God can do anything!

An over simplification statement made by a “believer” yesterday afternoon. Wow, how did we get here? Well, in a little over an hour of pleasant exchanges and sharing, it came to the verge of personal attack and insult. At this point of observation, I made a general statement to end the discussion and walked away. 

How is it that individuals can agree, and share time in so many areas of life, and gravitate to this ultimate outcome? This most recent event of yesterday may as well be a topic of intrigue the morning after.

Overview; an articulate senior in their mid-70s. Someone that carried on a general conversation as though we had been a long-term friendship. This was a mutually enjoyable in-the-moment time. What happened?

I had shifted the latter part of our conversation towards the achievement of our species over the last half of this decade. Space exploration, new knowledge about biological function including the genetics, a previously unknown to our recent ancestors. How the fifteen hundred foot walls of the Grand Canyon represent layers of history. That in some parts of our continent, we conclude natural process adds approximately one inch of new material during a period of about one thousand years. W have found in sediment of the Mediterranean shore, the remains of a ship from centuries past. The cargo was uncovered, which comprised about three tons of metal ingots. This find concluded that there must have been, perhaps many centuries, of commerce in both directions across the Mediterranean waters. This discovery suggests a sophisticated network of trade between the two continents. In passing during this sharing of discovery, related that translations of ancient Egyptian writings are missing any record of the Jewish people as slaves in Egypt. How could this be? With such interaction between the continents, you would expect a passing mention of the person with special human powers that performed miracles. But no, we find that what is translated becomes simply the daily events of their time. People living day to day, just as we do now. Therefore, possibly the central character of this sacred book perhaps never existed? How could the Egyptians have failed to document such historical events just across the water, on a busy trade route?

Shared that decades ago, the Hubble telescope aimed at the darkest part of the night sky. If you held your arm out in front of you with your thumb pointing upwards, the part of the night sky photographed would be represented by your thumbnail. The results of a three-day time exposure revealed more galaxies of various sizes and shapes that are previously known anywhere in our night sky. We have also observed the coming into existence of three stars, on average, per earth day. Incredible! Objects millions of light years away, formed by process we don’t understand. Our own sun is a medium-sized star which probably came into existence the same way? How then can the Genisis story explain our own star? How can there be a personal relationship with a “creator of the universe”, that is busy creating new stars, planets, complete galaxies far off in space millions of light years away? Really?

They responded with the statement that begins this reflection. “God can do anything!” 

I turned and walked away, stating regret for having this random discussion. 

~The End~ 

How can people be so cocooned in their daily lives they cannot see the natural world around them? Knowledge that to our ancestors could not have conceived in their wildest imagination.

Our Own Insignificance

Photo by Dominik Scythe on Unsplash

What has been the experience of our species over the past two years?  Global pandemic!

Portugal earthquake 1755

The devastation caused many Portuguese to question their religious beliefs and the horrific event has shaped Lisbon's history ever since. ... As the tremors rocked the churches, the candles tumbled, igniting the decorations, and creating massive fires which ravaged Lisbon for five further days after the earthquake.

copied from an article:

In classical Western theism, God is said to be both good and all-powerful. So how do we square natural disasters – global pandemics, earthquakes, tsunamis, famines, bushfires, and so on – with a God who, because he is good, would not want natural disasters and, because he is all-powerful, could stop them if he wished?

This was a question asked after the devastating Lisbon earthquake by Voltaire (1694-1778), one of the great philosophers of the European Enlightenment. It led to one of his most famous works: Candide, or l‘Optimisme (1759).

On 1 November 1755, at 9.30am, Lisbon in Portugal was almost totally destroyed by an earthquake, followed by further tremors, fires, a tsunami, and civil unrest. It was All Saints Day and large numbers of people were killed as churches collapsed upon them. Statistics for natural disasters, then as now, are notoriously rubbery. But between 20,000 and 40,000 people died out of a population of some 200,000.

Then, as now, people wondered whether there was a divine plan to the devastation that shook their Christian beliefs and monuments.

1918 flu pandemic

Authors of books on 1918 warned everyone about future pandemics.

The 1918 pandemic transpired in three waves, from the spring of 1918 to the winter of 1919 — ultimately killing 50 million to 100 million people globally. The first wave in the spring of 1918 was relatively mild. A majority of 1918 flu deaths occurred in the fall of 1918 — the second, and worst, wave of the 1918 flu

---------------------------

As you read the above, it should be apparent through the application of logic and reason, as a species: we are not a "top predator".  The past two years demonstrate once again that a life form devoid of human consciousness, can be in control of populations of many varying species.  History does repeat itself.  Communities of social interaction, just as with the Salem witch trials, apply their own conclusions.  "Everything happens for a reason."  When logic and reason are not available, and the understanding of processes in the natural world governed by laws of physics and chemistry, the answer defaults to "God works in mysterious ways".

Beyond a reasonable doubt, the collective endeavour applied with a broad brush of Christians on a global scale, has had absolutely no results and affect on the species that encompass the microbial world.

