The Fire is gone?

This week, I noticed my hot water heater was malfunctioning.  I found myself taking a cold shower, went to inspect the heater afterward, and found that the pilot light had gone out.  I have no idea when this happened.  I don't use a lot of hot water.  But it got me thinking about other things in my life.

Like a lot of things in life, a hot water heater can make a lot of hay from a few short bursts of fire.  It has a huge reservoir.  The fire does its work, and then you and others can reap the benefits for a long time afterward.  The pilot light is small, but is enough to relight that fire when it is needed again.  But sometimes, due to neglect, you might not be aware that you have let the pilot light go out.  Then, when you need that fire to replenish your reservoir, there is nothing.  I recently found myself in this situation in life, as well as with my hot water heater.  Thankfully, I was presented with a sequence of events that allowed me to re-ignite that fire.

Inspect your pilot lights this week.  Both those of appliances and those of your person.  Take a peak, make sure they are lit; make sure you are prepared to prepared at a moment's notice to build up that fire and reap its rewards to the benefit of yourself as well as those around you.

Enthusiasm

I've learned something in the last few months; or perhaps a better way to put it is that I have re-learned something.

Enthusiasm is contagious.  Everybody knows this.  Everybody surely has had an experience in which an enthusiastic teacher, or athletic team captain, or business development team leader whose visible an tangible enthusiasm for the subject, sport, or project seemed to magically spread to the rest of the team (or class).  With the inevitable end result being that at the end of the process all members of the group found that they had achieved more than they had previously thought imaginable.

But it goes further than that.  One's own enthusiasm (or lack thereof) for one aspect of one's life is also contagious to the remaining aspects of one's life.  In the past few months, my enthusiasm for certain subjects that I had claimed to have been of great importance to me -- but for which my enthusiasm had somewhat ebbed -- has been rekindled.  And that enthusiasm has bled over into many other aspects of my daily efforts.  I find myself writing prolifically and thoroughly in ways that had seemed to difficult to accomplish before; and I find my progress at work in my research has also benefitted tremendously.

So, if there is something you are enthusiastic about, nurture and cultivate that enthusiasm.  Even if it seems to be a thoroughly self-serving venture, that enthusiasm you have for self-growth will likely enkindle enthusiasm in many -- and perhaps all -- other aspects of your life.  And perhaps in so doing, your newfound enthusiasm that you then find in many things that you do will spark to new life to the efforts of those around you.

"The Dress"

I'm sure that, by now, you have seen and have pronounced judgment on the colors of "The Dress."  If you have no idea what I am talking about, congratulations!  And to remain in your blissful ignorance of this most recent meaningless internet meme, do not click on this link.

Aside from learning how easy it is to distract the whole of America for a week, I think there are other lessons to be learned from "The Dress."

Namely, it is clear that different people perceive the colors of this dress differently; and these differences do not seem to be correlated with any type or level of color blindness.  Rather, based on cues either taken from the rest of the image, or assumed, each person's individual brain is interpreting the photons emerging from this image differently. It is my suspicion that in the physical presence of "The Dress," since fewer assumptions would be required to be made by the brain, there would be less disagreement.  But, regardless, this is not a matter of opinion.  If it were opinion, those on each side would be able to at least acknowledge the possibility of the alternate view.  But that has not been happening.  Folks are viewing this image and seeing what they see; and no matter what, they seem incapable of seeing the alternative.

What is the lesson?  It is not that each person's perception is equally acceptable, and can't we all just get along?  The dyes contained within that dress have a specific spectral signature, meaning they absorb photon of certain colors and reflect others.  The light incident on that dress has a known spectrum.  Thus the photons reflected by the dress are the same, regardless of who looks at the dress or what instrument records an image of the dress.  There is only one correct "answer" to the question of "what colors is the dress?"  But, the image may be manipulated to encourage one or the other interpretation.  Or previous experience may predispose someone to preferentially see only one or the other interpretation.

No, the lesson is not that all interpretations are acceptable, but rather that one's perception and interpretation might be colored (pardon the pun) by a number of external factors, and that the only way to get to the heart of the matter is through comparison of observations by many observers, including a thorough exploration of the potential biases of each observer.