Wednesday, May 16, 2007

G-d, D-rwin, or WPTB

Ran in to work today along the river; seeing the other early-bird whackoes made me laugh and sing. Everything from homeless joes to ex-crew wannabes, all just enjoying the morning.

Look, I am not even sure if there is a god, if Darwin is G-d, or if What Powers There Be give a flying about us humans but, as agnostics go, I err on the side of pragmatism. So, I found my self happily humming a morning tune:

I thank G-d for This Day

(Yah, thanks to Veggie Tales for that one...)

My point is, I can go around filled with anger and malice (and sometimes do), but that does little good for anyone, especially me and mine. So... why not be happy to be alive (which I am; it beats the alternative), be happy for food and shelter and all the "blessings" that I have. Lots of folks out there spend their time trying to "re-educate" others about how lousy life is, but I gotta tell ya, I give thanks every day for the sun in the sky, for my feet on the ground, for that big ole apple pie... Cause a thankful heart is a happy heart, I'm glad for what I have, that's an easy way to start..."

In any case, with regard to good moods and good luck: I am not a believer in luck per se, but I believe in confluence of time, place, and opportunity, and I believe that some people are better positioned (or engineered or socialized) to recognize and better prepared to exploit opportunity.

I also wonder whether it is "entitlement" ("nothing succeeds like success"), or "The Secret," or "The Power of Positive Thinking," or what behaviorial financialists refer to as the biases of "selective perception" and "rosy retrospection" (this in marked contrast to, e.g., certain "cults of the victim," which fall prey to the same biases but in the negative...). Let us assume that all humans are subject to perceptual biases: I would rather be "happy" than "unhappy," and if others can accuse me of "living in a bubble," well, so be it. It's a nice bubble, after all...

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