It should become apparent that all life forms, have the expressed intent to continue, and avoid extinction.  As long as resources are available for life to exist, it will propagate and expand to fill and utilize life's abstinence.  Only when I life form reaches a threshold of limited resources, does the population begin to decrease.  In some cases populations decrease because another life form utilizes the current population as an opportunity for its own expansion.  As we have observed in the natural world, rabbit population expands.  When a threshold of expansion and density of population reaches a threshold, disease begins to take hold in the general population, and the numbers decrease.  This is just one example of the microbial world mindlessly, without consciousness, utilizing resources available for itself.  The cycles of rise and falls of populations of different lifeforms have always followed these general patterns.

Our species is simply another life form on this biosphere.  It is subject to all the laws of nature and physics, the rise and fall of populations, the extinction of lifeforms.  We find in the fossil record distant ancestors of our own species, long ago into extinction.

The consciousness of our species, has very perilous weakness, the internal desire of self, to be "the top predator", as bestowed upon the individual by a power greater than itself.  This very concept is at the foundation of the collapse of dynasties and empires.

The Preemptive Strike

Photo by Louis Hansel on Unsplash

How do we further our understanding? Perhaps by revisiting a previous thought and digging deeper. Why did that happen? Is there something simple that I'm missing? Therefore I am titling this article based on one possible conclusion resulting from many decades of personal interactions.

"The preemptive strike."
To begin. I will list many phrases spoken to me over the years:

• I don't like the way you think.
• I don't want to talk about it.
• You're so smart, you should write a book.
• Nobody preaches to me.
• I'm too old to change.
• Unless you are asked, keep it to yourself.
• You're a teacher, I don't want to listen to you.
• You don't have to say a word. And I find you offensive.
• There is nothing you have to say that we want to hear.

These phrases, perhaps have one thing in common. They are spoken by someone who has established an emotional opinion. Their self-confidence and self-esteem feels challenged. They are not in inquisitive or knowledge seeking individual. Perhaps an underlying short attention span. Extremely defensive, feeling offended as a result of "too much detail.". Perhaps a dominant personality accustomed to managing conversations, arriving at conclusions or opinions aligned with their desires. I would further conclude that once spoken, these phrases truncate any possible future collaboration or cooperation.

I recently read, that an opinion established through emotion cannot be changed by logic, reason, or critical thinking. The primary goal is to protect ego, their personal opinion of themselves, their self-esteem. Ego, personal opinion, self-esteem, all based on historical emotional interactions. Within our society of echo chambers, Democratic majority, it is easy to conclude how "the Salem Witch Trials" came to pass. Thus any similar statements uttered, would indicate that a cooperative productive mutual future is highly unlikely. Simply walk away, the statement terminates what might have been possible.

Nearly 30 years ago, I held a position of responsibility. The direct supervision of eight trained technicians. Responsible for the quarterly evaluations and performance reviews. In addition, responsible for weekly status meetings with management at the assigned corporate accounts. It was during those years that I purchased motivational cassettes through the Day Timer catalogue. One title comes to mind as I am expressing the above conclusions. That title was: "Why Don't We Do Better Than We Know How Already." As I recall, I listened to this cassette many many many times. It was during those years that I was sent to our training Centre in New Jersey. A five week course on "conflict resolution", a course I found to be child's play, many instances of role-playing and evaluation of scenarios. Why did I find it child's play? For whatever reason, what was being taught, was for the greater part already my natural personality and behaviour mode.

_________________________

Zig Ziglar, Motivational Speaker:

Born in year 1926 in Alabama, the infamous Zig Ziglar (*1) is one of the world's most popular and motivational speakers. His humble initiation and even his first job as a salesman never stood in the way of his positivity, the output of which yielded him great fame and prosperity. 

His words always seemed to be conveyed straight from his heart and amid his messages about honesty, integrity, hard work and virtue, Zig was a comfortably encouraging person. He seemed to make his listener understand that one could do absolutely anything at all.

*1. Top Results Academy. “Zig Ziglar Biography - Interesting Facts, Achievements, Career Details.” Accessed November 22, 2021. https://topresultsacademy.com/authors/zig-ziglar/biography/.

I'm "done-wasting-my-life" HERE!

 

UPDATE:
"fb" has become such an integral part of our world. "reactivated" because there are radio programs listened to daily that have facebook pages. Quick access to financial institutions by chat on their corporate page presence on the platform. Found that fb has established relationships in the past two years with Samsung and LG to "pre-load" the fb app as part of "bloat" that can not be removed, only disabled.
Tethered to the platform for reasons of daily life that are more convenient than the alternative of using 1-800 numbers and waiting in a cue.

Certainly will no longer be doing the "swipe-down" on the "most-recent" tab. LOL This time has now been "reclaimed" and "repurposed"!!! Trimming of "friends list" will be a persistent attention.

/h
--------------------

fb has become a toxic environment of echo chambers - the rest is a steady stream of sponsored/marketing content - I'm "done-wasting-my-life" HERE!

It is with careful thought and consideration over this past week that I will be removing myself from the Facebook platform.

