Ishmael

Spock's half-Vulcan, and he makes a better human than the rest of us.

Time, omniscience

Well, I saw one aspect of what omniscience is about several years ago when one of my cats was in my room with me and the door was almost completely shut, but not latched. The cat wanted to get out but there wasn't enough of a crack to get a paw in to pull it open. Now, cats just don't like closed doors, so I knew that just as one cat was wanting to get out, it wouldn't be long before another would want to get in and push the door open. Sure enough, that's just what happened. One of the aspects of omniscience is knowing the character of things or people so well that it enables you to tell what will happen.

I thought of another aspect of omniscience, or rather more of being outside of time, as I'm currently re-reading a book I've read many times. Obviously, I know what happens, but it's more than that. As I'm reading, I'm pulled into the world of the book, and while I am particularly conscious of the part I'm currently on, there's also an awareness of the parts that are coming and the book as a whole. It's almost as if all the moments in the book exist simultaneously in my mind (especially funny since the book itself takes place in two different time periods). That must be something like how it feels to exist outside of Time.

I'd only want Victorian children...

When people ask me why I don't want kids, I tell them I just don't have "it" - the drive, the thing that makes people want them. That's the most fundamental thing I can say about it, but of course it's always easy to come up with lots of supplemental reasons to support something you want anyway.

One of them which occurred to me tonight is that in today's culture, childhood and adulthood are not very compatible. There are elements of life that I enjoy, as an adult, that I feel don't "go well" with childhood. For instance, I don't like the idea of having children who want the latest fashions (the neons of the late 80's are something I could have done without, in retrospect), which they inevitably would if they mingled in society at all, but I also wouldn't want to keep children from mingling in society - it's unnatural.

People say I was a sheltered kid, but if I could change anything about my childhood, I'd make it more sheltered, more conservative. I guess I have this Victorian ideal of childhood in mind - or like in Farmer Boy - where the entertainments of adults, their thoughts and their habits, were all suitable for children. Hard work, reading aloud to the family by the fire on winter evenings, creative play... but I certainly wouldn't want to give up the things that I enjoy as an adult now just because they weren't suitable for children. Even the mere existence of TV, I think, makes a childhood such as I envision impossible, for even if you don't have one in the house, that just makes your kids more interested and curious about it, and if you have one, limitations on what they can watch have the same effect. If they're anything like me, at least. And that's ME and my life... even worse is the idea of "normal" people having children... people who work long hours, stay out late hanging out with other adults, swear, drink...

So often today, it seems, people try to preserve some of the ideal of childhood despite the fact that their own habits are inconsistent with it. They swear, but don't want their children to - though they'll probably be fine with their kids swearing when they get older. Or are they trying to bring them up to be better than themselves? In the Little House books, there was no need for that distinction. The adults behaved in the ways they asked their children to behave. They wanted them to grow up to embody the same virtues they themselves possessed. Childhood was about learning to become an adult, and the parents, in examining their own lives, could have had few qualms about wanting their children to become like them. How many people today can say the same? And even for those who can, how few outside role models there are to reinforce the ideas.

This brings a point up that I've often said: pessimists are really idealists. I'm pessimistic about the possibilities for childhood in today's society because I have high ideals of what I would like childhood to be. Optimists, I think, think things will be ok because, perhaps, they are more flexible in their definition of what is "ok". I'm pessimistic about life because I think it ought to be perfect and I know it won't be, it can't possibly be. Optimists must (I presume) accept the world more easily for what it is... either that or they're simply deluded.

It will be interesting to see how these thoughts play out over the coming years with my imminent nephew.

Can't?

Perhaps we all overuse the word can't.

"I can't go to dinner with you tonight, I have plans." Really it's not that you CAN'T, it's that your other plan is a priority to you, or your sense of following through on a commitment you've made to someone else. There are some things I really can't do. I can't become a cat, I can't go through the looking-glass to wonderland, I can't be in my house and in Paris simultaneously. But how many things do we say we can't do when what we really mean is that it's not worth it to us to make the sacrifices necessary in order to do something? It's not always a bad thing to not make those sacrifices - like keeping a prior engagement - but it is a misuse of the word can't. Figure out what's really "can't" and what's a question of priority. Then good luck figuring out your priorities...

Important Things It's Better To Learn From Your Dad Than Find Out The Hard Way

My dad taught me lots of useful things. I really appreciate this. I don't know if other people's dads don't teach them these things, or if most kids just don't listen. Some of them he said, some of them he just showed me by example.

*You can't always get what you want. (Cause if you did, you know, you'd be spoiled, you know.)
*All the traffic problems are caused by old men in hats and old ladies with blue hair.
*The first step is to admit the pain.
*Always cross at the crosswalk.
*You should use your head for something other than a hat rack.
*Fix things yourself, figure things out, find a way to get it done - but know when it's time to call in a professional.
*You'll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
*Maybe this is the last show.
*If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
*When all else fails, read the directions.