Category: Josh Feingold Blog

I received an interesting email from my Uncle after this post:

“Other than your keen sense of curiosity, why are you so interested in the why of it all? If it were all divine, what difference would it make to you? …You can continue to figure it out or forget about it.”

I have to admit, his question was very valid.  I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about the world, but why do I do it?  What is the motivating factor?

I gave this some thought the past weekend, and realized that for me, it is about control.  IT is about control of the ultimate environment, since only by understanding something can we attempt to manipulate or control it.  Of course, there is also the mystery of it all, but my passion behind things is really to make sense of it all.

In fact, I would argue that we all have this need for control, but we outsource the answers to whatever religion we choose to accept the beliefs of.  However, for me, having not found respite in religion and belief, I am forced to find my own way if I want to somehow attempt, however vainly to control my outcome.  And we all have the same outcome.  Death.

Of course, if I think rationally about this, it is fruitless labor, since there is no angle that I am thinking about that others haven’t thought about before me.  Or is there?  After all, that is probably the question that keeps me persevering forward in my search.

One of the interesting outcomes is that I discovered a need to control.  As you know from my thoughts on happiness, only be ridding oneself of needs can they find contentment and happiness.  So I realized that what I needed to do, was remove this desire to control from myself.  This need to have a plan.  This need to know what will be.

So like other things, I decided to take a control break.  I’m not going to try to control my environment, or seek to really understand it, rather just live it, and enjoy the ride.

I’m not sure how long that break will last, but my gut feeling is that by taking this route, it will finally break down my last remaining need, and allow true happiness to overcome my life again.  I guess we will see!

Having been thinking about inter-connectivity at a base level, I really appreciated the following blog post that I bumped into by accident.

“I think that in life, it’s important to remember that everything is attracted to everything else.”

He quotes a TED video which demonstrates that when we jump, our own gravity, pulls the earth towards us, just as the earth’s gravity pull us towards the earth.  (Please note that I didn’t watch the video, but it makes sense.)

Similarly, we see in Quantum Physics, which I know nothing about, so I’m out on a limb a little, an idea called Quantum Entanglement.  My base understanding is that even over extreme distances particles can remain interconnected, even if there doesn’t appear to be any particular physical connection.

The upshot of this peripheral scientific evidence to me is that connection is part and parcel to who we are at a base level.

After all, all of the universe in modern science theory comes from the big bang, where all matter was dispersed from a singularity (again somewhat of a guess based on a little reading).  So it would make sense that all matter would be interconnected as well, which would play itself out in relationships.

It also explains the feeling of having been somewhere before, or connection to a particular place or person that is reported from time to time, in a more scientific manner.

So perhaps the post from yesterday, which claimed that interconnectivity is a belief of mine based on experiencee, really has a base in science.  However, since I’m not a scientist, I really have no idea.

On the heels of yesterdays post, when we talk of those influences that can be attributed to Nature, I think that most scientist would look and say that each attribute has a survival mechanism at its base.

However, having thought about life, I question if there is another type of nature beyond survival mechanisms.

Now, this is not something I can scientifically prove, however, it is a gut based on my own personal experiences with unified connection.    So in truth, as someone who is against belief based on the experiences of others, I might suggest that if you haven’t had a similar experience, that you skip this post.

The basic idea is that there is a deep desire to connect to others, based on the recognition of self in others.  This helps me understand why without my personal selection of another person in my life, I feel lonely – and more specifically I feel disconnected from the world.

You see, by selecting a person, I am recognizing the fact that I am connected to another, and only in doing so, finding natural fulfillment of self, which I continue to think is bigger than the individual, and is that which grounds us to the world as it exists in reality.  However, as you can see this is not a natural need based on survival.  (Though I will admit, I can see how others might argue with this, and say that only by personal selection are we maximizing security.   Or can I fully project my security.  I don’t think that argument is strong enough to explain why I need to choose, when I know I am not alone.)

So in truth, this is the only exception from the scientific perspective of nature, and I’ll have to see if this idea holds water as I continue to think about things.

 

 

 

We often talk about the influences of man as being Nature vs. Nurture, but in fact this is false.

I’ll explain.

You see, the basic aspects of man are finite.  Yes, there is a spectrum of most any action or like you can think of, but in truth, each of us falls someone where on a spectrum.  And the number of spectrums are finite, resulting in the basic aspects of man as finite as well.

Jung referred to those aspects of self that we repress as the shadow, but what is one man’s shadow is another man’s open personality.

The upshot is that we are of mankind is predisposed to a finite amount of characteristics.  Those charistraristics that we assume are defined by nature – our natural inclinations, and nurture, those that come from our environment.

However, what is important to realize is that since the range of attributes is fixed, those external influences from our environment are already part of our nature, that we then assume

Further, if we weren’t predisposed to these outside effects, we would probably not learn them ourselves.  For example, if we grew up in an environment that before we ate we howled at the moon, would we really hold on to that once we were not in the environment when it was needed?  Of course not.

However, even if you disagree with the previous thought, it should be clear that even those aspects which we attribute to “nurture” are really just part of our nature.  The only difference is if our nature is influenced by internal forces (aka nature) or external ones (aka nurture).

Just a thought.

I wrote a childrens book a few weeks ago, and published it as an eBook on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/new-releases/digital-text/157615011

I’m not really looking to make money from it, since my understanding is that there isn’t much money in children’s books, and I don’t think that is where my career will be, so I want to donate the proceeds to a relevant charity.

Does anyone have a recommendation of a charity with very low overhead, and great impact at helping children succeed in life who have come from abusive homes?

If so, please send me a recommendation!