Writing is my artistic expression. My keyboard is my brush. Words are my medium. My blog is my canvas. And committing to writing daily makes me feel like an artist.
The holidays seem to be a time when food comes in abundance. Snacks fill the table and side tables within all the living spaces, second helpings are an expectation, and when you feel absolutely stuffed then desserts come out. Leftovers fill the fridge and the eating continues the following day.
If this only happened once a year, it would be fine, but there is always a birthday or holiday celebration. What makes this challenging is that we have a gluttony of sugary snacks available in stores that make up some of the cheaper foods available. Worse yet, there are food deserts in poor communities that make buying junk food not just far cheaper but also much more accessible than eating something healthy.
Junk food is eaten in sinful amounts. The world is getting fatter. Diabetes is becoming epidemic. And sugary food is probably the addiction that affects more people than any other addiction in the world.
It is said that knowing the problem is half the battle. It isn’t. Acting on that knowledge is the hard part. Here are 3 suggestions:
1. Cut out snacks after dinner. Have a glass of tea, drink some bubbly water, or just go for a short walk instead of having a snack. I’m willing to bet that 99% of the snacks you eat after dinner are sugary and/or unhealthy.
2. Read the label before you buy. Ingredients are put in order of the largest ingredients first. If sugar is one of the first 4 ingredients, look for another choice to fill your shopping cart. If it doesn’t make it into your home, it won’t be able to tempt you later.
You’ll enjoy the food just as much and can end up eating almost 1/4 less food.
Gluttony is easy to succumb to. It can take effort to overcome. Reduce the opportunities for food to tempt you and you will find pleasure in living healthier, rather than giving in to the sinful pleasure of eating too much.
For over a dozen years now my email signature has included the Zoroastrian mantra, “Think good thoughts, say good words, do good deeds.”
This 3,500+ year old religion is one of the oldest monotheistic religions (believing in just one supreme God) and likely had significant influence on Judaism, Christianity, and Islamic beliefs about a messiah, heaven, and hell.
As we head into the 20th year of this relatively new century, I wonder if the followers of some of these newer religions couldn’t take some time to pay respectful attention to the earlier beliefs in Yahweh… the supreme host, (God).
What if we started each day with good, kind thoughts?
What if we chose good, kind words before we spoke?
What if we chose good, kind deeds to do daily?
What if we were to nurture the good in any faith we have, be it a faith in God, a faith in humanity, or faith in ourselves to be loving, thoughtful, and kind. We are put on this earth for a relatively short time, how can we maximize the good that we do while we are here?
The winter solstice has past us, here in the northern hemisphere. As the days get longer and brighter, let us think of ways that we can shed our light on others.
I felt it. I mean I really felt it. A rhythmic wave resonated throughout my body. Before this moment I had enjoyed music but I never had it consume me so completely. And I was surrounded by others who felt the same way.
It was the early summer of 1992, and I was 24 years old. My uncle had introduced me to an NLP teacher, paying for me to take his course, and I loved it. NLP or Neuro Linguistic Programming is about harnessing communication patterns, that we all use, in more effective and powerful ways. The course I was in was very interesting because it seemed as if half the people were there to learn to be more effective and the other half seemed to be there for therapy.
The 9-day course started on a Saturday and ran daily from 8am to 4pm through the week and into the second weekend. It was the Friday morning and we were told we were in for a treat. We were taken to a small room filled with drums, shakers, tambourines, cow bells and assorted traditional music makers. The lesson was on rapport and we were going to use music to demonstrate it.
I think there were about 18 of us in this small room and we were broken up into groups of 2, 3, and 4, depending on the number of similar instruments. I don’t remember if we ended up with 5 or 6 groups. Next, each group was given a different beat to play. For instance, the cow bell players got tap-tap, tap-tap, pause, tap-tap, while a few drummers got a beat of 1-2, 1-2-3, 1-2-3-4, 1-2. That second example would have been the most complicated of the options with most others being quite simple.
We got counted down and everyone started playing their own beat in their groupings. As someone that doesn’t have musical training, it was good to have other people playing the same beat as me so that I could follow along and not be too distracted by the other groups. That said it was a ruckus in this small room. To put it kindly, we were making noise, horrible and loud clattering, pounding, clanging, dinging noise. It was awful.
