Profoundly Wrong Fortune

My brother found this & I thought it was a great Zen koan, an undecipherable riddle.

Here is your fortune for the day... (Read it twice.) 

Q: What is contain it everything?

A: Wisdom.

The Most Astounding Fact

In my last post, I dismissed the quest to sum up The Universe in a series of scientific theories & formulas. 

Scientific thinking can exist beyond the effort to calculate & quantify. We can also use our reason, paired with imagination, to tell a descriptive story about processes that can connect to people on an experiential level.

Astrophysicist Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson gave this inspired answer to the question: "What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?"

It's a physicist's eloquent answer to the Zen koan-

 "What did your original face look like,

before your parents were born?"

Your original face was all the elemental, molecular, and energetic phenomena scattered throughout the cosmos for the billions of years, before being incorporated into your "person".

Of course, the phenomenon of a living being, and all the elements it contains, continually changes. Eventually, the process we call a "person" will once again be elements scattered into new processes throughout the universe.

Here is a collage of other distinguished men who "just want to watch the world learn"; Bill Nye, Dr. Tyson, Mr. Rogers, Carl Sagan, & Bob Ross.

Also, in light of the recent meteor sightings, here is some cosmic wisdom from Dr. Ed Lu, & tweeted by Dr. Tyson:

"Asteroids are nature's way of saying, 

'How's that space program coming?'"

 

State of the Union 2011: WIN THE FUTURE!!!

Last night I watched President Obama's speech & can say I at least generally agree with his rhetoric.

Despite the lunatics who think someone like Sarah Palin would be a better President, most Americans see that Obama is doing a good job. He hasn't approach everything in a way that I would consider optimal, but it's easy for any one of us plebeians to complain.

Any reasonable person should appreciate sane leadership after watching the two response speeches. The official GOP response was a snoozer from Paul Ryan, a Ayn Rand acolyte who wants to spearhead the Republican effort to sacrifice Medicare & Social Security to the insatiable beasts inhabiting Wall Street.

NYT:
Paul Ryan "The FlimFlam Man "

A second, even more far-out Right-Wing response was the predictably bizarre & misleading 'State of Teabagger Land' speech by ol' crazy eyes herself, Michele Bachmann. 5 years ago, nobody would have imagined the disciplined GOP machine fracturing like this, but they've turned into a madhouse.

The recurring theme of Obama's speech, "Win the Future" was really funny to me. It's a kind of absurd phrase, exactly like Dubya's idiotic "War on Terror"- except with obviously a more positive tone.
Like the 'Terror', the Future never actually ends... so how the hell can you declare 'war' against something or 'win' something that has no possible point of completion.

I think they make these irrational phrases up just to scramble people's minds- like a propagandist Zen koan.

Anyway, the President's repeated phrase "Win the Future" inspired me. I immediately thought of making a graphic of 'Future-Obama' emerging from a mind-bending time warp.

Last night, right after the speech I had to start it & got it mostly done. I finished it tonight so I could post it... before The Future arrives!

(click to enlarge)

The Oscar Paradox

When I was a kid, I watched Sesame Street all the time. My favorite character from the show is still the grumpy green monster that lives in a trash can- Oscar the Grouch.

On this isn't happiness, I saw these funny instructions from Oscar on learning to be miserable. It's like a Grouch version of a Zen koan, a paradox or unsolvable riddle.

They are from a kid's book & record set called "How to be a Grouch". It's an entertaining look into the life of a Grouch, like Oscar.