Is it, I am therefore I think or I think what I am?

 I have been trying to define my philosophical approach to life and up to now have failed.  But recently I have mastered by own thoughts.  

As a young adult I very much agreed with Jean Paul Sartre and his existentialism.  Nothing existed before or after the “I” has been my mind’s set on this human experience.   But, so what?  Where does this belief lead?  How does it inform my life?  Well, frankly it doesn’t. 

 Then I turned my attention to what I do in my work.  As a person who is trying to bring feng shui into a body of knowledge that is both substantiated and universal, I realized that my greatest support has been my insistence on drilling down each idea to its core essence.  The essential or essence defines and provides the staff from which any pot can be stirred. 

 One’s core beliefs are the ones we use in order to make decisions.  One’s inherited personality and potentials are the ones we use to become the best of ourselves.  When we borrow another’s beliefs or ways of being, we skew our own potential for contentment and achievement.  

 To see the essence of every situation, to know the core of each person, to view the world’s trials and tribulations through bed rock morality is a way of chipping away at frivolousness of purpose and erroneous interpretations.

 Yes, I am an Essentialistic person who believes that reality is carved by interpreting the holistic center.  My tag line should be, What is best, is.

So how does a bulldog come to represent Winston Churchill?  According to David Brooks in his new fascinating book “The Social Animal” we develop “gists” or neuron firings that after repetitions we associate with something.  Thus, the first time we see a dog, we might have to see several before we can generalize and know that animal is a dog, but then we can see a type of dog we never saw before and know it’s a dog.  This gist or firing of neurons becomes the way we see dogs.  Now when we see let’s say a picture of Winston Churchill and we see him enough to know that this person is Winston Churchill we can share this gist with what we know of dogs and see that Winston Churchill looks enough like a bulldog for us to use that image as  his body and know it’s Winston Churchill.  This blending of neural patterns is called imagination.

 Blending of neural patterns is incredibly complex.  It’s akin to trying to get from point A to point B by taking a step backwards, jumping to the left, scooping up the floor and swinging it over our heads so we can duck underneath as well yell to standers by for their input as we stack all the road maps we have ever seen together.  And that’s just the start.

 Imagination is the ability to discern essences and play with a host of neural patterns.  It’s like collecting a million pieces of disparate stuff and gluing them together into a new item.  When an idea pops into your head, it is the culmination of millions of firings that dance and overlay upon each other until something entirely new is conceived.

 So what has this have to do with interior spaces?  Well, for my money, I would bet that the more one experiences diversity, be it in the individual grains of sand or the incredibly convoluted lines of a Jackson Pollack, that person would likely have the ability to be more imaginative.  We need to set up in our living spaces, complexity that forces us to use different neural firings so that we are encouraged to overlay those with others. 

 Here’s how it is not done.  If most of the paintings in your home are landscapes, then for the most part you are just using one firing. But, if you have a landscape next to a picture of a person, you are overlaying two firings.  Thus, looking around your home and see how you encourage your brain to fire different patterns, is one way of, I believe, of exercising your imagination ability.  As I look past my monitor as I write this article, I see, a red floor, four different types of plants growing, a gold dragon tail, chapters of my new book hanging from a clothesline, a screen with all my earrings and a spray bottle leaning on a shelf, and that’s only the start.  Each individual item has it’s own firing and in juxtaposition to each other I must be encouraging my blending of these patterns. 

 Anyway, that’s my thought for today, lucky May 13, 2011.

Women Used as Shields

There are few things left to opine about Osama Bin Laden and his deformed views of the world.  That said, I have a contribution that to date I haven’t seen discussed in print media thus far, and that is using a woman, most probably his wife, as a human shield.

In our Western view of marriage it is more likely that the spouse would willingly die to prevent the death of the other spouse.  It is inconceivable to me to picture a husband pulling his wife in front of him to protect himself.  That is apparently what this master killer and first rate fiend did to deflect the bullets racing toward him.  The difference in reporting a human shield and the desire of a spouse to save their mate is huge.  In Bin Laden’s world it means grabbing his wife and pulling her in front of him as opposed to the wife willingly jumping in front of her husband. 

Bin Laden’s philosophy is apparently that the “me” is the most important consideration.  This is in a way a continuation of my last blog about narcissism where my way is the only way.  If you really think about it, when one drills down into all human psyches, the central desire is to live a life where one can be freely themselves.  To believe, to act and to react as one’s own central compass directs.  It goes without saying, so long as it causes no other’s harm. 

The irony in the Bin Laden’s way of thinking is that ultimately those you have duped will realize that they are being used as evidenced by the uprising in Middle Eastern countries where the Bin Laden act-a-likes are being tossed aside, but in their case there is no wife in proximity to shield them from being toppled.   

Bravo American’s one more inhumane leader down!

In today’s Science Section of New York Times, John Tierney’s article “A Generation’s Vanity Heard Through Lyrics” struck a particularly resonant cord with me considering what I went through yesterday.

