Things we have learned as we grew up and matured

[Riveroaks]

Last night as I was reading my modern philosophy classic, I mused about the process of learning and growth it had taken to get to a point of appreciating the need for and composition of the science of philosophy. This led me to a recapitulation of all the things that children and adults learn in their lives and the order in which they learn it. Here is my list in order of acquisition of knowledge, beginning at birth, and up through near-retirement.

- play
- socialization
- language
- music & singing
- church & religion
- bicycling & exercise
- counting
- reading
- writing
- fishing & hunting (for play, for socializing & for food)
- math
- geography & history
- science & astronomy
- nutrition
- grammar
- foreign language
- algebra & geometry
- probability & statistics
- calculus
- logic, ethics & philosophy
- civics & government
- dancing & socializing
- dating & romance
- self defense
- military & war
- trade school & profession
- legal & justice
- finance & accounting
- taxation & legislation
- humanitarian relief
- humane animal rescue
- environmental clean up & conservation
- leaving the Earth a better place than you found it.

 

[Riveroaks]

PLAY -- Everything begins simply with play. All mammal infants and juveniles play. Even before they can speak or even walk, they play. At first they play alone. Eventually they play with playmates. Play leads to learning, exercise, entertainment, and socialization.

Play also leads to hobbies and leisure activities, and in certain cases to new career and employment opportunities.

In adulthood, playing with a problem normally leads to its solution.

The earliest philosophers and scientists were playing with human thought and academics in order to evolve philosophy and science.

For many of us, reading about philosophical principles is recreational and therefore also play. In this case we are using play as a learning activity.

 

[Riveroaks]

LANGUAGE -- a child's mind seems to be uniquely skilled at assimilating language, from the simplest such as Spanish to the most complex such as Russian or Mandarin. Children from mixed language families even easily and quickly learn both languages of both their parents who speak different languages to them. Children who learn dual languages as children tend to have an easier time picking up third and fourth languages as they grow older as well. Language is the third thing that all children learn, right after play and socialization. All mammals use some form of verbal communication. My cat is very verbal and anytime he wants something he gives me this particular plaintive wail. Anytime he wants to be left alone he gives me this particular wailing growl -- it is a warning that I am about to be hissed at and swatted with a fore paw. And whenever he is happy he purrs. Cats and kids are very similar in many respects.

 

[imagep]

A while back an atheist was telling me that we brain wash our children into believing in religion. It sounded odd to me, but after giving it some thought, I have to agree.

Children are not born Christians or Muslims or anything else. They are all pretty much blank slates. Humans do have a natural curiosity though, they are always asking "why". Religion gives them them the "whys" to what we otherwise can't explain, and since religion is typically taught to children by someone that they have been told to respect, children simply accept what they are told, especially when it is repeated over and over.

 

[Riveroaks]

A while back an atheist was telling me that we brain wash our children into believing in religion. It sounded odd to me, but after giving it some thought, I have to agree.

Children are not born Christians or Muslims or anything else. They are all pretty much blank slates. Humans do have a natural curiosity though, they are always asking "why". Religion gives them them the "whys" to what we otherwise can't explain, and since religion is typically taught to children by someone that they have been told to respect, children simply accept what they are told, especially when it is repeated over and over.

An X-Mormon told me that he and his wife did not want to have their young children brainwashed by the Mormon church, so they quit.

I guess they themselves dealt with growing up in it just fine, and went through the brainwashing themselves, and did all the things right that brainwashed Mormons do -- but with their own loving children that is where they drew the line.

All religions brainwash you.

I am a brainwashed guilt ridden Catholic. But I know where to draw the line and I am not afraid to disagree with the Pope.

My ardent Catholic friends often point out to me that if I disagree with the Pope then I should not be taking communion.

Oh well, if this is a sin, then I only commit it twice each year by taking communion at Christmas and Easter only.

I'm not afraid to disagree with Jesus either. I am willing to forgive and forget my enemies. But I will refuse to pray for them. That suggestion of His in the Sermon On The Mount goes too far.

