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Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2014 5:48 pm
by SoulBiter
I wasnt sure where to put this but Philosophy is perhaps the best place. I saw a post of FB from someone I dont know, about someone I dont know. His wife found this on his computer after he passed away....
There is true wisdom found as we age... a shame we dont always learn it early. This is at the bottom of what he wrote.
"Then at some point--not too late into life--I hope to die before he figures out I'm just an average, scared man who has tried all his life to figure things out as he goes.
To esteem the former is easy. And the former should be celebrated wildly.
To understand the latter requires love that transcends all warts. A love that may last forever, but can only be voiced for a short while.
Is that too much to expect?"
I personally wouldn't want to die before my grandson figured out I wasnt just an average guy.... but you always want to have that kid (son or grandson) who looks at you as if you were the smartest man alive.
For Sawyer
Here are my expectations: I want to see my grandson every once in a while. I don't long to change his diaper or feed him a bottle (although I would and wouldn't complain about, but I have bigger plans.)
I want to show him living things in the woods and things I find under rocks and dead logs and teach him which ones are okay to poke and which to stay away from (and I will re-read the manuals before I do so, just to be sure).
I want to show him the night sky and how to find the North Star and Betelgeuse (so easy once you know where it is). I want to figure out where the heck Cassiopeia is--since there's a really great story that goes with that one.
I want to teach him how to tie the three knots that I know--and, as far as I know, I only use them to teach others how to tie them. Although the blood knot is a cool one and has nothing to do with blood or vampires. And the double-whip finish is good for tying on fishing hooks.
I want to teach him how to think like a fish.
I want to teach him that there is a perfect golf swing. But he'll have to find that swing himself, since I'm still now sure of it--but I want to give him hope and encouragement that it does exist.
I want to give him a tool, like a hammer or a screwdriver, and an old kitchen appliance so he can take it apart. "Just whack it!" I'll tell him.
I want to build another tree house, this one with a better periscope (Toys-R-Us has been improving their periscopes in the last 16 years.) This one will have more secret compartments and trap doors and a kick-butt communications system.
I want to go to his third-grade class and lecture on the winter solstice because he's told everyone I'm an expert about winter solstice.
Then at some point--not too late into life--I hope to die before he figures out I'm just an average, scared man who has tried all his life to figure things out as he goes.
To esteem the former is easy. And the former should be celebrated wildly.
To understand the latter requires love that transcends all warts. A love that may last forever, but can only be voiced for a short while.
Is that too much to expect? Because I have more paper.
Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2015 7:20 pm
by deer of the dawn
Very sweet. What this guy should understand is that kids see grandparents that way without them even trying.
Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2015 7:29 pm
by Cord Hurn
I want to build another tree house, this one with a better periscope (Toys-R-Us has been improving their periscopes in the last 16 years.) This one will have more secret compartments and trap doors and a kick-butt communications system.
As a kid, I'd have LOVED to have a gramps like that!
Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2015 7:58 pm
by Morning
+1000 for the deer. and now rushing to get a periscope for my tree house.
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2015 6:18 am
by Avatar
Nice to see you around Morning.
--A
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2015 10:36 pm
by Morning
Thanks, man
Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 6:49 am
by Avatar
--A
Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2018 1:36 am
by Skyweir
My goal is to be that kinda nanna .. we have a large property with lots of resources for building and making cool stuff. We've built a cubby house in the magic garden and well I built a tree house .. I would love it to be as cool as that one.
But I kinda knocked it up in a day for our foster kiddies. I secured a pallet in a tree for the floor and there are numerous sleepers it rests on for added support. I have messed with faux walls
but there is much more I should do.
We have one granbaby girl - who is 9 months old but by the time she's big enough to play in the cubby and tree house - I will have fairy doors in the trees, steps and lots of cool things to explore is my hope. We have put attractive bird feeders in the trees and nice plaques. There are also a few concrete statues of various sizes, its quite lovely.
We've made a dolls house for the kids bedroom, and we did it all kinda adventurey and fun .. and the first time three kids who we provide emergency respite care for .. saw it .. they were soooooo excited. We were so thrilled. There is a play house in the long room, where we have big family celebrations.
