The Twenties

Well today I realized I turn 27 next week. It really came up fast. I know it sounds kinda stupid but 27 seems old to me all of a sudden. I've never consciously worked out how I'd divide up my twenties. I always said early twenties until 25. At that point I figured I better start saying "mid-twenties." But by that reasoning I knew I'd have to say late twenties at 26 and I didn't want to do that so I expanded the mid-twenties to include one year on either side and that made mid twenties 24 through 26. So, now that I'm about ready to jump that 26 hurdle and enter my late twenties I've decided to propose a more accurate dissection of the decade.

So we've got 10 years of the 20s. Since we're talking "early" "mid" and "late" that means we're dividing the 20s into three parts... so 3.33 (forever)--let's just say 3 and 1/3. Anyway, that means every 3 years and 4 months you graduate to the next phase of twentiness. At 20 (obviously) you start. At 23 years and 4 months you're in your mid twenties. This lasts until 26 years and 8 months when you hit your late 20s. From then on it's the twilight of your twenties all the way until the big 30. So I guess I hit my late twenties a few months ago and never even knew it. I guess my mind is slipping with age.

I think the only way I can stay in my mid twenties is to cut the decade up into 5 groups of two years. I could have early twenties (20 and 21) early mid (22 and 23) mid (24 and 25) late mid (26 and 27) and finally late twenties (28 and 29). If I do that I'm still in the 6 year period of mid twenties (subset late mid). Maybe I'll go with that.

Anyway, I hope this helps. If you can't find any consolation in how I've categorized the 20s you can always calculate your age in a different base.

In base 12 I'm only 23, in base 11 I'm 25...

***but in base 9 I'm turning 30.

Oh, and everyone who is turning 27...shortly after your 27th birthday you'll approach your 10,000 days old mark. This is a landmark that only happens once. 10 days isn't a big deal because people are too distracted by your being alive. 100 days has the same problem. At 1,000 days you're too young to appreciate your place in our base 10 numbering system...but at 10,000 days...at that day you're prepared to properly celebrate your big day... (and just a side note, if you make it to 100,000 then you're 273 years old and you should be celebrating something else...like the fountain of youth you discovered or stem cell research).

Alright, I'm done for the day. I'll get back to the theodicy conversation later. I just haven't felt like writing anything too complex lately. Hope everyone is doing well.

Pictures Part II

As promised here is another installment of funny pictures. This time the theme is motivational posters. Most of them are my favorites from Despair.com, others were made by innovative folks on the internet. I hope they inspire you as much as they've inspired me.

Theodicy

Hey everyone,
Last Tuesday I was talking with some of the guys I work with about a paper we've been working on. The paper is titled "Constructing a Mormon Theodicy." I thought I'd share some of our ideas on this blog. I'll break eveything up into two posts. This post will explain the theodicy problem, the next post will explain some possible solutions.

A theodicy is an attempt to reconcile the existence of God and the existence of evil. This reconciliation is usually expressed in the form of an inconsistent triad that looks something like this:

1) God is all loving.
2) God is all powerful.
3) Evil exists.

These three statments make an inconsistent triad because the affirmation of any two of them leads to the negation of the third. For example, if God is all Powerful and He loves us perfectly, it seems strange that evil (or suffereing in general) exists because any suffering possible he could prevent. Similarly, if you affirm point 3 and point 2, then you have to accept that evil exists, that God could prevent it, but he doesn't so he's not all loving. Clearly something needs to give but any of these three statments taken alone would be readily affirmed by most people.

Most Theodicies work by limiting one of the three points. Some people say that God isn't all loving, or that his love is more complicated than we can imagine. Others argue that God isn't all powerful in the traditional sense, by this they mean that God is limited in his power by the free actions of independent beings (us). And finally, some people argue that evil doesn't exist, or at least genuine evil doesn't exist. They argue that God uses all our problems for our good, so evil, which we can define as any action that results in greater suffering than good, is an illusion.

Nearly every attempt at reconciling these three points results in what most people generally consider to be an unsatisfactory answer. Most philosophers solve the problem arguing for a less powerful God, most new wave free-thinking types say that they either don't believe in God or they think God must not care all that much, and most religious people try to dismiss it all by saying that it is all God's will (thus dismissing evil as a temporary circumstance brought on by God necessary for some greater good)--essentially arguing that genunine evil doesn't exist.

Now, I've said I'd make shorter posts so I thought I'd stop here. I'll pick up this train of thought later. I just wanted to give everyone a heads up as to what I've been thinking about. I'll post my opinion on this topic (not that it is definitive (or even very oirignal)) in the second half of this post. Anyone that wants to chime in with their views please feel free to do so.

Hope you're all doing well!

