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Life Like an Onion

The name of this worth-while, well made Movie is "Hero"

The star is Dustin Hoffman and the cast is good enough. Its called a comedy, romance, and drama. I call it a drama told in good humor with some love most of us can recognize. It seems that it suggests that there are reasons that we are the way we are and that there is good in each of us. Could it be that we each may need to need to be a bit heroic to live this life. There is more than one way to peel an onion.

                                                                                                Richard

Writing: First Words

 You may be born with a talent. Writing is a skill you can develop

 

Skills are developed and maintained with practice. 

            As an aid to improving your writing skills you can keep a free-writing diary as a practice tool. You may also find that it is a great source of writing ideas.

            Keep your free-writing in a private diary, journal, or notebook. No one but you need ever read a word you put there. In that private place you can write whatever you want in any way you want to.
 

            "Free-writing" is writing without judgement or criticism. Do no editing, corrections, or rewrites. All there is to it is to do it.

            Do not throw away what you have free written. You can use it to discover subjects you can enjoy writing more about.

            In your notebook, journal, diary, write. Produce a finished piece of writing. Keep a topic in mind. Digressions are okay, but when you find yourself digressing in this practice bring yourself gently back to the topic.
 

            Digression are to be honored and respected. After all they do come from your beautiful mind. 
                

            The idea in this practice is to keep writing. Do not stop writing. Do not stop for anything but the most serious and urgent reason. 
            

            You may say to yourself "Let's remember the topic," but do not let a little digression of yours bother you.  Gently practice the discipline of keeping the topic in mind as you honor and value your digressions. 
            

            It does seem that we writers are very much about digressions. They may lead us to our best writing. Still we do not want them to keep us from finishing a piece of work. 

            As an aid toward helping myself to finish a piece of work I have told myself to write down everything I can think about the topic at the moment.                     

            Later you can look for your digressions in you work above.  Do another writing exercise based on your digressions. Let your digressions enrich your writing. Your  digressions may give you topics that motivate the real you.

             Peter Elbow's book WRITING WITHOUT TEACHERS has inspired me know that it is truly possible to write better with appropriate practice and Useful attitude. 

            Use the "comments" section below to contact me. Do so by clicking on "comments." If you see "no comments" click on it.

            Thank you for reading.

            Keep writing.

 

                                                                             rcs

                                                                                                 

Memories of Covid 19

 Faith, Governance, This Virus, and Lessons To Be Learned

           

             Poor health is keeping me from posting much these days, but just now I feel stirred to write and publish this post.

            The genesis of this stirring seems to start as follows: Yesterday evening I watched a bit of a YouTube video by Richard Wolff. I suspect that I did not even watch it to its end. Last night I had dreams about our wars and dreams about our political beginnings. Vietnam seems to have dominated those about our wars and that dreams of our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution.

            This morning I awoke slowly, feeling weak, fatigued, and exhausted as has been usual in recent weeks. However, I soon remembered something of my dreams and tried to remember more of them with little success. Then I began to recall a bit of the Wolff video to which I had not paid close attention.

            It seems from my present perspectives that the video was about Lessons Learned (or learnable) from our Covi experience. I have not tried to revisit that video as I believe I would have in other days; so, some of what I write now may be more Sheehan than Wolff.

            As I remember, Mr. Wolff chose the following countries useful for comparing the quality of their dealings with The Virus. The countries he chose as good examples of dealing effectively with Covi: China and New Zealand, Taiwan and South Korea, Cuba and Vietnam. The two countries he chose for dealing poorly with that virus were the United Kingdom and the United States. Wolf, it seemed, felt that he saw evidence that the people of the first six countries also had more faith in their government than the last two I mentioned.

               I believe that such comparing of the governance of a people with their ability to deal with This Virus, could aid us in learning an important lesson or two.

            Wolf himself seemed to believe that he had evidence that the people of the first six countries demonstrated a belief that their government had the power and ability to deal well with the Virus and so cooperated in that dealing. Wolff also seemed to have thought that the people of The U.K. and The U.S. did not have faith that, at this time, their government was ready, willing, and able to deal with This Virus successfully. 

            Do you think that our dealing with The Virus has to do with our faith in our government/governance? What do you think we might learn from our experience with the Virus? What is the state of our faith in our government? What would you like the nature of our governance to be? What is our responsibility for the nature of our government? What important governance might we be able to learn? What would be a good simple measure of the quality of our dealing with this Virus? Would the % of deaths or the number of deaths per hundred be a useful measure? What could we learn, that is useful, by looking at more successful dealing with the Virus as compared with the real nature of governance of, say, 100 countries? How might the U.N. be useful in this effort? Why? How might my going back to bed and forgetting about all this be helpful?

            My questions above may be taken as rhetorical, but there is a window below called "comments" and sometimes "no comments!" I that window you may put questions of your own, or answer mine, or make comments, or one comment.

