Quote - Bad Ideas

"Some bad ideas are like Dracula. You think they're dead and buried, when all of a sudden you feel their breath on your neck again."

Dr. Lawrence M. Principe

When Cometh Normal?

I was recently asked to describe a normal week in my life. I was stumped.  It's past mid-October.  And I still have not had a "normal" week this fall.

A "normal" week, during the school year, is certainly different than it once was.  After all, Sherry's up in St. Paul, so it's hard to think of that as "normal."  But go with me here.

Criterion #1: A "normal" week should have me in Rochester, all week.

Since the beginning of the school year, I don't think that has happened yet.  If it has, I don't remember it.


One week, I didn't travel for work, but I spent the weekend at the apartment in St. Paul.  Is that normal?  It was relaxing, that's for sure.  (There is no lawn to mow at the apartment. Big plus!  But not normal.)

Next week, I think I will be in Rochester all week.  But while being in Rochester is necessary for a week to feel normal, it's not sufficient.  You see, one or two of my evenings will be tied up with work commitments, so I will not have to get dinner for myself.  So that's not normal either.

Criterion 2: A "normal" week includes meals I have to plan for, shop for, and prepare.  That almost happened this week -- I can count the D&D group feeding me as "normal" now, since I plan for that meal, even if I don't prepare it.  It occurs regularly enough.  But, I will be eating dinner outside of Rochester Thursday through Sunday, because we get to fly to NYC to see Leah perform.  Which is wonderful!  It's just not "normal." 

Criterion 3: A "normal" week has a five-day work week, Monday through Friday. 

I'm thinking I will not get a "normal" week until sometime in January.

And so, if "normal" is that rare, it can't be "normal" can it?

I just have to face it.  I don't do "normal."

Well, normally, I don't.

To study the abnormal is the best way of understanding the normal.

William James 

True Enough

Today, my topic is "True Enough."

Why?

The answer involves one movie, one excellent quote from another movie, and a story one of my friends told a couple of years ago.

Let's start with the story.

I went back to my hometown for my 30th high school class reunion because, while I had never been to a high school reunion before, we knew several people would be back who we wanted to see. Among these were June, Tim and Tom. [June & Tim are now married, but I digress.  Tom is the brother of my very close friend Pete. {Hi, Pete!  Tell Tom I was blogging about him.}]

As people will do on such weekends, old stories are told.  Tom told a story about his first day in the Decorah Public School system, as a brand new elementary student.  It was funny, but it was somewhat embarrassing, so my discretion prompts me to omit it here.  A bit later, June, Tim and I were discussing it, and someone wondered if the story was, in fact, true.

I replied "Well, it's true enough."

And what did I mean?  That's really the topic of the blog today.

Tom's story was funny. It also highlighted the trouble people often have moving to a new place, where no one knows them. It showed how easily first impressions can be very wrong, but have the potential to haunt a person for a long, long time.

So, the story might have been exactly true. But even if it was not, even if things didn't really go quite the way Tom told it, the point was made. And the point was clearer because of the way Tom told it. So, whether precisely true or not, it expressed truth in a very clear, memorable way.  So, to me, it was true -- enough.

I hadn't really intended to create a new concept -- I'm quite certain it's not precisely "new" in fact. But one of my favorite quotes about learning is this:

All truly wise thoughts have been thoughts already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe German dramatist, novelist, poet, and scientist (1749 - 1832)

Time marched on, and in the months since I first used the phrase, I have often thought about things which are "true enough."  When it came time for my annual viewing of "V for Vendetta" I re-encountered one of my favorite quotes from that movie.  In context here it is (bold is mine): [Thanks to ibdm.com]

Evey Hammond: My father was a writer. You would've liked him. He used to say that artists use lies to tell the truth, while politicians use them to cover the truth up.
V: A man after my own heart.

Now, the scientist/mathematician in me often views the world as if truth is clear cut.  Something is true, or it is not.  For many parts of my life, that is a useful way to view truth.

But the artistic side of me recognizes that another form of truth is often revealed by our artistic endeavors.  Evey's father got that right.  And I was reminded of that again just a couple of nights ago.

I watched one of my favorite drama/comedy/fantasy movies of all time, "Big Fish."

