My Esoteric

I am a retired Army Major and a retired Air Force Civil Servant who is currently working full-time as a partner in a business we started ten years ago, providing alcohol and drug collection services company (yes, I know that has nothing to do with the Army or the AIr Force - my Myers-Briggs is an INTP after all). A good part of my life has been moving (two countries, nine states and at least 23 residences) and traveling (48 states and 13 countries). Why? ... first parents, then work, now pleasure. As a result, I have managed to meet many interesting people and observe many different and sometimes exotic places.

My main outside interest are investing, travel (go figure), and learning. More recently, I have a growing desire to write about my explorations into philosophy, politics, and religion.

Both have been part of my life since I was 10 but only as an internal exercise. Lately, I have been listening to or watching a variety of lectures on natural philosophy, classical and modern philosophy, and religion. Consequently, I decided to formalize my own views, hence, here I am at the Hub.

I hope, correction, I am sure to learn much as I go hubbing and maybe, along the way, I might be fortunate enough to leave some nuggets of wisdom of my own.

I find what drives me can be found in my astrological symbol, LIBRA. While I don't believe in astrology, I do take what a LIBRA stands for very much to heart; especially the part about Injustice. I went so far, in a post mid-life crises period (I was 60, can you believe), to have the damn symbol tatooed on my arm! If you read about Libras and what makes up an INTP/INFP, you pretty much know what I am like.

Another clue to me might be the following belief - " Man in Nature is, by definition, an Animal. But, Man has come to consider Himself so superior to all other animals that many of us refuse to believe we, in fact, are even part of the Animal kingdom. What does set us apart, however, from all other animals is our ability, through reason, to conceive of such an idea and then strive to achieve such a goal.'

' To the degree that man and woman continue to act like base animals toward each other as well as other animals, even though they have the capability not to do so, shows that these humans, at least, are no better than the animals from which they seek to differentiate themselves.'

'What is unforgivable, however, is that by choosing the base course rather than one that agrees with Nature, these same people have squandered the gift to reason conceptually and the ability to act upon it, and, as a consequence, forfeited the virtuous and good life."

In addition to philosophy and religion, politics has caught my attention and will take up some of my time. Here, you will find I can be pretty opinionated but I try to temper that with humor and facts. While I may make broad, rash, and sometimes outlandish statements, as appears to be the style of argument these days, I attempt to follow them up with more reasoned information as to why I say such a thing. I look to the comments to see if I am successful or not.

(DISCLOSURE: In some of my hubs I will be offering financial and investment advice. So, let me state up front, I am not a professional financial advisor or stock broker. I have, however, a degree in accounting and have been the CFO of my company for the last 11 years. Before that I was something called a cost analyst for the Office of the Secretary of Defense and Department of the Air Force for roughly 30 years. A cost analyst, among other things, looks at the financial viability of acquisition programs to make judgements regarding program health, funding levels, etc ... unfortunately, politics sometimes overrode our opinions.)

Hubs By My Esoteric