Sunday, September 23, 2007

Discovery


The true voyage of discovery would be not to visit strange lands, but to possess new eyes.

So says Marcel Proust. Well, frankly. At this crossroads I've arrived upon, with Hermes watching over, and the Fool leaping from the divining deck, I could use fresh vision.
Photo: Galen Rowell

45 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

And Andre Gide wrote:

"One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."

23/9/07 5:31 AM  
Blogger m.p.k said...

The fool is the disguised wise one. , that much is clear from any reading. Using an appearance and a manor of being calculated so that at the conscious level he's not taken seriously as he's engaged with the audience. Meanwhile, just under the surface the fool knows the positions of himself and the one who mocks him are in reality reversed. There is a glee about the fool who revels in this secret reversal. I know this firsthand from my days as a street juggler in Europe. I was the gaudy one on the street with my bag of tricks. Harsh looks bounce off the fool like a face in a funhouse mirror. The adults want to move on, get out of there, but the children are rapt, tugging at their coattails to remain. The fool is far from fleeing responsibility, as any ones mocking him might judge. If they can't share his smile, they can't imagine the power it took to arrive at those playful performances, the way that fool has turned reality on its head and in his strange way mastered it, and communicates it.

23/9/07 1:16 PM  
Blogger jm said...

I always envision my life as a sea voyage, joe. This has significance in many ways for me now.

23/9/07 2:11 PM  
Blogger jm said...

Mpk.
I've never heard a description of the Fool as good as this. I am amazed. What have I been reading all my life? The flow of your writing is what I'm always looking for. It's natural, graceful, and gorgeous. You really have it. It reads like you write with no effort. Much like the fool in his performance. Much like my dreams for my own. I want to remove the agony that led to the point of release and make it appear outside of the usual. People think serious means dark, heavy, and painful. Sad. Self-pitying. I know otherwise as does the fool. I want to break the bonds of the ordinary. And the cloak of the fool is a way.

at the conscious level he's not taken seriously as he's engaged with the audience. Meanwhile, just under the surface the fool knows the positions of himself and the one who mocks him are in reality reversed.

This is stunning and I don't even think I should reveal why.

they can't imagine the power it took to arrive at those playful performances, the way that fool has turned reality on its head and in his strange way mastered it, and communicates it.

This is wonderful. magnificent.

The stories of your
juggling have always intrigued me. I turned this card and I've stopped
for a moment. The fool always delights me in just the way you describe giving me a feeling of joyous anticipation for upcoming experience.

I love reading your writing. You have a mastery of breath.

23/9/07 2:35 PM  
Blogger jm said...

they can't imagine the power it took to arrive at those playful performances

Yes. When people write or speak they seem to be pleading for sympathy in some way to my ears, a sharing of their agonies and search for attention and significance. The content often gets diminished in the personal pain. I know you have these agonies, but when you speak, the call for feeling is far beyond the personal, although it's included. A strange thing I can't quite articulate. A very expansive reach.

There is a magic someplace where personal sorrow is elevated and the reason for existence revealed. The infinite potential.

23/9/07 2:45 PM  
Blogger jm said...

I think it goes back to "dying to be heard", and the survival factor of the throat. The primordial cry comes through in people's expressions, even if they're talking about mathematics or some dry subject. Fear that they will be ignored or not understood, nourishment won't be forthcoming, and we never are understood to our full satisfaction. This has to be accepted. So the end result comes out fractured and difficult without the flow that makes it so palatable, and thus easily understood. Tense and strained. Oh what a cacophony there is.

Communication and nourishment are inseparable.

23/9/07 3:05 PM  
Blogger m.p.k said...

I know you have these agonies, but when you speak, the call for feeling is far beyond the personal, although it's included. A strange thing I can't quite articulate. A very expansive reach.

I have actually lived out a great many of these archetypes, I know them from the inside out. I've been the fool. I've been an astronaut, hanging upside down on a cliffs thousands of feet above the ground. I've had such vast and extreme experiences beyond what most people have enacted. To be sure I'm not unique in this, but none of these radical departures has bound me in its pattern. I'm not compelled to keep having the same experiences. I'm not trying to impress anyone anymore or even myself with anything I can do or say. When I was younger, my goal was to move freely over land, sea, and sky. I can and I am. I have integrated that with the mundane world. I have status as well in my field. It's all been done. Now I'm in between, waiting to get to my new home, and I have isolated myself because what most people I've met are striving for or are blocked by I've long moved past. I've felt maybe if I keep pushing I might hit a new level beyond what I can currently imagine. But pushing into spaces does not work now. Instead, I feel I must discover something. It could come from anywhere. I love to communicate those spaces and visions I have been. I would like to share all the information I have to speed the process of human evolution so we can really have a lot more fun and the amazing creativity within us can be fully expressed. Nothing else delights me more.

