A Serious Engine
The Train Returns
It used to carry nothin' but the righteous and the holy, but that ruling was recently changed.
Oh, and for those of you from foreign lands and exotic birthplaces, plus you younger ones who might not know your heritage, the inside skinny on this is ... it's taken from an old American spiritual:
This train is bound for glory, this trainWelcome aboard.
This train is bound for glory, this train
This train is bound for glory, don't carry nothin' but the righteous and the holy
This train is bound for glory, this train.
Photo: Annie Griffiths Belt
posted by jm at 12:06 AM
83 Comments:
I really don't like Pluto in my 1st house. Why can't it be in my 9th House?? Oh yeah...been there done that. sigh
I don't blame you.
I have Pluto square my 1st house ruler in the 6th and that means routine upheaval. I'm not at all happy about this. Neptune's there and my routine is my religion!
Saturn is also in the vicinity opposite Uranus so think of me if you think you got it bad.
I will think of you, my fellow Saturn in Leo! You are the chief reason I blog, and that helps me more creatively and psychologically than any other route I've tried in the last 4 years.
Furthermore, after discussions on this blog I was able to get my nerve to apply to art school and here I am. I was feeling sorry for myself last night. Sometimes I don't feel like working through my problems and just want to cry the blues instead. ;)
(has me thinking: make art not war)
My hat and shoes, they jingle
I pass the joker check
If your train don't take no jokers
How can you play with a full deck?
(jingle)(jingle)(jingle)
I found a sterling silver ring of lovely abstract design, just lying on the sidewalk today.
The ring was lying there, not me.
It fit my pinky perfectly. So today's a happy day.
Pluto is STILL conjunct my Merc/Saturn hookup in my 4th house. I'm girding for upheaval in the home area. Previews were shown on New Year's Eve and Day.
But today's a happy day. Make art, not war, yes.
yeshe, that's a damn good jingle! thanks, i'll be singin' that today :)
Interesting chris. I was thinking about this. I'm burned out on all the war and fear. And the trite stuff. And eveything else that doesn't jibe with my senses.
Sometimes I don't feel like working through my problems and just want to cry the blues instead. ;)
One problem begets another so I think it might be useless. A lot more useless than art. The psychological analysis can get oppressive. It doesn't work. It can be enjoyable in certain moods, though.
It's Capricorn time so the blues are perfect.
Jingle singing! That'll chase away the blues. Silver rings and jingles.
Yeshe, wow!
That is a nifty jingle alright. No wonder the universe left a shiny bauble for you to find.
Well i'll be standin' under the trestle as you all chug by, i have too much mirth to be allowed onboard. I'll be waving, you could toot the whistle.
It's gonna be tough to maintain the somber sobriety tho if you start singin' spirituals. It may not be jolly but it sure inspires hope.
also
*warning: Ham & Eggs in Carolina*
see, why they won't let me board.
HA HA! Too much mirth.
Pluto is on my Juno squaring off against Jupiter, you just never know what to expect in the astro drama. Maybe this is the newly Plutoed response? Things seem impossibly ridiculous, laughter the appropriate response.
Tseka you are there. The ridiculousness of it all is the real sustaining factor. It's all games we play with ourselves. The mind is warped and all we do is warp it in another direction.
You know my favorite definition of genius: "One who sees the folly of the times."
Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I just observe without specific feeling, but the recognition of the absurdity is my greatest comfort.
I'm in a place in my life I'd never thought I'd be. And last night, of all ridiculous things, I got sick of astrology. Can you believe it? All that squirming to try and figure it (people) out. Who's going to do what when. Who's who? What's what? Jeeeze. Exceptionally ridiculous. About as ridiculous as believeing that mankind has suddenly evolved to some great place. Imagine. But there are a few good pockets, as always.
I do find it handy for myself, though, and my affection for the planets will return.
You know my favorite definition of genius: "One who sees the folly of the times."
cherie we are luminous, absurd geniuses.