Please, if you haven't seen "Big Fish" consider this an extremely strong recommendation to see it.  As I tweeted right after I saw it again:

"Big Fish" chokes me up. Every. Single. Time.

In the film, Will Bloom (Billy Crudup) is a 30 year old man, about to become a father, whose own father -- Edward Bloom played by Albert Finney as Old Edward and Ewan MacGregor as Young (or Mythical) Edward -- is dying.  Edward Bloom is a story teller.  Throughout his life, he has told stories of his experiences/  He always has one and because they are clearly not completely possible, Will believes they are not true, so they are lies.  But are they all lies?  Or is there some truth in them which will allow Will to understand his father, which will allow some level of reconciliation, before it is too late?

The stories are quite entertaining.  See the film.  Really.  But the point, for purposes of this blog, is that sometimes the value of the truth of a story lies in whether it is "True Enough."

There are times when precise truth is required.  But often, to touch a person's heart in the deepest, most personal ways, it is better to use something which is "True Enough."

And that, my friends, is what art is all about.

Quote - Heinlein - Without Evidence

"When a man makes up his mind without evidence, no evidence disproving his opinion will change his mind."
Robert Heinlein

I found this quote in a letter Heinlein wrote. I found the letter in the great blog Letters of Note. I read the blog via Networked Blogs.

This statement is true on several levels. While not all of them are thoroughly negative, in the case which caused Heinlein to say it, he certainly intended it as criticism.

Can you imagine having someone write a book, about you, without talking to you? And then having people believe it, just because it was written?

Oh, wait, that's the way the blogging world, and indeed much of the Internet, works. And it's how the paparazzi make their livings.

Quote - Friends - Funny but inaccurate

Contrary to general belief, I do not believe that friends are necessarily the people you like best, they are merely the people who got there first.

Peter Ustinov (1921 - 2004), Dear Me (1977)

This is funny. ^{1} So when I saw it, I chuckled and thought about it a bit. In general, I find that humor often contains significant truth. Does this quote?

The quote seems to imply that you became my friend just because I met you before I met other people.

Wrong.

I met a lot of people as I grew up. Some of them have become "Facebook friends" -- something Ustinov probably didn't have a chance to experience, but I suspect that, as a famous person he had many old acquaintances who considered themselves his friends. Maybe he even considered them "friends" in the same way we have "Facebook friends." We don't hang out with these folks, but we will exchange pleasantries and information with them, and we enjoy our interactions.

There is a whole spectrum of friendship beyond that, and in my experience, the more you like someone, the more you enjoy spending time getting to know them, and the deeper the freindship can become. They move from acquaintances to polite friends ("Facebook friends") to other stages, and it seems to me that the key attribute to that deepening of the friendship is affection -- liking -- and not time, though certainly time can help the depth of the friendship.

And then, for some select individuals, we reach "Capital-F Friendship."

"Capital-F Friends" are rarer. From my pre-college days, I have a few. I collected some more in college, and some more after that. Many -- probably most -- of those Friends became Friends because we shared certain interests or had personality traits which fit well together. And they remain Friends because, as we shared experiences, we grew closer together.

But I also know people who were Friends for a time, but have become "small-f friends" or acquaintances or "people I once knew" as life kept changing around us, or as it became clear we just weren't connecting with each other as we once did.

So, if someone is my Friend now, I really do think it's because I truly like them. And, in fact, I think I like "small-f friends" better than most of the people who I have known for a long time who were never friends of any sort.

So, Sir Peter, you were very clever. And I like the humor.

But I don't agree.

Thanks for prompting me to think about friendship, though.



^{1}[And it's related to an observation I've been meaning to write about - our identification of people we know as being "better" or "the best" - but that is a topic for another time.]

Quote - Where I Needed to Be

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.

Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001)

So if you are not quite where you thought you would be, take a deep breath, reassess, and see if you might not be exactly where you need to be right now.

And by all means take another piece of advice from the good Mr. Adams.

Augustine - Quoteworthy

If we did not have rational souls, we would not be able to believe.
Saint Augustine

In the spirit of my recent blog about making wise thoughts our own, I recommend this: find a few people who were well known for their wisdom, and revisit their thoughts on occasion.

Augustine of Hippo (St. Augustine) was one of these people. His quote above is one of many.