23/9/07 4:42 PM  
Blogger jm said...

But pushing into spaces does not work now. Instead, I feel I must discover something. It could come from anywhere.

Such a good "space" to be in. It comes from everywhere. I try to incorporate this all the time. Staying still and letting it through. Not fleeing. Let it come to me.

I love to communicate those spaces and visions I have

Please please do.

I would like to share all the information I have to speed the process of human evolution so we can really have a lot more fun and the amazing creativity within us can be fully expressed. Nothing else delights me more.

I hear ya, Brother.

Who do we have to ask? To enjoy life to the fullest? To know fun and renewable delight? I've always been perplexed by this. What prevents people from celebrating when circumstance is relatively all right? The creativity is beyond comprehension, always available.

23/9/07 7:05 PM  
Blogger jm said...

I have one question, mpk, if you feel like answering.

When you first commented here my head was turned around, and then you appeared infrequently for one statement, disappearing like a vapor. You do have a grand air trine and are light of spirit. What made you decide to contribute more of your information?

23/9/07 7:11 PM  
Blogger m.p.k. said...

What made you decide to contribute more of your information?

Most of the time I can't express it because the audience does not have the capacity to understand it. It just confuses people. In other words, you can keep up with me :-) Not only keep up of course, but your amazing insightful entries, commentary, and the way you keep the pace draws me in. I feel at home. I do feel the need to be a bit quieter for a while though.

24/9/07 9:22 AM  
Blogger m.p.k. said...

the way you keep the pace draws me

It's really extraordinary how you do this JM. I have the feeling that you can keep the rhythm perfectly. Is this tied to your musical ability? I think it just must be delightful to hear you play, if these realms link up. I connect to rhythm and vibration, I'm super sensitized to it, maybe over sensitive even. The rhythm here is perfect, at least from my standpoint. It's like great composition of music. Soothing when needed, volcanic when appropriate. It's incredible. Would you make a great traveling companion, even though you don't travel? Your mind is a constant source of amazement.

24/9/07 9:44 AM  
Blogger jm said...

Omg, mpk. Where did you come from?

My rhythm is as perfect as a human's can be and it is the greatest characteristic of my music. It's connected to the rhythms of life and people automatically move their bodies even if not consciously paying attention. I've heard them release a primordial sigh when I start, and their bodies lean back. The relief of it all. Rocked in the comfort of life.

I don't know what to do. 99.9% of the music I hear out there is so tragically far off the universal rhythm I get to feeling hopeless. Out there, I feel like I'm in zombie-land. Very sad. That they don't really want the good things, the energy, in life. Is it too much? Do they want to be sick? I am stunned by what they consume. Their togetherness makes it all that much more potent a force to work with. Maybe that's part of my development.

I rely on my rhythm for survival, but it's also problematic. Because of it's strength, other parts of my music might be considered underdeveloped. But if I look at it, that's proabably meant to be so the rhythm reigns supreme. It's so good to be reminded of this.

The world strips my joy, but it never touches my rhythm. I can't believe how lucky I am to be born with this. I believe rhythm is intrinsic to health. Thrust and parry. Too much attempted thrust out there, far far too much forward motion, and I think it's related to the money machine, which is one big reason I've avoided it. The deadly hypertense state of being, all translated into illness.

How to put this into a commercial entity and get it circulated is the next challenge of my life. I think it will all come into place if I just keep my confidence unfolding and remember who I am and what I'm really doing. Knowing people like you are out there might do the trick.

I really can't believe this. Something is calling.

Do get some quiet if you need some. I know how full those moments are.

24/9/07 2:55 PM  
Blogger m.p.k said...

My rhythm is as perfect as a human's can be and it is the greatest characteristic of my music. It's connected to the rhythms of life and people automatically move their bodies even if not consciously paying attention


This is fantastic. I sensed it. The rhythm is in your words and images here on raging universe. It is in the way you speak the astrological language, with perfect rhythm. I am always drawn to the center of power of whatever I'm dedicated to learning. That is how I move so fast, this how I found you. The power and poetry of your rhythm of language, symbolism and imagery.