Funny Random Pictures Part 1

Here is the first installment from my collection of funny pictures. The theme for this installment is failure. Some of these pictures might not be funny for those with refined taste...but for everyone else, I hope you enjoy them!

Mother's Day With Mr. T

Hey Everyone,
Well today is Mother's Day! In honor of this wonderful holiday I have posted a video made by someone who knows more about honoring a mother than any other...Mr. T. I hope you enjoy the video. All I can say is that after you watch this video you'll be changed.

Treat Your Mother Right!

p.s. Oh, and the lyrics for this "rap" were written by the infamous Ice T. I guess we all need to start somewhere.

Einstein/Monroe

Okay, if you guys have already seen this picture I'm sorry for the repeat. I just saw it for the first time this morning and it blew my mind. If you look at it close up it is Einstein, if you look at it far away (for me about 15 feet from the screen) it becomes Marilyn Monroe. Supposedly it works because we emphasize high spatial frequencies (sharp lines) close up and we emphasize low spacial frequencies (blurred lines) far away. So, when you step back your eyes change their emphasis and you view a new picture.

But, I don't care what the scientists say, it's still witchcraft

Changes

Hey everyone,

Well, since classes are done I thought I'd finish a post I started a while ago. This post is about changes and it's based off a quotation I heard years ago. The quote is from Mary Antin and it goes something like this:

"We are not born all at once, but in bits. The body first, and the spirit later. Our mothers are racked with the pains of our physical birth; we ourselves suffer the longer pains of our spiritual growth."

When I first heard this quotation I was pretty young. I don't think I really understood it then. I guess time and a little pain has brought out (at least some of) its truth.

What I take this to mean is that we aren't finished products, we're works in progress. And unfortunately, the process by which we progress often entails pain. Sometimes it's pain caused by our mistakes, other times its pain brought on by the mistakes of others. If you're religious you might view your pain as a trial from God or a temptation from Satan. Sometimes bad things just happen and that's life. But whatever pain you might be going through, if properly dealt with it will make you stronger.

Personal strength is developed very similarly to physical strength--through stress. When you work out you tear your muscles and when they heal they're stronger. After a while you become strong and the weight that previously tore your muscles ceases to do so. At that point you can either continue using the same weight (and stop developing) or you can increase your weight and become stronger . Because of this, when you're working out, if you're not getting sore you're avoiding the next step. The same is true with life. If you're living your life free of pain you're probably avoiding the next step, and you're probably also not becoming stronger. A life lived to its fullest hurts.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying we should look for pain... what I'm saying is that if you're really growing, really pushing the limits of what you can do...if you're doing these things then you're standing for what is right and pain is the inevitable byproduct. Joseph Fielding McConkie said "you can't lift up one end of a stick without moving the other." By this he meant you can't stand for what's right without exciting those who oppose what's right to responsive action. I don't want to go down this line of thinking too far, I only want to point out that if you're doing what's right you'll be opposed, and, because of this, pain results. This might be part of why the person who always did what was right (Christ) suffered more than anyone.

My brother used to have a friend who was a Marine. His friend would often say "pain is just weakness leaving the body." I'm not sure if I agree with that as far as physical things (I doubt the pain of cancer signifies someone getting stronger as their weakness leaves), but I believe this is true of personal/spiritual things. I think this quotation is an accurate heuristic for the spiritual life. I think this because when you suffer, if you view the pain in context, if you understand why it is painful, if you learn from the pain and apply that pain to personal development (thereby growing out of the pain), then your suffering tempers your spirit and your pain quite literally becomes the sign of your weakness leaving you. At that moment you are, as Mary Antin described, suffering the pains of your spiritual growth.

When I look back at my life (the little of it I have lived so far), I often think of the really difficult times. I can't help but look at the painful moments I dealt with properly and feel a sense of pride. But conversely, I often think of the challenges I backed down from or avoided and think about the opportunities I may have missed and I feel a deep sense of regret. I resolved early in my life to never back down from the the opportunities presented to me--no matter how difficult. Unfortunately, I have frequently failed at this-- choosing the cold comfort of consistency over the indeterminacy of opportunity. But regardless of this, I have had some wonderful successes that have made it possible for me to say looking back on it all that the most defining (and beneficial) times in my life were born in uncertainty.

There are so many changes ahead for all of us. I hope we make them correctly, not based on a fear of the painful or unfamiliar, but rather, based on a determination to do what's best. Lets take the higher road (I've been told it makes all the difference) and see what we can become. It may be painful at times, but hey, they're growing pains.

Well, that's about all the motivational sentiment I have, I guess I'll have to go back to posting videos depicting swearing censorship.

**Oh, and I should have probably defined "pain" in this post. I used the term to mean anything from mild discomfort to extreme suffering; basically, I used the word "pain" to represent opposition of any kind.**