The Road Ahead
We will see what path emerges.
Illustration by Chris Van Allsburg from Jumanji.
posted by jm at 5:31 PM
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
We will see what path emerges.
Illustration by Chris Van Allsburg from Jumanji.
About Me
- Name: jm
I am a brilliant creation of the universe formed from the cosmic protoplasm sailing into eternity. I have two hands, two feet, a couple of great ears, and I'm clipping through life at a moderate pace; minding my p*s and q*s, crossing my t*s, dotting every i.
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14 Comments:
Everytime I experience weather like this it makes me wonder. Just a couple of days ago it was like spring and now the world is completely changed. Everything changes continually, yet nothing does, so it seems. Soon the town will be entirely different yet back to the ususal.
I always wonder what change really is. Do we go around and around a wheel, or is it a spiral moving forward? Positively no way of knowing when inside the cycle.
I can't imagine that anything truly repeats itself. Is it our need for the comfort of repetition, the familiar, that creates the illusion?
It got cold fast here, too.
I'm at a lovely spacious calm between finishing up a rush of jobs, and about to jump headlong into new ones. Change and contrast can make the moment appear more precious. Tomorrow afternoon, it will be off to shop for Christmas presents for the godkids, etc.
Some people think there is a part of consciousness that's outside of everything else. But then again, other people think there's really no outside. Words. :-)
Some speculate that time and space are attributes of everything that exists, not simply dimensions through things pass. But then, if anything truly repeated in all respects, it would simply be itself and no other. In which case, there's no difference to tell.
Could all just be a matter of perspective.
At the store last week, I had fun browsing those "Magic Eye" (a type of autostereogram) calendars while shopping, wondering what that reveals about the hidden potentials of perception in other areas. The manufacturer's Web site claims there are health benefits.
The trick of seeing more information through perceiving the optical illusion. Shift the visual focus as if to look through the flat image, and a three-dimensional image becomes startlingly clear, the image becoming like a window into a hidden scene. Those who can't manage the trick of seeing the illusion of depth, can't make out the hidden images.
weekly samples
autostereogram sketcher
Lovely, indeed kad. This moment of calm and reflection.
But then, if anything truly repeated in all respects, it would simply be itself and no other. In which case, there's no difference to tell.
Yes. It's all comparison and contrast. The illusion of repetition is probably a frame of reference that preserves our sanity.
That's why the rhymes and reps of music. To anchor us and bring us back to some sort of home. Keep us from spinning out like we feel as infants sometimes. Without connection.
The whole thing is so plastic. I think we create the rigidity and in becomes habitual. These pictures reveal just how much.
If we constantly shifted perception like this it would be overwhelming, like a hallucinogenic drug.
It's interesting speculation about the health benefits.
How does one train the eye?
Oh I saw it. Instructions. I think I tried this a long long time ago if my memory serves me well. Something should serve me by this time.
To see the 3D scene, I look through the surface of the picture, to about the same distance as if I were looking at myself in a mirror. It feels odd until I hit the right point of focus.
Due to deficiencies in some production methods, occasionally artifacts or 3D floaters appear until I tweak the focus to resolve them into a more integrated image. As the background starts to appear to recede from the plane of the picture, it helps to gaze into the illusory distance (to prevent one's gaze from snapping back to the real plane of the picture's surface).
Oh, we used to play spinning games with the babies to distract them while waiting for the adults to get ready to leave the house.
Spinning games with the babies? Big family?
Causing small toys and objects (not necessarily intended for spinning) to spin, or picking up the child and spinning around until both child and adult are dizzy. Verbally dramatized like so: "We're spinning! And spinning! Faster and faster! We're out of connnntrrrollll!!! Boom! We fell down!" This works best on a heavy carpet with lots of throw pillows. Physical strength and stamina is helpful, especially if the child wants more.
Either that, or put them in the stroller and wheel them in circles around the room while singing "Downtown".
LOL!!! Excellent description. A novelist's touch.
connnntrrrollll!!! Boom! We fell down!" This works best on a heavy carpet with lots of throw pillows
The little human creature does like the whirling dervish fun.
I didn't though. I'm prone to vertigo. I had to pretend to enjoy it when my father flipped us all. The group is murderous.
Either that, or put them in the stroller and wheel them in circles around the room while singing "Downtown".
With you as the singer? Tenor? Baritone?
Oh, one does have to be sensitive to the child's individuality. The boys loved it, though. Another game was raising and lowering the baby repeatedly in the air over the father's face. Prone on the floor, the father would make a funny face as the baby came closer. It made the baby laugh uproariously. Even better than "Who's That Baby in the Mirror?" It helps if there's something intrinsically funny about the father's face to begin with.
Probably baritone, maybe dipping slightly lower sometimes. I think everyone tried singing, but I had a bit more control over the breath and sound.
Another game was raising and lowering the baby repeatedly in the air over the father's face. Prone on the floor, the father would make a funny face as the baby came closer. It made the baby laugh uproariously.
I LOVED THAT ONE!
My Dad made the funniset faces on earth. Even when I was an adult. When all else failed, all I had to do was look at him.
It helps if there's something intrinsically funny about the father's face to begin with.
No doubt. He was adorable.
Baritone. Excellent. You could be the Pirate King in Gilbert & Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance.
What fun! Perhaps there can be such fresh delight on Earth that even beings older than the Sun and Moon must smile to see. When adults fret over imagined tomorrows, I point at the very young and say, "And he's doing the smart thing. He's being a baby!"
Now what makes faces and personalities, young or old, adorable, I wonder. :-) Venusian charm, maybe.
Perhaps there can be such fresh delight on Earth that even beings older than the Sun and Moon must smile to see.
Nice.
Now what makes faces and personalities, young or old, adorable, I wonder. :-) Venusian charm, maybe.
Fantastic question. Hormones and emotional reactions. Sight triggers reaction. I'd love to know. I don't think it's Venus exactly.
Babies are incredibly attuned to faces. I've always wonderd what they see. When they start spontaneously laughing for example.
Yes, that is a good one. Just what in the world makes a baby giggle away as if at something adults can't see. Maybe we tend to see less after our brains wire for spoken language.
Beware overly verbose astrologers, heheh!
It's possible to flush the mind's eye clear of the subconscious traces of old thoughtforms. Then the world looks brilliant and crisp, and the branches of trees stand out from the air with exquisite depth, and the substance of the air itself seems to nestle just so around the twigs and leaves. What seems empty space is then layered with intrigue, and the sunlight passing through it illumines with curious knowing.
And I wonder if anyone's ever used stereograms to cheat on school examinations. :-)
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