Is A Picture Worth A Thousand Words? – The Answer to that Question Impacts The Future for Books Printed on Paper in Schools, The Future of Books Printed on Paper in Libraries, The Future of Education, The Future of Book Stores, and the Fact that Technology, Knowledge and Beauty Are Perishable

 

Historical and Personal Note

In 1913, Thomas Edison said in an article in the Dramatic Mirror, “Books will soon be obsolete in the schools.  Scholars will soon be instructed through the eye.  It is possible to touch every branch of human knowledge with the motion picture.”

Thomas Edison did not understand that the future happens slowly, the future comes slowl.

It takes a long time for change to happen.

Transformation is slow.

It is wonderful that you can take pictures with your cell phone today (such as the photographs above) and send those pictures instantaneously over the Internet to anyone who has a smart phone anywhere in the world.

I am thrilled that I was able to take the above pictures with my cell phone and to then send them to my three daughters over the Internet.

At the time: I was on the West Coast of California, one of my daughters was in the Middle East, another one of my daughters was on the East Coast and the other daughter was about 100 miles away from me in California.

However, I have not been 100% happy with my iPhone.

Yesterday (July 29, 2015), I found out that the reason I have not been able to talk on my hands-free phone system in my automobile as I am driving my car for the past week is that the blue tooth system in my car (a 2013 Nissan GT R) is not compatible with the latest update (8.3) on my iPhone and my mobile phone carrier’s (AT&T Mobility’s) software.

I find it hard to believe that Nissan would build a car that would not blue-tooth with one of the most popular smartphones sold.

I went to Nissan’s website (www.NissanUSA.com) and it shows that iPhone software version 8.2 works, but version 8.3 does not work

My iPhone was working perfectly in my GT R for the past two years until it stopped working in my GT R last week.

I am going to go to the Apple Store – to the Genius Bar and ask them (Apple employees in the store) set my phone back to 8.2, or suggest a solution to the problem.

It makes me sick that the 8.2 version works but the 8.3 version does not work.

Were Any of the Above Images Instructive?

I moved into a new home in a new neighborhood on June 1, 2015.

I sent the above photos to my daughters because I wanted to tell them (visually) about my new abode.

When I sent the photos shown above to my three daughters:

1. I wanted each of my daughters to “see” that I have moved into and a nice neighborhood.  That was my reason for sending my daughters the above photo of the tree with the heart and the photo of the pinwheels in front of that tree.
2. I also wanted each of my daughters to see that there is plenty or room in my new place for my hundreds of books.  That is the reason I sent them the above photo of my reading chair in front of a bookcase full of books.
3. I also wanted my daughters to see I have easy access to where I park my car and that when I am home my car is parked in a protected place.  That is the reason I sent my daughters the photo of my car parked in the subterranean parking lot where I live.

I image that each of my three daughters had a different reaction (emotion and intellectual reaction) to each of the above photos because each one of them is a different person.

They think differently.

They have had different life experiences.

Therefore, I image they each saw something different than what their sister saw when they looked at each picture.

Similarly, I image that each person who looks at each of the above pictures will have a different reaction to each picture.

It has been said that there are two types of people: people who see shapes when they look at cloud formations and people who see only clouds.

Life Is Full of Adventure You Don’t Seek

I find the above story about the many links (technology systems that are linked to each other) that have to work together in order for me to be able to talk hands free in my car very instructive.

It is how each of the links works and interacts with the other links that counts.

How You Understand What You Are Seeing (How Your Brain Works)

Here is what I believe happened when each of my three daughters looked at each of the above pictures/images:

• Their eyes did not just take in information/data when their eyes looked at the above images.
• Their eyes instantly sent all the information it picked up to their brain.
• Their brains compared the package of information/data sent by their eyes to their  brains to a database of files containing information already in their brains.
• Their eyes and brains worked instantaneously and simultaneous together to interpret what they “saw” when they “looked” at each of the above photographs by comparing the information sent to their brains to what their brains already knew.

Put another way:

• We all have libraries in our minds.
• Each person’s mental library is different.
• Seeing is a subjective and creative act consisting of relating what you are seeing to something you already “know.”

In Conclusion:

1. How each of my daughters “felt” about me or any of those pictures as they looked at those pictures was the result of a silent unseen dialogue between the present stimulus (i.e. what they were presently “seeing”) and all they had read or seen or heard before.
2. Everyone looking at the above pictures will “see”something else. 
3. I influenced what my daughters “saw” when I told them (via email)  what I saw when I took those pictures and why I took those pictures.

People Are Biologically Primed to Experience What They See

Visual images can make things happen by creating an emotional connection between you and what your are seeing, which in turn provokes you to take action.

Recent history proves that photographs can provoke an emotional response.

In the 1950s and the 1960s the still image – photographs – served as the lens through which people experienced the news.

For the civil rights movement, photos helped change the course of history.

When Americans outside the Deep South (the “Jim Crow” South) saw photographs  of protesters being clubbed by the authorities and being attacked by vicious attack dogs at the direction of the authorities, the resulting outrage pushed presidents into action and spurred Congress into action.

That is the reason the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act came into being.

People reacted with ACTION because all people are all primed to experience unconsciously what they see.

All people have a visual action system as well as a visual recognition system.

Compelling visual images make us act, even more than rousting speeches.

Consider the public reaction to the following somber speech given by President Obama about the prevalence  of the Zimmerman Mind-Set in America – a mind-set that views black boys and men as a problem:- after the not guilty verdict decision in the Trayvon Martin case.  By the way, the decision in that case caused widespread rioting in the Black community in America.

“There are very few African American men in this country who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store.  That includes me.   and there are very few African American men who haven’t had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a change to get off.  That happens often.”

