Chum for Thought: Throwing Ideas into Dangerous Waters

By David Satterlee

David discusses, lectures and rants, but always in a conversational adult voice. Somehow both an agnostic and true believer, he radiates optimism while still seeking illumination in dark places. His favorite themes are community, virtues, values, and human growth. He will tease you into his world and then send you off to explore your own."

Some of these essays were previously published in David's weekly column in the "Dayton Review." He once described his intent as, "...giving my conservative neighbors something something to discuss and tempting my liberal neighbors to come out of the closet."

David Satterlee is one of those untamed souls who professes an interest in almost everything except mastering brain surgery. His wife lives in dread of his personal library someday crashing through the floor of his office into the living room. Undeterred, he maintains that, "a man knows himself by the books he keeps."
After retiring from a quarter-century of technical and communications work in industrial electronics, controls, and computers, he spent a decade as a consulting herbalist, and went on to manage media production for a Utah publisher. In all this time, David pursued a personal quest to understand why we think, believe, and act the way we do. He developed from a lay minister, through interests in meditation, natural healing, psychology, and philosophy. Now mobility and neurologically disabled, David does what he can for family. His personal goals are to read, think, write, repeat, and help save the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Satterlee
• Release date: Sep 19, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301734184

David Satterlee

David Satterlee has eclectic interests that drive the broad range of his work. His very human stories often explore developing relationships. His essays advocate for personal, family, community and societal growth. “[His writing is] humorous, bold, and adventurous all at once ... channeled through a facility for language and the music of words.” David writes to tease, teach, and entertain. He does not spoon-feed every detail but, like other good literature, leaves morsels on the table to be picked up, examined, chewed and savored.After retiring from a quarter-century of industrial control, computer and communications work in manufacturing and refining, David spent a decade as a consulting herbalist, and went on to manage media production for a Utah publisher. In all this time, He pursued a personal quest to understand why we think, believe, and act the way we do. He developed from a lay minister, through interests in meditation, natural healing, psychology, and philosophy. Now mobility and neurologically disabled, he reads, writes and hopes to make his part of the world a better place.David and Dianna live in a small, rural Iowa town deep in the middle of the middle of elsewhere. Despite being married, they are exceptionally-good friends. They recreate with cats, mostly, in a remodeled 1880s Workman's Victorian home right on Main Street. Dianna is a retired elementary school teacher with additional experience in library science, gifted/talented programs and music. She still gives music lessons and indulges a passion for writing and playing music "in the cracks." In their spare time, they entertain neighbors with their liberal and eccentric antics.

Book preview

Chum for Thought: Throwing Ideas into Dangerous Waters

Essays by David Satterlee

Copyright 2009-2013 David Satterlee.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

For permissions, write to: Wordsmith Services at the address below:

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Published by Wordsmith Services at Smashwords

July, 2013

ISBN: 978-1301734184

This book is available in print at most online retailers.

The new guy in a small conservative rural Iowa town explores the foundations of his faith in community and progressive values.

Dedicated to:

Dianna and the critters

They know where to find me … and how to bring me back.

Praise for David Satterlee and Chum for Thought

[His writing is] humorous, bold, and adventurous all at once … channeled through a facility for language and the music of words.

"David isn't afraid of religion, politics, self-inquiry, or psychology. He is variously father, teacher, friend, inquisitor, and voice crying out in the wilderness. He discusses, lectures and rants, but always in a conversational adult voice.

Somehow both an agnostic and true believer, he radiates optimism — still seeking illumination in dark places. His favorite themes are community, virtues, values, and growth. He will tease you into his world and then send you off to explore your own.

Follow the author at:

DavidSatterlee.blogspot.com

@DavidSatterlee

@ChumForThought

SocioDynamics.org

facebook.com/david.satterlee

Table of Contents

About Chum for Thought

Communities and their essential limits on personal freedom

Does positive thinking really work?

Fake It ‘til you make it

Group membership and self-esteem

A new idea is like a new cat in the house

Growing up with Ken Wilber

Is America a Christian nation?

Hate speech at my US Post Office

Would you rather hitch a ride with a conservative or a liberal?

Why I sound too preachy

Liberals blame external causes. Conservatives blame internal causes.

A parable about Mitt Romney and public risk vs. private profit

How a Republican lawyer helped me meet my liberal wife

Legislative hostage-taking hijacks any chance of improving government

We don’t want no Agenda 21 sustainable UN conspiracy to take our rights

A liberal education is needed to participate in democracy

Liberal optimism, faith, and hope for the future

Real Christianity is liberal

Letter to the editor – President Obama could echo FDR’s reelection speech

Elephant metaphor for developmental levels of worldview

How faith grows in stages – James Fowler

Stages of moral development – Lawrence Kohlberg

Conservative values vs. Liberal values

Permanent solutions to temporary problems

Proactive vs. Reactive – Part 1, Individual and group differences

Proactive vs. Reactive – Part 2 , Business and political tactics vs. strategy

The myth of Truman as a simple man

Is God sending disaster upon an unfaithful America?

