What if you found yourself to be the only sane person that you knew of in all the world. Its not a great situation to be in. If everyone else is insane and you say that you are sane, they are all going to think that you are definitely insane, besides the fact that things are just going to get crazier and crazier. Of course, hopefully, there are some small percentage out there that are also not insane, but how to find them? Isolation is the condition, and we are not wired for isolation. we need each other, we need connection, warmth, love, to be understood, or we will suffer. That singular sane person is going to feel very alone. One of the cruellest punishments is to put someone in isolation, as they do in prisons.
In a world in which you must pay to enter, live in, and to leave, there is a life-long urgent need to have a constant flow of money. This puts everyone under strain, duress, and stress. It takes the fun out of life. It makes everything very serious, divides humanity (the haves and the have nots), and drives a lot of people crazy. There are those few who find a way to have a steady and sufficient flow, enough to alleviate much of the stress, but often it is done at the expense of others through some form of exploitation or corruption, and this creates monster parasites that "flourish" amongst us, in the form of business men, banks, corporations, and criminals/politicians. Some make it like a game, like the game monopoly, and manage to have fun with it. But to succeed in business is almost as difficult as growing coconuts in Alaska, and it can be like a prison sentence, where one must toil many hours of every day, and to fail is not that much fun, because the consequences can be so extremely dire. Due to the seriousness of this condition, we lose the joyful quality that life offers, and it is only children who enjoy a certain amount of freedom and lack of responsibilities that can experience this joy through their constant play, until they must hunker down and endure the boredom of their daily childs prison, called school, or until they realize that they too, must forgo their play to find a job in order to survive or possibly thrive. This makes them serious and the art of play, becomes lost in the sobering reality of capitalism. This explains to some degree, how it is that we lose the ability to play. This is tragic, because it is quite possible that "play is the way," And everyone goes insane, having forgone play for work, joy for seriousness, which is highly unnatural and sad. Music is so popular and gratifying because it is a form of play, as well as all the arts. And I firmly believe that having an artistic outlet is a way to maintain ones sanity. Our community in Vilcabamba, Ecuador Chambalabamba, is based on this idea to some degree. If you can recall when you stopped skipping as most all children do (skip and stop skipping), this might have been the time that you might have begun to lose your sense of play. It often occurs at the onset of adolescence. How do we regain our sense of play? It might be the only way to regain our sanity. That is what I would like to know. All original ideas are welcome or even non original ideas.
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(A bagel is a circular special bread with a hole in the middle) If you think about it, the hole in the bagel has existed even before the bagel was created. We're a lot like that, if you think about it. My great-great uncle, known as Bagelhole 1, used to go around the cafeterias to collect bagel holes that people inevitably left over and put them in a big sack that always seemed empty, but when he draped it over his shoulders and all bent over, it seemed very heavy. He was way ahead of his time because he believed it was the hole in the bagel that was important, rather than the "meat" in the bagel that everyone loved to eat. He was an anti-materialist. He believed that if you put your finger through the hole in the bagel, you could feel the pulsing of the universe if you were sensitive enough, and if you looked through the hole, you could see infinity, and if you arranged the bagels one on top of the other, you could climb to the moon. The least that one could say about him was that his spirituality was eccentric. Somehow I am similar to that. My spiritual path is also kind of eccentric. My way is to cherish the moments between the sounds of barking dogs, to feel eternally grateful for these times, and also for not stepping on any dog poop. I believe that the world has gone to the dogs and that it is almost impossible to escape incessant barking. You might think that the Arctic and Antarctic are the only places on the planet where you can enjoy a bark-free zone, but if you think about it again, you will realize that even there you will be annoyed by the barking sounds of the seals. I have tried to transcend the incessant, ubiquitous barking, though it seems that Ecuadorians are very good at transcending them, since they will never bother to stop their dog from barking, but I have not succeeded, perhaps due to the probable likelihood of a theory that I have; that in a past life I was eaten by a group of ravenous barking dogs. The creator, if there is one, created wonderful sounds like the songs of birds or the rustle of leaves in the wind, but in contrast, created the barking of dogs and car alarms. He, She, It also created cute and cuddly creatures like babies, puppies, rabbits, etc and by contrast He,Etc also created disgusting creatures like rats, cockroaches, and mosquitoes, although rats can sometimes make good pets, and maybe cockroaches too (though I can't find any cockroach lover groups on Duck,Duck,Go). I know that an enlightened attitude would be to accept everything with grace, the good, the bad and the ugly. One must accept everything. But that doesn't mean everything like cruelty, injustice and barking dogs must be tolerated. Is it not true? Either (pronounced eye thur) or either (pronounced ee thur), to me, I say eye thur, because I wish to be or at least appear to be more cultivated (even to myself), rather than less, to be completely honest, even a little vulnerable, if I may say so. I am speaking rhetorically, as of course, I don't need your permission for anything... only your indulgence perhaps, but my habitual tendency is the latter. For my whole life, every time this word comes up, I have to decide how to pronounce this word. Life is so full of problems, of conundrums. Of course, this is relatively small, unimportant, but it could just be the straw that breaks the camel's back, so to speak.