Must be the times JM, nothing compels, not even painting. But something has crept in, each day has a contentment that has been missing since....????...thinking... i think i last felt this way was in the 70's. And my life and my family was going through hideous things then. Still there was a comfort in the ordinary.
OMG OMG! Exactly where I was a half an hour ago. Tseka, my sis.
nothing compels, not even painting.
I think you are absolutely right. The contentment comes in when the painful need to prove one's self vanishes. It dosn't work. Music and I parted long ago. Supposedly we do it for the sake of doing it, but not-doing is good, if not better.
That's the place I meant a minute ago. No compelling desire.
The absurdity. Wringing the life out of life. I keep thinking that further I go into this detachment from doing, the more I'll be satisfied with what I do. Or don't do.
The absurdity. Wringing the life out of life. I keep thinking that further I go into this detachment from doing, the more I'll be satisfied with what I do. Or don't do.
Detachment from doing. Or maybe performing. The doing just comes along natural as breathing. Someone calls with an illness, a trauma, and after all of these years it has become simple, a suggestion, and we both move on. Before i would ponder, consult texts, before the suggestion. Part of it is experience, well mostly that, but part of it is acceptance that i am not always correct and there will be an opportunity to adjust. Very little is life threatening, and then you do not get the luxury of time to think.
More and more i want to knead bread, answer a need, knit, paint, as a rhythm of life not an occupation.
Maybe what Pluto in Capricorn will offer up (plus some Saturn in Virgo) is finding the treasure of living in an unhurried peace.
Yes. The detachment from performing.
And yes. An unhurried pace. I already do that but I've looked around me at everyone frantically doing this and that and questioned why I'm not with it. Maybe the doubt will leave.
With Pluto now on my Mars, probably a standstill is occurring before the next phase of action, more attuned to my deep desires. When Pluto first came to 0 I got all revved up and involved in things I don't want. I've stripped my gears this time but by the end, I'll know.
Pluto in Capricorn is about your own internal clock and authority. I even wonder how to fit into the 24 hour cycle of time. It's rather restrictive.
Doing as rhythm is the way, which is one thing I still do like about my music and which is why I'll return.
I won't do it until I step away from the maddening crowd and connect to my even rhythm. The push and pull is amazing and people wonder why conflict reigns in the world. The hard excitement addiction. Mine is a constant walking rhythm and so it will be. Slow and steady. They can do what they want.
True, it is the pattern we have clung to, which has made us out of step with the madding crowd.
And while people thought that they were working for the good life with a delayed return the pace kept getting faster. Now the obvious absurdity and loss will bring resistance to continuing.
Remember Marshall McClune? He has been quoted as saying something like, children leave their education for 5 hours a day to attend school.
HA Ha the simultaneous thought tho i chose Thomas Hardy's unique madding crowd.
Interesting, Pluto unearthing our deep desires. Maybe over my sun Pluto asked, and painting was just an extension of the real desire a small peaceful life.
I remember Marshall. Where are those social critics now when we need them?
And while people thought that they were working for the good life with a delayed return the pace kept getting faster. Now the obvious absurdity and loss will bring resistance to continuing.
I hope so. The delay became permanent as the speed increased. I can't imagine the value system really changing that much but who knows?
I think that what we do as artists does best if we don't put that kind of pressure on it, but make it a part of our whole selves. Back to the performance thing.
Most of the great ones I know do different things knowing full well that painting or one limited dimension doesn't cover it.
A small peaceful life would seem to me to be the most conducive to productivity. Uncluttered.
I'm about to find out. I have that small peaceful life now and before, when it was more hyped up, my performances were not what I wanted. Trying too hard, except for the occasional times when the connection was good. Not with the audience, but with universal rhythm. The audience caught on.
Now I'll see how the new life has affected my performance. I do want to remain out of the turbulence. Nothing really wrong with it, but my equilibrium suffers.:-)
"Very little is life threatening, and then you do not get the luxury of time to think" Whoooo Tseka! yes yes yes. thank you, as i needed to be reminded of this.
