Saturday, June 30, 2018

absolutely

  They say when you get older you begin to repeat yourself. I can testify that it is true. I have begun to repeat myself. In writing these posts I have tried to not repeat myself too often and I think so far I've been successful in that. That isn't to say I haven't repeated anything, I certainly have. I have also revised some of my thoughts and postings. I really can't say if those revisions were for the better or not, that is simply because I may change them yet again. We tend to think of our final word as the answer, but the reality is it isn't. It's just the last thing we said. The final answer is what is repeated.
  Is that why we begin to repeat stuff? Is it because we have settled on the answer?  Right and wrong are subjective, condition based responses aren't they? Or are there absolutes in the universe?  Scientists base their conclusions on absolutes don't they? Mathematical calculations are based on absolutes right? Yet, when it comes to the morality of man, there are no absolutes. Why should that be so? I think the answer to that is simple enough, absolutes are inflexible, fixed and never changing. And those conditions can be most inconvenient. And man, man wants to change and control everything. It is what we do. Everything else on the planet lives with nature, but man tries to alter it to suit his own purpose.We always have and always will. We call it survival. We live in opposition to nature. Our fellow humans are a part of that natural habitat. The way we interact with them has a profound effect on our ability to survive. We are aware of the absolutes, yet we refuse to abide by them. It's as simple as the golden rule isn't it? Do we live by that absolute truth? No, we don't, we modify it as the occasion demands to obtain the result we wish. It is true some make more of a habit of that than others, but we are all guilty to a degree. Still, we all begin to repeat the answers sooner or later. I'm thinking now the reason may be we are trying to convince ourselves! I've said before the hardest person to convince is yourself. What I mean by that is embracing absolute belief. When you absolutely believe you never change your mind. We all tend to change according to the situation at hand. Remaining steadfast is the phrase that describes absolute belief! Unmoving, inflexible and never changing.
 What is confusing in all of this is we admire those that remain steadfast in their belief. We are taught that it is an admirable trait.  In practice however we are told it is admirable only if it is correct. If that belief doesn't agree with our own, they are stubborn. There are two absolutes! Wait, how can that be? I would say that is best described by a quote I read somewhere, " An absolute can only be given in an intuition, while all the rest has to do with analysis. " ( Henri Bergson). I'd say the golden rule was written by intuition. It is an absolute
 I have begun to worry a bit about repeating myself and that is why I'm writing this piece. I do tend to write about ( have a discussion with myself ) about what is on my mind. Now having written this I'm starting to think that maybe repeating yourself isn't a bad thing. Giving the same answer every time has got to be a good thing right? I'm thinking even that may be subjective. If you want to appeal to a broad range of people you would certainly have to have a broad range of answers. If you are satisfied with just a few, one answer, consistently given, is sufficient. Repeating yourself is repeating your belief, not giving the answer. The answer can be different for each of us and that is the crux of the matter. So yes there are two absolutes, or three, or more! When we repeat ourselves we are defining our absolutes. Only problem being, how can I be sure? How can I be absolutely certain? Belief and faith are different circumstance. I can believe and have faith, but are they absolutes? Only if I can convince myself of that. Like Bergson said, absolutes are obtained by intuition, not by analysis. I believe we repeat what is intuitive to our nature. It's what we believe. How we learned it isn't as important as the fact that we learned it. So, it's alright to repeat yourself, in fact you should be. If you're not, you haven't decided upon anything at all. Belief is based on analysis, but faith, faith is intuitive. William Wordsworth said, " faith is a passionate intuition " And faith isn't faith until it is all you are holding onto. I don't know who said that but I agree. 

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