December 31, 2007 by admin.

When I was just a little girl
I asked my mother, what will I be
Will I be pretty, will I be rich
Here’s what she said to me.

Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future’s not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.

When I was young, I fell in love
I asked my sweetheart what lies ahead
Will we have rainbows, day after day
Here’s what my sweetheart said.

Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future’s not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.

Now I have children of my own
They ask their mother, what will I be
Will I be handsome, will I be rich
I tell them tenderly.

Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future’s not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.

The above lyrics are to a song performed by the actress Doris Day. The lyrics are actually quite a bit older than most might think, dating back to 1588, when Christopher Marlowe wrote in his play ‘Doctor Faustus’ “Che sera, sera, What will be, shall be”. In recent history, the lyrics are attributed to Ray Evans and Jay Livingston.

When I was little, whenever I asked my Mother questions about the future, she would sing this song. I don’t know if it was because the song was popular, or if my Mother believed the philosophy, but that song is ingrained in my psyche.

When I was in the fourth grade, a boy I knew fell in ‘love’ with me. He had been the ‘boyfriend’ of another classmate, but he decided that he wanted to ‘go steady’ with me. We spent our recesses together, and since we were in the same homeroom class, we saw each other most of the day. Once, as I was walking home from school, I had stopped to adjust my bag on the steps of the Boys Club, when a friend of the other girl skidded to a dusty stop in front of me. He said “This is from Judy”, and hacking up as much phlegm as he could, spat full in my face. I was heartbroken and humiliated. Upon returning home, my Mother simply said, ‘This is how life is sometimes’. I went to school the next day, a bit wiser and a very much more watchful of others.

Since I know that you read this blog Thomas, I want you to know that what will be will be. We have removed any offensive content regarding you and your friends from our personal websites. We are finished with the childish and stagnant game you have drawn us into. If you so wish to continue, that is up to you.

We have never abused the art sites of which we are members by sending out mass mailings with links to our personal websites. We are painfully aware that you and your friends did. It would be wonderful if each of you could go back and undo the harm done us, however we know that the time and energy required is probably not something you wish to engage in.

In closing, please accept my personal apology for any grief I have caused you and your friends. My goal is to move forward with my life, taking this as a valuable lesson that experiences in life can often times be cruel, much like the one when I was in the fourth grade.

Susan Isabella Sheehan

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December 30, 2007 by admin.

It was Solomon who said “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” The words we use today, and the way that we phrase our sentences has all been seen before. The sequence of the words may be different, but the meanings behind the words are the same.

Chiasmus

Main Entry:
chi·as·mus
Pronunciation:
\kī-ˈaz-məs, kē-\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
New Latin, from Greek chiasmos, from chiazein to mark with a chi
Date:
1871
:an inverted relationship between the syntactic elements of parallel phrases (as in Goldsmith’s to stop too fearful, and too faint to go)

The definition above is from Merriam Websters Online Dictionary, http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/chiasmus+/. It is a term which has been replaced with the word plagiarism in todays sophisticated and educated world. I found the following to not only be interesting, but really quite entertaining as well.

For instance, when Benjamin Franklin said “”Where there is a marriage without love, there will be a love without marriage”, he paraphrased, or in todays terms plagiarized, the English writer Thomas Fuller, who wrote in ‘The Holy State and the Profane State’ (1642) “They that marry where they do not love, will love where they do not marry.” This may not be the first instance of the use of this exact phrase, and it certainly was not the last, since it has been used by many other writers since Franklin’s time.

Here is another example of Franklin’s use of others thoughts. “Grief often treads Upon the heels of pleasure, Marry’d in haste, We oft repent at leisure; Some by experience Find these words misplaced, Marry’d at leisure, They repent in haste.” This was lifted in its entirety from English writer William Congreve (1670-1729), who wrote in his 1693 play, The Old Bachelor:

Sharper: Thus grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure: Marry’d in haste, we may repent at leisure.
Setter: Some by experience find those words mis-plac’d: At leisure marry’d they repent in haste.

The list of names of famous politicians and writers who practiced ‘chiasmus’ includes, but is not limited to, Confucius, William Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

For more information, please visit Chiasmus.com.

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July 27, 2006 by admin.

Modern societies seem to have left behind the tribe and village mind set that dominated our existence on this planet until just a few centuries ago. Our cities provide anonymity and privacy not possible in a small village or tribe. A corresponding rise in non productive behavior accompanies this change. Crime, selfish acts, violations of ethics and morals are more difficult to deal with today. Banishing a tribal member for transgression against the group was often the punishment of last resort.
For many years the network enhanced and furthered communication and knowledge. Of course it wasn’t called the Internet then it was uunet/usenet and arpanet. The UseNet News Groups posting boards, so useful for engineering and science, soon became the gossip center and porn source for “anyone with two neurons they could rub together, and a modem”. This bit of humor is from the 1980s. Nearly thirty years later the only change has been that you no longer need any neurons, LOL.

The Internet allows anyone to be anyone, something that wasn’t possible nor desired 30 years ago. This freedom of identity allows and facilitates behaviors generally considered rude or hateful in person. Many engineers my age, 57, can remember how flame wars on uunet became common once general society became participants. The Internet became a place where identity could and can be hidden, where ethics, morals, integrity, and courtesy are optional.

I began a study of alpha personalities and aggressive behavior in societies and organizations many years ago. My interest area is in group dynamics and the interplay/interaction between the leader(s) and the follower(s). For an organization to exist there must be a benefit to the membership. This generalization is the basis for why cells organize into organs which organized into bodies. Note that not all organizations provide useful benefits to its members. Jim Jones comes to mind here as well as perhaps prisons. Not all alpha personalities are aggressive. Gandhi comes to mind who used passive resistance to influence society. Long time members of an organization who often are also the alpha personality may influence more through example and guidance then through aggression and control.

Tom Repasky
Susan Repasky
Copyright 2007 Flicker Light Studio™

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