Human Meme

Once we were quaintly shy, now were are merely anxious! Labeling conditions for the benefit of society has always been a human fascination. As terms grow, and conditions change, we tend to toss away the old label in order to apply a fresh one -- removing the cruel history of what once was for the kinder notion of today.

There is glory in the bean. There is salvation in the nut! 40 years ago, some Midwestern farmers gave up growing alfalfa -- animal feed -- to instead grow soybeans to feed people. Today, dairy farms are giving up the cow to grow the almond nut. The cruelty of Animal Agriculture is dying, while the Human Feed Harvest is growing even stronger!

The mark of the editor is blue. Everything created faces some sort of editorial change in production. Do you honor the object? Or do you celebrate the creator? You cannot admire both without the other suffering. Every Blue Pencil is a lesson in hubris and humility; but can we accept the stings of changes?

Too often, we act in haste and not hegemony. We are instinctually programmed to react to pressure -- while the better of us choose, instead, to respond to danger instead of becoming part of the tension. The cohesion of the human soul requires a response, and never a reaction.

Are we our thoughts, or are we our vows? In the everlasting battle between mind and country, we struggle to define our private lives against our best public interests. Do we owe ourselves to our moral victories, or our solemn vows? We cannot cut it both ways!

Henry Fonda never stopped being where he was from. He was always an up-from-the-dirt Nebraskan, and the consequence of that fatality was an effect on his performances that was always influenced, and echoed in the dirt, sand, and gravel of the braided prairie. Nebraskans are famous for being friendly, but befriending a Nebraskan is altogether another matter!

We don't need to know better; we need to know differently. We must always be aware of challenging our past experiences against a future memory in amber. Do we really know everything required to live a prescient life? Or do we need to release what holds us back from learning something new? Have we yet to learn the correct, existential, pronunciation of Worcestershire sauce?

Reading used to mean something of value was exchanged for the experience. Today, a book is but a memory of what it once meant to huddle your mind in a safe haven against a toxic sea.

All children deserve our protection. Our children are abused every day by overeating, lack of sleep, and media exploitation. Let's address, and fight back against, this sort of abuse-by-proxy!

We want our aesthetic to be universal; but it is framed by us where we stand. SuperGenius literary critic Harold Bloom urged us, before he died this week, to ask beyond "What is it for?" -- and to move our thoughtful analysis into a wider notion of wondering with understanding that breaks the context of nationalism, and severs the ties of human boundaries.

We add definition to what we know by the skeletons we see. We recognize on the horizon the difference between a Church Steeple and an armored tank by processing a precognitive understanding of the midline of a skeleton structure based upon what we see. We apply those definitions of danger, and safety, to the rest of our lives in language and human associations.

Even our SuperGeniuses can sometimes be wrong. Let there be no doubt Bob Lefsetz is an intellectual giant among us. Several times a week, he implores us to be better people in his ubiquitous "Lefsetz Letter" but, alas, last week Bob released a missive entitled, "The Deaf Installer" that missed the mark, and wounded more than it healed. Here's why...

We make a difference by not trying. At least that's the idea of the game we play against money and power. We're hired to think, and act, but in the end, the authority above us only wants stasis and non-elasticity. How do we fight the incongruity of irrational change?

We are constantly bombarded with negativity. How can we escape this whirlwind of insecurity, and cruelty, that surrounds us from all sides? We must ignore the inevitable, and celebrate the possible. Our lives depend upon our care.

We lead sticky and wet lives! The residue of our emotional responses never leaves us -- and that can be both good and bad. We examine three terms of residual emotion: Lenticular, Electrical, and Modular. Own what you know!

Have a double-healthcare-whammy: Bleeding and Pooping! Welcome to the world of malignant skin cancer and E. coli food poisoning! Plus, we talk about Shingles, and why you must, absolutely, get a yearly flu shot. You came for the meme, you left with the malignancy!

We often believe without knowing. Here's the true story of a young, Lily-White Boy from Nebraska who sought to attend -- and was accepted by -- Howard University in Washington, D.C., a traditional Black College.

If change is the vitality of life, then we must wish for change to never end. We prefer to carve our lives into subsets of accomplishments, but what if there is no end to us until we are no longer? What if there is no destination, and we must find our own joy while always spinning in perpetual movement? We dream while awake. We sit while standing still.

Contracts codify relationships. Many of us have no idea how to write a relationship, or how to save the human condition from a legal crumbling. Yes, you can, and must, write your own contract. Know the steps. Memorize the parts. Own the project whole by remaining fair, calm, and intrinsic.

You grow up hard, and cold, in Nebraska. Expectation is high for any person born in the flatlands. Loyalty is demanded, and tested. Responsibility is pleasure. You learn the hard way how to behave, and how to live up to the opportunity around you. Here's a story about wisdom teeth extraction, a radio show, and the hard-won lessons of living up to the inescapable fact of becoming who you are before...

Don't listen. Talk. Talking to yourself is more important than listening to your gut. Talk to soothe. Talk to win. Talk to conquer. Talk to vanquish all fears.

Shakespeare knew we were flawed in the dark. We think we know, we think we see the light -- but we are always, and already, burdened by now knowing, but with the full understanding of that in which we do not know.

Write it and forget it. That's the right advice to follow when you are an active writer. Danger lurks in the past. Know the present through being where you stand. Your writing will be better for the knowing.

We don't know what we do not know until we ask. We ask and answer about the mysterious health benefits of coconut water; the excellence of the Nike Training Club; the great work of sleep doctor Matt Walker, and more!

We are not our futures; we are only our past. How, then, do we test time, and efficiency, and the promise of productivity from the bliss of the abyss? Malcolm Gladwell does not accept the idea of using timed tests to determine success; but so many programs for the Gifted in public schools require an exam that values time management over the purely creative thought. Here's a True Crime story that n...