Slicer's having a lot of fun at the moment playing in a little Blues collective. His blues bedfellows have introduced him to some great music. The focus of this post is just one example (Ta, Gary) and the artist about to be highlighted here deserves wider attention and recognition - Paul Thorn. His blues style often has a strong country influence but, as Slicer has argued before, sometimes it's OK to like country. Musical style aside, there's often humour mixed in with the lyrical attempt to convey an idea.
Here he is with a little autobiography of his early life experience and influences (unless of course he's messin' with us - but whether he is or not, it needn't be "true" to be true....):
"I guess you could say I am an overachiever
And I owe a debt of gratitude to pimps and preachers."
If you've ever watched the TV programme "Who do you think you are?" in which well known personalities explore their family tree, you'll be familiar with how common it is for them to uncover new information of less than salubrious pasts in their genealogy, and it's hard to escape the truth that we owe a debt to our forebears, regardless of their flaws or merits.
Sometimes acquaintances or family aren't even that likeable but, as John Mayer pointed out rather well, Love is a Verb. Slicer was in a conversation recently, prompted by the topical news of the process of choosing the next Archbishop of Canterbury. The question was asked, "What relevance does the Church have anyway? What is the point of church?" Whilst it's well short of a complete answer, one element has surely got to be a calling to, and a demonstration of, where John Mayer's proposal meets Paul Thorn's observation:
If Paul's stated mathematical fraction is close to reality, Slicer figures he's in a good place. Maths is often thought to be a robust basis for determining what is reality, and it has served us very well in that regard even if it throws up paradoxes like 'all infinities are not the same' and even if mathematical formulae have led physicists down blind alleys at times (OK, maybe they led themselves and took the maths with them). Yet many folk rail against the notion of 'absolute truth,' preferring the idea that truth is subjective/relative and, if they're feeling generous, they may appeal to "my truth is as valid as your truth." Slicer, appreciating the benefits wrought by scientific and rational methodology, is often uncomfortable with the latter notion (tho' there are other reasons too). Some things are demonstrably wrong; and some may be wrong without being demonstrably so. The difficulty, of course, is that not everything is amenable to objective measurement or even observation.
Using a practice that's not a million miles from scientific methodology, over the years Slicer has learnt from (at least some of) his mistakes. A major one was assuming that his viewpoint was as informed as he thought it was. He's been embarrassed several times to learn, when he's been rabbiting on expressing strong opinions about some subject he knows a bit about, that someone in the conversation has had much more personal (and often painful, if not 'objective') experience of the issue being discussed, but has not disclosed it. Examples include alcoholism, infertility, organ donation/receipt, and being on the receiving end of critical care (whether as a patient or a relative of one). He's learnt that sometimes we don't have all the data and it serves us well not to be too arrogant, as when further data becomes available the ground can shift considerably beneath us. Folk who are academic researchers live in this environment all the time and, knowing a few, Slicer has been taken aback by how they can change their position with so little embarrassment "in the light of new data." Perhaps it's a necessary trait to survive in that environment, yet you would never have known that they were anything less than certain when holding to and promoting a view which was the polar opposite.
Still, Slicer still holds to the notion that "the truth is out there," and that it can be known, if not fully constrained, described and packaged.
Sometimes we have difficulty seeing what is in front of our noses (or hear through the ears that we have to hear). Sometimes, we're not very good at demonstrating in our actions what we hold dear internally. Sometimes the problem isn't knowing, but doing.
When studying the cosmos, we are restricted to investigating "the observable universe." It seems that the universe (or multiverse) is 'bigger' than we ever imagined, and that there are parts of it that we can never glean information from directly. Light beyond that horizon will never reach us. Whilst there might be 'reasonable inferences' from what we do know, it's not necessarily defeatist or unscientific to conclude that some things may be unknowable. In other arenas, Paul urges us to broaden our horizons. This final vid is apparently from the hilariously titled "Alabama Chicken and Egg Festival." The quality of digital data available in the vid isn't what it might be, (you can always go buy the album, or have a listen on his Myspace page) but it's good enough to understand the implications - which include a call to look after each other, a search for something better, an open mind, and a measure of humility:
"A little bitty town in a big old world
Is the end of the line for most young girls
but 18 years was all she could stand
She said "I'm going searching for the promised land".
There's something out there (something out there) [repeat lots]
....There's something out there
You don't see what I see."
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