For The Love Of God

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So what’s going on then? Every attempt at defining God as a Being has tanked. Is there a reason for this?

Yes.

It’s because we don’t know what we’re talking about.
We won’t admit it but that’s what’s going on.

This is not about the existence of God, this is about our concepts of God, our very human concepts of God. This is about those who claim to know that which is way beyond our ability to know, and about those who are willing to kill anyone who disagrees. It is about pompous claims of righteousness that are simply not deserved (as if ever). It is about those who assume the mantle of moral authority who claim to be driven by “calling” when it is so painfully obvious that they are driven by fear, vanity or both.

Those who claim to know are eventually asked questions and, because they don’t really know, they get caught up in what they have not taken into account. When that happens they don’t say, “Well, you see, I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about”, of course, it’s that “God works in mysterious ways” (as if they knew how God does anything), or some other form of smoke blowing. We’ve been blowing smoke for so long, we forgot what it’s like to see. We’ve been describing what we think God must be like for so long, we forget that we have no idea. We’ve been pretending we know for so long we forgot what it is to learn.


Man’s concept of God was preceded by the development of his ability to abstract. Man’s concept of anything was preceded by the development of his ability to abstract. I also think it’s possible that man’s ability to abstract came as quite a surprise. It might even be said that we discovered abstraction and projectile defecation in the same instant.

“What the _(TBA)_ was that!!! Aw crap, I messed my loin cloth…oh, new word…hey everybody…I just called it ‘crap’! Is that good with everybody? Okay, ‘crap’ it is.”

The first people were not dumb but we were just getting started…learning that is. All we knew well was how to survive. So after the hunt and subsequent feasting you might have found yourself outside the cave, gazing at the wilderness before you, remembering the hunt, the lightning, and Gark, poor guy (see: lightning), when you started to wonder a silent version of “What the hell is going on?”

Our intellect was awakening, but the development of language is what will give it wings.  Although the potential of a spoken language was not yet fully realized, we had developed some remarkable abilities of abstraction as indicated by this find:

We were able to generate likenesses from memory.  These paintings suggest that our ability to abstract was beyond the beginner stage at this time.  Further evidence of our ability to abstract, which I find rather interesting to ponder, are the hand stencils:

 It’s easy to understand how we might have been motivated to paint the animals that were part of our lives, and scenes from the hunt, which must have been quite impressive, if not terrifying, for a first timer.  In contemplating the hand stencils, however, I pause.  What were we thinking when we came up with this idea.  Renderings of humans in these paintings, for some reason, are done with no where near the ability shown in the animal paintings, so the hand stencils are particularly curious to me.  Some theorize that they are a form of signature.  Because of the uniqueness of the human hand, this may simply be an indication of human presence, making ourselves known, for those who would come after us.  “Posterity” is pretty abstract.

 Here’s a more recent “cave painting” of ours which is racing through the universe presently:



The “Pioneer Plaque"

[Notice the prominence of the hand.]


This also suggests that there was at least an ad practicum understanding of modus ponens (“if/then” logic):

     If my father’s father died and later my father, then I will die and my children will take my place, etc.

It’s possible that our present concept of God came into view because of the application of modus ponens as well:

     If we didn’t make this world, then who did?

Lightning, tornadoes, floods, etc, are very powerful and we had nothing to do with creating them let alone the world they were happening in, so who did? As no one could match the powers of these things, nor could anyone demonstrate control of any of them, describing god took over and response to fear was our motivation and guide. Eventually, our concept needed a voice. Early practitioners of the “gift of gab” saw this need and potential, and were quick to talk themselves into a position to be declared the high priests & priestesses whose responsibility it was to speak for our concept of god, I mean, be someone that the gods could speak through. A king (also gab-gifted) was chosen to rule the military, collect taxes, and enforce the whims of that system’s beneficiaries and from this a social order grew. Because there was an organized effort, survival was a little easier, but other problems began to evolve.


So the serfs were beholding to the land owners (sub-tenants, actually), land owners to nobility (tenants of the King, actually), nobility to the Crown, the Crown to the church, and the church to god. But god is being defined by the priests and priestesses… “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!” because if you did mention the “man behind the curtain” you would be uncorking a flagon of “The Mist of Ass Whoop Forest” on yourself.

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Asking “who” created the universe assumes that the universe was created by a “who”, a being, a Supreme Being perhaps, but an entity separate from the rest of the universe in any case. This may reflect more our desire to translate everything to our level of understanding, thus limiting God to our human abilities and foibles as well. It has no basis in fact. It’s just us saying so.