Fortunately my friend and novelist, Joe Loughlin, retired assistant chief of police in Portland ME, was visiting his brother this past Easter weekend thus,  I had an opportunity to read part of his new manuscript  about the insanities of police work and why he become a cop.  One story was called “No Reason” told a tale of domestic abuse.  A cop he told me, above all , has to keep things calm when responding to these calls, but sometimes, as this story tells it is almost impossible for us regular people to stifle our fury over these injustices.

Yesterday, with that on my mind, a man, let’s call him Pat,  who signed a lease with me for a rental, moved in and then told me he didn’t want to live there. (Too quiet was his reason).  I’m the kind of person who understands so I agreed to let Pat off his signed lease as soon as a I found someone else, which I did in 2 weeks.  Since the new tenant was moving in, I asked him to remove his furniture which he did only after I signed an affidavit to return the monies he felt due him which did not include utilities, just two weeks rent  When we were doing this accounting for what he should pay, he became verbally abusive, threatening me and yelling invectives at me as his face turned red.  Frightened, I realized that I might be in danger and agreed he didn’t have to pay the utilities and would hand him all his money back save for the two weeks.  He agreed and met me there and after checking the apartment, he left with his refund.

What I didn’t know that evening was that he took a package with computer equipment that was had been delivered for the next tenant,.  Since I had arrived after Pat, I had no idea that the condo supervisor gave Pat the package who promised to give it to me.  The next day condo supervisor asked me about the package, so I texted Pat asking him to return it. The return messages was filled  with insults and curses and basically he told me to pick the package up at his place.

Well, I was not going to his house alone, so I went to the police station, explained my plight and got an escort to his house.  Even with the police there, his eyes bulged, his face reddened and his mouth again exploded with crazy talk about how f—–d up I am.  Obviously the policeman got the package addressed to the next tenant and we went on our way without me saying a peep.

Why did I tell you this story along with the New York Times story?  Tierney says we live in a time of narcissism when the “I am great” exceeds the greater good.  In thinking about Pat, I realized that his excessive anger stemmed partially from a sense of entitlement, independent of anything but his needs.  This is another component of narcissism that I believe is rampant in our society.  The generosity of spirit, where the you is as important as the me has vanished  in great measure from our interactions.  Just ask Wall Street, the oil companies and pharmaceutical companies.  A me-driven society is bound to be hoisted by their own petard

That’s my thoughts for today Tuesday April 26, 2011.

In today’s Science Section of New York Times, John Tierney’s article “A Generation’s Vanity Heard Through Lyrics” struck a particularly resonant cord with me considering what I went through yesterday.

Fortunately my friend and novelist, Joe Loughlin, retired assistant chief of police in Portland ME, was visiting his brother this past Easter weekend thus,  I had an opportunity to read part of his new manuscript  about the insanities of police work and why he become a cop.  One story was called “No Reason” told a tale of domestic abuse.  A cop he told me, above all , has to keep things calm when responding to these calls, but sometimes, as this story tells it is almost impossible for us regular people to stifle our fury over these injustices.

Yesterday, with that on my mind, a man, let’s call him Pat,  who signed a lease with me for a rental, moved in and then told me he didn’t want to live there. (Too quiet was his reason).  I’m the kind of person who understands so I agreed to let Pat off his signed lease as soon as a I found someone else, which I did in 2 weeks.  Since the new tenant was moving in, I asked him to remove his furniture which he did only after I signed an affidavit to return the monies he felt due him which did not include utilities, just two weeks rent  When we were doing this accounting for what he should pay, he became verbally abusive, threatening me and yelling invectives at me as his face turned red.  Frightened, I realized that I might be in danger and agreed he didn’t have to pay the utilities and would hand him all his money back save for the two weeks.  He agreed and met me there and after checking the apartment, he left with his refund.

What I didn’t know that evening was that he took a package with computer equipment that was had been delivered for the next tenant,.  Since I had arrived after Pat, I had no idea that the condo supervisor gave Pat the package who promised to give it to me.  The next day condo supervisor asked me about the package, so I texted Pat asking him to return it. The return messages was filled  with insults and curses and basically he told me to pick the package up at his place.

Well, I was not going to his house alone, so I went to the police station, explained my plight and got an escort to his house.  Even with the police there, his eyes bulged, his face reddened and his mouth again exploded with crazy talk about how f—–d up I am.  Obviously the policeman got the package addressed to the next tenant and we went on our way without me saying a peep.

Why did I tell you this story along with the New York Times story?  Tierney says we live in a time of narcissism when the “I am great” exceeds the greater good.  In thinking about Pat, I realized that his excessive anger stemmed partially from a sense of entitlement, independent of anything but his needs.  This is another component of narcissism that I believe is rampant in our society.  The generosity of spirit, where the you is as important as the me has vanished  in great measure from our interactions.  Just ask Wall Street, the oil companies and pharmaceutical companies.  A me-driven society is bound to be hoisted by their own petard

That’s my thoughts for today Tuesday April 26, 2011.

