I did not develop; I am ...

[letric]

What is it, in my heart, that I must do, be and have?
And why? Nature or nurture, penny dreadful or pure
fantasy, just as adolescents sense a secret, unique
greatness in themselves that seeks expression, so can
we.

[amzz]

eh?

[letric]

eh?

Plato and the Greeks called it 'Daimon', the Roman 'Genius', the Christians
'Guardian Angel' and today we use such terms heart, spirit and soul. The
'acorn theory' which proposes that each life is spawned by a particular
image, that is the essence of that life that call it to a destiny, just as the
mighty oak's destiny is written by a tiny acorn.

[letric]

In the 13th century Marco Polo wrote about Kublai Khan's attempt to procure the teeth and hair of Adam,
though modern scholars consider that the relics in question were actually ascribed to Buddha.

In his book Rag and Bone: A Journey Among the World's Holy Dead by Peter Manseau.

Manseau visits French pathologist Dr Charlier works on murder victims in the morning and the relics of Joan
of Arc in the afternoon. He travels to Aleppo to see the remains of Zacharias, father of John the Baptist,
revered as a prophet by Muslims like any other figures of Christianity and Judaism. In Goa he visits the toes
of Jesuit St. Francis Xavier, remarking caustically that Xavier was a college dropout and a lousy missionary
but that the miraculous preservation of his body after death had ensured his elevation to sainthood. A New York
taxi driver ask what he thinks about relics of Jesus, adding that a miracle lady cured his bad knee. While Manseau is wondering what to make if this, the driver adds, But you know I had two bad knees and she only fixed one. Finally Manseau reminds himself that Washington's hair and Lincoln's blood are objects of respect today in American museums.
Weird...

[letric]

What is it, in my heart, that I must do, be and have?
And why? Nature or nurture, penny dreadful or pure
fantasy, just as adolescents sense a secret, unique
greatness in themselves that seeks expression, so can
we.

Interesting thought...

[letric]

The teaching of the famous Chinese thinker and social philosopher (Confucius (551-479BC) have deeply influenced East Asian life and thought. His philosophy emphasised personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity. During the Han Dynasty, these values gained prominence over other doctrines such as legalism or Daoism. The system of philosophy known as Confucianism was introduced to Europe by the Jesuit Matteo Ricci, who was the first to Latinise the name. The teachings of Confucius are known primarily through Analects - a collection of brief aphoristic fragments complied many years after his death. Setting Confucius ideas against the context of his own life and times, brings to life the thoughts of the Master in their pristine form which,unalloyed by later misinterpretations and perversions of his original ideas still have relevance today. Then, tracing the influence of Confucius in China and the rest of the world right up to our own day.

[letric]

Egypt's Coptic Church is one of the oldest in the world, with cultural tradition dating back to two millennia.
The world's largest and most exquisite collection of Coptic artefact's is now housed in the Coptic museum
founded in Old Cairo in 1908. Besides being objects of great craftsmanship, these objects represent
indispensable material for the study of the origins and development of Coptic art, as well as kits relationship
to the ancient Egyptian, ]Byzantine and Islamic traditions. Truly amazing...

[letric]

Human beings invited reading only a few thousand years ago and with invention ,
we changed the very organisation of our brain, which in turns expanded the ways
in which we are able , which altered the intellectual evolution of our species.
From the history of the earliest known examples of written language to whether
reading online really is making us more stupid. Think on it ...

[letric]

The theory of evolution began a decade before Darwin's birth evolution. It spans the South American rainforest, the polar icecaps and the deserts of central Asia before plunging down of the sub-cellular level into the very stuff of life and evaluation itself, the tightly coiled helix of DNA telling the three billion year story of life. Darwin, Wallace, Bates - these prodigious collectors and their peers gathered the data and interpreted it into the theory of evolution. Then there were discoveries which confirmed the theory, the fossil record contained ion the amazing museum of earth's crust, 600 million years of natural history frozen in time. Today we have the laboratory, where powerful new trechnologies can delve into DNA record. Amazing ...

[letric]

For most people, the chief obstacle in the way of acquiring self-consciousness consists in the fact that they think they possess it . . . a man will not be interested if you tell him that he can acquire by long and difficult work something which, in his opinion, he already has.
In Search of the Miraculous (P. D. Ouspensky: (1950)

[letric]

For most people, the chief obstacle in the way of acquiring self-consciousness consists in the fact that they think they possess it . . . a man will not be interested if you tell him that he can acquire by long and difficult work something which, in his opinion, he already has.
In Search of the Miraculous (P. D. Ouspensky: (1950)

I have no knowledge of myself as I am, but merely as I appear to myself.
Imanuel Kant (Critque of Pure Reason) (1781)

[kemist]

Human beings invited reading only a few thousand years ago and with invention ,
we changed the very organisation of our brain, which in turns expanded the ways
in which we are able , which altered the intellectual evolution of our species.
From the history of the earliest known examples of written language to whether
reading online really is making us more stupid. Think on it ...

Our means of communication has certainly changed drastically within the last two decades. Even though we're able to connect to (access) a lot more people, some think that online 'text chatting' is inhibiting our social skills i.e. they see the demise of vocal conversational skills when in the physical presence of others. This, coupled with the wide use of internet chatbox lingo could lead to the detriment or significant changes to the modern languages.

I remember reading a blog where the author had humorously predicted that modern language would be something only used for academic purposes, as day to day communications would be replaced by internet lingo. Then i wondered, wasn't that always the case?- not with internet lingo of course, but it seems every society always had their own version or urban lingos within their language. For instance, consider the word 'bazodee', not in the english dictionary, but used by almost every Trini, sometimes in preference to the English language's word or phrase and every Trini knows what it means. I'm sure we can find similar examples in every society around the world.


Now about the part i highlighted above, i think we need to make a distinction between READING and BROWSING. Reading implies learning and with the vast amount of information on the internet, it can actually improve the intellect.

[letric]

Reading - I discovered - comes before writing. A society can exists - many do exists -
without writing, but no society can exist without reading. Reading, to me, is simply
the expansion of one's mind to include some people whom you just didn't get to meet
before.