My goal is to make every part of our home an enchantment
Posted: Wed May 16, 2018 4:59 pm
by Vraith
This is a pretty interesting thing in a number of ways. I don't know who the author is, never heard of her before that I recall...though something seemed familiar about it...[found it linked on Tyler Cowen's page]
She makes some very good points, teases out some nice implications and observations.
And it's some good stuff to ponder if one is unsure why/how, or even IF philosophy matters.
Nothing she says is completely original, but one doesn't run across this kind of thing very often and it's clear enough for people with philosophical-ish wonderings, but not necessarily background.
[[[it's not very long, and not heavy on specialized ideas/vocabulary]]]
https://meteuphoric.com/2017/01/04/why- ... hilosophy/
Posted: Thu May 17, 2018 4:12 am
by Skyweir
mmm... philosophy the lone ur discipline
Interesting read B
This suggests a research project: try summarizing what Aristotle is doing rather than Aristotle's views. Then write a nice short textbook about
Posted: Thu May 17, 2018 8:18 am
by Avatar
I swear, the older I get, the less interested I am in reading old philosophers.
In my 20's I ate that stuff up. Now, I just don't feel like putting in the effort any more.
--A
Posted: Thu May 17, 2018 10:20 am
by Fist and Faith
Hear, hear!
Posted: Thu May 17, 2018 11:18 am
by Skyweir
I have my faves .. Jeremy Bentham, even Mill .. I loved and still do enjoy his work ... though havent read anything of that nature for years.
Posted: Mon May 28, 2018 2:12 am
by Vraith
Synchronicity in action, considering some recent exchanges in other threads, and my previous here. [[As if I actually believed in synchronicity. Heh. ]] Neither is long. The first is very short, just a list, if you don't read the comments. [[[Really...don't. Most are a waste of your time]]]. The second slightly longer. 5 minute read.
The first is a Tyler Cowen blurb. He's a Libertarian of a sort, but with broader interests.
The second is a sort of response to his blurb. [actually, a different take on his...philosophy in itself as opposed to it's "exports" to other fields.] It includes this sentence, which cracked my ass up:
"It is the point of people to think about these questions, and the job of philosophers to rub their faces in that fact."
And this one, maybe even funnier:
"We don't demand progress in the fields of fashion or literature because these things please us. Philosophy, by contrast, is bitter, and we want to know what good it will do us, and when, finally, it will be over."
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginal ... sophy.html
angryrainbowmermaids.blogspot.com/2018/05/progress-in-philosophy.html
Posted: Mon May 28, 2018 3:28 am
by Skyweir
hahahaha ..
Anything which is such that we can say, "we now know it" is likely to be an export, or to lie at the intersection of philosophy and some other field (e.g. mathematical logic). In philosophy proper-which is to say, that by reference to which the progress of philosophy ought to be judged-there is nothing "we" think. Some of us believe there are true contradictions.
^^^^^^^^
This
If she is a she, she wouldn't have been able to do it at all until fairly recently. (This is also true of many-most-"he"s.)
I think this is arguably greatest value in philosophy
Engaging with them introduces order into one's thinking as to what exactly is meant by claiming, e.g. that one is morally responsible.
Indeed
It's a bookabout the distinction between subject and predicate in Aristotle's Categories-between what is and how it is. You may not have realized this but: someone had to come up with that!
Many of the things that seem obvious to you-that human beings have basic rights, that knowledge requires justification, that modus ponens is a valid syllogistic form, that the world is filled with things-people had to come up with those ideas. And the people who came up with them were philosophers.
I love this guy
When will they leave me alone?"
The answer is: never.
So philosophy is here for the long haul
Tell me, Socrates, are we to take you as being in earnest now, or joking? For if you are in earnest, and these things you're saying are really true, won't this human life of ours be turned upside down, and won't everything we do evidently be the opposite of what we should do?"
Philosophers today remain the children of Socrates, and we are in earnest.
Pithy, funny, informative and to the point
Nice reads both
