Contemplative Particles

In the beginning there was Hydrogen and Helium.

Then, a scattering of heavier elements appeared.

A spinning and accretion over millions of centuries,

bright glimmers and redder streaks painted space-time's

blank canvas, getting ever more crowded with particles.

Stars, then planets, then primitive lifeforms

arose through the vast reach of eons.

Crouching creatures struggled and competed,

slowly ascended life's ladder of capability.

Flashes of sentience and comprehension

assembled into purpose and organization.

One day the primitive gleaner of subsistence

on some African plain looked up at the

magnificent cosmic artwork comprising the

Milky Way, and gasped in awe at Pleiades’s eye.

Stardust finally arrived at a place to appreciate itself.

Latest revision of 29 now available

A Revision of the short story collection  "29" is now available on Createspace.  Grammatical and punctuation errors have been fixed, and a cleaner table of contents is in place.  Thanks for taking a look! 

https://www.createspace.com/7171487

Have a great weekend!

Getting used to those darned seasonal changes

     We are approaching another winter, and the loss of sunlight every day impacts our morale as well as our eyesight. So it was perhaps helpful for me to contemplate what it would be like if our daylight savings time really changed. Like say, if we were able to live on the surface of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Or perhaps orbiting Jupiter. Or further out, say on the surface of Neptune if it were possible to live there.

     With a year lasting 40 Earth years, we would need a lot of adjustments! Would it get pitch black all day and night, then go to total brightness in the summer, like it does now on the Earth's poles? Probably so. Talk about needing to get over seasonal affective disorder.

     But if we had offspring, and they had offspring on said planets, they would easily adapt, having been brought up in the altered state of daylight. Their lives would be comprised of fewer, longer years and they would adjust. Unless they developed longer life-spans, then perhaps they would reach an average age like we do now, here on Earth, of around 20. But their 20 would be comparable to our 180 or somesuch.

     On the other hand, a year on the planet Mercury, or a comparable planet orbiting another star, would be much shorter. There would probably be little need for a daylight savings time. Or, perhaps, more need, since the daylight shifts would be so rapid and dramatic. But again, any offspring would adjust to the changes, and then think that Earth's seasonal daylight changes are the strange ones.

     So while we have some adjusting to do to get used to the winter months, just think of how difficult the task would be for any future settlers of some distant planet. Unless, of course, they resided permanently on some massive orbiting habitat where the seasons and weather are artificially controlled.

     They would have it good, presumably, until something went wrong.

Planets and their seasons (courtesy of NASA) :

PLANET	LENGTH OF SEASON
Venus	55-58 days
Earth	90-93 days
Mars	7 months
Jupiter	3 years
Saturn	About 7 years
Uranus	About 20 years
Neptune	More than 40 years

Good luck dealing with the coming snowfall, everyone.

-end

A Thinker Wonders

All one can do is sit and ponder strange fate,

stuck here on a rock amid such gruesomeness.

A creepy white tree, a grimacing face,

Something all bars and rods, lacking in grace.

Something else like metallic excrement, and

that tall spindly spider capable of who knows what.

Me, with my graceful, slender limbs and tall ears,

a fine specimen of Lagomorpha in my humble opinion,

perch proud and stately amid the chaff and detritus.

All those sculptures that echo Homo Sapiens fears

merely irritate my in-hare-ent gracefulness.

How did I ever end up in this art graveyard?

Clearly I'm superior to all of this garbage,

and just as clearly I resent the humans gaping,

prodding, touching me all the time.

The worst sit on my paws and pose for pictures!

Would I be better off in a stew pot?

After sitting here pondering the matter

for nearly a decade, I'm inclined to think:

Maybe so, maybe so.

A statement of life principles

Something I can wholeheartedly throw my support behind.

                                                         Humanist Manifesto III

Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity.

The lifestance of Humanism—guided by reason, inspired by compassion, and informed by experience—encourages us to live life well and fully. It evolved through the ages and continues to develop through the efforts of thoughtful people who recognize that values and ideals, however carefully wrought, are subject to change as our knowledge and understandings advance.

This document is part of an ongoing effort to manifest in clear and positive terms the conceptual boundaries of Humanism, not what we must believe but a consensus of what we do believe. It is in this sense that we affirm the following:

Knowledge of the world is derived by observation, experimentation, and rational analysis. Humanists find that science is the best method for determining this knowledge as well as for solving problems and developing beneficial technologies. We also recognize the value of new departures in thought, the arts, and inner experience—each subject to analysis by critical intelligence.