A changed social media arena.

----------------------

It's been 18 months of pandemic, now extreme natural events this past week. Social media has become a series of "echo chambers". Since the beginnings of Facebook, it is now clear that those that have felt isolated or marginalized have gravitated to their "tribe". No matter how illogical or irrational, facts knowledge and information are the enemy. There are now many public and private organizations of critical mass to cause extreme disruption in all societies as a whole. Death threats against doctors. The topic of a program called "The Current" this morning on CBC radio. Over past decades, the aging baby boomer population has been unable to have a personal family physician due to the retirement of earlier generations. Both provincial and federal governments have provided paths of immigration for trained doctors. At this current time, many licensed physicians now practising here in Canada are receiving death threats. As per the program, a physician coming forward, being advised by the RCMP, a threat has been received, can find no protection under our Canadian judicial system to take action against a perpetrator that is already been identified.

Unbelievable! Perhaps not so unexpected! Echo chambers? Colonialism, capitalism and white supremacy. The beginnings of every independent nation today with colonial beginnings. The excuse I hear for current policy from people that I have no one for most of my lifetime, "people need jobs." One of the most recent face-to-face interactions last summer, I was told, "Howard, unless you are asked. I don't want to hear it." Wow! An acquaintance for close to 15 years, hook line and sinker, part of the status quo Western Canadian way of thinking. Hatred towards indigenous people, all past events are justified because "those people would not have developed the land and the resources". The subliminal message that indigenous people are inferior and incapable. Just a bit of history about Saskatchewan. During the mid-19 twenties, a town northwest of Saskatoon, was the North American, both Canada and the US, headquarters for the KKK. The Apple does not fall far from the tree. Geographical pockets of conformity, "nobody preaches to me". They will continue to be what they have always been, "proud Christians".

Most recently, "the CBC is a propaganda arm of the liberal government." Really? I listen to the Vancouver morning program's beginning, usually at 5 AM. Two programs, The Early Addition with Stephen Quinn, The Current with Matt Galloway. Paying special attention to this morning's programs. Are they politically biased? Paying special attention this morning. I hear interactions with the public at large in local areas of British Columbia. I failed to observe how this can be labelled political propaganda.

Facebook! Perhaps the time has come to leave this platform. Evangelical Christians elected the most obnoxious president the United States has ever known, Trump!, The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has self identified as now becoming a person of deep faith conviction. Hook line and sinker, now a Christian. Remembering the morning after 9/11. A coworker came over and said to me "Howard, everything happens for a reason. If people would follow the Bible more closely, things like this wouldn't happen." A toxic evangelical Christian workplace. The social media platform is a broad global likewise, "toxic environment". Logic and reason and many will block you. As with my personal musician friend, "I don't want to know". People have retracted into their "cocoons". To further demonstrate, a childhood friend from my high school days. This past summer I dropped in for a visit. As is my usual conversation, I steer the topic to something general in the realm of public events. Then I ask a few questions, and give a few verifiable facts, which have led me to a particular conclusion. In very short order, I was labelled "I should disturber". Wow, more than 50 years later because I have knowledge and understanding, I have facts. Another example of "I don't want to hear it". Five decades, a senior in his own mind space, echo chamber. 

With careful consideration, I realize that an aging population, those of us that are baby boomers, find ourselves in circumstances that cannot be resolved. Therefore, I took the action to disconnect from my childhood friendship. There is no possible way to assist or help a dominant alpha male in an echo chamber. Profanity and hostility are all that they have.

It is thus with careful thought and consideration over this past week that I will be removing myself from the Facebook platform.

Memories from a time long ago...

Memories from a time long ago, before my younger brother was born in 1952, I was born in August of 1948. It's a beautiful sunny afternoon here in Vancouver, and as everyone knows, my level of "procrastination" is always at its best. It seemed like a good day to reach back in time and talk on my laptop. Dragon NaturallySpeaking, Scrivener and ProWritingAid as my tools. As time passes, I have many negatives that need to be scanned, which will allow the updating of this project. But it must get started, because if something happened, the stories could be lost forever. In less than 2 years I will turn 75. 

Reaching back as far as possible, here are few short snapshots from the past. As time passes, I will update and revise this article. My first five or six years - before 'school-days'.

It was early afternoon on a sunny day. My grandmother took me into her bedroom in their old house up on the hill. I was put up on the bed and covered over. It was an iron bed frame painted white with leaves attached in different parts of the elaborate ironwork. The top corner of each bedpost was adorned with a small brass ornament. I remember, because I certainly wasn't ready to go to sleep. I remember reaching and playing for the little brass ornament. I could unscrew and screw it back on to the bedpost. The dry metal on metal sound as I did so. As I lie on the bed, I was facing west towards the bay window. Just outside the window. The entire wall of the house was covered with Virginia creepers. Such a mass that they would have partially covered the windows, although I can't remember that specifically. In later years the entire outside wall was overgrown.

