Wasted Potential is Worse than Wasted Effort

Ecclesiastes chapter 11 says that whoever watches the wind will not plant.  

A man like this finds weather conditions for planting to be unideal every time he contemplates the endeavor.  So he never does it.  This is an example of a man saving effort by wasting potential.  

Compare this to the main that waits for tolerable conditions to plant instead of ideal conditions.  Or even one that plants in conditions that may be extremely far from unideal because he has no choice.  He may be wasting his effort, because the seeds may not grow.  But if they don't, he's ultimately not much worse off than the man that didn't plant at all, and may actually be substantially better off if luck is on his side.

The man that never planted at all only has one thing as the result of his effort-saving.  An excuse.  "Well, the weather wasn't good," he might say.  And he might be correct.  But that will be of little comfort if his neighbor DID plant in weather that wasn't good and actually got something as a result of it.  Are excuses really so comforting that they're worth wasting potential on?

I see this in young men online who get discouraged by the admittedly bad job market.  Entering the job market wasn't easy for me in my 20's either, and I remember the job search not being a fun experience.  I don't want to go through it again if I can avoid it.  I can sympathize.  But it never entered my mind at that time to totally give up on working for a living, because I knew that wouldn't end up going well.  I wanted to at least TRY to ultimately end up with more than just an excuse in my life if I could.  I'd rather fail making the continuous attempt and wasting the effort than not even make the attempt and waste the potential.  And in my case I did fail for a while, but not forever.  What at that time seemed like an eternity of wasteful effort is now in the long-distant past.  The effort ultimately paid off, and I believe more often than not, effort tends to do just that, if someone can just hold out and exercise consistency and patience.

So anyone in a tough position where effort doesn't feel like it's going anywhere, remember the trade off, and keep taking the chance.  Because wasted potential is even worse.

My Mom's Garfield Collection

My mom passed away many years ago, but she used to buy stuffed Garfields all the time as a hobby, and put little outfits on them that she got from other stuffed animals at places like Goodwill.  Later on my dad made some awesome display cases for them in reverence to all of her work.  I am unsure what I will do with them after my dad passes, but it would be nice to have the collection on display somewhere.  I don't want to just throw it out, but I have no room for it myself.

 

Anti-Villain Example In the Anti-Hero Age

One of my favorite YouTube channels now is citytutoringmath.  I like it because it's an interesting combination of mathematics and Biblical doctrine - two things I've always enjoyed and don't often see put together in one place.

Now many years ago, intellectual pursuit and Christian devotion were seen as positive things.  This was before the current age of the anti-hero who rejects tradition and many honorable things that go along with it.  I guess it makes sense that when destructive activity is heralded that constructive activity would be shunned.  That's how it was in the movie Danger Diabolik.  But the guy behind citytutoringmath does seem to fit a villainous persona as well, in that he speaks fairly aggressively and could care less about the feelings of his listeners and how sensitive they are to the less-pleasant aspects of his message.

So citytutoringmath gets my vote for one of the best anti-villains in the world today, and I kind of want to see more of his kind.

Problems With The Term "Woke" And A Potentially False Mathematical Implication

Possibly the biggest problem I have with the woke movement is the choice of the term it uses to represent itself.  It's not called "social justice woke" or "sexual orientation woke."  It's simply called "woke."  While this might simply be born out of convenience because one word is a much quicker and easier abbreviation for a concept than three words, I still think this possibly inadvertent simplification seems to imply a level of awareness that stretches far beyond its reach.  

While social injustice awareness is certainly not a bad thing, I believe it becomes a bad thing when you imply that's the ONLY skill anyone is required to possess in this world in order to be classified as fully aware and enlightened to the point that no other knowledge or skills are required.  Even if you can't count or read, and you've never expended any effort beyond sitting around and doing drugs all day, you're still fully aware of everything that matters simply because you recognize bigotry exists?  I would disagree, because I would argue that bigotry recognition is a NECESSARY but INSUFFICENT condition for cultural awareness and enlightenment.

