Happy Groundhog’s Day
I just returned home from a wonderful brunch sponsored by two of our Best Friends, Heather and Doug. I put on Carmina Burana cranked it on my headphones and got to thinking about the holiday.
It’s not just about that big, silly rodent. The second of February, the astronomical center of winter, has been celebrated for a long time. In our common European culture, it began as Imbolc in Ireland, then was transferred first to the Celtic Goddess, Brigid. Then, when the Irish converted to Catholicism (and incidentally, saved Western Civilization) the name was altered to Bridget. The Catholic Church nowadays celebrates it as Candlemas.
The Sun is halfway to the equator now. Despite the foot of snow outside the window of the ManCave, I know that the green sleeps beneath. The dying of the light, which was arrested six weeks ago, has proven to be averted once more. In Europe tonight, women will parade with headdresses made of rows of candles to celebrate this victory.
To a certain extent, I think that this holiday works as confirmation of little rebirths, of little resurrections. Human beings don’t usually change very much from the person that they are at twenty years old or so. When they do, it’s generally the result of metaprogramming changes from a traumatic or inspiring event. These are called epiphanies, and can be profound.
I’ve got a buddy, Bill Taylor, who was a progressive for years. He had gotten tired of life, had become set in his ways living out on his farm near Monticello. One day, he cut his left forearm off with a chainsaw. He managed to get the stump tied off with a bicyle inner tube and the EMTs got to his farm and got him to the hospital–too late to save his arm.
He said that it was one of the best things that ever happened to him. It made him realize that his life was precious and he could still make a big difference in the world. He increased his involvement with a program to built radio stations for the native people in Central America.
Another old friend, Doug Jones, was the CEO of a tech company. He journeyed to Mexico and, while he was down there, contracted an infection similar to meningitis that came close to killing him. Soon afterwards, he left his position to work on a similar kind of project. He had been raised Unitarian-Universalist and he decided to promote a project to build fifty UU student foundations around the country at universities.
I also reference my story (once more–old-time readers, sorry): In November of 2005, I suffered a heart attack that permanently disrupted my heart rhythm. The doctors have no idea why my heart is still beating, yet it does. I was dying of oxygen-deprivation until they found the mostly-blocked main artery. When I recovered, I found that I could now write fiction, at the cost of my scratch-pad memory.
I decided to drop out of college for the second time in my life (the first time, I was merely a student) and become a professional philosopher and writer. After my first month at doing this, I can assure you, it was the best decision I have ever made in my life. My God, but I feel young.
Nothing focuses a person like the imminent threat of death. Ultimately, our mortality is a gift, rather than a curse. I hope that humanity finds something that will continue to capture our attention in this manner when a generation or two down the road death becomes an option or an accident, rather than a sure thing.
I leave you with a 2005 column written by Jonah Goldberg of National Review about the philosophical meaning of the day and the wonderful movie with Bill Murray.
Live each day as if will never end. Live each day as if you’ll be judged by what you do during it.
Some Celtic lyrics for a Celtic holiday, courtesy of Enya.
Tom Trumpinski
Comment by thetodd on 3 February 2008 at 11:19 am:
You and many of the people you know seem quite interesting, and I enjoy reading anecdotes like these!
In the paragraph below, you also brought up one of my favorite topics to discuss, so I feel compelled to chime in :)
“Nothing focuses a person like the imminent threat of death. Ultimately, our mortality is a gift, rather than a curse. I hope that humanity finds something that will continue to capture our attention in this manner when a generation or two down the road death becomes an option or an accident, rather than a sure thing.”
One thing I have a lot of trouble understanding is how so many people have trouble finding something to capture their attention. I do not work, attend school, have children, or have any other responsibilities that take up much of my time. Yet I still feel like I don’t have nearly enough time to do everything I want to do!
I am trying to figure out how many people go through life without acquiring some interests that can keep them occupied, because I would like for people to see “mortality optional” as a desirable thing. People worried about getting bored are more likely to oppose anti-death research and technology.
It might also be a short-lived problem. If we get to the point where we can reprogram ourselves, we could just make ourselves feel that same “death is imminent” focus whenever desirable.
Comment by Brenda Kay on 3 February 2008 at 2:05 pm:
Thanks Tom. That was lovely.
Comment by tet on 3 February 2008 at 9:41 pm:
What seems to happen to people as they approach middle-age, Todd, is that they become complacent in their family life and workplace.
Even people like Bill, who spend most of his early life being a progressive leader, find that that, too, gets old after a while.
And then Death comes a knockin’ and life suddenly becomes exciting again….
As far as your question goes about reprogramming, one of the things that I’ll be talking about at the Capricon SF convention mid-month is future drugs. I am of the opinion that since the relationships between the main neurotransmitters in the brain could be mapped in 3-space, it ought to be possible to mix a cocktail that will amplify many different kinds of personality traits.
I mean, seriously, could you imagine a drug which mixed the attention-grabbing effects of MDMA with the combination of transmitters that cause the distractibility of ADHD?
It would be like seeing everything in the world for the first time and falling in love with it.
Damn.
I may do a column on this once I finish the research to do a reasonably-informed talk on the present-day and near-future research on the subject.
Tom Trumpinski