25/9/07 1:09 PM  
Blogger Don said...

from m.p.k.:
"at the conscious level he's not taken seriously as he's engaged with the audience. Meanwhile, just under the surface the fool knows the positions of himself and the one who mocks him are in reality reversed."

from jm :
"This is stunning and I don't even think I should reveal why."

jm and m.p.k. - both of you, please do reveal or spell this out in a little more detail.

"the fool is the disguised wise one" ?, i am wondering about the fool whose disguised wisdom turns the tables on those who mock him,.....curious to hear more about this "power" that reverses reality on those who mock us......

25/9/07 1:34 PM  
Blogger jm said...

As a result of these conversations, mpk, I feel a change coming in my work and the way to dissemination. You are helping me see-feel things very clearly and I think this will have a profound effect. It's absolutely wonderful that you decided to impart your knowledge. But wisdom is like that. It knows where to go.

I am always drawn to the center of power of whatever I'm dedicated to learning.

Wow.

My rhythm is my ace, I'm the best, so that's that. Self doubt is the biggest crybaby excuse of all time.

25/9/07 3:03 PM  
Blogger jm said...

Don.
I practically hit the floor when I read mpk's explanation of the fool. I knew it was the truth, and that I hadn't encountered it before. Experience added the dimension of wisdom to his description stated with beautiful certainty.

I love the fool. I think he is the most independent of them all and since I prize freedom so highly, I identify. The oddity and reversal are just the reasons.

at the conscious level he's not taken seriously as he's engaged with the audience. Meanwhile, just under the surface the fool knows the positions of himself and the one who mocks him are in reality reversed

To me this explains the freedom well. By fooling the observers, having him believe he's less than they are, the fool gains freedom of motion, as they overlook what he's doing. This has been the story of my life. Underestimated, not taken seriously, when the real idiots are followed. I used to cry about this, but along the way, I realized how fortunate I was to go incognito and walk into and away from experience at my pleasure. Not trapped by audience need. Thus my power developed exponentially held in reserve. There is lack of restriction when people do not understand what you're doing or how you're doing it.

Power is entirely misunderstood. People think it's some huge thing one lords over another and frightens people with. That never struck me as genuine. To me, real power is much much more subtle and protects itself by going in disguise and using itself properly.

So the fool is merely entertaining the lost crowd, who knows not. Never knows. He knows himself, he is disengaged, and as mpk said so well, delighting in the interaction. One of my most often repeated lines is:

Who's foolin' who

For example, I'm 5 feet tall but I have a lot of physical power. I go about these days dressed in an entirely unnoticable way and I walk completely naturally with my head held level, chin neither too high nor too low. No bravado, no cockiness, no swagger, etc. Yet I stop people in their tracks, not trying at all. They always look twice and turn their heads.

They say they are entranced by my walk. I slip in and out quietly and nimbly, and it's probably partly my perfect rhythm that effects them so deeply. They know none of this. They don't know if I'm somebody or nobody. And I remain free.

curious to hear more about this "power" that reverses reality on those who mock us

I'd like to hear more. And what you think it means, don.
That's the height of power. To let people go on believing the sham, not revealing your position of power.

For me this translates to the rich and powerful, who I pity. They don't even know their own trap and tragedy.

The other thing mpk said that is so true is how light and often comical the fool appears masking the effort that went into creating that spirit.

If they can't share his smile, they can't imagine the power it took to arrive at those playful performances, the way that fool has turned reality on its head and in his strange way mastered it, and communicates it.

I think of the fool walking on a tangent that throws the audience off. They think he is in danger being so foolish, but they underestimate his skill and agility. All this ensuring his continuing freedom, that no one can take away being so foolish, themselves, and unaware of it.

25/9/07 3:40 PM  
Blogger m.p.k. said...

Don, JM is doing a great job adding to my original sentiments. The fool's apparent foolishness isn't really his own is one way of looking at it. He's like the funhouse mirror I was talking about. His foolishness is the audience's own foolishness reflected back at them in a distorted or disguised way. The fool might have something to entertain with you with or teach you about reality, or he might just be the mirror. It's easy to see this dynamic at the extreme end of the spectrum, much more difficult to do so when the fool's disguise is subtle. If it's a complete joke, the audience eventually gets it. There are so many subtle levels of this and how it plays out. I feel it all the time when I'm performing, the projection of the audience onto me what they think I am, who they think I am. Even when I'm practicing in a public space, I feel it because invariably if it's a public space I draw a crowd. You have to become very aware of what's yours and what's their projection. The fool is playing with their projection.

