Department Of A Blast From The Past
A new year; a new project: taking an excerpt from a past blog, from the same time frame (the second Friday of whatever month). Perhaps moiself will like this enough that it will turn out to be a regular blog feature for 2025? Time, and my capacity for reruns, will tell.
This journey down memory lane is related to the most convincing reason a YOU-of-all-people-should-write-a-blog-why-aren’t-you-writing-a-blog?!?!?! [1] friend gave me, all those years ago, [2] as to why I should be writing a blog: a blog would serve as a journal of sorts for my life. Journal/diary-resistant moiself would have some sort of a record, or at least a random sampling, of what was on my mind – and possibly what was on the nation’s mind – during a certain period of time.
Now I can, for example, look back to the second Friday of a years-ago February to see what I was thinking. (or as MH put it, WHAT was I thinking!?!? )
Here is an excerpt from my blog of 2-8-19 ( The Speculation I’m Not Endorsing ). [3]
Department Of Preview Of Coming Attractions:
How the Religion-Free Think About Death & Grief
Here is (an excerpt of; my emphases) what a religion-free journalist wrote to his (religious) friend who had recently suffered the loss of her father. This friend asked him to tell her what he thought was the “next step,” and to “please lie to make it more interesting” if his answer might not suit her.
You asked me what I think is the next step. Well, no one has reported back from the other side, none of us who are alive have been to the other side, and we don’t have any factual evidence supporting a life (as we know it) after we die.
To me, believing what I want to be true can be very comforting (like my unshakable belief that Jessica Alba wants all my babies), but that doesn’t make it true.
I find more comfort in what I know to be true. For the things I don’t know, I prefer saying just that — I don’t know — instead of entertaining supernatural guesses or made-up answers from a time when humans didn’t know about the carbon cycle or the structure of the DNA that your father passed on to you, his living, breathing daughter.
You said that if I didn’t have the answers, I should “lie to make it more interesting.” But I have always found things most interesting when I didn’t have to lie. That is why I am an atheist.
Admitting ignorance is humbling. It reminds us that as fleeting inhabitants of this vast universe, we are part of something much bigger. It forms a foundation for the curiosity that defines us as human beings, that drives us to contemplate our existence, educate ourselves, and to grow and evolve as individuals and as a species.
To lose that is a much worse death than physical death.
I wish you the strength and resolve to cope with your loss. Mourn his death, but also celebrate the life that he helped give you. That’s what he would have wanted.
(“Grief Without Belief – How Do Atheists Deal With Death,”
Huffington Post, 10-22-13, By Ali A. Rizvi, Pakistani-Canadian author
of The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to Reason)
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Department Of There’s Another Trip To Croatia In My Future
Dateline: Tuesday am. Always-on-her-toes-and-ever-vigilant-re-the-cultural-zeitgeist friend LAH alerted me to something which sounded too good to be true. Oh, moiself of little faith! I doubted her at first…until I remembered that the internet would never lie to us; thus, after several hours minutes of googling I can attest that the HaHa Museum, aka the “museum of laughter,” is a real thing.
“Visitors to the HaHaHouse in the Croatian capital Zagreb are blasted with a puff of white smoke once they step inside to blow away their worries before climbing into a ‘giant washing machine.’ The ‘centrifuge of life’ then whips them away Willy Wonka-style down a twisting slide into a pool filled with little white balls where their journey to a happier place starts.
Its creator Andrea Golubic said she had the idea for the museum during the pandemic when many were feeling down, depressed and isolated. ‘I realised that I had a mission – to heal people with laughter,’ added the upbeat 43-year-old….
Visitors press a button to be ‘disinfected from negativity’ as soon as they step inside the museum, which has eight interactive zones.
One has a rubber chicken choir cheerfully cackling out hits like ABBA’s ITAL Dancing Queen, there is a karaoke room with distorted voices and a ‘Sumo Arena’ for wrestling in puffed-up costumes….
The museum also explains humour styles, from word play, slapstick, toilet and dark humour to satire with the help of some choice one-liners….”