The words necessary and sufficient form an important pair of terms in mathematics.  When a two related conditions in a statement fit both of these criteria, the statement carries a special kind of relationship between conditions known as a biconditional.  Biconditionality implies equivalence.  True in both directions.  Necessary implies truth in one direction and sufficient implies truth in the other direction.  What I claim regarding bigotry awareness and true enlightenment is that the two conditions are NOT connected by a biconditional.  Instead I claim these two things:

1) If one is fully enlightened, then indeed one automatically possesses an awareness of social justice problems

2) However, if one possesses an awareness of social justice problems, that person is still NOT automatically fully enlightened, because true enlightenment and awareness has other unrelated requirements as well

Notice with these two conditions, the flow is automatic in one direction but not the other.  It is a conditional statement but not a biconditional statement.  For two conditions to be equal, the biconditional must be satisfied, so that if either one of the conditions is satisfied, the other will automatically be satisfied as well.  That's not happening here.  So the two conditions are not equal.  Being truly enlightened is not equal to being aware of social justice issues.  Why?  Because being truly enlightened requires more than just that alone.  When one condition or set is strictly bigger than another, like true enlightenment encompassing more than just social justice awareness, they can't be completely equal.  Even if social justice awareness is the BIGGEST part of being truly enlightened, it's still not fitting all the requirements for full enlightenment and awareness.  

Now it might seem petty on my part to make a claim that the woke term implies far more than it does, and honestly it might be some kind of a stretch.  I believe the formal phrase for that type of petty stretch action now is called "seeking a microaggression."  Is that something that's permitted in two political directions or only one?

Misconceptions About Relativity

There's a big misconception about the theory of relativity in physics.  It does NOT imply that absolutes don't exist.  It just implies that space isn't an absolute and time isn't an absolute.  Also, very importantly, it implies that the speed of light measured by an inertial observer in a vacuum IS an absolute.  There are other absolutes also, but I don't know them all that well and don't feel like going into them here.  Ask AI if you want to know them.  The point is NOT EVERYTHING IS RELATIVE even in this theory.  There's at least one thing that isn't.

But some people don't want to look into things that deeply.  Instead they hastily develop a class of thought based on the faulty premise that because certain things we previously believed to be absolute turned out otherwise, then nothing is absolute.  This is false.

Whether morality has no absolutes is technically still up for debate I guess, but moral relativists can't really use the scientific theory of relativity to back their claim, because that theory DOES claim absolutes, even if it sounds like it doesn't.

Quote From A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

"It would be considered beautiful except that there are too many of it."

I believe this quote is in an isolated spot on one of the pages before the actual start of the novel, if I recall correctly.  I love this quote because it sums up reality pretty well.  There are so many amazing things out there that our brains can't process it all or even detect it all.  A lot of beautiful stuff gets no attention as a result.  Kind of a shame, but there's not really anything we can do about it.

The Elephant in the Room - At Least With Modern-Day Christianity

Fornication.  Very prevalent.  Hardly ever mentioned.  How much is homosexuality mentioned in the Bible?  Maybe about five times?  Adultery and fornication are mentioned more.  Much, much more.  Probably a reason for that disparity in emphasis somewhere.  

Let's face it.  Fornication prior to marriage, or even as a substitute for marriage, is something most of us in this day and age have been guilty of at some point - even myself for a short time.  It has become extremely tolerated in the western world, and as a result I believe the church has softened its approach with it.  Especially because it's a fairly easy sin to keep hidden, despite how prevalent it is.  

Too bad other things are easier for churches to attack because they are much less prevalent and aren't quite so easy to hide.  I don't know of too many churches that openly say fornication is okay, but they sure don't go out of their way to condemn it either when other stuff is available to condemn.  Is it because too many church members would be offended that a sin they're much more likely to be committing is being called out?  Is it easier to simply pick on sins that they have no possibility of engaging in?  If that's the case, I can't imagine God being pleased with that.

I doubt that God is okay with rampant and uncommitted sleeping around, regardless of one's orientation.  As far as I know he has never been okay with it, and has always favored lifetime commitment in intimate relationships.