This leads us to portraying God with our very human palette of emotions, particularly anger. For example, I was taught that when God looked down(?) on Sodom and Gomorra, He was angered. Why! He knew at the beginning of time what He was going to see when He looked “down”. He created the world in which Sodom and Gomorra evolved, with His full knowledge. In fact, Sodom and Gomorra was His idea as was/is everything else.


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Out of this confusion comes two styles of God from which to choose. There’s the God that is define intellectually, but lacks any evidence. This God is subliminally the placeholder for a more accurate God who has yet to reveal Him/Herself, that we have yet to understand because of our preoccupation with fear and/or vanity, and the fact that we are clueless, a condition brought on by being tossed out of Eden perhaps…at least I would think there would be consequences of being tossed out of Eden, yes? It is interesting that the people preoccupied with fear and/or vanity are the ones most eager to describe God for everyone else, and are the most likely to try to skip over the trouble spots as if they were doing God a favor.

For others, defining God is to kill God. Definitions are, by definition, defining. As no one knows the mind of God, on what are we going to base our definitions…a good book? Written by whom? Written for whom? No sir. Give me the God of omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence, because what I know of these powers is that they reach way beyond my abilities. As I contemplate what I consider the mind of God to be like, this seems to be as it should be. No one knows the mind of God. Not you, not me, not the Pope, not the evangelists, not the fundamentalists of any religion, no one.

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Then there’s the issue of worship and praise. These concepts appeal to egos only. God doesn’t want or need either. By the Church’s own definition, God is complete, He is in want of nothing. Add to that the fact that worship and praise do nothing. They do not cure disease, feed the hungry, educate, create, invent…nothing. It may inflate an ego to the point of becoming maniacal but that’s about it.


However, if you really have a thing for worship and praise, I have read descriptions of Satan that suggest he’s heavy into worship and praise. In fact, that seems to be all he’s into. That’s kind of interesting; God wants us to love one another, and Satan wants worship and praise.

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And why do we speak of God in the vernacular common during the time of Feudal rule…with the “lords” and “ladies” and “king” and “God’s court” and your “highness” (yeah, somebody’s trippin’ alright). We’re making Him out to be a dick like we are, forcing concepts like God to match our limited understanding of reality. Our concept of God is locked in a Feudal mindset as in “God is King”…why? What if in the presence of God all senses of class, social order, favoritism, etc, vanish and for the first time you actually feel a sense of completion, what real friendship is, of being completely accepted. There really is no sense to try to stuff God into a “King” scenario when what God really is might be many, many, many times better.


From what I can gather, God wants us to share in this awesome, fantastic, wondrous universe. To help each other develop our abilities and voice, to learn how to appreciate and participate in the unfolding universe. For us to peer into limitless dimensions is for us to peer into the mind of God. We will fail to understand it completely or barely for that matter, but we will understand why no one can speak for God.

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Some of us practicing traditional religions disregard the socio-political considerations because they see God as the embodiment of the highest aspirations afforded to human kind. These people are caring for the sick, giving comfort and aid to those whom life has beaten down, getting in harms way to stop abuse, and some being killed in the effort. From some of the reports I’ve heard from missionaries and relief workers, reports from “in the trenches”, it’s that they are so busy there is no time to preach. The only message they can give is that there are people, not from this hell, who came to this hell to help…and worked themselves to exhaustion and sometimes to death for no other reason than compassion. This is worthy of a real God.


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There are many groups who believe there is only one true God, and each camp thinks that the one true God is their true God, so somebody has to die, right? (ooo, muy macho). That, however, depends on the filter through which one chooses to view the world. When we look at the same scene through, let’s call it a “unification” filter, we may come to the conclusion that there is indeed one true God and He chose to address each culture in a way that best suited the evolution of that culture. But in each culture those responsible for speaking for God used their position to add elements that are obviously of human origin, not of God. If what you are really seeking is world domination, you write that crap in there, if you have a thing for controlling the behavior of others, stink the place up with that…who’s going to know? If one of these guys had been heavily jilted by a woman, he could write in a stanza or two to exact revenge, I mean, institutionalize what he feels is right and proper treatment. For example, at one time in Christianity, women were considered closer to Satan because they made men want to have sex with them…geez Louise, I’m just not from around here.



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La Madeleine, Paris

 There is an understanding in logic that may serve to stow emotional worries so one can be at ease in breaking lockstep with any specific school of thought: If God is the truth, then seek the truth.