I understood that we were supposed to build rapport and the music was somehow supposed to come together but it didn’t. There was just noise. We switched instruments and tried again. Noise. We switched beats. Noise. We switched instruments again, and I was given cow bells. More noise.
We were tired, and we were overwhelmed with the echo of instruments clamouring out of synch, and then something interesting happened. A professional dance instructor that was taking the course had a big gourd shaker in his hand, he stepped forward into the middle of our circle and connected with an older man on drums. This older gentleman that the dancer connected with was a retired music teacher. They sped up the beat slightly and I could hear their individual beats come together as if they were one pattern. The dancer with the gourd shaker was dancing to their beat and my beat fell into synch with his feet.
That was the moment it happened for me, and it was obvious that it was happening for everyone else in the room… our noise became music. But this was so much more than music, it was a wave of sound that reverberated through my body. I watched the dancer and realized that his gourd and feet were the backbone of the beat. We were all following his lead. Then I looked at the retired musician’s drum and I realized that it was him driving the beat. Then I looked at my cow bells and realized it was me that was leading the beat. Then I really understood what was happening. We were in perfect unison, we were one.
None of us were in the lead. All of us were in the lead. This was full rapport. We were all connected, all one beat, all one musical experience. We built up the sound to a full crescendo, it was all-consuming, bordering on ecstasy. There was a countdown, 3-2-1, and we all stopped playing. The instant silence was a final exclamation on an overwhelmingly beautiful experience. For the first time in my life I had felt, truly and to my core felt, the sound of music.
Yesterday’s post on ‘What does it mean to be conscious‘ was an exercise in thinking for me. I’ve been watching lectures and trying to formulate ideas around consciousness and free will, but my ideas are not fully formed.
Writing allows me to think ‘out loud’ in a way that would be difficult otherwise. I can change my mind as I go, rework ideas, and try to ask and answer questions that would not arise had I not taken the time to share my written thoughts.
However when I look back on yesterday’s post, I see a rough draft, not a final copy. I see the need to expand on some ideas and to clarify others. But I took advantage of a lazy Sunday and spent hours writing. I can’t keep that up. I have to accept that if I’m writing to help me think, and choosing to share this daily, then at times my writing will need to go out in draft form.
If I didn’t do this, then I’d need more daily time than I can give to my writing, or I will have to choose not to publish on some days. I prefer to keep going and accept that sometimes my writing will just be an expression of my thoughts ‘out loud’, and not my final thoughts on a topic.
I’m close to 6 months into writing daily, and I’m now at a point where I will read an old post and won’t remember exactly what I wrote or why I wrote it? Reflecting on my less-remembered work, I can really look at the quality of my writing and recognize areas of strength and weakness… that I’m not able to see when I’m in the process of writing as thinking. After I’ve written something, I think I need a little time before I can meaningfully digest, reflect, and learn further from my own writing. I’ll have to revisit yesterday’s post in the new year. For now, I’ll just need to leave it in draft form.
This is part 2 of my thoughts on Free Will and Consciousness. Part 1 assumed free will and looked at The Bell Curve of Free Will.
Part 3 will look at why I believe we have free will, but to get there I need to look first at consciousness.
Background
I’ve been reading, watching, and listening to ideas about what consciousness is. At the heart of this is the question, the Hard Problem of Consciousness.
We don’t know what creates consciousness, but we know that we integrate information from the physical world and that we are conscious of that world. We also know that the information we integrate from the physical world isn’t perfect.
I’ve said before that, “What we do know is that our perception of the world is based on models of the world and not actually the world itself. We have very faulty user interfaces, insufficient sensors, that warp our perception of reality…
Our user interface with the world is not accurate, we know this, but we also know that the world isn’t just an illusion. We know the sun emits light and heat, we can see the light on surfaces in our field of vision, and we can feel the heat on our faces. But I can’t know that my experience of the colour blue is exactly like yours, or that my comfort with the heat of the sun is similar to yours either. But I wonder how much our upbringing, and the culture we live in influence how we interpret the world around us?”
