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Reading a Drunk's Mind

By John Taylor; 2008 March 27, 07 Baha, 165 BE

As I was on my marathon of watching the TV series, House, M.D. on DVD over the last fast, it often occurred to me how annoyingly low-tech the whiteboard is. Surely it would help them if they just took a snapshot of the patient, naked of course, and tacked it up alongside their differential diagnosis. Then they could compare the physiognomy and outer features of the bodies of similar patients. Other graphics could highlight other relevant data on their whiteboard.

By the time somebody gets to medical school, you would think that interactive whiteboard displays would be part of their thinking, but no. Here is a link to an article about how a public elementary school in British Columbia is adapting the latest display technology to make teaching more effective, especially to kids with learning disabilities.

"At this school, chalkboards are ancient history; Even the five-year-olds are wired at David Livingstone Elementary, where there's an interactive whiteboard in every class" Fiona Morrow, Globe and Mail, March 25, 2008, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080325.wlsmartboard25/BNStory/Technology/home

This so-called SMART board should have been implemented in every classroom a decade ago, everywhere in the world. It should be a UN goal, for gosh sakes. The article explains,

"The SMART board replaces the chalk- or whiteboard and can be written on in the same way as a traditional teaching aid. But at the flick of a switch it is connected to a computer and becomes interactive, with the teacher able to pull up graphics and charts from a database, search the Internet and make use of video streaming to bring a subject to life. Called up to answer a question, students can drag information around the screen, their hand effectively acting as a mouse. They can also work on a project at home, bring in their memory stick, plug it in and give a Power Point presentation to the rest of the class."

And the hoops this school had to go through to get this system! We think nothing of high tech devices in airplanes and cars, but the idea of an interactive chalkboard in the place where it will do the most good, primary classrooms, just is not a priority. Truly sickening.

Housing is another supremely important area that high technology has hardly touched. Buckminster Fuller pointed this out decades ago, and it is no less true today. Here is an interesting collection of designs based on 10 by 10 house design for the poorest of the poor, featured at a conference in South Africa.

<http://www.creativereview.co.uk/crblog/the-design-conference-that-is-helping-house-the-poor/>

The soundproof sandbag house looks like it would be an improvement on many houses in Canada -- my own, for example. Take last Saturday. Our neighbor, separated by about five meters from us, decided to hold a party. He started early enough to disturb my morning writing session with the thump, thump, thump of a high powered stereo system. Then he came and knocked on our door, preemptively asking me to come and tell him if it was getting too loud. Nobody has ever done that before, and it worked. I did not call the cops, and went to sleep tolerating the thump, thump, thump. Then Grampa went out on his walk, leaving the door unlocked (not losing keys, and figuring out how to put them into locks is getting too challenging for him). Then late at night he returned to find that a drunk had wandered into our basement bathroom and had passed out on the floor. He woke us up, the cops were called, at last, and they extracted the person (I still do not know if it was a man or woman) from the bathroom. I tried to get back to sleep, but failed. I read all night, and missed a day's writing the next day.

Reading a Drunk's Mind

Talking about drunks, here is an interesting story of an alcoholic who became a Baha'i in the time of Baha'u'llah, as retold by the late, lamented Hand of the Cause, Mr. Furutan.

from: Stories of Baha'u'llah, Compiled by Ali-Akbar Furutan, George Ronald, Oxford, 1986, pp. 74-75

This description by Aqa Siyyid Mihdi Gulpaygani has been heard by the compiler on several occasions in 'Ishqabad:

An influential resident of the city of Isfahan embraced the Cause of God, but as soon as he began associating with the believers it became apparent that he had long been addicted to alcohol. Using wisdom, the friends would urge him to abandon this habit, but he would reply that he had suffered this addiction for years, and to give it up would be extremely difficult. Whenever his fellow believers explained that if others were to learn about it, they would think that Baha'is were unconcerned about obeying Baha'i laws, he would say that no one except the believers could possibly know about it. And when reminded that the Blessed Beauty was aware of the situation, he would answer that Baha'u'llah was not concerned with his private life.

Little by little the friends gave up discussing this matter with him. Eventually, he had the opportunity of travelling to the Holy Land and attaining the presence of Baha'u'llah. He made his pilgrimage and, on his return, some of the friends went to visit him. He addressed them in these words:

'Friends, I am now certain that the Blessed Beauty is aware of hidden mysteries, and whether a matter is concealed or not makes no difference whatsoever. For this reason I no longer touch alcohol, for I always perceive Him as omnipresent and watchful.

'During the pilgrims' very first visit,' he continued, 'we stood while the Ancient Beauty paced to and fro as He addressed us. I was entranced by His graceful bearing, and thought to myself: 'It is readily acknowledged that He is the Manifestation of God and the Promised One of all nations, but what does it mean when He describes His station in some of His Tablets as "The Sender of the Messengers and the Revealer of the Books"? [Mursil-i-Rusul va Munzil-i-Kutub]

'No sooner had this thought occurred to me than the Blessed Beauty, in the midst of His pacing, came towards me, placed His blessed hands on my shoulders and majestically stated: "It is so! The Sender of the Messengers and the Revealer of the Books is Our station."

'My state of mind at this point I was unable to comprehend, and afterwards I became convinced that the Sacred Being Who could read my inner thoughts could also see my outer deeds and actions.'