Sunday, May 16, 2010

Gifts to the Night

Now that I have given up on the past
I've garnered some trust and I know it will last

How that I've started to let myself go
The end is inside every act of the show

Let me rewind you and open your eyes
Your spinner is spun, you wont compromise

The fruits of the future are carrots on strings
Once you begin to believe what you sing

Others are sources of intrigue and hope
Inspire the tireless focus of scope

Consumption and light are gifts to the night
It isn't so cruel to have such a plight

Thursday, May 13, 2010

To be conscious of time nexus

Imagine being conscious of time nexuses
Conscious meaning knowing that you know

A time nexus, as used here, is a place in time when continuing change has begun
From this moment forward, a pattern will arise

We all experience time nexus thoughts
I just don't think that I'll have enjoy this much longer
I bet this signifies the beginning of an end

Imagine knowing, and knowing that you know
That a nexus of time has occurred

It will be liberating and powerful
And cut down on grasp-mileage

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

The open road

I can hit the open road
I can deal with undealt hands and unknown faces

The problem is that I can already do this
What I can't do is stay, sit, stay

Keep the wander skills fresh or develop the domestic ones?
The problem with domesticity is that it's a trap
Hard to see how wandering is a trap, well not too hard

Settle too early or settle to late
Which is my fate?

Monday, May 10, 2010

How to get help from the world

We all need help. Most of us are not so great at getting the kind of help that we truly need, though. That long-lasting, dynamic help, the watching, waiting-for-the-right-moment-to-step-in help.

The easiest way to learn how to get help is to learn how to give help, learning how to listen and wait, respecting the unique struggles of others.

Helping isn't easy. Helping is a sacrifice without a guaranteed return. At some point, though, helping is much easier than living without knowing how to get help from the world.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

We prefer to think of time as a concept as opposed to a dimension.
We prefer to think of when we are as opposed to where we are in it.

We must experience where we are.
Now is the only when.

Where has it been all my life.
It's been here, now, my whole life.

Now comes from nowhere.
Now has been here.

The future is there.
the past is there.
Was and will be are mere directions.
How far was that, how far will be that.

How long until the now I hope for.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Monkey's typing Shakespeare

If you have never heard of this thought experiment, look it up!

It seems to me that the probability of a monkey or group of monkeys writing Shakespeare would go down if we were to teach all the monkeys in the experiment a few words but not all the words they would need and, of course, not as much as they would need to know about the human condition or language to re-create Shakespeare's wit and insights on their own.

Really think about that. I think that if you do, then you will agree that teaching the monkeys a little will reduce the likelihood of one or a group of them writing a sizable passage of Shakespeare, let's say a sonnet or more.

Now let's extrapolate. The odds of a modern human creating a perfect communication (explanation, poetry, lyric, whatever you wish to imagine) goes down the more they are "taught," from the outside and take to be a kind of necessary ingredient. I mean "taught" as in beyond language, like about the importance of this or that. I mean...

That was perhaps a stretch. Instead, let's just say that if we all knew English but never felt any pressure to agree with each other on anything, we'd find more perfect forms of expression quicker, as a group, than in the situation we have now.

I believe that from this conclusion, we can salvage a new source to justify our ever-longed-for interdependence. Imagine if all we ever wished to accomplish by socializing was to understand what other people were trying to express. Not to agree, or start a club, or partially agree and then convince them of a slightly better formulation, but just to understand. And this will to understand, this desire to understand, would of course lead one to wish that they could be understood more easily. This would lead to general compassion and, as mentioned before and fortified by this will to understand, a quicker process of genuine intellectual, poetic, and perhaps all other forms of expression.

Let's cabin this "expression" concept to speech and imagine a conversation:

Person 1: "blah blah blah"
Person 2: "I understand, blah blah blah"
Person 1: "I understand, blah blah blah"
Person 2: "I understand, blah blah blah"
Person 1: " I understand, and... that is the most sublime way of putting it that I have ever heard."

Now let's try a conversation in the society we have now:

Person 1: "I was thinking the other day about that thought experiment with monkeys typing Shakespeare. Do you think they would type Shakespeare faster or slower if they were taught only a few words? I think slower."
Person 2: "Oh yeah. I learned about that in college. is it like the whole group is pressing keys and there is only one output? Or are there just a bunch of them with individual outputs. I think that makes a difference."
Person 1: "That definitely makes a difference. For my variation to make sense, it would have to be individual outputs, more monkeys just to make the process faster."
Person 2: "Yeah well I don't think there would be a difference. It would still seem random"
Person 1: "But don't you think that a monkey knowing a word would make that monkey have some weird preference for the word?"
Person 2: "No."
Person 1. "I don't understand how you could see it that way."

Monday, May 3, 2010

Are we scaring the kind spirits away?

When I feel my most peaceful and lucid I find cars and the hard-lines of development frightening.

I find flippant remarks like "well that's just the way it is" and "life isn't fair" to send me reeling

And so, I must ask again, are we scaring the kind, wise spirits away?

I heard they live in the water and come out at night
I heard that it is a dangerous journey for them
Dangerous even before, before 24-hour streetlights and the stumbling young, before all the hard ground and hard-line-shadows, the buzz and the smell of waste

Are you scaring the kind, wise, peaceful, beautiful spirits away?

Are you hard or soft before you tumble to sleep?
How would you react to spirit coming to your bedside?
You might ask, "what are you doing?" and the spirit will hold your hand and say, "This is alright for now"

Are we scaring the kind, wise, peaceful, beautiful, gentle, brave, caring spirits away?