Life-Changing Road Trips and Marriage Proposals (Vern's Volvo)

No matter how one looks at it, the Volvo that Vern currently drives will always be his Volvo, no matter how many parts are replaced.  Each time Vern went to Grace's Garage over 20 years to replace a part on the Volvo, even though the part getting replaced had experienced being part of Vern's Volvo the new part being put into the car, replacing the old one, immeadiatly inherits the past experiences of the old part and the entire car.  For example, if when Vern originally bought the Volvo he took a long life-changing road trip.  After that trip Vern will look at his car and be reminded of that amazing road trip.  One part being replaced will not change that Vern's feelings towards the car concerning the road trip.  The Volvo that carried him through the road trip with an old hubcap and the Volvo with the new hubcap are still the same Volvo.  Vern's emotions towards the car are not changed with the part.  This new hubcap still containing the experiences of the old hubcap and the rest of the car then forges new experiences in the future.  Even 20 years later, when every part has been replaced, when Vern looks at his Volvo, even with none of the parts actually physically been on that road trip with him, he still looks at it fondly and recalls that magical life changing road trip.

Through this reasoning, that means that all of the old parts in Grace's Garage cannot possibly be Vern's Volvo.  This is because even if Grace puts the old parts back together it would not be the same.  Yes, it has the experiences of the road trip that Vern took 20 years ago, but it does not have all of the experiences of the future that Vern had with the Volvo.  For example, after the hubcap is replaced after the life changing road trip, Vern takes his girlfriend on a romantic drive to a scenic lookout point and proposes to her.  The new hubcap that has inherited the experiences of the earlier life changing road trip now also has the experiences of the drive where Vern proposed to his present wife.  The old hubcap, on the other hand has not experienced this and therefore, when Grace puts the car back together from the old parts it is not the Volvo that Vern looks fondly upon.

One might refute that since the parts were replaced over the course of 20 years why can't the old parts inherit experiences from the more recently replaced parts.  This is true that when Grace puts the Volvo (with old parts) back together it will be Vern's Volvo up until the last replacement, but the Volvo that Vern will call his own is the one that he is driving in the past, present, and future.  The Volvo that Vern was and always will drive is the one he looks upon fondly and recalls the life changing road trip and the romantic drive that led to his proposal.

Partner Up/ANARCHY... but not really

We need certain rules to help us live in society. Humans live in society because it's convenient. In ancient times, society was a way to be protected from wild beast or other human groups and improve the use of resources.  Let’s say that hypothetically there is a nuclear holocaust and the remaining human population turns cannibalistic.  You and I decide to help each other survive and at night we will take turns keeping watch while the other sleeps.  This agreement has to include a clause where we both take responsibility for not killing and eating each other.  That is our law.  It applies to both of us.  Everyone one else may try to kill and eat us because they are not a part of our special arrangement.  The same applies to something more realistic.  Property.  I agree to respect my neighbor’s property only if he/she respects my own.  This becomes part of our law.  Without this law (golden rule) then we have no meaning of society.  We are not partners.  Society is all about partnership and contracts.  And we behold these partnerships.  Why? Because it is convenient for us.  When a neighbor is getting murdered, raped, or robbed we have no obligation to physically do anything about it.  We can conveniently call 911 and then go about our merry way.  We may have to give up certain freedoms such as killing, harming, and stealing from others, but we also receive the benefits of society; not being killed, harmed, or being robbed by others.  It is convenient therefore we love it.

Society also is beholden to mankind.  Who else is going to uphold all of the contracts and partnerships that society was given birth to?  Laws hold no water if is not capable of being enforced.  Therefore society depends on its own constituents to uphold its laws. Most of the time you can enforce any law if civil liberties and use of resources are not an issue (and you're willing to accept punishment of innocents once in a while).  A good example is seen in laws about drug use, consensual sex, dressing codes, and other forms of private behavior. The problem start when the laws go beyond the needs of the society and start satisfying the wants and needs of one or many members of the society, even if those many are the majority. Let's say that you think that some brand of video games is bad for people to play. Depraved sex, explicit language and images, violence, etc. It’s just a game for personal and private pleasure but you don't like it and think that people enjoying it are obviously depraved and dangerous. You lobby for it and get a law passed that prohibit such games. Now, let’s say that I have a room full of these ‘explicit games,’ I have collected them for years.  Now I am going to keep playing them over and over again and breaking the law for years to come.  How are you going to uphold your law?  I can keep my games private and continue breaking the law forever.  What good does the law do for you other than gratify your personal perception of righteousness? 