            Thanks for reading.

 

 

                                                                                        RCS

 

A Physicist

 Particle Physics

                Phil Yager, Dr. Yager, a physics PhD, and a friend, died some years ago. I did not know of his death until a considerable amount of time had passed. I missed him and still wish he were around. I knew him well enough to know that he had drive talent, and luck. I also know that his life was not easy.

                His physics was experimental particle physics. Experimental physics can be demanding an "elemental particles" seem more so. Phil's math was up to it. I feel sure that he found pleasure and satisfaction in his career.

                In a early explanatory paper he wrote in part, something very like the following: the physics of elementary particles is explored by colliding particles together and observing the results. He quotes Feynman as describing it something like: "this process of colliding particles as like colliding watches (fine mechanical Swiss watches), picking up the pieces and trying to find out how they worked." 

                Feynman was not only an accomplished physicist, but, I am late to discover, an author of works we can enjoy and benefit from.

                Phil was like many of us and liked by many. Still he spent an important part of his life with creative math and in observing a beauty almost none of us have seen.

                  One beauty has been called an elementary particle. Elementary particles have been called the smallest building blocks of our universe. They have been thought to no internal structure(so how divisible?). Their researchers think about them as zero dimensional "points," which take up no space. There seems to be about a dozen of them, even so they take up no room. They do take time. I am yet at a loss as to why they have not been called happenings rather than particles.

                It seems physicists have been working on the outer edges of human understanding. At least on the edge of mine.

                       

                I remember having been told of electrons, but remember little. They seem to me to be closely related to elemental particles. That may be a case of poor memory combined with ignorance. You who know more, even just a bit more come and share some of what you have learned. You can begin by using the comments add just below this post.

                I hope that I am not slipping into an intellectual swamp. I am coming to believe that for important and practical purposes there is no such thing as things. I have forgotten the those practical purposes, except that they have something to do with an approach to reality. Doesn't it seem that each thing is really a happening so everything is happening. Still, I probably write, speak, or think of the term "thing" daily.

                I remember Phil showing two different colliders, but I don't remember their names well and am not sure how to spell them. One was something like Cyclotron and the Bevatron. Spell Check seems to agree that my spelling is OK. Now, I understand, their are new and speedier colliders. I expect that a lot good physics and good engineering as well as wealth has gone into their creation and use. Many important people have considered them important. Early on they help us to atomic and hydrogen weapons. I need someone with more up to date  knowledge to provide us with a list of the some of the other benefits they provided. They exist.

                So, to stop claims about me not providing information, here is a list of elementary particles. I lack knowledge of their nature, but I can name them:

~ fermion -- reminds me of a famous physicist

~ neutrino -- doesn't participate in the strong reaction. Who can remind us of the nature of the '''strong reaction?" The neutrino does come in three flavors, electron neutrino, muon neutrinos and tau neutrinos.

~ kaons

~ pions

~ protons -- sounds a bit familiar

~ anti protons

~ photons -- sounds a bit more familiar

~ charm quark

~anti charm quark

There must be a quark. What about a charm? and What about a beauty?

                I am embarrassed at demonstrating so much ignorance. I think my father told me to keep it to myself. This is probably be my last dip into elementary particles. I may live long enough to visit the topic of  physics again.

                Good bye Phil. My sister Gerry remembers you as Butch. Hope your mother knew that you were an early full professor.

                                                                                        Rich

Trinidad - Tobago

Island Country 7 Miles From Venezuela

Trinidad is a large island, 846 sq mi. about seven miles from Venezuela, near the mouth of the great Orinoco River. 

The people of Trinidad are from Black Africa, East India, and everywhere else. 

You can learn to bathe in glass there. You can also get a biodegradable coffin of hallucinogenic nutmeg on this interesting island.

The food is varied. The curried goat satisfying.

There  is an 85 foot tall red statue of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman. Its the tallest one outside of India.

The Maine Ridge Forest Reserve is the oldest protected forest in the Western Hemisphere. The 14,000 acres of forest were declared a reserve in 1776 while the island was under British rule.

Pitch Lake a 100 acre, La Brea Tar Pit like place, has been mined to pave roadways around the world. 

There is a beach where you can better your love life, do a sand exfoliation, and listen to Syrian music. 

Tobago is the smaller of the two caribbean islands which make up the nation of Trinidad and  Tobago.

Tobago has great ample sandy beaches.

The capital of Tobago is the village of Scarborough.

Kayak through the mangrove swamps of Tobago. 

If you are getting the idea that Tobago is more touristy of the two islands of this Island nation you are on the correct track.

Port of Spain is the big city of the nation and it is on Trinidad.

In Trinidad and Tobago you may begin to feel you are in the real Caribbean an you would be right. It is not all of the Caribbean, but it is a lot of it.

