""The Tortoise challenged Achilles to a race, claiming that he would win as long as Achilles gave him a small head start. Achilles laughed at this, for of course he was a mighty warrior and swift of foot, whereas the Tortoise was heavy and slow.
"How big a head start do you need?" he asked the Tortoise with a smile.
"Ten meters," the latter replied.
Achilles laughed louder than ever. "You will surely lose, my friend, in that case," he told the Tortoise, "but let us race, if you wish it."
"On the contrary," said the Tortoise, "I will win, and I can prove it to you by a simple argument."
"Go on then," Achilles replied, with less confidence than he felt before. He knew he was the superior athlete, but he also knew the Tortoise had the sharper wits, and he had lost many a bewildering argument with him before this.
"Suppose," began the Tortoise, "that you give me a 10-meter head start. Would you say that you could cover that 10 meters between us very quickly?"
"Very quickly," Achilles affirmed.
"And in that time, how far should I have gone, do you think?"
"Perhaps a meter – no more," said Achilles after a moment's thought.
"Very well," replied the Tortoise, "so now there is a meter between us. And you would catch up that distance very quickly?"
"Very quickly indeed!"
"And yet, in that time I shall have gone a little way farther, so that now you must catch that distance up, yes?"
"Ye-es," said Achilles slowly.
"And while you are doing so, I shall have gone a little way farther, so that you must then catch up the new distance," the Tortoise continued smoothly.
Achilles said nothing.
"And so you see, in each moment you must be catching up the distance between us, and yet I – at the same time – will be adding a new distance, however small, for you to catch up again."
"Indeed, it must be so," said Achilles wearily.
"And so you can never catch up," the Tortoise concluded sympathetically.
"You are right, as always," said Achilles sadly – and conceded the race.""
One could say that life is just like this race. Everytime we feel like we get caught up on something, something else comes along and puts us back a little bit farther. There is no way to catch up to where we need or want to be, thus stays the paradox.
While the calculus method of handling infinite sequences may solve the distance problem, and quantum physics solves the mark between two points, there is the philosophical answer to the paradox: keep going, try something new, and never give up.
I've tried to fill my life with as many eclectic paths as possible. I travel down each one for a short bit of time, until I catch up as much as I can, and turn toward a different direction. This helps keep the mind free and open. My gambit is the possibility of sacrificing certain aspects that some people may find offensive, in that not enough time is spent in one area, and too much in another.
My life "To-Do List: is as follows:
*To write a Letter of Intent to a high-powered political official
*To finish and publish the 9 books I've started
*To continue to write: poetry, blogs, stories, notes, scribbles, ideas
*To re-build a compressed air engine, and build and adapt a Tesla turbine using recycled compressed air, with gyroscopic encasements/compartments
*To re-build an electric engine using Xenon and a friction based power source
*To continue to sit on the board of The Thomas Foundation
*To finish work on my un-named community non-profit endowment
*To continue to be culturally open-minded, and non-biased
*To travel to other countries
*To immerse myself in my educational career
*To make people happy with my small business of jewlery making
*To learn as much as possible about psychology and philosophy
*To continue to enjoy my outdoor activities; hiking and camping
*To reduce my meat intake to 15%, and increase vegetarianism to 85%
*To continue to learn and play percussion, tin whistles, and guitar
*To play the song I wrote for my grandma in public
*To continue to meet and greet new people
*To love my two best friends as the real and genuine people that they are
*To continue to protest things that I feel are wrong, and promote things I feel are right
*To continue to love my family, and all the eccentricities we entail
*To be a life partner with the right woman, and have children together
*To continue to learn things I do not know, but want to
*To never lose sight of who I truly am
All of the above I have started, and will continue to work on until the end - but one never truly stops being ones' self, if one passes on knowledge to another ...
I'm a strong believer that all lists should be long, so that everything can be garnered an achievement if tried. I heard it said once "Do or Do Not, There is No Try" - but, if we don't try, nothing can be done ... to try, is to do - to do nothing, is to not try ...
Respect is taken, when respect is given ...
Namaste and Slainte
~BG~
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