So we don’t see/hear/feel reality as it is. We have a faulty interface with reality. That relates to our senses, but what if our inner understanding of consciousness is even more faulty than our outer senses are, as they relate to our perception of our reality. What if we can’t grasp what our unconscious mind does because there is a faulty interface with our conscious mind. I think this is why it is so hard to understand free will, because we don’t understand how consciousness works and there is a black box of understanding that separates our conscious and unconscious minds. But I’ll delve into free will another time, for now, I want to look at what consciousness is?
Before I dig into this a little deeper, I’m going to take a stance that relates to the “Integrated information theory” of consciousness… the idea that consciousness comes along with integrated information. This Nova video, ‘Can we Measure Consciousness?‘ is the clearest look at this idea that I could find.
Here are my thoughts:
Increased consciousness beyond survival is not fundamental it is incidental. It’s an accident that is born out of intelligence having idle processing time, (in a way, think of this as smart systems being bored).
To begin with I will assume that every living thing has consciousness. The moment life enters into the equation, then the first ‘desire’ is reproduction. Procreation is hard-wired into living. From one-cell organisms to plants to mammals, the moment there is an opportunity to reproduce, then there is simple consciousness that drives a species to continue life, to avoid harm, and to continue the species. This is the simplest form of consciousness. I used the word ‘desire’ to suggest a form of choosing, or of wanting, that is fundamentally different than non-living things. This is my twist on panpsychism,
With more evolved brains, that have a greater amount of neurons firing, consciousness is greater than in un-evolved brains or entities. I think of this kind of like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Consciousness can be found within the smallest of organisms. Consciousness increases through evolution, when species develop and move up Maslow’s hierarchy because they have additional time to ‘think’ beyond basic primitive and primary/primal needs. Organisms only consciously worry about physiological and safety needs until their predecessors brains have enough neurons and/or time to ‘think’ beyond survival and reproduction. If a species has the capacity and time to think beyond basic survival then they can think of things like community. Communities in turn create efficiencies that create more time to think beyond survival, which then permits a higher level of consciousness. Look at how far humanity has advanced in the past few hundred years, only after farming and urban living have produced significantly more time for us to be idle, to be creative, and to think about thinking. Our consciousness now allows (most of) us to spend time higher up on Maslow’s Hierarchy.
Put another way, life requires consciousness, and it starts with the desire to reproduce. From there, consciousness coincidentally builds with an organism’s complexity and boredom, or idle processing time, when brains do not have to worry about basic survival. Our consciousness is created by the number of connections in our brains, and the amount of freedom we have to think beyond our basic survival.
But we are not the only conscious animals. To me, an animal or a tree showing some compassion to another species suggests consciousness beyond what is normally attributed to other living things. Whether it is a bear saving a crow,
there appears to be a level of consciousness, thinking, understanding, or intelligence that all living things have. Why else would a bear, a cat, or a tree have compassion for another species if they were not conscious?
I started by saying, “Increased consciousness beyond survival is not fundamental it is incidental. It’s an accident that is born out of intelligence having idle processing time.” I don’t really have an argument to suggest that consciousness is incidental or accidental. Maybe I should state, “Higher consciousness is fundamental, it is a by-product of processing ability and excess time to process.” This would give life itself more reason to exist, but my hunch is that intelligence was not intentional, it is a by-product of abilities exceeding needs. However if I changed my mind, I wouldn’t have an argument for consciousness being fundamental any more than it being incidental and accidental.
Final thoughts:
What prevents us from getting to full actualization of self? The story about the tree above might be a hint. It would seem that trees are interconnected by a symbiotic relationship with microbial fungus to create a greater consciousness of the entire forest. Maybe the challenge we have is that of letting go of the self and connecting our consciousness to other humans or other species in a profound way? What is the next level of consciousness that we can achieve? Maybe I’m wrong and consciousness is truly fundamental. Maybe it is the reason for life, and we are on a journey to understand how all consciousness is connected.
My second bullet below is intentionally (un)bolded to suggest both of these ideas… either way the concepts each fit with my other conclusions.
Conclusions:
Every living thing has consciousness.
Higher consciousness is not fundamental, it is incidental or accidental, (a by-product of processing ability and boredom).
Consciousness increases in relation to two things:
More neurons or more processing ability.
More idle time.
