The Trials of an American Dilettante

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Back Story

There is a large difference in the conversations one has with a new acquaintance and the conversations one has with a friend.

With a friend, one basically talks about what one has been doing in recent days or one reminisces with the friend and shares a story about an old time experienced together. It is either modern stuff or rehashed good times. New acquaintances, though, get a different set of conversations. Sure, it is stuff that the friend already knows- where one went to college, hopes, dreams, likes, dislikes. But, the new acquaintance also gets random stories from one’s past.

Oddly, friends do not often talk about random stories. Sure, every friend knows a few stories from when they were an acquaintance or from a time when a story might have come up from contemporary relevance. But, for the most part, one stops asking and one stops telling about the past. We have an infinite number of interesting stories, yet old friends and married couple will often sit in silence. They have a wealth of information to tell and share, but do not.

I am reminded of an old documentary on Star Wars. I know, there have been a trillion, but there was one called “From Star Wars to Jedi” that was the only one for a while. Lucas was talking about how fun Return of the Jedi was for him and his reasoning was that the first two films were inventing his universe while Jedi was playing in his universe. It is true that Jedi invented nothing new. The plot only involved resolving issues from the first two movies. We returned to Tatooine, returned to a Death Star, returned to a fight between Luke and Vader. The only things new were some fish people and some Ewoks (big whoop). The Empire Strikes Back, on the other hand, was intriguing. We learned more about everyone’s past and it changed our perception of the present (Vader has a master, Han had friends, Luke had a dad). Back story enriched our experience. By the time of Jedi, though, like an old friend, it seemed a little too late to bring up the past again. Exposition was over and, sadly, it was time for mere explosions.

With a movie, it is more understandable. There is only a limited number of minutes. What good is back story when the characters only have a limited number of experiences left to tackle? Then again, M. Knight Shyamalan puts much of the back story at the end and makes us all reexamine what we have seen. With life, though, we have years and years to experience with someone and the stories still stop.

Are we scared what the stories will reveal? Do we think the audience has already heard them? Do we think them boring? All of these are unlikely. People choose to fight, talk about the weather and other boring or destructive things instead of stories.

No, I feel one stops with the stories because the friend has heard enough of them to understand who one is. Back stories establish who a character is. If someone has heard enough of them to figure out, more or less, who the character is, no more are needed. Say, someone loved his or her dog. How many stories does one need to hear about the dog before it is firmly established than one loved their dog? One? Two? We get it.

Still, feelings of friendship and caring often come from simply spending time with people. Do we really know our friends? Do they know us? Probably not as well as we think. Back story can be fascinating, yet we keep them to ourselves when we shouldn’t. I mean, it took me 28 years before I heard a story about my mother smoking hash. There’s an M. Knight Shyamalan moment for you.

Sunday, June 18, 2006

The Non-Complacent Universe

So, about 20 billion years ago there was this Big Bang. The universe went into motion expanding outward. Scientists believed that the universe was expanding, yet decelerating in this expansion. Eventually, they thought, the universe would stop expanding, begin contracting, and the universe would end in a Big Crunch. It was a neat little package. All of that might have happened if it were not for an unexplained change.

6 billion years ago, there was a switch. The universe was putting on the brakes in expansion, but then it decided to hit the gas. The universe began to accelerate in its expansion. The cause? We have no clue. Scientists attribute this change to “Dark Matter,” which is basically an all-encompassing theoretical force in the universe used to balance out equations that do not add up. It is the cosmic equivalence of getting really drunk, blacking out and then trying to piece together one's evening. “Well, I was Millie and Al’s, but I remember puking outside at some point. I’m missing $40 so I must have kept drinking, I think. Phil was buying me shots and we followed these girls to the Reef. Somehow, we ended up at Ben’s Chili Bowl.” Matter is doing things we cannot explain so scientists conclude it is being moved by an unseen and undetected gravitational force.

Human lives often get into ruts. People get into jobs, relationships and routines and stay in them until death. They become complacent. With a complacent person, one can project their life out until death and know what will become of them (with a certain degree of error). They have this ability as well and must either be content with what they see or unable to change their projected course. It is also a neat little package. They know exactly what their lives will be like when the Big Crunch comes. I suppose it is like watching a movie you have already seen.

Others, though, see where they are headed and change course. Is the new course better? Maybe and maybe not. For instance, now rather than the universe ending in a Big Crunch, on its present course, it will end in a Big Whimper where all matter is separated from itself. Then, again, maybe the universe will change course again. We probably cannot project it. It makes the future a mystery. I suppose it is like watching a movie you have never seen.

It is all quite refreshing, really. The universe was in a 14 billion year rut and then shifted an infinite amount of matter into a new speed. However long one’s rut is or how insurmountable the task, it cannot beat the universe’s feat. Anything is possible.

