Telescopes, as everyone agrees, extend the vision, bringing what is distant near. But in direct proportion that they enable us to see what is in front of us at a distance, they reduce the vision of what is in front of us directly. Microscopes, conversely, enable us to peer into the smallest spaces. But in doing so, we leave the macro world around us behind. What appears to increase our view, then, paradoxically decreases our view of that which is immediate, of that which is at hand.
Perhaps that phenomenon is why God put our eyes in the front of our heads instead of on the back. The rest of the body is oriented toward the front, in the use of the arms and hands, legs and feet. If we were more in need of looking backward, or manipulating and affecting what is behind us, we would probably look much different.
Think of telescopic and microscopic views in terms of time, of distance as time. Again, that which is in immediately in front of us is now, the present. That which is at a distance is some time removed--in the future, or in the past, for we have moved from where we were at a previous moment.
I guess that what I'm getting at has to do with the design of machines that can multitask (we aren't designed to) and take us from here to somewhere else in time and space in some way. We can't act directly upon tomorrow or yesterday, only now. And we can only act most directly on what is most immediate and proportionate to us, what is in front of us in our "eternal present." When we attempt to extend our influence upon the distant, the future, without or within, we reduce proportionately our influence upon the now, and lose our opportunities rather than increase them.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
95% Sex before Marriage? Something's Bogus Here
I read today that 95% of adults, men and women alike, admit to having had premarital sex, "calling into question the federal government's funding of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs for 12-to-29-year-olds...which have received hundreds of millions of dollars under the Bush administration...." Further, the study found the same percentages going back to the 1940's; nearly everyone, it seems, has been doing it--or freely admits to it at least.
The surprise, it seems, is that it had been assumed people of former generations had been more chaste than people growing up today. But I wonder if the study considered the later age at which many now wait to marry, than a few decades ago. Several factors, in fact, seem to have been ignored in this report.
For one, the biological age for childbearing, for most, can be said to begin at puberty and not end till perhaps middle age or even later. Since the continued propogation of the species depends upon sufficient sexual attraction between males and females to assure sex, sexual activity is going to take place regardless of laws or mores or whatever taboos society places upon those who participate.
But being sexually active and getting married are very different things. If people in the 1940's--especially women--got married, as they often did, right out of high school or before their mid- twenties, that is one thing. It might have been easier to have waited a few years till marriage to have sex. But if people today wait throughout their twenties, and perhaps their thirties or even their forties to tie the knot, I don't find it so surprising that they wouldn't hold off on sex as well. That's a lot of time to be a single adult with an active social life and normal urges.
Further, the more recent appearance following the AIDS epidemic of more effective birth control methods like the widespread acceptance and availability of condoms and other contraceptives, the morning-after pill, the protections of Roe v. Wade under the law, and the possibility for adoptive placement of infants into loving homes, all mitigate worries about unwanted consequences of being sexually active for today's generation. Sex and its former taboos are not the scarlet-letter-branded issue of shame they once were, nor is it considered something that one should keep as secret as it used to be. Quite the opposite seems true today, in fact. The norm, now, is to freely proclaim that one has lost his or her virginity as a badge of honor, and to have remained a virgin till one's later years is now the cause for social shame. One's sexual status has completely reversed itself!
Is it any wonder, then, that a study done today concludes that almost everyone claims to have done the deed? Do, in fact, 95% of single Americans have sexual experience? Or are some too reluctant to admit they have not, like in The Forty Year Old Virgin and are just lying? And if 95% have indeed found sex before marriage, has that had an effect on pushing the bonds of matrimony and responsibilities of child-rearing further and further into later life? No, I think something's not quite right in this report.
The surprise, it seems, is that it had been assumed people of former generations had been more chaste than people growing up today. But I wonder if the study considered the later age at which many now wait to marry, than a few decades ago. Several factors, in fact, seem to have been ignored in this report.
For one, the biological age for childbearing, for most, can be said to begin at puberty and not end till perhaps middle age or even later. Since the continued propogation of the species depends upon sufficient sexual attraction between males and females to assure sex, sexual activity is going to take place regardless of laws or mores or whatever taboos society places upon those who participate.
But being sexually active and getting married are very different things. If people in the 1940's--especially women--got married, as they often did, right out of high school or before their mid- twenties, that is one thing. It might have been easier to have waited a few years till marriage to have sex. But if people today wait throughout their twenties, and perhaps their thirties or even their forties to tie the knot, I don't find it so surprising that they wouldn't hold off on sex as well. That's a lot of time to be a single adult with an active social life and normal urges.