Jm I loved this: "I think that what we do as artists does best if we don't put that kind of pressure on it, but make it a part of our whole selves"
i needed to be reminded of all this (i guess this is why i came, yes, to be inspired and informed).
sometimes when i'm called back to child-ness i forget the beauty that lies there as i am too busy remembering how much it hurts. it's amazing to me, how the human mind can choose to remembering negative experience over positive. i need to work on this.
i am applying to move from art college to a fine arts university. i have been at the college since 1996. i just discovered that i will only be accepted into second year :o)
the root of my discontent (i thought i'd be 'further along')
however i am reminded, by this conversation, that there is no measure outside my imagination that can indicate how 'far along i am' except for that which exists within me.
Timely post. I've been thinking about glory, and I'm always thinking about longevity. The two together lead me to find a quote by Stimson Bullit, an extraordinary man.
"I sought to fill the roles in which I had been cast: Perform duties, adhere to principles, use skills, do some things well and have some fun. At heart, however, I have longed not for virtue, power, wisdom, wealth or a smile from God, but for glory. If offered one of what is God's I would forego the kingdom and the power and take the glory. I would rather have been a hero than a saint, a sage or a success."
He climbs harder at 80 than many young men in their 20's and has an astounding list of civil accomplishments as well.
http://www.stimsonbullitt.com/About.htm
http://classic.mountainzone.com/climbing/99/misc/bullitt/
I think that the glory burns it all away. The dross is gone. And it wasn't for proving oneself or anything else in the end it's the exaltation. Just a 1/1 identification with the divine. I think best experienced in private so that the ego doesn't get confused by outside attention. I might be reaching the same conclusion as Stimson.
And while people thought that they were working for the good life with a delayed return the pace kept getting faster. Now the obvious absurdity and loss will bring resistance to continuing.
So perfectly said. I brings into question the so called experts. For me it has narrowed my focus down to the essential. What am I working for? Certainly not to gamble it away in some shell game or Ponzi scheme.
Doing as rhythm is the way
I've been feeling tired of everything as well, even things I used to love. But yesterday I went snowboarding and I have a favorite run at Kirkwood mountain. It's called "The drain" and the walls are banked and run is twisty. I lose myself in the turns and can hit the entire thing without slowing down. At the end it's like getting shot out of a the mouth of a cannon as it opens to the broader slopes. I did that run about 5 times, each time hitting it faster and more in tune. Moving that way awakens something directly connected to my life force. It's connected to pure being and the feeling is glorious.
I have longed not for
virtue, power, wisdom, wealth or a smile from God, but for glory...
Virtue? Sometimes I think it's just "warping the mind in another direction"
Power? I've got status in my work it's not giving me any satisfaction.
Wisdom? Seems good for avoiding traps.
Wealth? It's relative.
A smile from God? Clearly I've been blessed.
Why do people say "she gave up everything for a shot at glory" ? And I think the question is more interesting if the glory isn't a public event.
Seems like the Bullitt connection might run full circle... He has written an acclaimed book called To Be a Politician
Stimson Bullitt? Whoa, m.p.k., you're busted as a Seattle/PacNW resident -- or maybe you're just more of a mountaineering geek than most humans.
Which? I'm jingling!
The conversation about slowing down, seeing the absurdity, losing the now-meaningless stuff like status and ambition, all speaks to my own boomerang journey back to my hometown. So many of my contemporaries are doing the same thing, I'm mulling a "Boomerang Party" for us.
The essential pace, the feeling of security, clearing out all the old subconscious Stuff from childhood and youth ... and healing those darmic relationships with the 'rents.
The glory, the smile from God, yes, is all very private.
Sometimes real Glory doesn't look a bit like the advertisement.
it's amazing to me, how the human mind can choose to remember negative experience over positive. i need to work on this.
