Category Archives: Reason

Pain Is Bad For You, But It Is Better Than Malaise

Cancer, Health and Wellness, Reason, , , ,

When I woke up this morning, one of the first things I noticed was that laughing was painful. It wasn’t much of a surprise, as I had an incision at the base of my neck just at the bone, where tubes had been stuffed under the skin yesterday. And I had also had a bronchioscopy, so my throat was expected to be sore. But the grogginess and woozy feeling of the previous evening was thankfully gone.

Day after lymph node biopsy: http://youtu.be/ZbiCjcuTBh0
Continue reading Pain Is Bad For You, But It Is Better Than Malaise →

Getting from Point A to Point B, More Fun than Being Stuck at A

Cancer, Fear, Health and Wellness, Reason, , , ,

There is a lot to be said for knowing where you are going. And even if you can’t know the destination, at least knowing the path you are on.

When I first began wondering what was going on with my health, I suspected that I was merely dealing with fallout from a steroid treatment that I had taken for a shoulder injury. The steroids had left me wiped out and susceptible to whatever viruses my daughter was bringing home from school…and I spent several weeks fighting off whatever respiratory illness had dripped in my lap. Once the “colds” began clearing up, I had a few small infections that seemed to persist in my nose and finger. At that point, no one suspected that the nose infection was actually a weird little ingrown hair, but I was getting more concerned that the shortness of breath I had begun to experience was a result of walking pneumonia. The initial diagnosis was a probable systemic staph infection, but I was sent for a chest X-ray just to be on the safe side.

And that was when I suddenly no longer had an obvious path.

The X-ray identified a 3cm mass

Continue reading Getting from Point A to Point B, More Fun than Being Stuck at A →

Cheap Wisdom: Not Worth Anything.

Health and Wellness, Politics, Reason, , , , , , , ,

I love Yogi tea, and that can be an actual endorsement. It is good tea. But their little tags with “wise” little quotes can be ludicrous.  Take the one I encountered this morning: “True understanding can only be found through compassion.” Really? So you can only encounter something by first engaging with itself? Or what? When you

Cheap wisdom on the label of a tea bag
More meaninglessness from America’s most trusted source of wisdom.

realize that compassion MEANS the attempt to understand, not only does it become clear that the quote lacks any substance whatsoever, but that it is also backwards. And this is indicative of cheap wisdom, the intent of which is never to actually encourage thought, but rather to encourage passive acceptance. It  becomes insidious when applied toward broader social aims, and is a tactic routinely used in politics as well as commercial advertising. Continue reading Cheap Wisdom: Not Worth Anything. →

Alien Abductions: Not So Healthy

Fear, Health and Wellness, Reason, , , ,

While reading The Skeptics Guide to the Paranormal, I was stunned to find a list of the common indicators that one has been abducted by aliens, only to realize that I could check off virtually every item. Anecdotally, it appears that the aliens have done an extraordinary job of both wiping my memory AND accounting for my lost time. I have also deduced that, by the standards required of numerous historical non-scientists, I am almost certainly the victim of numerous hauntings. And yet a part of me remains wary of either of these near-certainties.

Continue reading Alien Abductions: Not So Healthy →

The neglect & trivialization of violence against women is horribly wrong

Fear, Health and Wellness, Reason, , , , , , ,

Native American Women are disproportionately victimized without justice. This is horribly wrong. Domestic issues of victimization through forced prostitution are swept under the rug, with the prostituted frequently being punished when they are often the true victims. Often discussed dispassionately as a “global problem” with the thought that this sort of thing happens only in underdeveloped or backward nations, it is truly happening in every country and in virtually everyone’s backyard. Hyperbolic? Not particularly; it just depends how you define “backyard.” For the sake of this position, I will broaden it to mean “local community,” and challenge you, dear Reader, to find a community in the United States that does not have at least one instance of violence against women. Continue reading The neglect & trivialization of violence against women is horribly wrong →

Fallacy of the Hijacked Brain – a worthwhile read on how language affects perception

Reason

I am always interested in views on how various labels affect our perception of issues, concepts, people or positions, etc. This article from the NY Times really highlights some interesting nuances that I think are particularly worth the read:

“Analogies and comparisons can be very effective and powerful tools in explanation, especially when the objects compared are not overtly and obviously similar at first glance. A comparison can be especially compelling when one of the objects is familiar or common and is wrested from its usual context. Similarities shared between disparate cases can help to highlight features in each that might otherwise escape notice. But analogies and comparisons always start to break down at some point, often when the differences are seen to be greater than similarities…”

The Fallacy of the Hijacked Brain is the name of the piece by Peg O’Connor. Check it out. Then think for a while. But make those thoughts your own.