It was probably midmorning on another sunny day. I remember a moment, standing by a trailer similar perhaps to this one that I found on the Internet. I remember my mother telling me that the two horses, the names of which she mentioned, are leaving. They had been sold. This was the last eventful day that horses existed on our farm. I chose this photograph of the trailer because it was from this vantage point on the passenger side facing backwards towards the front doors of Grandpa's old barn that my mother's words were spoken.

It was early morning on the farm. A time when the kitchen was still attached to the east side of my grandparents’ original farm home. As I opened the door to the kitchen, my grandmother called to me to come and sit on a chair just to the left side of my grandfather. Behind me was the old wood cookstove, the East corner of the room, where breakfast had been prepared. Grandpa was having his morning poached eggs and toast. Grandma gave me toast and marmalade. She then sat across from me next to my grandpa. Grandpa was just finishing his breakfast and was mopping up the soft egg yolk with his toast. I remember my grandmother's words, telling me that this was Papa's favourite breakfast routine, the part of mopping up soft egg from the plate with his last piece of toast. This memory is probably from a time they came out of Saskatoon to stay on the farm for a few days. Grandpa passed away in 1955.

Grandma and grandpa came up from Saskatoon for my birthday. I know this to be the day, because grandpa took me to Pendleton's store in Colonsay, and for my birthday, grandpa bought a shiny silver new bell for my tricycle. The ride was in the front passenger seat of Grandpa's 1949 blue Pontiac torpedo-back. It was parked beside the huge poplar tree alongside our driveway, facing the road. In the centre of the dash was a small clock. I was not tall enough on the seat to see much more. When we came back from town, Dad was finishing's project for the day. A welding project that involved cutting up angle iron and assembling it to make the frame, which then had tongue-and-groove boards attached. I suspect the same lumber that was used in the making of the one ton truck box extension for hauling grain. It was probably would just a few weeks before this, that our neighbour Johnny, from northeast of our farm came over with his new International Harvester one ton truck, and he and dad made the truck box extension for hauling grain, and slide out tailgate with grain chute. It was a loveseat style bench, with horse-drawn wagon seat springs under either end. It, for many years, sat in front of our house below the windows facing north. Painted a dark green, same paint that was used on the wood truck box extension.

Horse drawn wagon seat springs. (internet-photo)

1949 Pontiac Torpedo-back (internet-photo)

It was late evening, after dark. I've asked my mother long ago about this memory, but she could not identify the surroundings which I described. She passed away in 1995, and the conversation asking her about the memory was perhaps a decade or two before that. Perhaps I think I've already figured it out. I would have been at that early age carried in. I remember us coming in the door and across the room through the next doorway into the next room were many people. This room we passed through was not well lit, but I remember to my left, as we passed by to the next room, the large squarish burgundy sofa. A Google search found such a burgundy sofa of that era, I've included it. After a brief time in the next room, I was brought back and placed on the sofa. It probably was not long before, despite the noisy conversations in the next room, that I fell asleep.

 

The traditional burgundy sofa from those decades. (internet-photo)

This would have been a special occasion in my grandparents’ home on our farm. The memory of walking across that first room and through the doorway into the next room matches my memory of the floor layout of the old house. We entered the southwest corner main entrance, walked across the living room, through the doorway and into the kitchen. The same kitchen that I previously mentioned, sitting by my grandpa as he finished his poached eggs and toast breakfast. This same burgundy sofa would have been the one in the living room in Saskatoon on Avenue K South.

From a past time. A time before, my grandparents had television. Why? Because the place where there television sat in the living room is where an antique desk sat and on a small lower left shelf was the family photo album. My parents would have gone out doing their afternoon shopping, and I was left with grandma. She took me into the living room, reached for the family album, and I sat beside her as she turned the pages. I have only one memory of that afternoon. She pointed to a photograph on the lower third of the left side page. "This is your father's brother Fred. Your father adored him. Your father followed him around like a little puppy. He was killed in an accident." As the months pass by, I must page through the copy negatives now residing in archives sleeves in a three-ring binder. Many decades ago, I photographed these pages and some of the individual photographs. On my to do list, is to go back into those negatives to recognize the photograph that would have been on the lower third left page. I suspect it will be the same photograph as a large picture which hung on the east wall of that living room, entered late that night. That same living room, in their old farmhouse. I suspect that that large black-and-white photograph of the young man with the Stetson type hat, was my uncle. The one killed in an accident. For those that have read my blogspot articles, it came to be understood that "it was not an accident." While on his deathbed, in the Humboldt Hospital, an individual confessed to committing the murder to my father.

Grandma, 1966 - more than a dozen years later - the year I finished highschool.

A beautiful sunny day. It will soon be noon. My mother gave me the black metal lunch kit, dad's lunch and coffee. I would walk from the house to the distant field. The field was the rented quarter northwest of our farmhouse on the other side of the alkali lake, which was our swimming hole. I remember walking north of our yard over the hills, up and over a small steep outcropping, which was the farm’s gravel pit. Down the other side and perhaps almost another third of a mile down the farm trail. The tractor, an Oliver Super 70, was plowing in a north-south direction. The westerly portion of the pasture had already been plowed. I walked along the south side of the pasture until I reached the first furrow. It was perhaps 100 yards down the furrow. Dad stopped the tractor. We sat and had lunch. When my father took over the farm, he did not want cattle or horses. This recalled event was the plowing of the last pasture.