On the two islands there is magic, it comes down the great Orinoco, 
it comes from India, it comes from Africa, and it has found a home there.

Still, It pays to be a bit careful there. Some say that there too many birds. Many say one can get wet and dirty there.



                                                                                                             by Richard

Considerations for Parents

 Each mother and father may find it good to let each daughter and son expect:

~ to be fearless in facing things like snakes, mice, and ghosts.

~ each disobedience to lead to an appropriate punishment. The punishment ought to fit each parent and child. For one such pair a frown might suffice.

~ remorse of conscience for ill-treatment of an animal.

~ to avoid making parents or teachers sad or angry.

~ Joy in being content with what one has.

~ to feel sorry at the loss of the good will of another.

~ to patiently endure pain and hunger, but nor onto death.

~ to strive from early on to earn one's bread.

                It is okay for a son or daughter to consider the eight expectations above.

                Short and, I hope, sweet enough.

                                                                                                    rcs

The Limits of Our Responsibility

We can learn and adapt. We can govern ourselves. We have even begun to understand rules and laws of Earth and beyond. But our control over the movement of and changes of the Universe, the Solar system, and our very Earth. We have begun to gather evidence of happenings of perhaps 5 million years ago, but our interpretations of it sometimes seem like silly guesses.

                Scientists have been helpful. They have learned that is difficult for humans to understand everything at once. They also find that we can learn a lot from samples of reality. They have also learned that we have a lot to learn about the quality of  samples. They have also learned that we are capable of many slip-ups in our interpretation of the information we gain from our samples.

                Even so we have the ability to learn and do have the will to learn correctly, truly, and even approach reality. Knowledgeable scientific interpretation of high quality is becoming available and we can learn to judge it, but it does take learning. Learning form which we may benefit. 

                We have learn that some happenings are cyclical in nature. Not perfectly so, but recognizably so.

                We have learned that we are sensitive and are beginning to learn just how sensitive trees are.

                We are learning that we have a lot responsibility. We know that our responsibilities are not infinite, but seem to have plenty to learn about the limits of our responsibility.

                                                                                                                 rcs       

Recycling Benefits

What recycling is and a how to do it outline.

            rcs

The Word Is "experience":

Definitions can point to meaning and lead to understanding 

                Synonyms for the earliest usage "experience" include: attempt, trial, try, and test. It looks like each of these synonyms is about the purposeful action of a learner. Each seems to be about a person initiating a process. The action continues with an intention in mine.

                    Each of these early synonyms may be seen as a name for the type of process initiated. An attempt an intention to try something tempting. A trial could begin with the intention to try try something that might test the limits of one's ability or capacity. A try could be an intent to separate or sift some ideas, materials, or abilities to better understand that particular set of things, capacities, or ideas. A test could be the intent to simplify or purify something to better understand it.

                    So a happening isn't much of an experience unless we are paying attention to it and giving it some thought.

                    From its beginnings "experience" has been about learning, about finding out for oneself, checking it out, about awareness with hope of understanding.

                    My red dictionary first defines "experience" as apprehension or perception of an object, thought, emotion, or event through the senses or the mind. So a happening in our life may not be an experience until we have identified it and thought about it. The definition that I am looking at now says that the way to experience is through the mind or through the senses. I find that interesting. Mor directly it says that apprehension and perception are through the senses or the mind. I wonder how one might perceive or apprehend without the mind.

                    The compilers of my red dictionary believed that we can experience in our minds without concurrent uses of our senses. That seems right. But could not experience be sensual without conscious awareness. Could our body possible learn from an experience that did not reach the conscious mind? Sometimes it is difficult to draw an exact line between doings or happenings.

                    We have a lot to learn about the mind. We can learn more of value about learning. We may be called on to relearn where to buy good ice-cream. 

                    The same red dictionary also calls experience, active participation in events or activities leading to the accumulation of knowledge or skill. That sounds right to me. I do notice that wisdom is not mentioned. I suspect that our awareness must be engaged during "the active participation" mentioned.

                    My blue dictionary calls experience "the usually conscious perception or apprehension of reality of an external, a bodily, or psychic event." Reality seems to be important here. I may have to check the definitions of "perception" and "apprehension" to see if they are mutually exclusive. A psychic event is a mental happening. It is beginning to look as though experience is really a big deal.

                    Experience may be necessary to learning and not just helpful! It also seems that we can get some experience just by thinking! There seems to be a difference between an experience and a learning event, but I am not very sure of the nature of that diference. I seem to remember hearing someone say that "learning entails movement and experience entails action," but that does not help me. Could an experience and a learning event be the same happening? Could any learning event be an experience? Doesn't it appear that an experience, or a learning event can both include one's thought and that perhaps it must?

