Melanie is going deep with this week’s edition of Share Your World.
What did you learn the hard way?
I learn best by doing, so I’d say most of what I learned I learned the hard way.
Which activities make you lose track of time?
Writing and reading blog posts.
Why do we seem to think of others the most after they’re gone?
I assume, by “after they’re gone,” Melanie means after they’ve died, not after they’ve left your house after a visit. I’m also a little confused by the wording. Does Melanie want to know why we think the most of people after they died (i.e., think more highly of them), or why we think of people the most after they’ve died (i.e., think of them more often)?
I’m going with the former because I probably don’t think of people more often after they’re gone than I did before they died. And my answer to the other interpretation is that it depends upon what I thought of the person when they were alive. If I liked and admired the person, I will feel a loss after their death and will focus on the best aspects of his or her life. But if I neither liked nor respected the person in life, I won’t think better of them in death.
And if I either misinterpreted Melanie’s question or overthought it, well, never mind.
Is it possible to know the truth without challenging it first?
“Truth” is subjective. Truth can be like faith, in that it is often based upon beliefs rather than demonstrable facts. I know that I can’t challenge every “truth” I’ve ever been taught. For example, I accept the fact that the planet on which we live is basically round and I accept that as the truth. But there are others who inexplicably believe that the Earth is flat, and that truth is their “truth.” My bottom line, as a pragmatist, is to follow the evidence, understand and accept what is demonstratively factual, and that will ultimately lead me to the truth. Or my truth, anyway.
This, That, and the Other 
Nice
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks.
LikeLike
Very nicely answered Fandango
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re welcome
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m wondering how ‘truth’ can both be a logically based ‘thing’ and also be subjective?
I agree with your point and energy on pragmatism.
Is truth and fact interchangeable in your view? Just curious. I often feel misunderstanding people comes from using terms that they define differently. I also believe some concepts are impossible to actual ‘nail down’.
If the term ‘my truth’ (one that I personally dislike) is actually ‘opinion’ and ‘opinion’ is subjective, doesn’t incorporating ‘truth’ in the phrase give it a ‘slanted’ meaning?
There I go again, thinking out loud. 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
Here’s a post I wrote around four years ago that might answer your question.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very interesting!
Anything subjective in nature IMO, doesn’t come close to truth or fact. Facts are more tangible while truth is usually a pursuit that can end in tangible results but most often we are left being close to truth and farther from untruth.
Science is like truth. Absolute certainty is rare. Predictions in science are all hypothetical because causation variables cannot be predicted only discovered.
Gosh I love this stuff. Thanks!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very thoughtful concise answers. Nice job Fandango
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Lauren.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think it’s a massive waste of time and energy to “challenge” well-supported facts. Why challenge vaccination? Why challenge modern medicine and somehow believe that people were healthier 1000 years ago when we know — as fact — that they were NOT healthier and died much younger.
No one needs to accept every ridiculous rumor that goes around, but neither does anyone need to challenge establish facts and science. There are better things to do with ones time and energy!
LikeLiked by 2 people
You’re totally right!
LikeLiked by 1 person
A lovely interpretation of truth. My husband insists without question that there’s no such thing as ghosts. But I know quite a few people who are convinced they have interacted with ghosts in some way. Is their experience any less valid than my husband’s? I think this is a case where I balance between what I suspect is a fact and my understanding that other people experience the world differently to me (or my husband). They’re not wrong. But maybe neither are we. 🤷♀️
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t believe in ghosts, either, but that is my truth, but since I can’t definitively prove that ghosts don’t exist, I suppose that means it’s not a fact.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Jon Stewart On Vaccine Science And The Wuhan Lab Theory
LikeLiked by 1 person
I saw that! He was on quite a rant, wasn’t he?
LikeLike
I quite enjoyed it. 😁 !
LikeLiked by 1 person
I recommend this whole recording… but notice two and then one second before 32 minutes into the video, “truth” and “capital T” are referenced.
Also see four-and-a-half minutes in, where Hedges talks about writing his gambling chapter while present inside Donald Trump’s casino (one of them) for an extended stay to research and observe. Let’s remember that the former president was not only a friend of the Clintons but said he was a Democrat until he ran for office.
Chris Hedges on his latest book, America: The Farewell Tour
The tag for this (above) talk refers to a “latest book” while there is, now, a newer book by Chris Hedges. (No, I haven’t read it. I think it’s called “After Trump” — and I’ll see if I can find a video on that.)
LikeLike
Good answers. I find the biggest loss of time always happens when I am either on my computer or phone – blogging, reading or playing a game. You blink and it is an hour later.
LikeLiked by 1 person