I am also amazed and I've been thinking about it lately. The memories pop in like lightning. Sometimes I cling to them but I've been working on letting them go as fast as they come. I was just thinking yesterday. With so many good experiences why do I recall these unpleasant ones? guilt maybe. Moods. And then I remember that I rmembered the bad ones! they do stick out. And repeat.
It's the same thing possibly that urges people to latch on to the negative in the world, so I guess we're wired that way. It has been proven in lab experiments that people are wired for negativity.
Maybe you'll leave school sooner than you know. You only need so much formal education and then you can take off from there. Moon in Cap might overdo the schooled order of things. There's an optimum amount. Fortunately my voice teacher let me go when I was ready. She knew.
however i am reminded, by this conversation, that there is no measure outside my imagination that can indicate how 'far along i am' except for that which exists within me.
This is so important and a lesson that can be seized from Pluto in Capricorn as one can find inner authority and validation. I'm looking forward to it. Our worlds are pretty much entirely a construct of our imaginations. The search for commonality is quite something in this unity thing. Rather a challenge.
Thanks for the quote mpk.
Being a saint does not to appeal to me. And being a success is such a vague reality. Everyone is successful. They get successfully from birth to death. So that's no big deal.
Virtue is impossible, wisdom is either there or not and power is the most difficult to understand, I think.
Glory is what I equate with the magnificence of the universe when I perceive it and I'll take that.
A good focus away from the lesser quests for power in the common world around me.
And it wasn't for proving oneself or anything else in the end it's the exaltation. Just a 1/1 identification with the divine. I think best experienced in private so that the ego doesn't get confused by outside attention.
Hear hear brother.
I brings into question the so called experts.
So called is what they are. They should be kindly accepted and not listened to like your annoying old know-it-all uncles. I've quit reading the blogs. I got weary of expertise. I was envious of their ability to speak complete nonsense as if telling the truth, though. Confidence, I suppose. Or an imitation of it.
The ego confusion with outside attention is stunning. Keeps one jumping the hoops.
Why do people say "she gave up everything for a shot at glory" ? And I think the question is more interesting if the glory isn't a public event.
This is all so interesting and I might go into a bit, since I've related to the public arena a bit more lately. Or tried to. Interesting place sometimes. Occasionally. There are interesting individuals by what I consider some fluke. I've always focued on the few but maybe it's time to be together to influence the publc. Or am I being dumb again?
yeshe... yes busted -mountaineering\climbing geek.
Omg. A "Boomerang Party" is a precious idea.
Sometimes real Glory doesn't look a bit like the advertisement.
I was just thinking about this. Politics and life as as advertisement. Salvation as slogan.
Once again you've surprised me. Taking one concept - glory - and running with it. Very illuminating.
For a couple of centuries, the average level of quality of those entering politics in our country has not been high. Except in the South (where the tradition is waning fast with the cultural homogenization of the country), there is a tradition of second raters going into politics, and that tradition affects the choices of some.
S. Bullitt
Aha! No wonder. Thanks for the link mpk. Lots to read here. Climbing must clear the head.
Yeah, the thinner air must do something to clear the mind of cobwebs. No wonder gurus are said to reside on mountain-tops!
Of course joe. I live in the land of gurus up here in the mile high city. Even my spiders are lean in their web building.:-) My basement spiders were very understanding when I came into their territory after 20 years undisturbed and changed it radically. Of course, I never killed them or stole their land. We're sharing it, although I forced them to live with light. They were enlightened already so they don't mind. Mountaintop gurus.
M.P.K. i scribbled a note on a napkin and left it at the bar in the cafe.
(m.p.k.)
John Salathé was in his mid 70s when i met him while clamoring around the top of Yosemte Falls. He knocked my 20something ego right on its ass. One of my most favorite encounters all time. He lived to be 93! I grew up around Seattle Mountaineers and Mazamas (stepdad was part of each in the "stone age")lots of strong role models in that climbing world and a very different sense of glory and acheivement. Thanks for reminding!