Everything is important, the small, the big, etc. ok, some things are more important than others, but even the trivial can be important, I don't wish to trivialize the trivial. no one stands up for the trivial and I for one, don't wish to be a leader for this cause, as it seems beneath me. You see, probably everyone feels that way and hence there are no champions for seemingly unimportant causes, but there might actually be ones that are more important than they seem, or visa versa. People are willing to stand for many causes that seem important but that really aren't so important. An example would be like voting for humpty or dumpty, people put a lot of energy into this kind of thing and you can see them waving little toy flags and wearing funny hats to emphasize the importance of their cause, or getting all emotional about a sporting event, which in actuality has no real importance. there are too many examples to waste my time on, so lets either (pronunciation is up to you) move on or we might waste our time. I hate to waste my or anyone's time. I have a thing about waste. I always eat whatever is on my plate. It may seem that I might be avaricious or gluttinous, but no, really I can be very generous and magnanimous. You will notice that no word is wasted here. I even collect my own waste and use it for fertilizer.. we have compost toilets where I live. but lets keep our thoughts lofty, gravity even effects thoughts and words it seems. I say "it seems " because it either (your choice) does or it doesn't. In my mind I am a free clown, at least in my own limited way. I have the right to laugh at bad jokes, its a basic human right I believe, however a clown does not have the right to make bad jokes, this is a no no, this just makes people hate clowns. I belong to the clown anti-defamation league. There is a lot of anti clown sentiment in the world today. To be a clown is often looked down upon. When I told my mommy and daddy that I wanted to be a clown when I grow up, they frowned. They wanted me to be a doctor or something. It was either (your choice) this or that. It was this. It is probably easier to cure people then to make them laugh. people can be very serious. People often imagine that there situation is deadly serious, their lives may be at stake or those of their loved ones, they may not have any money for their next meal, and have kids to feed, how sad is that? a clown comes along trying to make them laugh, and naturally they might want to kill him (maybe eat him). it can be dangerous being a clown. We are not welcome at funerals and many other events. Real clowns, funny ones are a dying breed, they are almost extinct. no one is trying to save them. They should be on the endangered animal list, They could go the way of the dodo bird. If a clown's jokes don't fly, like the dodo, he becomes a target, because people expect clowns to be funny, just like you expect someone who is a singer to be able to sing, or a nurse to nurse, a worker to work, a politician to lie, a crook to steal, a wife to complain or to be late, a husband to be faithful, and even though trees don't move, you expect it to leave (ha, ha), a dog to bark and shit, a mountain climber to go up, a lover to go down, we all have our expectations. When you are in a row boat, you can either choose one or the other or both oars, it is an either (eethur), either (eye thur) oar/ or situation. it is a clown's dilemma. Life is ridiculous. when i slow down and just sit, and there are no dogs barking, and everything is still and whispery, the sun has just set and the end of the valley is gleaming. the underlit clouds so serenely stand still and only the quiet drone of the river and the constant twittering of birds, now they are silent. the beauty stands out now, i can be a part of it, and the clouds so soft and fluffy, have taken on a golden hue, so often i don't notice this, my mind is elsewhere, its crazy, better to tune into the deepening colors, drenching and quenching my thirst to absorb the beautiful surroundings. it is such a rare privilege to have all of this at my disposal, as it is our ground to do as we please, with respect for the sacredness of everything. enjoying the solitude, to be with myself, tranquilo. i love the 3d immensality of everything and now the penetrating sounds of 2 birds nearby. a burro, 2 burros, and the silent lull of the river returns, birds chirp in and disappear, the sky is greycefull, full of grace and grey, its slowness adding to the weight of its beauty, almost imperceptibly moving, in no hurry to go anywhere, frozen softly, barely breathing, against the paling opaque, blue sky, lengthening into night. the curves of the silhouetting mountains are so well arranged, that one can sense the divinity behind it. a monumental sensuous dance moving as the eye moves, no hurry to the orgasmic release of rain, tantric giver of life, the mountains are a pale brown, as all the grasses have died, with