(internet-photo)

How old was I? I have no idea! But I remember the day. Dad had his multifunctional drill press/table saw setup on the grass in front of the chicken coop. This was on the north side of our garage, just past the woodshed. It was my job to carry would every day, and make sure that the wood box back at the house was full, and there was enough split kindling to start the morning fire. Today's project was from one of the Home Handyman Encyclopedia books. The making of a drawer, perhaps it was two drawers, installed under the nesting boxes. The careful cutting of Masonite into a shape which, when installed in the bottom of each nesting box, represented a slope, and a hole in the center where the egg would drop into the waiting pullout drawer below. I don't recall if we finish the job that day. But it became my job to collect the eggs every morning from these drawers, and keep the wood box at the house full from the woodshed. Later that fall, we went northwest of the farm, to Gunnar's farm, where after dark with flashlights and a gunnysack, pigeons were captured from the loft of the barn. They were brought home and locked in the attic of our chicken coop until they became accustomed that this was their new home. In later years, it became my job with the pitchfork from the barn to clean out the chicken coup, and place new fresh straw on the floor. Also fill the water and feeder containers for the chickens, the cracked grain from the small granary just up the hill towards the barn, perhaps less than 50 yards away.

A Common Thread

Many months have slipped by since my last published article. I can assure you, the mind has been fully engaged over these past months. "Overthinking everything", it's simply my NORMAL!

There's been a complete disruption over the past 18 months of the daily flow of people's lives, touching every continent, culture and community. The flu epidemic of 1918 endured for three years. Despite our current technical knowledge, tremendous biological understanding achieved, there is no definite end date insight.

Daily news events reveal social unrest in every corner of societies. In nearly all social groups, regardless of geographical location, populism understanding has been pushed past the breaking point. Outbursts and tempers circulate social media. This heightened awareness travels around the globe, fuelling more of the same behaviour.

What is the common thread? This global phenomena is simply a frenzy of emotion. Emotion driven by fear. Fear that the familiar social world of their daily lives has been forever changed. The populism view that unknown forces or agendas are the root cause. No amount of data or facts will sway the populist view. "A mob mentality / the Salem Witch Trials."

Can we alter the populist direction? My initial response is an unequivocal NO. Why? As a species, we share many traits that can be commonly observed in other species. "house-trained", the commonly understood social conditioning after bringing a pet to be a new member of the family. There are those in society that will spend thousands of dollars on a new puppy sending it to obedience school. Some members of our society spare no expense through private schools and individual tutoring for their own children at the earliest age of intervention. Conformity and predictable responses is the end goal. This is easily observable in the social structures of the elite in society. Perhaps it is not so easy to observe in the general population. Perhaps we cannot see the forest for the trees. In the general population, populism is the "order of the day". The hereditary biased perceptions of reality. Shaped by ethnic and cultural boundaries. What is observable across these ethnic and cultural boundaries through social media are the outbursts of emotion displayed. Common language and direct communication is not required. Simply the observance of others pushed past the breaking point. The "breaking point" need only be observed. Thus, a common thread of social unrest spreads. Individual out-of-control emotion seeks a quick fix. Populism is determined to solve the problem by the most expedient means available.

Many today are aware of the term "hyperactive". Over the past two decades or more, ADHD in our educational systems has been treated with prescription drugs. I stumbled across a crumb of information some months ago. Perhaps it could lead to some understanding and conclusions regarding educational systems needing to deal with behavioural problems of students. It goes: among North American baby boomers, perhaps 40% could be undiagnosed fetal alcohol syndrome. Our school system, therefore, has been burdened with the children and grandchildren growing up in households where fetal alcohol syndrome has been present. Now unravel the social unrest, the social predicament called populism around us. There is another twist to add to our social behavioural fabric. The spread throughout the fifties and sixties. I'm speaking of "Billy Graham" events drawing crowds everywhere. Subtly below the surface, travelling in the same social circles, the establishment of Alcoholics Anonymous groups. Here, the common thread has a slight diversion, however, a common general direction. The Billy Graham events drew people in by the thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands. The early beginnings of what we commonly observe as the "evangelical Christian movement". The other path, as social construct, a place of eventual belonging, by many that did not embrace the Billy Graham rallies. These individuals in society rebelled against conformity, eventually succumbing to self-medication. We commonly understand today that there are over 50 vital organ conditions which develop in senior years, which are directly because of alcohol consumption. The convergence of those with failing health, with the groups of faith-based newly formed alcoholics anonymous groups begins. Through social pressure, afflicted individuals are coerced to join these groups or succumb to being further social outcasts in the community. These AA groups have flourished for many decades. "The acceptance of a power greater than yourself, because you have come to the understanding that you can no longer manage your personal daily life." Many will attest, "I'm not religious, I'm spiritual." "Belonging to an AA group saved my life." It then comes to pass that during the decades of a seniors experience, there is a common ground, "a populism". A "common ground" solidified by personal experiences, and therefore immovable. No amount of logic or reason can dislodge these personal opinions from their own experienced and observed reality.