He knocked my 20something ego right on its ass. One of my most favorite encounters all time.
Sounds interesting. I didn't know an ego had an ass, but the more I think about it ...
Mine was born on it's ass! I know it has a head. Someone knock some sense into it!
Mountains are up there close to heaven where enlightenment is delivered so they say. A certain kind. Then there's Pluto's realm with the Elysian Fields guarded by the river. I hadn't thought of that before. Higher consciousness and lower higher consciousness. Climbing the mount or crossing the river. It's good to know there are several routes.
You always bring a smile to my face.
Enlightened Spider gurus living in your basement BUT at high altitude now those guys know the high and low of it! No wonder you sing to them, play for them and ahem save dust.
You bring smiles and great ideas. I knew I was wealthy.
And I knew there was a reason for my idle dust rag! So good to know everything was right all along.
The spiders and fruitflies compete for front row seats. They, too, have taken advantage of the high.
The rats and snakes are a tougher audience. You know, the public. You've had a bout with them. Maybe the rats are enlightend here too. I should give them the benefit of my nagging doubt.
True enough, as i was being Plutonized, i was visited by a destructive troop of rats, bit by a poisonous spider (survived but it was a nasty coupla days) was a magnet for snakes. (in all the years i've seen very few until this year - overrun) We had to host a 6ft Red Racer for two days and had a very persistent Desert Night Snake who was determined to made inside his home. And now, post Pluto we are back to normal. Now the Bobcats are back to peering in my window and Ravens, several pair, some Prairie Falcons and the usual coyotes and motley assorted. No rats!
Ulli found a few mice and brought them to bed. Wouldn't i like to play? He had one snuggled under him for hours before i figured it out, took them outside each time and asked them not so come back. So far it's all good. Quiet nights.
The washer works.
What more can a woman ask for?
That is excellent news my Plutonized 1. I was wondering about the rats. That was truly awful.
And the washer is right side up and working! Great great news! Wash away the Plutonian debris.
See, Pluto ain't so bad in retrospect. Interesting about the poisons and healing. I, too, have been to hell and back, but that's a daily trip, really, though a slightly bigger hell seems to have pointed me to the exit in its ultimate kindness.
It's so good to have your voice back. I'm not the only one who thinks so.
Pluto was in my grand fire trine conjunct that Moon at the tip of my kite formation, so it was a heavy transit. Only a fraction of us get Sun or Moon conjunctions of Pluto in our lifetimes so it could prove to be fairly monumental.
Pluto conjunct my Mars was the worst transit of my life and now it's square. Altogether different. I believe conjunctions are the most powerful and maybe the hardest of aspects.
I, too, have been to hell and back, but that's a daily trip, really, though a slightly bigger hell seems to have pointed me to the exit in its ultimate kindness.
What's this? Apparently i missed some parts of the story while i rested in my solitude. Can you share more?
Pluto conjunctions definitely doozies. We live to tell or don't.
Mars, your chart ruler. I will not know the conjunction of Pluto and Uranus, thank heavens.
Oh there were many specific Plutonian realities, such as losing my savings when Pluto hit my Jupiter, but now some of it has decided to return. But that was really minor considering what was to come.
Then there was the required Pluto power struggles with women when it got to my Moon, always unpleasant and useless, really, with my south node in Scorpio and the relative impossibility of ever solving it. It's Ok in the end since I have a Moon-Pluto trine natally and I can actually let the struggles flow. Venus-Uranus helps me say adios at any time which I love. And it seems to have let up some as I always strive to get closer to my emotional truth and independence, the Cancer-Aries rising destiny. NN1.
But the biggest whammy was getting caught up in the presidential campaign which was one of the worst experiences ever, and even though I was aware of it while it happened, I know I had to ride it through the election. At the end, saying good-bye was the real euphoria I was seeking. Freedom from emotional ups and downs dictated by others. Thank god for Pluto going into Capricorn and relief from my Moon-Joop religious ecstasy.