If the temple is to stand, we must be honest about what we know, what we feel, who we are and know our limitations. Truth is not served by filling the logical space with political gods, maniacal ego tripping gods, false passion, disguising greed as the new “holy” or any other form of mindlessness. Apparently, God is not going to correct our view of Him. This means the accuracy of our understanding of God is totally in our hands. If we keep getting it wrong, we will remain exiled from Eden.



Interior, La Madeleine


God is the omnipotence, He is the power of the universe. He has never, does not now, or will He ever need our help with anything. None of us have ever been, are not now, nor will we ever be God’s little helpers.


If one thinks that by accumulating brownie points by going through the motions is how you enter the kingdom of God, may I recommend a change of filter?

“See me doing good acts?” does not further your understanding of yourself, and consequently does nothing to bring you any closer to God. But the more you understand about life, your sense of self changes, as does your concept of the world you live in. It becomes less about “you” and more about with what you are involved. Instead of pretending to teach, you find yourself wanting to learn more, see how other cultures handled life’s situations. One’s tears, one’s laughter seem more genuine as well.

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Don’t get me wrong, I do not exclude myself from these mindset problems. I have my own whacked-out ideas. For example, I don’t think Jesus died for our sins. I mean when I look at His case from what I know of people today, I think the money-changers bought the government’s ear, had “treason” charges brought up on Jesus in revenge for Him tumbling their gig in the temples. They promised the king a slice of the “temple” action if the king would dust “little goody two-sandals” over there. Later, when the gaping lack of wisdom of dusting Jesus started to show itself, the money-changers started to panic. If J C’s posse finds out that the money-changers were responsible, the money-changers would be the featured guests at a freak fry for sure. So they had to come up with something quick to the question why did Jesus have to die?

“Uh…um…’cause..uh…He had to…uh…[make it their fault, somehow…abusers always make the victims think it’s their fault]…Yeah, He had to die…uh to take away your sins…Yeah, that’s it…You did it with your sinful ways...

Meanwhile, I have Jesus witnessing all this saying,

“I will return when you people can demonstrate that you have understood what I was saying and treat each other as I have treated you…and stop trying to fool Me because I know, I’m Jesus…dig?” [I get my “slang” from Him, ya know]

“Only when you take My teachings to heart will I return. No war, no great battle between Good and Evil for your ego’s entertainment, or any other distraction…this is your direct responsibility…only when each one of you understand what it means to care for one another, only then will I return.”

You see? I’m nuts! But I’m not a problem because I’m not teaching my fix as God’s truth; I’m just playing with concepts like everybody else.




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We The People, 2010

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For Sale!




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My First Conspiracy Theory

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As there are so many “doomsday” conspiracy scenarios painted by the tea people against the liberals, the liberals seem to be suffering a “doomsday image” gap. We have seen the “hellscapes” that liberal policies will bring, as told to us by the tea people anyway, which is what they were told by Fox News, but the liberals have not offered as much imagery showing the horrors inherent in the continuation of conservative policies. As recent historical evidence does not seem to register with the tea people, I feel we need to choose a media they understand; the conspiracy theory. With the 2010 elections coming up it seems to me that we should make some effort to close the image gap a little. To that end I thought I might try my hand at generating a conspiracy theory about conservatives so the tea people can see what some of us see as resulting from their policies. Please remember that this is my first attempt at a conspiracy theory so forgive me if I make newbie mistakes or if I fail to motivate you sufficiently to arm yourself with assault weapons and attend a town hall meeting on daycare reform, because we would rather have our children exposed to peril than to have any more government regulations on businesses…oops, sorry, wrong side.

The Theory:

We know that the tea people (liptonites?) are drones for Fox News, and we know generally those responsible for the content of the Fox News indoctrination programming. The question is why are the town clowns being instructed to rile the village idiots to make war against those standing for social justice, and why, with such fervor, now?

It is because the extreme corporate right thought that they had the mechanisms in place to control the people of the Unites States forever with the anointing of “Dubya” as Head Idiot of the façade government these corporations have been able to purchase so far. It was going along pretty well too, at least in their little dream world, until they crashed the party boat onto a reef of economic reality. Even though none of them “believe” in reality, they went aground anyway (go figure). This happened, of course, at our expense, but then the corporate fascista turned to the very people they had just raped and demanded that we clean them up, also at our expense. In the election of 2008 the victims started pushing back.


