We Are Insignificant | We Are Awesome

I’ve been busy this week as a result of a new idea for something at work — that’s why things have started out quiet. Yet there are two other ideas floating around my head begging to get out. This is one of them.

I listen to a lot of science podcasts. In them, I hear discussions about how the dinosaurs lived for millions of years, how the earth and the universe are billions of years old. I then look at us puny humans. As an intelligent species for which we have a record, we’ve been on the planet for what — perhaps 20,000 to 100,000 years. If you want a written record? Under 10,000 years. We are truly an insignificant blink the the life of this planet.

I think about this every time I drive down a street and look at the houses. Will our houses be here in 50 years? 100 years? 200 years? What will Los Angeles look like a million years from now. We don’t have any human artifacts that old. We consider something “historic” when is it 100 years old. That’s one lifetime. We have an over inflated view of our significance.

And yet.

And yet.

Contrast what our civilization looked like at the time of Christ. Compare our civilization to what it looked like even 200 years ago. In the past two centuries, humans have done so much. We have built so much, and we have destroyed so much. We have reshaped this planet for good and for bad in an astoundingly short time period.

Who knows what the future will bring? Consider the differences in society between 1813 and 2013 — a scant 200 years. Look at the differences in society between 1013 and 2013. Between the year 13 and 2013. How can we even guess what our society will look like in the year 3013 or 4013, let alone the year 10,000. If we are lucky enough to last as long as the dinosaurs, can you even imagine a world 400,000 years from now?

We’ve blundered into what we’ve got. We’ve built and destroyed without thought to the long term picture, counting on our ability to muddle through. I’m not sure whether that will be good enough in the future.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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Solving the Problem in Washington

Insert the parenthesis in the title as you wish.

I was reading the news over lunch, and I’m incensed that the GOP is at it again — this time, attempting to tie repeal of the Affordable Care Act to funding the government. They keep trying to repeal the ACA, and they keep failing. Now the ACA isn’t perfect — even in California, we’re starting to see some of limitations of the approach, but at least it is an attempt to solve the problem.

Perhaps this is why I’m incensed: Instead of saying “Let’s fix the ACA” or “Here’s another way to solve the problem”, the current GOP seems to want to just toss it out, and go back to the old approach for healthcare, which was generally agreed to be problematic.

If the GOP in the House really want to get rid of the ACA, they simply need to propose a plan that:

• Protects consumers from the abuses of the Insurance Industry — such as the problems with preexisting conditions, coverage denials, and coverage caps
• Ensures that affordable insurance is available to all citizens of the US
• Controls healthcare costs (which has a direct impact on the budget)
• Makes Americans healthier

That’s not much, is it? It is not requiring the US to be the insurer. It is not requiring the US to dictate what is covered or what isn’t. It will require insurers to not be capricious and be focused on health. The four goals above, I believe, were addressed by the ACA. If the GOP wants to get rid of it, propose something better. If you can’t come up with something better, then sit down, shut up, fund the government, and do your job addressing the other problems this Nation faces.

[P.S.: The reason the ACA requires everyone to be covered is not because there is a belief that everyone should be insured. It is because the insurance companies indicated that in order to remove limitations on pre-existing conditions, the pool of people paying premiums had to be larger. Insurance works by having the premiums from the healthy cover the costs for the sick, so if the potentially sick pool is larger, you need more premiums.]

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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Does Membership end with the End of Membership?

I’m a member of every congregation I’ve ever been a member of.

Perhaps I should clarify that. I’m not a dues paying member. But I still consider myself part of those congregations.

Congregations are organizations that build relationships. We build relationships with the people in the congregations. We build relationships with the building and its history. Those relationships don’t just cleanly sever when we change where we are paying dues.

I think about everytime I receive an email blast from Temple Beth Hillel ($current_congregation-1). I think about this when I see a post on the facebook group of Temple Beth Torah ($current_congregation-2). I think about this when I read in the news about Kol Tikvah ($current_congregation-3). I think about this when Wilshire Blvd Temple ($current_congregation-7) sends me mail, or I see posts from alumni of Temple Israel of Westchester ($current_congregation-8).

Congregations need to understand this, but they often don’t. Once someone drops membership, they drop communication. TBT had it right — consider them alumni of your congregation. Keep them informed of what is happening by email. They may still donate; they may still attend an event. Who knows… they may even rejoin one day. That’s what we did. Our current congregation, Temple Ahavat Shalom, is not only $current_congregation, but $current_congregation-5.

[If you are curious, the missing congregation above is Temple Emet of Woodland Hills, which was $current_congregation-4 and $current_congregation-6. They merged into Kol Tikvah. We still view ourselves as part of Emet as well -- I should check with some of the other Emet alumni to see if there is an Emet Alumni group.]

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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