You know fire trines get completely involved in experience, riding the heights and the depths with enthusiasm. So Capricorn is a welcome respite for now.
The thing started right before the '04 election when Pluto just got to my Joop and 9th house. There's a lot to it and probably too boring for others to hear although really interesting I found. All that whipped up excitement around politics that's so depressing underneath. But residuals are there and a new way has come going forward as Pluto heads to my MC. It won't be like the last election, though. Never ever ever ever ever again. The primary almost did me in. How could I? Those people, man. Omg. But I had to.
So the emotional hell is over hopefully and career hell is starting. But at least I'll get paid for my agony!
I love people with my huge Sag-Gem opposition but they really really irritate me. Then I say "to hell with them all forever" and run five miles. But oddly enough with this transit I've found some friends I don't want to cast into the dumpster every five minutes. I really like them. How this fits into my utter dislike of society as a group remains to be seen.
Pluto man....
Pluto still has a bit to go on my 10th but now with a Capricorn taste to it. We shall see how that goes.
I sympathize about the political experience. Traumatic. Still some way to go for the nation. Once i saw the Heyoka in George W i realized that all of our presidents have been sacred clowns. I think it is part of our American evolution. It's amazing if you think about it. We are different.
Friends especially women friends have been the reward for me too. Unexpected and very glad for them.
Still some way to go for the nation.
Quite a long way indeed. I'll be commenting.
I've been thinking about George as Heyoka. I love the idea completely. Here's one way he did it ...
Language. He unashamedly (not consciously) fractured the English language as a grand parody of everyone trying to speak perfectly as if they know what they are saying. It's hilarious. All the blogging with the Heyoka really talking truth.
And falling off his bike as the nation tries to get fit while overindulging like madpeople.
There are many examples. But the people are absolutely stuck in their unclear and limited view of him, naturally, and it will be eons before they're able to see their own folly.
He bad, he good. You know. Cave people mentality. Actually I could be wrong. I don't know the facts about cave people.
But the separation of pure evil from good in humans in one of the human's greatest follies. Ambiguity is god, as mpk reminded me.
Heh, A & I could add to your Heyoka list. We've assembled a lot. You've got a good start!
One key is they never lie. The truth is always there we just do not hear it. They put it right in front of us and we ignore it. Then we are outraged, but it was always there.
Heh, A & I could add to your Heyoka list. We've assembled a lot. You've got a good start!
I'd love to hear them. I missed A. I didn't go into the serious ones yet.
The one thing about truth, I think, is that it lingers and waits for retrieval. Retrogrades are supposed to do this astrologically, but it takes many times around as one by one the message is picked up.
It's all Bush's fault and now we can continue the same policies but it's ok. He's gone. Funny how it goes. And they're too busy with "Honest" Abe at the moment. Still trying to get him straight. Murdered in a theater no less.
Anyway, I love the idea of ambiguity. It's fascinating - draws the attention as one tries to figure out the puzzle. Who really wants to know anything for sure to be honest?
Why this good and bad thing always? What's so good about good? I mean, can it really be all good? Why do we break it up into these two dominating forces? Rather strict.
Tonight I tested my new god.
An intelligent and in-the-know special Gemini friend of mine said, "Happy New Year", in a sardonic jolly way knowing full well I was going to come up with something.
"Happy?" I asked with a "Phfff!" exploding from my lips.
"Well, I can't really say, "Sad New Year," says he.
"How 'bout ambiguous," I suggested. "Have an Ambiguous New year."
His face lit up like a million candles.
Yep, I'm digging the whole idea of Bush as sacred clown.
His mangling of the english language and the way he would accidently tell us the truth whilst attempting to lie during press conferences have always delighted me.
And now he goes out dodging thrown shoes! Almost chaplinesque, don't you think? And didn't Chaplin make a film called the 'Great Dictator'?
