Wednesday, March 31, 2004
A long Blog about Liberal Radio, Pharmacy School, Dinosaur Butts, and God as a Ghost.
Hello! Before I talk about the dinosaurs, I want to keep you all up to date with what is going on.
I want to quickly mention that a new radio network went "on the air" today in the USA. It is called Air America, and it feature liberal talk show hosts. This is allegedly to counter out the rest of talk radio, which truly is dominated by either convervatives or moderates. It will be nice to hear some different views, but it is not available in my area yet. The thing I worry about is that the talk show hosts will fall victim to the same traps that the right-wing hosts did; and that is arrogance and abrasiveness. If we are going to talk about issues, I expect a little open mindedness by the host. If they are going to be the talk equivalent of flame throwers, I have no use for it... and I think most listeners agree. We have had enough name calling and arrogance... isn't it time we had intelligent discussions? Anyway, more on this when I get to hear it. Two of my favorite people have shows on this network: Al Franken (who is very funny, and has a good sense of when to lampoon something, and when to take a stand), and Frank Conniff (who was TV's Frank on Mystery Science Theater 3000).
Tomorrow I have a meeting at Creighton University to discuss the criteria used against me in my rejection. Then I get to have lunch with someone who I really like to spend time with, but never have any reason to. Then its back into serious mode, as I have another meeting with a Doctor in the toxicology department. He offered to meet me, and see if he can help apply political pressure on the pharmacy school to accept me. :) So, I don't want to pass that up! If it goes well, I can use him as a reference next time I apply.
Which brings up one point: I am going to apply again. I am not going to give up. Maybe the meeting will change my mind, but for the moment I am a little renewed in my thirst to be a pharmacist. It is hard for me to give up, because I know I can do this. All I can do is assume that I will get my break eventually.
Maybe someday down the road, I will look back on this and see how destructive it was to not let go before I wasted too much time and money. I can;t bother myself with that sort of thinking right now, I need to be progressive and positive. Time moves in one direction (regardless of what Stephen Hawking says), and I need to learn to only move in that direction.
But isn't it funny how we become slaves to the "little things" we do in our past? A small decision here or there sometimes grows and grows until it changes a significant part of your life. This could have to do with job choices, school choices, the choice to goof around instead of study, to eat poorly, to develop good (or bad) exercise habits, or even which friends you make or avoid. All of these little things send echoes through your life.
A perfect example of this is the little "something" that a dinosaur left behind, millions of years ago, in Utah. This month scientists were hard at work preparing a location for use as a dinosaur museum. Little did they know that they would find a rare and amazing discovery right on the site!
The paleontologist found the impressions made by a dinosaurs butt, as it squatted (presumably near a source of water). It sat down, got up and walked a few steps (the footprints are also visualized), and sat again. The reason this is so amazing is because 1) the odds are against butt prints being visualized, and 2) dinosaurs were not thought to squat. Such a meaningless gesture by an animal, yet it has rocked the scientific world (at least those of us who follow stories about dinosaurs).
A huge dilemma faces the scientists... soon the construction vehicles will be coming through, and in order to preserve the area they wished to turn into a museum, the butt prints will be destroyed. They are doing all they can to measure, photograph, take samples, and chronicle these little prints. These men and women are racing against time to cling onto some shred of proof that these prints exist at all, because soon they may not.
I see a lot in this story; humor, scientific interest, and allegory to our lives. But I also see a link to my search for truth. You see, having a piece of physical evidence is the highest proof that something exists. Right now the scientists can walk, sit, measure, and photograph the prints. But in a year, the prints may not exist at all, except in the memories of the scientists (and impressions and photos they took).
Either way, the prints only point to the fact that a dinosaur once sat there. But what do we know about the dinosaur? What color was it? Was it sitting because it was tired, alarmed, or injured? Was it a male or a female? How aware was it of the world around it? If the scientists were to be truthful, they might admit that there is a possibility that the prints aren't proof of a dinosaur at all; maybe they are the result of a coincidental geological event.
Is God like these prints? In our lives, the notion of God sort of exists as a ghost of who He may or may not be. We go on the words passed to us by others; memories handed down over and over. Some "evidence" for God does exist, but none of it seems to be singularly conclusive (or else we all wouldn;t struggle so much in our search for the meaning of it all). Is the fact we seek God an impression that is left on us from an earlier contact with Him in history? Or does He even exist at all?
It seems odd to me that large impressions in sandy rock near a dinosaur museum would happen to belong to a dinosaurs butt. Maybe these scientists think so much about dinosaurs, that two dimples in the earth conjure proof that they walked nearby ages ago. Is our search for God the same? Do we search for Him so much that we cling to coincidental events as proof of His existence? I think it would be much easier for the scientists to prove dinosaurs than us to prove God.
These are all tough questions to deal with. They speak to the very soul of our existence. What do we know is real about the past, and about the so-called spiritual realm? Are we being subjective or objective? And, most of all, if we can assume that the ghosts in our memory are from God, what do we really know about Him from those ghosts?
I will keep searching for truth, and posting blogs about my thoughts on these things. Have a great week, and as always, thanks for reading my site!
PS - Thanks to Maki for her fun picture she sent me, it cheered me up. I always welcome email, especially pictures! Atsuko sent me a recipe I want to try; thank you very much as well. And thanks to Sara for offering to have lunch with me tomorrow... it is going to be a nervous time for me tomorrow, and a familiar face will be very nice! Thanks for your undeserved friendship!