Sunday, June 11, 2006

It Takes a Village to Change a Light Bulb

We all have shit to do. And shit is complicated. Even outside employment and our social obligations, daily life is filled with incredibly intricate processes. Each process requires a general understanding of how it works. On top of that, one needs to know where to purchase replacement parts and services. Then, one needs to know what a good price for a part and service is and how to get a bargain.

Take just our cars. First, we need to know that our cars require gas, oil and fluids. We also need a basic understanding of how or engine works. Second, we need to know where maintenance and repair is done. Where one gets gas is not the same place to get windshield wiper fluid and is not the same place get one’s oil changed. One needs to go to separate places for tire rotation, engine work and bodywork. Third, one needs to know what a reasonable price is for all of these services so as not to get cheated. Fourth, there are some skills we are expected to do. On top of the skill of driving, we need to know how to pump gas, change tires, check air pressure, check oil levels and change headlights. How do we get it all done?

We have taxes, eating, cooking, laundry, computers, lawn care, electrical work, plumbing and an endless number of subjects that we need to master to manage our daily lives. Sure, we have manuals, books and the internet, but it is still fairly difficult to use these items to find all of the information we need, especially learning that requires “hands-on” experience.

No, the only way to really get by is with the help of your social network. Your friends and family teach you how to do everything and, for the things you cannot do yourself, how to purchase services at minimal cost. What is nice is that friends and family usually enjoy helping each other out with knowledge. They are annoyed at doing jobs for others, but actually like telling each other how to get things done.

What is amazing is that there are people without many friends or family. I do not know how they get by and I genuinely feel sorry for them. Not only do they not have these people for emotional support and entertainment, but without this social network to help them live, they must need to spend an inordinate amount of time and money on their daily tasks. It is an anti-social tax.

For this very reason, I do not fear the so-called breakdown of community that anti-urbanites warn society about. No matter how far we live from each other, we need other people to live. We have every reason to maintain these ties, for our lives would be unmanageable without their collective knowledge and experience. In fact, as the world becomes more complicated, it perhaps is more necessary to maintain social networks.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

The Celestial Bureaucracy

Monotheists are pretty common these days. Christians, Muslim, Jews and even Hindus believe there is one single entity that is all-knowing and all-powerful. Like Santa Claus, it (He?) is able to see one when they are sleeping, awake, bad or good and provide rewards in this life or in the next.

In the fourth century BCE, the Greek philosopher Epicurus came up with problem that is now known as the Epicurean Paradox. He said, “"God either wants to eliminate bad things and cannot, or can but does not want to.” Today, we know it as “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Either God is impotent or he is wicked.

The polytheist and the henotheist do not have to deal with this paradox. They accept that gods are not all powerful. They have competing interests and differing domains. Each is trying to carve out their own fiefdom on this plane of existence. One god can back the Trojans while another can back the Achaeans. Good and bad events can either be from gods or from their inaction.

I suppose “fire and brimstone” Catholics also accept the “impotent’ solution. If the devil can actually wage a war against God and threaten His kingdom, God cannot really be omnipotent. Don’t get me wrong. He can be really, really powerful. But, that’s not omnipotent. If He were, Satan would not even try his little war.

Old Testament types have the “wicked” solution. They accept that God is wrathful and not benevolent.

Most people I have met, though, seem to go with the “plan” explanation. All bad things are really good things because they are part of God’s complicated plan. This is similar to the Chinese story about the farmer’s horse and the farmer’s son. The son falls off the horse and breaks his leg, but the next day the nation goes to war and the son cannot go. The broken leg seems bad, but is really good in the grand scheme. This theory seems all fine and dandy until someone you love gets a painful disease for the “plan.” Should not an omnipotent being have a more effective and less painful plan?

Shifting gears for a moment, let’s talk about the government. A number of people (mostly conspiracy theorists) think the government is nearly all-powerful and all-seeing. The entertainment industry creates worlds where one can “trust no one” and the audience buys it.

We all know the government can do powerful things. So how could the government have let 9/11 happen? Is the government wicked? Some would say so. Some would claims it is all part of their grand plan. Most of us know that conspiracy theorists are idiots and most of us know about bureaucracy and incompetence.

Though the government has massive power, we know that managing millions of employees and 300 million citizens is difficult. Things take time. Things get lost in paperwork. People try to protect their jobs. People have turf wars. People have to deal with a massive amount of regulations. People are lazy. In fact, the larger and more powerful the government becomes, the more bureaucratic it becomes as well.

With this clear real world example, I wonder why no religion has ever thought about celestial bureaucracy to deal with the Epicurean paradox. With infinite power over an infinite domain, should not there be near infinite bureaucracy? Maybe prayers get lost in the mail or maybe angels smite the wrong person on occasion. Accidents happen, after all. Don’t they?