gratitudes, science, christmas gathering, dumplings, the shit show
yesterday i was grateful for christmas tree shopping and palace dumplings...
today i am looking forward to the farmer's market and christmas shopping on main street...
we bought our christmas tree yesterday... kissing balls for the front porch too... we bought from a local nursery... sunny gardens... $500... not so long ago it was half that much... i am grateful to have the resources to buy...
science has been on my mind lately... this from maria popova this morning...
Aldo Leopold on How to Hear the Song of Life ā The Marginalian
Science contributes moral as well as material blessings to the world. Its great moral contribution is objectivity, or the scientific point of view. This means doubting everything except facts; it means hewing to the facts, let the chips fall where they may. One of the facts hewn to by science is that every river needs more people, and all people need more inventions, and hence more science; the good life depends on the indefinite extension of this chain of logic. That the good life on any river may likewise depend on the perception of its music, and the preservation of some music to perceive, is a form of doubt not yet entertained by science.
in a world where "facts don't matter," this objectivity is sorely needed... but people need to be trained to deploy it...
Facts donāt matter. Why? Because people make decisions based on their emotions. After choosing, they seek āfactsā and āreasoningā to support conclusions they reached without using either. That is no surprise to you. Iām sure you can readily think of examples of other people who do this unconsciously.
Here is the trap, you do this too, and just like everyone else, you arenāt aware you do it either.
The question isnāt whether or not you do this. The question is, how can you train yourself to do better?
this calls to mind iain mcgilchrist's the matter with things...
The book "is an attempt to convey a way of looking at the world quite different from the one that has largely dominated the West for at least three hundred and fifty years [i.e. since the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment] ā some would say as long as two thousand years."
the book argues western civilization has emphasized left brain apprehension of the world to the near exclusion of right brain apprehension and this is causing problems... i am wondering if technology is driving us into left brain emphasis... capitalism too... i know... i am constantly saying capitalism is the root of all our evils, but it is hard not to draw the conclusion from the evidence i see... mcgilchrist wrote another book before mwt, the master and his emissary: the divided brain and the making of the western world...
i have downloaded the master and his emissary and perhaps will read during the holidays...
from the shit show...
https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/december-6-2025?selection=6d166b8d-7c2c-446c-8a29-65d86b447c7c&r=3lmw0&utm_medium=ios
They have traded the rule of law for the rule of Trump, weaponizing the Department of Justice against those they perceive as enemies, pardoning loyalists convicted of crimes, and now, executing those they declare are members of drug cartels without evidence, charges, or trials. They have openly rejected the world based on shared values of equality and democracy for which Americans fought in World War II. In its place, they are building a world dominated by a small group of elites close to Trump, who are raking in vast amounts of money from their machinations.
as we were doing christmas gathering yesterday we were near palace dumpling a great dumplings restaurant... we stopped to have lunch...
