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Blaise Pascal said, in the mid-1600’s,

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

Was this as complete as possible, regarding our “Human Condition”?

I discuss, for a half hour, my own views on this famous phrase, and how I believe Pascal DID NOT HAVE THE LAST WORD: and why…

“DID BLAISE PASCAL HAVE THE LAST WORD”? by Loran Joly:

To see the video:

https://filedn.com/ljIKsiFxDsuSKJBJorqrS74/Did%20Blaise%20Pascal%20Have%20The%20Last%20Word%20Loran%20Joly.mp4

For, don’t Christian scriptures say,

“Be in the world but not of the world?”

Secondly, if we isolate from the world, are we going to be bored?

Thirdly, even if we could be happy being in a bubble, and cope with our thoughts, does this mean that we can cope with how our loved ones might be suffering?

Fourthly, if we could be happy, in a “room alone”, would we feel “joy”?

What does the word “joy” even imply?

I believe that the psychoanalyst Dr. Esther Buchholz had a more balanced view on being alone vs being in the world.

She wrote, in “The Call of Solitude: Alonetime in a World of Attachment”:

“Others inspire us, information feeds us, practice improves our performance, but we need quiet time to figure things out, to emerge with new discoveries, to unearth original answers.”

https://hac.bard.edu/amor-mundi/ester-buchholz-on-the-solitude-of-thinking-2015-10-13

Also:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/199801/the-call-of-solitude?msockid=28a09abab7e866ad0d4b8c42b65e6709

We see, lastly, the ideas of Hugh Grant, in “About a Boy”, about being one’s own “ACTIVITIES DIRECTOR”:

“About a Boy (3/10) Movie CLIP – Island Living (2002) HD”:

We are all seeking the greatest happiness that is possible.

So, we naturally ask,

“What do I have to offer”, and “how can I minimize my ‘downsides’, my liabilities”?

I will present my ideas on this, from perhaps a new vantage point. And then will write a bit more…

“ASSETS & LIABILITIES: PERHAPS A NEW VIEW, By Loran Joly”

Yes, we ask

“What do I have that others like? How can I be liked? “How do I “WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE?”

Can I bring MONEY? Can I bring “SEX APPEAL”? Can I bring a PREDICTABLE LIFE?

Or is there SOMETHING FAR BETTER that some CAN “bring”?

Hence, something more than the phrase implies,

“To MARRY for LOVE or MONEY?”

YES, WHAT IF we were to ask, in particular, a NEW question:

I sought to answer the following question in the above talk, of “WHAT CAN I BRING TO MYSELF?”

Myself, left, not the one “bringing both joy and pains to my mother, middle; sister, right. On my grandparents’ farm, when I was about four years of age.

Our Mothers — This Documentary is a Very Keen Look at Our Dear Mothers

Lydia Joly, middle, on her parents’ farm circa 1967 — son, Loran, left; sister, right; my great-grandmother, back row. When great-grandmother was not visiting, I would sometimes sleep in the bed she had slept in when at the farm… “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree?”

A documentary on the “astounding impact” of a mother on others, was created by Michael DuBois, a few years ago …

“Becoming Home – full film”:

“The documentary “Becoming Home” touched my heart, a few years ago. Make by filmmaker Michael DuBois, he chronicled the “first year after the death of his mother. He set out to discover why she had the astounding impact on others that she did…”

Michael lives on Cape Cod, as of when he created this documentary…

“Becoming Home” is his finished story. It is the story of his mother, and her grace through life. It is the story of his childhood. And it is the story of learning to move forward after those losses, without moving away from them. Directed by Michael F. DuBois Produced by Bert Mayer and Larissa Farrell Director of Photography Mark Kammel Original Music by Derek Hamilton Featuring Music by Sky Flying By and Pete Miller”

Denzel Washington has this to say, about mothers, also…

“The Power of a Mother’s Love | Denzel Washington’s Inspiring Speech on Gratitude and Respect”

My mother, Lydia Joly, age 87, war refugee from Piaski, Poland, with time in a relocation camp in northern Germany after World War I also — arrived Ellis Island 1950 — image by son Loran

Christmas card 2024 with Lydia’s self-made Gingerbread house

Lydia — my mother — was born in Lubelskie County, Poland.

We see her village, Piaski, here, with beautiful music…

“Piaski Lubelskie”:

No wonder she loves gardening and flowers…

Lydia, gardening, 2025, age 87

Photo from Pexels

We hear the phrase “SHAME ON YOU”…

Or, “YOU SHOULD FEEL ASHAMED OF YOURSELF”.

