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I’d rather write than talk. Nobody interrupts! Posting monthly or less now--see below. |
My original purpose for this blog, which I started in August of 2019, was to see if I could maintain consistency, to discover what I want to write about, and to find my writing voice. In January, I started a "niche-less" blog at Wordpress.com where I've published weekly. -- Kit’s Kontemplations  . -- I'm preparing to start a Catholic blog on Wordpress.com where I'll post weekly, and another site to put the rest of my writing. I also want to spend more time reading other blogs and offering thoughtful comments, both here on WDC and elsewhere. At most, I will publish once a month at no set time in this blog starting in September of 2020. Thank you to those who have read and rated any posts on this blog. I really appreciate it. I did NOT want to write “about” me on this blog. I wanted to share my interests, discoveries and maybe a few useful insights. If anything I've written helps even one person, whether or not they respond to the post, then this blog has been successful. |
| Do you know someone who was taken in by a scam? Have you ever purchased a more expensive item than you originally wanted after listening to a skilled salesperson? Have you ever listened to a debate on a topic you didn’t know much about and ended up more uncertain about your opinion on the issue than you were before the debate? Thinking clearly is not a skill we’re born with. We need to learn it. Few of us were taught in school how to do it. I was in school during the 60s and 70s. We learned how to pack information in our heads and spill it out on paper during exams. Some of it I still remember but much of it has been lost for lack of relevance. Though hardly an exhaustive list, the characteristics of critical thinking include the ability to:  perform objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment think clearly and rationally about what to do or what to believe, including reflective and independent thinking think in an organized and rational manner in order to understand connections between ideas and/or facts verify assumptions utilizing available, tangible, and verifiable data and facts solve problems, formulate inferences, calculate scenarios, and make well-informed strategic decisions.Having this skill would help us to: *asterick* advance our career by qualifying for a higher-level position *asterick* process the massive amount of information available to us *asterick* recognize contradicting claims, unintended fallacies or outright deception *asterick* increase our creative ability by teaching us to question our assumptions *asterick* understand and assess a situation based on all available information *asterick* help us recognize and avoid or even report scams *asterick* improve our conflict resolution skills *asterick* form more well-informed opinions *asterick* enable us to work smarter instead of working harder *asterick* make wiser decisions I want to learn to think critically. I believe it is both a valuable and vitally important skill. Looking at the above definitions and considering the effort it would take to learn this skill at my age (60+), I feel rather overwhelmed. If I make the effort, I’ll gain some skill. I’ll never be as proficient as I would have been had I been fortunate enough to start this in my teen years, but a little skill is better than none. Did you gain any of the critical thinking abilities during your school years? Did you carry any of it with you into your adult life? If not, are you at all motivated to attain these skills now? Sources: —https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/critical_thinking —https://philosophy.hku.hk/think/critical/ct.php —https://zety.com/blog/critical-thinking-skills — https://www.openminds.com/next-generation-forum/blog/value-critical-thinking-ski... —https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/critical-thinking-skills... —https://www.wabisabilearning.com/blog/critical-thinking-benefits Monique from Ottawa, Canada No matter what, WRITE! |
| Jonathon Yang’s book: The Rough Guide to Blogging: Navigate the Blogosphere has a conversational style and covers the basics of blogging without overwhelming the reader with technical details. It’s very useful for anyone who is thinking about creating a blog because he presents the wide world of blogging without assuming the need to create a topic-specific or commercial blog. The chapters are self-contained so that you can skip some that aren’t relevant to you. Since it is an older book, published in 2006, some of the links that he provides may not work. This doesn’t really detract from the overall value of the book. I’ve already started a blog that is neither commercial nor a “niche” blog and so far, I’m only using the blogging service provided by Writing.com. Therefore, the chapters which I found most interesting and useful were: Finding blogs} Subscribing to blogs with RSS Writing tips Increasing traffic What’s Out ThereFor those who are interested in digging deeper than I am likely to for quite some time, he also covers these topics: Blog hosts Server-side blogging Audio, video and podcasts Design and add-ons Earning moneyHis final chapter lists blogs according to a wide variety of categories, from art and gossip to sex and politics, not to mention blogging. I recommend that someone interested in starting a blog to read this book before some other more comprehensive ones. There are other excellent books about blogging that are good for reference when you’re ready to dig deeper. It is available on Amazon in paperback only, either new or used for a variety of prices. I borrowed it from my local library. https://www.amazon.ca/Rough-Guide-Blogging-Jonathan-Yang/dp/184353682X/ref=sr_1_... Monique from Ottawa, Canada No matter what, WRITE! |