 

[poweRob]

A while back an atheist was telling me that we brain wash our children into believing in religion. It sounded odd to me, but after giving it some thought, I have to agree.

Children are not born Christians or Muslims or anything else. They are all pretty much blank slates. Humans do have a natural curiosity though, they are always asking "why". Religion gives them them the "whys" to what we otherwise can't explain, and since religion is typically taught to children by someone that they have been told to respect, children simply accept what they are told, especially when it is repeated over and over.

That's called "God of the gaps." Where when people use religion as a way to claim knowing things they don't really have answers to... or don't want to find out. They fill the gaps of their knowledge in with "because... God" and being that God is omnipotent that means such an answer is supposed to be unquestionable and therefore right.

 

[Riveroaks]

MUSIC & SINGING -- these are taught to children for the original purpose to keep them preoccupied and happy. The songs are nursery rhymes and fun to sing. They also help little kids to learn. Everyone has learned the ABC song to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Music and song are major methods of religious indoctrination as well, and also promoting nationalism. It is also an outlet for entertainment.

Hiking songs and marching songs preoccupy armies from dwelling upon the soreness of their feet while on the march. One of the most inspiring running songs that I ever learned was this:

Up in the morning to the rising sun
Gonna run all day til the day is done.
I left my baby in New Orleans
I left to join the United States Marines
Cause I didn't want no teenaged queen,
All I want is my M-fourteen!

I remember learning and singing that song in OCS (technically called OCC) while I was nursing a hurting heart from missing my girlfriend who was back in Southern California. Then it finally occurred to me that she would still be there when I got back and she was not going anywhere and she was too ugly for anybody else to like with a gap between her two front teeth and all, so I should just stop worrying about it and focus on the training instead. And then all I really wanted was my M-14.

The song worked for me!

Similarly, everyone around the world is moved by their own nation's national anthem.

Music is powerful stuff. And so is singing.

 

[Riveroaks]

Church and Religion -- now we get to the really heavy brainwashing stuff.

Church attendance around the world varies country by country. Currently it looks something like this:

54% - Poland
52% - Malta
46% - Ireland
39% - USA
33% - Slovakia
31% - Italy
29% - Portugal
27% - Greece
25% - Cyprus
21% - Spain
20% - Canada
18% - Austria
18% - Slovenia
12% - UK
12% - France
12% - Hungary
11% - Czech

Any who did not make the above list is at 10% or less.

Most people attend church because their parents did. This is rarely not the case. The trend therefore everywhere is downwards.

Church is where you learn religious rules, which can best be further defined as ethical and social as well as moral. One of the major complaints about church education is that it tends to be narrow minded and intolerant. With further education and enlightenment, more and more young church goers as they grow up begin to question what they have been taught.

Some topics are very controversial. Birth control is such a classic case. As is abortion. So also is G/L-marriage. Capital punishment also falls within the controversy, with the Bible seeming very pro-capital punishment but more and more open minded people questioning its fairness or cruelty.

My personal view of organized religions is that they cater to their own needs at the expense of their flock. I did not always hold this view, but now I do. My own mind is now free and I am no longer chained to any organized religion by brainwashing. Free at last! It took a very long time though.

 

[Riveroaks]

Bicycling and exercise -- on of my favorite topics.

I remember as a small child getting my first bicycle with training wheels on it under the Xmas tree. But I had to wait until spring to ride it, because there was deep snow all over the ground at this time. At the same time my middle sister got a scooter, and my baby sister got a tricycle. For a while we all 3 rode together on those vehicles, but eventually my sisters started playing together exclusively and then I was off an running on my bike.

I asked my dad to take off the training wheels and he said I was not ready yet.

So I asked a neighbor friend to do it and he did. I came home bruised and scraped that day, but no worse for the wear. It was the first time I had ever defied my dad with a work-around procedure to get my way in spite of his will to the contrary.

Eventually I was riding far and wide, and as an unexpected benefit I was getting a lot of exercise that way too.