the dryness of the season, only to be reborn again when the rainy season arrives. Now, night is passing overhead and its still too soon for the stars. the frogs make their eerie sing song sound, far enough in the background, their nightly rendevous sounds a lot like crickets, but lower in tone, more like jazz from mars. the night is stealing its way in, abducting the day. so many people have been seeing UFO'S over by Mt. mandango, here in Vilcabamba, these last few months and for many years, i have never seen one, though i had one strange experience about 5 years ago or so, walking in the plaza with some chums, i looked up and saw a huge rectangle in the clouds, we all saw it, it was a rectangular shadow on the bottom of the clouds, that just stayed there. i took a video of it, but when fb one day, disappeared my fb page, everything was lost. I couldn't explain it. It was just weird. for me, the ufo's are the biggest hope that humanity, so lost and suicidal, under the malevolent stranglehold of violent authority, has at the moment, assuming of course, that the ETs are benevolent. There were many winks and smirks in the sphinx works shop, mostly in spurts. Gossip was rampant with the poverty stricken workers. Outside The ghost writers assembled around the jadegreen vined gravestone.
Making exact replicas of the mighty sphinx of ancient Egypt had become quite popular among the 1% which most of the 99% served in one way or the other. The ghost writers had the ability to find stories in the minds of others and writing a lot of fiction based on real stories. There were and endless supply of real stories and of course some of them are quite fantastic, unbelievable even. The scope of human experiences is on the scale of the numbers of grains of sand on the planet. This town if you call it that was extraordinary in so many ways. Its history read like fairy tales with extraterrestrials, treasure chests filled with jewels, murders, etc. the whole gamet, most of it singular, that is, not repeatable. There was a rumor that a recent visitor had floated in on anti gravity machine with an invisible shield. And of course 99% believed it immediately, and it was true. The town was subject to all the nuances that each resident felt inside and was a very accurate reflection of that. And on the whole it was beautiful, but there would be breaches in the tranquil air at times and that kept everyone on their toes so to speak and with the violent women, because this town was infamous for its violent women, most of the men were “walking on eggs” so to speak, sometimes tippy toe. This created an invisible tension in the air, which some of the more sensitive citizens could feel. There was so much going on under the surface. Many people who looked happy were actually unhappy. There were bearing some cross and were being worn down as each day passed until they would be compressed and plodding, to the point of exploding or imploding. The need for money pressed down on everyone and the thought of not having enough or how to make some, was what constantly took up space in their minds. This had a deleterious affect on them, as if living in a commercialized world wasn't bad enough, their minds were contaminated by the constancy of this burden. This translated into a serious, hard nose attitude in general and only the children would be exuberently wild and playful. The adults were all about business. Ouch. But with the influx of foreigners, they were able to observe how it was possible to live frivilously and at first they looked down on this seemingly superficial manner, but with time they began to yearn to be so, like children and unburdened of any and all responsibility. When one day a man came to town who was an expert at play. And he would play with anything, everything, and anyone all the time. He had a very playful attitude. Sometimes it was so simple that it was almost simplistic. If you have watched how children play, there is a lot of copying, a lot of openness to whatever comes out of it and that is what he taught the adults how to do, that is, how to be open to the most ridiculous or seemingly meaningless type of play. People were enamored by this kind of experience, it was so lacking in their daily lives, it made them feel so good, so happy. After awhile almost the whole town, locals and foreigners were playing every time there was any kind of interchange. It was amazing, the whole town was laughing all the time. People started to like one another and relate to each other thru play. There was one resident who believed that skipping, simply skipping is what the world needed. So amongst all the players he would skip around the plaza in a very playful way and soon one person joined him and following some algorithem, it would grow exponentially until it was like a swarm and totally crazy. The town had become so playful and crazy that it was soon known as the happiest place on the planet, and teams of scientists