In contrast, consider the famous Rodney King video showing four Los Angeles police officers using a Taser on a man (Rodney King) they had pulled over for drunk driving.

In the video, you see Rodney King being swatted by a police officer with a baton.

After Rodney King falls to the ground is set upon by other officers, who club him as he lies stationary on the ground.

When all the officers were acquitted of assault in a trial three years later, portions of the City of Los Angeles erupted in violence – the Watts Riots.

Further consider the different impact of making complaints vs. the impact of making a video:

• The black population complained for years about police brutality in Baltimore.
• After seeing a video showing a fellow black man put in a police van who arrived at a Baltimore police station dead on arrival, portions of the black population went on a rampage of violence.
• Private and public property were destroyed, stores were looted stores, people and property were physically attacked, prescription drugs were stolen from pharmacies.
• The ensuing violence, destruction of property and looting were so bad that a curfew was imposed in the City of Baltimore and than “a state of emergency” and “martial law” were declared.
• Thereafter the City of Baltimore’s Police Commissioner was fired.
• The flying of the Confederate Flag on the grounds of the State Capitol in South Carolina has been considered a thumb in the eye by the Black Community.
• To the black community the Confederate Flag represents a statement and endorsement of the idea that that blacks are inferior to whites.  Consider the feelings generated by  [images of the] Confederate Flag being taken down recently from the grounds of the capitol in South Carolina at the direction of the Legislature.

Mirror Neurons, Neurobiology, Pornography, The Emotional Responses &  Emotional Connections and Effectiveness of  Donald Trump’s Thumb in the Eye Psycho-Dynamic Public Relations Campaign to Become the Next Republican Candidate for President of the United States

Neurons are the basic building blocks of the brain.

Mirror neurons cause us to “experience” what we are seeing.

For example, if someone who agrees with what Donald Trump is saying or salutes Donald Trump for speaking out in plain English in a “manly fashion” watches Donald Trump say something that person will be able to imagine themselves saying it, similarly to the experience you will experience if you look at a person eating an apple – you will be able to taste a little bit of that apple in your own mouth.

The same thing happens when people watch other people having sexual intercourse – mirror neurons cause the people watching to experience the same pleasure.

That is why Donald Trump is currently leading the polls of Republican candidates for President.

That is why pornography – as a business – is the responsible for about thirty percent of the content on the Internet.

In the United States, pornography is about a $15 billion a year business.

Anger in the United States

White people in the United States, especially Republicans, are angry about many things.

They feel helpless. Donald Trump is the spokesman for many of them.

Donald Trump makes many people feel they are speaking out when he addresses things that piss them off.

The more other people criticize Donald Trump for being “a bad boy,” the more they like him and the more “free publicity” he gets.

Donald Trump’s Well Deserved Notoriety and the Early Rolling Stones’ Publicity Campaigns

Many people think Donald Trump is a moron.  He is not a moron.

Donald Trump’s current “thumb in your eye bad boy campaign” to be the Republican candidate for president of the United States mirrors the early (1963) public relations campaigns and crusade to obtain publicity followed by the Rolling Stones before they were well known.

Arousing People

Neuroscientists have determined that it is not merely the suggestion of sex that arouses it people.

It is that a section of their brain that provides the intense pleasure associated with having sex is “tricked” into believing they are having sex in that moment.

Our mirror neurons fire [are activated] just as easily when we an action on a screen as when we see it in real life.

We most positively react [via the firing of our mirror neurons] to people we think are just like us and to people doing what we would like to be doing and to people who are acting the way we think people should act; we relate most positively to people we sense would understand and relate to us.

The person who appears to our brain (mirror neurons) to be most emphatic “wins” and the person we relate to the most will have/win our good will.

TAKE AWAY:

• You are primed to experience “unconsciously” – in a sense to imitate – what you watch.
• A portion of your brain responds to the expressions and actions of other human beings.
• Mirror neurons helplessly fire in empathy to the politician they most relate to do.
• Donald Trump has literally entered people’s minds.
• Donald Trump has made people feel the way he wants them to feel.
• Donald Trump has made a lot of peoples’ motor neurons fire.  He has actually taken over their brains.
• Donald Trump is saying what a lot of people are thinking.
• That is why Donald Trump – in his role as presidential candidate – is so popular with so many people.
• That is why Donald Trump is showing so strongly in polls.
• When people watch a candidate say what they personally think, they are truly living in the political race taking place through their mirror neurons.

Above Photographs

I recently moved from a nice house in Tarzana, California to a condominium in Van Nuys, California.

Van Nuys has the reputation of being “the armpit” of the San Fernando Valley.

I took the above photographs with my a smart phone, my iPhone, to show my three children that where I am now living is not a dismal place. It is actually a fun place.

After I took those photos I sent those photos to my children via email over the Internet..

All of the above photographs were taken by me on July 3 and July 4, 2015 .

The top photo is a photograph of a tree in my neighborhood taken by me with my iPhone on July 3, 2015.

The next photograph is a photograph of a street scene in my neighborhood taken by me with my iPhone on July 3, 2015.

The next photograph is a photograph of my reading chair in my living room in my new home, taken by me with my iPhone on July 4, 2015.

Next to that reading chair is a bookcase, one of the eight bookcases I have in my home.

I love to read.

There are a wide variety of books in that bookcase including collections of  poems written by Lord Byron, Robert Browning, John Keats, W. B. Yeats, Walt Whitman, Heinrich Heine, Alexander Pope, William Wordsworth, Arthur Rimbaud, Octavio Paz and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore and also a variety of books about love, one o which contains a copy letters of Abelard and Heloise.  There are also books about power, seduction.

