From our front porch this morning, we could even see the 1st stage booster separating from the 2nd stage and its return for landing on earth. The only things missed were the roaring sound of the nine thruster engines, and a 4-hour drive from Central California back home to Northern California.
Axiomatic Erosion is the reality of how all formal systems of knowledge, measurement, and understanding inevitably break down into a paradox at sufficient levels of observation.
This means that no formal systems may ever be absolutely defined.
They will always run into an “infinite wall”, or some form of incomplete expression.
UPDATE 2025: “Don’t Die!” is something Voldemort would espouse. “Stay Alive!” is closer to the wizard, Harry Potter”.
UPDATE 2024: Beliefs: 1. Women have a choice 2. No doubt there is a Highest power 3. Science seeks the Truth 4. Sex, like art, is what you make it 5. All good people are welcome to be a great country, yet scoundrels slide. It’s best to have a bias toward goodness unless proven otherwise.
UPDATE 2023: While the snail & snake proved to be problematic, and the mollusk impossible, at least I think I’m over Covid-19. Got one new YOGA pose out of all the suffering. It’s called Sleeping Bear; a good body position for taking the next breath while trying to sleep in the middle of the night.
From 2022: What is on his mind?
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, having nothing to do: once she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures in it. “What is the use of a book,” thought Alice “without pictures or conversations?” ~Lewis Carroll
Be the architect of your life. Know how to arrange it with intelligence. Plant its foundation firmly and develop it with foresight. Life’s a difficult, fatiguing expedition. Intellectual stimulation mixes well with the dust & stones of the long road to eternity.
-Baltasar Gracian
One hour drive freeway north, winding road south home.
Picture the pants being parents to the socks.
Wink instead of nodding. Nod instead of whispering. Whisper instead of speaking. Speak instead of writing. Write instead of brain exploding.
“Ignorance has been our king. Since the death of empire, he sits unchallenged on the throne of Man. His dynasty is age-old. His right to rule is now considered legitimate. Past sages have affirmed it. They did nothing to unseat him.
“Tomorrow, a new prince shall rule. Men of understanding, men of science shall stand behind his throne, and the universe will come to know his might. His name is Truth. His empire shall encompass the Earth. And the mastery of Man over the Earth shall be renewed. A century from now, men will fly through the air in mechanical birds. Metal carriages will race along roads of man-made stone. There will be buildings of thirty stories, ships that go under the sea, machines to perform all works.
“And how will this come to pass?”
He paused and lowered his voice. “In the same way all change comes to pass, I fear. And I am sorry it is so. It will come to pass by violence and upheaval, by flame and by fury, for no change comes calmly over the world.”
A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. (1959)