Sight vs. Sound

Memory hides from me where the inspiration came from, but as a teenager I would enjoy asking friends a certain question. I would say, "If you had to be either deaf or blind, which you rather be?"

Most of my friends usually thought about it for a few seconds, and then they replied that they would rather be deaf. Or, in other words, they valued their sight more than their ability to hear. I began to think of this as a typical response from people in England, because most of us in this country have a desire to be independent.

Out of the five senses in our bodies, the sense of sight is probably the one that gives us most independence. Lose your sight and you can't see in front of yourself, can't read signs, and can't distinguish between colour coded items.You need to ask a helper what is going on around you, and feel which direction a guide-dog is pulling you towards for safety when walking.

Telepathy and Love

When we were dating, I commonly joked with Jenny that I was psychic and could read her thoughts. For some reason, she didn't believe me, but I now think that being psychic could be the best thing in a relationship.

Everyone assumes that you get to know a person better by spending time with them. If you have spent years living with someone, you are expected to know their habits better than someone you have only known for a few days. But when we say something like "he knows her really well,", what do we mean? It seems that we mean he can practically read her mind, or that he can accurately predict what she is thinking at any moment.

Rage Inside the Machine

In an average week, where are you most likely to get angry at other people? You may first think of the workplace, or home. What about, where you are most likely to get angry, and then convince yourself that it was another person's fault? You might still think of the same place. But what about where you are most likely to get angry, convince yourself it was the other person's fault, and then get increasingly angry as you make more mistakes yourself? Maybe your answer has changed now. For me, I think this is a typcial routine for drivers.

In the sealed metal body which we use to transport ourselves from A to B, no-one can hear you scream. Which is a good thing when you are furiously insulting the idiot who just swerved in front of you at that junction where they should have given way and let you go first. Most people won't stop, get out of their car and try to converse with someone who has done them wrong on a journey, so we are forced to sit in our seats and simmer in our own hatred.

Seeking God, Doubting Church

I haven't doubted the existence of God for a long time. The creator of the universe has been too big and too apparent in my life for that to happen. I believe God exists, and that I am in relationship with Him, but I have doubted the western church.

All of the churches that I have gone to in the U.K. have the same format: First, the congregation sings some songs. Then, someone preaches a sermon. The songs and sermon format has been a universal experience for me across both traditional and charismatic churches, but I have found myself wondering if the songs and sermon are at all related to a relationship with the creator of the universe.

Do you remember how big Cars are?

There could be a scale of human inventions, sorted by size and simplicity. Where on this scale will you find the most common vehicle in the western world?

The Small, The Big...

On the small end of the mechanical scale, we have examples like wrist watches, light bulbs, and pens.

These are simple enough that we can use them every day without effort, and also small enough to be replaced without much care if one stops working. If a pen that I was writing with ran dry, it would be more likely that I would reach for a new pen, and less likely that I would burst into tears.

On the large end of the mechanical scale, we have machines which construct skyscrapers, dig tunnels through the earth, and look good in James Bond movies.

Emotions Apart

How many people on the far side of planet earth are you close friends with? In the age of the internet, where conversation cares nothing for physical distance, how many people do you know really well that have never been geographically close to you?

What if Emotions are like Distance?

Our emotions, both big and small, appear to define a part of our relationships with other people. Namely, how close or far we feel from each of them.

How, after a social activity, do you measure if you have spent good quality time with another person? It is possible to do the same activity, and do it together, but not feel that you have really "connected" with your friend?

Grades of the Sexes

Boys and girls each have a different way of judging, from first impressions, whether a member of the opposite sex is worth chasing. In fact they are not just different ways, they are the complete opposite.

Imagine that everyone has an imaginary score they give the opposite sex when they first meet them, and maybe get to know them a bit. Let's say it starts from zero at the bottom and goes to the highest and sexiest mark of 100. If you're in the market, you want to find a high scorer.

So both the male and female species have the same target so far. What's opposite about them? The way they work out the marking...

Art vs. Self Expression

It seems like everyone has an opinion on art, but that most discussions on the subject end in the fashionable question "what is art?" and then the politically correct statement that "anything can be art", which is the same as saying that nothing is. If I invent a new adjective, and say that everything can be described with this word, then I have invented a useless word that doesn't actually mean anything helpful.

My own idea is that Art should be made a separate category from Self Expression. I would suggest that real Art does not need a blurb, but is self-explanatory to most observers, and recognisable for what it is meant to portray. This also means that creating good Art becomes a task of physical skill again, instead of a mental task of weirding your audience out with bodily fluids and scrap.