Mental health. What? What is it?

A sense of well-being. Comfortable in your surroundings.

The foundation of mental health, the amount of dopamine released into the bloodstream. If the levels of dopamine are low, perhaps you are depressed. If the levels of dopamine are too high, perhaps you are hyperactive or ADHD. Somewhere in there, we must attain a balance. There is another chemical released into our bloodstream. Adrenaline is released because of hyper or extreme emotion. These extreme emotions encompass all of our human states. From extreme fear to extreme attraction. These two chemicals are directly responsible for our mental health and our mood swings, in some, which can be excessive. The vast expanse of our social community construct of dysfunction on so many levels, no one knows where to resolve the situation.

That which is acceptable in one's social circle is perhaps deeply offensive to those in another. As history has shown us, these incompatible social circles bonded against "common foe" during the first and second world wars. In a time of extreme threat, a common goal was pursued. Perhaps this is why there has been a common thread in our Western-based societies that in social circles: "do not discuss politics or religion." There is no better common ground for this to be shown than in the establishment of Legion chapters. Military veterans gather to celebrate and reminisce. To relive the "us against them", good and evil. 

These groups exist on both sides of the conflict.

Continuing the common thread. Adrenaline and dopamine, responsible for our mood swings, and therefore our perceived mental health. There is a more sinister and underlying causation for these two chemical releases. Individual comfort or stress precipitates from a general understanding of our surroundings. If you are inquisitive by nature, this will immediately fall into place. If you need verification and acceptance, depending on your social surroundings, your future general knowledge can be severely compromised.

In the first instance, the inquisitive individual is capable of self-regulation of dopamine because of their own internal self reward because of learning and achievement. Once this lifelong cycle is started, it would commonly become a lifelong pursuit of knowledge. This is a lonely road, filled with social rejection. This path has the high probability of never belonging to populism of the time. Commonly labelled "the know it all", "over thinker". Populism finds these individuals the most antagonistic and disruptive people, simply because of what they know. It has been my conclusion that sharing of knowledge and experience does not require the insertion of authority or ego. Because this is a lonely road, isolation can lead to periods of depression caused by rejection. It was once stated by one of the ancient philosophers, "the greatest weapon is rejection." If on this lonely road, the cycles of depression cannot be self understood, then self-medication may overtake the moment. Once derailed by self-medication through substance abuse, many times leads to the downward spiral which never recovers.

The second instance, the individual that requires a sense of belonging. Perhaps from the earliest age possible immersed in a sport, probably a team sport. From this earliest age, the natural development of "inquisitive nature" has been diverted. A sense of well-being derived from closely managed and directed activities. Group activities that encourage the development of ego. In this social circle, the greater the conformity, the greater the stroking of ego, the higher the dopamine levels. In this case, individual self identity is shaped by the group through behavioural practices. The perfection of power and control elevates the individual status. Elevated individual status continues to be rewarded, and therefore, a vicious cycle of ego is developed. There is no foundation established regarding the natural world, which can be the personal arsenal of survival skills. It's all about populism and dominance. Self-medication and substance abuse is widely acceptable within these social circles, because "everyone knows" there will be a premature ending. Sports celebrities, entertainment celebrities, all examples of glamour and glitter, overindulgence.

This is the price paid to forgo naturally inquisitive nature. These paths are hereditary. Children and grandchildren following in the footsteps of many celebrities. Substance abuse and addictions abound. Some partially recover partway through their lives and turn to evangelical Christian movements as a means to sustain a meaningful nondestructive future.

I would summarize by saying that we have two choices. Allow the natural development of the individual, or impose a hereditary path. I would compare this to buying a computer with a predetermined "operating system". The hereditary preloaded operating system contains much self-indulgence which would inhibit any alteration to its future path. It is a path where the development in real time of "critical thinking" has already been sabotaged. For the self-development within the individual of their own critical thinking, will generate the natural dopamine as a self reward. The sabotaged individual is on a path of codependency for brief periods of dopamine. The latter being a life of continual acceptance and rejection cycles. This is the past for most of society, because society rewards conformity while rejecting individual identity.

Perhaps as a hypothetical example, the star hockey player in his early teen years, later becomes the star dominant alcoholic male at the local watering hole, then succumbs to sclerosis of the liver, and is remembered fondly by his peers as "a great guy". This is the life of the "good contributor to society". Because nobody wants a "know it all" around that makes us feel stupid.

Helplessly Tethered

The following rambling precipitates from my morning routine of “overthinking everything”. My observations and conclusions which follow are from personal experience. I have not experienced higher education, a university environment. It is with this in mind that I expect criticism and rejection from those with academic standing.

