This is going to be week four of the SUnday no-delete-key blog. It's trending towards a thing I do now. Though—I am happy to break some rules.

I am writing this on Saturday, for instance. I'd prefer to write tomorrow, but tomorrow I won't have any time.

So as you're now reading this (if you're reading it shortly after I posted it), I am somewhere on the road between Toronto and Sault St Marie.

I am getting outta dodgwe, friends! *Dodge.

I am currently on the first leg of a journey out to BC with my guy Arche. I'm very excited. And damn is it about time.

See, I've been in Toronto for a long time. I've been in Ontario all my life. Over that lifetime, I think I've developed some pseudo-version of geocentrism. It's like this place is the centre of the universe. Center? I think center.

Logically I know the world doesn't revolve around Toronto. That is a hilarious thought—laughed at hardest by people in New York, I'm sure. But things that happen elsewhere in the world just seem...far away, I guess. If implications don't reach back home, they don't hit home.

Sometimes it gets kinda wierd. It's like I forget there are other ways to live; there are other people out there with real lives in different places. Their lives are just stories. Real life is here, where i am.

So I'm excited for a change of pace and scenery. Yes, I'm moving from one Canadian metropolitan to another Canadian metropolitan—but at least the second will have a view of mountains. Would building schools somewhere far more remote be healthier for shaking me out of this strage world-view? Yep. But that doesn't feel like an option today. BC is a very viable option.

So that's where I am right now (not at the time of writing—but the time of you reading...maybe). Arche is curled up in aball on his Casper dog bed, surrounded by my snowboard, clothes, and notebooks. (Also a mountain of his own stuff.) Wish us luck!

Now with that out of the way, is there something I wanted to actually touch on? Hmm, I had some intial thoughts about it's hard to view all people as equal with a hard-nosed materialst/atheist view of the world. But I don't think I'm at all prepated to lay those out in a way that makes sense. I think my general thought is like...you can say you think all people are equal, but based on your view of what life is and what's important, I don't know if you can fully believe that.

OH, for the record: this is not about racism or sexism. I think the thought first came when I saw a post about death penalties for criminals and I thought, "I don't think you can make an "all lives matter" argument that extends to inmates if you don't believe there's something...else that gives a person's life value.

By all material metrics, isn't their life less valuable than say a twenty-five year old scientist? Their contribution to the world (in terms of productivity and postive impacts on others) will be less. Their own experience of life will include less joy and love.

Like, put them both in a liferaft where you can only save one. Who you taking? It's obvious, isn't it? Doesn't the fact that it's obvious mean that we're not equal?

I've been trying to think of reasons—grounded only in material things—to say those two people are equal. You can make a quantity-of-years left to live argument and I think that's totally fair. But then shouldn't we make a quantity vs quality argument as well? Shit what a can of worms that is, though.

Huh, I guess I'm actually exploring this then. I won't go too far though, because this is something I should actually try to learn more about before throwing stones.

My intuition is just: if you want to go with an extremely rational approach to life, you run the risk of these dilemnas. And you can say, "of course everyone's equal," all you want, but I think you need to explore extreme examples and hypotheticals and logical arguments to see if you actually believe that. Then ask if what you really believe trickles into your everyday life.

AH, and real quick on what I believe about equality: we're all the same because we all have a unique experience of life. I see it as: each one of us adds a new angle to the story of the universe. Like painting a giant mosaic and each of us is a perfectly unique colour. Each one is equally important to the whole. It doesn't matter if one is dark or sad or bland next to one that's vibrant and joyful. Hell, contrast is what makes the painting.

We can add our own opinions on what makes life valuable—thinking of things like the connections you make and how many people you help and the laughter you share—or the wealth you acquire, if you want. But none of that really matters—not even the love. Unique is unique. All is valid to a universe that is trying to create as much novelty as possible.

OKAY that went from not-at-all-baked to half-baked and didn't go as poorly as last week.

I still need to think more on this and likely have more discussions with people who see things differently. I get lost in my own way of thinking about these topics and think I must be right—and if I'm not 100% right it's just because I haven't found the right way to express what I know to be true.

So, that's all for this week. Love ya!

-John