Tseka: Pluto conjunctions definitely doozies. We live to tell or don't.
Pluto goes exact on my Cap sun the day before my 59th birthday, in 2018. It will trine Mars and wide-trine my natal Pluto, wide-square my Joop, and be coming off an exact square to my Nodes. Plus there's a second Saturn Return scheduled prior to the Nodes Square.
Looks like I have seven or so years of fabulosity ahead, and then start a whole new round of awakening lessons!
Nothing stops the train to glory... ;-) today I saw a bunch of siren-blaring fire trucks stopped just as the gates went down.
Yes yes yes anomymous! I was going to go into the symbolism of the shoe. Very interesting.
I also thought of the Great Dictator. Can you imagine someone being able to parody that?
The awakening will find a way before then, yesh! And if it does, the heavy transits are just part and parcel of the whole thing!
Nothing stops the train to glory... ;-) today I saw a bunch of siren-blaring fire trucks stopped just as the gates went down.
Amazing, amazing, amazing, mpk. You are so right about the train. No wonder I love them so. Talk about worship. Now that's power I can believe in. The fires of hell can wait!
I love people with my huge Sag-Gem opposition but they really really irritate me. Then I say "to hell with them all forever" and run five miles.
aham. "I hate people, but I love humanity" My favorite curmudgeon, Cartie Bresson. sounds like kin :)
Not so sure about this whole evolution thing anymore. I mean, for whose sake is it? Mostly my own. It is a replacement for a theos-based history.Something to make sense of the suffering. Does humanity need evolution, or can achieve it? No idea. Wouldn't evolution lead to perfection? Isn't perfection death?
I love Cartier Bresson. What an eye for life. That's a great quote.
Here's mine:
I'm not prejudiced. I hate everyone equally.
Perfection is an idea and really not a very good one. People don't really want it. Original sin stuff, probably, and all that crap.
It is a replacement for a theos-based history.
Could very well be. It certainly is bandied about without much real explanation. If there is such a thing, we won't notice it. Hope and all of those lollipops.
Sometimes I think that it's simply a matter of adaptation to the moment and everything is evolved for where and what it is. Some kind of linear progression seems like just another one of man's egoistic projections.
Growth is real, and that's worth considering. Birth, growth, decay, and death. Nothing to it.
I've certainly abandoned any grand ideas of current human evolution after my brief lapse. I think I'm going to basically try to remain healthy and free like I've always done. No big deal. Even god can take a hike or a 5 mile run.
I'll manage.
As far as making sense of the suffering. It's there. Not going anywhere. Find pain relief when possible and move out of harm's way. It's magnetic stuff. We move toward and away from whatever it is.
I'm glad you brought it up elena. I am hereby through with evolution. It can do what it does without me.
I'm not developed enough? Who says? Anyone can evolve who wants to.
maybe evolution is there to divert our gaze away from the absurdity of life. tried living with an embrace of the absurd for a couple of days and thougt I was gonna go insane.so I went back to "hoping." I remember watching a documentary about Bresson, and the end was gripping: a slide show of beauty, decay, joy, suffering, and the whole time you can hear his voice in te background saying loudly: yes! yes! yes!
Maybe all one has to do is say yes.
Yes!
But I'm just learning how to say no! Oh well.
We hope no matter what. It's in the chip and comes when needed. We're promised ice cream cones and they do come. We always look forward to something. Hope that things will be better.
It really doesn't matter about group evolution. Absurdity works for me since I get too caught up in corny emotion and sometimes I have to laugh at it. It's manipulative and annoying but I'm a sucker! So I have to step back. And I have to deal with it as a musician. I'm conflicted there being drawn to the avant garde but still liking sentimentality.
A wise man in India once warned me against pulling too much on heartstrings as a singer.
Absurdity is more in the Nowist mode - hope, more in the emotional longing for some other place and time mode. They both work.
I'm glad you brought it up elena. I am hereby through with evolution. It can do what it does without me.
