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Every day you lose consciousness and hallucinate

We're so used to this it's normal. Every day we lose consciousness and hallucinate. That our waking life so affects our sleeping life is obvious, but we do not allow our sleeping life to affect our waking life the way it ought.

When we lose someone we love, a part of ourselves dies with them

When my Father, Ira Levine, died in 2002, it was hard for me to anticipate how this event would play out over my life in the long term.  Listening to Chick Corea's version of Maiden Voyage tonight, I immediately thought of my father, and how much he really appreciated this music too.  In fact, for me, I don't think there is anyone else who appreciated great jazz in quite the same was as my father.  Once when I had the great pleasure of watching Cuban jazz legend Tito Puento play live in Salt Lake City in a small venue, I recognized that my father physically "heard" jazz the same way as Tito.

When my Dad and I listened to great jazz together, it created a shared feeling between us that is impossible to duplicate with anyone else.  Now that he is six feet under, that tremendously enjoyable feeling of listening to great jazz is just as dead as he is.  Sure I can still appreciate great jazz, and with other people as well, but not in the same way.

And in the same way, tremendous, mind blowing, great shared experiences can not be "re-shared" with anyone else.  In fact, one should never even try.  One should seek to create new great experiences with the living, rather than recreate the past experiences.

Every relationship we have is unique and special, the more so as we love the person more, whether that be agape or Eros.  When parents die, a void is left that can never be filled.  The same goes for a child's death, or the death of a lover.

Small memory senses such as smells, bits of music, or just plain old deja vue experiences, can remind one powerfully of the emptiness that forever exists when a loved one is forever gone.

There is only today, now

All our yesterdays form the programming of your brain, all our tomorrows are but mere concepts, while now is always where you are.  Now is your conscious mind, is what you experience, is your free will, your soul.  Your subconscious mind is the way your brain has been programmed through your experiences, primarily your first five to seven years of life.  This can change through great effort.

How to drive when two lanes merge into one

You are driving along in the right-hand lane of a road somewhere with two lanes of traffic going your direction, when you pass a sign indicating that your lane will end in one mile.  You are one of these two types of drivers:

• Early Mergers - You merge into the left hand lane as soon as you can
• Late Mergers - You stay in the right hand lane until the lane ends and then merge over

One of these types of driving will always result in the best traffic flow with the least amount of slow down.  Do you know which one?

Late Merging is the right answer.  The reason this results in the least delay is that it minimizes the backup in the left lane.  Consequently, late merging will result in the best traffic flow for *all* drivers on average, not just the late merger drivers.

However, the interesting thing here is that early merger drivers get incredibly irate when they see late merger drivers, often going so far as to risk a serious accident and perhaps even serious injury in order to cut off late merger drivers and prevent them from merging.  Throwing the finger, shaking the head, and swearing are also common reactions of early merger drivers.

I've noticed that some parts of the country are biased more towards late or early merging drivers.  The greater Spokane area, for example, contains the most hard-core early merging drivers I have ever seen in my life.  Often times I'll see one lane free, while the other lane has a backup of literally dozens to hundreds of cars.  A late merger driver literally takes their life into their own hands when they drive in a late merging way.

Seattle, on the other hand, contains a more even balance of drivers, without the intense anger of the early merger drivers.

I wonder what deeper group psychological issue is going on here?p>

I know nothing

"I know nothing!"

-- Famous line from Sargeant Schultz.

When we're born, we have zero experience with the world. It would be fair to say we're learning quite a bit during our first year. As we age, we *think* we know more and more, so we learn less and less.

In reality, when we are infants, we have much wisdom, that we forget as we grow older. Part of the challenge of aging is remembering or recovering the wisdom we had as children.

Learning and changing keeps you young. Always be ready to accept that you are wrong, always believe you have everything to learn, always understand that you know nothing.

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