THE COLLAPSE OF the stock market, concurrent with the Great Depression during the last Century, left people coming out with a stigmatized view of investing, which continued for decades, up until the 1960s, after which time the stigmas became old fashioned.

The collapse of traditional world religions has been leaving people stigmatized against a belief in God, also, I think, and will remain so until the meaning of that belief is restored, at some time in the future.

It is typical, I think, for religious faith to form and rise during social collapse.

We’ll need to keep an eye out.

IN RECENT YEARS, a wrench set lie resting on a shelf in the tool shed. Because the head sizes were larger than are normally needed, the set never got any use.

Then, yesterday, I needed a large wrench head, so I went to retrieve the boxed set, and quickly found it had become the home to a colony of ants.

Having little choice, I destroyed the colony, top to bottom.

Looking at the destruction, I wondered if nearby creatures would notice the new absence of those ants from the tool shed.

And who among them might benefit..?

IN THE BEGINNING, humanity commonly viewed itself as centric to the domain in which it lived — as centric on Earth, with Earth centric among the stars.

Then came understanding of bacteria, of molecules composed of atoms, of supporting quantum states. And an understanding of star life cycles, of black holes, and of the vastness of space that encloses galaxy clouds.

Imagine peering into an eyepiece, while focusing down. From the starting extreme, you see galaxy clouds. Tightening in, the solar system comes into view and fades, as the earth comes into focus. Then it’s you in focus, and then your cellular structure, on down to smaller and smaller detail, etc.

At every point, the universe has its focus, from expansively large to minutely small, representing physical reality.

What if we are even more insignificant than we think..? Or, even more important, one could say, if all of creation was entirely for our benefit because there is no one else.

That is, what if reality is the byproduct of something even larger..?

FOR VARIOUS REASONS beyond my influence, I’ve had to find a new primary care, general practitioner, three times in five years.

And, for reasons beyond my ability to understand, a new patient is always required to provide a complete bank of answers to several sets of boilerplate questions.  Why one’s personal history has to be recreated each time, even when transfers are local and instant, is way beyond me.    

Race, gender, and identity preferences can be skipped, but would be kept as “medical information” if you cared to provide it.  

Being familiar with the interrogation process, I wanted to add commentary about alcohol consumption, during my recent 1st visit.

To my practitioner, I explained that I understand six beers a day is universally considered alcohol abuse, yet I have been drinking about that much, daily, for the past many years, “and look at me..!”

For me, six beers feels like the right amount. Everything is a tradeoff, in life, and beer helps me cope, I suggested.

She gave a quizzical look.

ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS of stellar phenomena are studied, not because astronomers think they can reverse, prevent, or repair the destruction to “our stars” from colossal, nova explosions.

The interest is, humbly, to understand; being resigned to reality that what is happening out there may not be controlled from here.

This is how it feels when watching the intimidating protests against Israel on behalf of radical Islam.  That a massive explosion is coming, and all we can do is, humbly, watch and try to understand.

A PREMONITION: The world is sinking into some variant of a black hole. 

This could hypothetically be what happens when “it all comes together.”

Maybe the world looks like this when everything comes together, and it won’t come out again.

CHILDREN ARE NOT BORN with inherited memories, obtained from their parents or from anyone else, living or dead. Children are born with no particular identity until after having survived a few years, when they begin to remember a past and also remember who they were in relationship to all that happened in their past.

People are who they were. That is, they wouldn’t know themselves without the chance to find out, by living.

And yet it seems we were who we are, even though it couldn’t have been known at the time, when we could have been someone else.

HAVE YOU NOTICED, in the everyday world, we never really know what to expect..? Surprise events, unintended consequences, instability… And the shorter the time frame, the greater the risk of misjudging what may happen next..?

It is as though what is closest to us, what we see most clearly and have the greatest ability to influence is, nonetheless, unpredictable.

And the further one steps back, the more the world is seen to be general and predictable, until it is entirely predictable, at the largest scale.

Here’s what’s queer: The things which are regard as entirely predictable and unchanging, such as the force of gravity or speed of light, are things that defy explanation as to why they exist at all.