Yes.
And loving someone does not necessarily mean that you approve of their current actions.
As any parent knows, it is possible to love someone and to put in place conditions which encourage them to act in ways that are more beneficial to themselves and others in the long term.
And we all need to be able to deal powerfully with the "what is"ness of the now - without blame.
History is valuable for the opportunity it gives us to create a more powerful future.

My Dad and Mum, many of my school teachers, Mrs Kai, Trevor Blanks, so many others Peter Molan, Chris Hickey, Johnny, Rex Smith, A E van Vogt, Charles Darwin, Arthur Clark, Isaac Asimov, Albert Einstein, Kurt Goedel, Helen Keller, Ed Hillary, Bill Edwards, Brian Johnson .......

Definitely more time thinking about the future.
I have certainly spent some time appreciating the events of the past and present, and being thankful for the amazing life that I lead; and mostly I think about the future.

A lot of time has been thinking about the sort of future I want to see for humanity, and how to bring it into being effectively.

There seem to be a lot of groups with political and monetary influence that have little imagination to see beyond the limits of past patterns of behaviour and economics.  These groups seem intent on reducing the population by whatever means, irrespective of human cost.

I believe it is possible to have a world where we have a lot of people, yet every person experiences all the resources they need to live a responsible life, food, shelter, transport, communications, freedom to travel and explore where-ever their particular bliss leads them.

Nothing is certain, and nothing is completely free of risk, and within that, I believe that self replicating robotics, designed to work with the ecology of the earth can provided us all with the tools to live great lives.  Nobody left out.

Certainly this vision will not happen unless a minimum group of people agree to make it happen - about 10,000 is the smallest number that could possibly do it, if amongst their number were a few individuals with the resources of a Bill Gates or Warren Buffet or similar.  About $30Billion over 10 years ought to do it.  www.solnx.org gives an outline of how.  Eliminate wars, hunger, poverty - once and for ever.

This is not necessarily the "right way", and it is one possible future that appears to be workable and achievable - and far preferable to the "probable, almost certain, future" facing humanity at present.

And maybe someone will come up with something better that I haven't seen yet and I will join them - until that day - come join me - please!

Other than that I've been working on sustainable fisheries in many fora, as president of the local boating club, as a member of Te Korowai O Te Tai O Marokura, as a member of the NZ Recreational Fishing Council, the policy council of the NZ Seafood Industry Council, and various other bodies.   Doing what I can to communicate the hopes and fears of the various groups in terms that can be understood other groups.

Then of course there is home and family - creating a great relationship with my beloved wife and daughter, and my son (who has left home but still calls for assistance from time to time).

Then there is golf, and the elusive par round.

Then there is fishing.

Then there is flying.

Then the is nephew Daniel getting married in two weeks.

Oh - my business - designing computer sytems - a few projects there that are getting urgent.

Mmmmmm - not dull this future of mine/ours !!!

Pink Floyd

All of the major ones.

Jesus seems like an interesting sort of a bloke.  When you take out all the sunworship stuff (3 wise me, death and resurection after 3 days, etc) and get down to the story of a young Jewish lad who had the termerity to challenge the orthodoxy of his day, and say that God is within each and every one of us, none of us any better or worse than any other, and that love is the way to go.  That bloke I could have a decent conversation with methinks - except I don't speak the language he spoke.

Buddha seems similar - someone who went through the mill, and emerged with compassion for all.

Aint gonna happen, but an interesting thought.

Love Peace Power Passion & Prosperity to All

Ted

I don't plan on leaving (though it remains a significant probability that I will); and it doesn't seem at all likely that there is any possible way to be anything other than what I am - a human being - so the question doesn't make much sense.

I can gain some empathy for others by trying out different situations, but each of us only gets to experience the world thrrough our own perceptions, filters, and distinctions - which may be very different from anothers, and we would never know.

In terms of empathy, all we can do is plug in some memory of our own experiences into our imagining of what another's experience might be.

So - I shall continue to be me, whatever that may be, for as long as I am able.

I have a hard time loving any act of cruelty.
I can love people who are sometimes cruel, yet not approve of their cruel actions.
This extends to all those who support economic and military systems and policies that cause hardship to some individuals.
I can at times love them, but not their misguided actions and policies.

The deepest level of intuitions I can find.
The key to the greatest contribution I can make to humanity, to life, to evolution.
Peace and fulfillment.
Yet I know that these things are not to be found, but to be generated.

Courage to do what needs to be done, and the self control to do it with impeccability.

I don't think that question makes any sense.

The idea that there is a specific destiny that is there for us to fulfill just does not make sense to my mind.

What I see is that we each have a specific set oc circumstances we are born into. 

