Last night a strange fire burnt all the worlds money
Today we had nothing responsible to do
We spent the day up in the trees playing music, and resting in its echoes.
We were all our favorite animals
We all died and didn't mind
We were no longer just two lonely people
The ocean let us through, and we were free to roam together as we pleased
9/27/08
they didn't try too hard to be all men and no animal
From Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles"
- The captain nodded. "Tell me about [the] civilization here," he said, waving his hand at the mountain towns.
- "They knew how to live with nature and get along with nature. They didn't try too hard to be all men and no animal. That's that mistake we made when Darwin showed up. We embraced him and Huxley and Freud, all smiles. And then we discovered that Darwin and our religions didn't mix. Or at lease we didn't think they did. We were fools. We tried to budge Darwin and Huxley and Freud. They wouldn't move very well. So, like idiots, we tried knocking down religion.
- "We succeeded pretty well. We lost our faith and went around wondering what life was for. If art was nor more than a frustrated outflinging of desire, if religion was no more than self-delusion, what good was life? Faith had always given us an answers to all things. But it all went down the drain with Freud and Darwin. We were and still are a lost people."
- "And the Martians are a found people? inquired the captain.
- "yes. They knew how to combine science and religion so the two worked side by side, neither denying the other, each enriching the other."
- "That sounds ideal."
- "It was. I'd like to show you how the Martians did it."
- "My men are waiting."
- "We'll be gone half an hour. Tell them that, sir."
- The captain hesitated, then rose and called an order down the hill.
- Spender led him over into a little Martian village built all of cool perfect marble. There were great friezes of beautiful animals, white-limbed cat things and yellow-limbed sun symbols, and statues of bull-like creatures and statues of men and women and huge fine-featured dogs."
- "There's your answer, Captain."
- "I don't see."
- "The Martians discovered the secret of life among animals. The animal doesn't not question life. It lives. Its very reason for living is life; it enjoys and relishes life. You see-the statuary, the animals symbols, again and again."
- "It looks pagan."
- "On the contrary, those are God symbols, symbols of life. Man had become too much man and not enough animal on Mars too. And the men of Mars realized that in order to survive they would have to forgo asking that one question any longer: Why live? Life was its own answer. Life was the propagation of more life and the living of as good a life as possible. The Martians realize that they asked the question 'Why live at all?" at the height of some period of war and despair, when there was no answer. But once the civilization calmed, quieted, and wars ceased, the question became senseless in a new way. Life was now good and needed no arguments."
- "It sounds as if the Martians were quite naive."
- "Only when it paid to be naive..."
- "I don't see."
- "The Martians discovered the secret of life among animals. The animal doesn't not question life. It lives. Its very reason for living is life; it enjoys and relishes life. You see-the statuary, the animals symbols, again and again."
- "It looks pagan."
- "On the contrary, those are God symbols, symbols of life. Man had become too much man and not enough animal on Mars too. And the men of Mars realized that in order to survive they would have to forgo asking that one question any longer: Why live? Life was its own answer. Life was the propagation of more life and the living of as good a life as possible. The Martians realize that they asked the question 'Why live at all?" at the height of some period of war and despair, when there was no answer. But once the civilization calmed, quieted, and wars ceased, the question became senseless in a new way. Life was now good and needed no arguments."
- "It sounds as if the Martians were quite naive."
- "Only when it paid to be naive..."
9/17/08
the fairies still don't know why they were blamed
Your bodily soul wants comforting.
The severe father wants spiritual clarity. -- Rumi
Two young women came upon a garden. Even at the first glance they could tell this garden held more interest, and held more enjoyable experiences then they could hope for in two or even three lifetimes. After a short discussion about what their parents would think they decided that they wanted to spend the rest of their lives enjoying the plants and tending to the garden. After several years they become master gardeners. There where difficulties but they had each other, and by this time several other gardeners had joined them.
One day the two women are talking about how much they enjoyed the garden when their beautiful friendship meant a very sad ending.
-- "I love how beautifully everything works together when it is properly tended."
-- "Me too. I really enjoy the fairies. They really make it worth it."
-- "I'm sorry, what fairies?"
-- "You know the fairies that clean the signs that lead to the garden. They also sing, and tell us how much they enjoy our work."
-- "I'm sorry, but I still don't know what you are talking about. Perhaps it isn't as important that we both see fairies, but that we both see the garden?"
-- "You don't know what I'm talking about? How can you say you love me? I need to be with people who also love fairies. I've found someone who loves fairies."
After that day the two friends never spoke again. The fairies still don't know why they were blamed for the sad ending.
The severe father wants spiritual clarity. -- Rumi
Two young women came upon a garden. Even at the first glance they could tell this garden held more interest, and held more enjoyable experiences then they could hope for in two or even three lifetimes. After a short discussion about what their parents would think they decided that they wanted to spend the rest of their lives enjoying the plants and tending to the garden. After several years they become master gardeners. There where difficulties but they had each other, and by this time several other gardeners had joined them.
One day the two women are talking about how much they enjoyed the garden when their beautiful friendship meant a very sad ending.
-- "I love how beautifully everything works together when it is properly tended."
-- "Me too. I really enjoy the fairies. They really make it worth it."
-- "I'm sorry, what fairies?"
-- "You know the fairies that clean the signs that lead to the garden. They also sing, and tell us how much they enjoy our work."
-- "I'm sorry, but I still don't know what you are talking about. Perhaps it isn't as important that we both see fairies, but that we both see the garden?"
-- "You don't know what I'm talking about? How can you say you love me? I need to be with people who also love fairies. I've found someone who loves fairies."
After that day the two friends never spoke again. The fairies still don't know why they were blamed for the sad ending.
9/14/08
a merry life and a short one
"In an honest service, there is thin commons, low wages, and hard labour; in this, plenty and satiety, pleasure and ease, liberty and power; and who would not ballance creditor on this side, when all the hazard that is run for it, at worst, is only a sower look or two at choking. No, a merry life and a short one shall be my motto." -- Captain Bartholomew Roberts
9/7/08
dark and meaningless catacombs of learning
The Tree of Knowledge System ...depicts knowledge as consisting of four levels or dimensions of complexity (Matter, Life, Mind, and Culture) that correspond to the behavior of four classes of objects (material objects, organisms, animals, and humans), and four classes of science (physical, biological, psychological, and social). Each dimension of complexity is connected to the dimension beneath it via a theoretical "joint point." A joint point provides the causal explanatory framework on how the dimension of complexity evolved. For example, the modern synthesis (which is Darwin's theory of natural selection operating on genetic combinations through time) offers the conceptual framework for the evolution of life. A major and novel feature of the ToK System is the proposition that there are four such fundamental joint points and, correspondingly, four dimensions of complexity. Ultimately, the ToK System is a proposal for the theoretical unification of scientific knowledge
In this time of divisive tendencies within and between the nations, races, religions, sciences and humanities, synthesis must become the great magnet which orients us all…
"[Yet] scientists have not done what is possible toward integrating bodies of knowledge created by science into a unified interpretation of man, his place in nature, and his potentialities for creating the good society. Instead, they are entombing us in dark and meaningless catacombs of learning." -- Oliver Reiser
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)