A Fine Balance

Reposting this.  I feel it is the basis of all my writing.

I have strong convictions about achieving balance in our universe, our world, in every aspect of our personal lives.

Googling fine balance today I find a book by Rohinton Mistry.  This is a story from life in India, a single woman, untouchables.  A major quote from the story: "Life is a fine balance between hope and despair."

There is a documentary that I love to recommend to all my friends: "Particle Fever". It is the physical evidence of the fine balance in our universe.  The best physicists in the world got together and built the particle accelerator in CERN, Switzerland.  They tried to recreate the big bang, the event where we all have come to exist.  The physicists had two theories about the nature of our universe: one theory predicted that the universe is symmetric, predictable, ordered.  The second theory predicted the opposite: our universe is all random and chaotic.  To find out which theory is correct they performed the experiment with the smallest atoms that makes our bodies and our world: hydrogen.  They accelerated these hydrogen atoms to extremely high speeds and then smashed two beams together to recreate the big bang.  That is how it all started.  It is the origin of all the matters in our lives.  The physicists then studied all the resulting particles.  They analyzed the immense amount of data and came to this conclusion:  our universe is neither all symmetric nor all chaotic.  They now have to refine each theory: what is the order in the chaos in one case or what is the randomness in the symmetry.  It is a fine balance.

Philosophers have a similar debate: Are events in our lives all predestined, or do we have control over them?  Is there free will?  You will find volumes written and descriptions of the fine balance between the two states.

Some visual examples of fine balance:

Metabolic pathways in our bodies: All the processes in our bodies are in a very delicate balance.  From fat buildup to prepare for famine to utilization of oxygen energy in the mitochondria, all are interconnected.

 A spider web:
It could be pulled a bit one way or the other without disturbing the balance, but if you pull too hard it will collapse, turning into chaos.

A Forest fire in Yosemite: Chaos amidst the majestic redwood trees.

The fire facilitates germination of seeds deep in the earth.

 

In closing I would state that you will find my writing about any subject striving to find the fine balance.  It could be on health and diet.  It could be on the very topics that divide us: Politics and religion.  

Jimmy's Hall, Art, Culture and Religion

This is the story of a wonderful movie I just watched at Laemmle Cinemas: "Jimmy's Hall."  This movie is based on a true story from Ireland in the thirties.  I am telling this story to show one small example of what the ruling class and the church could do in order to stay in power.  Is there any justice or compassion in this story?

These are highlights of the true story: In 1933, Jimmy Gralton, as he was known locally, became the only Irish citizen ever to have been deported from the country when he was forcefully removed and put on a boat to America. He would never set foot in his native land again.

Such severe punishment for his ‘crimes’ seems improbable 81 years on. A dissident voice, Gralton was victimized by the political and religious establishment after daring to establish a dance hall in rural Ireland. A self-educated, community-serving man, Gralton’s hall was built to serve as a venue for the local people of Leitrim.

The youth in the village begging Jimmy to reopen his Hall.

Community dances, singing lessons, poetry appreciation sessions, boxing classes, and debates about workers’ rights were held there. It sounds innocuous. But for the Catholic Church and the Irish ruling class, the hall and the man who built it represented something dangerous and subversive — the fact that the people were beginning to think and act for themselves.

Jimmy and the orchestra

The movie clearly visualizes the story: The church continuously sabotaged Jimmy’s group.  Jimmy’s Hall was burned twice.  When the police came to deport him, his lovely old mother said: “What did I do?  I just gave him books!?”  The lady was running a mobile library.
I think all religions are guilty of ruling societies based on ignorance.  They are stuck in the ideas of tradition and orthodoxy.
I see no other way but for all religions to modernize.  We need to accept the fact that people should be educated.  That knowledge is accessible to all.  That women are equal to men.
Jimmy was talking about jazz and dancing with black people in NY.  "They actually have two legs!!"  I advocate separation of state and religion in Israel.  Although I know that the religious establishment has control over many of the personal laws.  This is despite the fact that 60% of the citizens would like the freedom in making their choices.
The Catholics have the most change to go through.  I know I am very naïve, but there needs to be an end celibacy for priests.  I read that the whole practice came about because they didn't want any land belonging to the church to be divided among the heirs.  This was pointed out clearly in Dan Brown's best seller The Da Vinci Code.
I cannot say how Islam is going to adapt to these modern times of every kid holding a cell phone with knowledge and information right at the tip of their fingers.  But I truly wish to see more justice and equality. 

I’d like to hear more voices like Jimmy’s for progressive politics.  For allowing people to use their creativity and imagination to paint and sing and dance.

Jimmy Gralton represented that alternative voice and finding a space for dissidents — and also seeing them as important alternative arguments — is a major question of our time.

Highlights from the Neues Museum, Berlin

I had two goals when I visited the Neues Museum in Berlin.
The first was to see the bust of Nefertiti, who is considered the most beautiful ever:

She is presented in a glass case and I could walk around and appreciate the perfect features.

The second item was upstairs and was very surprising: The Gold Hat:
מצנפת זהב

The gold hat is a Late Bronze Age 1000- 800 BC artefact made of thin gold leaf. It served as the external covering on a long conical brimmed headdress, probably of an organic material.  Modern scholarship has demonstrated that the ornamentation of the gold leaf cones represent systematic sequences in terms of number and types of ornaments per band. The object would have permitted the determination of dates or periods in both lunar and solar calendars.

Only four of these hats were found and this was the most preserved.

Balance of Freedom and Obedience

We all wish for freedom in some way. When growing up we need freedoms but some discipline is required.  Women flourish when given freedom to pursue their dreams and goals, yet in many cultures they are still forced to submission.  Free societies have more freedoms for their citizens to achieve their dreams and goals, compared with authoritative governments that insist on keeping centralized power and no freedom to the “small people.”

Children like to run around free, explore and imagine. Yet many parents think it important to discipline them: Sit straight!  Don’t speak with food in your mouth!  I find that kids become better adults when they are exposed to many experiences and are given the choices to do the things that ignite their imagination.  The balance of this is to teach some “manners”.  Basically kids need to learn to appreciate other kids and never fear that they would be discriminated against.

Women don’t have any basic rights in so many places in the world.  Even in the Western democracies women had to fight for their right to vote and it took a long process to grant them this right.  Equality is a right that we have to fight for continuously.  I’d like to bring here two extreme examples for women’s equality: Sharol Sandberg, one of the most successful women in social media: married, pregnant.  Sadly she lost her husband.  This is a woman at her best: Shining, active, a role model for many young girls.

Then you can look at this photo of young girls being sold as slaves by ISIS.

In 2015 some men believe that going back to the days of the caliphate is an ideal to strive for.  There are also many other women with no rights and no freedoms: women in India born into “generational prostitution,” and other examples you can watch in the documentary “Half the Sky.”

I believe we would all be better off if young girls would get a similar education to men everywhere.  If they were allowed basic freedoms and given their own choices they would be able to contribute so much more to our lives.  They would be raising the next generation of children the same way: freely encouraging imagination and creativity.

Freedom comes with responsibility. Freedom cannot be guaranteed if people do as they please without considering the consequences.  I will try and address this in a future post.