Opus 2024-249: Honing Your Brain Palate

I was enjoying my oatmeal this morning and being thankful for the presence of honey in it.  I realized that this was rather mundane and ordinary, compared to being thankful for the incarnation, and the crucifixion, and the resurrection and so forth.  Yes, it was still gratitude at the blessings God gives.

From there my mind went to how do I tell the difference between the honey and the artificial sweeteners I have used which are made up of chemicals and additives.  When all I had were the chemicals in additives, it was quite adequate.  Once I went to the honey, I could tell the difference.

This brought to mind the old illustration of how do you bank tellers know the difference between genuine money and counterfeit bills.  The answer was not that they knew all of the attributes of counterfeit money, but they knew what the real thing felt like.  So much of our life we fall short in because we have never experienced the real thing.

To be honest, some people never can experience the real thing.  I think of how taste buds are actually different, how some people taste bitter, and others taste nothing.  We even taste sweets differently.  It is literally a genetic difference.  There is nothing they can do about it.  Then you have limitations like bad eyes.  Some people can correct their vision totally either with glasses or some type of surgery.  Others like myself have a bad eye which is just a bad eye there is nothing to do about it.  You learn to live with it.  You’re aware of the problem but you get on with life.

In many areas, we can develop an awareness of the differences.  I think of politics.  The elites that try to manipulate our thinking, and are doing everything they can to destroy the country know exactly what to tell us.  They know how to get inside our minds and warp are thinking.  If we are not alert and aware they can do a very good job.  The best antithesis to phony thinking is being aware of the real thing.  The many different branches that lies can take can never be kept up with.  However, if you have actually read the Constitution, then you know when they are feeding you bogus nonsense.

I find the same true when it comes to such phrases as “Islam is a religion of peace.”  That sounds really good.  People want to believe it.  You can quote the Quran in such a way as to make it sound like that’s what it teaches.  However, if you have read the entire Quran, you find that is a nonsense statement.  When you know the real thing, it’s hard for the lies to sneak by you.  It can still happen.  We need to stay awake and keep our boloney meters turned on.  But we can tell the difference.

homo unius libri