The next photograph is a photograph of my 2013 Nissan GT R the subterranean garage where I live.

I sent that photograph to my children because my eldest daughter was concerned that my “snazzy” car would be safe.

I took that picture to show her that my car is parked in a safe place.

The next photograph is a photograph of a note attached to a multicolored pair of socks which I placed in a bookcase in my study.

That note and the multicolored sock attached were given to me by a woman who was concerned that my life is not colorful enough because I only wear black and white socks.

I took that picture because I wanted to share with my children the warm pleasant and witty way that woman is/was trying to get me out of a black and white sock mold.

The books shown immediately under that note are  books on how the food you eat affects your health and the following books about ethics: “A Maimonides Reader”, “Maimonides, The Guide to the Perplexed”. “Interpreting Maimonides”, “Peter Abelard Ethical Writings – Ethics and Dialogue between a Philosopher, a Jew, and a Christian.”

The hundreds of books in my home library are a microcosm of my interests and values.

I do not live an exclusively “black and white sock” existence.

One of my desires is to improve myself, to be a better men today then I was tomorrow.

Another one of my desires is “to make a difference.”

I love books so much that if someone told me, “I need to spend time reading more books, more time learning and creating myself.”  I would suspect that person is and/or or will become a great success. Whether or not that person is a “success” I would feel an immediate bond with that person.

However, it might turn out that we are not compatible.

I strongly dislike being around embittered sullen people.

I try to stay away from people who never smile.

Being a sullen bitter complaining person is a “rule-out” — even if another person loves to read books, if that person is a bitter complaining sullen person I will not be happy being around that person and I try to stay away from that person.

I am selfish in that I try to stay away from bitter sullen people because they are drain my energy and their depression pulls me down.

I sometimes like people who don’t read books:  It has been my experience that people with a “happy” outlook have well formed minds whether they read books or not.

I like being around people who exude positive energy.

Reading “reconfigures” people’s thinking but doesn’t make inherently unhappy people become happy or change “negative” people into “positive” people.

Reading a book merely indicates an openness to experience and intellectual curiosity.

Sometimes, but not all the time, people who read books are very thoughtful.

Once I see a person is reading a book printed on paper I feel an immediate kinship with that person.  However,  I do not know what kind of person that person is and will know I will like that person until I interact with that person over a period of time.

My experience has taught me that people get along best with people who share the same sense of life and the same desires that I do.

The next of the photographs above (the last photograph) is a photograph of a cookbook (JERUSALEM) containing recipes people from the four corners of the world brought with them when they came to live in Jerusalem.

I went to Costco to buy artichokes, stopped by the book section in my local Costco warehouse, saw that recipe book there and couldn’t resist purchasing it.

I think it would be great fun to prepare one of the dishes in that cookbook with some I just met.

By the way, my children know I don’t cook and also know I can’t resist buying more books.

Reading the Above Text in Conjunction with Looking At The Above Images

Have you you changed what think/thought about when you first looked at the above pictures?

Are any of these pictures effective at telling you something about me, my character, my sensibilities, my interests, my tastes and/or my values?

Are any of those pictures worth a thousand words?

Sometimes An Image Is More Important Than Facts

Sometimes facts matter less than images.

Consider the televised Kennedy – Nixon debates: Kennedy oozed charisma.  Nixon looked awkward.

Many/most people believe Nixon lost the election to be the next present of the United States to Kennedy because of the way Nixon looked in those debates.

The Implications of the Sheer Speed At Which Ideas and Images Can Be Circulated Today

Historically, there have always been systemic changes in the structure of society following advances in communication technology.