Photoshop: Unhealthy Images Are Bad For You

Business, Health and Wellness, Reason, , , , , , , , , ,

Will New Attitudes and Regulatory Oversight Hit Delete on Photo Retouching in Print Ads? | Adweek. It’s true, people do make unhealthy lifestyle choices based on images that they see in print, especially advertising media that purport to show the ideals of beauty. As amazingly idiotic as it may seem, there are still plenty of people who will overlook the obvious nature of retouched images and still consider the ideal plausible; starvation, manic exercise, dubious diets and loads of money wasted on beauty products are the result of this determination to fight against reason and strive for an impossible body image.

Image manipulation example
Air brushing and touch up example from linked article

Delays Are Bad For Everybody

Fear, Health and Wellness, Politics, Reason, , , ,

By now everyone who is not a complete media hermit knows about the tragic events of yesterday at Sandy Hook. When it takes the murder of 20 elementary school children for politicians to declare that now is the time to work on serious gun control laws, it is a sad statement indeed. The truth is, the time to start would have been any time before this. Now is already too little, too late.

Postponing the opportunity to do the right thing is an unfortunate part of business as usual in Washington DC. Delays of important changes are the norm in all aspects of politics, because money is inevitably involved. And sometimes the delays are just plain due to basic human evils of greed or power. But it does not take much to see that inaction is not merely wrong, but is itself a willful action of its own to maintain an outmoded status quo.

The issues of the Sandy Hook massacre do not end with gun control. This is a mental health issue as well, one which should equally invigorate the push for greater universal access and improved social services, which have for decades been fought against and delayed, delayed, delayed.

This is not a mere issue of procrastination, which is bad enough. But extrapolating the wisdom of “not putting off until tomorrow what you can do today” brings this down to the personal level and hopefully will make everyone realize that there is no escaping our collective culpability. We all had a hand in the death of those children by our very lack of action. Look in the mirror and realize this: if you have not made your voice heard and taken action to prevent this sort of thing, then your lack of action is part of the reason those children are dead. Putting off calling your congressman is a deliberate force in making these things likely to happen again. Not voting against politicians who fail to actively fight to bar automatic weapons or expand social programs is an actionable offense that you are culpable for.

These are black and white issues. We all have levels of guilt here. Do not delay on making things right until tomorrow.

Over-Thinking Is a Bad Practice (But a Fine Profession)

Reason, , , , , , ,

There is a keen difference between having an analytical mind and a compulsory need to indulge in interpreting every detail of every event (or non-event) that one comes across. Too much effort spent on discovering the hidden nuance in a tossed-off phrase quickly gets in the way of understanding the moment. Treating life’s every-day occurrences as mini-conspiracies that must be revealed in full can cause the sort of mind-trap that prohibits an individual from being able to revel in the beautiful mysteries that life is actually throwing at us every moment. Sometimes, being able to let go of the need to “know” everything can actually open up a world of understanding, awareness and appreciation.

And then there are people like R. Salvador Reyes. An accomplished poet, he has spent some time on the observation of the minutiae. When I first encountered his fragile, emerging prose nearly thirty years ago, it was apparent that he was interested in deeper themes and unseen details. Continue reading Over-Thinking Is a Bad Practice (But a Fine Profession) →

Email is ruinous

Politics, Reason, , , , , , , , ,
Stationary stationery, also known as immobile note paper. Now if only there was one of those writing sticks handy.
Stationary stationery, also known as immobile note paper. Now if only there was one of those writing sticks handy.

The United States Postal Service is a national treasure. A beacon of efficiency, the USPS has historically been the best and least expensive way to send correspondence or small packages. Now, however, it is being threatened with huge cuts. Some in the government have questioned its relevance in the 21st Century. But our postal system may actually be more relevant now than ever before.

The Art of Communication has faltered in the age of email and Twitter. People have gotten lazier and lazier in the name of character efficiency to the point where a limited number of characters has drained the character right out of typical tweets. Continue reading Email is ruinous →