Quiet Mind

There is a peace that comes with being on a boat, single handing it.  More so when the ice in the water, and the cold in the air has driven off most of the other boats.  The pendants and halyards and sheets are frozen and stiff.  The water is like the glass of a mirror, but is not still as the tide goes out to meet the ocean.  Bits of ice drift past us.

December on the Hudson river, just before the freeze up.

Some of us are children of Autumn.  The sweet sadness that happens during this transition time is what is most familiar to us.  Memories of the warmth and abundance of the time just past, mix with imaginings of pushing back at the cold and grey of the time yet to come, mix together like coffee bitter yet warm, like whiskey soothing yet strong and bracing, like bread, like sex, like this human life.

There are those that prefer Florida, or Phoenix, or LA with their consistency, their sunshine, their warmth, but those places, for me, avoid the every changing nature of our situation, the aging, the dying and then the rebirth and renewal that seems constantly upon me here.

The dance of Spring is measured by the quiet of winter, the cold air of Autumn reminds of the hot winds of Summer.  It all just keeps happening over and over year after year after century after century, millennium upon millennium.  We are just a moment.

The realization of how brief and in some ways insignificant we are in the greater scheme of life, makes my life all the more appreciated and removes the stress that can be consuming about my own little problems.  They just don't mean that much in the bigger picture and to me, my insignificance is a relief. It is also a reason to make my life a celebration, an expression of gratitude, a compliment to all life, and to cause as little suffering, for all life, mine included.

This is peace, this is quiet, this is a gift.

On time and money, again

I have just read "The story of B" by Daniel Quinn.  I don't think I have ever read anything before and had the same kind of reaction.  How could I?

We have roamed the planet for millions of years, but only in the last couple hundred has the need for an energy source other than the sun, the rivers, the wind, the plants and animals not been enough.  All of those energy sources can go on and on and support each other.

The idea that after this life we will become enlightened, or go to heaven, or achieve some sort of salvation, has allowed for our entire culture to turn it's back on our current means of existence and survival, with out concern for the consequence of immediate gratification.

Evolution?  Drop out entire population into a time machine, take us back 50 years and see how we do.  then go back 100 and see how we do.  then go back 200, then 400, then 800, then 1600, and see how we do.  By the idea of evolution, the further we go back, the greater we should be in each situation.  We should have evolved into something Greater, a higher being.  Isn't this what we are taught, that the world, the universe is made for us and we are the being that is created in the image of God.  Aren't we led to believe that with each passing era, and with greater knowledge we have grown towards our ultimate version of ourselves?

Drop us back 800 years and most of us would be dead or suffering in very short order.  Think about what it would be like with no Drugstore, no fast food, no grocery.  How would we cope without our cellphones with out cars, with out industry?   Have we evolved or become more dependent?  Are the two opposites, or at odds with each other?

If we have been walking the planet for millions of years, as is the conventional idea, then we got on well enough, for a long time, most of that time, with other than what we deem the absolute necessities of survival today.

The idea put forth at the beginning of this blog was to find some reasonable way of existing and going forward, given all that I know and all that I learn along the journey.  There is no reality or reason to thinking about trying to living now, as humans lived 1000 years ago, or 100,000 years ago.  But there is I believe reason and logic to living differently than we live now, in a manner that reflects the knowledge of what we have come from, how the rest of the living community lives, and the direction the current path of living has us set on.

For how we live upon this planet, we are to many.  For as many as we, are we kill or subjugate other life to readily.  For the intelligent beings we fancy ourselves to be we fail to see the interconnectedness and interdependence of all life and life systems.  For all our concern for our own welfare, we fail to see our own responsibility in the creation of our own suffering, not just our own self destruction as a species, but as individuals.

When my own death is accepted, understood as the way things will be, then life, all life, becomes the most appreciated, magical, perpetual and beautiful thing.  It is a very simple and obvious realization, that once found can not easily be lost.

The 800 lb. Gorilla in the room!

Where does an 800 lb. gorilla sleep?  Anywhere he wants to!
Something so powerful that it can do what it wants to, it is unstoppable.   Gravity, is like that.  We can't get around it.   So too, are the laws that govern the way life works, the way lives interrelate to each other, the way species survive.  The human story, our story, is subject to a law that is unstoppable, unchangeable and the way we live in defiance of that law will prove, is now proving this out.  If we continue to live as though all of creation is about, and for, just us, just our desires, the law that governs all living things will have it's affect.

