Attack of Literacy!

Attack of Literacy


Attack of Literacy! from Threadless.com on Vimeo.

The world shall miss you Randy

But we are so honored you shared your story with us.

My friends and I cried at the news of your death though none of us have met you, or your family. Please rest well Professor Pausch. I smile and cry remembering your lecture, shared with the world.

If you knew you had six months to live, what would you do with the life left? I should have 45-50 years left….so much to do. Tomorrow is a new beginning.

To Randy’s family and friends, I wish you love, peace, comfort. Most of all I wish you joy, may you never lose the joy. Thank you for letting Randy share his story with the world. I am simply a viewer of his lecture, but I am changed for the better for it.

“There are some people, that when they die, the whole world seems depopulated”

In Review:”Spook; Science tackles the afterlife”

This book was the second book by Mary Roach that I have purchased. I bought “Stiff” on a whim based on my fascination with death and those that deal with it, but having lost several people that I miss about the same time I bought that book, I confess, I have yet to read it.However, as I am always searching for answers and some comfort after those losses , I thought “Spook” was a perfect choice, and since it promised to blend a discussion of science and faith, I was hooked.

The afterlife fascinates me. I believe it exists, but in what form I am not exactly sure. In the very least we are all made up of energy, and since scientifically energy can neither be created or destroyed, we all live on as energy forever. Does this mean we are now part of a storm front? A Plant? An Ameoba? Are we then angels after death? Honestly I don’t know, but there is at least the consolation that a part of us is eternal. Do I believe in god? Yes, but I cannot prove he or she exists…I just can’t look around me at things that are so beautiful and complex and not think of an amazing artist with one heck of a brush made it all. I fully keep all ideas open, but who’s to say science and god aren’t one and the same? I cannot prove it….I can only trust in science and believe in my gut instincts.

My own body convinces me we have a soul. Being disabled there is a multitude of things I want to do, but my body will not let me. I would love to get up right now, put on some jogging shoes, and feel the wind in my hair as I race down the path by my house, but my body won’t let me…therefore I am not my body. However I’d love to know where the “me” goes so I can either book a ticket there or mail some fertilizer to whoever tends my grave. (Which may be filled sooner rather then later if I ever decide skiing is on my list of things to do before I die.)

I read some other thoughts on this book before writing down my own, and one theme kept reoccurring; This book gives no solid answers. To the reviewers who said that, you may have missed the whole point. The book made no claims of having answers for you, just the exploration of questions we all have, and the thousands of people, religions and industries that pop up claiming they DO have answers. In short, Mary Roach saved me some time in looking into these various ideas that turned out to be, well, lame. If you have a definitive answer, let me know, I don’t, just a running list of theories. The chapter on reincarnation seemed exceptionally like wishful thinking, but if a delusion hurts no one, i see no need to confront them. Who am I anyway? I’m just a person looking for a small part of the answers, maybe they are right maybe they aren’t.

Want to know the exact weight of a soul? So did I, however the science gives a few different answers as pointed out by this book. Want to know how electromagnetic forces affect the psyche? So did I, and here at least are a few answers in the pages. More then once in reading this book I was excited by the possiblities the different practices promised, and more then once I was disappointed, but I think the point here is to keep asking questions. The important thing is to keep asking and exploring, and if you feel the same I know you’ll enjoy this book.

Oddly, my thoughts on the afterlife are much the same as my thoughts on life on other planets. Perhaps my energy will travel far away, in which case the movie “Contact” comes to mind….

“I’ll tell you one thing about the universe, though. The universe is a pretty big place. It’s bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So if it’s just us… seems like an awful waste of space. Right?” -Jodie Foster as Dr. Ellie Arroway

However you think of the afterlife, I know there is one. I am sure of it. My body is not me anymore then my house is me, they just both contain my stuff. I think of my body as a storage container that just happens to be necessary to move around in. I am sure too that love survives death, I feel those I lost around me from time to time. Think of me as deluded if you wish, but I find comfort in that. I slept next to my fiance for 5 years, you can’t be that close to someone and not know when they are standing next to you. I know the way he breathed, the smell of his shirts, the cadence in his steps. When your spouse or parent walks in a room behind you, can’t you tell by the way the air changes that it’s them behind you and not say the repair guy working on your sink? Some days I swear, if I just turned my head I could see my fiance standing there. So as not to break the magic of that moment, I say hi, and tell him about my day…and gradually the feeling of him beside me fades. To me, he was there. Can I prove it? Nope. Would the people who believe in reincarnation who I doubt, doubt me as well? Perhaps they will let me keep my beliefs as I let them keep theirs.

One warning about this book: I found myself on more then one occasion jumping up to run to my computer and google medical studies and experiments talked about in the pages of this book. Because this book could easily be the size of the entire Encyclopedia Britannica set if it included the source material, it paraphrases or gives you reference footnotes. Be warned, these are addictive.My thanks to the author as well for my e-mail sent at 1am, after a thought about this book popped into my head, and she indulged my query.

“I have seen death too often to believe in death. It is not an ending–but a withdrawal as one who finishes a long journey, stills the motor, turns off the light, steps from his car and walks up the path to the home that awaits him.” - Don Blanding

Happy reading!

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Shelfari switched shelves…and formats

Much to my dismay.

I am set in my ways, I like some things in my life, including my online life, to stay predictable and stable. Shelfari was one such place I considered an online home, until this last week when everything changed.

They redesigned the website, and added advertising. ( you can see based on just this site that I hate ad, and only put up Amazon ads. Unless someone offers me a huge amount, that won’t ever change). Now Change is not always bad, but the format went from a pleasant green to a blue, and the ads annoyed me….however all is forgiven now.

Behold the beauty that is my shelf now! I still hate the ads, and cringe at the blue graphics, but my shelf looks homey again!

My Shelf *click here*