Naturally the bikes got bigger and bigger. I remember wishing at one point in time that the bike was a motorcycle. I finally graduated to motorcycles and rode them for decades. Eventually though I sold off all the motorcycles and simply came back to the self propelled bicycle.

Now I have a top of the line Cannondale mountain bike and I truly love it. It has become the source of most of my exercise.

Riding bicycles is a phase that most kids go through while growing up. The really fortunate adults are those who return to bicycling again in full maturity.

The bicycle is the most common form of transportation in the world, and China is the leading producer of bicycles in the world.

 

[nota bene]

An X-Mormon told me that he and his wife did not want to have their young children brainwashed by the Mormon church, so they quit.

I guess they themselves dealt with growing up in it just fine, and went through the brainwashing themselves, and did all the things right that brainwashed Mormons do -- but with their own loving children that is where they drew the line.

All religions brainwash you.

I am a brainwashed guilt ridden Catholic. But I know where to draw the line and I am not afraid to disagree with the Pope.

My ardent Catholic friends often point out to me that if I disagree with the Pope then I should not be taking communion.

Oh well, if this is a sin, then I only commit it twice each year by taking communion at Christmas and Easter only.

I'm not afraid to disagree with Jesus either. I am willing to forgive and forget my enemies. But I will refuse to pray for them. That suggestion of His in the Sermon On The Mount goes too far.

As difficult as it is, praying for your enemies is a spiritual victory.

What part(s) of the Sermon on the Mount are "too much"?

 

[Riveroaks]

As difficult as it is, praying for your enemies is a spiritual victory.

What part(s) of the Sermon on the Mount are "too much"?

I would say loving and praying for your enemies is "going too far."

An enemy is someone who is trying to rob or kill you.

Enemies deserve to die.

I'll pray for them after I have killed them, and forgive them of their sins which they have thus received absolution for with their lives.

But not before that point in time.

Maybe that's also what Jesus had in mind? Don't know however because the Greek New Testament is very brief on that point. St. Matthew did not cover that in his chronicle of the Sermon On The Mount in that amount of detail, if that's what Jesus meant.

 

[Goshin]

I would say loving and praying for your enemies is "going too far."

An enemy is someone who is trying to rob or kill you.

Enemies deserve to die.

I'll pray for them after I have killed them, and forgive them of their sins which they have thus received absolution for with their lives.

But not before that point in time.

Maybe that's also what Jesus had in mind? Don't know however because the Greek New Testament is very brief on that point. St. Matthew did not cover that in his chronicle of the Sermon On The Mount in that amount of detail, if that's what Jesus meant.

Loving my enemies and praying for them has always been a tough one for me. My inner Viking just wants to drink mead from their skulls.


But as I've gotten older I've begun to see the value in it. It isn't really about them... it's about you.


But still, you're not required to remain in contact with people who are flat out toxic and refuse to change.

Matt 18
"Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican."

 

[Riveroaks]

Loving my enemies and praying for them has always been a tough one for me. My inner Viking just wants to drink mead from their skulls.


But as I've gotten older I've begun to see the value in it. It isn't really about them... it's about you.


But still, you're not required to remain in contact with people who are flat out toxic and refuse to change.

Matt 18
"Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican."

Good quote, Goshin. You are very well versed in the New Testament !!

 

[JumpinJack]

Last night as I was reading my modern philosophy classic, I mused about the process of learning and growth it had taken to get to a point of appreciating the need for and composition of the science of philosophy. This led me to a recapitulation of all the things that children and adults learn in their lives and the order in which they learn it. Here is my list in order of acquisition of knowledge, beginning at birth, and up through near-retirement.

- play
- socialization
- language
- music & singing
- church & religion
- bicycling & exercise
- counting
- reading
- writing
- fishing & hunting (for play, for socializing & for food)
- math
- geography & history
- science & astronomy
- nutrition
- grammar
- foreign language
- algebra & geometry
- probability & statistics
- calculus
- logic, ethics & philosophy
- civics & government
- dancing & socializing
- dating & romance
- self defense
- military & war
- trade school & profession
- legal & justice
- finance & accounting
- taxation & legislation
- humanitarian relief
- humane animal rescue
- environmental clean up & conservation
- leaving the Earth a better place than you found it.