When basic physiological and safety needs are met by an organism they develop higher order consciousness if they have the processing ability and the time to use their consciousness.
Last night we connected with friends we haven’t seen in over a decade. The conversation immediately evaporated the years between visits. Our daughters were essentially meeting for the first time with only a vague memory of having ever met before. It didn’t matter, the conversation was rich, and enjoyable. How is it that 10 years can melt away so quickly?
I’ve had similar experiences with friends whom I’ve only connected with online. Then we ‘meet’ and it feels like we are reconnecting, rather than connecting for the first time face-to-face. And after that first meeting, the online connection gets even stronger. The relationships we develop with people seem to create a lasting impression that time does not interfere with.
Friendship is the glue that holds people together across time and space. A bond that holds people together with the effort to connect when geography permits, and that geography is getting less and less restrictive… As we left the restaurant, our friend said in all seriousness, “Australia is just 15 hours away.” I think that distance might be travelled before another decade slips by.
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I just went back and read ‘A letter to friends‘ that I wrote just over a decade ago as we headed to China, shortly after my last visit with the friends above. Seems I was thinking along the same lines, even back then.
It’s the last day of school before the holiday break and I’m really looking forward to the time off with my family! I’m already eating too much, and so my treadmill run this morning will be longer and slower for a good calorie burn, and I will try to keep up my time-restricted eating to prevent some of the late-night snacking. But I will also indulge a bit too. Last night I was in bed by 8:45pm, I can tell that I need a break.
One thing that I always think about this time of year is how different the holidays are for many of the students in our schools:
Some will have holidays that make us envious, while some will stay cooped up at home with ‘nothing’ to do.
Some will celebrate the holidays with presents, some will not.
Some will eat to their heart’s content, some will eat whatever they can get.
Some will feel the love of a complete family, some will feel the loss of a loved one more than any other time of the year.
Some are excited about the break, some are dreading it and wish it wasn’t so long.
We sometimes forget that the joy we feel for the holidays is not always felt by everyone. For those of you in schools, pay attention to who might need a bit of your time and attention today. Celebrate the start of holidays by spreading some cheer with some of the kids that need it most.
This is a solo my daughter sang last night at her school Christmas Concert:
https://youtu.be/qev9te9pm_U
The gentleman in front of me gave her a standing ovation and came up to her afterwards to tell that he was a professional musician for a decade, and that he loved her presence.
It’s so wonderful to watch your child shine at something she loves to do. Music and drama have made Katie’s high school experience truly special, and last night we got to watch her in her element.
Yes, I’m playing the role of a proud father. Way to go Katie, you sounded great, and more importantly, I could tell you were truly enjoying yourself. I could see the nervousness before you started to sing, and then it all melted away and you were fully present and giving it your best. I loved it! <3
Where does the drive to continually ‘do more’ come from? I can’t help but wonder what we fail to accomplish because we choose to do so much? When we add something new to our metaphorical plates, do we take the time to ask, ‘what am I going to take off of my plate so that I can add this new thing’?
When layers of bureaucracy are added, our productivity decreases. When obligations increase what happens to innovation? Where does creativity go when a calendar gets filled? When we are asked to do more and more, and we comply and fill our days, what gets lost?
What are we letting go of when we keep doing more?
Last night before bed, I stared at a blank screen and tried writing. Nothing came to me. I started to write a number of post titles, and then I’d erase them. I looked at my saved drafts, underwhelmed and uninspired. I fell asleep working on this. I woke up with a blank page.
Fifteen minutes this morning I have stared at the blank page, thinking of a memorable moment to share, and concluding that I live a boring life. Wondering what I have of value to share, I realized that I’m stuck. If I wait any longer I will have to skip my morning workout. So I just start writing about writer’s block.
The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying. ~Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
I’ve been here before, I’ll end up here again, it’s a creative wall we must all get over. But if I skip this hurdle, and avoid writing today, it permits me to do so again. If I sit here and don’t write, not putting these words ‘out there’, then I’ll miss my workout, thus permitting my block in one area to create a block in another.
But if I write about this block again tomorrow, then I’m skipping the hurdle in a different way. So, I give myself permission to write about writer’s block today, so that these paragraphs can unblock me.
