From Quietude to Enlightenment
"Why", I am sometimes asked, "do you write so much about so many things?". Writing, I think is more than a hobby to me. It is an outlet for those serious thoughts which consume my attention mostly in four environments----the dead of night, the stillness of nature, the noise/bustling of city streets, and the random thoughts generated by awakening in the morning. Not all the thoughts stay with me until I write, but some do and those that do I try to assemble in some order and fit them in with the pieces of my own life puzzle. Most of any serious insight into anything seems to come during these enlightening environments. And for these thoughts to arise I have to be alone----absolutely alone. This is when one takes the experiences of life and melds them together to reach conclusions. It takes the quietude.
Evolution intrigues me, not the nuts and bolts of it, but the general gist of it. Life is a continuum built around DNA molecules. In that strange sense we are a part of all that has gone on before and a part of all that will go on in the future. Each of our lives is like the hand in a card game, we play the cards dealt to us, and then when the hand (our life) is over the cards continue to get shuffled. The difference in evolution is that the card deck itself keeps changing. The rules of evolution don't change but the nature of the hands dealt does change.
I never feel less alone or more contented than in the quietude of enlightenment from these 4 environments. Everything else seems perfunctory, predictable, and robotic----almost mindless noise that drowns out mystic chords of time which march ever onward. There are feelings, of which we are capable, that do not lend themselves to verbal or written definition. I think, on some matters, it is possible to understand without the ability to assemble the right facts which would lead to the understanding. I hate to see so many people addicted to communication gadgets like cell phones, TV, movies, computers, etc. It is like they really need to go someplace quiet where their own mind could be allowed to generate some creative thoughts, some quality emotions about life itself and their own place in life.
Some people get high to feel right. Feeling right can sometimes simply mean freedom from physical or mental pain. But this kind of feeling 'better' is not the same as comprehension obtained while sober from the stillness and quietude of those environments which lead to such enlightenment. The kind of enlightenment obtained from these environments is not the kind that will make you more money, or gain you more power, or more friends, or better health----it will just make you more content about life. The quietude of enlightenment is not restricted to any particular class, socio-economic status, ethnicity, religious sect, political bent, age, etc. It is there for everyone. It gives meaning to life. It helps keep things in perspective. It fosters understanding for diversity. These are the moments which give a person the "serenity to accept the things I cannot change: courage to change those things I can and wisdom to know the difference."
These periods of quietude seem, in my case, to go back even to childhood. I can remember sitting in fields with my dog Buff and talking to him about all the confusing aspects of life. Pets are great listeners and one is free to think and say whatever to a pet. Your own babble becomes more refined, more logical, better thought out and the pet loves the sound of your voice talking to them even though they don't understand anything more than this attention signifies a strengthening of the bond between the both of you. When people dismiss this wanton destruction of species via human overpopulation as God's will, a natural and God endorsed dominion of man over all other creatures, I find this obnoxious and outrageously self serving. Just like we understand the value of a pet, I suspect God likewise understands the value of species diversity. If we ourselves like our pets to the extent we do, who is say God does not like other species to the same extent we like our pets? If so, try telling God, "Why do You give a shit about some dumb-ass insect in the Amazon Jungle?" I think some people may misjudge how God really thinks about the diverse species which have evolved from His own created evolutionary process. We are guests in God's created universe. Maybe we need be more respectful of our own environment. Much of what is going down today is not very respectful.
This musing is short. Short because there are no more words to define this quietude of enlightenment. Perhaps it is peculiar to my own life. Whatever.
Friday, December 3, 2010
A Single Day
A Single Day
How does one grade a single day? How do you really count, at my age, how many ways a single day is memorable? If you have ever been in a grave yard and thought about those below eerie weed covered tombstones you realize even memory fades. After one, or at the most two generations, for most everyone---there are no memories on earth left about the deceased. I think with age days have added meaning, or maybe just a different kind of meaning. In earlier life stages there are goals, pressures to succeed at this or that, relationship entanglements of varied sorts, battles to win, keeping up with the Jones', varied degrees of intolerance, so many things you can't stand, and the tensions of indescribable moods.