I think that most people don't learn all those things, and not necessarily in that order. For example, girls are typically not exposed to fishing & hunting. And many have no wish to leave the earth a better place; they live for the here and now and what's in it for them. Hedonists are like that, aren't they? Most people never really learn nutrition beyong some basic guidelines (eat your veggies; go easy on fried foods).

 

[Riveroaks]

I think that most people don't learn all those things, and not necessarily in that order. For example, girls are typically not exposed to fishing & hunting. And many have no wish to leave the earth a better place; they live for the here and now and what's in it for them. Hedonists are like that, aren't they? Most people never really learn nutrition beyong some basic guidelines (eat your veggies; go easy on fried foods).

Well you are definitely right about the fishing, JJ. Mostly also true of hunting as well.

I learned about food groups and nutrition by showing home ec movies to girls' high school classes. The groups are --

- meats
- vegies
- fruits
- carbs
- dairy
- fats.

There is some crossover between fats and the others -- like dairy (butter/cream) and meats (beef/pork).

Whenever I cook I try to include most of them and avoid the fats. But butter is a fat, and milk has some fat in it. Although fish and seafood are lean, the other meats have some fat in them.

I figure everyone is somewhere on this long list above, and learning more every day.

I read history books both ancient and modern to learn more now.

Litter is the worst problem I see around my own neighborhood so on my way to take out the trash to the dumpster I always walk around the block and pick up any litter I see and put it into my trash bag. One of my French epee Olympic swords broke, and so I disassembled it and sharpened it up to skewer trash and put it into the bag. Works great that way.

Crime is becoming a bigger and bigger problem. My home was burglarized about a year ago, but fortunately the thief got away with very little because all my valuables are locked inside a tall safe.

Burglary, robbery, assault, and murder are the big crime problems in the USA now. Practically every big city suffers from them.

Things are becoming a lot like the Old West used to be -- at least in the movies if not in real life.

 

[the_recruit]

Where's 'alcohol'?????????????????

 

[Riveroaks]

Where's 'alcohol'?????????????????

I have learned that to make your own alcohol, vodka is the easiest.

It can be made from potatoes.

You need a distilling kit ('still), and you need to be careful to pour off the tailings (beginning and ending distillate) or else you will die if you drink those.

Pure vodka needs to be cut with filtered water and flavored with citrus for it to taste any good though.

In most states, you can make your own beer and wine, but distilling is still illegal virtually everywhere.

 

[Riveroaks]

Counting ...

Little kids learn to count when their parents and teachers make a game out of the learning part.

And then there are also the nursery rhymes --

- This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home;
- This little piggy had roast beef, this little piggy had none;
- How I recall my dear old mother putting me to bed;
- She tucked me in and said,
- To her little sleepyhead,
- This little piggy was a bad little piggy who cried all the way home;
- Years have passed but it's still my favorite poem!

That's probably the earliest one that any English child or American ever hears.

In preschool we sang this one at the school play --

- One, two, three,
- Look at me,
- I'm a happy cowboy!
- Four, five, six,
- Roping tricks
- Are easy for a cowboy!
- Seven, eight, nine,
- Sure is fine
- Riding in the West!
- Ten! Ten! Hit the trail again!
- A cowboy's life is best!

Learning is always more fun if it is taught like a game.

Bertrand Russell, in his book "Principia Mathematica" takes 347 pages before reaching a definition of the number 1. He is probably the most brilliant modern philosopher of our times.

Little kids are a lot smarter than that and they pick up 1, 2, 3 much faster intuitively. Good thing.

God gave us 10 fingers and 10 toes, and we can use those to count with. The toes reinforce the fingers and thus most children make the correspondence intuitively and automatically and they thus determine on their own inductively that there is something special about the number of 10.

Computers can only think in terms of Base 2 -- the binary system. They are stupid machines.

