Monday, June 18, 2012

Shit.

Well, I fell asleep before I wrote my entry yesterday. But, you didn't miss out on much. Yesterday I went in two hours early to prep for the Father's Day rush. I stayed a busy busser the entire time, which is how I prefer it. My manager told me I did better than than Memorial Day weekend, which I take as a nice compliment. I also received twenty bucks in tips, which for a busser on a non-stop day like Father's Day is shit, but for me its mas que nada.

Then I came home and my dad and I had a conversation about the metaphysics of the universe. My father is a large proponent of The Secret-esque believe-and-you-shall-receive-from-the-universe ethos (e.g., if I imagine me losing ten pounds everyday, the universe will abduct it away). Of course, my instant problem with this is the idea that the universe favors 9-to-5-ers casting wishes into the belly of the cosmos for a raise and blatantly ignores the desperate pleas of the starving or downtrodden. Not the rape victims and unjustly accused. Not the babies of Haiti or the enslaved of Uganda. The problem of evil is one that will always prevent me from believing in any higher power that favors mankind. I know I'm not alone in that.
Of course, these beliefs are usually tied in with quantum mechanics. (As a side note: I've never met anyone that really holds a decent understanding of quantum mechanics.) A lot of liberties are taken with quantum mechanics. You only need to watch almost any show on the History Channel to know this. One thing that irritates me the most however, are the liberties taken with Schrodinger's Cat. For those of you who aren't familiar with this, Schrodinger's Cat is a hypothetical situation in which a cat is placed in a steel cage wherein a Geiger counter and a bit of radioactive material is also placed. The cat is left in this cage for an hour, in which the radioactive material has, from what I understand, an atom has a more or less 50/50 chance of decaying, in which case a mechanism would be set off that shatters a vile of acid that would kill the cat. While the cat is contained in the cage and unobserved for that fateful hour, he is considered both dead and alive. This correlates into quantum mechanics, but, to me (who has very very very little understanding of quantum mechanics) seems to be a question of phenomenological ontology, or a relativistic reality determined by those who are capable of perception in which objectivity does not exist. Thus, existence is purely determined by consciousness.
However, if consciousness precedes reality, then the universe as we know it must only exist in our shared consciousness. If this is the case, then it must be able to be manipulated by us conscious beings, but, in our everyday lives, do we experience such capabilities? Can I really turn my dog into a dragon by simply imagining it? I don't know if its happened for you, but this has never happened for me.
Again, I don't know ANYTHING about quantum mechanics and I'm not even sure its fair to associate quantum mechanics with phenomenology. However, anybody can tell you that if you simply hope your desires without applying action, the universe usually doesn't throw them into your lap.

Well, enough of that. Today, my father bought a motor boat from two burly Cuban women. It is a small Boston Whaler and you know I'll be riding that around soon. When we returned to our modest Islamorada abode, I took him to eat gourmet sandwiches for a belated Father's Day outing. Then he left to see a lady friend of his. So Ruby and I have the house to ourselves.

Well, I'm off to play more ukulele and get some reading done. So bye.

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