Adam Blatner
Words and Images from the Mind of Adam Blatner
Table of Contents:
Spirituality and Philosophy
Bonk?
Every once in a while a guardian angel—one of many—drops a bit of grace on you. Bonk? There it is: What are you going to do with it? Notice in the picture the other possible fates withheld. This is not a capricious decision. It is finely calibrated to what your needs are for another go-round […]
Born to Sing
A wonderful early evening walk in Springtime around the neighborhood, a nice opportunity to work out a bit with my hand-held dumbbells, chat with my dearest Allee, and delight in the “Shiva” thin crescent moon she pointed out. Then there was the song of my totem animal, the mockingbird (mimus polyglottos) in a passing tree. […]
Both Sides Now
I heard a song back in 1968 or thereabouts, with that title and have enjoyed singing it—it’s by Joni Mitchell, written in 1967, re-sung by Judy Collins the next year or so. It begins, singing about clouds, “Bows and flows of angel’s hair…” I was just writing to a friend back where I used to […]
Can Evolution Explain Human Nature?
There’s a website that presents thoughtful people commenting on important questions. I attend a small discussion group that explores such themes, and they selected for our consideration the title question. In addition to the really quite sensitive ideas of the people mentioned, here are some of my thoughts, too: The idea that anything can be […]
Can We Know Truth?
Perhaps we should not even try to know “truth,” because it’s an asymptotic limit, like the speed of light, or perfection. The idea that we need to know what’s going on is so late 19th century (and early through mid-20th century with some hold-outs even today). The problem with the desire to really “know” the […]
Celebrating Spiritual Metaphors
I have a pal named Russell Williams who is quite bright and spiritual and sometimes capable of saying just the best ol things. Writing about my intermingling dreams, he responded, daring to envision intuitively, “I felt the fundamental truth that our mind, a tiny minuscule cell of the infinite mind, reveals the unfathomable connectivity of […]
Challenging Assumptions
The new President of our local Southwestern University, Professor Edward Burger , was written up in the college’s magazine. He had also recently given a guest lecture to my class at Senior University Georgetown, our local lifelong learning program. My series has been about “Thinking about Thinking,” and his talk was about effective thinking. He […]
Changes are Happening!
Things that are changing at an ever-increasing rate: – People learning that other people have other opinions … and what those opinions are about religion, politics, etc. – People are feeling free to change denominations, or join this or that religion, or no religion or make up their own, or […]
Christmas Contemplation
Going along with the cultural thrust, hearing somewhat religious songs at our local Unitarian Church, I enjoy the Holiday Lights. Religion is no big deal for me. While I used to be an atheist in relation to literal beliefs, I am now a true believer in the operation of the cosmos, which is well-beyond the […]
Christmas on Other Planets
Zordak told me: On your planet humans became fixated on the idea of kings as saviors. Your Western Bible has the interesting story of Samuel warning the Israelites against wanting a king, but to them the idea seemed compelling. They confused of the nature of leadership in military matters and spiritual development. Other peoples did […]
CoCreating My Living
I have created my living, and I wrote a book about it—privately published—called “Creating Your Living”—and I’m planning on revising it some day. But. I just now realized that my “higher self” of which I only know the tippy-tip and then through its effects—yes, that higher self!— “It” has been living me, more or less. […]
Commandments & Guidelines
The following cartoon has interesting wording: This is a deep misunderstanding of the nature of law. For the word “government” substitute “necessary,” because it is childish to think that the ten commandments are not ambiguous. For “guidelines” substitute the word “interpretations.” Think of what the Talmud was about, and modern-day Bible classes in many mainstream […]
Complexity and Change
Not only is the world changing at an accelerating rate, but many things are becoming far more complex than they used to be—not only because our tools are more refined and we keep discovering levels of complexity not known previously (as in microscopy or astronomy), but also as we contemplate consciousness the number of variables […]
Confabulation
That’s a word that talks about when one ties together images so that they seem to make sense—at least to the person doing the connection. It’s flagrant in cases of alcoholic encephalopathy—Korsakoff’s Psychosis; or in some strokes of the right parietal cortex. It happens also when you’re dreaming—stuff that happens in your dreams seem plausible […]
Confabulations (More)
I am impressed with mind as capable of confabulating, making all manner of thoughts as meaningful. The effectiveness of confabulation depends on the seemingly convincing things that are made up by the person, consciously, un-consciously, or in-between. It often serves in dream-work and occasionally while awake. (It’s a feature of alcoholic encephalopathy or some types […]
Confabulations (More)
I make up stuff, fool around. A fancy word for that is “confabulation.” At the bottom of my listing of Papers on my website are the links to a series of webpages that have to do with foolin’ around, mythmaking, art, and miscellaneous other stuff. It’s an art form, my wife says, a mixture of […]
Confabulations Journal
Following on the previous blog, go to my website and browse my series of cartoon-illustrated personal fun “Confabulations: A Journal of (Very) Speculative Philosophy. (It turns out there is actually a journal of speculative philosophy so I had to add the “Very”!) My journal, so to speak, has been produced as a vehicle for the […]
Confabulations: The Series
If you search the word “confabulations” on this blog-site, you’ll find a number devoted to this word, and more are being added. These were also webpages on my website under the sub-heading of “Fooling around”. Over time I will add more and transfer over others. How else but through play can I suggest possibilities for […]
Consciousness-Raising
(This was written more than a week ago, too) The first point is to recognize that people can participate in raising their own consciousness. This is not a small step. Most folks take their own view of life, the world, people, themselves, pretty much for granted. It is what it seems to be. But of […]
Consider the Universe
Consider that the universe—which includes every thought as well as everything— is expanding, as is God, and we get to be a tiny part of it. Do not think that you’re praising God by presuming S/He’s all finished. Consider—open to the idea—that an unfinished, open-ended creative process is quite a bit more glorious than a […]
Considering Creativity
Everyone is creating a little in their lives all the time. It’s a fundamental category of existence-as-becoming. Not so many people consciously create, and even fewer make creativity a specific value in their lives. Part of the problem is that creativity has a very low yield of actual breakthroughs that would be recognized by others […]
Considering Other Dimensions
My latest theory is that although our bodies (as far as we know) are mainly three-dimensional, our minds are able to conceive of many dimensions, though not able to get the proper perspective on them all. Mind penetrates and transcends dimen-sions, but only somewhat. I have been blessed by reading science -fiction, which was directed […]
Considering the “Imaginosphere”
I use this term to name the category not of ordinary thought, problem-solving, or linear communication, but rather of those types of thinking, intuition, imagination (including aspects of music and other senses) that transcend the kind of thinking that is required for most mundane tasks. This realm is far vaster, including myths, stories, poetry, nonsense, […]
Constructing a Philosophy of Life
There’s an instinct in the deep psyche to lead the mind towards a sense of meaning. In this sense, almost everyone has a philosophy of life, insofar as they assemble a satisfactory collage of platitudes, social norms, widely-accepted beliefs, and so forth that in their aggregate offer the illusion of coherence and significance. More most […]
Context-Dependent Knowledge
A pickpocket at a convention of saints would only see their pockets. This morning I heard that the World Series Baseball game that I saw part of on television was considered one of the greatest games in the history of baseball. Who knew? The only thing that impressed me was how many spits the various […]