We as Humans being created in the Image of God have much more noble and glorious purposes set before us. We create the machines.

We first created stone tools from stream and river rocks by hammering them against each other until they broke into stone knives, axes, spear heads, tomahawks, and arrow heads. Whoever the first cave man was who made his wife the first stone kitchen knife probably got laided that night out of sheer gratitude by the cave woman.

Base 10 is therefore very natural for us. The ancient Egyptians used Base 10 and were the first to do so. Any Greek grandfather will argue that the ancient Greeks knew Base 10 also -- a myriad being simply ten thousand of anything -- mostly hoplite soldiers. Very few things in ancient Greece or Egypt reached numbers of myriads besides soldiers squared in phalanxes for infantry combat with spears, shields, and swords against the enemies of the pharaoh or king.

 

[Riveroaks]

The ancient Hebrews chose Base 7 however, originally from the 7 wandering stars in the night sky called planets, but attributed by Moses to the 7 days of creation whereupon God(s) rested on the 7th day.

AELOHIM is a plural name, so I always put an "S" on the end of it when I write the corresponding Word in English - God(s).

Moses is the first person that we know of who led 600,000 souls out of anywhere -- in his case ancient Egypt.

Xerxes the King of Persia also commanded 600,000 during his invasion of ancient Greece. As did Napoleon during his invasion of Europe.

As did Hyrum Ulyses (aka U.S.) Grant, during his invasion of the Confederate rebel states.

We count into the billions and trillions today, and there are more numbers waiting for us in the future called quadrillions, quintillions, sextillions, septillions, octillions, and nonillions as inflation continues to grow. These are American-English names for counting things. In ancient Greek, the myriad (10,000) was about as high as the numbers ever got.

My dad taught me how to count. First he covered 1 thru 10. Then when I wanted to know more, he covered 11 thru 100. We finally got all the way up to 100 million together. I got an A in preschool in counting.

My dad was used to counting very high numbers. He learned it in college in Rock Island Illinois, same town as where Civil War General John Buford came from. Same state as where Ulysses S. Grant and Abraham Lincoln came from.

My dad had to count ammo and supplies for his tank platoon in WW2 Europe. I don't know how many German tanks he killed over there, but I know he woke up screaming in his nightmares afterwards. I would jump out of bed and go running into his bedroom and he would be writhing in a nightmare. I would put my hand on his arm and wake him, and ask him what was wrong? He would just say go back to bed.

My mom was used to it and would just roll over the other way and ignore it.

They were a most noble generation -- my Father's.

We don't know if the Hebrew God(s) really created the Earth and Universe in 7 days or took longer, or if Moses just made up that story to pacify the 600,000 whom visions and theophanies had compelled him to lead out of ancient Egypt.

600,000 people is more than any person short of having a huge thermonuclear weapon at their ready access could ever control.

Thus it is acutely obvious why Moses had to weave stories and tales about God(s) and creation to indoctrinate and brainwash the 600,000 he was then leading.

His own life depended on it now.

Until Xerxes invaded Greece 10 centuries later, there was no need to count up to 600,000 again after Moses first did it.

A few myriads was good enough for the ancient Greeks.

 

[Riveroaks]

Reading ... and the alphabet -- I better carve that out of my story about numbers and put that here.

I'll start this with the Name of the Hebrew God(s) of Moses -- AELOHIM. It is the third word in the first book (or scroll) of the ancient Torah which Jews call Bereshet and Greeks call Genesis.

AE is the guttural stop which represents basically all the vowel sounds in ancient Hebrew and Greek -- AA, AE, AI, AO, AU -- the consonant sounds of B, G, D, CH, V, Z etc. being formulated without vowels in Hebrew and Arabic. Ancient and modern Hebrew and ancient Egyptian all have 24 letters of the alphabet -- the alef-bayt.