Of course, people such as Augustine also wrote longer works, which are worthy of more intensive reading. A major figure in Christian history, he expressed through his writings many deep and powerful ideas which continue to influence philosophy, theology and Christian thought. Augustine was one of the earliest and strongest supporters of the need to integrate the interpretation of scripture with the truths revealed in scientific knowledge.

Great as his long works are, in our daily lives it is often quite useful to have these shorter words of wisdom easily at hand. And so, with that in mind, I give you another:

God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.
Saint Augustine

And one more, which is always challenging to learn, to one's heart:

Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others.
Saint Augustine

Quote - Wise Thoughts

Over the weekend, a family member was expressing a thought which had apparently just recently come to him. As with all such "discoveries" the family member was telling me with an enthusiasm suggesting he had uncovered something I didn't know, or hadn't considered before. I thought immediately of this quote.

All truly wise thoughts have been thoughts already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
German dramatist, novelist, poet, & scientist (1749 - 1832)

We all learn things. Some we learn before others; some after. Who learned it first is not important- after all, exceedingly few of us learn something for the first time in humanity's existence. The important thing is that we learn -- whether wisdom or knowledge -- and that we keep learning.

Quote - Morals

Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.
- Isaac Asimov

Clever. That Asimov guy was pretty smart, you know. And insightful.

If you don't believe your morals can get in the way of doing the right thing, then I hope your morals place a high value compassion.

[One of the Quotes of the Day at QuotationsPage.com on October 9, 2010. Distributed to me through iGoogle.]

Quote - Progress

Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.
- Robert Heinlein

Find the humor, then find the truth behind the humor.

Inventions are sometimes the result of progress towards discovery, but far more often they are the result of making life easier.

It's all about Time and how we want to use it.

Quote - The Forceps of Our Minds

The forceps of our minds are clumsy forceps, and crush the truth a little in taking hold of it.
- H. G. Wells

How profound! We might not recognize it at first, but there is a bit of Socrates in this. A bit of Plato. A bit of The Cave. A bit of 1 Corinthians 13:12 (see through a glass, darkly.) A bit of the observer affecting the outcome.

Truth. By the time we've touched it enough to comprehend it, we've put some of the oil of our mind on it in little fingerprints. By the time we speak it, we have added our accent.

And yet, is there any more honorable task than to seek it?



[737]

Dorothy Gale Knew

"My! People come and go so quickly here!"

Thus spake Dorothy Gale, shortly after being deposited in the land of Oz.

Two friends are making transitions -- one to a new job, and one to a new state. Oh, I have known each of them for years of course, but still, changes like this seem sudden. They may have been in the works for quite a while, but the imminence is a shock, nonetheless.

Mike, Rob - I wish you both well in your new adventures.

Best Recent "Quotes of the Day"

The worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has nobody to thank.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 - 1882)

Charm is a way of getting the answer yes without asking a clear question.

Albert Camus (1913 - 1960)

...when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 - 1930), (Sherlock Holmes)

To knock a thing down, especially if it is cocked at an arrogant angle, is a deep delight of the blood.

George Santayana (1863 - 1952)

Reading made Don Quixote a gentleman. Believing what he read made him mad.

George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself.

A. H. Weiler (1909 - 2002)

By the time I'd grown up, I naturally supposed that I'd be grown up.

Eve Babitz

There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and the tired man who wants a book to read.

G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936)

Quote - Science

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny ...'
- Isaac Asimov

Quote - "Every Day"

Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity.

- Christopher Morley



The world may be too big to ensure that no one else is doing these things. But in this age of homogenized news and schism-inducing opinion, it helps to rememeber ...

Think for yourself.

Things I've Never Done (TIND)

I was just thinking, that there a lots of things I've never done. That's pretty common, right? [I don't mean "thinking." {"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so few engage in it." Henry Ford} I mean having a list of things you haven't done.]

[Oh, and to give credit where it's due, I came up with the idea when Mike pointed out that I don't ever say anything that's very edgy or controversial. Which is true. Should it be? Something to consider.]

And as I was thinking about this, I realized that the "Things I've Never Done" (TIND) fall into a few categories.