The corporate fascista did not like the election of Barack Obama, nor would they have any liberal for that matter, because their assumed control of the government and her people was taken from them. Their reaction to this setback is an all out, full court press, “it doesn’t matter how”, lie, use God’s name lavishly for this vanity, bare false witness against any and all liberals, lie some more, cheat, use racism, energize class warfare, use economic sabotage on stimulus programs, engage in the rabid use of obfuscation, buy more politicians, instigate and ramp up hatred to the point of violence, and anything else you can think of, take over of the United States, her people and our history. They want to control everything and not for the betterment of mankind, but for the sole purpose of satisfying their limitless greed. It should be pointed out that this is not the typical, everyday, “run-of-the-mill”, greed we’re talking about here either; this is not the “I wouldn’t have to work anymore, I could live wherever I would like and drive whatever car I wanted” type of greed. No, this is greed taken to a psychotic level [ref: Tibetan Buddhism/Hungry Ghost]. This hunger cannot be satisfied.

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The Plan For The Corporate Takeover Of The United States

Step 1: Make the United States government as small as possible.

Our government is the ONLY means by which we, the average American, can stand against blind corporate greed. Over the years the representative party of the corporate fascista stood against child labor laws, women’s suffrage, public schooling, food and drug regulations, FDIC, Social Security, civil rights, and Medicare to name a few, and all of these were good for the average person at the expense of corporate greed. The corporate fascista have every intention of repealing every one of these programs by making them seem un-American and disgusting. In fact, the government is just a nuisance to them and they demand that they rule everything. Now, by obfuscation, the corporate fascista have some of us believing that helping each other achieve our fullest personal potential is evil, whereas letting people die from lack of health care is regrettable but necessary if the psycho-greedy have an opportunity make more money.


The corporations in question will have Fox News make the tea people think things like, “Hey, all that those regulations do is make the products more expensive and the government bigger. The corporations are people too. They wouldn’t do anything to knowingly hurt us. Excuse me, do you have a cigarette?” …and the “they”, “them”, and “those” references to the government are designed to keep a firm subliminal wedge between the people and their own elected representation. By doing this, the corporate fascista can get the tea person to think that environmental, safety and health regulations on industry are just examples of further government interference, just like “them takin’ yer money with their taxes and yer guns agin yer will” (I had to scribe the accent so the claim seemed “folksy” and grass-rooted). Now, after years of the corporate fascista vilifying our own representative government, the tea people are befriending the very people who will enslave them, and they are doing it without as much as a thought. For the fascista, everything is going according to plan.

To confine the role of the United States government to the civilian control of the military is the goal of the corporate fascista, with the unspoken proviso that the corporate fascista make up the “civilian control”. If successful, the military/industrial complex will then just buy the government, if they haven’t already, giving the corporations in question full exploitation of our military. They get the nations military and we get to pay for it and man it with our sons and daughters. The corporate fascista will simply tell Fox News to sell their military ambitions as “of vital interest to the United States”, vilify the people in that area who they determine need to die, vilify those of us who object, and do whatever they want.

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Step 2: Break the Middle Class.

The only threat to the corporate fascista’s plan is a united middle class, in this case the United States government by name. To destroy this opposition, they have devised a strategy to drain the money out of the middle class until they are no more. With extreme healthcare costs, bankers locked in psychotic greed fantasies, etc, money is being pumped out of the middle class like, say, oil out of a ruptured well head. More middle class people are forced to sell their homes and with fewer middle class people in a position to buy these homes the housing market floods causing the prices to drop, new construction stops, more jobs lost, et al. The corporate fascista will, when ready, start buying these properties up for cheap with profits gained by high healthcare costs, bail-out money, etc, and then rent these properties back to the people who used to own them. Rent will be high and what wages there are will be low. The military will be one of the few employment opportunities left for young Americans. The fascista knows that we would be paying our sons and daughters to die for their greed. It would cost the corporations nothing. In fact they make money selling the necessities of war. That’s why they are instrumental in starting them. It is their intention to keep us scared and needy so we are more easily controlled and “a war” together with economic hardship is perfect for this. It is no wonder they are the cause of both.

[If some of you are thinking, “Isn’t ‘scared and needy’ more the mindset of a child?” The answer is yes, but we all have a little of that in the “background” to some degree, basically because we were once children, and the fascista knows it. That’s why they are trying to make liberals appear to be the “boogie man” and their “children” are buying it.]

In tort reform, the corporations have every intention of getting rid of any way the average American can hold them responsible for their actions. They are going to hard sell any law suite against them as “frivolous” and claim that it will only add to the cost of their products. By stacking the courts with their “sheep”, they will determine what your damages will be…if any.



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When I’m told that the reason the economy is sluggish is because of lib’rils, I can’t help but think that this graph suggests there’s another reason. I’m not saying that this situation must stop, or that laws should be passed, that is a debate for another time. What is being said here is this is destroying the economy of the world. Call it something else, blame something else, claim that it’s punishment from an all loving god, whatever, but the gears won’t turn unless the money starts to flow. That law has been passed and it had nothing to do with the government…it’s an economic reality (and these babies are rare).

