Do you believe in karma?
I have long learned to follow the phrase “believe in” with people, never a thing. We’ve engaged in a lot of self-injurious behaviors by believing in church, auxiliary organization, law enforcement, and the courts. All the things that we believe in never fail to disappoint and surprise us. Karma’s package gets delivered, so I suggest we conserve our believing and arm our body and spirit for que sera.
If you had a time machine and could send just one message to your past self, what would it say?
What’s a skill you consider basic, that most people don’t actually know how to do?
Blind guides, straining out a little fly and swallowing a camel.
Fiction often resembles facts, and, in the current free for all in information exchange, millions are mislabeling truth and lies. In our lifetime we have seen that countless deaths have occurred because someone failed to handle scientific facts in a mature and responsible manner. The same can be said of spiritual information exchange. Knowing how to receive instruction about the health and optimal functioning of our psyche and how to vet that information is not a widespread skill.
That is why Jesus said about his contemporaries that they majored in minors, or, in our terms, made millions of a zero. They gave up a tenth of their property gains – herbs and spices, but they had a ten-foot pole for justice, mercy and faithfulness.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the Law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. (Matthew 23:23, NASB)
How to receive and how to vet – fact check – information is not a widespread skill.
“You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! (Matthew 23:24, NASB)
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
People who we thought were the gatekeepers of our morality and security are now appearing to melt like ice cream in the sunshine. Heads of government are turning into subversive agents for foreign powers. Judges take bribes and look the other way when the core principles of social progress are at stake.
Journalists and the entire crew of professional and amateur observers need to hold the line. The clergy and laity have lost their way and every pretty glittering object overwhelms the rational and distracts the passionate.
I want to live in the muckrakers’ brain and shout night and day, “Stay with the light of love and grace”.
What’s a lesson you’ve learned recently that shifted your perspective?
Humans have invented implements for maintaining life, fireplaces, vessels for preparing and storing food, and a host of homicidal Innovations. With the increase of knowledge and the introduction of high capacity and high speed production resources one might think that humanity has pulled back from the brink of social and moral catastrophe. There are sadly no stupendous leaps in cleaning up human thinking. I thought that. artificial intelligence would challenge humans to step away from the unhealthy patterns in social engineering.
There is nothing in the 21st century that approximates the example of Cyrus the Persian’s intervention in the life of the Jewish people. No ethical and philanthropic horizons beckon us. Islam and Judaism, two powers circling their perceived Jerichos, are busy fabricating the rationale for their next atrocity. The European powers and their alliances are besieged by uncertainty about the noble foundations of western society; democracy and free moral agency. We find ourselves in a corner watching artificial intelligence bombard us with propaganda.
I have learned that most people who are in a position to influence others are exposed to the influence of artificial intelligence with no expertise of their own. Artificial intelligence can quickly spin up a ton of information on a given topic and categorize the information. What is usually missing in the interactions with artificial intelligence is an ethical standard that truly captures the best of human endeavor, or better than any historical and practical human ideals. AI bots will back you into a corner with unfounded and irrelevant community speak, usually mutual respect expectations. Just ask yourself what does an apology from an AI bot means, because I have never had an unsolicited self-correction from a chat bot. The weight of human will power, human emotional capacity (awe, regret, wondrous adoration), and the human experience of suffering are beyond AI.
What’s the best advice you’d give to someone younger than you?
We use our experiences to make sense of the path we are on, but sometimes completely new destinations and new companions become central to our agenda. Then the comfort and confidence we expect and are accustomed to are hard to find.
We can make sure we have spiritual, mental and physical refuges when life’s turmoil seems to be in every lane. Live joyfully and confidently.
What’s your top tip to be successful in life?
Far too many humans never grow up, and the world is caught in the vices of juvenile pseudo-luminaries. Night life, with its scarce moonlight, has not been able to properly define success. Success, to be identified, needs the light of day. It is shallow and short-lived if its contributors are handrails and training wheels. There comes a time when the child needs no escort to school, and the parents know their supervision of the child ends, and the child’s greatness is in the child’s hands.
Never stop growing your grasp of knowledge, your grace to others, and your greatness.
What’s a book, movie, or TV show that you wish you could experience again for the first time?
This title belongs to a book, my sister’s, which I peeked at over five decades ago. I am now recognizing that it was the most likely spark for my personal obsession with flight. I do not mean aircraft. I mean flying without wings or other attachments.
I fly in my dreams, in my songwriting, in my pursuit of life-changing truth, and in my imagination of what our world might become.