With age, minus a lot of financial stress, and with good health, one has the time to simplify, to organize priorities, to go where the spirit of the moment takes you. The night before I read on the internet that a mini rally in honor of some sort of Sanity rally in Washington was scheduled at Grant park in Chicago, but the police refused to issue a permit. So the next morning, this morning, I decided to head down and see what would happen. I am not a crowd person, nor a hip-hip hooray rally person either. But I know certain kinds of rallies will attract the kind of people who I genuinely admire and with whom I feel most comfortable. Comfortable in the sense I feel this is the way humanity, at it's best, exists.
Morning is not my favorite time of day to go places. But I managed to barely catch the train and off I went. For whatever reason the police backed off and the rally was on, complete with stage, audio, and a huge jumbo tron screen on top of this semi. The jumbo tron was there to broadcast the big rally in Washington D.C. The police had removed all the chairs usually present, but no matter the crowd was willing to stand. The police were there, but that was a waste of money. People who go to rallies like this never cause any damage, or fights, etc. At a rally like this you find about every kind of person imaginable---every race, every age, every profession, every religion, every shape, every culture---in other words diversity writ large. In a crowd like this no one has any axe to grind about anyone except those people with axes to grind about others different from themselves. People always talk and sing songs about togetherness, tolerance, respect, and other such good things BUT, it is only in these kind of crowds such a real atmosphere exists. I think it would be impossible to feel uncomfortable about who you are in a crowd like this. No one is pretending they are something they are not. When people feel comfortable being who they are there is an energy and festiveness not found in other situations. I always feel the world would be such a more pleasant and happier place to live in if all people had the same outlook on others, and life, as these people possess. It is like a world with minimal greed, no outsized self egos, no paranoia about others, no envy, no distrust, no chips on anyone's shoulder.
There were speakers and musicians, none of whom were all that polished or slick or surrounded with any spectacular visual or sound effects. A singer would come out with a guitar and sound almost awful but the awful was good enough to keep everyone in a good mood. Actually, I swear the more awful they were the more we all cheered. I think if I had strolled onto the stage and attempted some sort of musical garbage they would have decided "what the hell, he is doing the best he can, let's all cheer." I always come away from these gatherings feeling good about people and even myself for supporting them. Nice to spend a little time amongst a group with so few pretensions, slickness, or disingenuousness.
The most intriguing question about tolerance to diversity is why some people thrive on diversity and others find diversity insufferable? If one ever reads the comments that follow an internet news story about some ethnic, religious, or cultural persons' success or tragedy the hatred is amazing. It seems in every society there are the seeds for atrocious acts of genocide given the right opportunity. What causes this---genetics, environment, or both? My brother and I grew up in the same family, the same neighborhood, went to the same schools, the same church, etc. yet he couldn't stand all sorts of groups, and blamed them for every personal, national, or global problem. He would go on endlessly from Jews, to blacks, to hispanics, to lawyers, to teachers, to corporate leaders, to preachers, and on and on ad nausea. It is all hard to figure out, and much of it remains a mystery to me BUT haters are never contented people. It seems you cannot yourself live a contented life filled with so much anger about diversity. Perhaps it is best to remember that we live in but a brief window of time in God's evolutionary process. Ethics is a relatively new advancement in the evolutionary process. Good changes in the evolutionary process have always prevailed, albeit it might take extinctions, upheavals, etc over thousands of years for the good changes to become settled. I sometimes ask a hater, "Don't you ever get tired of losing?" Sure the haters may win a particular battle over diversity but they ALWAYS lose the war. It is the same human haters clique which supported slavery, torturing, segregation, were against the right to vote for blks, against the right to vote for women, against child labor laws, against environmental protection laws, against rights for gays, and always supported every unwarranted and immoral war from endlessly invading South American countries, to invading Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan. Diversity at any level for them is simply intolerable. Time is always on the side of evolutionary progress. That progress is not always smooth, often there is chaos and catastrophes along the way, but the world seems destined for improvement. Diversity plays a major role in God's evolutionary process. To oppose diversity is to go against the grain of evolutionary laws. Seems a futile effort with immediate negative returns in terms of contentment.
