“I do not accept any absolute formulas for living. No preconceived code can see ahead to everything that can happen in a man's life. As we live, we grow and our beliefs change. They must change. So I think we should live with this constant discovery. We should be open to this adventure in heightened awareness of living. We should stake our whole existence on our willingness to explore and experience. ” ―
 |
| Modernist Controversy |
Writing in his (Albert Camus) notebook in 1942, he observed: “Calypso offers Ulysses a choice between immortality and the land of his birth. He rejects immortality. Therein lies perhaps the whole meaning of the Odyssey.” In Camus’ reading, Homer teaches us to embrace a life of limits, a life in which we are not yearning for either immortality or the afterlife. Our love for this earth is necessarily brief, and death is the price of admission, the final limit. Camus could not believe in God because to do so, as he put it in “Summer in Algiers,” is to “sin against life” by hoping for another, thus “evading the implacable grandeur of the one we have.”
 |
| Pictures in History |
"As the future star charmed a judge throughout the ordeal, he told (Tim) Allen that he expected him to 'be a very successful comedian.' Fortunately in the comedy world, being a snitch isn’t a dealbreaker....
'When I went to jail, reality hit so hard that it took my breath away, took my stance away, took my strength away,' Allen later told Esquire.
'I was put in a holding cell with twenty other guys — we had to crap in the same crapper in the middle of the room — and I just told myself, I can’t do this for seven and a half years. I want to kill myself.'
Amazingly, that’s when the comic in him began to grow. Before long, he was able to make some of the toughest prisoners and even guards laugh.
Empires wax and wane. Powers ebb and flow. Spheres of influence retreat and surge. Celestial bodies are born and die.
As it is with the universe, so it is with its subsets and elements.
 |
| Political Cartoons |
This was forwarded in a viber group. Credit to the creator of the image. Very pointed sense of humor.
Why is the first instinct for many to volunteer and donate after a natural disaster? One reason is that as humans we’ve evolved to survive in groups, not alone. Rallying together makes us feel less alone in the experience, explained the sociologist Christine Carter, a fellow at the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley.
“When our survival is threatened, we are going to reach out and strengthen our connections with people around us. We show generosity. We show compassion. We show gratitude. These are all emotions that function to connect us with each other,” Dr. Carter said.
Scientific evidence supports the idea that acts of generosity can be beneficial when we volunteer and give back regularly — and not just after a natural disaster. Volunteering is linked to health benefits like lower blood pressure and decreased mortality rates.