This is where a circumstance where I would totally reject the law.  A law my society requires I follow.  This is why society and laws don’t exactly see eye to eye.  Because there will always be new politicians and new lobbyists with new ideas and vastly differing perceptions of justice there will always be laws that in the eyes of another are not righteous.  Society would do much better to run on only the law of common sense and give up on laws.  The American Constitution has many flaws, but is mostly comprised of plain good ol’ fashioned common sense.  That alone is enough to run society (for the most part).  Another example of when it might be required to break the laws is entirely circumstantial.  One might need to break the driving speed limit if a woman in the car is going into labor and needs to get into a hospital.  If you are attacked and your life is threatened, fighting back and possibly killing your assailant would not be considered manslaughter but defense.  Clearly, laws were meant to be broken in certain circumstances.

We behold society, society beholds us, and laws really don’t uphold as much order as we think…   Society can benefit from enforcing only common law from common sense.  None to very little law is needed outside of our good ol’ Constitution.

Expand Your World

To know oneself one would have to have an understanding of how the people around them view one and how oneself views themselves.  This is a very simplified answer.  Personally I don’t want to truly understand myself.  One, because if I truly understood my own being then I would have a complete understanding of, at the very least, one human being, and that knowledge would be too much for me.  Two, if I completely knew myself then my life from that point of understanding, would be the most boring existence ever.  What is the point of living if I don’t get to discover anything new about myself.  Part of the beauty about life and existence is that we don’t truly know ourselves and we are always surprising ourselves with new likes and dislikes and new experiences.  One positive thing to come out of complete self understanding is that because your life would seem boring one would be inclined to search to learn more about other people.  Because quite literally “the world ends with you.”  If one wishes to expand their world once they have learned all there is to know about themselves the only way to continue with new experiences and to keep life interesting is to expand and learn about other people and forge connections with others.

            One of my personal weaknesses is that I take things way too personally.  I am not good at taking jokes that attack my personal traits and am quick to throw a joke at someone attacking them but expecting them to react in a positive way.  Due to my ‘seriousness’ I oftentimes create strife between a good friend over a meaningless and harmless joke or prank.  This is mostly due to some self-confidence issues and my self conscious manner.  I have tried tirelessly to combat this weakness by just always being aware of myself and using a little self control.  If a joke is thrown my way, I will still hurt inside but I will hide it.  Not the best system to combat it because even though the joke or prank has no bad intentions I still hurt on the inside.

            I think my greatest strength is my ability to entertain and teach those younger than me.  I love helping out with kids and babysitting and have a great talent for making babies and young children entertained.  I have always known that one of the two greatest things that I will do with my life is to be a father and raise children.  The other being to have my children carry on the Jewish faith.  I think I am good at teaching and entertaining kids not because they are especially easy to please but because I still feel like a little kid on the inside, perhaps due to my insecurities.  I am really able to connect to what children are feeling and what they need.  I eagerly look forward to fatherhood.

            It is extremely difficult to talk about myself.  Partly because I am very bad at finding and naming my strengths but can easily name my weaknesses.  This self reflection also forces me to think about what I am doing wrong and how I can go about bettering myself.  I will tell myself that I will make changes in my life but wishful thinking can only get me so far as I am only myself and in the end am only the same person as I was when I started.

"Love all, trust a few. Do wrong to none." -William Shakespeare

If while walking around town you help an elderly woman cross the street, well then good for you.  You just did a good deed.  CONGRATULATIONS!!!  Now what do you want?  You expect to be bestowed with a million dollars or some grand reward because you did what was ethically expected of you by society?  Some people have a ridiculous misconception that whenever they do a good deed they deserve to be rewarded.  If modern society’s inner workings were run off of the concept that every time someone does a good deed and/or acts ethically they get a reward, then ethics wouldn’t exist at all.  People would do good deeds purely for selfish reasons and therefore, all of the just and righteous people would be, on the inside, self-absorbed self-involved jerks.  Or on the flipside people would only act ethically to escape from the possible punishment of acting evil.  I would like to believe that people act ethically because they know it for a fact as the right thing to do.  That in the environment in which they were raised, in their culture, society, etc. that when they are in that situation when an older woman needs help crossing the street, or they see someone getting mugged in an alley, or even passes by a homeless man that they will help the woman cross the road, call the cops or intervene, and hand the homeless man some of the loose change in their pockets. 