1. In 1440 Gutenberg invented the printing press.
2. Shortly after Gutenberg’s books started rolling off the press the Archbishop of Mainz  demanded that permission be obtained before any new book could be printed.
3. Shortly thereafter the Pope ordered that all books that questioned his authority be burned.
4. The man who first translated the Bible into English, William Tyndale, was himself burned at the stake.
5. The first newspaper published in the United States, on September 25, 1690, so offended the governor of Massachusetts that it was ordered closed down after only one issue, with a stern warning from the authorities that nobody could “set forth anything in Print” without permission.
6. In 1740, the colony of South Carolina made it a crime for anyone to teach a slave to read and write.
7. In the context of slave owners and slaves, literary was about access to education, information, and power.
8. When they enacted the above legislation, South Carolina slave owners believed if slaves could communicate over with one another over long distances they might become aware of their numerical strength and rise up against their masters.
9. In 1897 a man projected the first known commercial, a pitch for Dewar’s Scotch, on a large canvas strung across an intersection at Herald Square.  He was arrested for creating a public nuisance.
10. Today more than forty-eight hours of fresh video is uploaded to YouTube every minute.
11. There is more new video added to YouTube each month than the collective output of the three major US television stations since their founding after World War II.
12. There are more than eight hundred million unique visitors watching videos each month on YouTube.
13. A successful video posted on YouTube can get three million hits within a twenty-fur hour period.
14. You can see 40 story office buildings that double as TV screens at night if you go to downtown Shanghai.
15. Video advertising is sold on these giant screens.
16. The Grand Indonesia tower, a fifty-seven story building in Jakarta, is wrapped in sixty thousand square feet of screens.
17. If you belong to the Los Angeles Public Library you can download the library’s entire collection of books on your smart phone or lap top or tablet or Kindle or desktop computer and read the book(s) you downloaded for 21 days.
18. You can also download the Los Angeles Public Library’s collection of audio books.
19. Fifty-one percent of the time people connect to the Internet they do it through a smart phone or another mobile device.
20. In the last quarter of 2011, the birth rate of iPhones (at the rate of 4.37 per second) exceed the birth of human babies on this planet (which came in at a rate of 4.2 births per second).
21. Consider the impact of images on the six o’clock news of people lined up at banks in Greece and of people lined up at Automatic Teller Machines in Greece who couldn’t get their money (the money they had deposited in Greek banks)”out of their bank account.
22. Think about the images you recently saw of people standing outside of closed banks crying.
23. Think about the impact it had on you when you learned people standing in line were only allowed to withdraw 60 euros at a time from their bank accounts and/or ATM machines in Greece.
24. Pharmaceutical companies spend more money on advertising in the United States (one of the few countries in the world where it is not against the law to advertise drugs on television) than on research and development.  What does that tell you?
25. Many of the hundreds of millions of people who tune into the Super Bowl each January or February are there to see the advertisements, not the football game.  What does that tell you?
26. During the first Super Bowl in 1967 it cost $42,000 for an advertisement.
27. In 2012 corporations paid $3.5 million for a thirty-second spot.
28. An e-mail sent to one or a few friends can create an instant response that may turn into a world-wide conversation creating a cumulative effect of creativity and advancing knowledge as people who know each other and other people who don’t know each other share information over the Internet.
29. I personally experienced that after I had a heart attack in Toronto, Canada on September 13, 2013.
30. I sent an email to a few friends informing them that I had had a heart attack.
31. In response one of my friends (who lives in Hawaii) sent me an e-mail informing me that having a stent installed in a 100% blocked artery did not solve my underlying problem.
32. This friend informed me that I needed to change my life if I wanted to live.
33. He told me I need to read “Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease” by Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., M.D. and to follow Dr. Esselstyn’s advice.
34. As a result of receiving his advice I became involved in a world-wide conversation about how to prevent and reverse heart disease, how to prevent stroke, how to prevent diabetes, how to prevent dementia and how to prevent Alzheimer’s disease.
35. This conversation has shaped what I read and believe,
36. Which in turn, has shaped how I now live my life.
37. In the big picture, in addition to everything else going on in my life, I am now a receiver and provider to an evolving cloud of ideas and information about (a) the relationship between what we eat and our health, (b) whether taking statins is more beneficial or more harmful to health, and (c) what is the real significance of blood cholesterol level.
38. I have been advised (a) that cholesterol serves many useful purposes, (b) that cholesterol is an anti-inflammatory, and (c) that blaming high cholesterol for heart attacks is akin to blaming firemen for fires.

Unique Benefit of Reading A Book Printed on Paper

According to New York Times columnist David Brooks: Researchers at the University of Oslo an elsewhere suggest that people read a printed page differently that they read off a screen.  

See David Brooks’ op ed page column in the July 10, 2014 edition of the New York Times titled “Building Attention Span” for further details.

I refuse to read books off a screen.

I am enamored of the physicality of a book printed on paper, of reading a book printed on paper in solitude, of getting lost in the world created by the author of that book as I read it, and of interacting with the words and ideas and concepts and information provided in books printed on paper.

A book printed on paper is a PHYSICAL THING to me.

Books printed on paper, and newspapers and magazines printed on paper, are something I can physically hold in my hands.

That is very important to me.

Books stored on a smart phone or any other mobile device or on a computer are not a physical thing or a physical entity to me.

To me, they are just a collection of images.

I can’t imagine giving a book read on a screen steady focused sustained concentration.

For that reason I will not read a book stored on my iPhone or stored on my desktop computer or stored on my lap top computer.

But instead, for that reason, I will continue to purchase and read books printed on paper.

Some people my age use a Kindle or smart phone or lap top or iPad when they go on a long trip by airplane because of the weight of books printed on paper.

Some of the books printed on paper which I own and have in my home library weigh several pounds.

One of the books I own weighs more than 20 pounds.

One of my friends has pointed out that he prefers to read screen books because:

1. He can change the typeface if he wants.
2. He can change the size of the type, if he wants.
3. Digital books are much lighter to carry than physical books.

Young People

I understand  “young” people read, tweet, text, email and do research on their smart phones and iPads.

Although screens displaying digital information (i.e. books, texts, tweets, emails, etc.) are a novelty and curiosity to me, they are appendages to my children and grandchildren.

Most younger people (i.e., my children and grandchildren) grow up playing video games, watching videos and movies and reading books on screens.

The decision faced by most modern parents is: when to place their young child in front of a screen and start feeding them media.

Take Time to Think

Books printed on paper give the reader an unique and superior ability to crystallize ideas and to deeply consider and understand the nuance and substance of what is being read.

For further discussion of the unique importance of books printed on paper to me, read my post “An Ode to Books”, posted on my blog, The Gary S. Smolker Idea Exchange Blog at http://www.garysmolker.wordpress.com, on June 27, 2015.

Everything in Life Is Just for A While

Life can be compared to an echo echoing in mountains and into empty sky.

Things change. so we must adapt to the times.

Everything in life is just for a while.

We must adapt to the times and prepare for changes or be crushed by changes.

Reading the page of a book will help you prepare for change and make you more aware of current realities.

Images combined with an appropriate text send a very powerful message.

Take for example the combination of images of the teeth in children in photos of the tradition faces of the first born of an Australian Aboriginal family, a typical Melanesian boy, a typical Indian of the Peruvian Andes with the modern faces of a second-born son to an Australian Aboriginal family, a coastal Peruvian Indian boy whose parents had straight teeth, and the photographs of an Amazon Indian born after its family adopted a modern diet and a Samoan boy born after introduction of processed foods to his parents’ diet found on pages 31 and 32 of the paperback version of “Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox – How A Little Known Vitamin Could Save Your Life” by Dr. Kate Rheaume-Bleue, B.Sc., N.D.