The first writing that we know of from around 1450 BCE was that of Moses (Moshe in Hebrew) cataloging the numerous laws, ordinances and procedures which the Hebrews numbering 600,000 now needed to use to regulate their affair with each other. Funny thing how when you put 2 or more people together there is immediately occasion for discord. And with 600,000 now on his hands, Moses needed to write things down quickly. His father in law Jethro helped him with that. His lovely wife, Jethro's daughter, whom Moses met at the well while the several sisters were trying to water their sheep, we are not told a lot about. Whether she and her children stayed with Jethro in Midian or went with them into the Sinai we are never told. There is no further mention of them given however after Moses takes off with the 600,000.

Josephus Flavius is the primary historian who serves as our technical source for these writings.

Little kids call the English alphabet (which came from French, which came from Latin, which is hybridized Egyptian and Greek, which is ancient and related to Hebrew and Babylonian Semitic in many respects) the "A,B,C's." Alef-bayt and Alfa-Vita means A,B's in Hebrew and in Greek, which is the same notion.

An alef is a herd or a tribe or a thousand of anything in Hebrew. It is also the initial sound associated with the Hebrew and Babylonian God(s). It is a plural name, not singular. Being plural it can be masculine or feminine or mixed both.

A,B,C's is like counting, however you are counting phonetic sounds not numbers. Phonetic means from Phoenicia. Phoenicia was a seafaring people of the Eastern and Southern Mediterranean whereas the ancient Greeks were a seafaring people of the northern Mediterranean. The Phoenicians taught the Greeks the A,B,C's.

When Moses was a little kid after having been fished out of the river by his mother a princess of Egypt, according to Josephus, she having kept the child and raised him as her own, apparently her father not wanting her to marry anyone and she wanted a child in the meantime -- Moses was then raised and schooled by Egyptian scribes. How he learned the ancient Egyptian A,B,C's we will never know because he never wrote about it.

When Moses thereafter endeavored to write down the laws given him by his Hebrew Patron God(s), he must have invented a pictorial alphabet which became the Hebrew and then the Phoenician and then the Greek afterwards. History does not tell us where the Phoenicians learned to write, but it is no small coincidence that their writing was close to the same as Moses' Torah.

 

[Riveroaks]

A bayt is a habitation -- for the ancient Egyptians and Hebrews a 2 roomed small house. Mom and dad could sleep in one room and the kids in the other. The chamber pot could go in the kids room and there would be privacy there when the rest of the family were in the other room.

Thus A-B the pictograms for the bird which represents the sound for the name of God(s) and for the two roomed little house, becomes the alef-bayt in Hebrew or alpha-vita in Greek or alphabet in Gothic Germanic.

The rest of Moses' new Hebrew alphabet looked like this:

A
B
G
D
H
V
Z
CH
TET
Y
KAF
L
M
N
SA
AYIN
P
TZ
QOF
R
SI
TAV

When the ancient Greeks learned it from the Phoenicians they noticed that the vowels sounds except for AE and AYIN were missing. So they added some for vowels. In Hebrew you just use the AE guttural stop and put punctuation around it to indicate the other vowel sounds of AA, AI, AO, or AU. Note that AYIN is a diphthong -- a multiple vowel sound for AE-AI.

English and American kids learn the alphabet song, which is a modification of the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star song -- once again learning made fun so that children will have fun while learning.

 

[Riveroaks]

English and American kids learn a form of pictogram fun learning as they are taught their A,B,C's.

As I vaguely recall:

A is for apple
B is for ball
C is for cat
D is for dog
E is for elephant
F is for fox
G is for giraffe (which gets complicated when G is for GO not GIRAFFE)
H is for house
I is for Indian (not from India but from the American West)
J is for jaybird (which gets confusing since this also sounds like GIRAFFE)
K is for king
L is for lion (this is true in ancient Hebrew as well, and the Greek word is the same)
M is for mouse
N is for nurse
O is for ostrich
P is for puppy
Q is for queen
R is for rabbit
S is for sailboat
T is for tugboat
U is for uniform
V is for vase
W is for water
X is for Xray
Y is for yellow
Z is for zebra.

It's amazing my mind can remember these pictograms after so many decades ago. I guess I had good teachers.

