Go to ted.com to watch Beau Lotto reveal how much our perception of color depends on context.
We may think we see a certain color, but we could well be wrong. Even after watching this program several times, I still cannot make my brain perceive the actuality in many of the illusions he demonstrates.
Be sure to wait for the part where he “translates light into sound”.
But my favorite is the last demonstration.
For more of Lotto’s work, visit Lotto Lab.
Take responsibility for your life by planning for your eventual incapacity and death. If you should become unable to make health decisions for yourself, your loved ones need to know what you would want done on your behalf.
Life support or no life support? Tube-feeding or starvation? Machines that breathe for you or failing lungs? Pull the plug, or hang on a little longer?
It’s cruel to make your family guess what you would want. It’s stressful enough for them that you are ill, in pain, and/or dying. Why compound that grief by making them uncertain of your wishes?
Talk with them about what you want to happen and document your wishes in a health care directive or power of attorney, a living will, or whatever form(s) are honored in your state.
Don’t lock those documents up in a safe deposit box. Generally the contents of a safe deposit box are discovered after someone has died, which is too late to discover instructions on what to do in the hospital.
Make copies of the documents and give them to your loved ones. That way, they’ll know what you want and need, which will allow them to provide it for you.
And, while you’re preparing your own documents, go ahead and ask your loved ones to prepare theirs.
Take care of your loved ones so they can best take care of you should the need arise.
*Of course, I am not a lawyer and this post does not constitute legal advice. Consult with your lawyer before making major decisions. Etc.
Suppose it isn’t easy to be loved. Suppose we have barriers that keep us from receiving as much love as is offered us. Suppose that we are surrounded by love, awash in an ocean of love, but we don’t notice it because we’ve dampened our ability to perceive love.
If this were the case, then whenever we feel alone or unloved, it would be up to us to realize that the only thing keeping us from love is ourselves. Rather than look outside to inventory all the things and people who aren’t loving us, we could look to ourselves to learn how we are blocking love.
What if all it takes to be loved more is to develop a greater capacity to accept love? What if all we need to do is practice?
Just as in exercise, if we want to get stronger, we do push-ups or some other strength-building exercise. If we want to develop our stamina, we run or do some other cardiovascular exercise.
What if the exercise to build our tolerance for love were simply developing one’s awareness, one’s ability to be present in the present moment, one’s mindfulness?
What if we all increased our ability to tolerate love? Wouldn’t we become more loving ourselves?
I don’t care to watch sports on television that much. I’d rather be playing than spectating. But I love to watch soccer.
There seem to be just two internet sites that allow you to watch the 2010 World Cup: ESPN and Univision.
But, if you’re not on a college campus or military base or you’re not a customer of certain third party businesses, no ESPN for you.
Fortunately, anyone can watch the World Cup on Univision.
Those of you worried about watching World Cup soccer with Spanish commentary, rest assured, it’s worth it.
Univision, with their extensive experience covering soccer matches as their main sports coverage, are quite knowledgeable with their camerawork. They portray the soccer matches much better than any other coverage I’ve seen so far.
Plus, if not being able to understand the language gets too bothersome, you can always turn the sound off. Added bonus: no more annoying noise from the tens of thousands of vuvuzelas.
Enjoy!
I’ve had a couple of people ask me why comments have been turned off on most of the posts.
The reason is pretty simple: I got tired of deleting the spam every time I logged onto the account.
No comments = no spam.
This is the 91st post on this blog.
Indigo Lantern’s one-year anniversary will be June 30, 2010.
I think I might go for a century by the 30th. That’d be something. 100 posts in a year.
If you have any goals or anniversaries coming up for you this month–best of luck to you as you achieve and celebrate them!
Ahh, the beginning of summer…
A time of promise, of warm days interrupted by occasional rain or downpour, of ice cream and parks, of picnics and barbecues, of bike rides and long hikes, of mowing lawns and weeding gardens, of summer projects and summer visits, of mosquitoes and june bugs, of outdoor movies and community dances, of sweat and iced drinks, of hot meals and cold salads, of sandals and shorts, of swimming and sunburns, of hats and sunglasses…
May your summer days be lovely, warm, and fun!
I read a quote by Donald Trump recently that has been a refrain in my mind the last few weeks:
As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big.
At first I liked the line because it’s humorous and flip. But as I continued thinking about it, I began to wonder: How big do I think? Do I think big at all? Could I think bigger, and if not, why not? What’s holding me back?
There are a couple of areas in which I’ve tried to think big.
The first is the universe. When I try to think about the Big Bank Theory and a continuously expanding universe, my mind gets overwhelmed pretty quickly. I get stuck on the question, what was there before the Big Bang? And the idea of a constantly expanding universe is also hard for me: what’s on the other side of the leading edge of the universe’s expansion? When I try to go in either of these directions, my mind bounces away and I think of something else smaller and more easily encompassed.
The second area in which I’ve tried to think big is my own life. What I’ve noticed is that when I think somewhat big thoughts, I have had a tendency to discount them or minimize them almost immediately. Recently I’ve been working on an exercise in which, when I think a big thought, instead of shying away from it in a fit of “I can’t”, “I don’t deserve to”, or “I oughtn’t”, I keep thinking about it all the while feeling the discomfort it generates in me.
Now I wonder if I couldn’t do that exercise one better and purposefully start thinking of things that are even bigger than whatever it is that happens to make me uncomfortable. Sort of like a conscious effort to expand my mind and to increase my tolerance for “big”.
I plan to get more practice in “big thinking”, which will lead to “big doing”. I plan to make my big dreams for myself and others come true. That’s what I’m going to do.
What about you? What big things can you think?
You may have heard of or seen bookmobiles–libraries on wheels.
But have you ever seen a library that was a wheel?
Check out the Archive II, a human-sized gerbil wheel that serves as a bookshelf.
(Then go to Curbly, the design do-it-yourself site where I read about the Archive II, for other interesting, unusual, or inspiring design ideas.)