That was a headline in this morning's paper, and it just struck me. That's all -- it just struck me. So much that we think we know -- in fact, everything we think we know, lands up being debunked. This headline, that I glanced at on my way to the bathroom (I'm one of those people who realizes they need to pee well before they actually pee so that they find themselves really needing to pee well after they first noticed) provoked so many other thoughts:
- the fact that Sophie is responding to marijuana after unsuccessfully ingesting twenty powerful synthetic drugs in nearly as many years (really, what the hell? Couldn't THEY have figured this out sooner?)
- how often THEY (because it's always THEY, right) reverse positions on what is good for you and what is bad. For instance, I know you've heard that having a large ass helps you to live longer than a skinny one (I'm living forever, apparently), but did you hear the latest news that eating a handful of nuts a day will help you to live longer? So much for counting out those cashews on Weight Watchers.
- how we're pressured to trust Science unequivocally
- how we often do trust Science unequivocally
- how we're browbeaten for expressing our doubts (think vaccination "debate")
- how weird and inexplicable the universe really is (the typhoon in the Philippines, tiny particles upending the universe, men in general)
- how weird and inexplicable human beings generally are (despite "evidence" to the contrary, there are still those diehards who believe Adam and Eve just appeared one day in a garden)
- how weird and inexplicable my own brain is (that thoughts keep coming, willy nilly, prompted by no less than one headline and the urge to pee)
- how tiny particles can upend one's universe in general (evidently the world of astronomy is rocking)
- how Blake wrote in 1803 To see a World in a Grain of Sand/and a Heaven in a Wild Flower/Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand/and Eternity in an hour.
Reader, what's upending your universe today?
I think about things like this ALL THE TIME. As you know. I drive myself crazy.
ReplyDeleteI love the newspapers. Big thoughts on the breakfast table every day. I read your blog as I sat down to blog about a different headline.
ReplyDeleteMen in general. That is all.
ReplyDeleteHumans are the weirdest and most inexplicable of all. No doubt!!
ReplyDeleteEvery time I see those articles about what "they" say, I suspect that "they" are a little bit right and a little bit wrong, and the truth is somewhere in between. The continuous stream of dietary recommendations has reversed itself so often, for example, that I think the real answer is simply to eat a variety of everything in modest amounts. I trust science, I really do, but science only looks at a tiny piece of the overall puzzle at any given time and we don't fully appreciate the intricate interplay of all the pieces in the universe.
ReplyDeletei'd like to get ahold of some of those tiny particles and upend MY universe.
ReplyDeleteWhat we don't know is so much more than we know…. including men.
ReplyDeleteWow, I really love that Blake quote. And as far as upending my universe, bipolar is at the top of the list.
ReplyDeleteI believe in Dr. Seuss. He was so right on with Horton Hears a Who.
ReplyDeleteHaven't been here for a little while and am so thrilled to hear of the effects of the marijuana!!!!!!! xo
ReplyDeleteit says 'tiny' particles - tiny can be very powerful, and it's the principle of homeopathy - so here's to hoping that the dosage Sophie is getting is in fact enough!
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