This morning, I woke up with the unpleasant task of asking my current roommate, Beau Golden, to move out in 30 days. He was not happy. I'd wrestled with this situation for several weeks, beginning with my agreement with Chad Metcalf that he could become my new roommate on October 1st.
I wrote up a formal notice, but didn't just want to leave it in his mailbox, since it was impersonal & he might not see it. So I waited in the dining room for him as he was leaving for work. (I'd have talked to him yesterday - Labor Day - but he had his 2 kids over until late, and I wanted our talk to be one-on-one.
He began to argue that he was being a better roommate lately, and that he didn't have the money to move right now, and could he have at least 90 days. To all of which I said, "No, sorry." I made the case simply that I was not comfortable with him living here, and that it was no longer working for me.
He was in a bit of a hurry, but he got the message that he'd have to leave in 30 days.
So, because I'm a "fixer of things" in general, and I don't like confrontation, I was at least distracted by this meeting, and I decided to try and read something to get my mind off of it. I wanted a book called "Gay Short Fiction" which I thought would be easy reading, and I've had it for a long time, every time upon seeing it lying there unread, vowing to read it "soon." So today was the day.
I looked in all the likely places, but it just wasn't there. So naturally I concluded that if it didn't "show up" soon, I'd have to select something else. On top of my 3-shelf oak bookcase, I have a row of books that are also in the "read soon" category, and they all have a few layers of dust on them.
At the far left end of the row was a book by James Randi titled "FLIM-FLAM" - and I remember I bought it during a time of speculation about the veracity of paranormal & psychic claims by so-called spiritualists. The debate in my mind has been raging for decades - back in High School I read "The Scientist v. The Humanist" and since then I've never fully resolved what I believe.
At any rate, "FLIM-FLAM" got my attention enough that I lay down on my waterbed and began to read it.
Now, reading is not my preferred passtime. I do have a TON of books (most dusty) and people who see that think I'm "well-read" or something along those lines. But I'm not. In fact, I'm more "bad-read" for several reasons. First, I don't read the books I buy. I've resolved MANY times not to buy another book until I've read the ones I have. Second, I'm not all that interested in the subject once I've gotten the gist of the table of contents. Third, I don't have a place conducive to reading, so I usually lie down and attempt to read - and in short order, I fall asleep. Fourth, when I conceive of a point being made, I begin to analyze it here and there, right and left, often making margin(al) notes so that I can recall what I thought later on. (HA! "Later on" has hardly ever arrived in my life!) And fifth, the most devastating of all the reasons I'm "bad-read," I can hardly recall the book or its title, that I bought the book, when I bought the book, why I bought the book...... let ALONE what the book says, and whether I agree with the author, then or now.
In short, reading is an overwhelmingly awful experience for me.
Nontheless, I began reading "FLIM-FLAM" this morning. It's based on science. It's both gentile and rude to spiritualists. And it describes the friendship between Houdini (scientist) and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (spiritualist). I find this ironic (as does James Randi), since you'd think Houdini, a magician, WOULD believe in supernatural things, and that Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, WOULD NOT.
Wrong again, world. Randi sets us all straight in the first pages of his book. It's the other way around.
But my reason for writing does not end there.
I was quite interested in the subject, but my usual obstacles appeared by the time I got to page 25. So I decided to take a break, and I put the book down.
As most participating people of today's technologically advanced society will do, I picked up my Smart Phone and checked my email.
And there, newly arrived, was a message from Skeptiod Companion, a group of online people who produce both written and oral accounts (mostly short ones) of ways in which we can increase knowledge about the conflict between science and spiritualism. (I use those 2 terms merely because they're generally right, and they both begin with "s.")
So, what was Skeptoid Companion's subject today? It was an essay about the doomed friendship between Houdini and Doyle!
I had a choice: Read, or Listen. I chose Listen, of course. I had no desire to subject my already tired eyes to reading the tiny screen of my Smart Phone. So I listened.
Randi's account is from 1982, so 32 years old. Skeptoid's account is from today (or at least I assume it is). so I was interested in knowing if there were any differences. There were none to speak of. Skeptoid might well have used Randi's book as a resource.
But the main mystery for me is....... what was happening today? I happened to begin reading a book about skeptical magicians & scientists, and then happened to receive an email about the same thing.
So...... what to think? Is "science" sending me a mystical message not to believe in mystical occurances? Or is it a coincidence? Or is my creator trying to tell me to stop considering all the paranormal stuff that has been cluttering my life up (books, mostly), and move on with science once and for all?
Dunno.
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