25/9/07 5:56 PM  
Blogger m.p.k. said...

So if the fool can manipulate the audience's projection or if we have people who are aware of and in control of projection in a general sense (non performance) that is how the disguise is maintained, how the reversal of power is achieved. It's the perfect cloak.

25/9/07 6:07 PM  
Blogger Don said...

that's it m.p.k. ! it is an immunity to the projections of the audience. you're not really trading places with them - secretly feeling that you are superior to and mocking them - you are playing with their projections from a place of freedom and detachment, yes ?

i think this is also what jm talks about regarding politics - you gain control over someone by inviting and then manipulating their projections.
much of what we call "love" is a similiar - or perhaps even the very same - game.

25/9/07 6:28 PM  
Blogger m.p.k. said...

you are playing with their projections from a place of freedom and detachment, yes ?

Yes, and also your own appearance is calculated with this in mind as well.

25/9/07 6:58 PM  
Blogger jm said...

He's like the funhouse mirror I was talking about. His foolishness is the audience's own foolishness reflected back at them in a distorted or disguised way.

Love this. So true about the distortions favored by the masses. They've created this absurd exaggeration in their famous performers who are trapped in these images.

it is an immunity to the projections of the audience.

Exactly. Pretty advanced. Very desirable.

you gain control over someone by inviting and then manipulating their projections.
much of what we call "love" is a similar - or perhaps even the very same - game.


Most of it is the same game. I like that. "What we call love". Yup.

25/9/07 9:41 PM  
Blogger jm said...

Back to rhythm for a moment. This is how it works in music.

Most so called musicians make the next stroke slightly ahead of the beat. Always pushing it. The great ones are a hair behind so that when it lands it's exactly on time. It's a magical feel that can't be learned. A groove is the result, the most comfortable place a body can be.

I was with the singer, songwriter Tim Hardin and his people in Woodstock many years ago. He was famous but at the end of his career and soon, his life. His performances at that time were usually not good.

One night he played Carnegie Hall and his drummer, Colin Walcott, a great one, was playing congas with a trap drummer. Suddenly they caught it. The magical groove. The hall felt it as they slapped, stroked, popped, and clicked in perfect rhythm, just the two of them. I never wanted it to end. Still sorry it did. It happens so seldom. Oh did it ever feel good.

25/9/07 10:10 PM  
Blogger m.p.k. said...

Most so called musicians make the next stroke slightly ahead of the beat. Always pushing it. The great ones are a hair behind so that when it lands it's exactly on time.

Oh... I know this from passing juggling clubs. I learned from some real masters of the art and the contrast with their rhythm and mine when learning was so pronounced. Their mantra was slower, slower, even slower. You feel slightly behind when your rhythm is perfect..Most are always rushing, too far ahead. Maybe the perfect rhythm can't be learned, but this principle of creating space can be practiced. Without the slowness in between the beats in the patterns, the improvisation can't happen. We were trick passers, throwing as many combinations of tricks as possible. A throw behind the back, followed by one over the shoulder followed by a pirhouette, follwed by a half turn, catch the club behind your knee with your leg, drop it from your mouth, bash it from behind and between your legs as it drops and so it goes... meanwhile your partner is doing equally wild combinations. This was our style. Without the rhythm it can't work. It has to be slowed down so it can become elaborate and spontaneous. That space has to be there to accomodate something that might be true and essential but necessarily slightly out of sync. They always told us: If you want faster then work with more objects, but always work at slowing it down no matter how many objects involved.

26/9/07 9:39 AM  
Blogger m.p.k. said...

That space has to be there to accomodate something that might be true and essential but necessarily slightly out of sync.

It's in this space that miraculous things could happen. Without it, the pattern would just crash around the event. The divine pause? You hit it and you get the chills all over. You look at your partner and your eyes say "what just happened, WOW!". I remember once passing 12 clubs between three of us when we all decided to throw a quadruple spin throws but we hadn't planned it. 12 Clubs between three is difficult, usually so difficult you are just struggling to keep it from falling apart. It was like the entire matrix exloded upward in the air about 20 feet above where it normally exists. The surprise was like a hair raising electric shock as the clubs fell perfectly back into pattern.