Is God punishing America? – Revisited

What does America need from her citizens?

Democrats in 2012—The need to get real

Will the real patriots please stand up?

The ugly truth about hate speech

Ayn Rand and the real parasites – Have you swallowed the big fat lie?

Dis-integrating old beliefs

When the right-wing elite turned fascist

The politics of despair and optimism

Political orientation and the good will of strangers – A personal story

Our American Elites – Part 1, Puritan vs. Plantation

Our American elites – Part 2, Sources of power and control

Our American elites – Part 3, Our contemporary Republican party

Girl Scouts: liberal or conservative?

Do men and women need each other?

Presto change-o

The thing about Real War – victors and vanquished

Does conservatism inhibit active citizenship?

The importance of explaining the economic benefits of fairness to wage earners

Are conservatives cynical about the truth?

Buddhist Right Speech as a practical virtue

A rant on the use of violence

A rant on Second Amendment remedies

Finding and living The American Dream

The emotions of transformation

Poem: Climbing the psychosocial spiral

Stages of psychosocial consciousness and culture

Fiction: Sample time

Accurate thinking

A personal transformation that shocks my family

When you say WE, just who do you mean?

Psychic travels in my otherwhere

How to Build a Joke (No joking, I’m serious.)

Analysis of the creative process – Part 1

Analysis of the creative process – Part 2

Known knowns and unknown unknowns

Nationalism, cultural assimilation, and globalization — or The Ultimate Imperialism

Moral dilemmas of World War II

The meaning of the Sacred

Hindu class systems vs. cultures and communities in general

Implications of the Buddhist no-self concept

Is self-denial good for you?

Walking with the flow of Tao in a modern world

Confucius, Emerson, and Ginsberg

Japan, America, and sacred nationalism

Eastern influences on contemporary Western culture and spirituality

Religion, science, and our quest for truth

Setting limits

The Role of Productivity in Community Success: The Jesuit-Guaraní Cultural Confluence

And finally, a little introduction

Gratitude to the reader – and a request

About Chum for Thought

This essay was the first installment of my newspaper column @ChumForThought, published in the Dayton Review. The series was intended for my neighbors in a small, rural, Iowa town. I hoped to encourage conservatives to think about their ideas and liberals to come out of the closet.

Chum is the word for chopped fish waste that is thrown overboard to attract other fish – especially sharks.

I believe that comparing ideas can be a force for good that attracts us to each other. Strangers often become friends as they talk and work together, uniting to solve mutual problems.

Many people like to avoid controversy like they would avoid swimming with sharks. You hear friends say let’s talk about anything but politics and religion. That’s completely understandable. And, if a friend tells me that, I’ll be the first one to back off and respect his or her need for comfort without confrontation or fear.

However, as Proverbs 27:17 says, As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. I think it is good to compare notes and discuss ideas. We make both ourselves and our companion better for the time we spend trying to understand each other.

We become enemies if we withdraw and refuse to talk, empathize, think, or compromise. People who can’t talk together become suspicious and divided. They become fearful and hateful. They often resort to combat to resolve their differences. Unthinking alienation is not the path to peace, security, and brotherhood.

The ability to communicate about issues, including our values, is what draws us together as friends, families, and communities. When we can communicate, we can work together to solve problems. We can unite for common goals and for our common good.

I believe that we become better people when we choose to compare and discuss ideas. It can useful to know what is going on and discuss events. But, it is often pointed out that gossip, by only discussing people, can be damaging. Coming together about ideas is best.

This column will focus on the practical side of practicing peace on earth and goodwill toward men. I hope that you will find it to be encouraging and thought provoking… chum for thought.

Communities and their essential limits

on personal freedom

No man is an island. Communities are the foundation of civilization. It is almost impossible to be entirely self-sufficient. We need each other for our variety of abilities, interests, and ideas. Our individual differences make us stronger as a group.

Farmers understand that monoculture crops require extra care because they are more vulnerable to disease and disaster. Colonies of single-cell bacteria do not need diversity in the same way because they just reproduce rapidly to consume whatever they find and then die back.

For people, it is easiest to create communities when everyone shares mostly the same values. But, the more we isolate ourselves from others who are different in some way, the more extreme, intolerant, and fragile, our group becomes.

In the natural environment, thousands of different plants and animals work together to fix nitrogen, provide shade, hold soil from erosion, cross pollinate, and such. Our human communities also prosper when they embrace diversity.

Communities do not allow unlimited personal freedoms. In fact, one of the properties of communities is that they are intrusive and coercive. People in communities voluntarily give up some individual liberties and, in the spirit of Ephesians 5:21, submit to one another for the common good.

For instance, if you catch my child throwing rocks and breaking windows, I should appreciate, or at lease accept it, if you bring him to me, explain the problem, and expect me to discipline and correct him.