Twice I left behind this cane I use for a walking stick when I wander around for the day. But the nice thing about leaving a cane someplace---no one ever takes a cane. They just give you a quizzical look when you show up to retrieve it, like how can he forget a cane? The conductor on the train took the cake though. As the train was pulling to a stop the conductor told others waiting to de-board, "The rest of you hold your horses, I am going to help this gentleman with the cane off the train". I told him, "Don't worry about me, this is just a walking stick. You get in front of me and you'll get trampled". OK, guess I am the one who takes the cake.
It was a good day also in that I ate my favorite meal at one of my favorite restaurants and the best thing about the day was what I missed. I had, in a moment of stupidity, agreed to make 20 phone calls to get people to vote. If someone calls me about voting or any other unsolicited call I get rude and hang up. I hate those calls. I tried to make a few the other morning but hardly anyone was home at that time and so only a total of 2 got completed. They give you a script but I ignore the script. I simply say, "I am a volunteer for the Obama organization and please don't be like me and hang up on me---just want you to vote in this election. Can I get you to do this?....etc. " Anyway I kept pushing this off. Finally late this afternoon, after the rally, I finally forced my self to do it. BUT, I hit the jackpot----apparently there were no more phone numbers to call so I lucked out. This made me joyful, almost ecstatic---duty no longer necessary.
Then tonight I watched a netflix movie that reminded me of my younger days, which left me nostalgic and mellow. That is a good mindset to be in at the end of any day. Tomorrow is visit Riva the horse day and football day. Us retired people have it rough. With patience, my final rough days will come.
How does one grade a single day? How do you really count, at my age, how many ways a single day is memorable? If you have ever been in a grave yard and thought about those below eerie weed covered tombstones you realize even memory fades. After one, or at the most two generations, for most everyone---there are no memories on earth left about the deceased. I think with age days have added meaning, or maybe just a different kind of meaning. In earlier life stages there are goals, pressures to succeed at this or that, relationship entanglements of varied sorts, battles to win, keeping up with the Jones', varied degrees of intolerance, so many things you can't stand, and the tensions of indescribable moods.
With age, minus a lot of financial stress, and with good health, one has the time to simplify, to organize priorities, to go where the spirit of the moment takes you. The night before I read on the internet that a mini rally in honor of some sort of Sanity rally in Washington was scheduled at Grant park in Chicago, but the police refused to issue a permit. So the next morning, this morning, I decided to head down and see what would happen. I am not a crowd person, nor a hip-hip hooray rally person either. But I know certain kinds of rallies will attract the kind of people who I genuinely admire and with whom I feel most comfortable. Comfortable in the sense I feel this is the way humanity, at it's best, exists.
Morning is not my favorite time of day to go places. But I managed to barely catch the train and off I went. For whatever reason the police backed off and the rally was on, complete with stage, audio, and a huge jumbo tron screen on top of this semi. The jumbo tron was there to broadcast the big rally in Washington D.C. The police had removed all the chairs usually present, but no matter the crowd was willing to stand. The police were there, but that was a waste of money. People who go to rallies like this never cause any damage, or fights, etc. At a rally like this you find about every kind of person imaginable---every race, every age, every profession, every religion, every shape, every culture---in other words diversity writ large. In a crowd like this no one has any axe to grind about anyone except those people with axes to grind about others different from themselves. People always talk and sing songs about togetherness, tolerance, respect, and other such good things BUT, it is only in these kind of crowds such a real atmosphere exists. I think it would be impossible to feel uncomfortable about who you are in a crowd like this. No one is pretending they are something they are not. When people feel comfortable being who they are there is an energy and festiveness not found in other situations. I always feel the world would be such a more pleasant and happier place to live in if all people had the same outlook on others, and life, as these people possess. It is like a world with minimal greed, no outsized self egos, no paranoia about others, no envy, no distrust, no chips on anyone's shoulder.
