February 2012
5 posts
Because there's no day of flowers or chocolates...
The ancient Greeks distinguished four different types of love: eros, philia, storge, and agape. Eros is the type of love celebrated today, Valentine’s day. Assuredly this form of love has its benefits and brings its joys, it’s also the type of love that most directly connects to our genetic urge to reproduce.
I am here to celebrate the other three.
First there is agape. This is the...
January 2012
29 posts
But it's not funny...
porterdavis:
Still, it’s kind of funny.
Enemy of the State →
I agree with many of the concerns raised by organizations against the Enbridge pipeline, whom Prime Minister Stephen Harper has ostensibly decried as “enemies of the government of Canada” and “enemies of the people of Canada” (click the title to see more on this). Am I an enemy sympathizer? Am I an enemy of the state as well? Are my values so misaligned with those of the...
Being professional
Recently a friend and I talked about how much we should care about the jobs of people we know. If you value environmental sustainability, say, and someone you know works in mining (particularly a branch of mining that has little social utility beyond providing luxury goods) or if you care about public health, and a friend works for a major tobacco company, what does that say about the values of...
Watchneil-gaiman:
Alan Moore visits Occupy London. I found it heartwarming.
As did I, Neil. As did I.
Recognition for being
Gerald: Anyway, the point is that I appreciate the fact that you exist.
A: oh
A: i appreciate the fact that you exist too
http://www.markrowlandsauthor.com/sotw.htm →
Reflecting on the books I’ve read over the last year, I think that Mark Rowland’s “The Philosopher and the Wolf” is the most insightful and rewarding (and that’s saying something, as it contended with the works of Christopher Hitchens, George RR Martin, Frank Herbert, Neil Gaiman, and others). Here’s a passage: A life lived in the rosy warmth and kindness...
There’s a guitar and a banjo in my head.
I just...
“Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it.”
– Tyrion Lannister, from George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones
This probably applies to women too.
Politics Are Messy, For Good Reason
Joe Oliver, Canada’s minister of Natural Resources, has taken aim at opponents of the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline in a letter (you can see it here), calling them radicals supported by rich foreigners. It’s not the first time that the Conservative government has disparaged their opponents, but there is still a high level of outcry over the letter. Allow me to add to the...
“Live unnoticed.”
– Epicurus
Anonymous asked: Hey. So. Do you like poop?
Anonymous asked: Do you like to poop?
Previous blogging
The following are two entries I wrote for other blogs. Both are about environmental issues, a topic I’m sure will pop up here in the future.
First is a post about the distributional issues (in a socio-ecological sense) of climate change.
http://climatedialogue.blogspot.com/2011/04/geopolitics-of-climate-change-are.html
The second is a more comedic piece (but always striving for deeper...
Blogging is cathartic.
Your Sympathies
After hearing about the loss of Jasmine, my friend B sent me the following.
On the Death of a Cat
In life, death was nothing to you: I am willing to wager my soul that it simply never occurrred to your nightmareless mind, while sleep was everything (see it raised to an infinite power and perfection)—no death in you then, so now how even less. Dear stealth of innocence licked polished to an...
Dell Amore, Della Morte
My cat, Jasmine, died. She was getting old for a cat, being about 12 and a half years and something of a companion of mine for almost that entire time. She lived with my father and brother in Edmonton for the last 3 and a half years of her life, because the kind of life I could offer her in Vancouver didn’t befit the kind of life she loved in Edmonton (I have no yard for her to run around...
“People were always getting ready for tomorrow. I didn’t believe in that....”
– Ely, from Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.
And so the essence of great post-apocalyptic literature is captured. Set people in a world stripped of comforts and social norms, and see how they respond. It’s not that the world is evil, but that it is indifferent to the plight of people. The best...
Being Apart: An Account of Someone Who Just...
Nonetheless, there are in all periods people who feel themselves in some fashion to be apart.
-Christopher Hitchens, Letters to a Young Contrarian
Often, I reflect (sometimes aloud) about my differences from most others. My friend E has recently described me thusly: “Politician, Scientist, Wedding Officiant, Club Organiser, Philanthropist, Sword Fighter. Gerald Singh - 21st Century...
“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human...”
– opening line from H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu”
Prose Takes a Break
A day passes; we are suddenly reborn. It’s a new year; the last gone and unmourned.
The time the Mayans dreaded has come to us at last. Yet we looked towards it with an eagerness unsurpassed.
We seek a clean slate while our past remains with us. Why do we avoid blemish? It is our mistakes that define us.
So look to the future, And remember the past. But live the present; it alone never...
...and then I remembered a promise I made.
The past year has been one full of unexpected events my life and those around me. Particularly in the area of relationships.
My brother got married. Another brother got engaged. I’ve witnessed people - both in the hub and the periphery - within my circle of friends begin, advance or end relationships. And me? I finally found - and lost - something I thought special and worthwhile. Bad...
December 2011
4 posts
“Go home. Or make a home. And rest.
More Instructions from Neil Gaiman
I hope...”
– http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2011/12/my-new-year-wish.html (via neil-gaiman)
A Man I Loved to Love
I submitted the following to the Globe and Mail a week ago to share my sense of loss for the man monikered Christopher Hitchens (he died you know). However, he died when I was overseas and I fear my letter did not reach the Globe letters desk in a timely fashion (I have an issue with timing in many parts of life, it seems). I still want to share this, even if the paper does not publish it.
...
Beginnings and Meaning
Dear ___,
I was inspired to start this blog because of someone else’s blog. I like her blog, and that’s enough.
Oh, what about the name of this blog? Well, nothing really matters, does it? Meaning is a projection. We create it.
I don’t mean to seem depressing though. The wonderful corollary to this perspective is that I think meaning can be found wherever you look.
...