Those pictures of children’s teeth and accompanying text powerfully make the point that what you eat (the modern diet vs the tradition diet) matters a lot.

Your concept of self is not constant.

Your level of awareness is not constant.

You should strive to be a better person today then you were yesterday.

Read a serious book, and study and think about what it says.

Share what you have “learned” with other people.

Discuss what it says with other people.

Book Recommendations

Two books I recommend you read if you are interested in looking further into the ideas discussed above ideas are:

1. “The Age of Image” by Stephen Apkon.  In this book, Mr. Apkon “makes sense” of the world awash in image that we are now living in.
2. “Essays in Idleness – The Tsurezuregusa of Kenko.”  This book consists of vignettes that reflect the importance of little, fleeting futile things and a distinctly Japanese aesthetic principle: beauty is bound to perishability.

Be A Full Participant in the World

It is everyone’s duty to share important information with other people.

Sharing what you know will create a cumulative effect.

Become part of the massive evolving cloud of ideas that constitutes our world culture; a cloud always in dialogue, changing shape as it pushes and pulls against itself.

It is a cloud in which every voice that contributes to it is like a small little breath of its own.

Be a full participant in the world.

Awareness, Imagination, Powers of Observation, Knowledge and Creativity

A friend of mine told me the first photograph shown above is not a picture of a tree.  According to my friend: it is a picture of a message.

What do you see when you look at the first photograph above?

Do you see a tree, a heart or a heart inside a heart or a heart inside a heart inside another heart, a message or something else?

Do you see one, two or three hearts?

Do you see a rainbow of colors in or around the heart(s)?

What do you sense when you look at that picture?

What does a heart symbolize to you?

What does a rainbow symbolize to you?

Who do you think painted the heart on the tree with the rainbow of colors and erected the twirling pin wheels in front of the tree?

What kind of person do you think owns that piece of property?

I see a heart within a heart and a picture painted in a rainbow of colors.

A heart symbolizes love to me.

When I see a heart, I think of Rumi’s poem:

Stop the flow of your words,

open the window of your heart and

let the spirit speak.

–Rumi

In ancient Egypt the hieroglyphic heart-shaped as a vase, was the storehouse of memory and truth, the center of the personality, of understanding, will and thought as well as creative imagination.

Egyptian physicians were the first to recognize the importance of the pulse, which they called the “voice of the heart.”

After the storm a rainbow appears; it has always been an emblem of promise.

A rainbow is both an act of nature signifying a storm has passed, a new beginning after a storm is over.

A rainbow also is a spiritual and inspirational symbol symbolizing hope for a wonderful future.

A rainbow is a sign of renewal, of the transmuting changes of the heart and the eros [deep love] of covenant between heaven and earth.

Poets have called rainbows “the dyes of heaven”, “a glittering robe of joy”, and a “celestial kaleidoscope.”

The “Book of Revelation” describes a rainbow, “like an emerald” surrounding the throne of God.

When I see a rainbow, I think of the words to the song “Over the Rainbow”: Somewhere over the rainbow blue birds fly, troubles melt away like lemon drops….”

It is “obvious” to me that a very creative and peace-loving romantic kid, probably an eight or nine-year old girl, painted the heart on the tree and put the pinwheels in front of that tree.

In my imagination the girl who painted the tree and placed the pinwheels in front of it and her parents who own that property are affectionate lovely charming people.

I assume the person who owns that property is an extremely loving and happy person because it is hard to be unhappy in an inspiring and beautiful place.

Skills Necessary to Maximize You Opportunities for Success

To maximize your opportunities for success today you must have (a) good listening and writing skills, (b) good reading and writing skills, and (c) good visual communication skills.

The inescapable fact is that man is fundamentally a social animal, yet in some ways isolated.

Language is in response to this.

We all yearn to be seen and understood by those around us.

We make decisions based on what we see and what we understand.

To maximize your opportunities for success today, you need to be able to critically review information, ideas, concepts, thoughts and communications.

See: “The Social Animal – A Story of How Success Happens” by David Brooks and “The Mating Mind – How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature” by Geoffrey F. Miller.

Communications are at the heart of most social and business enterprises.

Romantic Take Away

Time is a vessel that you fill with what you want.

People are programmed differently by their past experiences.

This leads people to have different points of view.

I agree with the Dalai Lama: “People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness.  Just because they are not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.”  – The Dalai Lama

I also agree with Henry Miller’s statement: “The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.” – Henry Miller

I agree with the statement: “The more you stare up at the sky, the more stars you begin to see.” – GSS

I also agree with the statement: The most creative act you will ever undertake is the act of creating yourself.” – Deepak Chopra

 

Copyright © by Gary S. Smolker

November 2014 Traveler’s Guide to Sex, Politics, Celebrity, Business, Panache, Style, Culture, Individuality, Leadership, Relationships and Personal Chic on A Lonely Planet – by Gary S. Smolker

Challenge

The challenge presented to you in this post is to answer the following questions.

1. Are we witnessing a feminization of some men in the West?
2. What importance should be attached to the public spending their time paying attention to what Kim Kardashian is doing, as exemplified by the fact that a photo of Kim Kardashian balancing a champagne glass on her naked butt is the most talked about topic on the Internet?
3. Are we in the midst of a sexual revolution?
4. What is the strongest human drive?
5. What “Age” will the 21st Century be known as?
6. Will the “thought police” win?
7. Are there links between knowledge (eating the metaphorical “apple” in the Garden of Eden) and power?
8. Was the “Garden of Eden” a desirable place?
9. Would a better title for this post be, “The World in 2014: A traveler’s Guide to “Kinky Boots,” Vladimir Putin, Chelsea Handler, the Kardashians, Celebrity, the Promotion of Humanitarian Rights and Equality for Women, and the Promotion and Portrayal of Sex in Mainstream Movies”?

