Thwarticus

Chronicles of a time traveler.

  • A light comes on.

    INTERESTING NEWS INDICATES that all the COVID-19 restrictions have had negligible effect on slowing the spread of the disease. (Who really thought restrictions could stop a virus..?)

    People are beginning to call it a PLANdemic, thinking it was always a government plan to use the power it has been accumulating.

    It was much like how marijuana was the big scare story for so long, and how it turned out to be, well, actually not bad at all.

    People learn by making mistakes. Let’s hope the lessons stick this time.

  • The hand of death.

    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..?

  • No end in sight.

    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..?

  • Spooky

    LOOKS LIKE TROUBLE is building all across the state.

    How will today’s citizenry respond when fighting breaks out, and police don’t show up..?

    Will the end come fast, like it did in Afghanistan..?

    Will we live to know..?

    Will they live to know..?

    Will we live to know, they lived to know..?

    Nobody knows.

    These are spooky times.

  • A quizzical look.

    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.

  • A watched pot.

    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.

  • Dynamo action.

    DURING THE COURSE of our lifetimes, the world has fallen into a vortex of people being drawn ever closer together, powered by economic prosperity in some locations, technical innovation in communications, opportunity to travel and the encouragement from liberal societies for free global migration of indigent groups. 

    A cultural vortex emerges as when water is drawn into a drain, where everyone becomes lined up, face to face, and everything becomes known about everyone.  

    With this may come a breaking of beliefs that no longer work, such as the belief that all people are the same — to be replaced by truer standards.  

    So that what may come out of the drain will be filtered.

  • It all comes together, ahh!!!

    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.

  • Memory as a 1st Grader.

    AS A BOY of about 4, I remember looking down to study the ground at my feet which represented our neighbor’s driveway, and wondering how I could do so, and reach down to pick up pebbles, or kick them away.

    And as a 1st Grader (age 5 or 6) while walking home from school in winter, a snow hill presented itself, and as I climbed it, I remember thinking of how grown up I felt; as I was independent enough to walk home from school alone, choose where my feet would take me, and climb, or not climb, that hill, etc.

    I remember how it seemed that I had already lived a very long time. This was because I couldn’t remember the start, making it seem so long ago. At that young age, it felt as if I had already been alive forever.

    And, who knows. Maybe we are.

  • So much history…

    SO MUCH HISTORY, being written during our times..!

    The looming question is, will anyone live to remember..?