This post has a totally relevant subject.

So, paradoxes. I am reading GEB, or I am for now anyway, and he’s talking about Strange Loops, but while that’s pretty interesting (that’s what the subject is all about), I am more interested in a different paradox that I have encountered recently.

What is The Golden Rule? Simply put, “treat others as you would like to be treated.” That seems like a very nice idea, maybe even a good idea. Well, I think this is the best thing to do for strangers (ok, who just jumped ahead and got my point?! slow it down! i’m writing this, lemme present it con flabbit! I take that back, jump ahead, experience this however you will, so long as that means loving this [whether or not you agree]), because we do not know strangers, and it is probably safer/better/more appropriate (what should go here? if you have a suggestion, lmk via comment) to assume that they would prefer treatment similar to our preferences, than to be paralyzed and not know how to treat them, or to mistreat them. Well, what about people we know? What about friends we know quite well? This sounds (do i “hear” the words i’m about to write in my head or do i just think them? so i hear them in my head in my voice? i don’t think so) obvious to me now, (don’t you just love the way i change mid though, well, this is stream of consciousness, and don’t tell my potential employers, but I think this is actually a pretty [meaning mostly, not beautiful] valid picture of my thought processes) but shouldn’t we either know enough about our friend to know that they would rather be treated how they (I tried to type “string” instead of strong for the emphasis tags on “they”, both for the open and the close, is this a result of the stupid QWERTY i use, or of my programmer background? [or somet else?]) want to be treated? Or, if we are trying to interact with a friend in a way that supports, encourages, etcs them, shouldn’t we ask what that way is, esp. if our relationship with them is deteriorating when we try to guess how we need to treat/interact with them?

If this just seems so obvious to you, congratulations, maybe you could inform the rest of this, but it took me quite awhile to figure this one out, so I’m not trying to be like, sarcastic or scolding or condescending here, just sharing my intellectual/social development with you.

Okay, so don’t let The Great Body find out that I am picking up on it, but I am not feeling as Great as usual, well, that’s been true for a few months, but more recently, I have been getting…s*ck. I think there’s chest congestion, I really don’t want to have to find/buy medicine, but I really don’t want to get s*ck. Well, I say that, but last week I couldn’t convince myself to go to bed b4 4:00 (that’s not 4:00PM, because I prefer to write that as 16:00, and I don’t like ot call it “military time,” i am somewhat adamant about calling it “24-hour time” i don’t know why, i guess b/c i’m not in the military, and neither is NASA or [all] computers, and we all use it to - UH-OH! is that ca carpal tunnel warning?! shoot! i think so, i am SO concerned after I heard about alex’s severe case, but it turns out his is somewhat genetic), I dunno why, but I was only getting maybe 3 or 4 hrs last week. I’ve done worse, but that doesn’t mean that this was good. Well I’ll push vitamin C and fluids for now, does anyone know if echinacea actually works? I mean I bought some, but who knows?

Ok, I hope to have some news to share tomorrow (I’d actually hoped to have it tonight, but w/e). So, I need to stop writin’ this and IMin’ Kaitlin and read, so I guess i’ll go do that so that maybe I can be in bed by 2 or 2:30.