There were speakers and musicians, none of whom were all that polished or slick or surrounded with any spectacular visual or sound effects. A singer would come out with a guitar and sound almost awful but the awful was good enough to keep everyone in a good mood. Actually, I swear the more awful they were the more we all cheered. I think if I had strolled onto the stage and attempted some sort of musical garbage they would have decided "what the hell, he is doing the best he can, let's all cheer." I always come away from these gatherings feeling good about people and even myself for supporting them. Nice to spend a little time amongst a group with so few pretensions, slickness, or disingenuousness.
The most intriguing question about tolerance to diversity is why some people thrive on diversity and others find diversity insufferable? If one ever reads the comments that follow an internet news story about some ethnic, religious, or cultural persons' success or tragedy the hatred is amazing. It seems in every society there are the seeds for atrocious acts of genocide given the right opportunity. What causes this---genetics, environment, or both? My brother and I grew up in the same family, the same neighborhood, went to the same schools, the same church, etc. yet he couldn't stand all sorts of groups, and blamed them for every personal, national, or global problem. He would go on endlessly from Jews, to blacks, to hispanics, to lawyers, to teachers, to corporate leaders, to preachers, and on and on ad nausea. It is all hard to figure out, and much of it remains a mystery to me BUT haters are never contented people. It seems you cannot yourself live a contented life filled with so much anger about diversity. Perhaps it is best to remember that we live in but a brief window of time in God's evolutionary process. Ethics is a relatively new advancement in the evolutionary process. Good changes in the evolutionary process have always prevailed, albeit it might take extinctions, upheavals, etc over thousands of years for the good changes to become settled. I sometimes ask a hater, "Don't you ever get tired of losing?" Sure the haters may win a particular battle over diversity but they ALWAYS lose the war. It is the same human haters clique which supported slavery, torturing, segregation, were against the right to vote for blks, against the right to vote for women, against child labor laws, against environmental protection laws, against rights for gays, and always supported every unwarranted and immoral war from endlessly invading South American countries, to invading Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan. Diversity at any level for them is simply intolerable. Time is always on the side of evolutionary progress. That progress is not always smooth, often there is chaos and catastrophes along the way, but the world seems destined for improvement. Diversity plays a major role in God's evolutionary process. To oppose diversity is to go against the grain of evolutionary laws. Seems a futile effort with immediate negative returns in terms of contentment.
Twice I left behind this cane I use for a walking stick when I wander around for the day. But the nice thing about leaving a cane someplace---no one ever takes a cane. They just give you a quizzical look when you show up to retrieve it, like how can he forget a cane? The conductor on the train took the cake though. As the train was pulling to a stop the conductor told others waiting to de-board, "The rest of you hold your horses, I am going to help this gentleman with the cane off the train". I told him, "Don't worry about me, this is just a walking stick. You get in front of me and you'll get trampled". OK, guess I am the one who takes the cake.
It was a good day also in that I ate my favorite meal at one of my favorite restaurants and the best thing about the day was what I missed. I had, in a moment of stupidity, agreed to make 20 phone calls to get people to vote. If someone calls me about voting or any other unsolicited call I get rude and hang up. I hate those calls. I tried to make a few the other morning but hardly anyone was home at that time and so only a total of 2 got completed. They give you a script but I ignore the script. I simply say, "I am a volunteer for the Obama organization and please don't be like me and hang up on me---just want you to vote in this election. Can I get you to do this?....etc. " Anyway I kept pushing this off. Finally late this afternoon, after the rally, I finally forced my self to do it. BUT, I hit the jackpot----apparently there were no more phone numbers to call so I lucked out. This made me joyful, almost ecstatic---duty no longer necessary.
Then tonight I watched a netflix movie that reminded me of my younger days, which left me nostalgic and mellow. That is a good mindset to be in at the end of any day. Tomorrow is visit Riva the horse day and football day. Us retired people have it rough. With patience, my final rough days will come.
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