What are you listening to?

[Madelaine McMasters]

49 minutes ago, Kristen Beornssen said:

Long before this was used as the jingle in the Google Chrome commercial, we were singing it in church:

I once ran out of gas on Dad's motorcycle, in Milwaukee's near north side (not the safest place), on a sunny Sunday morning. I was about a mile from the nearest gas station, so began to push the bike. A man pulled up in his car and offered to help. I declined, but he insisted. Against my better judgment I finally agreed and he drove me to the gas station were I bought a gallon of gas in a little loaner gas can (no deposit!). He drove me back to the bike, waited for me to fill and start it, then offered to return the can to the gas station. He also encouraged me to visit his church, where he was heading when he first spotted me.

Curious, I did follow him to the church, where I discovered he was the pastor. The service was filled with exactly the kind of gospel music you posted. It was a raucous, joyous affair and I left feeling pretty damned good. He winked at me as I exited, and I winked back. My "better judgment" was improved by the experience.

It may not be as uplifting, but I will offer this...

 

Edited April 30, 2018 by Madelaine McMasters

[SodaGnome]

 

[SodaGnome]

 

[SodaGnome]

 

[kershe]

 

[LexxiXhan]

Remembering a wonderful inspiration <3

 

[Zeta Vandyke]

 

[Destiny Marques]

6 hours ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

I once ran out of gas on Dad's motorcycle, in Milwaukee's near north side (not the safest place), on a sunny Sunday morning. I was about a mile from the nearest gas station, so began to push the bike. A man pulled up in his car and offered to help. I declined, but he insisted. Against my better judgment I finally agreed and he drove me to the gas station were I bought a gallon of gas in a little loaner gas can (no deposit!). He drove me back to the bike, waited for me to fill and start it, then offered to return the can to the gas station. He also encouraged me to visit his church, where he was heading when he first spotted me.

Curious, I did follow him to the church, where I discovered he was the pastor. The service was filled with exactly the kind of gospel music you posted. It was a raucous, joyous affair and I left feeling pretty damned good. He winked at me as I exited, and I winked back. My "better judgment" was improved by the experience.

It may not be as uplifting, but I will offer this...

 

That's such a great story Madelaine!

I guess whether you believe in God or not, the universe sometimes has a way of sending you what you need at just the right time, which in your case was a helping hand. I'm glad to hear that the experience was a positive one for you.

[Callum Meriman]

Almost Eurovision time. i wonder if Israel will win this year with the chicken song.

 

[arton Rotaru]

 

[Destiny Marques]

Mary sang it best... Never let the haters get you down.

 

[Claireschen Hesten]

 

[Madelaine McMasters]

On 4/30/2018 at 7:38 PM, Kristen Beornssen said:

That's such a great story Madelaine!

I guess whether you believe in God or not, the universe sometimes has a way of sending you what you need at just the right time, which in your case was a helping hand. I'm glad to hear that the experience was a positive one for you.

This may sound self centered, but I think that, rather than the universe sending me what I needed at just the right time, I just climbed a little out of my comfort zone to accept what was offered. I think we all turn down opportunities to grow every day, because it's comfortable to stay in our foxholes. The universe is a truly marvelous place and I derive great happiness from marveling at it.

I've posted this many times, once more won't hurt...

The best part about the story of being helped by that pastor was the wink when I left. He knew I'd climbed out of my foxhole and that I'd found it worth the effort. My wink in return was my show of gratitude. I do love win/win.

Edited May 2, 2018 by Madelaine McMasters

[Clover Jinx]

 

[Madelaine McMasters]

.

[Cinnamon Mistwood]

Slower than what I usually listen to, but I love the bluesy sound of this

[Pamela Galli]

1 hour ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

This may sound self centered, but I think that, rather than the universe sending me what I needed at just the right time, I just climbed a little out of my comfort zone to accept what was offered. I think we all turn down opportunities to grow every day, because it's comfortable to stay in our foxholes. The universe is a truly marvelous place and I derive great happiness from marveling at it.

I've posted this many times, once more won't hurt...

The best part about the story of being helped by that pastor was the wink when I left. He knew I'd climbed out of my foxhole and that I'd found it worth the effort. My wink in return was my show of gratitude. I do love win/win.

I don't know of any evolutionary advantage to finding so much of nature beautiful.

I like giving thanks.

Edited May 2, 2018 by Pamela Galli

[ForrestChild]

 

[Nostoll]

 

[Madelaine McMasters]

3 hours ago, Pamela Galli said:

I don't know of any evolutionary advantage to finding so much of nature beautiful.

I like giving thanks.

Well, there's certainly evolutionary advantage to finding certain things "attractive". We are attracted to certain kinds of potential mates, both visually (we value symmetry and averageness, because they weed out genetic abnormality). We're attracted to displays of intelligence, such as a good sense of humor.

We're attracted to certain types of environments and their particulars (plants, animals, etc.) We're attracted to verdant landscapes with good visibility and/or escape routes and evidence of human habitation, because they're hospitable.

It's not surprising that we invent language to describe these attractions. It's long been thought that our appreciation of "art" is somehow decoupled from our assessment of advantageousness, but that idea is crumbling.

https://www.npr.org/2004/10/04/4057069/in-evolution-a-taste-for-beauty-has-a-purpose

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-evolutionary-purpose-of-our-capacity-to-appreciate-beauty

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-neuroscience-of-beauty/

Here's a fella who's bucking the those theories... https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23431243-100-we-may-have-the-evolution-of-beauty-completely-wrong/

To say that there's no evolutionary advantage to the recognition of "beauty" is, I think, a bit reversed. We create the concept of beauty to explain that feeling we get when our subconscious apprehends the advantageousness of a thing. We needn't understand the feeling to know we have it.

I think there's an evolutionary advantage to gratefulness as well. It's a stress reducer and we're learning just how corrosive to our physical health stress can be. Fortunately, gratefulness is a thing we can manufacture for ourselves. Unfortunately, afflictions like depression can make that difficult to do.

The neurochemistry of all this stuff is becoming better understood with the advent of functional MRI. I do hope that the medical community is once again allowed to experiment with psychoactive drugs like psilocybin, which produced epiphanic experiences in test subjects. Couple that with FMRI and I just wonder what fascinating discoveries we'll make.

It's pretty cool that we can (if and when we do) disagree on things like the evolutionary advantage of recognizing beauty while simultaneously enjoying the opportunity each of us offers the other for the discussion.

Thanks, Pam!

;-).

 

Edited May 2, 2018 by Madelaine McMasters

[arton Rotaru]

 

[LexxiXhan]

Bulerias!

 

[Madelaine McMasters]

 

[Axel UwU]

 

[Zeta Vandyke]