the act of discovering new aspects of a medium and subject

We are a species between species. Our clever cortex shows us the problem; gives us an inkling; but never leaves us satisfied.

Everything that could, or will, or has, or could have happened, is happening – at this moment and forever. That’s infinity. Perfectly big and small, in every way, all at once.

I was shooting with a friend recently, and, at the end, we began to talk about how important the skill of attentiveness is to shooting. We discussed how learning to shoot had taught us to respect and attend to the moment you’re in. We discussed how, in an ever safening developed world, there are fewer and fewer situations in which people must pay attention to themselves, their surroundings, and their activities, in the moment, in order to avoid significant injury or death. I mean really how many people do you know who work in saw mills, or breaking young horses, or operating heavy machines?

Increasingly, we spend days planted well outside our bodies, in the future. We plan for this; we plan for that; sometimes we plan to sit together in rooms to plan for something else. We think about when we will get this; when we achieve that; when this or that will come to be.

We spend so much time doing this that we make ourselves physically and emotionally ill. There is an entire industry devoted to teaching people to be in the present. This is insane!!!

Right now, get your butt up and go do something that requires you to pay attention to what you’re doing. Carve, cook, chainsaw, sew, jump rope, yoga, sweep, draw, dance. For fuck sake, go to the mall and stare at that little blue, green, yellow, whatever dot. YOU ARE HERE!!!

Mom stood alone so that I could too.

Dad fought every day to show me the courage of imperfection.

I mean, Pope Francis, am I right?  Didn’t see that one coming.

And like that, we’re dancing.

without time to think how I

In the moment, we am caught up in the joy of

face after face after face after face

and the smell…

pungent, it quickens us

I can feel the smell in our bones

my bones feel light as a bird’s

at the end, we land. Together

Can someone tell me if I made this up?  Seriously, there are too many voices out there, and I don’t want to rip this off someone else.  It seems so obvious that I can’t believe nobody beat me to this gem.

SPEAKING LOUDER DRIVES PEOPLE AWAY!!!!

speaking softer draws them in.

volume is a stone wall.

stoicism a warm hearth.

I think there are three possibilities.  Either we will wipe ourselves out and life will give it another shot.  We will somehow find a way to establish a healthy homeostasis on our planet.  Or we will keep expanding until we destroy everything and have to launch ourselves off the planet – en masse – in all directions like the spore of some cosmic fungus.

I have to say, at the rate and direction we are going, I think the third possibility may be most likely.  Not gonna lie, the third possibility really appeals to the sci fi nerd in me.  Getting into my stasis chamber.  Being loaded onto a cosmic ark.  Oh man, I can feel my braces and pimples tingling just thinking about it.

I mean I don’t want to get all crazy metaphysical, mostly because I haven’t drank nearly enough tonight for all that, but how cool is it to think that our planet is just some sort of space life form, and we’re just little organelles working away to build the spore which will fly into space and seed other planets.

Space fungus, yep, that’s the life for me.

I you we us them

mine yours ours theirs

i feel alone

i crave shared values and goals

My world is awash with calories

but barren of nutrition

my world is filled with pleasures

But empty of fulfillment

The human quest for physical survival has been replaced by a barely named hunger for connection and meaning.

I just received an interesting job connection from the lovely people at Careerbuilder.  Apparently, I may be well qualified for a position with the “Breast Pull Rotation”.  Pretty sure I didn’t list my qualifications, for this opportunity, in my resume.  West Liberty Foods, I’m interested in you too.

I heard somewhere that the literal translation of happy, in Japanese, is quick pleasure. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it serves my purpose, so I’m going to assume it is.

It’s a complex cake, happiness. In different places, at different times, it’s been made different ways. People used to make it in more of a whole grain, stone ground, bread format… But today it’s cake! We eat it; and it’s sweet; and we like it; and we want more of it; and it gets us all wound up; then it leaves us to crash… Our cake is heavy on pleasure light on substance.

I mean the world is pleasure central these days… If you live in one of the nice places, but we can’t all live like this – at least not right now – not with all that’s going on over there – and my representative says their sending aid, coordinating with the UN and Europe, because something must be done – it’s in committee – and not too much about the ethnic cleansing in that…. Ohh, The View is on :)!

TV is pretty great, right? Boy, it sure is flashy. 11 minutes of actual play in an American football game. The rest is adds and shots of guys walking around in helmets and spandex getting talked to by other guys with head sets and clip boards… Oh, and there’s also the guys in suits talking about the spandex and clip boards… Oooh, the new iphone will go down on me in the shower and has an angry ex girlfriend app (the non-ironic song lyrics are a hack)(cross reference of no less than four shared commercial experiences… Priceless)(make that five!).

Well, watching all those fit fellows and their commercials for attractive people has left me feeling empty. Things could be better. Something seems to be missing from my life. Let’s go shopping. In the developed world the act of buying is an act of malcontent. We rarely buy out of need. We buy to replace. Because I’m not happy now, but if I get the new Android with my NSA discount points, I will be… Happiness = quick pleasure.

The people in the poor countries are miserable because they can’t support basic living (food, shelter, water). The people in the rich countries are miserable because we don’t know the basics of living. You can’t consume your way to contentment.

Bread has two ingredients – physical security (food, water, shelter), and connection to trust worthy loving people.