As communication tools and speeds rapidly increase in our modern world, we find ourselves to be involved in larger and larger communities of interests and communities of relationships. This can be fearful for those who prefer the comfortable memory of things like they used to be.

Nonetheless, we are obliged to keep on extending ourselves to understand, or at least accept, that we are all in this together and that the Golden Rule works both ways.

Does positive thinking really work?

Can positive thinking affect your life? Our beliefs often seem to be self-confirming, and we commonly believe in self-fulfilling prophecy, a prediction that makes itself come true. Napoleon Hill wrote a best-selling book years ago called, Think and Grow Rich, which has gained renewed interest from the public recently. Also gaining in popularity are the books/CD’s by Dr. Wayne Dyer, Dr. Deepak Chopra, and Mike Dooley regarding one’s ability to think one’s way into health, wealth, and happiness. More recently, a book and movie called The Secret, talk about a person’s ability to think themselves rich, healthy, and happy and gives testimonies from real people. Does this stuff really work?

The most obvious answer to the power of positive thinking is the idea that the place you keep looking at is the destination at which you are most likely to arrive.

People naturally seek to have control over the events in their lives and will seize whatever tools their belief system offers to exert that control. Depending on their personal and cultural developmental level, they may use:

Magic power (such as making a lucky sign) to directly influence things;

Mythic power (such as prayer) to influence their God to influence things; or

Rational power (such as a scientific theory) to influence things.

The power of positive thinking can be explained from all of these perspectives. For instance, the new science of psychoneuroimmunology explains how interactions of nervous systems, hormones, and neurotransmitters, act to strengthen an organism that pursues a virtuous cycle of positive reinforcement or weaken one that participates in a vicious cycle of despair. I’m reminded of the advice, Cheer up, things could be worse. So I cheered up and sure enough, things got worse. and I eat a live toad the first thing each morning. Nothing worse can happen after that.

The things we focus on most feed our mental model of the world and influence the subconscious brain functions in specific directions. This can activate our background cognition to focus on goals, and choosing actions that reinforce those expectations. I have a favorite game. Find someone waiting in a line or sitting alone in a chair. Say something nice and ask a sincere question about their opinion. You will be surprised at the delight this will bring to most people. This often results in the both of us warming up to each other, sharing, and discovering hidden pearls of personality, insight, and experience.

Expectations influence perceptions. Positive expectations can help us to view events more positively. The tone of our interactions influence the type of social responses that we receive. Our positive initiative may help others to feel like doing good toward us. I believe that a positive approach is inherently salutary. Although I catch myself making an initial critical judgment in some circumstances, I try to be introspective and adjust my course when I get off to a bad start. Everyone wants to be appreciated and should be credited with giving a sincere best effort.

The secret ingredient to sustaining happiness is to surround yourself in happiness. There is a line from the song Officer Krupke in the film West Side Story that has a juvenile delinquent wondering Am I depraved because I’m deprived, or deprived because I’m depraved? It suggests that we may be in more control of our situation than we sometimes think.

There is also some research that showed that people who form their facial muscles into a smile, even if they don’t feel happy, actually end up feeling happier. In a course on customer service, we were told to always smile before opening our mouth, and if answering a telephone, keep a small mirror just above the phone to make sure that you always answered with a smile. This suggests that there may be some truth to the saying fake it until you make it.

Fake It ‘til you make it

Political candidates and other public persons need to make the best of every opportunity to present themselves. They need to make sure that each appearance shows their best side. I have found that preparation and presentation reinforce each other. Mastery enables an air of confidence, while projecting confidence sets the stage for mastery.

Before saying anything in public, study, prepare, and practice thoroughly in private. If issues are unclear research them carefully or be briefed until you can argue both sides while firmly presenting your own position as the best balance.

Practice speeches and probable questions in front of a camera and review your performance afterward. Focus on reinforcing your best moves, and imagine how improvements will make your presentation even better. Study the attitudes and values of your audience and be able to target your message to resonate with them.

Now that you are prepared, stand tall and speak with an air of confidence. If you are not feeling confident, you need to fake it until you make it. Demonstrating a behavior actually helps you to authentically create the appropriate attitude. In public, dress, move, and talk as if you have already won the office you are seeking or the argument you are making.

As a political candidate, you should not dress too casually, but wear outfits that are closer to what you would wear when receiving voters in your office. If your posture or speech are weak, practice standing proud and speaking with authority. If you lack warmth, practice looking people directly in the eyes and smiling.

While volunteering at an elementary school, I helped with a rewards party. Most children had qualified for end-of-school parties, but some, because of behavior problems, etc. had excluded themselves. I was asked to read to groups of about four students at a time in the non-party classroom. In one group, we got into a discussion of attitudes and behavior. For instance, one boy said that he got into fights on the playground because his papaw said that he should never let someone push or take advantage of him; that he needed to always stand up for himself.

Of course he often got called to the wall and disciplined by the teacher. I explained that it was actually showing greater strength by keeping control than getting mad at small offenses and letting his anger loose – that others, including his teachers, would notice his greater self-control