January 31, 2006
The absence of light
Yes, I know the dark side of the moon.
Too often, I have called it home.
The ups there,
and downs there,
are the same,
as the brighter side.
But down is easier,
and up is harder,
in the dark.
You can stand tall there,
but no one cares.
None have eyes to see you.
You cast no shadow,
and no one can tell,
where the darkness ends,
and you begin.
(c) RLM
SHOULD I ?
What a question. Fortunetellers probably get tired of hearing it asked of them, but to answer the question on your own is always such a struggle.
The “Should I?” question is never really just one question. Because, to answer it, you have to answer (1) a question about the value of the target to be affected, and then (2) answer another question about your obligation to take, or not to take, the action being considered.
EXAMPLES
For instance: “Should I feed the kids?” requires you to make one judgment about if the kids are deserving to be fed, and it also forces you to make a decision about what if any, is your obligation to feed them.
Here’s another one:
“Should I post something on my class message board?” To answer that question, you have to first make a judgment about if the people reading the message board deserve to know about you or your thoughts. Then, you also have to make a judgment about what obligation, if any, do you have to participate and share anything.
Determining if the target deserves the action being considered, and then being at peace about whether to carry out the planned action, is tough stuff. (People have been known to quickly change channels when a charity telethon broadcast comes on the television, or to quickly scoot by the Christmas bell-ringers, all to avoid confronting the agony of the “Should I ?” question).
How odd, that two little words should make us struggle with our wants and desires, and force us to make huge judgments about how deserving our target is, and about what our perceived obligation, if any, is.
APPLICATIONS
The judgements forced by the “Should I?” question, are the two fundamental components of motivation. It is basic Marketing for advertisers to try and take the burden of answering those two little questions away from you. Advertisements will usually tell you (1) how highly valued their product is, or (2) how much you deserve to have their product, or both. Successful advertising aims to take all of the struggle out of answering the “Should I?” question. They seek to answer it for you. (And , *cough, cough,* several large religions offer to do fundamentally the same thing by removing the burden to think, and to make ones own judgements, from the practitioner.)
Are morals and ethics even important today?
The “Should I?” question is nearly impossible to answer, without them. The question itself is moral and ethical at its core because it forces us to evaluate our relationship to others, and it forces us to evaluate our relationship to our conscience, in two little words, every time we answer it.
The question also has a psychological component. If you never have a problem with the first question, and you say to yourself: “Whatever I want, is what I’m going to do” then you are a sociopath, in that you are placing your wants and desires above anyone or anything else. On the other hand, if you never have a problem with the second question, then you are a psychopath, in that you have no conscience, and therefore no fear of authority, and no fear of punishment.
There is no easy way out. The “Should I?” question does not allow for a simple Ben Franklin close, where you list all of the things opposed or in favor of a proposal on paper, and then choose the side with the longest list. No. Because the judgments necessary to answer the question “Should I?” are ultimately judgements about yourself, your place in the universe, your relationship to your own conscience.
The actions you take, or don’t take, are reflections of what you really think; of how you really value yourself, and your real relationship to others, and to God.
People speak of a Final Judgement by an exterior personality in the afterlife. But in reality, all of the judgements have already been made. You make them yourself, every time you answer the “Should I?” question.
All of that, is packed into two tiny little words we ask ourselves daily. “Should I ________?”
Isn’t Free Will a wonderful thing?
(c) RLM
I saw your hawk hover in the sky this morning.
And the bloody arms of the victims, you have yet to reach.
I feel you on the horizon.
And I know it is. . . no longer peace.
Oh, must I leave this jolly inn,
And in deadly solitude begin
To don these gauntlets once again
And ride the winds to war?
(Play the eerie music.) I’ve been thinking about the nature of evil. (Okay, I bought McDonald’s this morning, can you tell?) Been considering if being outspoken, loud, and obnoxious are natural traits of incarnate evil, or if evil acquires them from association with basal humans. I lean toward them being natural characteristics of incarnate evil, but there are times, I suppose, when good people are very outspoken. But, that is usually in response to evil. So, in the absence of evil, would good people be outspoken? Not in the sense we usually think of it, probably not.
It was a sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit. Why?
I do not rule out something coming from nothing, simply because you or perhaps I cannot demonstrate it. Even though every single thing we encounter in our 3-dimensional lives here on this planet can be traced back to a beginning point, our own anecdotal experiences, though many, cannot, even taken together, force the conclusion that something must also have created God. Please.
You might have a go at that if you can show that God is also a 3-dimensional being and limited to this planet and the finite sphere of our knowledge and experience. Certainly the preponderance of our knowledge and experiences would lead us to suppose such a thing. But, by the same reasoning ants in an ant farm might conclude that the sky is plastic, or that all ground is soft and permeable, or that all life lives underground. True, our ability to define God is finite and limited largely to our own experiences, that does not, however, mean God is finite and likewise limited to our ability to define him.
Does the assertion that God must also have been created, rest purely on your own anecdotal experiences, with 3-dimensional life, on this planet, in it’s most recent few orbits around the star we call the sun? Yes. Yes it does.
Why ask me anyway? If, for instance, I told you that the old lady who lives in the corner house created God, would you believe me? I won’t do it. I’ll not be the excuse you are looking for. I’m not your hall pass.
April 18, 2005
SPARKLE
Brave the darkness
Ignore the fools.
From the deepest mines,
Come the brightest jewels.
April 7, 2005
DESTINY
I lay down in soft clover,
To dream,
To set an even course,
As the clouds above me swirl,
And the world that I lay on spins,
And the wind blows the clovers
That surround me.
Overhead, the moon goes by,
Slowly,
As together, we circle the sun,
Spinning,
In a spiral galaxy,
In a universe,
That turns.
©RLM
Never Close Your Eyes
When the moon, makes the green leaves glow
And the night breezes, make them quietly dance
And when the tide breaks it’s silence, and laps at the shore
And the deep forest, isn’t quiet, anymore…
Never close your eyes
No never,
Never, close your eyes.
If you dance through grey fog on the damp empty streets
And hide in the shadows, from the colorful lights
If you hear only the clack, of your own two shoes
Alone, on the concrete, at night
Never close your eyes
No never,
Never, close your eyes.
And if you fly high, in the dark night sky
And look down, from above the clouds,
You can still see the glow, of streetlights, down below
To remind you; never close your eyes.
Never, never close your eyes
No never,
Never, close your eyes.
© 2004 RLM
Hmmm, doing a little editing tonight.
I don’t like editing.
It’s my Aquarious aversion to ‘form, I think.
But I’m not doing much new writing anymore, so….
Thinking about opening the doors of this old crypt back up,
in new ways, to let the curious poke around these old bones a bit more.
maybe.
Not sure I really want to step up into a spotlight any more than I already am.
But it may be the season.
Regarding our current Political events,
*cough* I predicted them 2 years ago. . .
http://www.xanga.com/The_Sea_Turtle/563485820/i-am-woman—see-me-vote/
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