Further, the more recent appearance following the AIDS epidemic of more effective birth control methods like the widespread acceptance and availability of condoms and other contraceptives, the morning-after pill, the protections of Roe v. Wade under the law, and the possibility for adoptive placement of infants into loving homes, all mitigate worries about unwanted consequences of being sexually active for today's generation. Sex and its former taboos are not the scarlet-letter-branded issue of shame they once were, nor is it considered something that one should keep as secret as it used to be. Quite the opposite seems true today, in fact. The norm, now, is to freely proclaim that one has lost his or her virginity as a badge of honor, and to have remained a virgin till one's later years is now the cause for social shame. One's sexual status has completely reversed itself!
Is it any wonder, then, that a study done today concludes that almost everyone claims to have done the deed? Do, in fact, 95% of single Americans have sexual experience? Or are some too reluctant to admit they have not, like in The Forty Year Old Virgin and are just lying? And if 95% have indeed found sex before marriage, has that had an effect on pushing the bonds of matrimony and responsibilities of child-rearing further and further into later life? No, I think something's not quite right in this report.
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Ready...Set...SHOP!!!
The excitement's building as Thanksgiving approaches. The whole family is coming down for turkey, pumpkin pie, parades and comraderie, and of course the main reason: Black Friday! Got to get down to the stores super early to get those "things that make the season bright." We're usually well represented, some years camping out three or four together plus an extra curious friend or two in front of Best Buy all night. The best spots are already lined up by midnight. South Florida techie shoppers are an intrepid bunch and hard to beat to the bargains. My fam takes naps Thanksgiving evening before rising for the all-night annual vigil.
Then when the doors finally open about five or six am, everybody races through the stores grabbing whatever's close, as they head for those special items on their list they read about in the ads for a week. It's an amazing race worthy of reality tv.
By ten or eleven in the morning, it's all over. The gang drags in, smug from their bounteous booty secured in their car trunks, and crashes into their beds or just sprawls out on couches and floors for a catchup nap, exhausted from the vigil of the past twelve to sixteen hours and the hell-bent-for-bargains shopping melee of packed stores. The goal is to make it to all four nearby megacenters: Best Buy, CompUSA and Circuit City across the street, and maybe even BrandsMart around the corner at the Sawgrass Mall. We have begun a push in ernest here in South Florida to create the biggest, best megacenter shopping mecca in the world in Sunrise, and the huge, sprawling Sawgrass Mills Mall is already world-famous. They're even building twenty-story condo's that overlook it, as if it's the gem of all views, with prices modestly starting in the mid-half-millions. Don't want to miss those bargains, nosirree.
Christmas shopping? Well, I guess the Black Friday gold rush is the beginning of the total mayhem that then continues all over our region till Christmas Day. Maybe it's just our way of playing a warped adult musical chairs. If you don't hustle, you don't get the prizes--or even a place to park. Kind of makes online shopping more appealing each year, as our cars stay in the only guaranteed parking spots left south of Disney World: our own driveways.
But I'm still looking forward to it, all of it. The arrivals, the festivities, food, parades and games, shopping, running around, and finally by Sunday afternoon putting up the Christmas tree and outside lights while the kids are still here to enjoy it. Thanksgiving, this Thanksgiving, is probably the only time we'll all be together for a year. By Christmas we all scatter and have our exchanges in several cities. But there's something special about having the whole family together at our house, even if it's only for a few days or hours. Something I'm really thankful for.
Then when the doors finally open about five or six am, everybody races through the stores grabbing whatever's close, as they head for those special items on their list they read about in the ads for a week. It's an amazing race worthy of reality tv.
By ten or eleven in the morning, it's all over. The gang drags in, smug from their bounteous booty secured in their car trunks, and crashes into their beds or just sprawls out on couches and floors for a catchup nap, exhausted from the vigil of the past twelve to sixteen hours and the hell-bent-for-bargains shopping melee of packed stores. The goal is to make it to all four nearby megacenters: Best Buy, CompUSA and Circuit City across the street, and maybe even BrandsMart around the corner at the Sawgrass Mall. We have begun a push in ernest here in South Florida to create the biggest, best megacenter shopping mecca in the world in Sunrise, and the huge, sprawling Sawgrass Mills Mall is already world-famous. They're even building twenty-story condo's that overlook it, as if it's the gem of all views, with prices modestly starting in the mid-half-millions. Don't want to miss those bargains, nosirree.
Christmas shopping? Well, I guess the Black Friday gold rush is the beginning of the total mayhem that then continues all over our region till Christmas Day. Maybe it's just our way of playing a warped adult musical chairs. If you don't hustle, you don't get the prizes--or even a place to park. Kind of makes online shopping more appealing each year, as our cars stay in the only guaranteed parking spots left south of Disney World: our own driveways.
