THINKing... Love For Truth Vs Love For Learning – Unthinking Humans Love Truth As Is Brought To Them By Other Unthinking Humans!

From The New Yorker comes this piece by American Andy Borowitz that begins thus: “Minneapolis (The Borowitz Report) – Scientists have discovered a powerful new strain of fact-resistant humans who are threatening the ability of Earth to sustain life, a sobering new study reports.” I say it’s a joke – and then again, it is not a joke!

On Facebook, our Filipino friend, newly retired government official Ramon Yedra shares the above image that says: “Scientists: Earth Endangered By New Strain Of Fact-Resistant Humans.”

Ah. But I view it differently. “Fact-resistant humans”? This is in fact a challenge to all humans, whether fact-resistant or not!

First of all, “fact-resistant humans” is a challenge to the world of journalism, my self-chosen metaverse, digital and not, for which I am self-taught – after all, I am a BS Agriculture Ag Edu major, UP Los Baños. How now should the likes of Nobel Peace Prize winner Filipina Maria Ressa with her Fact Journalism, otherwise called Truth Journalism, respond?

Truth Journalism, I know that as practiced, cannot pass the
“Rotary 4-Way Test:
1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL, and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?”

An original aboriginal (Ilocano), my private/public practice is what I call “THiNK! Journalism” and it goes like this:

True? If True, is it
Helpful? If Helpful, is it
Inspiring? If Inspiring, is it
Necessary? If Necessary, is it
Kind?
THiNK! (I based it on Zig Ziglar’sTHINK philosophy.)

So! “Truth-resistant humans” or “Fact-resistant humans” are my kind of humans! They demand that your Fact or Truth passes with flying colors all the way through the process of THiNKing so that they will admit, admire and apply it.

Look up again. The bottom image is from a Facebooksharing by Airen Agnes on 24 Aug 2022; so as not to distract from the message of the outstretched hands, I cut out the accompanying text that says: “Students don’t need a perfect teacher. They need a happy teacher, who’s gonna make them excited to come to school and grow a love for learning.” Ms Airen does not state her source; googling, I found it is Richard Feynman in Wisdom Quotes (wisdomquotes.com).

“Love for learning.” We all should cultivate that love by teaching ourselves and/or others THINKing. That is how to educate the young people, and how to teach the old people who think they know better!

Truth = Fact. Truth Journalism is Fact Journalism; therefore, if the journalism stops at “True” or “Fact” – then I would commend (and recommend) the humans who are resistant to Facts!

No Sir, no Ma'am! The world does not need perfect journalists. The world needs happy journalists, those who make their readers and viewers excited to open their digital tools and grow their love more for thinking more.

I journalist think thus: “Earth Empowered By New Strain Of THINK-Insistent Humans.” That would be the day that the Lord has made!@517

Vi.Deo – Vibrant Verisimillitudes, Visuals & Virtuals On God – Videos For God

Vi.Deo – No, not Virtual God but Vibrant God, if not Visible God. God does not need any glorification from us mortals; He is glorious by Himself – but He needs to be portrayed as to be vibrant, if not visible to us, Roman Catholics, at least every Sunday at mass, via the gospel!

I, blogger of 22 years, realize only today, Sunday, 04 Sept 2022, we Roman Catholics have ignored the powerof the virtual presentation (Vi.P) to expound and explain the gospel. Vi.P – the New World explaining the Old World. Expecially because the Bible is extra difficult to understand. Vi.P also signifies virtual pencils for portraits.
(“Pencils” image from Jen H, The Daily Post, wordpress.com)

The top image is from The Feast Facebook webpage, the guest priest at the PICC presenting the gospel, Luke 14:25-33:

Great crowds accompanied him on his way and he turned and spoke to them. “Anyone who comes to me without hating father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, cannot be my disciple. No one who does not carry his cross and come after me can be my disciple.