I believe humans need to act ethically even if faced with punishment.  In a real life assessment of good deed leads to punishment a good example is by taking the time to help that woman cross the street could have you end up late to an appointment, saving a man from a mugging in whatever form could end up with physical harm upon yourself, and if you give your change to the homeless man you might not have enough to feed the parking meter for your car.  Even with this possible retribution that can come out of doing a good deed it is still important to carry out good deeds.  Should all of humanity live in fear of helping one another?  Of course not!  Bad things are bound to happen to everyone, good or bad.  By doing good deeds people reinforce positive concepts such as karma and kabbalism (the Jewish concept of giving goodness to everyone you meet so in heaven you can all bask in eternal goodness).

In the Book of Job, Satan coerces G-d into punishing Job, a righteous man, to see if Job will commit a sin by cursing G-d for his misfortune.  It is crazy that G-d, who is described in the Bible as a merciful and loving G-d would punish a good man purely for the sake of a test of faith.  If Job were an evil man and committed sins daily I would find no moral quandary with G-d’s actions.  It must be reinforced that G-d is not human and his actions cannot be judged the same way a human can be.  I believe that G-d is neither good nor evil.  He just is, and his actions are beyond our understanding of the Book of Job.  As far as G-d is concerned, there is a higher plan and a greater purpose for everything G-d does.  It is impossible to inquire further and further speculation will bring no one closer to the truth.

Meaning of Life or Life that has Meaning

Life is meaningless.  Humans serve no higher purpose than that which is installed in their genetic code.  To survive, just as is the instinct of all creatures that walk the earth.  There is no hidden meaning or secret that people so often associate with the 'meaning of life.'    However if this is true then how do are people able to get up in the morning and go about their lives if it is meaningless.  As discussed in the last blog post about permanence.  If one is aware of their impermanence and meaningless life how are they able to continue on instead of giving up on life.  This is because although life as a whole is meaningless, to the individual, life has meaning.  People tend to give their lives meaning through the things that they do and learn.  People tend to tag themselves through their passions and hopes and dreams.  A doctor's life is given meaning most likely through saving lives.  An assumedly incorrupt politician's life is given meaning by helping pass legislation to help those in need.  There are things that I would like to have come to pass that will give me meaning in life.

1) Start a family 

b.  Starting a family with a loving wife and kids has always been a goal for my future. By having a wife who will always love me and kids who I will teach and raise, all attributing to my future happiness

c.  By having children and raising them in a loving and caring household I will help make the future generation of working adults more productive and helpful to society as a whole.  

2) Write many plays 

b.  All people deal with difficult emotions and the way that I best deal with it is by writing about it.  In my plays I can vent about my feelings through characters of my own creation.  In this way I will be able to lead an emotionally stable life.

c.  By writing plays I will supply society with culture 

3)  Serve in the Israeli Defense Forces

b.  I have a deep seated desire to live in Israel and alway be in my religious homeland and Israel, in its current state has a draft.  Technically I could move to Israel and not serve in the army but would then become a social pariah because I would not have served the country as almost all citizens of Israel have.  By serving in the IDF I would ensure my happiness in Israel and feel proud to have served my country

c.  Israel is under the threat of almost every Arab nation in the world.  By joining the IDF I would be part of the help to stop any sort of destruction of the country.  Israel existing would help the world because without Israel the world would lose most of the cultural influence of Judaism in the world.

4)  Master Hebrew

b.  To fulfill my own happiness and so I can live in Israel.

c. Helps to fulfill the previous hope for the future 

5)  Live somewhere besides Israel and North America for a stretch of time

b.  My life would be pretty one sided if I chose only to be surrounded by only two cultures that I have known my entire life.  I want to get up and move to many places and become knowledgeable on many cultures so my arguments are not as one sided as they are now

c.  As a member of society after soaking up the different cultures from around the world I can come back to a more ignorant place and inform people so the world is free of ignorance

Hero

Historic epics such as Beowulf and The Odyssey, famous novels such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Lord of The Rings Trilogy,  the Indiana Jones and Star Wars film franchises.  What do all of these works of literature and film have in common?  According to many it is because each work hosts a hero, but what, in fact, is a hero?  Do we define a hero according to the acts of Frodo, who carried the Ring across Middle Earth, at his own peril, to drop into the cracks of Mount Doom?  Or is a hero one who is brave enough to abscond from society and live in nature as Huckleberry Finn did?  Is it possible that both of these protaganists can be viewed as heroes?