would come to study the inhabitants to be able to understand what exactly was happening and why were they so happy, etc. they would interview children and adults and get different answers from everyone, but all positive. They measured hospital visits, etc. and found that people needed less and less medical attention. That the play and skipping seemed to have a positive effect on health. They had contests, like who could do the silliest thing.The silliest thing anyone did was 4 people juggling their eyes up and down. But they got better and better over time coming up with supersilly ridiculous ideas. One idea was to have a contest for the best design for the silliest possible statue. They were taking silliness to new heights, making things laughingly ridiculous. So that people were laughing out loud all over the place, most all the time, with the sacred tranquility, the back drop. ACLU Reversal on Vaccine Mandates
Call for Censorship of Internal Terrorists Acquiescing to Vaccine Mandates/ Putting Health Security above Civil Liberties Not only is everything topsy-turvy, and spinning out of control, but there are teutonic type shifts occurring just barely beneath the surface of consciousness. Normally, historically, the Left would be against censorship, and standing for civil liberties, but now it is the Right that is holding these positions. And it is the Left that is believing the mainstream media about the necessity for everyone to be vaxxed in order to achieve 80% herd immunity, even insisting that those that have already had Covid-19 and children as well get the jab. Furthermore they are buying into the liberal take on the Jan 6 event as being an attempted insurrection that justifies more stringent censorship to prevent any more take-over attempts within the territorial USA. Anyone can easily see that it was not organized in any kind of fashion to take over the government. It was simply a protest by right wingers who believed that Biden had illegally stolen votes and they were standing against what they believed to be a corrupted election. Once they "broke in" or more likely were "allowed in", they aimlessly wandered through the halls with no clear intent as to what to do. Curiously and sadly, one female protester was shot dead in cold blood from the back, without any provocation, and that was done with impunity and totally ignored. It reminds one of what happened when Hillary stole the nomination from Bernie Sanders through the nefarious behind the scenes machinations of the democratic party. In politics, nothing is sacred and like everything nowadays, almost nothing can be known with absolute certainty, other than that more often than not, things are never what they seem to be. The Amish people in Pennsylvania are noted for their independent style of living, rejecting many features of modern society. They allowed themselves to get covid-19 and achieved herd immunity very quickly and that was all they had to do, no lockdowns, masks, or distancing. One might imagine that this incessant drumming of the need for everyone to get vaxxed is not only not necessary. They are even insisting that those who already had covid 19 should be vaxxed which seems illogical, which makes one suspect ulterior motives, doesn't it? Now, every day, more news to expect shortages of all sorts that will be particularly painful in large freezing cities. Food shortages, electrical blackouts, no energy for heating, food shortages, desperate people, food riots, chaos, precipitous inflation, martial law, state of emergency, activation of FEMA. This could be their plan b. These are looming possibilities and uncertainties. I hope that as the Left would have you believe that these are paranoid, right wing ravings. Why are not governments alerting the public to prepare for this by storing up rice, beans, lentils, grains, tins, and preserves to pull through 3 to 6 months? Are we being manipulated now, just as we have always been? Since it seems most information sources are either corrupted or could be corrupted it makes no sense to attach to any beliefs about which news is the real false news. It may not be equally bad everywhere, but humanity in general is experiencing simultaneously one assault after another. If this has all been planned, how ingenious was the idea of setting us apart with this existential conundrum of health security versus human rights. It will keep us separated and impotent until the real facts are revealed with certainty, which might never happen, or if it does, it could be squelched. And the powers that be, can allow us to protest and demand the gov't. stand down, because as soon as we install another one, it all starts again, with vertical top down government being unbelievably easy to corrupt by intimidation or bribes, just as it has always happened. The game changer is horizontal governing which involves citizen participation, decentralization, and is virtually