I don’t know about you but I don’t want this posted on the river that flows near my home.  This sign is posted in Stuart, FL on a part of the Indian River that is so polluted that it is dangerous to swim in.  And that’ s what I am afraid will happen if we in Indian River County don’t map our pollution, discover where the sources are coming from and clean it up.

That is exactly what ORCA applied for in a grant submitted to Impact 100 and it was not voted for.  How short sighted can we be.  Well, apparently the 150 or so women that were not at the annual meeting and voted on line, fax or letter only had one paragraph to read before making a choice.  It’s as egregious as reading one paragraph and going into a voting booth and making a decision.  If the 150 or so women had attended the annual meeting they would have had the benefit of hearing the presenters fleshing out why their grants were needed.

I trust the officers of Impact 100 will change the way information about the grant process is delivered to the women who join and ultimately have to vote.  Otherwise, you might change the name of it to charity to “Impact 100 for Dummies.

If you are interested in this subject why not join our free tele-seminar 8 PM EST, April 28th.  You will be emailed a test to ascertain where the power is located in your home and what message these locations, items or placement deliver. Contact Connie Spruill, at connie@windwater.com or call our office  at 614-837-8370.

Power, for all its intents and purposes, is at the base of all survival instincts.  Recently, I was reminded of the greatness of power after seeing a Broadway play entitled “Bengal Tiger” with a theme of power and its omnipotence in human life.

Power is one of the first things we seek in life and it is one of the first things we abuse when given more than our fair share.  So indelibly potent, power is a subject I felt important enough to be considered in terms of how it is distributed inside our living spaces.

When thinking about power and place I am reminded of the transition in home design in the 1950’s.  During that decade, television became almost universal.  For that reason, a new space to house a TV was invented and called the den.  As TV shows multiplied, the den, or family room grew in size, finally over taking the dimensions of the original gathering room – the living room.  That transition also altered the underlying power of family life.

Without TV, influences in terms of news, opinions and trends were delivered in daily newspapers and radio.  Often only the adults in the home read the paper so that the children were informed through the filter of the family’s values.

Radio delivered mostly entertainment with advertising as the connective tissue between these events.  Perhaps the event that altered how radio was used, was after Orson Wells famous Halloween broadcast announcing that Martians had landed in Grover Mills, NJ.

Even though an announcement prior to the broadcast had stated that his was only a dramatization, the fact that so many people believed it and acted defensively that it demonstrated the power of radio to influence mass audiences.  1938 can be thought of as the year when audio, then later video communication began its popularity ascent over print media.

In reality then, the TV created the largest room in the home, and transitioned power from each family’s specific opinions, beliefs and morals to ones delivered from over the airwaves.  No wonder parents lost power over their children in the 1960’s revolution.  Power had been relegated to what was delivered by TV.

Another transition of power in the 1950’s that was reflected in building design was the advent of kitchen counter dining.  Stools or high chairs pushed up to a surface adjacent to the cooking area, changed the reverence of sharing at a common table with all family members seated facing each other.  Further it relegated one person to cook and the others to be served.  Would you not agree with me that in the larger culture those being served have more power than the one who serves?

Thus, it is important to ascertain how power is embedded in a home’s layout, design and the furniture placement.

The number of successful reality shows flabbergasts me.   What is tis need for reality when it is present moment by moment in everyone’s lives?  Or better to ask what is missing from today’s reality that makes us crave watching it on TV?

I think I know the answer.  Reality in any species includes survival.  We are deeply programed by the desire to be proactive, for being in charge of our well-being.  Responsibility includes the word respond and in our present mode of society we have  all but eliminated selective responding.  We are molded to follow rules of response that are mostly from outside sources.

To be ethical is a dictate of religion.

To be charitable to our community is legislated by taxes.

To be careful is dictated by traffic rules

To not steal is written in many forms in our criminal justice system.

Surely when societies grow in numbers that exceed being observed by people we know, it becomes rational to set up guidelines to follow.  However, so endemic are our rules, that I daresay there aren’t many areas that aren’t covered.  Well, we don’t have to flush a toilet and we can spit.

We hunger for reality, then, in part, because we hunger for being the masters of our fate and being responsible and accountable for the risks.  Disappointments and triumphs that come from a life filled with surprises that need our unique responses, that is the corner of reality that has been sanitized from our lives.

In order to reinstate that sense of master of our destiny we need to seek opportunities.  It is finding a charity that we can make more of a difference than a donation or plan a trip without an itinerary.   Or un-routinize our lives so that there are some days when what to do can be a function of the moment.

On a personal level I find reality shows exceedingly boring perhaps because, the reality of my life includes testing myself, challenging myself to make a difference in areas I am passionate about and going into the unknown without a plan.