I think you (and Bob Stewart) have put your finger right on the truth - things turn out the best for those who make the best out of the way things turn out.

Maybe it's expectation, too, that get in our way. The online news organization Poynter.org had a contest in which they asked for six-word biographies. My favorite: Not quite what I had planned.

Most lives turn out that way, don't they? Not quite what we'd planned - and I think it's our reaction to what we planned versus what we got that drives some of this viral ill-feeling and the need to strike out at those who (we think) got what they planned.

the 8th wonder is actually the MDN Blogs as a whole. please check your facts yo!

You're right, Paulie. It's a wonder (as in wonderful). It would be a tragic waste of talent if Kathy wasn't a newspaper reporter.

Thanks for this blog. I will comment, just not at the moment beyond saying that greed and avarice are root causes, and that the zeitgist is shifting.

Kathy - I hate you... things like this wake me up at nite...:>(P (not really, sort of...);>))

I am not sure that we have a "human nature" except that we all, as humankind, have the same basic physiology, which leads to the same kinds of events and questions - birth, family, work, gender roles, rites of passage, physical survival, social relations, etc. All human groups/cultures develop structures to regulate behavior, wealth, roles, social organization and to explain the unknown.

If there is any 'nature', it is in our common humanity, our common needs, aspirations, searchings and fears.

Science tells us that we are mostly water, with a bit of carbon, calcium, etc. - ALL of us... We ARE of the very stuff of the Earth.

Science also tells us that there is 'something' out there that is 'consciousness', that holds the universe(s), as we now see them, together... they don't KNOW what it is, they just know IT exists...

How each culture interprets these two things is the stuff of religion.

The Western/Abrahmic traditions (Judaism, Chrisitianity, Islam) which all share the same monotheistic tradition also did something else - like capitalism, it externalized the Divine - God is 'out there' somewhere, and removed the Divine and separated it from humans. It made that which was sacred separate from humankind. Thank St. Augustine and the Dominionists for the biggest part of this one....

Other cultures did NOT separate humankind, or "lesser" life forms, from that which was sacred such as indigenous peoples, Aborigines, Tibetans, etc. These folks do not consider themselves as 'having dominion over' the Earth, but as an integral part of the Earth.

Any discussion of 'human nature' is bounded by the culture(s) of origin.

That being said, IF you believe that the 'something out there' is Divine, God, or Universal Consciousness, and that THAT intentional awareness is the origin of all that is, then this Earth is a living, intentional system/being, and we are living expressions of that Divine 'marriage' of consciousness and physical being, then we ALL are little sparks of Divine 'light' or 'breath' in a sacred enclosure called our skin. And everything in this natural world is equally sacred.

"Whatever you do for others, you send it before your own soul and shall find it with God, who sees all you do" Holy Q'uran.

"A man obtains a proper rule of action by looking on his neighbor as himself" Hindu proverb

"Regard Heaven as your father, Earth as your mother, and all things as your brothers and sisters" Shinto proverb

"Remember even when alone that the Divine is everywhere" Confucias

"...for behold, the Kingdom of God is within you"

If we talk about human nature, we have to talk about the constant struggle between what we define as good and what we define as NOT good... IF we define human nature as essentially not good, not sacred, not of God, then the discussion is very different than if we define human nature as basically good, sacred, and of God.

Which is why we have religions, social structures, and cultures - to provide that framework...

In seeing the commonalities among the human condition, and personally feeling that all of this world is essentially sacred, and of the Divine, I get very frustrated by people who see the world as essentially an evil place... there is not a lot of common ground, or common language, and because we are finite, limited, and bound by our cultural understandings, it takes time to listen to each other. It takes tolerance, patience, and openness.