We each come with a specific genetic heritage, that in combination with the environment and our choices gives us our specific bodies.  We are each born into a culture, which has a large influence on the development of our minds, and the probability that we will become fully self aware and fully self actualising - creative in the deepest sense.

Yet beyond body and culture, we have an aspect to us that in today's world of computers can best be hinted at as a piece of self declared software running on the hardware of brain in the operating system of culture.

This three phase being has an interesting aspect that the software self awareness has no direct access to the outside world (though it doesn't initially know that).   What it gets to know is what it is supplied by the combination of sense, brain and culture. 

Sense organs supply the brain with limited information.  The brain then organises this and make a predictive model of what is going on outside, which it updates (corrects) as new information becomes available.
Culture supplies us with concepts that give meaning and significance to certain aspects of this model.
Thus what our self awareness gets to experience as reality is more like the shadow of a shadow - rather than reality itself.

Our software self awareness gets to use the power of intuition, which is a side effect of the way the hardware of brain stores and retrieves information.   Intuitions create links between things.  Sometimes these links give us powerful new ways of viewing reality, sometimes they are not well corellated to reality (ie are inaccurate - wrong).

This power of intuition has the possibility of linking us to every pattern that has ever existed, and a lot that have not yet existed in reality, but exist in possibility space.

At a fundamental level, intuition underlies our creativity, then our awareness gets to act as a sort of filter - sorting and choosing which of the intuitions get to make it to the realm of action, and out into affecting reality, through our words or our actions.

Intuition happens at every processing centre within our brains (of which we have more than 20 operating simultaneously).

Thus - I see that we are each infinitely creative entities.   Each of us gets to choose from the vast raft of possibilities hat reality supplies as we deal with all that we experience.   Each choice has an impact on what happens next.   There is no possibility of anything so complex being known beforehand.

In a very real sense, we create reality in our being.

Each and every one of us does our little bit in creating the world we live in; in making things happen that would not otherwise have happened.

In this reality there are an infinite number of possible strategies at an infinite number of possible levels.  If we are looking out for own best interests then we will examine what works long term, and it will become obvious that in the long term, what works is looking out for each other's best interests - Love.

What are you going to choose?
What are you going to do?

My purpose is what I choose.

I acknowledge no ultimate external control over me, and I also acknowledge I am but one of billions of entities capable of determining their own purpose.

I oppose strongly cultural imperitives that teach people that they have no real control, that there "purpose" is externally given, and they are not taught to fully develop or exercise their creative powers.

I say - choose your own purpose.
Look to your deepest intuitions in doing so, by all means - yet own your own choice.

Accept all that the universe has to give you, acknowledge the gift in it, and then exercise your power to create, and choose.

My 2c worth for the evening.

Love to all

Life.
Some old patterns repeating.
Some new patterns forming.
Enquiries into integrity leading into strange and often beautiful places.
Definitely getting outside the comfort zone.

Traverse this blog for some details if you wish.

That sometimes it gets you in the strangest of ways.
It can be both the most painful and the most delightful of things.
It is not fair.
It is worth all the pain.
It is the greatest of things.

That I wish more people would wake up to their own creative potential.

I wish that everyone would choose their own purpose, rely on their own inuitions at least to the point of testing them themselves.

I wish more people made the effort to learn what science has discovered, and to learn how the scientific method really works (which for the most part is nothing like how science is taught in schools) - it is more like immerse oneself in something that realy intrigues you, learn all you can about it, then push the boundaries, seek out you deepest intuitions, then test those intuitions, and if they fail to be disproved, have the courage to speak your own truths to others (knowing they may not be the whole truth, but they appear to be a valid part of the whole).

I wish that everyone could look at the wisdom of the ages with respect, but be willing to reinterpret it in the light of modern knowledge.

I wish we would disinvent the concept of God as something that controls and /or approves or disapproves of us; and rather see ourselves as part of a universe that is connected at many levels, and in many deep and profound ways.

I wish that every human being could see the infinite creative potential, the love and the value of every other human being; and of living systems in general.

I wish that more people would support me in extending human lifespans, and creating systems that support every human being to be whomever they responsibly choose, to do whatever they responsibly choose.

I wish that every human being could experience the bliss of love, both for and of another; starting with one, then moving to all.

I wish that every person could experience the joy and wonder of being - of the amazing depth that is life - ourselves and the ecologies that support us.

Right now we have just come in from walking the dogs, it is 9am, the sky is clear, the cicadas are clicking, birds singing, Ailsa is playing guitar and singing, Jewelia making herself some breakfast, birds and butterflys flutter outside the windows, and majestic 9,000ft mountains thrust up from the sea shore, as the pacific and australasian plates colide in stupendous slow motion.  MAGIC !!!!

Love to all.

Ted