot.
This is all that's left of the pumpkin, only the seeds.

A closer view ~>

These seeds have already begun to sprout. I did not have the heart to kill them so I buried them.
Maybe this year we'll have a pumpkin patch with a few herb plants squeezed in!

Fantasy of a Flat Earth

This image shows the giant elephants holding up a flat earth on the back of a giant slow moving turtle swimming through space.

Notice the black Sheol.

"Sheol, translated as "grave", "pit", or "abode of the dead", is the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible's underworld, a place of darkness to which all the dead go, both the righteous and the unrighteous, regardless of the moral choices made in life, a place of stillness and darkness cut off from God. ..."

Here's another diagram.

This is what happens if you are not careful.

Now we are back to reality. I did not know there was a controversy.

Silly Jokes

Corporatism

I'm usually not very political but there are strange things going on lately. I don't want to believe what I see. It's very discouraging. Hopefully I'm wrong.

Here are two scary quotes I found.

"Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy. You in America will see that some day." Mussolini

“Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land, they own and control the corporations they've long since bought and paid for, the senate, the congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pocket, and they own all the big media companies so they control just about all of the news and the information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else. But I'll tell you what they don't want. They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them.”
― George Carlin

I pray that things are not turning out as bad as they seem.

What do you think?

Meditation Doesn't Work for Everyone

I never get into a set schedule of meditation. After a few days I don't try again for at least a year. Maybe it's because it bores me.

Instead I feel more in contact with the present moment when I go for a walk or just sit outside in my backyard. When I work on a hobby or project I feel alive. Just paying attention to where I am and the present moment helps.

My brother emailed me the link for an article about this subject. I think the authors are trying to sell a book but the article is good. I'm not buying the book.
Link: What mindfulness gurus won’t tell you: meditation has a dark side | Spectator Health

Some excerpts:

"There are many unanswered questions about the effects of meditation. Mindfulness, in particular, is portrayed as a universal ability to be ‘in the here and now’ — how can you not want that for yourself? Well, the bad news is that it doesn’t work for everyone.

But this isn’t necessarily bad. For one, there are many ways of ‘being present’ — meditation is just one of them. There are plenty of other activities that we can do for a sense of increased awareness and to feel ‘in the moment’ (and which may also help to reduce stress and improve mood), such as walking, swimming, talking to a friend, singing, dancing. The list is endless."

Here's a section about how meditation can be harmful for some people. (I'm not sure if it actually happened.):

"One of the most poignant accounts came from a journalist who interviewed us. She had been on a weekend meditation retreat with a friend who had a history of suffering from depression. Coming out of the retreat, they walked together to the railway station and, unexpectedly, this friend jumped on to the rail tracks as a train was speeding by."

I'm happy if it works for other people but it just does not work for me. Here's a quote by a spiritual leader:

Do we need to make a special effort to enjoy the blue sky? Do we have to practice to be able to enjoy it? No, we just enjoy it.

Each second, each minute of our lives can be like this. Wherever we are, any time, we have the capacity to enjoy the sunshine, the presence of each other, even the sensation of our breathing.

We don’t need to go to China to enjoy the blue sky. We don’t have to travel into the future to enjoy our breathing.

We can be in touch with these things right now.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Another quote:

A child walks with its mother.

It sees an oily rainbow

On the road, a leaf, veined

And dappled, on the path,

A puddle full of clouds,

A smiling dog, a cat

That needs to be stroked,

A builder’s van all a-rattle,

A gentle robin.

What did you see?

~Peter Gray

This Will Never Be My Hobby!

The video is about "urban explorers" in New York City.

Here, Now, Enjoy Life!

I've frequently heard that it's best to be aware of the present moment but sometimes it seems a little too difficult to remember. When I do remember, I feel so alive. Life turns into a sort of "High Definition" experience.

To help me remember I wrote "Here, Now, Enjoy Life" on an index card and set it on my desktop.

I made up a simple brief mind map.

It is impossible for anyone to be happy all the time. Life can be hard. But it is a very interesting concept, even though I only remember to do it about ten percent of the time.

Surprising Men's Room Tiles

While waiting for the oil change on my car I took a walk and found an interesting sandwich shop. My roast beef sandwich was good. My big surprise was when I visited the restroom.

I can't take credit for these photographs which I downloaded from the web.