I'm not developed enough? Who says? Anyone can evolve who wants to.
Evolution takes different paths at different rates. Much has been made so called meteoric technical evolution versus seemingly slow social\moral evolution.
Evolution is a choice to an extent. At some point it will be an even bigger choice, such as when we have the means to extend our physical lives indefinitely or genetically alter ourselves to other "post human" forms.
Our social, spiritual, technological, mental evolution etc don't seem to be going at the same rate and the disproportionate emphasis of some aspects seems to be occurring at the expense of others.
Amazing mpk! I just ran across this discussion with Krishnamurti who denied the existence of social evolution.
Our social, spiritual, technological, mental evolution etc don't seem to be going at the same rate
It's hard to say if it's evolution. It's basically one thing leading to another, and although more complicated, it might not be evolution as we understand it. Progress is what they think it is, I suppose.
We use to plant a seed, let it grow, and harvest the result. Now we have technological advances producing great bounty, but the germ plasm has weakened and we don't get substance from the same amount. So is it evolution?
Even physical. Are we a sign of progress from the apes who ate what was in their habitat and died if there wasn't enough?
Is it a sign of evolutionary weakening that we have to increase the population so much?
It's hard to answer these questions in the present tense.
Our social, spiritual, technological, mental evolution etc don't seem to be going at the same rate and the disproportionate emphasis of some aspects seems to be occurring at the expense of others.
Maybe that expense ensures the evolution if it's occurring. Natural selection. Wars, famines, etc., as part of the elimination-adaptation process.
All through evolution entities have competed and perished. Are those that survive the carriers of progress?
I somehow get the feeling that evolution needs to be rationalized in order to be legitimized, and the moment you use logic, there is the inevitable trap of judgment.
So I end up using evolution for my own means. The age of reason built up hudreds of year of science and equations so that some physicist could say that all mater is energy, while people have know that for centuries already. everything is everything. you didn't need to prooooove it to anyone with squiggles on a blackboard.
And the age of enlightenment, brought about world wars. Lebensraum sounded perfectly logical to people with college degrees.
I just got through saying this on my next post! The "all" of it.
The age of reason built up hundreds of year of science and equations so that some physicist could say that all mater is energy, while people have know that for centuries already.
Exactly.
you didn't need to prooooove it to anyone with squiggles on a blackboard.
Exactly.
And the age of enlightenment, brought about world wars.
Exactly.
Looks like I agree.
I'm back to my non-evolution mood. I've been thinking about this in terms of my work for some time and why I've always shunned technical gymnastics and constant "improvement." Beating the crap out of life. Violinists sawing and hacking their instruments to prove a point while simple mountain fiddlers are sublime. It's primarily pushing food around the plate until it looks like it's been digested before it's been digested.
It's good to remember these facts. Enlightened wars. Yes, of course. Maybe we can kill better in Afghanistan now that the Iraqi techniques have proven rather primitive.
Maybe I'll evolve sideways.
did I just use reasoning to rant against reason? :-)
sideways evolution sounds like fun. would love to see some pictures of it.
HA HA! Reason is allowed within reason!
ditto on music. I always thought myself to be of such high importance, since I savored electronic music.Drum and Bass, Trance. Then I went to a concert of a real, live, drum ensemble-they made the earth move!it was pure ecstasy.The thumping of primal forces roaring inside your chest. f samplers.
Percussion is my muse. The thump is ecstasy every time. I recently went down to the railroad yard and got next to an old steam engine. A deep deep deep soft percussive sound came out that was like nothing I'd ever heard. So beautiful. It's with me every day now.
speaking of randomness and absurdity,
I randomly just saw this:
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/pre_game_coin_toss_makes
Ha! I've seen The Onion linked many times and this is my first peek, believe it or not.
was a bit hesitant to post it, since you blog has a different flavor. but the synchronicity was to delicious to ignore.
I love the Onion. Heyokas indeed.
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