Walking

Perception exercise:

For a day, change your walk. Not to something wacky or silly, but to something noticeably different from your normal walk. Walk this new way for a day. How did you react to this?

In the following days watch how people walk, including people you know. Do their walks in some way provide character profiles of them?

Gender equality

It’s a fact of evolution that homo sapiens is a species that replicates sexually. That means that the biology, anatomy and chemistry of men and women are not the same. So in talking about gender issues, we have to make sure we realize that “equality” and “same” are not confused.

So what about equality? Equality comes up against gender in issues like pay, jobs, sexuality, stereotypes and so forth. But it also comes into play in issues like maternity/paternity leave, custody of children, seduction vs. sexual harassment and abortion. These can all be thorny situations.

That is why equality should be approached from the perspective of the human being. Equality should be judged in terms of human dignity, respect, opportunity, fairness and rights.

Stereotypes

When people give thought to social issues like war, abortion, terrorism, homelessness, education, the economy and so forth, it’s natural and common that their attitudes are based on comfortable, but destructive, stereotypes. In a busy life, there seems to be little time to seek out the resources available to learn about these issues. Just too much information to search out and too much to read.

Being informed and having informed opinions involves being open to ideas that might force us uncover, acknowledge and rethink our attitudes. This is work, and it confronts stereotypical thinking. Sometimes we are lucky enough to find an individual or group we can trust to educate us on a particular issue.  Reassessment when necessary is necessary to prevent calcified thinking.

NYTimes bestsellers

New on the New York Times bestseller list:

Hopping Mad: The Rise and Fall of the Pogo Stick, by Matt Hopper

Penis: Tool of Satan: A Brief History of Celibacy in the Catholic Church, Rev. Paul Bator

Vegan Me: How Soybeans Saved My Life, by Miranda Leafy-Green

Looking Me Straight in the Chest: The Women of Trumpworld Speak Out, by B. G. Apple

The Dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark: Creationism in the 21^st Century, by Jonah V. Abraham

Sacred

Few people truly realize that sacredness is not inherent in the thing or the place. Rather, human beings endow the thing or the place with its sacred meaning. It is through our actions, our spiritual needs or our mythological stories that places and objects take on a dimension of the sacred. In turn these things inspire the sacred in the world around them.

For some people, all of nature and the world is sacred. For others, greed and the lust for power destroy the sacred in everything. And this is critical to understand at a time when we humans are failing greatly to see the sacred in the world and in each other.

Be aware

Be aware of art pretending to be art.

Be sympathetic toward art that hopes it can be art.

Be supportive of art that aspires to be art.

Be patient with art that makes you uncomfortable.

Be critical of art that’s certain it’s art.

Be a champion of art that persists in being art.