incorruptible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wywMhg604W8. One might wonder why the United States government has surreptitiously undermined so many so-called democracies and installed dictators and fascists. It could be because that is what the US government is underneath its facade of democracy. Uncertainty is a condition that comes with life, it makes for infinite possibilities. As we move ever closer to the possibility of extinction, as whole societies seem to be collapsing world-wide, and authoritarianism continues to tighten its grip, we, together all face mounting challenges and the exponential rise of uncertainty. It is the sacred, the antidote to corruption, along with human dignity that must be restored for the sake of our species/family to continue and flourish. utopiacornucopia.org What two things are we doing all the time of which we are usually unconscious but can be sometimes conscious of, if we stop to think about it? The answer is breathing and finding comfort. Every moment we are making ourselves as comfortable as we can, usually without any thought, but if we are extremely uncomfortable, i.e. cold or hungry, or cannot breathe, we will become conscious enough to try to rectify the situation. These are examples of how easy for us to overlook the obvious or the habitual. And just as novelty wears thin with time and experience, so it so it can be so with consciousness.
With all the problems with the recent presidential election, something obvious has been overlooked imho. One is that our method of voting cannot be trusted, it really is subject to massive fraud, whether it happened or not. But perhaps even more important is the fact that in every presidential election we never have much of a choice, since both parties represent the corporatocracies that finance them. So, it should be obvious that if the choices are so limited and skewed away from representing the best interests of the people, there is no real democracy, that it is only an illusion, propagated by the mass media which are controlled by the corporatocracies. This is what needs to be changed, not to look for better candidates. The systemic change we need is to restructure all governments from vertical to horizontal which is virtually incorruptible, decentralized, by and for the people (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wywMhg604W8&feature&fbclid=IwAR3HcZvrdRJvRNqMRZ3m6t3hvuac7bTXlxnQn-WjutSbWoWXOw7iW7AAEd4). The same could be said about our economy. It is unjust and incentivizes destructive behavior, i.e disregard for the environment. The whole idea that each of us must fend for ourselves, compete against everyone, and find a way to be in the flow of money, to have an income, or face dire consequences such as homelessness, hunger, and lack of health services, or in other words, all of our basic needs for survival. Why would we ever accept such a system when it is obvious that to thrive as a society we need to cooperate and collaborate? This current system is the breeding ground for corruption, crime, and war. Why do we continue with it? How is it that this is constantly overlooked? Has anyone ever noted how in this current system, those with the most money have the most options, hence the most freedom and those with the least money have the least freedom, the least options. Has anyone ever noticed how unfair this is? I should hope so. Everyone needs to be equally free. One could say that the current multiple crises that humanity faces is a result of these and other oversights, culminating in many very bad decisions. Good and bad, I define these terms as only having relevance when they are in reference to something, otherwise they become only judgements, which imho have no value. So, in this case, when I say "bad decisions" it is in reference to the health and welfare of our species. I am watching a bird outside my window. He is constantly moving his head, observing or watching out for itself, constantly vigilant. It lives in a predator/prey world. Our world is similar, but it needn't be. It is only this way when we allow our animal nature to dominate. We, unlike all other animals, have the ability to live ethically. Yet we don't. We live in an unethical, unjust world, a world with many guarded hearts not fully open. We can change all of that when humans choose to be humane. The milieu humanity swims in is a mix of manipulation, misinformation, corruption and betrayal. We can no longer trust sources. The WHO is controlled by Bill Gates since he realized that if you invest enormous amounts into any organization they become beholden to you. The leader he chose, Tedros Ghebreyesus has on the one hand much to approve of having studied infectious diseases in the UK during the 1990s and received a PhD in Public Health. While on the other hand his election to the position caused protests from groups in his home country for having covered up cholera epidemics. (https://www.dw.com/en/who-is-dr-tedros/a-53199954).
