Josh Plovanic's Writings and Thoughts

    If you have ever studied Buddhism to a significant degree, you would have most likely encountered the term "middle way" before. It is one of the descriptions of the Noble Eightfold Path, the path to enlightenment and the liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth and entering into Nirvana.  The concept of a middle way has been around for ages. It is the attempt to cut between the extremities of life.  The happy medium between over-indulgence and over-deprivation. The middle ground between the great opposites of existence. The "grey area" so to speak.          "Everything in moderation," as the words of wisdom go. It's true. Life's a hell of a lot easier, and a hell of a lot more enjoyable, and a hell of a lot safer, if you can moderate you lifestyle in almost all ways possible. You don't make as much of a mess (or as much of a scene) when you go and indulge in much of life's pleasures and privileges while regulating yourself to a he...

One of the things I like to think about often, aside from infinity and the infiniteness of God and existence (I know, I try to take on the big ideas a lot), is politics. However, it's not pop-culture politics, like The dumb stuff Trump said at some amped up rally or whether or not Joe Biden is going senile.  What I like to meditate on in politics is more complex. Big picture stuff. Political theory. How governments and societies work and how complex systems operate in general.      I have become fascinated with the concept of political engineering.  Applying engineering principles and approaches to political systems.  Revolutionizing or altering systems to fit a particular objective for that system.         The most important part of engineering and designing a political system is what your objective is. What your goal for the system is and what it's priority is supposed to be.          Engineering any syste...

Eternity is a long time to have your dreams fulfilled. Even more so, it is a long time to share in the glory of God. Eternity is a long time to fulfill and serve justice. Justice is often equated with rightness. In terms of law, it is fairness, balance, and fittingness of punishments and rulings dealing with criminality and violations. It is a standard that's often quite difficult to weigh, measure, and perceive in many cases dealing with violations and crimes.  It's often hard to measure the fittingness of a punishment when your frame of reference in the law is ambiguous and the circumstances are complex and multifaceted. This is quite often the case, which is where precedents are important and often necessary in determining fittingness and serving justice.         This is very true in regards to worldly justice. We need precedents and standards to operate and work with in order to at least attempt to achieve a more perfect and a more fitting/fair justice. ...

       In my relationship with the Creator, I am partial to focusing on what I view to be the magnitude of His creation, which I believe to be infinite in its own right, even given the finite (albeit still massive) state of our own universe.          I often neglect to focus on the infiniteness of the Creator himself when I focus only on the creation. The Creator's infiniteness is of a degree and intensity that far exceeds even the infiniteness of what He created. This is hard for me to imagine. It's hard for anyone to imagine very well, to be honest. It goes over the heads of humanity as a collective by, well,...an infinite number.           No one can understand the mind of an infinite God, nor can they understand the connections and intricacies of the complexities within such a mind, or the intensities and richness of its thoughts and constructs.   For me, and my relationship with God, no matter how ...

.     I've always wanted to be some sort of warrior. There has been a part of me that has wanted to learn how to fight and learn how to strategize and defeat an enemy.       I sponged up many books and articles on great battles and wars of human history, in particular the Second World War. I admired generals like Eisenhower or MacArthur and have been fascinated by what type of mind it takes to command and lead millions of soldiers, sailors, and marines through a massive global conflict.         The type of thinking and the type of mentality required to be that kind of leader strikes an interest in me from a psychological perspective. It's all those psychology classes being applied to my academic fascination with war and leadership. I'd love to study the psychology of a leader. The mind of a leader.  I still want to be a warrior. A leader of sorts. The desire never really goes away, no matter how out of reach it becomes the olde...

Death doesn't scare me. There are plenty of things that are far worse than death in life to worry about. Encagement. Enslavement. A crippling injury. A debilitating disease. Death, to me, would be a liberation of sorts. A chainbreaking. I just go home.                 For me, entering into eternity would be the most eye-opening  and most liberating experience possible. For me, eternity would be spent absolutely consumed with the glory of God and allowed to dwell in His presence unceasingly. I would get to experience the infiniteness and overwhelming power and majesty of the Creator's nature. I would get to be immersed into His infinite love for all time.           I would like to spend my eternity exploring. I would like to go from world upon world, culture upon culture, civilization upon civilization, galaxy upon galaxy, and universe upon universe. Never ceasing in exploration of God's infinite creation. I ...

We ingest abstract information all the time. When we read a book, look at a painting, watch a fantasy/science fiction movie. Abstract information is everywhere. Without abstract information, life would lose any semblance of meaning, wonder and mystery.       Basing my thought's off of Plato's philosophy of Forms and Ideas, I'd like to view abstract information as coming from two primary sources: imagery and words.   Imagery usually deals with physical forms. Structures and shapes that may be impractical in real life or images of technology not yet made real in a truly physical sense yet. Shapes and structures are usually dealt with in abstract imagery like art or pictures.      Words, on the other hand, deal with abstract ideas, although they also label forms. Ideas are generally not very physical, and as a result can only be conveyed to the human mind through words and language. Things like love, liberty, infinity, God, democracy. These things can onl...