irreverendt

I have grown really tired of Facebook…primarily because once they latch on to you there is a constant barrage of “information” aimed at what it thinks I want to see.  By choice most of my friends tend to agree with most of what I post and I, them.  In this respect it is not much better than a personalized version of Fox News. I will NEVER get a twitter account, however at least on Twitter it is easier to  choose to follow people you know you don’t have much in common with.  Carried to an extreme the information we get from out social media accounts becomes a form of personal radicalization.

The term “snowflake” is often used negatively to suggest that (mostly progressives) someone is a fool for thinking that they are unique. Yet an extremely small part of us is unique.    However, fact is, all the sentient beings on this planet are very much the same.  It is only that very small % of our DNA that differentiates us for crows, dogs, rats or dolphins.   Those who believe in some kind of creator would have us think otherwise.  Sadly they are correct in one aspect. We appear to be unique in that we are the only specie that is so massively self destructive.

My wife had a flat tire but it was just setting in the driveway. We know it is a slow leak and called our roadside service plan to get it inflated. Turns out they will only change the tire or tow the car. WTF…they can’t simply inflate the tire?

I would like to thank those who have written kind words of concern relative to those of us who chose not to believe that there is a God by any definition. As the article in the Star indicated, our numbers are growing. Most interesting to me was the fact that believers, in God, would vote for a political candidate who is a member of any number of minority groups before they would vote for an atheist. Apparently for some folks atheists are less socially acceptable than say sociopaths. Please know that we are not looking for converts and are not as morally deficient as the majority of people choose to believe.

Recent events have caused me to conclude that I am a D-List (bicycle) rider. I became aware that there have been at least two events attended or to be attended by other cyclists, friends of mine, to which I received no invitation. To clarify, I am not talking about a phone call, e-mail or text invite to a daytime or evening ride. I’m talking about a group trip.

This causes me to be curious as to why. I have hypothesized answers to the two instances but they are just that. I could dedicate several paragraphs to guesses but one point is fact. Neither of the two originators of these plans/rides contacted me to see if I had an interest in participating. Compounding this, in my opinion, is the fact that I didn’t receive a shout out or a “hey did you know” from any of the riders (friends) that did or will participate.

I have tried my best to make this a “water under the bridge” thing but it continues to nag at me. Other than this writing I do not plan to bring this up to any of those who were passively involved. I did contact one of the planners who provided an explanation but did not directly address my primary question, why wasn’t I contacted? I will acknowledge that I am not the center of the universe to be consulted on all matters cycling but WTF?

I was reading the paper this morning, what’s left of it, and found myself again in the Obits. I don’t read it to see if I am there so much as I do for some kind of, I guess, morbid entertainment. In a serious vein, there was a man 37 years old that died of a heart attack. Ouch!

Looking ahead at my eventual demise I always check to see what the 80 & 90 somethings die from. Most times, if stated, it is usually cancer, the occasional heart attack or pneumonia, often a side effect of some other chronic illness. Knowing that in most if not all instances someone other than the deceased has written the obit I am curious about how the death is described. Most often people just “die” however the next most common description is that they have “passed” or “passed on”. If so, passed on to what? The dictionary version I read said it was a “polite” way of saying died. From Wikipedia I also learned that Passed Away Vol. 1 is a compilation of Dr. Dog tunes. I noted that if you pass someone or something, you go past them/it. So in this sense a person is passing life on the way to something else.

This brings me to the next group of descriptions. These, I assume, are religious descriptions of what has happened. I find, “was called home” “went to his/her reward” “met his maker”. I have never read where someone has “gone to hell” but I suppose that on more than one occasion that might be the opinion of the writer. If you know what I believe concerning religion then you will understand that at this point I’ll just let sleeping dog lye (or lay).

Next time I’ll take up my possible choices.

posted this  two years ago….still