Please provide the world with your comments, thoughts, ideas about the questions listed above and/or your answers to those questions by typing a post at the end of this post, or by directly emailing what you wish to tell me to me at GSmolker@aol.com or call me to discuss what is on your mind with respect to the issues rasied in this post and or the topics discussed in this post.  My office phone number in the USA is 818-788-7290.

What Should I Wear Is A Never Ending Challenge

I have heard time after time, and I am informed and believe, the eternal feminine panic is: “I have nothing to wear.”

“Kinky Boots”

I saw “Kinky Boots” (with music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper) at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles, California on Wednesday night November 12, 2014.

It was great.

The messages of the play (a musical) are:

1. Be who your want to be.
2. Accept other people for who they are.

The two main characters in the play/musical are a young man (Charlie Price, played by Steven Booth) who inherits a shoe factory that is about to go out of business and a transvestite (Lola, played by Kyle Taylor Parker) whose ideas and work save Charlie’s business.

Charlie meets Lola as Lola is being attacked by a group of men.

Charlie rushes to “save” Lola (who Charlie mistakenly believes is a woman) from the attackers as Lola is swinging one of her “kinky boots” at her attackers.

Her boot accidentally hits Charlie in the jaw.  Charlie is knocked out.

Lola’s attackers run away.

Lola takes the unconscious knocked out Charlie to Lola’s place.

When Charlie comes through (becomes conscious), Lola complains that she has broken the heel to the boot that hit Charlie.

From the exchange which follows Charlie learns that Lola is a transvestite and that there is an untapped unserved shoe market for “sturdy” kinky boots.

Charlie realizes that the only way to “save” the shoe factory is to manufacture shoes/boots for the niche unserved “kinky boots” (for trasvestites) market.

One thing after another follows in this musical, including a dialog between a “he-man factory worker in Charlie’s factory” (Don, played by Joe Coots) and Lola about what women really want.

This dialog takes place before the women who work in Charlie’s factory.

During this conversation — which is actually an interrogation of Don by Lola — Lola asks Don, “Who do you think the women look at when they come to work in the morning, you or me?  

Lola answers her own question: They look at me to see what I am wearing.  They don’t look at you.  All the women in the factory raise their hands in agreement.

I recommend that all men who want to know what women really want see this musical.

This musical is a clever portrait of society, the nature of power in society, contemporary thought, the capitalistic system and a clever persuasive portrait of a broad social vision.

The show won six Tony’s last year, including awards for musical, choreography and score.

It is currently playing at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles, California at 6233 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood.  Tickets: $25 and up.  Info: (800) 982-2787 and http://www.hollywoodpantages.com.  Running time 2 hours 30 minutes.

Vladimir Putin, Chelsea Handler and the Kardashians

Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin is the President of Russia.

If there was a “masculinity contest” in Russia he would win.

Mr. Putin’s “masculinity” recently caused a stir in China when he put a jacket over the shoulders of Peng Liyuan, the wife of Chinese President Xi Jingping in front of the leaders of 21 Asia-Pacific nations during the APEC summit on November 10, 2014 in Beijing.

The APEC Summit hosted 1500 economic leaders in Beijing to deliberate key issues facing the Asia-Pacific economy.

Putin’s gesture happened only days after Putin had told Russian state media that “the meaning of life is love.”

This act was seen by many as Putin (“newly single and ready to mingle”) “hitting” on China’s first lady.

The Chinese public took to Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, and other social media where they collectively vented their rage.

Russian television station RT described Putin’s “innocuous” gesture as “shawl chivalry” that comes from habits learned living in a cold-weather country, albeit a photograph of Putin riding bare-chested on a horse is well-known in the West.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is well-known as a supporter of “family values.”

In 2013 President Putin signed a federal law that bans “the propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations to minors.”

Relatedly, under the authority of that “family values federal law” a Russian monument dedicated to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs located in the courtyard of the St. Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies Mechanics and Optics was recently taken down after Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed in Bloomberg Businessweek on Thursday, October 30, 2104, that he (Tim Cook) is gay.

The monument, which is in the shape of an oversize iPhone, was located on the university campus in St. Petersburg.

The reason cited for removing the statute: Russian legislation prohibits propaganda of homosexuality and other sexual perversions among minors.  After Apple CEO Tim Cook publicly called for sodomy, the monument was dismantled pursuant to Russian federal law on the protection of children from information that promotes the denial of traditional family values.

Other complaints about the monument:

• The monument looked too phalic.
• The structure inappropriately symbolizes the superiority of the American way of life.

 Chelsea Handler

Apparently, President Putin is not the only leader protecting “family values.”

It appears that Instagram has also taken it upon itself to protect “family values” by blocking that part of a photograph that depicts Comedian Chelsea Handler bare breasts/bare chest.

In this photograph, Ms. Handler had a photograph taken of herself on a horse – with her bare chest exposed Vladimir Putin style.

When a view of part of her bare chest was blocked, Ms. Chelsea Handler complained when Instagram blocked the full picture of her bare chest that Instagram was discriminating against women, not affording women equal dignity — the right to expose their breasts – to men.

Ms. Handler claims it was an act of  male chauvinistic sexist censorship to block part of the photograph exposing her full breasts in full in a photograph she had posted on Instagram.

It is reported that she cancelled her Instragram account when Instagram refused her request to show her entire breasts instead of blocking part of her breast in the photograph she had posted on Instagram.