The same could be said about Bill Gates who on the one hand could be considered a great hero for humanity for his work to create a vaccine for covid-19 and his hand in directing the world's response or a monster who has jeopardized the lives of millions of children and people with their vaccine projects in Africa and India among other possible crimes against humanity: "The phase III Malaria vaccine trial was part of a larger project by PATH, the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, which administered multiple malaria vaccines around the world. This specific project received $150 million in funding from the Gates Foundation.83 The phase III Malaria trial took place in multiple testing sites across Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Gabon, Malawi, Mozambique and Burkina Faso.84 This trial utilized malaria vaccine version RTS,S, which was manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline. The vaccines were administered to 20,000 across the sub-Saharan African countries and included children between ages 6 to12 weeks and children between 5 to 17 months old.86 The trials resulted in 151 deaths and caused serious adverse effects, including paralysis and seizures in 1048 of 5949 children aged 5-17 months.87 However, medical researchers concluded that these were normal risks expected from the vaccinations." (https://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1205&context=annlsurvey). The same could be said about Dr. Anthony Fauci, depending on which sources one accesses, he is either a hero or a monster. As well as Trump's vaccine chief Moncef Slaoui who has vast ties to the drug industry which poses possible conflict of interests (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/20/health/coronavirus-vaccine-czar.html). The whole covid-19 event has so much to be suspicious of when one considers that all sources of information are open to question. The censorship provided by the social media and the mainstream onslaught of assumptions that are passed off as facts, i.e. the need for vaccinating all of humanity, the dismissal of possible cures, the suppression of the possible criminality of the Biden family in the Ukraine (https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/HSGAC_Finance_Report_FINAL.pdf), the assumption that Trump's election fraud claims were false, the portrayal of the breach of the capital buildings as an attempted coup, etc. I am not defending Trump or his Trumpeters, I find both candidates despicable and an insult to the American people to have them to choose from as their leader, as well as making a mockery of the so-called democracy. And I believe that those who were involved in storming the Capital were doing so because they believed that democracy was being thwarted and threatened by allowing the inauguration of someone they believed had cheated his way into the presidency. Their motivation was to protect the United States democracy, that as I have pointed out, hardly exists in the first place. They simply believed in their sources of information that have been excluded, mocked, and ignored by the mainstream media. We can't trust science because they too are subject to manipulation due to the fact that scientists depend on grants and if they don't follow the mainstream, they stand to be left out in the cold. Doctors too, can be ostracized and removed if they confront the mainstream directives. Fact checkers are doubtful as well, depending on who is funding them. It is almost impossible to know what is the truth and yet people are so certain that they are correct regardless of which end of the stick they are on. This is what is puzzling to me. How can anyone be so sure considering the uncertainty of the sources? Are the pcr tests accurate, are the deaths attributed to covid 19 correct? Major decisions have been made based on these dubious "facts" that have cost perhaps the lives of millions as well as the destruction of their livelihoods . This situation is intolerable, but like so many unacceptables that we all are forced to accept every day of our lives (war, torture, corruption, poverty, insufficient response to the climate crises we all face, and the existence of secret organizations with no oversight that have seemingly infinite funding through covert means may be responsible for most of the major events that happen around the world, to name a few), we blithely and seemingly naively ignore them all. Thus, the reality of having dubious sources of information has made humanity polarized, confused and most likely making terrible, catastrophic decisions leading to horrendous consequences. How can we lift ourselves out of this untenable situation before it is too late? Can you explain why you are so certain you are right? A long time ago, I thought of the phrase "Joy is an Obligation". This was too much for my German girlfriend at the time. It really was a joke, an oxymoron, but there was some truth to it also. What most of us forget is to acknowledge the constant flow of things, small and large that bring us comfort and pleasure. Children are more often much better at noticing these than adults.
