January 27 & 28, 2014

Gateway to the Secrets of Manifold Wheat Production"

Once, long ago, I asked a question I thought was deep and difficult to understand: "What is real?" The answer I received was pretty simple and over the years I have decided that it is true:  "What is real is your perception".

Someone also once told me that there are "no straight lines in Nature". Boy did that screw me uptight for years. Turns out, after putting it to the test over a long period of time., I think that person was right; there are no straight lines in Nature.  (Straight lines, so it goes, are an invention of The Man.)

Way back, someone told me that if I ate dirt, ate a apple seed and drank a glass of water, an apple tree would sprout in my stomach and grow out of my nose, ears and throat. I am not yet convinced this is wrong, but it hasn't happened yet--and I have eaten a LOT of dirt. 

Some philosopher guy asserted that the ultimate proof of the existence of God is the human concept of perfection. That we cannot perceive something that doesn't exist--like a color outside the spectrum with which we are familiar. Go ahead--try to think of a color you've never seen before. It's like sneezing with your eyes open. Well, no, it isn't totally like that, but it sounded good for a minute. The point is, in our current incarnation, it can't be done.

Another person asserted to me once that when we listen to music, we are not listening to the notes at all. We are listening to the spaces between the notes, that the absence of sound creates a melody--not the presence of the tones.  Turns out, I think that is true also; it's really the only thing that makes sense to me. (This may have something to do with the reason I can't dance.)

A spiritual mentor of mine once told me "You've got all the answers but you don't know any of the questions." Now, depending on who is saying this, it could sound like a taunt--but in this case it was meant to refocus my attention. What good are answers unattached to their questions? A little misleading, maybe? Well, again, I was given an idea I didn't know what to do with. So, I carried it around for years until I decided, "Yes. Answers without their questions can be a dangerous thing." I believe it may be the concept out of which the saying "A little knowledge is a dangerous" sprung.  A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. That is also something I believe.


When I was a kid, my Aunt told me that if you got a splinter, and you didn't let someone get it out, the tiny piece of wood would absorb into your skin, suck into a blood vessel, and travel through your bloodstream and poke a hole in your heart, effectively killing you. Once, after noticing I had a splinter, I went running off to tell my mom so I wouldn't DIE (Propaganda works! That's why it is still around!) but I got distracted on the way and did something else instead. By the time I remembered about the splinter it had disappeared. But I knew where it was. It was in my bloodstream on its way to my heart looking to kill me! Later, this turned out to be a lie. Splinters do not do this. And still later, I found out that actually---they do.

I was raised by atheists. Active practicing atheists. Not your average, lazy, dime-a-dozen atheists. People who honestly hoped to abolish the concept of God in the name of Art, Poetry and Music. (As you might imagine, the Art, Poetry and Music was kind of heavy on the existential side.) This was my truth growing up. Yet, as a child, I often experienced things that did not fit easily into that paradigm. Eventually, though, the mystical nature of the Universe broke through, bludgeoning me over the head repeatedly with it's Mystical Club, testifying to the reality beyond the veil. So, over the years, my experience told me there is clearly more than the 5 senses are able to perceive, and I know that whatever it is has a binding quality, creating wholeness and connection, and putting a name to it is more of a convenience than a truth, and that what looks like a lot of information is actually only one sustained tone, one message. But who knows what that is?


But this is how it works:

Right at this moment:

My son is playing Minecraft. He is a Minecraft crazy person. He loves to play and talk and talk and talk--narrating his every move (it can drive this introverted soul INSANE--he's doing it RIGHT NOW). For the most part, I try to tune him out when I am working but I always hear something. A moment ago, he started revealing his plan to me while I was typing the above, highfalutin musings: 

Him: "I am going to harvest all the villager's wheat, carrots and potatoes so I can start a farm back at my house."
Me (still typing): "You're replanting right?"
Him: "No"
(This is an issue for me.)
Me (still typing): "You have to replant. You can't leave them with nothing."
Him: "I don't have time."
Me (still typing): "You don't have time to NOT replant."
Him: "Well, I'm not."
Me (stopping typing and turning to face him): "You're just taking--that's not okay." dramatically, "No son of mine is going to be a taker! You must sustain!" (I'm not even sure that's a proper use of the word sustain, but that's what I said.)
Him (laughing): "You know we're different people, right?" (laughs again) "But we're still a family here."
Me: (chagrinned): "Well, I guess that about sums it up."


And that about sums it up. He's eight so it's likely he knows a lot of things I don't remember.


PS
Him: "I just blew up the dessert temple"
Me: "WTF???!!"