We can no longer support the lifestyles of the psycho-greedy. Keep in mind that without us, without the people who build the castles, there would be no castles; without the people that grow our food, there will be no banquet; without employees, you would have no customer base; without the middle class no one can be rich. So if we’re going to have rich people, let’s have them be people who enjoy the idea of investing in the society that offers them this opportunity. Have him/her be someone who takes pride in that society and helps keep it running like a well tuned Lamborghini. It’s a simple choice: to be an asshole or a hero…who knows, people might even start caring about you too.

We are a young species and we have made enormous strides.  Consequently we find ourselves in a position we have never been in before.  We are finding that the economic system we have been using for centuries can choke itself to death.  So, go ahead, start a political fight, won’t you…I’ll just sit over here, maybe have a latté, and watch you beat the messenger to death while an opportunity of an eon passes us by.

 Nobody fairs as well financially as they do under democratic presidents, not even republicans. This is caused by fundamental flaws in the republican philosophy. One such flaw is denying the validity of the following argument:

Labor = Middle Class
Middle Class = Customer base
:: Labor = Customer base

“Shipping jobs overseas will only increase my profits. My customer base will increase because the product will be cheaper. Of course, I’ll keep the price the same anyway and keep the profits for myself…where’s my foil helmet? I think the Martians are scanning again.”

 [ http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/09/why_elections_matter_in_one_gr.html ]
 
[By the way, the Bush tax cuts have been in effect throughout Obama’s presidency so far and I don’t see it stimulating anything, except making the champagne glass more top heavy.]


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Once the middle class is without recourse the final step can be taken.

Step 3: Corporate Aristocracy.

This is when the tea people find out that the corporate fascista no longer requires their services and will be ordered to enter serfdom with everyone else. With the military in tow, the fascista will no longer need the Tea People to do their bidding and, like the brown-shirts before them, will be dismissed. Armed rebellion is out of the question because the tea people will have to sell their guns for food, heat, medical care, etc. No need to pry guns from cold, dead hands when you can have cold, sick, hungry hands give them to you for 10¢ on the dollar – why you couldn’t buy the bullets to shoot them for that kind of money. Don’t think, however, that the history of the tea people will be without successes. For example, the government will no longer be interfering with our healthcare. There are no benefits offered with the position of serf. We get to pick through whatever is left over at whatever price is asked. At that point the only thing we can be proud of is that we kept the government (ourselves) from interfering in our personal lives.



Well, I hope you enjoyed my first conspiracy theory. Perhaps, if anything, it demonstrated that we liberals can think up scary stories too.

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Art School (Part 1)

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“You may think that you’ve come here to learn to draw, paint and sculpt but that’s not why you’re here. You are here to learn how to see.”

This was my introduction to art school and the nature of my art education. Learning to see…the negative shapes as part of the whole, that I’m not sketching an interior, I’m trying to capture its shadows, and there’s a lot of blue in that red (fire trucks). I was and am amazed at the richness and dimension there is in life, and that light was turned on when the professor said, “You are here to learn how to see.”

[Stairway to the Antiquities: Musée du Louvre]

If you’ve not been in the Louvre yet, you have quite the experience waiting for you. For one thing, this joint is freakin’ huge! It has to be huge because this place houses centuries, nay millennia, of human feeling, aspiration, conquest, defeat, ruin, liberation, et al and all captured in a story form we call art.

This place is stinking with people learning to see…and what they’re studying are these examples, a lot of examples, by masters who have recorded their progress as they learned to see. Can you imagine studying art history when instead of a slide you get to see the actual piece? Here are some of those luckier bastar…uh…students (below) studying just a portion of the $bazillion dollars worth of Neo-Classical art housed in just this section of the Denon wing:

[Large Format French Paintings, Denon wing, Musée du Louvre.]

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When the very early Greeks were beginning to, for some reason, manipulate matter to fashion it into something else, they had something in mind but not necessarily something epochal. They were just getting the hang of their media and they found that they could express…well, that they could express anything was the wonderment. They were playing with forms, shapes, textures, and they were finding out that they could paint patterns onto their clay with different thinned-out clay and it will stay after firing. How cool is that?


But in this particular period, in this particular region of the ancient world, we started drawing patterns that were not relative to the natural world. These designs were purely geometric, purely of the intellect. I wonder where that road would take us if we were silly enough to follow it.