Humans are an integral part of nature, the result of unguided evolutionary change. Humanists recognize nature as self-existing. We accept our life as all and enough, distinguishing things as they are from things as we might wish or imagine them to be. We welcome the challenges of the future, and are drawn to and undaunted by the yet to be known.

Ethical values are derived from human need and interest as tested by experience.Humanists ground values in human welfare shaped by human circumstances, interests, and concerns and extended to the global ecosystem and beyond. We are committed to treating each person as having inherent worth and dignity, and to making informed choices in a context of freedom consonant with responsibility.

Life’s fulfillment emerges from individual participation in the service of humane ideals. We aim for our fullest possible development and animate our lives with a deep sense of purpose, finding wonder and awe in the joys and beauties of human existence, its challenges and tragedies, and even in the inevitability and finality of death. Humanists rely on the rich heritage of human culture and the lifestance of Humanism to provide comfort in times of want and encouragement in times of plenty.

Humans are social by nature and find meaning in relationships. Humanists long for and strive toward a world of mutual care and concern, free of cruelty and its consequences, where differences are resolved cooperatively without resorting to violence. The joining of individuality with interdependence enriches our lives, encourages us to enrich the lives of others, and inspires hope of attaining peace, justice, and opportunity for all.

Working to benefit society maximizes individual happiness. Progressive cultures have worked to free humanity from the brutalities of mere survival and to reduce suffering, improve society, and develop global community. We seek to minimize the inequities of circumstance and ability, and we support a just distribution of nature’s resources and the fruits of human effort so that as many as possible can enjoy a good life.

Humanists are concerned for the well being of all, are committed to diversity, and respect those of differing yet humane views. We work to uphold the equal enjoyment of human rights and civil liberties in an open, secular society and maintain it is a civic duty to participate in the democratic process and a planetary duty to protect nature’s integrity, diversity, and beauty in a secure, sustainable manner.

Thus engaged in the flow of life, we aspire to this vision with the informed conviction that humanity has the ability to progress toward its highest ideals. The responsibility for our lives and the kind of world in which we live is ours and ours alone.

- end

Time Machine

   Remembering an old version of the “Time Machine” by H.G. Wells. I feel like that guy nowadays. Growth has sprung up all over, the cityscape has changed all around me. Like in Ankeny, where bare fields have given way to heaps of houses and apartment buildings. Or western suburb farmland being covered with bungalows. Some great things have happened to us all, and a lot of horrible things too. Humanity has changed irrevocably, and we can't go back.

     All we can do is be like that character in the movie, perhaps, and join a good cause, fight for an underdog, make our lives matter in some way or other. Or at least make it to work everyday, before our jobs become outmoded, and we get replaced by AI modules of some sort. While the flesh is willing, hang in there!

Automatic Gunfire from a High Position

Amid the carnage, questions roll in.
"How did he sneak all those weapons up to his room?"
"How did he buy them in the first place."
"Why?  Why and why.    550-plus whys."
No sense to it, no rhyme or reason.

Killing for killings sake seems to be the newest national sport.
If so, count me out and give me a place to hide.
A tyranny of death, a freedom to kill at random.
No author of a bill of rights envisioned such mass murder.

Now people who go to resort cities aren't just
gambling for dollars, they gamble for their lives.
Will we ever be the same?
Words do little justice to the injured or dead,
so enough of those today.

Take care of yourselves and your loved ones.
We just never know how long we have left.

Do you know a secret

There are secrets all over downtown Des Moines.

Right in front of you if you know where to look;

desperate people of every sex, grinding their groins,

just find a shadow, some out of the way nook.

Every street breathes history along with auto fumes,

Every brick wall images dramas played out alongside.

Hidden air pockets with elite's colognes and perfumes,

less pleasant scents of the unlucky or the unrelieved.

The boardrooms and meeting rooms and rest rooms

of all those tall buildings carry daily dramas galore.

If a fraction of those walls would tell what they knew,

many a confident executive would shudder in horror.

Every city carries its share of secrets small or large,

Yet they all hum on, propelled with urgency of need.

Failures and cruelties would fill many a huge barge,

Everything gets overlooked in our mad rush of greed.

Some have an ear cocked for the greatest secret of all,

how to get off the career “treadmill” without a fatal fall.