2 to Zen: May all beings have happy minds

  By Doug Clark

Head Writer - The Inspiration Engine

2 to Zen Video #1: May all beings have happy minds. 

A peaceful and serene little waterfall into a tiny pool will help the meditative state. 

The Great Buddha teaches that meditation is the vehicle with which we can reach Enlightenment. For people in the modern world, meditation is a difficult concept to practice. No one seems to have the time for anything anymore. We’re all too busy doing everything to have time to do something so simple as meditation. Sitting down, stopping, and just existing, even while the world screams passed us seems so hard. How could anyone sit quietly with just themselves for 20 minutes.

It takes practice to meditate in the way that can bring peace and tranquility. But you don’t have to give up. They say 20 minutes of clear, uninterrupted meditation is best, but it would be easier to start with something shorter. That’s why 2 to Zen exists. Here, you can start off slow and short. Just 2 minutes of mindful, nature-based meditation to clear your mind and find a moment, or 2, of peace. Try it, and enjoy.

 

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Music Appreciation Friday

 By Doug Clark

Head Writer - The Inspiration Engine

Enjoy some good music on a Friday. 

Band on the run

Photo credit: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f4/Paul_McCartney_%26_Wings-Band_on_the_Run_album_cover.jpg

Only the good die young

Photo credit: https://www.billyjoel.com/music/greatest-hits-volume-i-volume-ii/

Lost on you

Photo credit: https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/7518840/lp-lost-on-you-finds-greece-success-europe-shazam

What Direction to Go?

By Doug Clark
Head Writer - The Inspiration Engine

Do you know where you are going in life? It’s a simple question, but often it is a loaded one. At this particular moment in time, it’s hard to say where we are going as a country and a society. There are so many troubling issues and topics that we face, it’s hard to know what the future might bring. Some solace may come from knowing where you, the individual, are going?

 

Direction in life is what I’m talking about. Not just what job you want, or where you would like to live, but what do all those activities in your daily routine actually lead to something? To know what direction you are headed in, you need to know what your purpose is in life. Finding purpose can and is often a challenging and eye-opening evolution. If you are unsure, start with a simple test like the one provided by Psychology Today here. 

 

It may seem trite, asking yourself questions like this, especially if you have devoted a large amount of time to some endeavor already. But if you find yourself unsure, maybe doubting your life’s path so far, or really need a jolt, Do Something Different! There’s always time left to try.

 

Thanks for reading.

Understanding Pandemics

By Doug Clark
Head Writer - The Inspiration Engine


With all that is going on with Covid 19, I thought it would be a good idea to help everyone out with some knowledge about pandemics in general. This article, Visualizing the History of Pandemics, is a great visual on how big some pandemics have been over the last 2000 years.


Please, practice physical and social distancing, wash your hands, and stay safe.
Thanks for reading.

Check out my new published short story

By Doug Clark
Head Writer - The Inspiration Engine


Hey all, I got published again! This time at Soft Cartel. Read my short Story A Sinful Wager.

Thanks for reading.

Beautiful Lies, Painful Truths Vol.1 The Reviews

My story, Ghost Trap, is on page 169!!!

This is the End of Doctor Who as we know it...

Douglas Clark
-Head writer, The Inspiration Engine

We have come to an end of an era!

The Doctor was always a male character; it was an essential and foundational part of who the character was and the story of Doctor Who followed certain patterns because of this. Now, because they have fundamentally altered the character it is no longer Doctor Who as we knew it. It will become something... different. It can never be what it was even if after this iteration they go back to a male character.

I look at it this way: For a character to have genuine value, that character has to have a few consistent core characteristics. When those core characteristics are fundamentally changed, the character is irrevocably changed. So all of this talk about the Doctor being a man or a woman changes the essence of the character. What was once reliable and understood now becomes unrecognizable and distracting. Granted there are revelations and secrets revealed over the course of a character’s story arc that alters them, but without the core foundation fans have come to recognize, the story becomes convoluted. Also, if gender change was so easily manipulated in this character's race, why hasn't this been addressed in any serious way before? I know some will mention the last season or two as a fact that supports this change, but really, that shoehorned in bit of reconning seems disingenuous. That’s another thing that makes this move so jarring and unsettling.

Why does a character, who for 50 plus years being presented one way now has to change so radically? Why do you think Captain America fans were outraged when he turned out to be a Hydra agent? True fans feel betrayed on a fundamental level. Not because they are gender biased or bigoted, but because they were devoted to a character that was presented in a way they identified with. Then the rug was pulled out from under them and the character they cherished and loved for so long, because they had the core characteristics they loved, was essentially dead. That's what has happened here.

I have no ill will toward female centered stories. EllenRipley is

one bad-ass you do not want to mess with, partly because of her gender. And no one I know of has suggested rebooting Aliens with Eric Ripley or worse yet making another Aliens movie in the same cinematic universe and just cloning the now dead character as a man, because 'it's about time' as it's been said for Doctor Who.

Wonder Woman is an extreme example of female power that has dominated comics for years. One of the defining, and endearing characteristics of Wonder Woman is that she IS a woman. Her battle for righeousness and justice is in part framed and influenced by her feminity and there is nothing wrong with that. But there's no clamor to alter her gender. 

What really bothers me is the fact that those in power at the BBC and Doctor Who felt it necessary to usurp an already established character to implant a new paradigm. That to me is lazy writing. Why not introduce a new strong, dominant female character that has a chance to become a full-fledged independent character all on her own without a crutch of 50 years of character lore? Hmm? Or perhaps reintroduce a strong, well-liked character that is already established, like Romana? Is that some kind of subconscious admission that a female character can’t or couldn’t hold their own in a male centered Whovian universe? I think Ellen and Diana would disagree.

I remember a long time ago when Tom Baker jokingly suggested the idea of a female Doctor. I found the quip trit and silly then, and now I find the actual change irritating for more than just what some people might call gender bias (the aforementioned lazy writing for one). We could talk about this ad nauseam but it really comes down to established norms and character expectations. If this gender bending was a mainstay of the character from the beginning, or introduced or even hinted at long ago, it would be easier to identify with that aspect of the character. 

Doctor Who as we've known it is forever gone. Whatever comes next will be new, a variation, an alteration, some perhaps would say an aberration, but not a continuation.

Thanks for reading.

Comments are always welcome.