After a few hundred years of practice we got pretty good at manipulating matter. We found that certain materials were a joy to work with and others not so much. We also went from this person in her geometric muumuu (to left)…



…to this person half out of her muumuu (below):

[“Venus de Milo” (Aphrodite). Musée du Louvre]

I always thought of her as dancing…maybe to Jimien Hendrixis.

"Venus de Milo can have my arms, look out I’ve got your nose, give my heart to the junk man and give my love to Rose.” -John Prine.


What…you were expecting some serious discussion of the sculpture during the Hellenistic Period of Ancient Greece? Oh…okay…mmm… Ancient Greek sculpture from the Hellenistic Period can be characterized by mankind achieving near realism in detail of the human form, the draping of material, etc, as well as capturing an accurate sense of movement. This is evident in the “Venus” in that her spine has a twist because her left leg is forward and up slightly, and with her weight on her right leg, I… yes…definitely, I have to conclude that she is doing “the pony”. Yes, that’s right, “Venus” is purposefully loosing altitude…she is getting down with her bad self.


Anyway…




[Musée Du Louvre: http://www.louvre.fr/llv/commun/home.jsp?bmLocale=en .]



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Over at the Musée D’Orsay they have Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” on loan from the MOMA, NY, NY, I read somewhere. I would love to hop on a plane right now and go verify that for you, but that aint’ going to happen…in the episode, anyway… Anyway, that joint looks like this from the middle of the Seine:

It used to be a train station. The French know how to build a train station, don’t they? I did not get to visit the Musée D’Orsay because I’m an idiot. So, I must go back.

[Musée D’Orsay: http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/home.html ]



The Louvre takes us to about 1848. The Musée D’Orsay covers 1848 to 1914, which includes Impressionism among many other schools of art. This is a period that seemed to concern itself with our inner reality. Artists became aware of the fact that we are not naturally in “lockstep” with each other. They began to openly admit that the world they were seeing was not of the world that could be captured by that new picture making device (camera). If ten artists painted the same thing at the same time, not one of them would duplicate another. Even if you tried to copy another exactly, there will be a signature your individuality somewhere in that painting. Instead of trying to conform to visual accuracy, or some other culturally accepted standard for proper art, they attempted to express a view more respective of their responses to stimuli. They were not trying to capture life; they were trying to capture the effect that life was having on them.


As I can’t get “Starry Night” out of my head, I guess I may as well use it:

[“Starry Night”, Vincent Van Gogh, Museum Of Modern Art, NY, NY]

In learning to see, I realized that data was coming into me from “out there”, into me and heavily processed, and then I’d fashion it to become an expression of my experience…an art object.

In Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” one realizes the definition of “seeing” has to include the processing. The data has been processed, indeed, but what Vincent was seeing with his mind’s eye is breathtaking. In this period of our art education mankind was particularly keen on the idea that all we know is an impression of the world. This is based on the realization that the act of seeing is the processing of data. We wouldn’t be able to paint a stroke, play a note, or utter a word if data hasn’t been processed.

Reality is a matter of language in that we’re using the same words while looking at the same things to describe them. Whether what you’re seeing and what I’m seeing are actually the same experience is unknowable. With the amount of variables involved, however, I have to think that there’s no way that we’re living in the same world. Still there remains the fact that this piece (“Starry Night”) from another mind affects me as it does, and in talking with others who admit to being affected by it as well, we may still be connected but how we might be connected is getting more interesting the more I look.

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After a while we decided to find out what would happen if one’s feelings were allowed to select the imagery as well. As you can imagine, this opened up a big can of “crazy”. The impressions were transforming into expressions as many of these paintings were not relative to any specific place on earth, but of mind. Images now could be expressed from deep within us, which gave us the ability to face ourselves, see what motivates us, what stops us, and what’s left for us to do.


We start to see the likes of cubism, surrealism, and later, after the wars, abstract expressionism, show themselves in all their glory. This was an atmosphere where art was expressed unabated, well except for the limits of our fear, which is often the “cutting edge” of our art anyway. One finds oneself facing some interesting things when creating art. That’s why an artist can seem so preoccupied when he/she is in “create” mode. The artist might be becoming aware of a well hidden fear, memory or something but he can’t quite get it into view. Then someone like me comes along and starts asking stupid questions like, “When’s the last time you ate?”, “Wanna go bother some women artists?”, “What’s that?” [I’m an ass, what can I tell ya], or whatever, and all he wants to do is get a handle on something that has been eating at him all his life. [Now you know why I have time to write this stuff up.]


