“Question Authority” — this succinct slogan became popular in the 1970s around the time of Watergate, but challenges to power date back to Socrates’ time. Standing up to authority begins early. As kids we confront parents, teachers, and bullies. Later we chafe against constraints on adolescent curiosity and exuberance. As adults we may confront the contradictions and abuses of state power.
How did you first question authority? Do you question it today? Are your authority challenges different now then in your younger days? Or do you find fallacies in the notion of questioning authorithy?
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Imitation can be the sincerest form of flattery. It can be a learned style or an homage. Imitation can also take the form of plagiarism. But imitation is also the first step in learning. If we want to learn almost anything, we have imitated.
Is there anyone upon whose life or work you have based your own life or work? Has anyone held you in such regard?
Buddhists compare life to a wave that gathers elements from the sea and builds momentum. A wave builds to a climax as it ages, then tumbles on the shore, only to return to the sea and begin another journey.
How do you experience aging? Ever feel you’re riding the passage of time? Do you fear aging as a prelude to death? Has illness made you more age-aware? When you reflect upon your life do you feel enriched, grateful, experienced, wise? Fearful, regretful? Or a combination of all?
“A mother’s love for her child is like nothing else in the world,“ Agatha Christie tells us. “It knows no law, no pity. It dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path.”
Hopefully most mother-child relationships reflect this sentiment, but some — although loving — can be fraught with contention. Likewise, celebrating Mother’s Day can be joyous, stressful, or a mixture of both. What Mother’s Day celebrations can you recall? How would you characterize them?
We all remember young Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman in the 1967 film The Graduate) listening to Mr McGuire’s infamous advice to pursue a career in plastics.
Ben rejected it of course and chose to buck the establishment and its hypocrisy. Do you think later he might have had second thoughts?
Remembering your own experiences, like Ben did you struggle with career choices? Did that struggle become intense? How did you handle it? Did you ever have regrets?
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March 12 brings time change to most of America (Hawaii and most of Arizona decline) as we shift to Daylight SavingTime. Clocks will spring forward at 2:00 am, and we’ll all lose an hour of sleep.
DST began in America with the Standard Time Act of 1918, a wartime measure for seven months during WWI as a way of adding more daylight hours to save on energy use.
Since then the advantages and disadvantages of DST have been debated, and in 2022 a bill was passed by the US Senate to keep DST year round. If enacted it will become permanent at the end of this year. Are you in favor or not? What are your memories and/or reflections on DST?
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IQ is a deeply flawed and problematic concept. Artificial intelligence doesn’t make matters simpler. Successfully navigating our world can involve intelligence, luck or being in the right place at the right time. We all know people we KNOW are smart, others, not so much. But what makes a person intelligent?
In the 1964 Jacobellis v. Ohio case, Justice Potter Stewart admitted that obscenity is hard to pin down but, “I know it when I see it.” A similar point might be made about intelligence.
Young love, true love, all’s fair in love, second time around love, unrequited love, lost love, or secret love. It brings you bliss or it breaks your heart.
Think back about Affairs of the Heart and share forward!
Marcus Aurelius’ favorite poet Heraclitus once said, “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man.” Whether man or woman, many have learned the truth in this saying by returning to the places in their memory. Are you one of them, or have you discovered you can, in fact, go home again?
Think back about Can You Go Home Again? and share forward!
We all know know the phrase. Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has earned legitimacy since the Vietnam War. Our decades-long Middle East wars have added to those suffering from PTSD.
Outside of warfare, trauma also exists in many forms. Have you ever experienced trauma? When and in what circumstances? Do traumatic aftereffects linger in your awareness? How do you deal with them?