26/9/07 9:48 AM  
Blogger m.p.k. said...

It's funny... My original partners were just contacted by a guy doing a sort of historical article for Juggle magazine on these types of 3 person patterns. One of the patterns we did back in the 90's was unique enough to be referenced in the upcoming article. I'm not sure yet when it's coming out.

26/9/07 9:56 AM  
Blogger jm said...

Omg mpk! Really? This is fantastic.

Their mantra was slower, slower, even slower. You feel slightly behind when your rhythm is perfect..Most are always rushing, too far ahead.

I am so glad you told me this. What a great description of the process.

Maybe the perfect rhythm can't be learned, but this principle of creating space can be practiced. Without the slowness in between the beats in the patterns, the improvisation can't happen.

This is it! I knew it was right but hadn't articulated the improvisation factor, and that is one of the outstanding characteristics of my work. The space is the real reason, something very very important to me in many ways.

The holding back right before the connection gives an indefinable quality to the feeling. Creates anticipation and joy, very distinct in musicians who do it. Always pressing on too fast deletes the balancing backward motion. The hesitation and restraint, then the forward thrust. Can't work without it.

That space has to be there to accomodate something that might be true and essential but necessarily slightly out of sync.

Absolutely. Out of synch is right. I'm so glad to share these facts. Because of this I have never felt compelled to fill it all in with fancy technique. It ruins the real thing. I'm often bothered by this since the audience likes to be impressed with speed and nonsense all jumbled up, but after these conversations, I will abandon all such silly notions. I know better, anyway.

always work at slowing it down no matter how many objects involved.

So good. Music to my ears.

26/9/07 1:32 PM  
Blogger jm said...

The divine pause? You hit it and you get the chills all over. You look at your partner and your eyes say "what just happened, WOW!"

Exactly. I live for these moments. Oh how I love this:

The divine pause

What a beautiful description of the 12 clubs.

One of the patterns we did back in the 90's was unique enough to be referenced in the upcoming article.

Your juggle talk fascinates me. I imagine the taut body in perfect position catching the motion of life. It's beyond dancing and athletics, really. Working with movement, space, and objects so precisely. I feel it in the midsection and solar plexus just thinking about it. Must be incredible for the abs. Playing keyboard strengthens this part of the body too, especially when improvisation is happening and I'm dancing with the instrument. I can't imagine not having my hands involved. The full attention to life in the moment creates unique physical engagement and strength. A gladness in being alive.

Thank you so much for all of this. Very heartening.

26/9/07 1:47 PM  
Blogger jm said...

There is so much to this mpk. I was just thinking how rushing reveals a lack of confidence while slowing down indictates a trust in life. Fundamentally relaxing and letting the clubs fall naturally, trusting in the overall timing. It translates to everything. Hesitating at intervals to allow life to happen. Being with it not pushing it out of the way. This is where I feel really out of synch with the world in its usual manifestation, but the out-of-synch is probably the good part.:-)Ends up with superb synchronization. I certainly don't want to miss this connection with life, ever.

People always question why I haven't gone after "it", and it all got me to wondering a time or two. I've too busy letting it come and trying to be in the right place to catch it. The timing is not in question. Being not-busy in a too-busy world has been interesting. Very interesting. When people study film footage they go into slow motion to see what's really happening. I feel that way about my lifestyle. Don't want to miss it. Running after it is a perfect setup for not getting satisfaction with accomplishments. People keep running habitually so they can't get there and don't stay long enough to enjoy what they've done.

What makes the world rush in panic? Do people they think life is after them, out to get them? Too far ahead of them? That they aren't up to a union with it. Afraid of it? Want to get away from it? Are the ones in synch alone primarily? Perplexing.

26/9/07 2:30 PM  
Blogger m.p.k said...

I'm thinking now of some songs...

