On suffering

If we didn't go through "hell", we would never realize when we'd arrived in "heaven"

It's an interesting imagination exercise to think of all those people who seem to oppose one's will, sleeping in their beds.

Are they "evil"? Or just trying to shape the world according to their interests.

But what if their interests are purely selfish?

Are my interests purely selfish? Well, I'd like to leave the planet a place to be enjoyed by subsequent people, as I enjoyed it.

But then again, people are shaped by their surroundings. And the people who are born into a different world will not know the "regret" I fear they might feel for "missing out on what I had".... Because they can't. They will only know their own life. Who knows, they might laugh and say oh what awful lives you led...

For if we are headed for collapse, if our earth cannot sustain us in such numbers and usage of resources, then surely life will get simpler. More connected to the natural systems and rhythms of the earth. Right now we float in a sea of oil and gas, and maybe life is better for it. I don't really know.

In the end the only conclusion I come to is that life, regardless of its true origins, if there was such a thing, is bigger than all the thoughts and concepts and illusions we might apply to it. And being small, and within such a vast existence, let us merely try to do our best to create the world we want to see.

Tutoring tax

Tutoring services should not be taxed, as this creates a conflict of interest for government. Technically the federal government benefits from extra tax revenue as provinces do a worse job delivering education. Stop taxing people who support the education system, and the parents willing to pay for their often underserved children.

Recipe for a partially satisfying life

Do something hard until it is easy.

Repeat.

Time

For humans, one of the great and common hazards of living is the calcification of the mind - thoughts, beliefs, judgments.

I would rather live in the awareness of the pain of the world's people, than a dreamland of entertained numbness.

Joke

The bartender was dumbfounded when a gorilla came in and asked for a martini, but he couldn't think of any reason not to serve the beast. And he was even more amazed to find the gorilla cooly holding out a ten dollar bill when he returned with the drink. As he walked to the cash register, he decided to try something. He rang up the sale, headed back to the animal and handed it a dollar in change. The gorilla didn't say anything and just sat there sipping his martini. Finally the bartender couldn't take it anymore. "You know," he said, "we don't get many gorillas in here." And the gorilla replied, "At nine bucks a drink, I'm not surprised."