Blind Feeling for Answers During Jeopardy//Discussing a Blog Post

One of my favorite blogs is Groping the Elephant. http://gropingtheelephant.blogspot.com/ Doug B. is the blogger and his posts always make me stop and ponder. I like to wake up to a good brain jolt before the caffeine sets in.
Without the NY Times in my hands, that morning brain shake is missing. Now I have Doug B.
His last couple of posts really got me thinking and I couldn’t stop thinking about what he wrote. My blog comments usually are a swift summation of my thoughts of a post, after my comment posts I usually reread it and think: “What was I thinking?” But, oh well, and that is the world of Blogs. I must ready myself to move on to the next, which will head off on some new topic.

But I could not let his words/ideas go. My brain was debating them all day long. I went all taboo: I spoke aloud to my partner, who was in the midst of playing Jeopardy with me, all that was swirling in my weary, shrinking, brain. What I write in parenthesis is what I was thinking, but did not say aloud.

P: “Who is Nietzsche?!”
D: “Doug says that animals don’t think as we do. I brought up Arthur and I could have…”
P: “Doug who?”
D: “DOUG! Doug from the blog, from…”
P: sighs “Right.”
D: “What do you think? You agree with me right? You know what I mean? The birds, they are really up to stuff and I should be documenting what those birds are doing, people are so stupid about animals and you know what I mean? (Is she listening to me? I have to get some AAA batteries for that recorder I got. Why doesn’t UW get some student out here to watch these birds?! What the hell are students DOING these days? Do I order groceries tomorrow? I better, the holiday is coming.)
P: “What is his idea exactly?”
D: “Did you give me your grocery list yet? Should I get aspirin? It says it expired 3 months ago.”
P: “What?”
D: “Oh, it sounds so hysterical if I tell you. He is comparing body odor to natural actions to logic and…(Oh my God, that sounds so stupid what I just said, she is going to think I’m nuts or he is or I wonder if the aspirin is still ok to use? Look at her face. She is so adorable.) Laughter ensues.
P: “Body odor?”
D: “Yeah, he’s (laughter) trying to, well, I told him millions of years ago man lived by water so it wasn’t an issue. They did right?” (laughter)
P: “Don’t start.”
D: “Start what?” I start laughing.
P: “Do you really want me to answer or not?”
D: “If I had a camcorder I could put you on YouTube and get a million hits and then we would advertise for kitty litter on my blog and be millionaires!”
P: “Kitty litter?! I am NOT funny.”
D: “You said we could get rid of some old photos like the one where you were holding the cat over the toilet.” P starts laughing as I hold up my hands to mimic a camcorder filming her. This makes her turn away and laugh harder. “WHY were you trying to put the cat down the toilet?”
P: “STOP IT!”
D: “Answer the question, Sir.” (I love that scene from A Few Good Men. Was it from a Few Good Men? I hate Tom Cruise. I better check our Netflix queue. He says I haven’t been around undomesticated animals much! How dare he!? I read somewhere that those use by dates are not so important. I’m getting more aspirin anyway.”
P: “I am NOT a sir!”
D: What do you think about the body odor analogy? The age of enlightenment is when we started…”
P: “Is he talking about determinism?”
D: “He is saying we have no free will really, that those are just a construct we humans have made. Wait let me read it to you.” I read his post to her. She explains it to me. I read the comments.
P: “Yes, see, there he basically agrees with you. He says free will is one’s personality. I think that is what you are say…”
D: “No. no. DOUG said that, not Doug, Oh, that is the gay Doug”
P: “Doug isn’t gay?”
D: “NO, not the groping one.”
P: “What? Is he your virtual lover one?”
D: “BROTHER! BROTHER! Not lover! Geez.”
P: “Well try to articulate more.”
D: “So, he thinks there is free will or not? (Good thing I taped this Jeopardy. It must be a month old now. I wonder if they found that missing women. Maybe her unit will be available. Those clouds are beautiful. Oh crap! I forgot to send Aunt Vi flowers. If we had a dog he could carry a pen around his neck. )
P: “Does the Bible say that?”
D: “Say what?”
P: “That we have free will. What does it say about it?”
D: “Uh, I’m not sure now…I’ll have to get it out.” (Oh, crap, I shoved the Bible way down in my chair pocket. I know! I’ll Google it. Easy pleasy. I wonder of those cookies were made today. I am going back in the kitchen. I’ll go early when no one is there. Maybe I’ll stop and get a book. I hope these sprinklers work. We could put a cat box in the den.)
P: “You do that. His suggestion about perfumes being unnatural is wrong. They are made of natural scents. And many people think civilization is an evil, but it holds us together, for example…”
D: “Yeah! The birds go for the expensive sweet smelling seed. Monkeys clean themselves a lot.”
P: “What? Monkeys?”
D: EARLY MAN, you know, if we go with first we were monkeys and then started walking upright, even early man kept clean and besides MUSK, they sell musk.” (We should take the tree down now. I’m for getting rid of it this year. Smaller unit, smaller crap. I can’t believe my cousins didn’t send me any cards, just good ol’ Jay. I miss his dad sitting, waiting, in the front yard.)
P: “Real musk smells bad. It is just an added scent to…”
D: “Let me read you this other post. Man, this guy’s girl is never getting a dozen roses at Valentine’s”
P: “I need to get ready for bed.”
D: “Oh, ok, fine. I’ll let you know about free will.” (I wonder how Ellen will be on American Idol. She has two dogs. I better change my calendars pretty soon.)
P: “You do that.”