After being told of the above action on the part of Instagram, in the interest of promoting humanitarian treatment and equal rights for women, I began a campaign to promote the enlightened treatment of women.  Contact me for details.

The “Anything Goes” Bravura of American Style

In response to reports that a photograph of fashionista Kim Kardashian balancing a glass of champagne on her naked butt in the Winter 2014 issue of “Paper Magazine” was/is the most talked about topic on the Internet, I asked the following questions.

1. Is Kim Kardashian a girl “working the system” or is she a “girl” who is the system?
2. Is one of the reasons Kim Kardashian is a cultural icon the fact that she has cultivated a personal chic that is exuberantly unconventional and idiosyncratic?
3. What does Kim Kardashian’s celebrity tell you about the state of “our” society, about the state of “America”, about Americana collectibles?
4. Is the Winter 2014 issue of “Paper Magazine” now a collectible due to the photograph of Kim Kardashian therein showcasing her highly original strategy of dressing?
5. Is Kim Kardashian being criticized for launching a personal crusade, as a revolutioary in her field working on behalf of working class women, against the inherently self-obolescent cycle of Western fashion and couture?

Except for women in their 20s, most of the people I spoke to about Kim Kardashian had a very low (often contempuous) opinion of her.

Below are examples of the variety of responses I received.

Opinion A

She is working the system and is being kept afloat by people of low IQ whose only interest is celebrity no matter how boring.

It is a laugh to call her an icon.  Her celebrity reminds me of “Water’s World” on the O’Reilly show.

He interviewed students on the Texas Tech campus, none of whom knew anything at all about the Civil War but every one of them knew who Brad Pitt married and who he left for Jole.

I have a hard time using the words investment and Kardashian in the same thought string. 

Opinion B

Kim is a very savvy business woman and knows exactly what she is doing with her body.  She has not so good choice in men except for Mr. West good promo.  Yes.  Buy the magazine and sit on it so to speak.

Opinion C

I certainly don’t keep up with the Kardashians.  However, the line is drawn in the sand.  Meaning, once an iconic celebrity like Kim poses in the nude for publicity she’s no longer marketable as a spoke person, sponsorship, endorsement and especially for major TV networks.

Remember, years ago, actress Meryln Chambers.  Miss Chambers was the spokesperson and model for Proctor & Gamble Ivory Soap.  Miss Chambers was an iconic celebrity, until she decided to become a porn star.  She was dropped in a New York second from all sponsorships and national TV commercials.

Opinion D

It is very fashionable to be contemptuous of the Kardashians.  Oh yes, one more set of fame-hungry bimbos wagging their tits and asses for the salacious delight of middle ages men and nothing more.

I, for one, am not dismissive of the value of appealing to middle-aged lasciviousness.

But, perhaps even more important than that — let us consider the remarkable social contributions the Kardashians make.

1. They are a family.  In an era where families are fractured, splintered, feuding, hateful and hurtful – the Kardashian girls are mutually supportive, go into business together, go out together, and appear to genuinely enjoy each other’s company.  And they all love and have fun with their Mom.   And they all seem to love and care for their brother who, by all measures, is a dumb fat lug.  They even genuinely care for their Mom’s long time beau, Bruce Jenner — who is apparently competing in the Decathlon of the Weird (and it looks like he’s going for the Gold).  All in all, very admirable.
2. The Kardashian Girls are entrepreneurial.  They have made an intelligent calculation of their assets and have capitalize on them.  They market themselves, their name and their products on a par with the best of Madison Avenue.
3. The Kardashians reflect a measure of beauty that is not typical for American culture which seems to exist to exalt in tall, leggy, thin, fair, blonde-haired blue eyed ice goddesses.  The Kardashians are anything but.  Kim is dark, short, and verging on Rubinesque.  Khloe is huge — tall and not verging on but definitely plus-sized.  The other one Kourtney, is even darker than Kim and much shorter.  NONE fits the typical standards of model beauty — yet have each been accepted as such and worthy of emulation.

So Kim’s willingness to put her expansive hips and double plus curvaceous behind out there can be seen as an admirable step in accepting the wonderful diversity of beauty — really, she is a revolutionary in her field, a true leader rising up against the impossible to attain Wonderbread image that Playboy and the media have long foisted on the public.

 Opinion E

Kim Kardashian is being worshipped for being beautiful and rich.

She has the life I wish I had and could have had growing up.

She is upwardly mobile.

Paris Hilton is the same type.

Her perfume sales are at 2 billion.

People bought into the fantasy. 

My Opinion

I agree with Harold Koda, Curator of the Costume Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: “It has been observed that, like democracy itself, American style is a celebration of the individual, the independent, and even, on occasion, the eccentrically idiosyncratic.  There is in the freewheeling American psyche an element of the adventurous that manifests itself in disregard of conventional pieties, an impulse toward rule-breaking.”

I remember, in 1968, my reaction when my wife and I saw a live performance of the musical “Hair.”

My wife and I were shocked when we saw performers on stage completely in the nude.

“Hair” was a theatrical break-though combing contentious opinions, colorful language and nudity.

Original songs – with great original lyrics and scores – (written for the musical) were performed, including “Aquarius”, “Donna”, “Colored Spade”, “Manchester England”, “I Believe In Love”, “Hair”, “Hare Krishna”, “White Boys”, “Black Boys”, “Good Morning Sunshine”, and “Let the Sun Shine In.”

If you think Kim Kardashian’s conduct reflects deep cultural and social forces which are shocking or outrageous and anti-social and in poor taste, and reflect “bad” values, go see Paolo Sorrentino’s 2013 Italian film “The Great Beauty” (La Grande Bellezza), in Italian with English subtitles, starring Toni Servillo.

