Why Is The Sky Blue?

The sky is blue because molecules in the air scatter blue light from the sun more than they scatter other colours of the visible spectrum. At sunset, the light path is so long through the atmosphere that red is the stronger colour.
Antonio Gramsci put forward the idea that the values of a ruling class come to be seen as the norm. That over time, these values become accepted as normal and, as a result, people are born into a society in which they do not question the status quo but adopt these values even if they cause conflict within themselves.
But normal doesn't mean natural. The colour of the sky is only the colour we see.

The History Of The Present

‘Hey Seb.’
‘Hey Seb.’
‘What have you been up to?’
‘I’ve been wondering how knowledge is acquired.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Exactly that.’
‘Exactly what?’
‘That. You just asked a question. Because you want to acquire knowledge.’
‘No, I don’t. You just said something I didn’t understand.’
‘So you want to acquire knowledge.’
‘No, I don’t.’ I glared at me. ‘And it’s not knowledge if you’re talking crap.’
‘How do you know it’s crap?’
‘Because it usually is.’
‘But how did you acquire that knowledge?’
‘I’m going to hit you. I have knowledge that that hurts.’
‘And besides if my knowledge is crap then it means that your knowledge about it is crap too so maybe it isn't crap after all...’
I hit me.

The Eye Of The Beholder

The funny thing about your image is that it isn’t yours.
You meet someone over brief moments and the way you look, the way you dress, and the way you act creates an image in that person which then escapes beyond your control. You then become branded someone nice or smart or funny or intense or some other reductive adjective which they use to describe you.
Sometimes your image has nothing to do with you, it just depends on the other person’s mood.
Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder but what the hell is going on behind that eye?

All That Is Solid Melts Into Air

It’s messy. Confusing.
You want to see clear but it’s difficult. You can only see the little bit that you can see.
You want to find the truth, what’s solid, so you can build on it.
But the ground is always moving.
So you make your best choice, do what you can, try and get by.
Sometimes you fall over. Sometimes you run.
The truth is in the chaos.
You want to see clear but it isn’t.
It’s messy.
That much is clear.

How To Change Your Life

Well, you can’t, of course. What’s done is done.
But you can change its future direction. And you do that every day anyway when you wake up and do whatever you do. Even if it’s the same thing you usually do, because you are not doing something else, you are choosing its direction.
So I’m off in a new direction. An opportunity has come up which I'm taking.
I’m not changing my life, I’m just taking it with me somewhere new. I’m unsettling down.
And I’m taking another digital detox to focus on it. Not sure when I’ll be back. Thanks to those of you who've been reading along so far.
By the way, I hear the timpanist got engaged today.

Where Is My Mind?

I found this on The Onion and it sounded familiar:
Journey Of Self-Discovery Leads Man To Realization He Doesn't Care
FLAGSTAFF, AZ—Three months after setting off down a long spiritual path to find himself, 38-year-old Corey Larson arrived at the conclusion Tuesday that he does not care. "I spent many long hours meditating, studying the works of great thinkers and spiritual leaders, and delving deep within myself for some kind of answer, and then it hit me: I couldn't care less," Larson said of his soul-searching journey. "Fuck it. Fuck it all." Larson briefly considered writing a self-help book to make the journey easier for others, but decided that he also didn't give two shits about whether other people arrived at the same conclusion he did.
(theonion.com)

On Our Modern World

'The darkening of the world, the flight of the gods, the destruction of the earth, the transformation of men into a mass, the hatred and suspicion of everything free and creative, have assumed such proportions throughout the earth that such childish categories as pessimism and optimism have long since become absurd.'

- Heidegger