Merry Christmas

Hope you all had a good Christmas. I know mine was lackluster, among other things, but hopefully you all had a better one than I did! Another post is soon to follow.

Thoughts on US Education Standing

Link to article found here: U.S. Standing at Risk: Education Leaders Propose Action Agenda

For months now, I've heard about how America's global standing in terms of education - namely technology, science, and mathematic fields - has been slipping. A few nights ago I ran across the article linked above, and it does seem that people are attempting to bring the issue to ahead.

One of the most interesting things that caught my eye in this article is the quote that it ends with:
"These are demanding recommendations that will require the commitment of everyone — schools, colleges and universities, parents and students, and state and national leaders — but the dividend will be historic... We must create a system that works, a system that propels all students toward success and rejects anything less."

It spoke to what my own philosophy about all of this is - everyone involved has to want to improve the system before anything substantial can be done. And since I'm sure that this problem will only get worst before it can get any better, I'm left to wonder what tactics will be done to try and scheme students into performing well. One such method I can think of is paying children to do well in school.

Fundamentally, I have a severe issue with this. I don't believe that anyone should be paid some type of monetary stipend for their success. It was recently brought to my attention that a fair amount of a certain grade in my school is either in danger of failing, or plainly failing their classes and now things are trying to be done to fix it. One of the students in that grade then suggested that they get paid to encourage people to pick up their grades. And to me, this just kills the point behind learning and what school should ideally be about. Once you start to pay for success, I believe that it will set up a dangerous precedent leading people to believe that for every 'good' action they do, they'll get some form of material award. This is not a realistic reflection of how life truly is - not to mention it will then shift the focus of school away from whats being taught and absorbed even more than it is now.

So here is my suggestion to the educators at Collegeboard and elsewhere: Emphasize the act of learning itself, not the grades or any type of scale that is measure with a high-risk mentality. If you're able to instill a love or at least genuine interest in topics - especially the ones we're lacking in - our world standing will surely increase. It will create a much wider culture that would value education instead of the crap we have now.

Finally, what does this mean for the world that I will graduate into? I use to think when I was younger that my American citizenship and education would allow me to go anywhere I wanted in the world, but as I get closer and closer to the finish line, I'm not too sure anymore. The pool of competition keeps growing and growing and I'll be one more fish in the sea. Will my education, even if it is from a prestigious institution in America, be a joke on the international stage? All I can say is Americans need to 'step up with our game' as goes the slang. No longer can we lackadaisically blunder along while the rest of the world carries on without us - its this type of ignorance that is leading to our asses being kicked in many more areas; education is not the only grave obstacle we have to overcome.

The Singularity and Duality of God

I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.


The commonplace and simple religious understanding of God is of a single nature - to think that God is purely based off the basic principle of goodness. Yet, this doesn't manage to sit well with me. How could any being - holy or otherwise - be so perfectly aligned to one side of morality, while we mortals are forever doomed to trudge along the dividing line, slipping back and forth between the darkness and the light? For after all, were we not made in His* image? It is clear from just living that the world around us is a reflection of our own mislaid souls - both are capable of unquestionably fantastic things, while at the same time proficient at destruction.

Indeed with this singular comprehension of God, one could argue that Satan provides the opposing counter-weight. One pure good, the other pure evil - two essences - that lend themselves to the label of sharing a dual existence. But then, it also understood that Satan is and always will be weaker than God, the good one - the better one.

It is here that we also run into another problem. Duality calls for balance between the forces - one can't have more of a pull than the other - So here is another theory: What if instead of God and Lucifer being two separate - but in no way independent - beings, they were two sides of the same individual? Such an individual would be a much more accurate demonstration of our own psyches - it would be easier to perceive our creation from its hands than the hands of a do-gooder, no? For why and how could something of pure light make such muddied creatures. How could it had even known or possess the ability to grasp shadows, unless it did in fact leave some in its wake?

To me, it is this version of god that makes the most sense - that seems the most human.

Or course, perhaps God is truly neutral in our lives, merely being without much sway towards anything?

*Who is to say God is male of female? Doesn't that bring up the question of duality itself, should we give the concept of god a gender? Where is the counter-part?

Angels and Mortality

The abyss that is mortality -

Can one say that this very world - the one we as a race have created, not the natural world we 'tainted' - is an effort to escape it? After all, we are the only beings that have gone so far as to leave our stamp upon time. But, is it worth it? In the end, we all shall succumb to it and its magnitude of a complete and utter end. To what lengths are we willing to go to make sure that the thought of our beings, outshine the actual staple that was 'us'?

And what about Angels? Do they represent the possible Übermensch within all of us, or are they truly monsters simply by virtue of their perceived perfectness? Do they fear that very same abyss as we do, despite their proximity to God? After all, they have been drawn as humanoids throughout the centuries so that we may feel a connection between us and them. And many a times, they still have they're humanity among them - that weakness of heart and dilemma along with the strength and courage deep down within.

Can mortality swallow them up whole, just as easily as it can us?

To be Inspired and Rebuke To The Nature of Inspiration

Here are somethings I wrote awhile ago.

To be Inspired:
Inspiration, to me at least, is realizing just how small you really are, relative to all that surrounds you. But then, within that smallness, that great minuscule sum of being, you start to become cognizant of the fact that you can create a difference.



Rebuke To The Nature of Inspiration:
At that same token, one that important, it must be understood that inspiration has a dark side. Coming to the realization of your own infinite smallness, while being able to spark that great light within, can also diminish whatever was previously there. Being small and surrounded holds the possibility of feeling lost. Of feeling that your will has no impact on the proceedings ahead and behind you. And so, you allow yourself to float away with the ever constant river of time. For it doesn't stop, not even for a second.

The state in which inspiration is created, can also be where all hope is lost.