Marc hates the "fine balance"

So, I've stopped plagiarizing Becky, and changed my banner's subtitle. I feel the need to have a more serious post before I go on with more of the goofy things that are going on in my head and the daily life stories that make for quick, easy, and comical posts. This blog will not be just a bunch of "today Junior did X" -- do not fear.

I chose that phrase because whenever I have philosophical discussions, I usually end up saying "well, it really is a fine balance", or "we just need to find that balance...". Marc hates it when I say that. I'm not completely sure why, maybe it's the cheesy nod and slow, condescending blink that (jokingly) goes along with the phrase.

But I am a Hegelian (anyone out there heard of the philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel -- shall I do my first ever poll, to find out?), so I tend to recognize that in each side of an issue there are bits of truth, and we just need to pull those bits out and come to a new understanding in the light of other perspectives. Shall I get deep and use words like "dialectic" and "being-in-itself"? Maybe not today... that could turn readers off as much as poopy diaper stories!

We do need one Hegel quote to start things off right, though:
"The True is the whole. But the whole is nothing other than essence consummating itself through its development. Of the Absolute it must be said that it is essentially a result, that only in the end is it what it truly is; and that precisely in this consists its natures, viz. to be actual, subject, the spontaneous becoming of itself." (p 11, The Phenomenology of Spirit)

I may not be a hard-core Hegelian, but something in his writing has always been intuitive with me. The idea that we need to recognize our perspectives, see our errors and our truths, draw from the experiences and perspectives of others in order to transcend our own viewpoint and slowly work to a (hopefully) better understanding of ourselves and existence.

That's why I added the thing about changing diapers: because each experience we have, no matter how mundane, can help us to have a better grasp of life if we allow ourselves to reflect upon it. Even, and often especially, kids can make us see truths that are around us everyday because of their completely fresh perspectives.