Category: FWIW

My Lovely Wonder Woman has a way about her. . .

I mentioned to her that completing the repairs on a ceramic “canister” (ceramic can?!? *feh*) would take ~$11-$12, but that I’d end up with a lot of extra materials to store, possibly for future projects. . . or whatever. *heh* Her solution?

“Well, I could break more things.”

Another possibility? Just replace the thing, I suppose. *sigh* I hate not just repairing a broken item, but sometimes. . .

Here’s a simple sample. “Received wisdom” is that someone walking, say in a forest or somewhere without readily-discernible reference marks, will tend to veer toward their dominant side, because the dominant side stride will be longer. My dominant side is right. But. My left leg is a wee tad more than an inch longer than my right side.

Yeh. In fact, I pretty much do NOT “walk in a circle.”

An acquaintance’s recent comment about “stable marriages” recalled to mind a conversation with Son&Heir about the Decalogue and the differences between laws that are related to acts that are malum in se (wrong in and of themselves) and those that are merely about acts that are malum prohibitum (offenses ONLY because there is a law prohibiting the acts).

The Decalogue deals only with those things God defined as malum un se. After some discussion, we ended up classifying the prohibitions in the Decalogue into purely relating to God and those that governed relations between humans–number five “honor father & mother” probably leans toward only interpersonal relations. Of the five commandments (the last five “thou shalt nots”) that are clearly in the latter category forbidding murder, false witness, adultery, theft, and lusting after that which belongs to another, one can easily see where each of those acts either directly violates the rights of another person or, as in the last commandment, leads almost inexorably to such violation. Of course, each of these malum in se behaviors is deprecated by our society today. Murder? Abortion is celebrated by many. False witness? Heck, it’s become routine practice among large segments of _law enforcement_. Adultery? *smh* Normalized and even celebrated. Theft? Quotidian practice again for law enforcement (can anyone say “asset forfeiture” absent ANY conviction of a crime?). Envying the possession of others to a degree that qualifies to “lusting after that which belongs to others”? *cough* Bernie Sanders-Occassional Cortex-et al*cough*

It is no wonder at all, at all, that Hollyweird in general, the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind, Academia Nut Fruitcake Bakeries, DC and most local and state governments militate against public display of the Decalogue.

“Stable marriages” are a slap in the face to a society that worships only self. Stable marriages require an honorable committment to one’s vows, freely given, integrity, among other virtues deprecated or openly derided, even rabidly attacked, by those committed to their polar opposites.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your path.”

Of all the systems devised by humans to deal with ethics and morality, Pragmatism, as a system is IMO, least dependent on emotions and biases, but Pragmatism fails at the point where incomplete, inaccurate human knowledge intersects with partial and faulty understanding of that incomplete and inaccurate knowledge. Other system that are more dependent on preconceptual biases (Pragmatism has some of its own, you know) and that either assume more knowledge than is available or are even more blind to their own misunderstandings are even less appealing that Pragmatism.

Unless one is both omniscient and infinitely wise, the best one can hope for is that one’s own understanding of circumstances and consequences is partial, and one is as likely as not, if one relies only on one’s own knowledge and understanding, to be quite wrong in predicting ultimate outcomes. Short-term outcomes? One might have a better chance, but relying on guidance from Someone who knows juuuuust might be a better idea, hmm?

Oh, for the record, I choose my guidance wrong far more often than I should. *sigh*