Art allows us to see what’s inside our nebulous world of thoughts, notions and feelings that usually exists out of focus. We keep it out of focus sometimes because we have so much to tend to now, or sometimes to avoid complexities that we feel would make now not a good, proper or constructive time to bring la libra esthétique to the fore, or we really don’t know how to express ourselves yet, or we’re straight-up chicken shit, but whatever the reason, our stuff can get stuffed in there, and stuffed in there good. The matter is further complicated as art is a non-linguistic expression of a state of mind. Art cannot be explained away, even by the artist to the artist, as the art is the best explanation he/she can achieve [ref: Picasso]. There is no linguistic equivalence, even to prose or poetry. In other words you have to make your art. Talking about it just doesn’t work.

[“Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man” (1943), Salvador Dali:]

Our passion, our compassion, our fears, whatever, call it in the air, all gets boxed up and, per the occasion that could be fine, necessary perhaps at times, but if (and only if) you have a place, or studio, or whatever works for you where you can state your case. With canvas, with stone, with guitar, with words, with whatever makes the point the best, hone your skills so they are second nature to you, then speak as though your sanity depended on it.



Now, I’m not saying that you’re going to be the next Picasso or Gauguin, because if you’re one of those guys, who’s going to be you? No, what I’m saying is that you should be the next person to say, “Damn, I didn’t know that was in me!”

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State of Mind



[NGC 6188]


Let’s talk about reality. The above is a photograph of NGC 6188, and I’m sure that they give the catalog number in case you want to order one for the back yard. The point is that this is a photograph, not a creation from an artists’ imagination. This is part of our “knowable” universe. It’s just that, for most of us, we didn’t know about this part of our knowable universe until our eyes glommed on to the picture of it just now. And it doesn’t take long for the mind, whatever that is, to start to interpret parts of the photo into shapes more familiar to our usual scale and knowledge base.

For example, this part of the photo appears to be a winged being of some kind floating through space. Although I have not, those who have studied Greek mythology might interpret this as Progresso, the goddess of soup, perhaps. Those who have been exposed to western religion might start to interpret this shape as an angel or demon perhaps. Non religious people who were raised in a religious home could find themselves commenting on how religious people would see this shape as an angel or demon when the interpretation was being done by me them in the first place.

Those who have had a chance to study impressionist art may see this part as the face of a person sleeping; possibly dreaming up the adventures of the angel/demon/soup goddess.













Of course that interpretation will dominate for a little while, I suppose, at least until another interpretation is rendered. In any case, it doesn’t take long for the mind to do its thing and each one of us is doing this to everything we see all the freaking time. Filling in gaps that would support what we already assume to be the truth is the one thing in the universe that might happen faster than the speed of light were there any way to measure it. However, when our holiest mindsets are threatened with the realization that they are simply interpretations like this and not true, some people panic, engaging emotional responses, and some become quite violent and would kill you.  Why?...'Cause the soup goddess told 'em to.


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Do you remember the ice cube illusion we would draw in high school:



By Nathen Denham





















Oh…uh…no…good job though…



I mean a simple line drawing of a box that was called an “ice cube” because you could see all the edges, like this:

As we gaze at this drawing, it seems that we’re looking from the top down at a translucent box, or from the bottom up. We can see it as if in the upper or lower, right hand or left hand corner of a room and it changes from one to the other, sometimes quickly…but that’s not really true. It’s not the drawing that is changing; it’s our mind that’s changing. The drawing isn’t doing anything.

We are watching a demonstration of the minds’ ability to change how the world physically appears to us.






 [When one says of his/her explanation, “this is the way the world is”, one is in effect saying that he/she has stopped looking. That statement would only be valid as a snapshot of all the variables frozen at that time for that one person.]


What complicates matters even further is that the mind’s interpretation can be misled…we can be wrong:

With the man in the box, the mind races to find the source of the incongruity in the analysis. The visual report is suggesting a “reality” that the logic base cannot accept. This mental situation is usually accompanied with a linguistic expression such as, “what the hell…?’, “that can’t be…’ or “Hellllo, sailor…” depending on the person commenting.





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Further complications arise as we realize that we can create intellectual filters that attempt to remove information that is contrary to the established belief structure of our society/culture, or filters that let through only information that supports what some want us to think from now on. From obfuscation to flat out lying, “anything to have my interpretation be the interpretation”. We have found that we can train people to think the way we want them to by issuing Dicta ex cathedra (from the throne) and vilifying any challenge to the claims or to the authority of those Dicta, and forcing adherence to them by use of anything from threats of being ostracized to being murdered. Some of us are guilty of doing this to others, but all of us are victims of it, some more than others.

