Passing Thoughts on Some “P” Topics

Paintings - Graphic artistic expressions using various paint media and techniques. Some artists have talent for expression and some for technique. The best have both.

Panacea - A cure all. The mother [or should it be father?]of all cure alls [or is it cures all?] was the Intelligent Designer using Adam and the Garden of Eden to cure ID’s blahs. It may not have exactly worked out according to the Design, but designs that backfire usually provide more interest than boredom.

Paper - The next best literary invention after writing. Stone tablets meant for some heavy bathroom reading, and I wouldn’t want to wipe with one.

Parents - Blame them until you become one. "When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years." ~ Mark Twain

Partners - Misused by internet hosts to describe sales pitches from merchants who give hosts kickbacks. The best advice I have heard on how to get along with a true partner is to figure that your partner is getting a better deal out of the partnership than you are, but that the deal you are getting is better than what you would have without the partnership. Unfortunately, some partners (e.g. in a marriage) are always looking for another partner with a better deal.

Past - Over and done, but not forgotten, though sometimes aspects of it should be.

Patent - A limited public franchise intended to encourage individuals to invent and to allow them reasonable time to make economic gain. Patents have now morphed into something more akin to corporate welfare.

Patriotism - Love of country. Not only a passion to defend it from invasion, but also a commitment to preserving its laws and institutions from misguided defenders.

PBS - Public Broadcasting System television programming has come a long way since my kids were encouraged to watch boring documentaries and told they were worthwhile because they were “educational”. PBS has produced some of the most interesting, enjoyable and enlightening shows on TV.

Peace - More than a lack of war. A fervent dedication to valuing love and life more than hatred and destruction.

Personality - That which makes you you and me me.

Pessimism - Belief that glasses will break, whether full, half full or empty, and that one day there won’t be any water.

Philanthropy - Rich people giving some part of their wealth to causes or institutions they consider worthwhile. When the giver acquired the wealth by avaricious means, the gift is usually made in part to assuage the consequences in the afterlife and to improve on the postmortem legacy of the giver.

Phones - Formerly devices used in private places to communicate with others a distance away, now too often devices used in public places which annoy those nearby who are not otherwise involved in the communication.

Photos - Images captured by chemical or electronic processes. As with paintings, expression and technique may be involved; but with “point and shoot” photos, sometimes neither seems to be.

Poetry - Intense use of the power and beauty of words.

Politics - Should be the art and science of elected officials adopting and executing public policies for the benefit of the general population. Too often instead it is the business of doing and saying whatever it takes to get elected so that public policy can be used for the benefit of persons who made campaign contributions and promised future favors.

Pollsters - Originally political science statistical people who devised, administered and reported to the public results of opinion surveys regarding political candidates and policies. Some pollsters have now become advisors and advocates to politicians on how to get the public to do what the politicians and their contributors want.

Pope - Almost always an older Italian man, wearing a unique hat of ancient style. Roman Catholics believe his designated pronouncements on religious matters are infallible - unless they seriously disagree with him.

Pork - The flesh of swine. Also the price taxpayers incur to subsidize re-election campaigns of incumbents.

Pornography - An overwhelmingly male substitute for egalitarian intimacy, love and affection, typically disregarding people as individuals and treating them as objects to control and dominate. Men are capable of higher levels of human sexual relationships, but the sheer amount of pornography being produced and disseminated shows that there is much money to be made in pandering to lower level instincts. Prohibition is not likely to dent porn, because those making the money can blunt prohibition. What is needed is for men to learn to respect real women and for men and women to work together to form a shared love life.

Poverty - Lacking income and wealth above a designated level determined by the political process to be the line of deficiency. We can also set a personal line for wealth deficiency. Some people of little means do not feel impoverished, while some of high means complain they are not as rich as they used to be or as rich as someone else. Spiritual poverty can also be devastating, and is not as easy an area for drawing a political deficiency line, so personal line drawing in the spiritual area is even more important that in the material.

Prescription Drugs - Government regulated dangerous products intended to help with serious health problems, if the person in need of help can afford to pay the corporate welfare being guaranteed by government patent protection.

Present - Now, a time we too often seem to prefer avoiding.

Prisons - As mattock wielding redneck Georgia governor Lester Maddox famously stated, “We can’t have better prisons ‘til we have better prisoners”.

Privacy - My own business, time and place, where people, corporations and governments do not belong unless I agree to let them. Some progress has been made in protecting privacy, such as the national “do not call” list, but we are continuing to learn of more secret Bush Administration invasions, supposed ly only to catch terrorists, but also having a potentially chilling effect on dissenters from Bush policies.

Professional - A person who exercises experienced skill in performing a task, always trying to produce the best result possible. Judging the quality of the result produced by members of the “learned professions” is usually more difficult than assessing the work of skilled crafts persons.

Progressive - To me politically, a progressive is one who believes people are basically worthwhile and deserving of nurturing and encouragement, and that government should continue to progress in that direction. Progressives are long range optimists.

Prohibition - Legally preventing people from having something - or at least trying to prevent people from having something by making it criminal to have it or to provide it to them. Federal prohibition of alcohol is generally considered to have been such a failure that it was scrapped and replaced with less intrusive regulations. So-called “recreational” drug use does not seem to be quite as prevalent or accepted in American society as alcohol consumption, so Federal prohibition of such drugs still prevails.

Prostitute - From the Latin for standing in front of a statue, which is apparently where sexual business was contracted in Rome. Having sex for money, not love. If expanded to include doing anything for money instead of love, then there are a lot of prostitutes of both sexes in the morning commute.

Psychotherapy - Process by which people are helped to lead a healthier and happier life, if the helper does a professional job and if the people being helped fully co-operate.