La Grande Bellezza is an indictment of compulsive partying, shallow conversations, casual sex and those portions of society that have lost their way.

It is a critique of the hollow excesses of hedonism, decadence and spiritual emptiness, echoing Fellini’s indictment of bourgeois decadence in La Dolce Vita.

La Grande Bellezza won Best Film, Best Actor, Best Director, at the European Film Awards in 2013.

Also see David Cronenberg’s 2014 film “Maps to the Stars” (staring Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, Olivia Williams, Sarah Gadon, John Cusak and Robert Pattison), a movie about all the wrong values about social success, business success, gender roles, social status, and the expression of sexuality in the movie business.

I believe Julianne Moore won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival this year for her acting in “Maps to the Stars.”

Keep in mind the way people really are.

Below is personal description, of her personal early experience as an interior decorator (by Ira Apfel), shortly after World War II ended.

Mrs. Apfel worked as an interior designer on a one-bedroom, budget apartment in Brooklyn for a female client (Mrs. D) and her husband.

“The day soon came when Mrs. D and her husband decided to join the exodus out of Brooklyn and follow the pack to the Promised Land, Long Island.  I was summoned to behold a really lovely, sprawling, three-bedroom ranch house in a very upscale gated community.  ‘Do you like it?’ she said.  ‘I love it,” said I.  “Then it’s yours to do and I’ll give you carte blanche … well, almost.”

“When I’d finished the job, I spent the day icing champagne and setting out Hors d’oeuvres, arranging flowers and lighting candles.  When I saw the limo pull up, I stepped out the back door.  An hour later I arrived home, happy but wiped out.  The phone was ringing off the proverbial hook.  ‘I love it, I love it!’ Madame shrieked.  ‘It’s perfection.  All is wonderful … but,’ she wailed, ‘you made one mistake.’  Oh my God, what could I have possibly overlooked? ‘Well,’ she said, ‘You know those gorgeous bookshelves in my gorgeous green library ? You didn’t even buy me one book.  What will I put on the shelves?  Fill ’em up.  I want ’em full.’  How stupid of me not to realize she didn’t own a single book.  I composed myself.  ‘I didn’t know what kind of books you might want.’ ‘Green ones, of course,’ she said.  ‘All green.’  I was humbled.  ‘Well how many do you want?’  ‘Just a minute, I’ll measure.’  She came back, counting.  ‘At least 90 running feet of them.’  For the next two weeks I camped out at Barnes & Noble.”

Different people have different mindsets, different attitudes and different philosophies.

But, if you have style you have something much more important than beauty.

Imaginative, one of a kind, style differs from individual to individual.

It’s an offshoot of personality.

Like charisma, you know style when you see it.

Not too many possess it: unlike fashion, it cannot be bought.

It is real.

It has such incredible pizzazz it causes a physical reaction.

If you want to have style, think of yourself as a canvas for creativity.

Think of style as your identity, who you are, who you think you are, as how you communicate messages about your identity.

Style plays a complex and important role in our lives.

“Interstellar”

“Interstella” is a movie about concern for man and his fate.

I saw “Interstellar”, staring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Michael Caine Saturday night November 15, 2014 and loved it.

At the beginning of the story, Michael McConaughey says: “My mother once told me, ‘once a child is born the parents’ job is to become a good memory’, I now know what that means.”

The movie, in part, is about McConaughey’s love for his children and relationship with his children.

In “Interstellar”, Matthew McConaughey is a loving father who stays in touch with his children.  He is in tune with his children continuously as they are growing up.

However, at the time the story takes place the future existence of the planet earth is in question, the human species might soon become extinct and all living human beings my die from starvation are because a blight is killing all crops.  Further more, children are no-longer being taught scientific, engineering or technology skills and technolgical related development has stopped, no new gadgets are being invented.  Technologically speaking everything is at a stanstil; humanistically speaking  it looks like the human species is on the path to extinction.

McConaughey is tasked (by Michael Caine, the leader of a secret governmentally sponsored research group) to pilot a ship into outer-space to discover a new planet that will support human life.  The hope is that if such a planet is discovered the people still alive on earth will be evacuated to it.

Dramatic tension builds as actors and actresses (the characters in this story), through their actions, reveal their personal answer to the question – What is the chief interest, the most important drive of an individual?

• [A] Survival of the human species?
• [B] Survival of the individual?
• [C] Protecting loved ones?

ASIDE:  One of the planets in this story has 67 hour days.  Imagine what you could do if you had 67 hour days.  Of course, what you can accomplish in any day depends on how you manage your time.

Getting back to this movie.  The take away from this movie is:

1. Figure out what makes people tick and you can better motivate them.
2. Don’t blindly trust people in charge by virtue of their power or knowledge or highest level of authority.
3. Concern for man himself and his fate does not always form the chief interest of most of the people in charge.

“Interstellar” “teaches” how “drivers” (in this case Michael Caine) motivate “strivers” (in this case Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway).

 The Garden of Eden

When someone says they would like to live in “The Garden of Eden” are they really saying they don’t want to think and/or they don’t want to work?

The “Garden of Eden” was a mindless place, a place where no one had to work.  Is that a place where you would like to live?

The purpose of this post is to give you things to think about.

See the words, phrases and ideas in the sections after the end of this post.

They are put there (a) to think about, (b) to help you get in touch with yourself, your conscious and your subconscious, (d) to help you think, and (d) to help you while you are traveling on your mental journeys.

I would be happy to learn what you think about all of the above.

Sincerely,

Gary S. Smolker, Publisher

“Gary S. Smolker Idea Exchange Blog”

http://www.garysmolker.wordpress.com

Copyright © 2014 by Gary S. Smolker