I want to quickly mention that a new radio network went "on the air" today in the USA. It is called Air America, and it feature liberal talk show hosts. This is allegedly to counter out the rest of talk radio, which truly is dominated by either convervatives or moderates. It will be nice to hear some different views, but it is not available in my area yet. The thing I worry about is that the talk show hosts will fall victim to the same traps that the right-wing hosts did; and that is arrogance and abrasiveness. If we are going to talk about issues, I expect a little open mindedness by the host. If they are going to be the talk equivalent of flame throwers, I have no use for it... and I think most listeners agree. We have had enough name calling and arrogance... isn't it time we had intelligent discussions? Anyway, more on this when I get to hear it. Two of my favorite people have shows on this network: Al Franken (who is very funny, and has a good sense of when to lampoon something, and when to take a stand), and Frank Conniff (who was TV's Frank on Mystery Science Theater 3000).
Tomorrow I have a meeting at Creighton University to discuss the criteria used against me in my rejection. Then I get to have lunch with someone who I really like to spend time with, but never have any reason to. Then its back into serious mode, as I have another meeting with a Doctor in the toxicology department. He offered to meet me, and see if he can help apply political pressure on the pharmacy school to accept me. :) So, I don't want to pass that up! If it goes well, I can use him as a reference next time I apply.
Which brings up one point: I am going to apply again. I am not going to give up. Maybe the meeting will change my mind, but for the moment I am a little renewed in my thirst to be a pharmacist. It is hard for me to give up, because I know I can do this. All I can do is assume that I will get my break eventually.
Maybe someday down the road, I will look back on this and see how destructive it was to not let go before I wasted too much time and money. I can;t bother myself with that sort of thinking right now, I need to be progressive and positive. Time moves in one direction (regardless of what Stephen Hawking says), and I need to learn to only move in that direction.
But isn't it funny how we become slaves to the "little things" we do in our past? A small decision here or there sometimes grows and grows until it changes a significant part of your life. This could have to do with job choices, school choices, the choice to goof around instead of study, to eat poorly, to develop good (or bad) exercise habits, or even which friends you make or avoid. All of these little things send echoes through your life.
A perfect example of this is the little "something" that a dinosaur left behind, millions of years ago, in Utah. This month scientists were hard at work preparing a location for use as a dinosaur museum. Little did they know that they would find a rare and amazing discovery right on the site!
The paleontologist found the impressions made by a dinosaurs butt, as it squatted (presumably near a source of water). It sat down, got up and walked a few steps (the footprints are also visualized), and sat again. The reason this is so amazing is because 1) the odds are against butt prints being visualized, and 2) dinosaurs were not thought to squat. Such a meaningless gesture by an animal, yet it has rocked the scientific world (at least those of us who follow stories about dinosaurs).
A huge dilemma faces the scientists... soon the construction vehicles will be coming through, and in order to preserve the area they wished to turn into a museum, the butt prints will be destroyed. They are doing all they can to measure, photograph, take samples, and chronicle these little prints. These men and women are racing against time to cling onto some shred of proof that these prints exist at all, because soon they may not.
I see a lot in this story; humor, scientific interest, and allegory to our lives. But I also see a link to my search for truth. You see, having a piece of physical evidence is the highest proof that something exists. Right now the scientists can walk, sit, measure, and photograph the prints. But in a year, the prints may not exist at all, except in the memories of the scientists (and impressions and photos they took).
Either way, the prints only point to the fact that a dinosaur once sat there. But what do we know about the dinosaur? What color was it? Was it sitting because it was tired, alarmed, or injured? Was it a male or a female? How aware was it of the world around it? If the scientists were to be truthful, they might admit that there is a possibility that the prints aren't proof of a dinosaur at all; maybe they are the result of a coincidental geological event.
Is God like these prints? In our lives, the notion of God sort of exists as a ghost of who He may or may not be. We go on the words passed to us by others; memories handed down over and over. Some "evidence" for God does exist, but none of it seems to be singularly conclusive (or else we all wouldn;t struggle so much in our search for the meaning of it all). Is the fact we seek God an impression that is left on us from an earlier contact with Him in history? Or does He even exist at all?
It seems odd to me that large impressions in sandy rock near a dinosaur museum would happen to belong to a dinosaurs butt. Maybe these scientists think so much about dinosaurs, that two dimples in the earth conjure proof that they walked nearby ages ago. Is our search for God the same? Do we search for Him so much that we cling to coincidental events as proof of His existence? I think it would be much easier for the scientists to prove dinosaurs than us to prove God.
These are all tough questions to deal with. They speak to the very soul of our existence. What do we know is real about the past, and about the so-called spiritual realm? Are we being subjective or objective? And, most of all, if we can assume that the ghosts in our memory are from God, what do we really know about Him from those ghosts?
I will keep searching for truth, and posting blogs about my thoughts on these things. Have a great week, and as always, thanks for reading my site!
PS - Thanks to Maki for her fun picture she sent me, it cheered me up. I always welcome email, especially pictures! Atsuko sent me a recipe I want to try; thank you very much as well. And thanks to Sara for offering to have lunch with me tomorrow... it is going to be a nervous time for me tomorrow, and a familiar face will be very nice! Thanks for your undeserved friendship!
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