| If I hand a plantain to a woman who has never seen either a banana or a plantain, the truth is that what she’s holding is a plantain. A man standing near us may think it’s an odd-looking banana or he might recognize that it is a plantain. What he won’t think is that it’s both a banana and a plantain at the same time. He recognizes what we all know intuitively: two contradictory things cannot both be true at the same time in the same sense. This is called “the law of non-contradiction.” Other examples include: Processed sugar either increases cancer cells or it does not. It can’t both increase and not increase cancer cells. Only one of these facts can be true. The fact that decades ago, we didn’t know sugar did this wouldn’t change the fact that it does. A woman who is sugar-addicted and recently diagnosed with cancer might refuse to believe it because she doesn’t want to give it up.Either Jennifer Lopez was killed in a car accident in August 2019 or she is still alive. What is impossible is that the day after her accident, she could be both dead and alive at the same time. (https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/jennifer-lopez-death-hoax/) The result of my friend’s blood test in April 2019 showed that his cholesterol levels were higher than his previous blood test showed. He might not know why this happened but the fact is that the levels increased. He might choose to act on this information by changing his eating and exercise habits or he might choose to ignore it and continue his current habits. What he would not believe is that his cholesterol levels both increased and decreased at the same time. Nor would he believe that they both increased and remained constant at the same time.How is it that this is so obvious in every other sphere of life suddenly gets fuzzy and confused when it comes to moral and religious beliefs? A pro-life person claims that human life begins at conception and a pro-choice person believes that a pregnant girl has something other than a human being inside her. Only one is correct. She can’t be carrying a human being and a non-human substance at the same time. Monique from Ottawa, Canada No matter what, WRITE! |
| Some things are measurable and other things are a matter of perception or opinion. Truth that is defined as being absolute, possesses the following six qualities: 1 — Truth is discovered, not invented. If, when I weigh myself on Sunday, September 1, 2019 in the evening at 11:00 p.m., the scale reads 143.6 pounds then that is what I weigh at that time. 2 —Truth is unchanging: it can be conveyed across time. Whether the year is 2020 or 2120, it remains true that I weighed 143.6 pounds on September 1, 2019 at 11:00 p.m. 3 — Truth is transcultural: it can be conveyed across different cultures. No matter who you are or where you live, it remains true that I weighed 143.6 pounds on September 1, 2019 at 11:00 p.m. though you might express my weight as 65.24 kilograms. 4 — Beliefs cannot change a truth statement no matter how sincere one may be. If I wasn’t wearing my glasses when I weighed myself, I may have misread it and been entirely convinced that I weighed 143.8 pounds. That wouldn’t change the truth that the scale actually registered 143.6. 5 —Truth is unaffected by the attitude of the one professing it. If my goal weight with Weight Watchers is 145, I’ll be pleased when I stepped off the scale. If my goal weight is 135, I’ll have a much less pleasant reaction. Whether I’m delighted or distressed, the truth remains that I weighed 143.6 pounds (or 65.24 kilograms) on September 1, 2019 at 11:00 p.m. 6 — Truth is knowable. If I didn’t have a scale at home, it would take extra effort to discover how much I weighed, but it will certainly be possible. What personal life examples can you think of for each of these qualities of truth? Monique from Ottawa, Canada No matter what, WRITE! |
| Learning to think clearly in our confused society is more important than it has ever been. Not only are there many contradictory belief systems but there is social pressure to agree with all of them at the same time. Our culture calls this pressure “tolerance” and it does not conform to the basic laws of logic. “There is no absolute truth” is a statement that claims: “It is true that there is no absolute truth.” It contradicts itself, therefore, absolute truth exists. Laws of logic In the following examples, “P” refers to a thing or statement using some form of the verb “to be” such as “The cat is on the porch.” The law of identity: P is P.P is the same as itself and different from everything else. Each thing has its own combination of properties, which is what the classical philosophers called “essence”. In other words, everything has its own unique essence which is different from the essence possessed by everything else. The law of noncontradiction: P is not non-P.Something cannot be true and false at the same time. Nothing can be what it is not. Nothing can posess