when we awfulize, an event or situation is thought
of in overly negative terms

it’s a kind of negative exaggeration where, for exam-
ple, a minor setback is seen as a major catastrophe

awfulizing can set into motion a chain of self-fulfilling
thoughts, feelings and actions;

the mere expectation that things will get worse
will cause them to get worse

take a look below at the fabled, Henny Penny

one day while peacefully eating lunch in the shade
of a large oak, Henny Penny was struck on the head
by a falling acorn;

her conclusion -

Henny is awfulizing, misinterpreting a situation in
terms so negative that her view bears little resem-
blance to reality

she needs a friend, a Goosey Loosey or a Turkey
Lurkey, to tell her to chill out, look around (and up)
and consider another view of her situation

and if you were ever to stop, how fast and how far
would you have traveled?

and how much time would your journey have taken?

for the answers to these questions, check out the
video below, an excerpt from the History Channel’s
The Universe, Gravity

in a previous post, meditation was defined as,
“the intentional and sustained focusing of attention”

like any definition, this one is limited and incomplete;
it may convey something about the mechanics of
meditation, but nothing about other aspects of the
phenomenon -

aspects such as the feelings, thoughts and images
experienced during meditation

defining an experiential state, however, is not easy;
it is a task perhaps best left to poets like Walt
Whitman

the soundtrack of the video below is an excerpt
from Whitman’s To the Sun-Set Breeze

the poet’s words provide a good description of a
state often associated with meditation

the above is an excerpt from PBS’s Walt Whitman,
which can be seen in full here

To the Sun-Set Breeze

Ah, whispering, something again, unseen,

somehow I feel the globe itself
swift-swimming in space . . .

they say “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” -

but if we could, should we?

an old dog, or old-timer, looks silly when he wears
the latest fashions or uses the latest slang -

so damned silly that you’d think he’d become aware
of how ludicrous he appears and knock it off

if Abe Lincoln were still around today, he would not
be greeting his fellow citizens with a “Hey dude!” -

no, Mr. Lincoln would be way too smart for that

but how about you and me?

what are we going to do in the year 2108, when
we’re still around and kicking; thanks to the coming
scientific breakthroughs that will extend our lives
indefinitely?

breakthroughs that people like Ray Kurzweil are
writing about in non-fiction best sellers like,

Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever

will we still dress, speak and gesture as we do today,
or will we be making spectacles of ourselves??

and that we habitually and unconsciously repeat
these patterns again and again and again -

going ’round and ’round - but going nowhere

Lilly believed that our repetitive thinking, feeling and
acting protects us from novelty, risk and anxiety; and
that it gives us the illusion of safety and security

it also limits our experiences, stunts our growth
and keeps us from achieving our almost unlimited
potential

Dr. Lilly expressed these thoughts in the sound-
track of the video below, an excerpt from a work-
shop called Through the Center of the Mandala

in the above video, Lilly’s words are set against
excerpts of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927)

there is no doubt, however, that Lennon was keenly
aware of Dylan’s style; and could imitate it exceed-
ingly well -

as he does in the song parody below

the soundtrack of the above video is an excerpt from
Westwood One’s The Lost Lennon Tapes

Galileo Galilei was the first to observe the rings of
Saturn when, in 1610, he turned his 20-power tele-
scope toward the planet the Romans had named
Saturnus, after the god of agriculture

Galileo assumed that the rings were “handles” or
large moons positioned on either side of the planet

He wrote,

“I have observed the highest planet [Saturn] to be tripled-bodied. This is to say that to my very great amazement Saturn was seen to me to be not a single star, but three together, which almost touch each other”.
- NASA

today, we know that the rings are not any of the
more than 60 moons that orbit the planet -

but what are they?

from the data gathered by Pioneer 11, Voyager 1,
Voyager 2 and Cassini–Huygens we now understand
the following -

- the rings are 173,000 miles in diameter, with a
thickness of less than 70 feet

- they consist of billions of pulverized particles that
range in size from specks smaller than a grain of
sand to boulders larger than a house

- the particles are comprised mainly of water ice

- they race around the planet, colliding into one
another in a cosmic roller derby

- and they move at speeds that range from 20,000 to
40,000 mph; that’s somewhere between 25 and 50
times faster than the speed of sound

for more on the rings, from the men and women
who study them, check out the video below

the above video is a brief excerpt of the History
Channel’s The Universe

.

unsolicited advice is often unwelcome and resisted

it can imply that the advice-giver believes that he
has the superior knowledge; and in this way it can
be offensive to the listener

communications experts say that a listener is more
likely to be receptive to advice if he requests it

the experts also note that if we want to be of help
to someone who is struggling with a problem, there
is an effective alternative to unsolicited advice -

we can ask good questions - questions that help
the listener define the problem and identify the
resources needed to solve it

questions like,

What bothers you most about this situation?
What questions do you have?
What needs to be done?
What are your resources and limitations?
How much can you do?
How can someone be helpful?

of course, the fewer questions asked, the better -
a barrage of questions can be just as much of a
turn-off as advice that is unsolicited

the density of Saturn is lower than that of any planet
in our solar system

in fact, its density (0.687 g/cm³) is lower than that of
water (0.998 g/cm³)

which means that if Saturn were to be plopped in
some some vast mega-ocean

MIROSLAV VAJDIC

it would float

.

.

.

.

.

why is it, indeed!?

what is that part of us, seemingly somewhere deep
within, that seems to never change, never age??

is it the Soul?, the Ego?, the Self? or nothing more
than an illusion arising from brain physiology and
functioning?

this question is worth pondering, and the answer
we arrive at says a lot about who we are