The Law of Limited Competition is: “You may compete to the full extent of your capabilities, but you may not hunt down your competitors or destroy their food or deny them access to food. In other words, you may compete, but you may not wage war.”

I have just had another of those occurrences, when I read a book and find in it, the articulation of many of the thoughts that I had been mulling over and wishing I could share with others in a way that would be interesting to them.
The book "ISHMAEL" by Daniel Quinn, is a book that should be read by all of us.  One does not have to agree with or even enjoy it, but the ideas within are ones that we should all be conscious of, at least, for a moment in our lives.  There has never been a moment in human history more appropriate for considering these ideas.  Human future, will be directly affected by our consideration of these ideas now.  Consider reading this book.

Time is Money, or so it seems

If you were given ten million dollars what do you think you'd do with it?

If you were given more time in each day, free from just sustaining yourself, what would you do with it?

Some of us might mention how with money or time we'd do those things that we don't have enough money or time to do right now.

Do you know anybody who ever made a bunch of money and then stopped endeavoring to make more because they had made enough?

Do you know anybody who has gotten enough help from technology to save time with the "chores" of the day and now spends most of their time just enjoying life?

With Technology we have less need to actually do those things that make our lives possible.   Machines do a lot of work and do the work faster than we could.  Still we have lives that are scheduled to the hour and minute, and we never seem to be able to do all that there is to do in the time available.

Why is it that the mega rich just keep living lives that seem focused on making money?  How is it that we now have cars that will get us from here to there many times faster than we could get there under our own power, but we still have schedules, so tight, that we have to do our make up, eat our meals, text or read the paper while driving?

Somebody else said, "You cannot save time, but only spend it wisely" and I agree.

About "going backward"

It seems that rather than "going backward" in time and technology, the choice is to go forward, but away from certain things, given the experience of having both, I can make an informed and thoughtful choice between the two paths of living.
It is not a guess or an intellectual exercise, but a choice made from experience and observation.  After all I have history to refer to, as well as the present.  Because of my situation of being born in this time, and this place, I have examples of the most technologically advanced methods of living that man has ever contrived, as well as the most ancient and simple methods of being that have been practiced.

With this kind of knowledge, it is not really possible to go "backwards" nor does this description give full credit to the thoughtfulness of the choice.  100 years ago, the choice not to use certain technology, or seek certain medical prescription was not a choice or even an awareness.  I can now make choice knowing what each option offers.

"Going Backward" is not accurate to the choice, choosing an "alternative Path" might be a more appropriate term.

The new old math!

Especially when it comes to things Human:

1 + 1 > 2

The sum is always greater than the parts.

One

Equals

infinity

Facing forward looking backward

Somebody said to me that we are so much better off now, in the technological age than we were before it, and wondered if I really believed that we should all go back to a pre-industrial lifestyle.

The question is kind of a pointless one, in that it would be difficult, if not impossible to go backward, to forget what we have come to know.

I do believe, that if I choose to "go backwards" in time, or at least in my way of living, I am making my life better and possibly, the world a better place.

For example, by choosing to use a push mower that uses only my energy, and mechanical advantage to cut my lawn, I get exercise, I get the pleasure of movement, I get time spent out on my land with out the noise of a gasoline engine.  Because of this I hear things I wouldn't had I used an alternate energy source.  I slow down and notice the other living things in the grass that I might not want to cut down.  I save money in many ways in that the mower was free, rescued from somebodies trash many years ago, and it needs no additional fuel.  The world benefits in a bit less noise pollution, a bit less air pollution, less of a need for the fossil fuel and the infrastructure that brings it to us.  It also makes young kids, and some grown ups as well,  point and smile or laugh as they drive by in their cars.  That is a big help to the world when we can make anybody smile.

This is only one, and a small example of how living a life that follows a path that more closely resembles the paths of those who came many years before us can make the world better for all of us.  A life lived with many little efforts and considerations can have a significant impact on the world, especially if many lives choose similar paths making small but deliberate and meaningful choices.