An Act of Love and an Act of War

WHY I BLOG:
AN ACT OF LOVE AND AN ACT OF WAR

But I don’t know how you do it, making loooovve,
out of nothing at all – Air Supply

Even the word is nasty: "blog" -- certainly an uncomfortable word. But it is the word that exists, and is known, and that represents a technology that, paradoxically, has not yet been replaced by, or improved upon, by social networking platforms -- at least neither Facebook, LinkedIn or Google+, to the best of my knowledge.

This entry, as many to follow, will be written as a stream of consciousness, without any or much forthought, editing, or perfectionism (among other reasons, for those hinted at in my previous entry, "Perfection and its Enemies". In addition to reasons hinted at in that brief essay, the lack of time, the vast range of subjects to be covered, the importance of speed, just-in-time sharing of ideas and other such reasons motivate a sloppy, not-too-cautious approach to publishing in real time. Very distinct from the approach to be taken by "serious" intellectuals, academics, professors, scientists, and professionals -- and yet, valid in its own way, and, in some senses, perhaps of greater value, in at least some way, due to the crude, primary, at times emotional, unprocessed, and perhaps now and then, intuitive, stream-of-consciousness, fly-by-night forms of expression. I don't like being "serious" or taken too seriously anyhow. Too much ego involved...

Truth and knowledge are simply not reserved to the domains of professional, rational, logical discourse or to the perfection of the "modern", if you will, "western" approach to knowing, understanding, discovering, communing, communicating, connecting, contributing... There are other paradigms, other paths, other ways -- other ways of being, of knowing, of feeling. One simply needs to be minimally aware of the myriad expressions of music, dance, cuisine or culture -- of human and, for that matter, natural bio-diversity. Life is too diverse, too vast, too great to be nailed down into a fully explainable, understandable, rational framework by any one person, profession, sector, ideology, philosophy or other school of thought or mechanism of processing, understanding, framing, and re-transmiting "reality" to others, as it fully, truly is, in all of its vastness...

So, I reserve the right, as millions of other bloggers, writers, commentators, intellectuals, pseudo-intellectuals, artists, and others do, to blog away without always, if ever, adhering to all kinds of sets of rules, regulations, dictates, specifications or other formal or contextual impositions... Sure some standards, many standards, are most useful and valuable, but there has to be some balance to allow creativity, spontaneity, and expressivce authenticity to flow...

Which is, perhaps, a first reason Why I Blog: To be free. To be free to express myself, to say my part, to elevate my voice, to join the host of politically, socially, environmentally, or otherwise-motivated individuals from all cultures and all nations on earth who blog to express themselves and share their truth, or at least their insights, comments, opinions and perspectives of some aspect of reality as they see it (which is not always the "truth", but that also is a different subject).

I also blog because there is not yet a better tool, at least not one that I know of, to publish short and medium-length thoughts, comments, and essays in an efficient, effective way and to share them publicly, rapidly, and with a minimum of hassle. I really don't get why the large platforms have not yet tackled this... hmmm...

I blog to express myself, to express the love, passion, compassion, rage, beauty, joy, hope, dread, fear and other emotions which invade me more often than not. I blog to rant and rave, to share insights and perspectives, to seed ideas, concepts, thoughts, and debates, to do my part to contribute to flushing out a greater sense of understanding, perspective, communion, and alignment, to contribute to the co-creation of beauty, truth, justice, insight, joy, hope, trust, goodness, kindness, empathy, prosperity, freedom, and other noble causes, values, qualities,  and pursuits -- and hopefuilly in alignment with, more often than in conflict with, other compassionate, sensible, intelligent sentient beings.

I blog as an act of love and an act of war, as a form of protest and of engineering, of art and gossip, hearsay and joy, of emoting and expressing, of rationality and philosophy, of spiritual yearning, seeking, teaching and learning, communicating and communing, of co-creating reality and leaving my tiny footprints in the vast sands of time... in one word, as a form of love, of making love, as the song goes, out of nothing at all...


Of course, I have my personal war with blogs and blogging, but that is content for a different entry... More soon. Hopefully. Peace. Light. Love. Namaste.

Perfection and its Enemies

PERFECTION AND ITS ENEMIES

Lo perfecto es enemigo de lo bueno - Anónimo

A well known quote in Latin America states that “perfection is an enemy of goodness”, or more literally “the perfect is an enemy of the good.” 

Two powerful concepts, two different world views – one which corresponds more directly to the Anglo-Saxon , Eurocentric, western, protestant, Calvinist, and rational view of the world and another pertaining to the far more informal, imprecise, oftentimes irrational or marginally rational, intuitive, oftentimes magical, subjective, non-dogmatic world view which prevails in Latin America and other “developing” and emerging nations.

Clearly there is a direct connection between the perfectionism that prevails in certain cultures and nations and the degree of “development” and wellbeing which prevails in said nations – Switzerland, Germany, Korea, Japan, Israel, and to some extent, England and the United States come to mind. It is no coincidence that highly sophisticated scientific and technological breakthroughs -- and the capacity to translate innovation into industry and commerce – prevail in those societies which value perfectionism.  

Rationality, precision, integrity, feedback, teamwork, honesty, transparency, clarity in communications, in human interactions, in the production of handicrafts, tools, products, and services and in all other domains of life are the hallmark of individuals, communities, sectors, cities or nations that treasure perfectionism and strive towards perfection in workmanship and other domains – including, but not always, human relations and individual and collective wellbeing.

In the third world, on the other hand, in nations like Bolivia, perfectionism is in fact an enemy of the good. Citizens in imperfect societies would never – until forced otherwise – disrupt a perfectly civilized meal, decent nap, or friendship in order to comply with rules, regulations, quotas, timelines or other externally imposed forces which, in the name of perfection, precision, logic, rationality, reason, and such other values or qualities, do away with the perfection that lies dormant in goodness. Good food, quality time, healthy relationships, a happy family, a stable community are far too important to neglect in the name of perfection and its related qualities…