I believe that a hero is too often defined by extra-ordinary actions. Heroism can be found even in the most humbling places.  One doesn’t have to run away from home and be a ‘rebel’ to be considered a hero, or to go against all odds to conquer evil and save the world.  Take for example, Willie Loman from Death of a Salesman.  As the play progresses Willie is a continuously unlikeable character as he made many mistakes in the caring for his family, however, Willie, throughout his life always made an effort to provide for his family.  In my book, that too can be recognized as heroism.  Tragic heroism, yes, but heroism in an ordinary setting with ordinary circumstances.

Society too often looks for certain archetypical ideas when defining the hero in a story.  Usually it is simply one who quite literally ‘saves the day’ from evil, from harm, and everything in between.  Society often fails to see the heroism in everyday circumstances and literature does a poor job at addressing these types of heroism due plainly to the fact that when we think of a heroic novel the first ones that come to mind are close to the novels and films listed above.

Stepping aside from the topic of what true heroism is, can a woman be a hero?  Obviously this is true.  Women are just as capable of acts of kindness and other ordinary heroism.  In literature it is just uncommon to see a prevalent woman heroine in early literature.  Thankfully as times have modernized women have become much more prevelant in literature as a heroine accepted by the guidelines of a hero given by society.

Finally, what purpose do heroes have to men?  I think as role models heroes are necessary.  They teach people morals and ethics and simply to do the right thing. "Unhappy the land that needs heroes."  I believe this quotation is correct.  No world is perfect and it needs heroes described as people who change the world in regular everyday acts of kindness.

There is no permanence

It is universally understood by humanity that there is no permanence.  Even with the acknowledgement of this fact people still feel the need to get up and go about with their daily lives knowing that most of what they do will never be remembered after their death.  So the question is asked, “Why do anything at all?”  Why not just sit around and do nothing because nothing you do will ever last longer than your death and if your lucky, maybe some time after that.  I believe in the lyric from the Broadway Show Avenue Q, “Everything in life is for now.”  It is a simple quotation explaining that regardless of the situation it is important to live your life for “now,” to live in the moment knowing that everything you have one day is capable of being gone the next and being able to enjoy oneself.  In our world there are two types of people.  People who live for their life, fully acknowledging the fact that when they die, most likely they will not be remembered by anyone except surviving family.  They continue on with their lives because for them, living out their life happily or at least, in the attempt to be ‘happy’ is more fulfilling than living life doing nothing and complaining about life being futile and meaningless.  To this type of person, a fulfilling life (by whatever that means to that person) with impermanence is better than a non-fulfilling life with impermanence.  However, people still look for ways to bring about permanence.  Gilgamesh looks fervently at ways to last forever, scared of death by the passing of Enkidu.  He alas, does not succeed, but his efforts are seen in modern society, but not as bluntly and as straightforward.  Modern society seeks permanence almost unconsciously while accepting impermanence, which may be why people just don’t give up on life because it is futile.  In modern day religion, most practices promise the person of faith eternal life in heaven or some form of it.  Medicine looks to stretch a person’s life span.  The population of senior citizens has risen because old people are living longer due to medicine.  Even in a life of acknowledged impermanence, humans tirelessly work towards permanence, or so firmly believe that they will be able to accomplish permanence in their lifetime that they don’t acknowledge impermanence.  When people die, they find meaning in life through their accomplishments and their passions that will hopefully live on after they do.  Having a family is one of those things.  When a person has a child, that child reflects their parent.  Extending family trees are perfect examples of a kind of permanence.  Although the original person may be dead and forgotten.  They live on through their descendents.  Literature is another example of this.  Author, who have been long dead, still have their works of literature read.  Tolkien, Huxley, and Dr. Seuss just to name a few authors who have not been forgotten because of their contribution to literature.  Gilgamesh, after returning home distraught to not have found immortality, “engraved on a stone the whole story.”  Gilgamesh found meaning in his life after his adventures by engraving his epic adventures.  Through his records, his legacy will live on and Gilgamesh can die a fulfilled man because he knows that due to his story, he has a chance of lasting past his death. 
With all of this in mind, it is still understood that everyone dies and eventually forgotten, but as a wise wizard (Gandalf) once said, “Death is but the next great adventure.”