Alphabetization thus evolved originally from pictograms in ancient Egyptian and ancient Hebrew, and now we also teach it to our kids with modern pictograms as well so they can pickup the sounds for it.

 

[Riveroaks]

From this point on, kids learn to read and write and spell by putting these phonetic symbols we call the alphabet together into simple words:

apple
boy
cat
dog
egg
for
girl
house
it
jump
king
lion
mouse (same spelling as house just change the letter)
not
old
put
queen
run
stop
to
under
vase
want
xray
yes
zebra.

It's really amazing all that kids must lean in their first few years of life --

- language
- colors
- counting
- numbers
- spelling
- reading
- writing.

Children are extremely bright and apparently programmed for learning.

Children learn by imitation. They imitate their parents, teachers, and their friends.

It then take a long, long time -- decades -- for people to un-learn imitation.

Imitation is always the sincerest form of flattery. But at some point people need to learn to STOP following the crowd and STOP simple imitation of others.

That's where philosophy comes into the picture -- when people finally stop imitating others and start to think for themselves.

Philosophy is the beginning of all clear rational thought process.

Thales of Miletus is the first philosopher that we know of from history. Aristotle probably the greatest of all time in terms of achievement. Bertrand Russell the most recent genius in philosophy in modern times.

Little kids love to ask "why." I suppose that makes them little philosophers of a sort.

It is always good to ask why.

Then make a good long list of the possible answers as to why.

Then perform further inquiries and experiments to figure out why.

Then wisely and cautiously choose the right answer from the list of possibilities -- not just imitations.

 

[Riveroaks]

What happens to Moses after he leaves the Hebrews in the wilderness with Joshua in charge is a mystery.

We are not told. Not even Josephus Flavius has a clue about that.

Joshua, continuing Moses' narrative, says that Moses died. Maybe that's what Moses told him to say.

Logically, Moses would most likely have returned to Midian to his wife and his children whom he left there 40 years ago.

Anyway, that's my guess.

Joshua is also a very interesting name -- it contains the sacred holy name of the Hebrew Deity YHVH.

 

[Riveroaks]

Fishing & hunting --

My dad was a fisherman but not a hunter. After his own experiences during WW2 he gave up on all the shooting sports and did not want to see a gun ever again. In those days they called it battle fatigue. Now we call it PTSD.

My uncle and older cousin were hunters but not fishermen. They did not have the patience to just sit and wait for a fish to jump on their line. But they loved to hunt. In western Illinois where they grew up and lived, squirrels and rabbits were the main quarry of hunters there.

I learned to fish first.

Another uncle and his wife who had no kids lived in Dallas, and my dad used to bring our family to visit them once each year, usually around Labor Day. On the first day there, my dad and uncle and I would take off for the lake to catch fish. They both loved to fish, like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. For me this meant being dragged out of bed at 4 a.m. before the sun came out and jumping into my jeans, flannel shirt, and Converse basketball shoes to head out to the lake. I was 6 years old.

My uncle had a boat and all the fishing tackle you could ever dream off. He hauled it behind his Ford pickup truck. My dad was a Chrysler man, on the other hand. But a Ford was better than nothing. This trip was the very first time I ever had gone fishing. So they set up the tackle for me, explaining everything as they went along. They even baited my hook and cast the line for me. Then they handed me the rod to hold onto in case I got a bite.

I was fishing off the front end of the boat, while they were fishing off the back end together, talking about good old times, Europe, WW2, relatives, smoking and joking. Just then my float ducked underwater. I jerked on the line the way they said to, and then started reeling-in the line. The heard me reeling and asked me what was going on? I said I think I got something.

So my dad came over and took the rod and began to reel it in, and sure enough something was fighting him. My uncle said that it was probably a lake turtle trying to steal my bait. When my father reeled-in the line all the way, there was a fat catfish on it !!! I netted it with the big fishing net, and brought it into the boat, and then they demonstrated how to take out the hook. The also put the catfish onto a stringer and hung this over the side of the boat for me. Then they put more bait on my line and gave it to me to cast it out myself, which I did.