With "Why" Comes Greater Responsibility

1
In the wake of the Sikh temple shooting we hear again from emotionally distressed bystanders and experts in these matters how everyone is trying to understand what happened.

I share the pain (insofar as one not directly affected is able, internally and privately), and I share the desire to understand, but I am not optimistic we can. I think I know (part of) the answer, but it has many pieces and there are too few people willing to impose the controls on behavior that would prevent acts like this.

There is a cost that comes with a free diverse society that has limited government intrusion and optional or irrelevant religious scaffolding.
In other words, when you remove order, whether it's imposed externally or internally, you will see behavior that cannot be understood, because it exists outside the framework within which we understand things (regardless if that framework is logical, efficient, fair, or reflects the natural order of things).

The older I get the more I realize there is good reason why we teach our children to do things "because that's just the way you do them."[1] Most people most of the time, who don't have the desire or need or capacity to ask why, need to be told simply to act thus and so, or otherwise suffer consequences.

That is too bad, for there are good reasons for many restrictions we impose on ourselves, but few are listening anymore.

[2012-08-06]

 

2
What's on your fridge?

Robert Fulghum, author of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, said something to the effect that a refrigerator door not full of memos and lists and the products of children's imaginations was a sad thing; a full door says something about the home and love inside. Our fridge gets pretty cluttered and I clean it up when it's out of control. I had a free minute while the coffee brewed this morning [2012-08-05] and took this picture. There are photos on the side that you can't see, including a picture of colleagues from 10 years ago, which for the life of me I can't figure why I still have; it predates not only my fridge, but my home.

[2012-08-05]

 

3
Things my grandfather used to say...

"Anyone can get a job, but it take a special person to keep one."
--Thomas ("Tommy") Graham Cairns

(Thomas G Cairns was my dad's dad; Grandpa was what you would call a district director in those days; he ran Loblaws stores in Erie and Buffalo. Loblaws is a Canadian company that closed US operations many years ago and sold to Quality Foods; it still operate in Canada, and very successfully.)

[2012-08-02]

[1]
IMHO it's always okay to ask why, but with "why" comes greater responsibility, which includes continued orderly dialog on troublesome topics that divide us. You can't just pick up your ball and bat and go home. We challenge and debate and compromise for the good of all. If we don't, the side with the bigger bat will always win.