It seems that all creatures are constantly seeking comfort, every second, whether we are standing, leaning, moving, sitting, or lying down. Dogs and cats do it, it seems all living creatures probably do this, even microbes and worms. We do it unconsciously mostly, just like our tongue moves in our mouth to place food in the best place to chew without us having to think about it. We are both conscious and unconscious all of our waking time. We can only be conscious of the tip of the iceberg and the majority of what is, we miss entirely, so no matter how conscious we imagine we are we are always much more unconscious of all there is to be conscious of. We share with all living creatures the same purpose; to eat and reproduce. Can you imagine what a job it is to feed every living entity on the planet a few meals a day every day of the year. So many open, hungry mouths, from microbes to whales. However humans can have more purposes than this if we so choose. We can be love, we can give love in infinite ways as well as receive it. It could be a purpose reserved for humans, though it is possible that other creatures can be love too. If a fruit tree has any kind of consciousness, we could imagine that by creating fruit, and feeding and providing a home for many creatures while at the same time seeding the continuance of its species, that they are loving plants or we could simply be anthropomorphizing. Science hasn't figured this out yet, though there is more and more evidence in this direction, like the mycelial networks that exist for miles under the ground and seem to communicate chemically. Time, like friction, wears novelty away, the novelty of a new relationship, or a new house, or a new country, a vista, etc.. After a while the novelty is gone and you are left with what it really is without the patina of excitement. And so, one might say, that things must withstand the test of time, if the thrills of discovery are to last or not. The intoxication of the "new" is sobered by time. It is like coming down from being "high" on something. The "freshness" disappears and one can be left with a stale taste in one's mouth, so to speak. We are then faced with the challenge of keeping it "fresh". It is like when someone is taking a photo of you, and they say "smile", and then they take forever to snap the shot and your smile loses its vitality and becomes stale and fake looking, or the novelty of a new born child fades into the deep and huge responsibility which comes with raising a child for many years, the sobering qualities of everyday life; we all have to deal with it. If it is too much, you might feel depressed. If you are strong inside or clever, you find ways to keep things fresh. It is something that is done often without any thought or consciousness of this wearing away, we just do it in our constant pursuit of happiness. It is one of those areas in life that remains pretty much unexamined, it seems. It is exciting to discover elements of our shared existence that may have been missed or overlooked and to bring them to light. Panning for gold in the nuances of existence, which can be very much like finding precious nuggets in the silty waters of a river. One can enjoy exploring and adventure without ever getting up from one's chair, and I am not speaking of vicariously experiencing as one might do, watching a film or reading a book. Since life as we know it, through the gift of consciousness which we all have, has seemingly infinite possibilities, there is no end to what we might uncover, through the process of introspection, if we are open enough to take the time to think, to imagine, because one idea can lead to a whole tree of ideas, starting from a stem or seed of one thought and branching out and even producing flowers and fruit. Much like this contemplation. One could also imagine that it is through our consciousness that we are able to keep things fresh and novel, and without this, one might suffer from boredom. If however, our consciousness becomes rigid or rutted into deep grooves that are confining and repetitious, it becomes difficult to keep a fresh outlook and boredom, ennui, depression are the results. Drugs and alcohol are the easy fixes that are often resorted to, or serial sex, or whatever solution that people can find, maybe simply, eating. These are all mediocre solutions to the problem of keeping life fresh and novel and are very commonplace, and it seems that it might be wise to avoid these as much as possible. Since this is an area which hasn't been studied much as far as I know, I can only guess at what might be a healthy and effective solution, because I am someone who probably has more questions than answers. It really seems as though it is all about the journey rather than then the end of the journey, the goal, the answer, or the treasure. The journey is our life, and the