That which has no existence …

That which has no existence … - by P.K.Odendaal - May 2013

I have had a discussion with someone recently on starting a flying community at our local airport. There is no formal or informal structure to bind the lots of people together who are interested in flying. Well … here it comes … an interest in flying is not a material or physical thing - it is an idea or notion.

And what struck me immediately were the words of White from The Sunset Limited by Cormac McCarthy:

White:    I want the dead to be dead - forever. And I want to be one of them. Except that of course you can't be one of them. You can't be one of the dead, because what has no existence can have no community.

Liberal, Liberty, Liberation … Liquidation, Perdition

Liberal, Liberty, Liberation … Liquidation, Perdition - by P.K.Odendaal - May 2013 

If there is one universal theme which comes up again and again in almost all facets of our lives, it is the struggle and conflict between free will and determinism.

It is the conflict between conventional wisdom and innovation, between orthodoxy and heresy, between the well-trodden path and the one less travelled, between the heart and the mind, between the good and the evil, between freedom and regulation, between socialism and capitalism, between revenge and forgiveness, between war or violence and peace, between the flesh and the spirit, between honesty and corruption … and between a lot of others.

Slavery and Addiction

Slavery and Addiction - by P.K.Odendaal - May 2013

Men are born free, but everywhere they are in chains ... Jean-Jacques Rousseau

If a Nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be ... Thomas Jefferson

If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. Joh. 8:36 

After many years of meditation, I still have not come to grips with the meaning of the words Slavery and Addiction, much less have I been able to free myself from the bondage of both.

A parody on time

It's about time - a parody on time - by P.K.Odendaal - April 2013

Words ... words ... words. How do I start a parody with an article name which is already so ambiguous? Is the article about the subject time or is it the long expected thing to do? Is the parody on the subject of time or is it on the appropriate time?

And of course, everything about time is so slippery that I could not even think of an article name which is not slippery - and as this is positively not a material thing, I think I should call in our two conversationalists named GLC (God Loving Creature) and Atheist (our materialist), to whom you have got so used to by this time, to lead us into this subject. Their views are so widely divergent so that it might help us to understand the concepts of time better.

Fun With Maths - Part 3 - The Bush Calculator

Fun With Maths - Part 3 - The Bush Calculator - by P.K.Odendaal

So we are in the bush, and we quickly need to calculate the number of stars in the night sky and our children are not there with their calculators. What do we do?

We draw a few lines in the sand.

We need to multiply two double digit figures with each other. Let's say 22 x 23 = 506.

Passion and Meaning

Passion and Meaning by P.K. Odendaal – April 2013

I'm afraid I've been thinking, a dangerous pastime, I know ... from Beauty and the Beast

A previous article I wrote about Passion, Emotion and Delusion left many questions unanswered and thus prompted me to rethink the subject - and this opened new perspectives in my mind. I never could have thought that passion and meaning were such integral and connected concepts.

Passion, emotion and delusion

Passion, Emotion and Delusion - by P.K.Odendaal - 7 April 2013.

I am quite sure that passion is the most important emotion in our lives and that of God - if one can refer to Him as having a life in that sense. I also know of many people who do not have that emotion, but I would not want to live without it. In fact, God displayed His biggest act of love towards us in the Passion of Christ.

 

Of course many people, notably the materialists, agnostics and atheists would disagree that these three non-material or non-physical things - passion, emotion and delusion - exist. For the rest of us who go off at a tangent when these things grip us know too well what they are.

Just one

Just One

One song can spark a moment,
One flower can wake the dream
One tree can start a forest,
... One bird can herald spring.

One smile begins a friendship,
One handclasp lifts a soul.
One star can guide a ship at sea,
One word can frame the goal

The distribution of Happiness

The Distribution of Happiness - by P.K.Odendaal - March 2013.

We all should be engaged in the pursuit of happiness, but somehow the activity eludes us, because there are so many other things which occupy our thoughts and acts - and so the pursuit of happiness it filters down to the oblivion of the subconscious. When we realise that we are not happy, we wonder why that is, and it is simply because we did not pursue it. How can we realise or attain something when we do not pursue it? That only happens in fairy tales.

The notion of distribution is very easy and well known. The population of the earth is not spread evenly over the whole earth. If that was the case the distribution of the population over the earth would have been constant or homogenous. But now there are more people in cities than in rural areas, so that the distribution of the population is uneven. It is also valid for almost anything else like pressure, rain, poverty, minerals and wealth. We will return to the latter later on.

Human excellence and the trodden path

Human excellence and the trodden path - by P.K.Odendaal - February 2013.

Amended 5 March 2013

One stands amazed at the accomplishments of individuals who have attained feats of excellence never done before, and one thinks that it was built on years of methodical exploration, planning and experimentation. Although these accomplishments go hand in hand with exploration, planning and experimentation, the bigger truth is that it is built on a directionless procession of random events and the variation of circumstances.

The upper layer reveals to us an accomplishment of almost super human effort and insight, but it is built on a thicker layer of bricks or stones of doubt, mindless wanderings, meaningless efforts, botched opportunities, luck, unexpected outcomes and a thing called serendipity.