“And indeed, which of you here, intending to build a tower, would not first sit down and work out the cost to see if he had enough to complete it? Otherwise, if he laid the foundation and then found himself unable to finish the work, anyone who saw it would start making fun of him and saying, "Here is someone who started to build and was unable to finish."

Or again, what king marching to war against another king would not first sit down and consider whether with ten thousand men he could stand up to the other who was advancing against him with twenty thousand? If not, then while the other king was still a long way off, he would send envoys to sue for peace.

So in the same way, none of you can be my disciple without giving up all that he owns.

Jesus Christ! That is an extremely difficult gospel to explain! (Also, the gospels are boring to death just being read.) Nothing beats a dramatization, via a modern-day Vi.P. Then we could all learn from those virtual classes, wherever, whenever, why not!

“Why is it so hard to understand the Bible?” asks Got Questions, and gives the reason that we “read our preconceived biases into the Bible” (gotquestions.org). We do, but really, the language of the Bible is of bygone eras and the best translations still need translating to modern lives.

Yes, I see that we Roman Catholics living in the modern world, how come we have not thought of harnessing the awesome powers of the digital world in the service of the Church and the laity in presenting – and therefore understanding – the gospel?!

More pertinently, I ask: Why is it that we Catholics have ignored the immense power of the digital universe in proselytizing our own? What I’m saying is that we techno-savvy people are still techno-backwards in applying what we know!@517

“Writer’s Block” – The Enemy Within!

I have 2 friends, “The Left” and “The Right” (Male and Female), and our friendships go back deep into the early 1960s. “The Left” has always been a writer; “The Right” has always been a non-writer – and right now are both wanting and struggling to write their last book and testament (autobiography) – both are suffering from Writer’s Block! The Writer’s Block of “The Left” tells you that experience is not a guarantee for success; that of “The Right” tells you everyone needs help!

(image sources: male from storymind.com, female from writersblog.co)

Both the Storymindand Writer’s Blog advise that you first find “inspiration” – the problem with that is, “What do you do if you can’t find inspiration?!” Storymind says, “One way to beat Writer’s Block” – and proceeds to list 5 tips!

So, here’s some free anti-Writer’s Block advices from me:

Go digital.

The writers shown in the images above are primitive, sorry to say – they belong to the age I will call “Early Digital” – fingers. Today, “digital” refers to the laptop. As a writer, which digital are you? Now, listen to me who in this blog alone – “CoViD21” – has already published 1001 essays!

Everything must be digital, no exceptions.

Don’t give the would-be title of your book as the filename of the one you’re working on – a different chapter deserves a different filename. This will help your mind re/arrange the chapters’ contents as you go along.

Writing on paper: Certainly, for stray thoughts only – not writing whole chapters.

Writing digital (I use MS Word): Always write digital, for speed and safety. Save often – Ctrl+S. If you make a major revision of a would-be chapter, change the filename (“Alt+F, Save As”) – chances are you will want to go back to the text you would have deleted!

Save all those different digital drafts under different titles, so you can review or use them for checking much later.

List Down The People.

Remember, any recollection is/may be important – until you say “Finis” to your book, it’s not finished. Make a list of significant others in your life so far, and type, tentatively, whatever you recollect about each of them. Separate people, separate files, yes – these are not chapters but reminders for you.

Enumerate Significant Events.

No matter at what stage you are in your book, and no matter what chapter you are working on right now, create a separate digital file and list down the significant or important events and occasions in your life so far. Not complete sentences or paragraphs, just reminders to write thoroughly later.

Write & Inspire Yourself!

Always think pleasant thoughts, including godly thoughts.

Remember, everything is tentative. Each chapter you are working is different from the other chapters. Don’t worry about some mix-up of data or information; you can rewrite later – easy if you’re digital!

Review.

After your draft, good or bad, you want the best book you can write – send me your complete book draft and whoever you are, I will advise you, absolutely free, on how to improve it! (Message me on Facebook.)@517