Spring is here again, and I'm afraid. Each spring I'm afraid.

But, you know, it's not just spring. I'm afraid at the start of each season. All four seasons.

To be honest, I'm also afraid at the end of each season. 

Why? What am I afraid of?

Of missing some pictures. I want to capture the start of each new season, to take photos that clearly say "This is the start of (insert a season).

As each season ends, I'd like photos that clearly say "This is the end of (insert a season).

Why the fear? Why the urge?

Beats me!

Aahhh, spring!

These photos are from Ford Bridge.

The tipping point is "the moment of critical mass."

In simple words, the tipping point is when something gets so "heavy" that it tips over.

Physicists can calculate this with precision. Sociologists, studying social trends, cannot.

The question I have regarding the last photo below is, "Can one person be the tipping point?"

PS:  beavers are not physicists.

The photos were taken along the Mississippi River, Minneapolis, between the Lake Street and Franklin Avenue bridges.

Some people are so passionate that they hurt others.

Some people are so certain of the truth - so passionate - that they hurt others.

When I read news stories where passionate people hurt others I almost want to hurt those passionate people. I certainly want to tap them on the side of the head and encourage them to wake up.

Here's an example of such a news story.

******  From BBC News, March 19, 2012

Police are investigating the shootings of four people at a Jewish School in Toulouse, France. A teacher and three children were shot dead at the Ozar Hatorah school, and a teenage boy was seriously injured. The fourth person killed was a seven-year-old girl, daughter of the head teacher. She died in her father's arms.

Investigations are pursuing two principal lines of inquiry: an Islamist motive or the far right.

***********

Subjects we are passionate about, subjects we are certain about, are a product of our genes, our culture, and our thinking. The biggest influence, we humans tend to think, is our thinking. It feels obvious to us that we analyze evidence and come to the correct conclusion. 

This feeling, though, can be wrong, wrong-headed, and dangerous.

Scientific evidence is growing that our genes and our culture are major influences on our conclusions. Most of the thinking we do is unconscious. That our conclusions are based mainly on conscious thinking is an illusion.

My hope is that by becoming aware of this illusion there will be more peace. If we learn that the feeling of certainty is a "flaw" in the way our minds work, then we can learn better ways of dealing with our thoughts. We can learn non-violent ways of dealing with our violent thoughts.

PS:  politicians, I'm certain, perpetuate the illusion that conclusions are based on thinking.

PS2:  Psychologist and Nobel Prize winner in economics Daniel Kahneman wrote an article about the "illusion of validity."   http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/magazine/dont-blink-the-hazards-of-confidence.html?pagewanted=all

The following picture has nothing to do with this blog's subject. I just happen to like the lines and color. It's a muskrat swimming in a lake at sunset, with a swirl-effect applied to the image.

I'm not hip enough to ever say, "This town rocks."

So I play with words and say, "This town's rocks."

You know what I mean:  the stones found in this town.

Stone outcroppings. Rock outcroppings. That's what caught my photographer's eye.

Oronoco, population 1300, is just north of Rochester, Minnesota. The Zumbro River runs through town, cutting through this town's rocks.

The river powered a sawmill and gristmill years ago, and the town thrived. Now the mills are gone, the river doesn't run as fast, and the town is a "shadow." Even Shady Lake, at the edge of town, dried up. But they're planning to bring the water back, and planning to bring  the town back.

Whatever, the rocks will be there - this town's rocks.

This town's website:  http://www.oronoco.com/