Trusting the Universe
Stars of a planet and galaxy in a free space
First point: Albert Einstein – no shrinking Violet in the field of deep thought – said, “I think the most important question facing humanity is, ‘Is the universe a friendly place?’”
He put forth three alternatives:
Option One: the Universe is unfriendly. In that case, we use our technology, science and resources to be safe by creating bigger walls to keep out the unfriendliness and bigger weapons to destroy all that which is unfriendly. He went on to add, “We are getting to a place where technology is powerful enough that we may either completely isolate or destroy ourselves as well in this process.”
The second alternative is that the Universe is neither friendly nor unfriendly and that God is essentially “playing dice with the universe.” Should this be accurate, we are simply victims to the random toss of the dice and our lives have no real purpose or meaning.
That leaves one other choice: The Universe is a friendly place. In this instance, we will use our technology, science, and resources to create tools and models to understand it “because power and safety will come through understanding its workings and its motives.”
He made no final call except to say, “God does not play dice with the universe.”
Point two: Our current political dialog resembles more an elementary school playground fight than a contest for the most powerful office in land. There’s a gag-worthy political stench wafting through the discourse.
No one likes it (well, no one that’s rational at least). To change it, some respond by shouting, “We need to fight. It’s time to get angry.”
Don’t get me wrong; I am angry too. However, I’m inviting other to share in my campaign: “Compassion first. I’d rather be happy than right.”
It doesn’t mean I’m rolling over; this is not an “either-or” thing.
Surrounded by Miracles
Video: Piano Stairs – Making Habit Change Fun
Question: Will more people change their habits and take the stairs if it’s a fun thing to do?
Watch and see.
Weight Loss Surgery Connection to Suicide?
At the bottom of the television screen, during virtually every newscast, there is now a crawling parade of headlines informing us of everything from the latest world disasters to which celebrity is hooking up with whom.
Recently, one story caught my eye: “Weight loss surgery connected to increased risk of suicide.”
One might assume this to be counterintuitive, reasoning that if someone’s lifestyle was so unhealthy that he underwent successful major surgery to change it, he would be so relieved with the outcome, that the resulting emotions would be happiness; possibly even jubilation.
Yet dig deeper.
First, the details; according to a study, troubled individuals were about 50 percent more likely to try to take their own lives after they lost a lot of weight with surgery.
“While we are clear and confident about the medical benefits of weight loss, especially through weight-loss surgery, I think we’re not as attentive to the potential psychological benefits or harms of it,”
said Dr. Amir Ghaferi, director of bariatric surgery at the Ann Arbor Veterans Administration Healthcare System in Michigan.