We have had our young minds indoctrinated in a few ways that are, well, questionable in terms of morality. It may have been done in hopes that we might have a better life, but in some cases it was done simply to control the behavior of others to the liking of the dictator. In any case, it has to stop.

This is a photo of the altar in the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. In the western world we are taught that this type of scene embodies the meaning of our worship. It speaks to the love our Creator has for us and the sacrifice that is the covenant between us and the Creator.

But our logic base is claiming that this is what we truly worship as defined by the amount of time and energy, both emotional and physical, spent on its concern.

There is even evidence that suggests nothing is more sacred than money to some people. To find that evidence just turn on the evening news of any reputable network and, before the first aspirin commercial, my point will be made.






…And if all the religions are all about love, beauty, peace and our covenant with God, then my logic base wants to know what the hell this is:

We are in each others’ care. The greatest country in the world is the country that has the kindest, most selfless, people; and you don’t say it, you do it. Furthermore, it is for other countries to decide; for to say, “Mine is the greatest country” does nothing but alienate people from you and ends up meaning nothing to anyone but you: “a legend in your own mind”.


Then there is the question of your intention. What exactly are you attempting to accomplish with this strategy of total exclusion…make friends…what? Gain respect? Please tell me, I’d like to know.

A real American is not someone wielding and uneducated mouth around, shooting it off whenever he/she feels a need for attention. That would be a real idiot that happens to live in America. No, a real American is someone who would shield someone else’s wounded infant with his/her body in an attempt to save the infants life. Interestingly, that is also the definition of a real Englishman, a real Frenchman, a real German, et al.

Arguments?

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There is also the ability for a state of mind to change how we see the world with profound silence. For example, the Immigration Reform debate in the US. I can describe the state of mind of the conservative on this topic as I can the liberal, but the whole argument falls silent when we consider this issue from the state of mind of the Native American.

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There are a lot of states of mind to be had in a day, let alone in a lifetime. Some will complement, some will clash, some will make no difference to the conceptual demands we already make on “reality” with our cultural indoctrination in the first place. Many of us feel that what we have been taught by our ancestors and teachers, culture and religion is the correct view, which is precisely the same feeling other people have about their cultural view, but instead of realizing that one group is looking at the box from the top and another the right, the difference is used as an excuse to blow each other to hell which, according to my logic base, makes invalid the religions practiced by those involved.

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For about 2 million years we have been watching our mind do tricks. We have evolved a language and took some time outs along the way to kill each other. We evolved science and the arts and took some time outs along the way to kill each other some more.



[Hubble Space Telescope]








The same species that created this bad boy…

…created this bad boy…











…but not the same people.


Some of us can’t get enough turmoil and war. As embodied in the famous quote from Gen George S Patton, “I love it. God help me I do love it so. I love it more than my life.” Personally, I can’t help but feel that war is an attempt to cure the boredom inherent in maintaining an underdeveloped world view. However, when bullets of varying caliber are whizzing all around you and your ass is on fire and the index finger on your left hand has been shot off and there are bits of your buddy hanging off your face and uniform from when he caught a mortar shell next to you, and this has all happened in the last five minutes, the one thing you are not is bored. Of course, our life has the added benefit of definition and purpose when there is conflict. This is especially true for the armchair generals who suggest acts of great bravery that they would perform if only they had the chance, but this is the “bravery of being out-of-range” talking here for sure.


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Reality is the state of mind you are in right now. The reality of the fans supporting the winning team and the reality of the fans supporting the losing team are happening at the same time and about the same event. A few weeks ago I lost my neighbor and friend, swimming accident, and my reality changed in an instant, big time…he’s just gone, no warning, no good-bye, no anything, just gone…and reality is the state of mind you are in right now…and the beat goes on.

After a while I tire of the trials and tribulation, my emotional energy runs way low. So how can I get a break from all of this, just for a little while? Just to get my energy charged up and emotions to calm down. Well, one thing I do is use the same method I used to screw myself up in the first place…I give myself an image like this to entertain my mind:

Early in my study of Eastern thought I discovered the analogy of the mind as a pool: If we are constantly splashing around, the pool reflects the scrambling of light at best. Very exciting, sparkling with quick flashes and sometimes patterns of flashes repeating, moving, etc, but it isn’t until we calm down and the water stills do we begin to see a reflection of the world more accurately and without effort.

My mind calms down quite nicely when I look at something like this. I know I will be returning to the fray soon but, for now, I’m just looking, thanks.



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In Memorium

This is the look Jim would give me right before he’d give me a load of stink…which he did.




Geezuz, Jim…

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