As a writer once said, "There's nothing in the world worth writing about...that's why I've written so many books. I'll stop writing when I've found it." I've pondered that quote over and over again, knowing the author spoke in multiple layers of meaning in the same tone of voice found in the author's books. Thus, the quote, an excerpt from a radio interview, and the context in which it was set, told me the author said the opposite of what the quote implied. At the same time, it said what it looks like it said, that there is nothing worth writing about. And then again, the author was saying that writing is organized symbology or symbolism, hocus-pocus, flim-flam, parlor tricks, or other such nothingness - the world is everything, writing is only nothing but writing about everything. A good writer observes the world and paints with words. A great writer changes the world with new shades of painted words.
Great books do not make great works. The best-written, most eloquent novels probably sit in drawers and attic boxes, read only by the authors who wrote them. Great works write themselves. They find their worth in the world of readers and those who have not read the works but are willing to stake their claim on life based on what others have said about great works. Throughout history, the greatest works in the world have rarely been read by their strongest advocates, mainly due to illiteracy of the masses and the domineering dogma of the literate/illiterate elite.
The Internet did not invent Al Gore and it did not invent literacy. For years, computer programmers and software designers have pondered how to engage all seven billion of us in a universal manner so that symbols such as these letters and words, pictures/icons, and other visual/aural/touch communication methods would convey the same meaning.
From 上海 (Shanghai) to Москва (Moscow) to नई दिल्ली (New Delhi) to Ciudad de México (Mexico City), we miscommunicate our meanings to one another all the time, speaking the same language or not. Local leaders work with their constituents to accomplish many goals but fail to fulfill their dreams because of shortcomings between what is said and what is heard.
We look to great works in both word and pictures/art to teach us the universal meanings of what life's all about. We depend on past accomplishments to move us forward out of this present moment. We quote or interpret the great works with enthusiasm [often misquoting or taking quotes out of their original context (if we know anything about the original context)]. Despite our unintentional blunders, we muster our people and carry on, hoping we're all in agreement about the current agenda.
We are one people. Let me repeat that so you understand what I'm saying. We. Are. One. People. All seven billion of us, using whatever we've been taught or learned on our own to understand four words that may or may not make sense to us grammatically.
Just because we are one does not mean we have to agree with one another. In fact, I want us to disagree. Why be members of a flock of sheep who bleat the same wishes and complaints to one another over and over?
But disagreement and violence are two different stones in the stream. One slows down our flow of ideas and forms eddies that let some of us swirl around in temporary gatherings so we can see we're really all the same. The other breaks us down and tears us apart, scattering us and dashing us to pieces on unfriendly shores.
We know, from personal experience and from studying history, that violent tendencies serve good and bad purposes. A certain amount of aggressiveness has an undertone of violent potential that helps one person get another one to close a deal.
I'm not a psychologist or psychiatrist but I'm willing to wade into their pool of ideas and see what they might say about violence. How does violence/aggressiveness correspond to our concept of love (love of just being alive, love of family, love of broad political ideals, love of sexual partner, that sort of thing)?
Of course, you don't have to be a medical professional to know the answer to that question. The answer is fear. With violence/aggressiveness, one operates from a standpoint of insecurity due to fear or one finds ways to bring fear/insecurity out of others. Can you then take the next step and correlate the concept of fear/insecurity to the interaction of states of energy? Is a plant that protects its own kind through the spread of chemicals in the soil, water or air acting in the same manner as a mother/father animal scaring off a predator seeking to eat the parent's offspring as prey?
Great works. That's what this blog entry discusses. A great work inspires many people to thought and action. But what kind of thought and action? Love and caring for all people who agree and disagree with one another all the time? Violence and hatred for those who disagree with one set of thoughts/ideas?
What drives you forward out of this moment? Think about that question carefully. Are you driving or is something or someone else driving you? [The answer to the second question, in case you haven't figured it out from your own thoughts or the thoughts reflected in this blog, is both. We live together, you and I, influencing each other constantly.]
Look at yourself as an integral part of the environment. No matter where you live - in a grand estate or moving from one bridge underpass to another - you are not alone. We are the same, parts of this planet/solar system/galaxy/supercluster/universe.
I love you. I may not understand you or agree with what you say/believe but I love you anyway. And what is love? Love, in this context, is simply recognizing that on this big stone we call a planet that's spinning in the flow of the stream of solar wind, I need you (more than I can ever understand) so that I can get to the next moment alive in the way I've grown comfortable in thinking of myself as a person in our species that's really just one form of a temporary set of states of energy interacting with other temporary sets of states of energy we think of as animals, plants, rocks and such around us.
We don't have to like each other. We don't have to hang out and drink beers together cursing at the tellie because our favorite sports/stage star just screwed up our big bet with the bookie. We don't have to stand together behind the counter at the tax collection office and share our rolled-eye look as yet another taxpayer comes to us with a bunch of indecipherable paperwork. We can be what we want to be in complete opposition to each other's lifestyles.
There was a low-hanging fruit of an idea that brought me to the computer this morning. Hmm...what was it? Since then, I've filled the birdfeeders, thrown beer bottles in the trash (the other beer I bought yesterday was a six-pack of Bell's Kalamazoo stout - strong stuff!), sorted through some old treehouse-building books and computer equipment, consulted with my computer programmers about the information coming in from around the world of "players," and...
Oh yeah, great works. I write this blog for myself, as I/you know, because I can only ever understand myself, even though I don't really exist [one of my many mantras I write and rewrite in the form of quasi-interesting mandalas like this blog]. We will move out of this moment and into the next one while we're constantly changing. [Do you know how many millions of cells of yours die every day?] In both moments, we carry in our thoughts the ideas we think inspire us to greatness. Thus, there are no such things as great works that exist by themselves. The great works, instead, are you. Every one of you.
As great works, let's inspire each other to find life-enhancing means to share this planet together. We don't have to hold hands around the campfire and sing gooshy-ooshy, teary-eyed songs. We can stand apart from one another, if that's what it takes to understand each other's differences in the moment. In whatever position we stand/sit/lie down, let's look forward to the next moment and ask how we plan to share the moment together.
There are a lot of people who are unemployed or underemployed right now, people who have not made or cannot make the transition to a life of having less than they had before. There are those who are accumulating more than they or anyone they know can ever use. I am not an economic socialist. I am not a communist, a democrat, a republican or any label I can think of tied to economics or politics. I live together with you and that is all I need to know or say. Thus, how we choose to live our lives is up to us. I do not force my beliefs on you except when I encounter intolerance and then I carefully consider my options before exercising my right to correct the direction we're taking as a people, using temporary means that are whatever they are in the best effort to align means and ends but making tactical/tactless errors along the way (imperfection is another of my mantras). Anyway, however we find ourselves surviving or thriving in this moment, we will live into the next moment (and living includes dying in that our recently-dead bodies still inspire others to move into the next moment).
As great works, we have a voice. Let your voice be heard, no matter who you are or where you live. You may have to whisper or shout. You may have to tap the person next to you and smile or frown because you have no voice. You may have to think because you have no course of action to take with your body parts. Whatever form you/we have, feel free to be great. While doing so, think and act from a position of strength, support and love rather than fear, insecurity and intimidation. Every one of us is important to the other's survival whether we realize it or not, from the level of symbols like these to interacting states of energy we cannot see. Or perhaps you do see. Either way, let's celebrate each other's great works!
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