                    Can perception and apprehension get us from sensing to approaching reality? Could they also lead us astray? Luckily we can compare one experience with other experiences.

                    My Dictionaries and the internet all refer to perception and apprehension in  their definitions of experience. In psychology, education and elsewhere there are books devoted to each of these terms. It sometimes seems difficult to keep things simple. Let me try for a simple understanding that retains much of its power. We might call both perception and apprehension both ''a taking a hold of an event" or as "taking a snapshot of a process." This makes both terms the noting and registering of a sight, sound or other sensing How about as describing the progression of a process? I give up the idea of simplicity for now, but I have been giving these two words and their relationship some consideration. It would be nice to say I have seen the reality, the whole reality, and nothing but the reality. 

                    I do suspect that you now have a better understanding of  "experience" than you may believe.

                    My blue dictionary also simply calls "experience" "direct participation in events." The quality of that participation including your awareness of seems important.

                    A synonym for "apprehend" is "understand." As that is true, it is also true that to truly experience we need an understanding of that which is going on or has happened. So, to experience, and hopefully to really learn, we need to consciously in the doing and happening, note some of the sequence or order of action, and to remember some of that order or sequence related to that event or sequence of events. We probably ought to have the intent to discover pattern, order, and sequence.

                    We are better able to approach truth and reality with our mind than with our eyes. When you get dizzy consider relaxing for a while. 

                    We may say that we are experiencing while we are acting on our intention to actively and consciously participate in a happening or doing and allowing ourselves to understand that which is occurring. Experience be a beginning to learning and a way to meaning and knowledge. We may also say that our understanding is growing as we observe similar patterns in similar events.

                    Our experience can be our powerful teacher. It is an activity we best do in active awareness. It can be a process which we consciously carry out. We participate in the action and note its pattern or order.

                    Oh! Its fair to learn from the experience of another. In doing so you may be helped by your realistic imagination.

                    Observation, and its quality, is a powerful aid to the quality of your experience. Good philosophers and scientists tell us that observation is an important part of the participation needed in gaining powerful experience.

                    We can learn to be appropriately relaxed in our experiencing. There are degrees of participation, degrees of awareness, degrees of understanding and we do not always benefit from being fully engaged. A relaxed experience can be a very good one. 

                    Experiencing is a process. We can get some useful understanding  by standing under the bull. We might learn more of bovine sex from our observation of a field of cattle. Still we can learn while standing under the bull. And if it is a cow we stand under, that's no bull. Even so such standing may be more like taking a snapshot than it is like filming a process. Observing the process is often the more useful experience.

                    Observation is an excellent first step, but often the better part of an experience takes place in our mind. We benefit much by thinking over that which we have observed. We can reach out with our senses and our mobility, but our grasp on learning, understanding, and knowing is mental, psychic. Think it over can move us closer to the power of reality.

                    Has reading this been an experience? 

                    Thank you for reading and congratulations!       

             

                                                                                                        rcs  

How to Take Quality Notes

How to give those quality notes more value:

            Watch this video, listen, and briefly note that which you understand. Flesh out your notes before the day is over.

                    rcs

Comments?

 Governance with RCS comments app has been taken

                    Use the "comments" app at RCS Posts   to make comments relevant to Government With RCS. I such comments at RCS Posts, mention Governance With RCS as well as the particular post you are commenting on.

                I am sorry about the inconvenience, but we can still keep in contact!

                Thank you for checking this out!

                                                                                                    Richard

The Word Is "knowledge"

 There is know in knowledge

                It seems likely that there is knowledge in know. "Know" is of the same family as is as "can" and ''ken;' and from its latin form we get ''cognition'' and "note." It has similar forms in most Indo-European languages. Wonder of wonders!

                    "Cognizance" has been a common synonym for "knowledge."

                    The condition of knowing through familiarity gained by experience is a useful definition of knowledge; as is the understanding of a science, an art, or technique.

                    Other meanings include: the range of one's understanding or information; awareness of certain doings, happenings; or processes; apprehending truth or fact; and the condition of having information or being learned.

                    Your knowledge is the stuff that you know. It can be specific information.

                    When one is knowledgeable, one may be said to be erudite.

                    An old time usage was "sexual intrcoures or comunion."

Wisdom:

                    "Wisdom" is much like "knowledge," but may imply a deeper or higher understanding than does knowledge. Knowledge can be imparted, but wisdom most often cannot.

                    The core meaning of knowledge is ''that which is known,'' which may refer to only that with which one is acquainted, while wisdom includes examinde experience which implies more understanding.

                    So, for example, one can gain a lot of useful information and knowledge from university and one's friends, while wisdom comes from reconsidered learning or experience.

                Now you have two for one! Now you have both knowledge and wisdom. That's two for the price of one.

                    Thank you for the visit.

                                                                                                rcs