I'm Only Sleeping(Beatles)


When I wake up early in the morning,
Lift my head, I'm still yawning
When I'm in the middle of a dream
Stay in bed, float up stream

Please don't wake me, no
don't shake me
Leave me where I am
I'm only sleeping

Everybody seems to think I'm lazy
I don't mind, I think they're crazy
Running everywhere at such a speed
Till they find, there's no need



Radiohead: "Subterranean Homesick Alien"

The breath of the morning
I keep forgetting
The smell of the warm summer air

I live in a town
Where you can't smell a thing
You watch your feet
For cracks in the pavement

Up above
Aliens hover
Making home movies
For the folks back home

Of all these weird creatures
Who lock up their spirits
Drill holes in themselves
And live for their secrets

They're all uptight
Uptight.. (x7)


Radiohead really gets the feeling right in their song "The Tourist" too. It's the way he belts it out always surprises me:

Hey man slow down, slow down
Idiot, slow down, slow down

Sometimes I get overcharged
That's when you see sparks
You ask me where the hell I'm going
At a thousand feet per second

26/9/07 2:46 PM  
Blogger jm said...

Perfect. And this:

Lazy Bones, sleepin' in the sun
How you 'spec to get your day's work done?
You'll never get your day's work done
Sleepin' in the noon day sun.

When taters need sprayin'
I bet you keep prayin'
The bugs fall off of the vine
And when you go fishin'
I bet you keep wishin'
The fish won't bite on the line.

Lazy Bones, loafin' through the day
How you spec' to make a dime that way?
Never make a dime that way
He never heard a word I say.

26/9/07 3:15 PM  
Blogger jm said...

Just came across this:

We can strive yet achieve little or lazily reach for the victor's laurel.
Sir Ranulph Fiennes

26/9/07 4:50 PM  
Blogger m.p.k. said...

Going too fast leads to collisions whenever there is an event that's out of sync... This is so obvious but has so many profound implications for art and endeavors of all kinds. The view that those of us going slower are lazy is just the lack of understanding. We are aware of the proper time to do things, the need for space to both accommodate the miraculous and avoid unnecessary collision. Tuned to the tug of the universal magnet...

27/9/07 12:58 PM  
Blogger jm said...

Going too fast leads to collisions

1000% correct. Fumbling too.

I think going slower increases awareness, so by the time one reaches the goal, the process has been fulfilled and the rewards are the greatest they can be.

People rush out of fear, as if they are being chased. I think they feel this way. Not belonging where they are, being chased out of someone else's territory. Buying bigger and more houses to control this homelessness, then having to work harder and faster to maintain it all. It's crazy.

I think confidence comes from having little, or at least detachment from it all, so in case you really do have to push on you can do it with ease. The more you possess, the more you have to lose, the more fear arises, and the more you have to protect it all, spinning faster and faster.

We are aware of the proper time to do things, the need for space to both accommodate the miraculous and avoid unnecessary collision. Tuned to the tug of the universal magnet...

Beautiful. The time to accommodate the miraculous makes all the difference in the world. Probably the more we do that, the less we have to grasp.

I think we're still evolving from the prehensile grip, becoming bipedal, getting it adjusted to what we really need to survive. Using our minds more and more. The more I travel into cyberspace, the less I purchase. That's what the kids are doing, and I think it could be weaning them from TV and the advertising madness that leads to consumption. I have lots of ideas on this new development, actually slowing down the physical forward motion. A start.

27/9/07 3:05 PM  
Blogger jm said...

There's a lot to this slow thing, my biggest problem with society and my music. They want it faster and harder, but slower gets you more comfortable with the spot you are presently in. The back and forth rock is the comfort. The groove. The fast push forward is exciting, so they think, but not terribly rewarding. The disappointment after the chase is universal. Like filling up bags with commodities, joyously emptying them, fondling all the items, then the big letdown. They could have stayed where they were accomodating the miraculous or simply enjoying themselves. Pain is a problem though, and most are in this state trying to get free. Fleeing.

27/9/07 3:12 PM  
Blogger jm said...

I learned this one crisp autumn day in Tim Hardin's woodstock home.

His sister was making a banana bread for her husband's birthday. A simple matter, usually takes maybe an hour or less to put together. She spent the entire afternoon until sunset putting the ingredients together, hours and hours. I was transfixed, not knowing how she could proceed so slowly. It was the best banana bread I ever tasted. None could compare. I think time itself adds density and richness to experience. I could actually taste time.

27/9/07 3:29 PM  
Blogger m.p.k. said...

I read an article a while back, the basis was that we don't fear what we should fear. To summarize, the author's point was the stuff that kills us most is the stuff that is working with inexorable slowness. Heart disease. Cancer. He said, which made me laugh "you should fear french fries". While I don't agree we should fear french fries, I get the point. People fear stuff like terrorist attacks -things that have almost no statistical chance of harming us and continue longterm patterns that are killing them slowly but surely.

