More Random Thoughts - June 2025

Blog 6-20-25 Random Thoughts

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I was noticing that though a tree is a tree, each one is different. One could say that all are imperfect, mis-shaped, gnarled, damaged, broken, etc. Or one could say that each one is perfectly unique. I need to work on seeing myself and others the same way.

I was wondering what the similarities and difference(s) were (if any) between America’s very own ICE Force and the German Gestapo in terms of function.  For example, fear-based control, targeted surveillance and raids. Ideological goals. Purpose. Methodology. Legal constraints. Accountability/oversight/checks and balances. Scale/role of violence used. Scale and scope of actions. Ethical, moral, and social questions raised.  

What is the impact on families, communities, and populations?  What happens when enforcement agencies act with relative impunity? How do governments balance national security and human rights? At what point does fear-based enforcement undermine democracy itself?  What’s the purpose behind and effect of the shielding of the enforcer’s identity.   

I spent a few hours reading about it.  Daring, caring, intriguing, challenging and sobering reading.         

Sometimes people ask me to look over something that they are about to send someone. My first thought is “I wonder if the most important part about this message is that the writer needs to be heard, or if it is most important for them to be understood.”  Most often, they are not the same thing at all.

I was at a friend’s house recently and flushed their toilet. The sound was like what I would hear during a thunderstorm, sort of a distant thunderclap. That got me to wonder about a potential product to invent, develop and sell. A toilet designed to give you whatever sound effect you wanted when you flushed? The possibilities are endless.

In my work, I talk about the reptilian complex. A part of the human brain, made up of different parts (cerebellum, amygdala, etc.) that we all have. It’s the first part of our brain to be fully developed and the last part of us to die. I wonder to what degree my fear of snakes represents my fear of the reptilian part of myself. Do snakes feel afraid of other snakes? If I became more comfortable with my reptilian complex, would I be more comfortable around snakes? Same question relative to my mammalian brain? By sharing all this, you have gotten a glimpse of what my brain is constantly doing.

A lady friend of mine remarked that a certain company’s logo looks remarkably similar to a type of erectile problem. Good catch. The disease: Peyronies Disease. Which company? If you buy things online, if you keep that image in mind, you’ll see it. Unfortunately, once you see it, it is one of those things that you can’t ever un-see it, so you might not want to go there.

I was checking in for a doctor’s appointment and as she was typing me in, the attendant had to stop to scratch her nose. It got me to wonder, how does the brain know it is time to interrupt what a human being might be doing and command the finger to do its scratching thing. I’ve been in situations where I had the urge to itch my nose and didn’t. Gradually, the need to itch my nose went away. What’s that all about?

We notice darkness because we know light. Yes, a political comment.

I was wondering why drinking glasses are, for the most part, wider at the top than the bottom, making them top heavy. At least that is what I blame for my clumsiness when I knock over my glass of water.

One of my favorite foods is fried sauerkraut and Italian sausage links. Though I like it a lot, the smell of it cooking caused my young grandson to start wailing. I finished cooking it outside on the grill.

I was reminded being told once that the auto pilot function on airplanes was “wrong” over 90% of the time, and it works by noticing when the plane is off course and simply adjusts towards the ideal. It doesn’t judge itself as being defective or wrong, nor does the user. Oh, that we could give ourselves and others that same grace. Two things would be necessary, monitoring the effects of our behaviors and willingness to adjust towards the ideal. That takes a LOT of ego strength (as in, admitting that I was ‘off course’). The second is to possess some kind of effective corrective mechanism. Which, in my opinion, is missing these days in this imbalance of power.

Sleep, it seems to me, strips away the quilt of intellect and in those first few moments of awakening, I am exposed to the truth of my emotional, authentic self. What’s REALLY going on for me emotionally, is right there in full view. As I awaken, at least for the first few moments, the honest, raw truth of how I am doing; my emotional, authentic self is right in front of me. My intellect rushes to cover back up as if being aware of my authentic self represents some kind of danger.

To come to love someone, comes after falling in love with them. The second gear of the vehicle called love.

A new year’s commitment for me is to write something every day. So far, so good. Did you know that in some of the traditional cultures, one of the primary responsibilities to the ‘community’ was/is to share the ‘lessons learned’ by those who have had five or more decades of life experience? It was/is not dependent on whether or not that ‘elder’ believed they had anything worthwhile to say or not.

I would love to have in my hands a ‘wisdom’ book written by my mother, father, grandfather, grandmother, or my ‘greats.’  So, if you have the urge, do it. If you don’t have the urge, do it anyway. It’s not for you; it is how our species has survived. By learning the lessons of the ancient ones. I used to suggest it is a moral obligation. I realized the other day that it is a divine duty.

I like Iceland. The name tells me exactly what to expect. Ice. The only state that does something similar is Colorado. All the letters necessary to tell me what to expect are in a bit of a code form. COLoraDo. I live here, and trust me, it lives up to its warning.

As I was sharing with a friend my excitement about an upcoming trip. I noticed as I was imagining the good things that would involve, how good it felt to anticipate something good. It simply completes the circle if that something good turns out to be a good experience. I just read a study that suggests that such things really help keep the brain healthy.

It was December 9th. I was daydreaming as one of the most spectacular cloud formations settled into the foothills of the Rockies. Then there was this incredible racket. Turning my head to the left there was this flock of one hundred or more geese, flying in a perfect “V” formation. That in itself was not so unusual, where I live seems to be a flyway for geese. What blew my mind was that they were headed NORTH!!!!  Ten days before the shortest day of the year and winter about to begin. I couldn’t help but see that as a metaphor. A leader of a pack headed in the wrong direction with resolute followers blindly trailing along. Maybe he knows something that all the other geese are ignorant of. As I finished that thought, another flock honked by, headed south.

I believe that there is a connection between gutterances and gunshots.