These are the categories:

• TIND - and I Probably Never Will
• TIND - but I Expect I Will Someday
  
• TIND - but I Will If I Can!
  

and finally

• TIND - and I Will Not Discuss [So Don't Ask]

So, having come up with the idea, I also thought "Hey, that would be a good series of blog entries." So, over the next little while, expect to see the first three. [And others are welcome to do the same! {Especially you Facebook readers. (This seems like a very "Facebook" thing to do.)}]

[NaBloPoMo has certainly pushed me to examine and stretch my topics...]

Quotes for Today - and Always

Since I'm participating in NaBloPoMo, I decided I should make an attempt to post at least once during the month on each of the topics that are typical in my blog. And what does my blog heading say?

My most frequent topics are family, TV, movies, games and writing. But since I post every weekday when I'm not on vacation, I delve into other things too: religion, words, news items, quotes.


To this point, I have not blogged about quotes during November, so here we go.

====== Logical Consequences ====================

Logical consequences are the scarecrows of fools and the beacons of wise men.
Thomas Huxley

When we were raising our children, when they were quite young, Sherry took "logical consequences" very seriously. As with most conscientious parents these days, Sherry wanted to learn from the experts, and one of the key ideas from experts at that time was that children learn to stop bad behavior, and to continue good behavior, if they can experience natural consequences. In other words, rather than punish a child with a spanking or a loss of allowance or something that is entirely unrelated to the bad behavior, find a consequence that can be tied, logically, to the behavior. The child hits someone, they must spend time alone while others play together, because naturally, no one wants to spend time with someone who hits them.

Well, in the quote above, we see the value of natural consequences to all people, not just children. And, I hope, it also means that we were teaching our children to be wise -- to look ahead at consequences for actions they had only conceived, so that they can pursue the natural consequences which are beneficial and avoid the rest.

====== Science and Poetry =======

In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite.
- Paul Dirac

I've blogged this one before, but it's too good not to repeat. As before I will leave it in its purity - just read and absorb.

Oh, except for one thing. To read the statement, you might assume Paul Dirac was a poet. He was, in fact, quite a scientist.

Then again, what's to keep someone from being both?

======= Life & Liberty =============

The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.
Thomas Jefferson

This one deserves a Short Sermon all on its own. Not today, though.

======== Learning ================

He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
- Chinese Proverb

======== Trust ==================

He who does not trust enough, Will not be trusted.
Lao Tzu

I trust that's enough for today.

Golf Tomorrow

Busy day today. Tomorrow, I get to golf for the first time this year. Lots to do between now and then.

People hear that I'm going golfing, and they ask:

"Oh, are you a golfer?"

How do I answer that? I don't golf well. I don't golf often. I'd like to golf more. I mean, I just told them I'm going golfing. Doesn't that mean that I am a golfer in some sense? So why ask the question?

"Oh, are you a golfer?"

On the other hand, if they are really asking me a question, what are they asking?

It's just another of those polite conversation questions, I guess. Let's me talk about golfing if I want to.

"Oh, are you a golfer?"

After I put the ball in the water a couple of times, and lose a couple more balls in the weeds tomorrow, I'm pretty sure my answer will be "No. Definitely not. But thanks for asking."

Golf is so popular simply because it is the best game in the world at which to be bad.
~A.A. Milne

"Oh, are you a golfer?"

("Here's your sign" -- Bill Engvall)

Gandhi Quotes

I have almost reached the end of my "Great Course" on great books, and I'm listening to the lecture on Gandhi's My Experiments with Truth. So, for my Friday blog entry, here are some very good thoughts from a very wise man.

As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, keep it.

Mahatma Gandhi

Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.

Mahatma Gandhi

- More quotations on: [Mistakes]

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

Mahatma Gandhi

- More quotations on: [Happiness]

[Excerpted from the Gandhi page on Quotations.com]

Advice Quotes

The "advice" quotations at www.quotationspage.com contain sarcastic items, melancholy items, and serious items. Here are the few that speak to me about advice, from the point of view of the giver of advice.

People who ask our advice almost never take it. Yet we should never refuse to give it, upon request, for it often helps us to see our own way more clearly.

Brendan Francis

In giving advice, seek to help, not please, your friend.
Solon - Greek lawgiver & politician in Athens (638 BC - 559 BC)

The true secret of giving advice is, after you have honestly given it, to be perfectly indifferent whether it is taken or not, and never persist in trying to set people right.

Hannah Whitall Smith, 1902

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All quotations today are from www.quotationspage.com.