But I'm still looking forward to it, all of it. The arrivals, the festivities, food, parades and games, shopping, running around, and finally by Sunday afternoon putting up the Christmas tree and outside lights while the kids are still here to enjoy it. Thanksgiving, this Thanksgiving, is probably the only time we'll all be together for a year. By Christmas we all scatter and have our exchanges in several cities. But there's something special about having the whole family together at our house, even if it's only for a few days or hours. Something I'm really thankful for.
Friday, October 27, 2006
The Fantum Fam
Since most of the folks who read my blogs are family, and others who nearly always drop by my posts seem like family (Hi there, Carol Anne), I'll speak like family and call us all out for our lazy ways.
Barb (Iris Blue, Mom, Grandma K, Sweetheart) said to me yesterday, "Our whole family has just quit blogging." It's true. Last night I read something Scott (Tall Penguin) recently posted, and an email that Mark (Ninja) sent me saying he was looking for new postings from me but finding none. Favorite daughter-in-law Rhonda (Lazo land) did phone to tell us she got a new phone and emailed Barb a photo from it to see if it worked right, but the whole fam damily have been strangely silent in the blogosphere of late.
I can't speak for the others, but I have no excuse. Sure, I've been busy--busier than I need to be, really--but we probably all have been. I think we all write more on our summer breaks when the livin' is easy, and there comes a time in the middle of autumn, about now, when things we began in September snowball on us, and we just quit blogging for awhile. I doubt this is a permanent condition; however, I do suspect it's an annual one. Looking back at last fall with all the hurricanes, I didn't blog as much as I had that summe either.
Whatever's keeping us from the flow and fun of sounding off, I hope it diminishes so we can wax eloquent again soon. I hope to write up a storm by Christmas at the latest, and hopefully before. This is a fun time of year, and we need to blog about it.
Barb (Iris Blue, Mom, Grandma K, Sweetheart) said to me yesterday, "Our whole family has just quit blogging." It's true. Last night I read something Scott (Tall Penguin) recently posted, and an email that Mark (Ninja) sent me saying he was looking for new postings from me but finding none. Favorite daughter-in-law Rhonda (Lazo land) did phone to tell us she got a new phone and emailed Barb a photo from it to see if it worked right, but the whole fam damily have been strangely silent in the blogosphere of late.
I can't speak for the others, but I have no excuse. Sure, I've been busy--busier than I need to be, really--but we probably all have been. I think we all write more on our summer breaks when the livin' is easy, and there comes a time in the middle of autumn, about now, when things we began in September snowball on us, and we just quit blogging for awhile. I doubt this is a permanent condition; however, I do suspect it's an annual one. Looking back at last fall with all the hurricanes, I didn't blog as much as I had that summe either.
Whatever's keeping us from the flow and fun of sounding off, I hope it diminishes so we can wax eloquent again soon. I hope to write up a storm by Christmas at the latest, and hopefully before. This is a fun time of year, and we need to blog about it.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Something Just to Move the Screen Down
Sometimes I feel like I need to write a post just to move the preceeding post down below the startup screen. That's how I felt when I opened my last "Write To Say It" screen and stared at my filched dissertation tirade; I'd forgotten all about it and moved on, but like graffiti, posts are stickynotes. They hang around on walls and telephone poles like last month's primary posters, and they persist at the tops of blogs until the lazy blogger moves them down. Thus, this:
Sunday mornings have evolved as my preferred time to grade papers. It's usually calm around the house, and the phone doesn't usually ring. The lawn's mowed by Saturday, and the neighbors are often gone. There's nothing pressing to be watched on television, and any weekend project I've taken on (this weekend I set up an ip-addressable server on my desktop computer so I can access and monitor my house cams; it works!) has usually reached a point I've either given up on it or finished it. So the Sunday a.m. hours are the best time for me to grade and prepare for the Monday classes. In the autumn months, I like to get the studies out of the way for the much more looked-forward-to exercise of watching my Dolphins try to win a game, and seeing if there's anything they can do to try to get on a winning track after starting off 1-3.
Sunday mornings have evolved as my preferred time to grade papers. It's usually calm around the house, and the phone doesn't usually ring. The lawn's mowed by Saturday, and the neighbors are often gone. There's nothing pressing to be watched on television, and any weekend project I've taken on (this weekend I set up an ip-addressable server on my desktop computer so I can access and monitor my house cams; it works!) has usually reached a point I've either given up on it or finished it. So the Sunday a.m. hours are the best time for me to grade and prepare for the Monday classes. In the autumn months, I like to get the studies out of the way for the much more looked-forward-to exercise of watching my Dolphins try to win a game, and seeing if there's anything they can do to try to get on a winning track after starting off 1-3.
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