There's a powerful scene from Dune, the Frank Herbert novel that comes to mind. It's when Paul is fighting with his instructor and they have these shields on. The shields deflect all fast movements but allow slow ones to penetrate. Paul thinks he has the instructor (sorry forget his name) defeated, but the instructor has been applying slow pressure to Paul's shield and actually has the advantage. If the combat was real and Paul had proceeded he would have been dead.

27/9/07 3:34 PM  
Blogger m.p.k. said...

Like filling up bags with commodities, joyously emptying them, fondling all the items, then the big letdown. They could have stayed where they were accomodating the miraculous or simply enjoying themselves. Pain is a problem though, and most are in this state trying to get free. Fleeing.

I think confidence comes from having little, or at least detachment


line from one of my old journals:
I am divested and infused.

27/9/07 3:54 PM  
Blogger jm said...

The shields deflect all fast movements but allow slow ones to penetrate. Paul thinks he has the instructor (sorry forget his name) defeated, but the instructor has been applying slow pressure to Paul's shield and actually has the advantage. If the combat was real and Paul had proceeded he would have been dead.

Very very very intersting.

I am divested and infused.

Delicious.

27/9/07 4:31 PM  
Blogger jm said...

This is an interesting track we're on, as usual.

I move extremely fast and accuratley at times according to the task at hand, but all within a life framework of slow. Lots to think about. More on this later. Rhythm again.

27/9/07 5:08 PM  
Blogger m.p.k. said...

The more I travel into cyberspace, the less I purchase.

This is so true and a great observation. It's still a great secret to most of the population how much is out there. Everything is becoming virtualized. Maybe the holographic universe itself can be virtualized, and in that way we will travel thru it? What I mean is, if the universe is a hologram and it could somehow be unfolded completely in a virtual space, would there in fact be any difference in traveling thru the universe that is perceived as "out there" and a virtual copy? I haven't done much investigation into virtual reality so maybe this is an old idea.

27/9/07 5:26 PM  
Blogger m.p.k. said...

I don't know if I'll ever understand Einstein's Relativity, but I know time is relative in other ways.

fast in a framework of slow

I viewed those juggling patterns as an exercise in time travel. More things are happening in the space of a second than most people can imagine. Yet you become aware of them and are adjusting them. When moving that fast, the patterns become geometric forms, they are waves. You manipulate them as waves. Yet they are composed of individual elements. So that's how I one way I've understood wave\particle duality and it's relationship to time.

27/9/07 5:36 PM  
Blogger m.p.k. said...

Oh and that's the thing. A million things are happening but discerned as a wave it can all be very easy and flowing.

27/9/07 5:39 PM  
Blogger jm said...

Mpk, this is fascinating. Tomorrow's post is just on this subject. Virtual reality.

There are worlds within worlds and the kids now are in the vanguard. When they travel through cyberspace they are barely consuming fossil fuels to begin with. They probably eat less too. It's not based on real product consumption and the neural pathways will probably reroute in time away from tangible commodities as sustenance beyond what's needed. Desire nature will change. This could be the real foundation of the resource solutions. This excites me very much. The journey through the mind. We all know it's ahead.
People say this is not good. Not real, but I think they are resisting the inevitable.

27/9/07 5:48 PM  
Blogger jm said...

I love wave-particle theory. I'm particularly attuned to wave, I think.

More things are happening in the space of a second than most people can imagine.

That's the reason for stopping the speedy forward motion. We are designed to eventually perceive these events within the moment. More and more as outside threats become diminished. As we stop fleeing. I think that's where we are now. In a crucial stage moving away from primitive brute force in dealing with danger. We're fleeing imaginary dangers. Wars are becoming less desirable. As I've said many times, violence is trending downward worldwide.

When moving that fast, the patterns become geometric forms, they are waves. You manipulate them as waves.

I love this. Fluid is the connecting medium. I also have a post ready on this subject. This is great.

27/9/07 5:54 PM  
Blogger jm said...

This one is so good I could go on forever.

As a musician I deal with it directly. When digital came in with Midi, my life as a musician changed. Analog is wave, digital, particle. To get this to appear as a wave is the great challenge. People complained about the loss of analog, but I got with with it. I still use one analog instrument in my system, but the rest is digital and it has brought me magnificent freedom. The connection of the particles is a joyous pursuit. A lot to ponder on why this is happening, connected with cyberspace.

27/9/07 6:21 PM  

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