( excerpts from “Croatia laughter museum aims to blow away the blues – A new museum of laughter is offering to put people through the spinner to wash away the negativity of modern life.” France24.com )
They had me at the Rubber Chicken Choir (and, of course, a mention of “toilet” humor)
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Department Of Another Great Concept I Heard About On A Science Podcast…
This One Kinda Valentine’s Day-Related
We’ve heard about the red flags to look for in a potential spouse, or relationship:
* thinks his seven-day-binge of eating nothing but McDonalds French fries
counts as him trying vegetarianism for a week;
* thinks the Blue State/Red State divide means people are sad or embarrassed;
* claims that MAGA hat-wearers are showing solidarity for a particular state’s
Olympics Team ( Minnesotans Are Great Athletes! )…
Er, make that, the *Big* Red Flags, such as….
Certainly, being aware of these harbingers of doom warning signs is one of the keys to a happy life and minimizing the number of How-did-I-not-see-that-coming ?!?! incidents, whether you apply the RF criteria to choosing romantic partners or friends or business associates. But what about green flags?
If I were in the dating world right now, [4] as much as I might be on the alert for red flags, I hope I would have the good sense to spend as much if not more time recognizing and appreciating green flags. As in, I hope I’d know what a healthy relationship looks and feels like, and accept nothing less.
Laundry-list specifics of what constitutes Green flags might vary from person to person; still, moiself feels comfortable generalizing about would most green flags lists would include (modify the gender – or species? – indicators to suit whatever floats your boat):
* he expresses appreciation for the good people in his life, from family members to coworkers;
* he treats restaurant waitstaff, grocery clerks, baristas, ticket checkers at concerts or movie venues – in other words, people who “serve” him – with respect, and shows patience if they are testy, not particularly competent, or obviously having a bad day;
* he pays attention to your friends and family and coworkers when he meets them, and tries to remember their names and important life details;
* he “walks the walk” as well as talks the talk;
* he asks people about themselves and listens to their stories and answers;
* you, as well as other people in his life, feel relaxed and calm in his presence;
* he has longtime friends from before he met you, and maintains those friendships, no matter the geographical separation;
* even if he’s had a bad/less than desirable breakup with an ex (or former friend/employer/employee) he does not disparage her; rather, he can speak of the hurt involved but also of what he learned, and even tries to see things from the exes’ POV; [5]
* he asks those in need (including you) how (or if) he can help before offering advice;
* he can take legitimate criticism without getting defensive;
* he likes cats, even if he doesn’t have any (yet);
* he appreciates a good elephant fart joke, even if he never tells any…
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Department Of Apropo Of Nothing…
Who am I kidding? Apropos of a lot of caca that’s going on. Anyway, FYI for whoever needs it, here is a movie I watch to get cheered up, as in, when moiself finds herself despairing about the character of my fellow human beings:
* * *
Freethinkers’ Thought Of The Week [6]
* * *
May you be the example and not merely the opinion;
May you find a safe way to be “disinfected from negativity;”
May you never have to “lie to make it more interesting;
…and may the hijinks ensue.
Thanks for stopping by. Au Vendredi!
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[1] I was adamant about not writing a blog…thus, the title of the blog I eventually decided to write.
[2] Was it really over twelve years ago?
[3] Warning: the speculation mentioned in the blog title is the topic of the first part of the blog, which deals with the then-recent murder of a friend.
[4] And moiself be oh-so-happy not to be, for a variety of reasons and not to rub it in to those who are single and looking to change that status….
[5] Unless she was an axe murderer or stalker or an objectively proven extortionist or pathological liar or some dangerous shifty character…
[6] “free-think-er n. A person who forms opinions about religion on the basis of reason, independently of tradition, authority, or established belief. Freethinkers include atheists, agnostics and rationalists. No one can be a freethinker who demands conformity to a bible, creed, or messiah. To the freethinker, revelation and faith are invalid, and orthodoxy is no guarantee of truth.” Definition courtesy of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, ffrf.org
