December 29th of another turbulent year for the world. I sit in a relatively calm place, my Saturday morning still point. In moments plenty of personal turbulence surrounds and buffets me and those in my life, but, on the whole, as for most people, most of the world, life keeps its steady hum. The peaks & valleys are neither overly dizzying at their heights nor unduly debilitating at their nadirs.
We live within a wealth of shadows.
New Years will arrive & the holidays are over. A few days & nights remain until then. What shall we do?
Perhaps we will accomplish a few mundane chores. Perhaps we shall dance. Perhaps we shall raise a glass or two with those friends still near. Perhaps we shall lie down & rest. Perhaps sex & sensual indulgence. Perhaps solitude. & silence.
All this is as ancient human being. One way or another we still huddle against the night.
Even alone we are social, entangled in myriad relations. There is a profound rhythm into which even the most solitary fits.
The world is what we imagine. Our imaginations are the product of the physics & chemistry of the brain, the physics & chemistry that also drives stars & galaxies & generates life & light & is life & light. Why would it be strange that our imaginations & language mirror what we can see & measure & touch?
We cannot live without metaphors & symbols, but they are dangerous. They are meant to focus an instant of insight, & be discarded almost in that same instant. Their insight is narrow & ephemeral in the extreme. We cling to these at our peril. Even the most complex & subtle of symbols, even the most supple of metaphors, maintained too long can misdirect us, keep us from the full force of nearly infinitely multifaceted reality.
Albert Einstein: Theories should be as simple as possible but no simpler.
A metaphor or symbol is a version of theory or hypothesis. It posits an insight based on one set of isolated characteristics but in the process recasts an identity in terms of those characteristics. As subtly complex as this recast identity might be_usually very much so_it is still an abstraction that results in distorting over simplification. Rendering a complex human life in the metaphor of martyr is one profoundly clear example. Rendering any event in iconic terms, always inherently over simplified, is another.
The distillate is not the reality however powerfully useful it might be in moments. It is best used only judiciously. & one must always not only be willing to let the metaphor or symbol go, but one must insist upon it.
If we were capable of holding all truth in our minds at once, with all its inherently contradictory elements, we would be geniuses beyond measure.
Please visit the alternate blog at:
The Black Spot
We live within a wealth of shadows.
New Years will arrive & the holidays are over. A few days & nights remain until then. What shall we do?
Perhaps we will accomplish a few mundane chores. Perhaps we shall dance. Perhaps we shall raise a glass or two with those friends still near. Perhaps we shall lie down & rest. Perhaps sex & sensual indulgence. Perhaps solitude. & silence.
All this is as ancient human being. One way or another we still huddle against the night.
Even alone we are social, entangled in myriad relations. There is a profound rhythm into which even the most solitary fits.
The world is what we imagine. Our imaginations are the product of the physics & chemistry of the brain, the physics & chemistry that also drives stars & galaxies & generates life & light & is life & light. Why would it be strange that our imaginations & language mirror what we can see & measure & touch?
We cannot live without metaphors & symbols, but they are dangerous. They are meant to focus an instant of insight, & be discarded almost in that same instant. Their insight is narrow & ephemeral in the extreme. We cling to these at our peril. Even the most complex & subtle of symbols, even the most supple of metaphors, maintained too long can misdirect us, keep us from the full force of nearly infinitely multifaceted reality.
Albert Einstein: Theories should be as simple as possible but no simpler.
A metaphor or symbol is a version of theory or hypothesis. It posits an insight based on one set of isolated characteristics but in the process recasts an identity in terms of those characteristics. As subtly complex as this recast identity might be_usually very much so_it is still an abstraction that results in distorting over simplification. Rendering a complex human life in the metaphor of martyr is one profoundly clear example. Rendering any event in iconic terms, always inherently over simplified, is another.
The distillate is not the reality however powerfully useful it might be in moments. It is best used only judiciously. & one must always not only be willing to let the metaphor or symbol go, but one must insist upon it.
If we were capable of holding all truth in our minds at once, with all its inherently contradictory elements, we would be geniuses beyond measure.
Please visit the alternate blog at:
The Black Spot
missdisfigured:
thank u so much. Best wishes to u!!!!!!!