When I said that "thou shalt not covet" might be a good place to start, it was in the sense of allowing others to be who they are; to covet that which is not ours is to claim a false sense of entitlement - are we entitled to Iraq's oil; are we entitled to destroy the rainforest so we can have a 'miracle cure', or cheap fruit? Are we entitled to other peoples' 'stuff' just because we want it cheap or free? Manifest Destiny is an ugly doctrine that says that WE, the United States, are the chosen of God, and that it is our 'manifest destiny' to rule the world... but how does that square with 'thou shalt not covet'? Give away all you have and follow me? Do unto others AS you would have them do unto you?

Human nature? We are what we choose...

NanaDot - I think maybe you and OK reader have hit on another important part of the subject - "greed, avarice...thou shalt not covet." Somebody else has what we want, something we think we deserve that they do not. Even something we didn't know we wanted, but now that someone else has it, we gotta have it, too - and we're angry we can't seem to get it.

I always wonder why people feel it is okay to insult people on an anonymous blog. It is not just on this site, but almost any blog I have ever been on. People seem to bicker and insult much more than they ever would in person. Is that just part of human nature?

Through the years I have seen a lot of reporters come and go at the Democrat-News. I think Kathy does an excellent job.

Marcia

Sorry, yomomma. Perhaps you'd be more entertained by the Cartoon Network this morning? Say....that gives me another blog idea.........

HAH!! I wonder how many will get your choice of words, NanaDot? LMAO!

I do believe that the level of complaint rises among us when we get uncomfortable with the way of things. I also believe that starts at birth. A baby will cry immediately at birth, likely due to distress at change in its environment, and perhaps due to hunger. The first lesson it learns is that complaint brings warmth, complaint brings food, complaint solves my problem. It may not be cognizant of the source of its distress but complaint has solved it. Soon the cries become more complex adding overtones of demand to its cries of distress. As this happens it may be that the brain physically changes, grows if you will. In those instances when a baby's cries go unanswered it will not thrive.. As we grow older we add layers of sophistication, and new techniques to this basic survival skill. This gets us through unchallenging times. These differ in degree of development for each individual, therefore some are more successful with their demands than others. Allow me a brief aside. This begs the question is even altruism a sophisticated veiled effort to strengthen our demands by asserting that they are the needs of many others (not my demands)? After all it has been proven that altruism develops only as children get older, hmmm. Back on point, when life becomes more challenging more people can not overcome the challenge with the array of survival tools each of these has individually accumulated many of these revert to basic emotion and COMPLAIN. Life has gotten more complex, more challenging. Some avoid complaining because they have developed survival tools such as stoicism, others hope which has led them to faith in something greater than themselves. Having said all that I have come to the conclusion that complaint is an instinctual survival tool and more are complaining now than before simply because there is more to complain about. When enough of us resolve that we are as mad as hell and we aren't going to take it anymore we have taken the first step toward change. Let us hope that we head in the right direction. Sometimes we do.

OK Reader - That drive to complain certainly gets stronger as we get older, have to agree on that point. I'm far more likely to complain about poor service, etc., than I used to be - but then, as you point out, there is more to complain about, too.

Somewhere in my house I have a book called "The Culture of Complaint," that addresses this subject - I need to go dig it up and take another look.

I don't disagree with people's right to complain, but what bothers me is the tenor of the complaining - seems to me it is far more aggressive than in the past, and often misdirected. And, too, it seems as if we *only* complain, instead of getting off our collective rear ends and doing something to help address the reason for the complaint. For example, there was a lot of complaining about courthouse renovation, but a mere 15% of the populace bothered to vote on the issue.

BTW, OK Reader...your thoughts on how we begin the cycle at birth reminded me of another Carlin quote:

"When you're born, you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America, you get a front row seat!"

For more information on the word bloviate, I turned to one of my favorite websites, worldwidewords.org, for comment by Michael Quinion, a regular contributor to Bob Edwards' morning show on XM Radio. You can read his commentary on the word here:

http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords...

It's a great word...and, not incidentally, a very direct comment on human nature, quirky as it is. Quinion says the word largely died out, then was revived in the 1990s. Considering Reagan-speak,and government-speak in general, that's no great surprise, I think. :)

Just a short note. Frank Rich used bloviator in his Sunday column again this week.