I once meet a transient black bear in the woods of the Canadian Rockies. It was scary, exciting, fun and a pants pisser all at the same time. That was absolutely a thrill.
Evidence seems to demonstrate that, “We,” as people, strive for the absolute. We want unwavering politicians and we want a religion we can count on. Yet we are faced with a world of transience. The battle between that need for absolutes and the transient nature of all things pretty much defines the battle of the ages.
Why “We?”
To write any piece about “the Other” is damned from the start. Again, we see this in American politics. We hear about how all the problems are born of the Other. The Other party, the Other religion, the Other nation. We take no responsibility for the I or the We. Nonetheless, We are part of a system. We can not any more separate ourselves from the We of “We the people” than we can separate our mind from our body. They are all the same, there is but one.
As observed by many, individualization is very attractive. We love to tease ourselves with the concept of self as a separate somehow better entity than, say, Donald Trump or the president of Kenya. In truth, We are all part of the same system. Somehow We support it. We participate – even when we pretend to abstain.
The good news is about transience. It will continue – absolutely. Well, at least until it doesn’t. For now though, We have change. You can try to hold onto whatever you deem as worthy or absolute. But hey, who’s kidding who?
Luckily, there is Hedonism. I like to travel, scuba dive and ride bikes. I like music and meeting new people. I like the discovery of rare and unusual things, fun places and cool fishes. It serves my Hedonism to have other people around, to meet them and enjoy the resulting encounters. I have no desire to kill or control them. I do not want to steal their resources. I just wanna have fun. So, you can say that my form of Hedonism is limited, perhaps even useful or utilitarian. How about Limited Rule Utilitarianism?
How about it?
In this blog, I plan to write about Africa, Australia and South East Asia. I hope to include almost anyplace to travel that begins in “A,” or even just has an “A” in the name. That is about as Absolute as it gets. The Transience is the travel part.
I once meet a transient black bear in the woods of the Canadian Rockies. I hope that I can recall that story here, some day.
transient truth 