Parallel
This is a word of many meanings. What brought me to this line of thinking was I was helping my daughter with her geometry homework yesterday. It was graphing to show how you could translate shapes to varying sizes while keeping the same proportions. I then heard my favorite morning radio show talking about a TV game show with Jeff Foxworthy called “Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?” The first contestant, a UCLA graduate in American History, could not answer the 1st three questions which caused him to utter the phrase, “I am not smarter than a 5th grader.” One of the questions was who was the 1st president to be impeached? He went with John Quincy Adams. The fifth graders went with Andrew Johnson. What does this have to do with parallel? Don’t know but it was on my mind.
Now things can run a parallel course. You can parallel park. You can do the parallel bars in gymnastics. People can have parallel thoughts. I have heard of archeologists talking about parallel evolution. Science fiction writers talk about parallel universes. When I think of parallel, I see two white lines down the middle of a street. The mathematical assumption is that they are identical and equidistant apart. The real world interpretation is that you have two very similar things that are close enough to being identical.
I guess you could draw a parallel between a game show contestant / college graduate from UCLA who bombed after being asked three questions that fifth graders could answer and what happens to adults in general. For some reason, adults start to crowd out ideas that make sense as a child. You used to knew things that assisted in the decision making process. Knowing why Andrew Johnson was impeached would be important in today’s environment with the current class of invertebrates residing in our nation’s capital. As we get older, the knowledge seeps from out memories and is replaced by the less important things like keeping up with the neighbors or where I am going this year on vacation. We seem to forget that solving the basic problems is important and envisioning the blue sky ideas is a process to work on. It becomes more about the avoidance of pain and the seeking of enjoyment. The next question should have been who was the second President to be impeached? He was a Quaker.
Icool
Cobb
Now things can run a parallel course. You can parallel park. You can do the parallel bars in gymnastics. People can have parallel thoughts. I have heard of archeologists talking about parallel evolution. Science fiction writers talk about parallel universes. When I think of parallel, I see two white lines down the middle of a street. The mathematical assumption is that they are identical and equidistant apart. The real world interpretation is that you have two very similar things that are close enough to being identical.
I guess you could draw a parallel between a game show contestant / college graduate from UCLA who bombed after being asked three questions that fifth graders could answer and what happens to adults in general. For some reason, adults start to crowd out ideas that make sense as a child. You used to knew things that assisted in the decision making process. Knowing why Andrew Johnson was impeached would be important in today’s environment with the current class of invertebrates residing in our nation’s capital. As we get older, the knowledge seeps from out memories and is replaced by the less important things like keeping up with the neighbors or where I am going this year on vacation. We seem to forget that solving the basic problems is important and envisioning the blue sky ideas is a process to work on. It becomes more about the avoidance of pain and the seeking of enjoyment. The next question should have been who was the second President to be impeached? He was a Quaker.
Icool
Cobb
posted by Cobb at
2:34 PM
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