The Wolfpack
This looks worthwhile. When winter comes I'll have a lot of movies to catch up on.
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Stephen Fry on God
Recalling an interview with Stephen Fry, in which he denounces the existence of God because what God would allow a child to (...die of leukemia, suffer abuse, etc, etc).
And - on first reflection you would agree with him. Certainly it's fashionable to disagree with God - at least the God of Roman Catholicism - and even as such it's less the "God" than the interpretations and intermediaries they've appointed on the subject.
But - here I disagree - to even name "God" is to anthropomorphize him - make him in our image. This so that we may more readily understand him (or her).
This is by it's very nature absurd.
We can imagine - albeit poorly - what it would be like to be an ant. If we err it is more than like that we project too much of our own consciousness into the ant - imagining it capable of a bigger portion of consciousness than it has. Think of a popular cartoon starring Woody Allen. But an ant has a finite relationship to us - we can measure the difference in size, in our brains, in our relative scope of duties and perceptions.
No one would believe for a moment that an ant could in any way imagine what it would be like to be ourselves. The difference is too gross, if an ant could imagine being anything other than being an ant, most surely it would become that.
Now, compared to the breadth of the universe as we have perceived it - and the breadth, spanning billions if not trillions of light years, the age - billions of years - and these - to be sure - are no crude approximations of it's size or age, merely the upper bounds upon which we are able to measure them. It is most certainly much vaster and older than we can comprehend. Yet - in our arrogance - we think that we can understand it.
Understanding it, being able to predict and control it would make us Gods.
Clearly we cannot.
The difference in consciousness between us and the universe as we have so far perceived it is of an infinitude of orders of magnitudes greater than that of the consciousness of an ant versus ourselves.
If you take the universe to be conscious, a living organism of sorts - and if this is in fact this is the case, then are there other organisms out there on a similar scale? And - how would we know?
People know that they are a part of society (Most people. No, many people. Some people.) Do your cells know that they're a part of the ecosystem that is your body? Do your cells grieve the deaths of neighboring cells, and if so, of what business is it to you? Certainly no one pays attention to the deaths of their cells, which happens millions of times per day, nor could they be expected to and continue at the level of functioning expected of their organism. A certain callousness must accompany any increment in evolution, the countless daily deaths of my cells is of little to no consequence to the well being of the organism as a whole - in fact - take cancer for example - the death of your cells may be crucial to the well being of your organism.
In any event, while I appreciate his arguments against "God", I don't think they're valid. I don't argue that there is or isn't, only that if there is a God, or higher consciousness, than by necessity it's intelligence and motivations must lie beyond our comprehension.
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Another day of ...
Scorching heat, followed by unpredicted windstorms, heat lightning, storm clouds, power outages, credit card failures, torn up beach, pagodas, umbrellas, "The new normal".
This is not normal. Not in the least, not by a long shot. From 119 Fires yesterday up to 175 today, they're getting closer to home...
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Windstorms, Rolling Blackouts, Heat Lightening
It continues. The forecast didn't include these - rather predictable - setbacks. Weather - hotter than hell, but - "Cooling Down" as they say, only a mere 39 degrees.
Now there are the windstorms - that tear up the beach and patio, lift off the umbrellas, pagodas, tear them down the beach. A sprinkling of rain - just enough to increase the humidity, make it unbearable. And in the East, Heat lightening fills the sky.
Climate disaster. Already 119 Fires and counting and I make a mental note to prepare a "Go Bag" - keep it in the jeep, one day after work there's going to be no returning home, it'll have burned up.
The garden, generally thriving although a few of the blueberry bushes have succumbed to the heat.
And the restaurant - the restaurant - I've become - as every year before - the donkey that carries it on his back. Start, scheduled at 12:30 - the midshift, and I'm always early and forever late. The shit hits the fan before the door even opens.
The owner's son - and his wife - are job splitting, she opens the restaurant, he closes it - each working about 6 hours to my 10. And while he somewhat knows what he's doing she's not so swift. Start - and no matter how slow or busy it's been - it's as if a bomb has gone off. Unbussed tables, unwashed glassware, dishes piled on the bar, "BOOM" - it's chaos, and my job is doubled in having to pick up after her. It doubles my work - they have the pleasure of "babysitting" their children half the day, whereas I have the misery of babysitting them all the live-long day.
Yesterday, windstorm, rolling power outages, the computer fails, can only take cash, no - credit cards, we'll write the numbers down - no -
Half an hour later the power is back, but the computer still won't process credit cards, and the customers, they're pouring in, the busiest day off the year so far, it's pandemonium...
Everything that can go wrong does, we're short staffed - like everywhere else out here, and the onslaught of customers is unending - pulling up on the beach in boats, walking up to sit, it's like the Zombie Apocalypse, they never stop coming...
It's the forced pretense of normality - "Back to Normal" - everyone's out celebrating the end of the Pandemic, a trifle premature I suspect.
The assholes as well, Assholes that come in half an hour after close and you order them a pizza to go but they cancel because they find me curt.
No doubt, 10 hours in this heat, half an hour after close and a mountain of clean up to attend to, I'm curt.
Personally, though, I've never walked into a restaurant after close and found the staff other than curt. Let alone get food - so -fuck-em. The entitlement is strong.
And the people that happily sit at dirty, uncleared tables, rush the already harried staff into cleaning them up, wiping the crumbs onto their lap, their oblivious entitlement and lack of manners begs comment and I'm biting my tongue, bite it harder, 2 months of this, 9 or 10 weeks to go. Complain about the food "I said SLICED TOMATOES" begins an entitled elderly biker, all the wrong patches, before snorting his disgust at the service and complaining for 10 minutes to management.
You have to think of the good people, 90% of whom are decent and grateful. But that other 10% - well, that's why everywhere is looking for staff.
And now to go - once more into the abyss....
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