Astrology n' stuff
There's this show on [adult swim] called "Home Movies" that I love. I watch it with my beau all the time and I just can't think of an episode that I didn't like. Last night, little Brendon (the main character) is forced to learn how to play golf for the sake of his father's sick and twisted desires.. to have an eight year old golf player. When he tells his soccer coach this, he is posed the idea that "if you're not great at something right away, why bother?". Kinda sad, but don't we all think that from time to time? All that said to say this - I'm looking into ASL classes at the local community collage. And I'm possibly even going to try a class to finally learn how to read music. I've thought about it and mentioned these things before, but today I've sent the initial emails requesting more info on classes. So, fingers crossed :)
Now for the astrology portion of the entry. I like astrology. It's fun. Sometimes it's even fairly accurate. But I'm a very logical person and can be kind of skeptical of things like astrology - it's not a science, it's just a guess, like most things in life - who can really take it to be completely true and/or accurate? Well, while reading through the last book in my Hitchhiker's series, I came across this:
"I know astrology isn't a science... Of course it isn't. It's just an arbitrary set of rules like chess or tennis... The rules just kind of got there. They don't make any kind of sense except in the terms of themselves. But when you start to exercise those rules, all sorts of processes start to happen and you find out all sorts of stuff about people. In astrology the rules just happen to be about stars and planets, but they could be about ducks and drakes for all the difference it would make. It's just a way of thinking about a problem which lets the shape of that problem begin to emerge. The more rules, the tinier the rules, the more arbitrary they are, the better. It's like throwing a handful of fine graphite dust on a piece of paper to see where the hidden indentations are. It lets you see the words that were written on the piece of paper above it that's now been taken away and hidden. The graphite's not important. It's just a means of revealing their indentations. So you see, astrology's nothing to do with astronomy, It's just to do with people thinking about people."
Wow. I mean, wow. I don't know if Mr. Adams actually felt that way about astrology, but I have never, ever, heard it put into a better context. Just thought I'd share it with my friends out there - believers and skeptics alike :)
Now for the astrology portion of the entry. I like astrology. It's fun. Sometimes it's even fairly accurate. But I'm a very logical person and can be kind of skeptical of things like astrology - it's not a science, it's just a guess, like most things in life - who can really take it to be completely true and/or accurate? Well, while reading through the last book in my Hitchhiker's series, I came across this:
"I know astrology isn't a science... Of course it isn't. It's just an arbitrary set of rules like chess or tennis... The rules just kind of got there. They don't make any kind of sense except in the terms of themselves. But when you start to exercise those rules, all sorts of processes start to happen and you find out all sorts of stuff about people. In astrology the rules just happen to be about stars and planets, but they could be about ducks and drakes for all the difference it would make. It's just a way of thinking about a problem which lets the shape of that problem begin to emerge. The more rules, the tinier the rules, the more arbitrary they are, the better. It's like throwing a handful of fine graphite dust on a piece of paper to see where the hidden indentations are. It lets you see the words that were written on the piece of paper above it that's now been taken away and hidden. The graphite's not important. It's just a means of revealing their indentations. So you see, astrology's nothing to do with astronomy, It's just to do with people thinking about people."
Wow. I mean, wow. I don't know if Mr. Adams actually felt that way about astrology, but I have never, ever, heard it put into a better context. Just thought I'd share it with my friends out there - believers and skeptics alike :)