The person we become results from observations and experiences. As the decades pass, we climb up a pyramid slope to a new level of perspective and understanding. Visualize a pyramid. As we move up the pyramid, the surface area becomes smaller. What is the first conclusion that comes to mind? Therefore, the higher you go up the pyramid, the smaller your social community. Let us consider that the layer that you exist on represents those that agree with you. Directly below your layer are all the previous layers. Consider that the extended surface area of those layers below you beyond the size of your current layer represents the people that no longer agree with you.

Why did I title this article “Helplessly Tethered”? Because you were once part of every layer that exists below you. As you move up the pyramid with new knowledge and understanding, you still carry an emotional attachment to what once was. The emotional attachment is the tether.

Perceive that the bottom layer was your or early childhood experience. You have an emotional attachment to parents and grandparents. Even before you learn to speak, you have already developed emotional attachments and probably one or more role models. From the time of language through to your mid-teens, testing and establishing their social boundaries. Perhaps a distant family member, or even a neighbour, becomes someone you mimic. All of this happens before the age of maturity. Studies of the human mind now conclude that the human brain continues to develop until approximately the age of 30. Through these mid-teen years, the time of puberty, adult responsibilities encourage adult maturity. We have approximately another 15 years for these responsibilities to develop in what we refer to as maturity. Back to that word I used “Tethered”. We are all emotionally tethered to those who have been part of our past. Especially those that are the role models. Perhaps an aunt or an uncle, maybe even a grandparent, was a clergy member. Here is the tether. Most people will carry a tether to such an individual throughout their entire lifetime. Why? Because in our Western Christian societies, it is socially unacceptable to express anything but reverence and respect for individuals such as these. So if sometime later in your life become skeptical, become critical, develop critical thinking, your social community will chastise you for speaking. In this example, all the layers below you in the pyramid are intolerant of the person who you have become. Each layer represents a collective cohesion. When you left the layer and moved to the next layer, you still kept an emotional attachment to some of those you intellectually left behind. We can perceive many examples which show emotionally tethering to your past. 

Why would this be a problem? Because I would suggest that these emotional tethers are bonds which are kept late into your senior years. Long after your current decade of existence fades, those earliest memories remain. We describe dementia as the ability to keep some memories from the far distant past, but cannot recognize and remember those within their recent and current time.

I wonder? When a person moves forward into their senior years, understanding and knowledge aquired for most of their working life fades and vanishes. What do we have left? We have the memory from the far, far distant past. Perhaps of that relative who was a member of Clery. The senior, now described as having early onset dementia, appears to have a limited recollection. Frustration and confusion abound. Perhaps even to the extent of disruptive behaviour exhibited towards staff in the long-term care facility. The elderly individual might exhibit moments of terror. Aha, there’s that tether again! Perhaps a fallback in the mind, when as a young child this individual woke up from a nightmare and climbed into their parent’s bed. Except now they are perhaps physically unable, and there is nowhere down the hall for the childhood experience of safety and warmth. Perhaps this tormented, aged mind has fallen and slipped backwards into childhood immaturity. Terrorized within their mind from trauma of nightmares in their early childhood. Trauma in their early childhood before they developed speech. Overhearing the adults, perhaps during Bible study. Early child’s visualization of “burning in hell”, resulting from overhearing the adult’s discussion.

The above example takes a special reference to religious affiliation. Tethering does not have to be this extreme. Influence can just as easily be someone who achieved fame in the realm of team sports. Another example may be perhaps the uncle that by today’s standards would be a toxic male with an over-inflated ego. But from a time over 50 years previously achieved their goals in life, was an influencer, a role model. As a role model, the reason smoking or drinking was acceptable. It began at a pre-adolescent age, usually secretively away from the parents. Influencers take many forms, they need not be within the family or community social circle. They can be a media icon or are extremely successful on the world stage of sports or music. It is our human nature to lock our sights onto someone as we grow into maturity. Imprinting of behavior establishes the goal to grow up to be just like them.

The role models, the influencers in our Western society, high-paid rock stars, sports celebrities with multimillion-dollar contracts, the list goes on and on and on. Simply follow the money! As the decades pass, no one admits that they have taken a self-destructive path. The very circumstance of addiction and substance reliance is denial. Denial that it is causing self-harm. “You’re going to die, anyway.” So we continue to glorify toxic behaviour, pay huge multimillion-dollar contracts, and glorify what is destroying the underpinnings of our society.

Let’s use the three-legged stool as an example. Each of the three legs is essential. In our Western society, as we know it, how can we envision the concept of this stool? One three-legged stool might comprise social responsibility, government, and freedom. We achieved social responsibility provided by the government through taxation. Those who cannot care for themselves receive benefits. Through our freedom, our democracy, we elect a government that collects taxes which then provides services to those who are incapable of caring for themselves. Sounds like a wonderful system, doesn’t it!