incompatible properties [u}Example:{/u} Either the tomcat is on the table or it is not on the table. He can’t be both on the table and not on the table at the same time. When there is disagreement between two people about a truth claim, there are two possibilities: one person is correct and the other is wrong or both persons are wrong. What is not possible is that both are correct. The law of the excluded middle: Either P or non-P.Something is either true or false. There is no third alternative. Example: There is no alternative between the cat being on or not being on the table. The laws of logic are always true. They are different from the laws of nature. God can violate the laws of nature by suspending gravity but He cannot create a square circle. Tolerance does not mean agreeing with another person’s viewpoint; it means respecting the person while disagreeing with their viewpoint. Monique from Ottawa, Canada No matter what, WRITE! |
| There are good reasons to keep informed. Being ignorant makes us both gullible and vulnerable to exploitation. Consuming news without a strategy will infuriate you more than inform you. Strategies for consuming news in healthy and meaningful ways: Reading newspapers is probably the best way to consume news. This article explains the advantages of this over other avenues:http://www.arikhanson.com/2014/10/29/should-you-feel-ashamed-for-reading-the-har... Get your news in measured doses, focusing on your interests and using a method that is best suited to your needs and temperament. This article suggests customizing your news consumption to suit your “palate”: http://thedreamcatch.com/how-to-stay-informed-without-being-overwhelmed-by-negat.... There are ways to minimize the harmful effects of consuming media news. This article provides tips for staying emotionally balanced while staying up-to-date with current events: https://camillestyles.com/style/beauty/how-to-stay-informed-of-current-events-wi...If you want “just the facts” instead of a lot of reaction, repetition and slanted representation, here are a few ways to get informed with less time and effort: Use a news aggregator app like Flipboard, Feedly or SmartNews which are available for both Apple and Android)This article gives more detail on these along with a few other options: https://www.bustle.com/p/the-15-best-apps-grown-ass-people-use-to-stay-informed-... Get news roundups by email or by podcasts. This article by a Christian author provides suggestions for these and other tips as well:https://www.patheos.com/blogs/onedegreetoanother/2018/02/stay-informed-news/ Get some news content with some substance. This article provides sources that let you dig deeper in areas that interest you:https://www.policygenius.com/blog/20-recommended-news-sites-to-bookmark/ Do you read summarized news? If so, is this enough to satisfy your need to be informed and your hunger for news? If you haven’t heard of this way to get news, will you try it instead of getting news the way you do now? Monique from Ottawa, Canada No matter what, WRITE! |
| It would be hard enough to motivate myself to follow the news if I could trust either what I read or watch. According to Pew Research, U.S. adults blame political leaders and activists for creating fake news and they hold journalists responsible for not fixing the problem. The needs of the news media industry and government leaders are combined in the generation of fake news. The media needs the drama and the government leaders need the appearance of resolving crises. What hinders truthfulness in the news: It is driven by the “attention economy” rather than by the motive of providing accurate and unbiased informationIt is either “advocacy journalism or peddling crisis and controversy”. This article by a Catholic author who gave up news and social media for Lent, contains some very thought-provoking quotes by G.K. Chesterton.http://blog.adw.org/2013/07/unplugged-but-not-uninformed-pondering-how-to-stay-i...The motive behind the content is to appeal to the target audienceCertain facts are emphasized, others are eliminated, conjecture is used to fill in the spaces left between facts, panel discussions are one-sided, and so on. All of this is done to appeal to the target audience, which makes sense economically but creates the negative externality of a national discourse devoid of a common set of facts and a reliable judge of what is and is not True. —http://www.aei.org/publication/advice-to-news-consumers-keep-your-head-on-a-swiv... Though I know it is important to be informed, I am not yet willing to sacrifice any of my activities to consume news that I can’t trust for accuracy. I have never given time to actively pursuing the news, believing that if there is really important news that I need to know, it will find me through the conversations I hear around me. I will never be a news junkie, but I realize that I should find a balance between constant consumption and absolute avoidance. Monique from Ottawa, Canada No matter what, WRITE! |
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Yes, I know some people do that but I'm a creative writer not a journalist. Poetry sells ... but it's a money-maker for only a few. I write A LOT. Almost 180 pieces since Spring equinox. My goal is 300-400 per year. One year I went over 1,000. I need to do more editing, polishing, sharing, submitting. Writer's block? Who has time for that? I don't.