Friday, June 7, 2013

What Nobody Wants You to Know About Everything

Take this literally, along with an afternoon nap. And don't call me when you wake up.

Wastes of time:


Ambition
Activism
Teaching
Fearing
Joining
Socializing
Politics
Gathering
Debating
Trusting anyone completely
Building a career
Running on "treadmills"
Fighting for what you believe in (-- unless you're right; but are you? -- are you sure?)

Good uses of time:

Lying in the grass
Holding your baby
Holding your child
Holding your wife
Holding your husband
Petting your dog
Petting your cat
Petting your lizard
Watching movies
Reading books
Making things
Sitting in silence, outside, on a soft night.
Gardening
Carpentry
Running on treadmills
Being

All of this said, it occurs to me, that, all hardships and suffering included, the only people who were ever truly free and who never wasted a moment of life were the men and women of the American frontier whose every action was done to keep their families alive and strong.

If I'm right (and I am) then what does that say about the way we stack the social cookies these days? You know what it says. It says that what's real is fake and what's fake is real. It says we're unable to wake up and realize that we're characters in someone else's play.

It says that we, each of us, inside, is wider and deeper than all of human history, even though we're a thimble of water in the ocean of time.

If this all sounds crazy, worry about yourself. This is clarity. I'm not saying it to be clever, but to present the truth. Alas, truth is complicated and it is a hard prize to win.
"With work to do, and plenty to eat, I am already a rich man."
Kwai Chang Caine, Kung Fu



4 comments:

  1. Does time spent with your child/spouse/parent/lizard count as socialising?

    What about trusting your child/spouse/parent/lizard completely? Not in an idealised way, but with the knowledge that said child/spouse/parent/lizard, while having flaws, also has your back?

    Yes, I'm being difficult. But I think some of the boxes you've drawn up there are problematic, too.

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    Replies
    1. Of couse they are problematic, 'nora. You know I love to be problematic. Haha.

      To address specifics, I see "socializing" as more of a procedure -- an active and artificial pursuit of interraction. (But you know what a curmudgeon I am.) Time with family is, to me, at least, natural. No "-izing" of any kind, if you will.

      I'll stand by the trust statement, if only because of my use of the word "completely." I do trust the family to have my back, but not to NEVER let me down. Maybe my parameters of trust are impossible ones; hence, the issue.

      That said, there is more f the poet in me than the logician in this one, despite the call for a literal reading at the beginning. What I meant was that this should be read as metaphorically literal. (People will now slam their laptops shut and never read my stuff again.)

      In the end, I think I just sort of created an extended koan here...

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  2. Hmm. I don't think it's possible to enjoy most of the things on the second list without us, or someone else, doing most of the things on the first list...

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