Let’s take this one step forward. A democratic process, individual freedom, the right to go out on a Friday night and have pizza and beer with your friends and watch the hockey game. Seems rather benign. What could be the harm? Just today I heard an individual calling in on a talk show. He made the following statement: “those affected by fetal alcohol syndrome may amount to 40% of society.” Wow! As much as 40%? 40%, or even 15% is a high burden of social responsibility for our tax dollars to pay for the healthcare of. Why do we have fetal alcohol syndrome in the first place? Because alcohol is legal. It is some decades now since the seatbelt legislation arguments. For the greater good in our democratic society seatbelt laws passed, because we simply had statistical evidence that we could not afford the future costs if we didn’t put this in place. Is this not a parallel with alcoholic behaviour? If we had 40% of the population in the hospital due to traffic accidents that seatbelts could prevent, the seatbelt legislation would’ve fallen into place easily. Yet we can have as high as 40% of parts of our population suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome, but nobody wants to bring up the topic. Why? Not very complicated! Follow the money… taxation, alcohol and cigarettes pays for Social programs are the highest taxed items. The spinoffs throughout all sectors of our economy are interdependent on each dollar creating more economic activity. With this recent pandemic, the tourism industry has fallen to 5% or less of what it was. Nearly all the hospitality industry is out of work. Many businesses associated with the hospitality industry will seek bankruptcy protection. What is the major component of the hospitality industry? Almost a silly question! Alcohol. The current pandemic has gone viral caused by a virus. The next economic pandemic might be middle-aged people with varying degrees of fetal alcohol syndrome, those never diagnosed. Perfectly functional people within the economics of our nation. Managing day-to-day and collecting a paycheck. Bring on the stress of middle-age, a magnification factor for their undiagnosed condition of fetal alcohol syndrome. Mental illness? As a Western society, we have brought this upon ourselves. Declining economic activity, declining tax revenues, will not care for the ageing population with a variety of abnormalities too many to mention. Not only are there future costs for healthcare, but there are also future costs for infrastructure that was built after World War II overdue for replacement or upgrade two decades ago. We have two converging economic pandemics heading in our direction. An ageing population with predictable health outcomes, and ageing infrastructure of water, sewer and bridges. Even if we recognize these two waves heading in our direction, we have a third wave that no one wants to talk about. It’s not just climate change, it’s the habitat of the natural world around us. We have over 500 years of burning fossil fuels. 600 years ago the City of London in the United Kingdom experienced the deterioration of buildings and health problems because of acid rain from the sulphur in the atmosphere as sulphur dioxide from burning coal. For another 500 years, we have continued to take these items out of the earth’s crust and disperse their content into the environment of today. Decades ago, scrubbers on the tall stacks in the American Northeast manufacturing area to remove sulphur. Vast areas of Ontario suffered from acid rain. The destruction of lakes and forests. Sulphur removed from fuels helped. When we burn fuels, we have carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. When these two gases combine with moisture, they create carbonic acid. Carbonic acid reacts with the aquatic shellfish community. Extensive areas of the western coast of North America have studied and determine that the shells of these inhabitants are now thinner than they once were. Acidification is closest to the shore, because of wave action with the higher concentrations of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, along with our highly populated communities. We are continuing to collapse the natural environment through the use of fossil fuels. We are collapsing the food chain around our continental shelves. The East Coast fishery collapsed decades ago. The salmon fishery on the West Coast is not now far behind. Pods of killer whales on the West Coast are in danger of extinction because they are starving. Trawlers from many countries fish off the western Coast and indiscriminately with large nets take everything. High-value items processed into the food market. The by-catch ground up into pellets for fish farms and agricultural supplements. Potash mining over the past fifty years poses another environmental change. The widespread use of phosphorus fertilizers has caused algae blooms in both fresh and salt water eco-systems. These algae bloom consume all the oxygen and cause dead zones. Dead zones that extrapolate into greater collapses of the natural food chain.

With all the knowledge readily available around us, with every human being able to read and educate themselves, we still hear the cry, the denial, “but, but, but, people need jobs!”

Another topic that needs to be mentioned. Public service pensions. Safe and secure? With this recent pandemic, it’s now brought clearly into public view that care homes have been the hardest hit. What do pensions and care homes have in common? Many of the public service employees’ pension plans have invested in private healthcare and care home infrastructure. Seniors’ care homes private or public are the most profitable investments for future pension plans. How are they the most profitable investment? The same way that agriculture attains higher profitability through use of foreign worker programs, to maximize the return to the investors, the public service employees pension plans. They involve many of the same employees in planning committees that establish foreign worker programs. Isn’t this a conflict of interest? It would appear that they are making decisions that will establish their future retirement, at the expense of the already retired individuals of their friends and neighbours and co-workers.

Where do we go from here? We cannot continue on the path that we are currently on. Yet we are tethered. Tethered to a standard of living. Tethered to an emotional reverence to our ancestors. Tethered to ideology that assures us to be reunited in an afterlife. Tethered to social communities that refuse to change, Tethered to destructive addictions to drugs, alcohol and cigarettes. Our species, a collection of mammals of varying degrees of posttraumatic stress at every front. Of which they brought upon themselves because they simply didn’t know any better. Still, others that choose the path of willful blindness. The skilful, manipulative and greedy, that just don’t care and want more for themselves regardless the cost.

~Howard R. Titman, writer - April 2021