Friday, August 29, 2008

Time to get started

Well, here it is. For years I've been thinking about a way to get my thoughts out to the masses, and now I'm doing it. Like millions of other people.

So why should what I say stand out or be different? Well, I plan to say what I think. I plan to look at issues and try to analyze them realistically. To try not to have a bias, to simply sort through all of the alternative ways to address a problem (or think about one) and come up with a logical approach.

So you might be wondering, if you read this, what the blog title means. I won't be able to explain all of that at once. It's not about little calibrated brass weights or a level teaspoon.

"Weights" are internal filters in our psychological functioning. We hear or see something, we attach various weights of significance to it. If we think it's really important, we give it a lot of positive weight. We notice things related to the positive weights in our psyche, and we frequently ignore or dismiss things that are related to the negative weights. That, in a way, is how we maintain our psychological "balance" -- but our balance may be considerably askew of the center line.

"Measures" are the methods by which we evaluate the world we live in and the information we receive. As you might tell, I have a bent toward science. Science is one way of measuring the world. But many topics are beyond the ability of science to measure. How, for example, do you compare a Monet painting to a Frank Lloyd Wright house? Silly? But we do; we measure and evaluate and compare and contrast using our own personal metrics.

And then there's "esoterica". Esoterica generally means things that are difficult to understand, but I prefer the aspect of this that pertains to the rare, the unusual, the items of special interest, the things that you probably haven't heard about (if I'm lucky) but which you should have heard about. At least in my opinion. So this blog's esoterica will be a plethora of peculiarities that pique my interests -- which will likely be selected by my own system of weights and measures.

As soon as I get another chance to write a post here, I'll provide an example. I don't know what it'll be. Hang on and enjoy the ride.

Here's an example of esoterica, to whet your appetite.