Toil & Trouble, 06-29-2010

 Why are not more people learning more? We have the internet that can bring all sorts of information to use, but beyond buying and selling (E-bay and Craig's List) and (Amazon) sites and social networking (Facebook and Myspace) sites I do not see many using the internet for self -education.

For me, the internet was a tool for my defunct law practice. I marketed the practice online with Craig's List, my blog. I researched online - statutes, case law, regulations. I followed a lot of law blog's. I read all my newspapers online. (The Scotsmen, The New York Times, The London Times, The Washington Post and a bunch of others via RSS). I used my e-mail for keeping in touch with my clients. My entertainment online was Hula, Internet radio, (KDHX, KFAI, WFMU and WMBR mostly), and before my arrest - Blip FM. (If anyone wonders why I am not mentioning my illegal activities, it is because I spent very little time with that - think about that if you are tempted to do as I did and am now facing 12 years in prison, rather than any attempt at shirking my guilt. ). Google replaced the telephone book. Then, too, there was Wikipedia for all sorts of information that my mind suddenly fasten upon as needed. (I have no idea why, but papal history and Orthodox Christianity and Indian empires were big topics for me.)

In the other words, I spent a good deal of my time online working, except for Wikipedia (and blip.fm). If you are working so much online that your eyes turn blurry, then I can understand your not using the internet for education.

The scriobe's profession increases his wisdom; whoever is free from toil cam become a wise man. Sirach, 38, 24

What of those who have the time? Why spend it all on Facebook or the currently hot social media site?

That last question may be one of the most important questions of our time for psychologists and anthropologists and philosophers and political scientists. I ask that question without the faintest trace of frivolity.

Since I do not have the means of dealing with the social media question, let me push on. I propose that we view education as something done for us and that ends when we leave school. Self-education goes against this concept of education.

Ask yourself this: would you make the time for self-education, if you had the time? If not, why not?

I learned how much the feeding and caring for children takes in time, but still I tried helping my step-kids with their education. It is not that hard - learning how to use Google accomplishes a lot.

If anyone thinks incarceration gives one time for thinking without toil, they are correct. Not all the time for thinking and, therefore, for penance. That you have other duties and responsibilities ignore your responsibility for living the best life possible for yourself and those around you. Take the time to meet this obligation.

For many years before my arrest, I worried my mind about what I was doing with my life. My concerns gnawed at me like a rat. I gave up any hope I was doing anyone any real good. I plunged into behaviors that only increased my depression. I felt trapped by a multitude of obligations and debt. I set a trap for myself to destroy my life, leave me the only one way out - suicide. Some sins require blood for atonement. Then I found death denied me. Which led to me seeing how I missed an opportunity to do some real good in this world by not having the nerve to pause my life and make changes less severe and more useful than suicide. Do not fall into the same path I did. Take time from your toils.

sch

[I procrastinated over this one. Syntax and content bother me. They both show my mental state and express my thoughts in a most vacuous way. It took CC to start this one, and this morning I  finished it. sch 1/23/2023.]