I would like to present ideas I have on the topic of shame. From a new avenue, just perhaps?? In a video:

“SHAME and LOSS OF BELIEF IN CAUSE AND EFFECT, by Loran Joly”:

At the end of this article, also, I may also present a version for download, in both eBook and PDF form, all at no cost for three months…

This is a thirty-minute chat on shame, and breaking it down from a mathematical – in other words – complex – fashion – without jargon…

My views involve a concept that may tie in with some thinking of Dr. Nathaniel Branden, who was a leading self-esteem “idea-man” on not only self-esteem, but how to live life to its fullest.

I present the concept that, aside from the idea of shame as a matter of possible “expulsion” from the group, and how to best cope with this, there is another area completely unaddressed by most, if not all other people, to date:

The aspect of LOSS of a sense of LIFE being a CAUSE AND EFFECT “matter”.

PDF VERSION, for view or download:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/evskb18gwfhefsl/Shame+and+Loss+of+Belief+in+Cause+and+Effect.pdf/file

EBOOK VERSION, for download, including sending to Kindle:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/86ld8shm11p269l/Shame+and+Loss+of+Belief+in+Cause+and+Effect.epub/file

The best to all …

Image from Pexels

Image from Pexels

Image from Pexels

Music: Lovely Piano Song; Musician: Rafael Krux; Site: https://freepd.com/

License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode

The creator of this blog seeks to discuss ideas on our Words – our way of symbolically encoding our perceptions and our ideas.

While many people have urged us to become more literate, and to be more aware of how our words impact others, it strikes me that Mankind’s words are not exactly in “top form” – for a variety of reasons.

I approach words as being LOGIC SYMBOLS.

Moreover, I currently hypothesize that WORDS, as logic symbols, are TWO-COMPONENT “MODULES”.

One part of a Word as a MODULE, discusses WHAT is THERE.

The OTHER part of the “WORD” discusses its ORIGIN, as per HOW the entity GOT there.

I furthermore hypothesize that we make the ASSUMPTION that the Laws of the Universe “CAUSED” an entity to BE, if we are talking about an OBJECT.

However, for several reasons, when we are talking about PEOPLE, we appear to have migrated AWAY from this concept of cause and effect, especially with the advent of the use of SYMBOLS, either for ORAL LANGUAGES, and especially all the more, with the advent of WRITTEN symbols.

Photo by Tyas Wahyu P.: https://www.pexels.com/photo/new-road-19802075/

My ideas on “words” – and words as LOGIC SYMBOLS made of TWO PARTS – come from many sources…

First of all, I take a “systems” view of Life, of Reality…

“What Is Complexity Science?”:

ADDITIONALLY:

My father, who holds a Ph.D. in English Literature.

My time with studies in electrical engineering, Operations Research, and Mathematics.

I was President of The Electronics Club at West Point…

My fifteen years with SuperMemo, which is software for advanced learning, created by Piotr Wozniak. I have written a book of my experiences in this regard.

My time with Eastern ideas, including having spent one hundred Saturday mornings at Shambhala Meditation Center.

My time spent with Native American Indians:

One week with the Navajos, and three visits to Cherokee Indian Reservation.

My visit to Sequoyah Birthplace Museum.

My visits to five different AA meetings, to learn more about alcohol “struggles” in a loved one.

My 150 sessions “in” psychoanalysis, with two physicians as analysts, in the 1980s. One was Jewish.

My mother, a war refugee with essentially a sixth-grade education, from Poland, whose first language was German.

My year off from school, after kindergarten in an inner-city Detroit public school.

My time with the Suzuki violin method of instruction.

And more… Much more…

Consider:

Einstein once said, “God does not play dice with the Universe”.

Einstein was not exactly happy with some of the ideas in Quantum Mechanics, thus.

Myself? I do not know enough, by far, about core ideas in Quantum Mechanics, to make but one comment:

When I go about my daily living, I count on CAUSE AND EFFECT, as an underlying principle that governs how I go about my day.

TO DO OTHERWISE, seems akin to asking,

“HOW MANY ANGELS CAN DANCE ON THE HEAD OF A PIN?”,

RATHER than asking,

“HOW CAN I BE more Angelic”?

Interestingly, there is someone who may be looking at the topic of “choice” in a new way:

“God Does Not Play Dice (Part 1 of 7): Why Einstein Was Right When He Rejected Quantum Randomness”:

“This lecture is an overview of God Does Not Play Dice, a revolutionary and provocative book by award-winning MIT grad David A. Shiang.”:

I have not had time to examine his arguments, but I would say I welcome all ideas…

ALL IS GRIST FOR THE MILL, and IT TAKES A VILLAGE of differing ideas?

The following video, just shy of ten minutes in length, shows a part of Kentucky many may not have seen.

A very small camera was utilized.

I think you will enjoy this video!

Have we spent time in a rural area, lately?

Kentucky and Tennessee have many small towns, a lot of nature, and wonderful people.

We might see some of this in this five-minute slideshow I put together, a few years ago, of some of my images of rural Kentucky and Tennessee…