Who is Mouth Fruit?
Who cares?
Does it matter whether I am a dog or not? If you judge my information and insight to be sound, does make any difference? And if I am a personified consensus of the above 14 candidates, is that OK?
And maybe our conversation is improved if you have only a few preconceptions of me.
Hi! I'm Mouth Fruit!
And I write a blog called Mouth Fruit.
I do want to earn your trust. I will say a little about myself, but I will hold back a bit. Some things are private and some things are distracting.
As has young Kimiko Ross, I have done science to it.
Books
Sometimes I read a book.
Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it is too dark to read. — Groucho Marx
The Mouth Fruit wishlist at Amazon contains around a hundred books. I have not read the vast majority. These are simply books on topics I want to explore. You may buy books for Mouth Fruit this way and since there are many books you can have an influence on Mouth Fruit reading. If you want to get to this later, look for the link in the footer of any Mouth Fruit page.
I am not your enemy
I am not in the news. I am not in movie credits. My name does not show up among authors at Amazon. I am not that famous person you don't like. I don't work for that person, either.
What I bring
I do have experience in writing, teaching, mediating, mentoring, managing, integrating and creating in many domains. I have dabbled in logic, critical thinking, mathematics, engineering, programming, physics, linguistics, ontology, taxonomy, theology, AI and tinkering.
I have a passion for emergent peace on this planet, a bottom-up spread of a contagion of good will. I am an introvert, but I very much love people.
Why the passion for this blog?
In one simplest sense, I am sad for those who are crushed and for those who are compelled to crush others.
Of course, you and I might have different ideas about what being crushed means and what responses might be. Let's put that aside for this page.
Physical harm, oh no!
My concerns include direct physical harm (acts of force) and the calling for that harm or giving another person agency to apply physical harm. Can dialogue help in eroding that call in ourselves and in others? Let's find out. I seek solutions that avoid aggression.
What are acts of force in our minds? click here
What is this physical harm? Cultures have norms and individuals have their own ideas. And we have exceptions. Most people have some of these in their consideration of acts of force. Many have more.
Murder
Assault
Rape
Theft
Fraud
Manipulation
Gaslighting
Breaking of agreements
Systemic harms
Aggregated harms
Harm as perceived by the victim
Self-defense
Threats of above
You might think, no, no, only half of those. Exactly.
A Mouth Fruit goal is to learn how to speak to many of those people.
Are there some with whom we disagree who murder or call for murder? Each of us is free to disassociate from them. Look at all those opportunities for fruitful dialog that are left. A few brave and equipped people are able to walk into the lions den and engage in fruitful dialogue. Respect.
Lost opportunity, oh no!
And then there is lost opportunity.
Two people can stand side-by-side in exploring, worshiping or working toward a common goal. Also, two people can face each other in love, trade or chess. This kind of cooperation can lead to happier lives for both parties. I crave these benefits.
And there is more. I think that part of engaging in and preparing for fruitful dialog involves my personal growth. I am willing to become a better person.
The Mouth Fruit desire
There are lots of ways I can help others and do. But, right here, in this blog, I will stand for fruitful dialog (or civil discourse, should you like those words), with a focus on reflection and self-improvement, on building and collecting the right skills and tools, on simple discussion and dialogue. It is my desire that people will find here words that encourage, evidence that brings hope, and frankness that brings growth. If I write something useful, use it, use it heavily.
I am biased.
We all are biased. Yes, you, too, Betty. We each have special ideals and ways of looking at things.
We might discover together what the Mouth Fruit biases are.
I do make this promise. I will try hard to include ideas from a wide span of ideas when I want to mention some real notions in conflict. I will tend to find ways to show things without getting into touchy topics. Typically this means using little fictional stories or snippets from history. And for examples in languages, I might use the little-known language mika (MEE-kah).
This is Mouth Fruit, the creator of this blog.
Is all that rambling sorely lacking in conveying who Mouth Fruit is? Is that lack OK? Let me know in the comments.