treasure can be found between the seconds, if we can notice what is making us feel good. We all know how it is going to end. Spontaneity seems to be quite important, improvising all the way, as we do, just naturally. That is why I don't like to rely on stories or jokes that I would have to repeat to keep people entertained or to enliven a conversation. I would rather keep it fresh, relying only on the unknown, relying on my wit. To dwell in the past occasionally is not a crime, though it might promote stagnancy. It is by being in the present which is always new that one keeps things novel and original. But that is assuming that one's present is not tedious, mundane, or painful, or if it is, to go within to find the extraordinary in what seems extra ordinary. There are many tricks that we often seem to do to keep things interesting, without being very aware that we are doing it. The main one perhaps is to be aware of what is making us feel good in as many moments as we can. This is a skill, a mostly unconscious skill that happy people probably have and can be honed by making it a conscious skill. It is very similar to being grateful all the time, a form of enlightenment. When I was born, Teilhard de Chardin wrote in 1945, "the inception of a second phase of human reflexion (this time not merely individual but collective), then it must mean that the phylum is reconstituting itself above our heads in a new form, a new ramification, no longer of divergence but of convergence; and consequently it is the Sense of Evolution which, suppressing the spirit of egoism, is of its own right springing to new life in our hearts, and in such a way as to counteract those elements in the forces of collectivization (centralization of gov't.) which are poisonous to Life."
76 years later, now, it is clearly taking form and aggregating. We, and many others are participating in this. I am not sure if it is the phylum which is chordates (animals with spinal chords), I see it as more to do with our species Homo Sapiens, sapiens refers to wise. We need to wisen up right now. It is obvious we have been collectively destroying our biosphere in which we depend on for life and that hasn't been very wise. It is our basic underlying systems that have allowed for this and this is what needs to be immediately changed if we wish to save us from the looming extinction events; our methods of managing and organizing which we call government and which itself is governed by our economic system that underlies and undermines how we manage to get things done, if we wish to co-create a regenerative, ethical, and just world for all. One relatively simple solution is to restructure they way we govern or organize from vertical to horizontal which is virtually incorruptible, by and for the people, more effective and efficient, and much more democratic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wywMhg604W8&feature&fbclid=IwAR3HcZvrdRJvRNqMRZ3m6t3hvuac7bTXlxnQn-WjutSbWoWXOw7iW7AAEd4. And come up with an economic system that incentivizes, cooperation, compassion, collaboration, kindness, integrity, ecological sensitivity, reciprocity and justice for all. There are many ideas out there. The problems we face are extremely complex and multifarious and the best solutions are most elegant and viable when they are as simple as possible. There are so many great ideas that are out there, each in their own areas, i.e. regenerative agriculture, soil restoration ideas, localization, in transportation, open source tool making, etc. etc. It seems obvious to me that we need to use the internet to organize all these disparate activities and projects in such a way that collaboration, organizing, and accessibility to innovations and best ideas are made easy as soon as possible. And while humanity wakes up to its implicit complicity of which most all of us are guilty of by allowing the daily atrocities for centuries (war, poverty, corruption, ecological destruction for examples) to persist and that all life has had to endure and begin to assume our proper role as humane, ethical beings and to see ourselves as a part of something greater than our individualistic identities, that is, a part of the web of life. There may be some truth in that what is outside is a reflection of what is inside, though in some ways this may be simplistic, since in reality perhaps, it may be a bit more complicated than that and not so pat. In any case, it is clear that humanity must develop a far more profound understanding of who we really are than the individualistic one that living under capitalism has engendered. It is all about self organizing and the question is can humanity organize in time to make the necessary systemic changes? utopiacornucopia.org |
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April 2022
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