I’ve seen many relatives and friends of mine post this picture on Facebook or other social media sites. I suppose the point of it is that despite our differences, underneath our skin, everyone has the same skeleton. And everyone will eventually become that skeleton when they die. I suppose the message is that we should all love each other as equals. But I feel that this image misses something. And that is, we become skeletons when we die, but when we’re alive, we’re covered in skin.

+++ title = “05” date = 2019 +++ What is the difference between teacher and learner? We could say that learning is the reception of knowledge and teaching is disseminating knowledge. It’s pretty easy to tell in most American classrooms who the learners and teachers are in the classroom. The teachers present themselves differently, they’re usually at the front of the class and the center of attention. But can we really think of wisdom as a transaction like that?

Whenever someone creates a fundraiser, they usually follow their financial request by saying that its “for a good cause.” If someone is holding a concert that they want me to buy tickets for, they might decide that the money is going to go toward helping homeless people. They will tell me that my money is going toward a good cause. I commend people who decide make the effort to raise money for charity, but I sometimes wonder about what would qualify as a bad cause.

+++ title = “05” date = 2019 +++ Having children, in many ways, is just our version of downloading a copy of ourselves onto a chip (or a cell), combining some of our code (DNA) with someone else, and keeping our traditions, thoughts, ideas, and even physical appearance alive without needing to be immortal. When my son was born, I was subject to this kind of thinking: my kid is a copy of me and my wife, a way to remain everlasting.

+++ title = “05” date = 2019 +++ Most of the positive messages I heard growing up were some form or another of “be yourself.” In my experience, the be yourself messages are rampant the younger you are, and start to change when you get older. Because at some point, probably in High School, you’ll get the idea from the adults in your life that yes, it’s good to be yourself, but you’ll probably have to conform if you want to be accepted into a part of society that will help make you a lot of money so you don’t end up homeless and broke.