Shadows in the Dust
Just my thoughts
Sunday, August 1, 2021
Saturday, July 31, 2021
The Nature of Inspiration
What is
inspiration and where does it come from? Inspiration is like a myth and may
actually be the only real myth we have and it has been with us since the dawn
of time. The nature of inspiration offers the possibility of transcendence and
it is an unfailing ideal that fosters courage and the hope of triumph. We
inherit inspiration from the generations that went before us.
Inspiration gives birth to ideals and those ideals
are vital to the human experience and to the world. They represent justice and
mercy, truth and honor, courage and sacrifice, romance and altruism, love and
faith, glory and triumph, vision and hope etc... We share these ideals with
each other, and out of these ideals and every good and virtuous cause flow our purest
motivations, and when we destroy ideals we also destroy the motivations that we
derive from them and not just that but also the purest of virtues.
Ideals and
beliefs are not the same.
Ideals are
standards of what we deem perfect and ideals can be corrupted when we use them
as defensive excuses that protect us from beliefs that fail.
Our beliefs
offer us the safety of certainty and sometimes fail because of fear.
It isn't a
matter of what do you trust more...your ideals or your beliefs...but rather how
we get them to walk side by side.
We tend to
categorize our beliefs into true, false or still pending. Ideals exist as
archetypes and icons to reinforce our beliefs and that creates courage of conviction.
Transcendence is derived from a constant that has been with humanity since the
dawn of time. It is a certainty that persists wherever we find life. That certainty
is inspiration.
We live in a
world and in a universe of limited observability. Although some of that
limitation has diminished, meaning we can peer into the cosmos or explore the
micro cosmos, it is mostly a limited and linear exploration. We are searching for
freedom in an existence of limitation. Inspiration is freedom from limitation
into transcendence. Inspiration is our greatest remedy.
We crave
safety and certainty because we observe a dangerous environment. That danger is
the risk of death. The reality of death is a shadow that never leaves us. Ideals
are our way of seeking immortality. We behave differently in childhood and take
more risks and engage our imagination because of a lack of awareness in regards
to death. We don't see ourselves dying as a result of any risk we may take as
children towards death. As adults we tend to minimize risks and move away from death.
These are prime motives of the human condition.
Michelangelo
said, "The greatest danger never lies and setting our aim too high and
falling short but aim too low and achieving our mark." He was talking
about an openness to transcendence by way of inspiration as an unfailing ideal
that asked...how much more courageous is it follow after inspiration despite
the awareness of the risk associated with finding expiration instead?
We are ultimately
at the mercy of our beliefs and our ideals. It is true that there is nothing
new under the Sun. The mechanism of the universe operates the same from birth
to death. We create truth around that mechanism or we are influenced to continue
in someone else's truth and form ideals to reinforce a belief but what I've
discovered is that truth, despite our inner motives maintains itself, without
the necessity of our beliefs or ideals to uphold itself.
Robert Frost
said, "We dance round and ring in suppose but the secret sits in the
middle and knows." That secret is truth. Truth is beauty and beauty is truth,
we've heard this before but what is truth? This isn't a new question and we all
offer a different answer. For me inspiration offers a glimpse at the secret
that sits in the middle. Inspiration may be the only truth that has ever been.
Inspiration
has been my chief motivation since I was a small boy. What is the nature of inspiration,
the breath of life that offers transcendence? Where does inspiration come from?
Does it exist somewhere deep within ourselves or does it come from something
external or both simultaneously? How is it connected to our imagination? Is it
outside of our control? May we summon it at will? My belief is that the epiphany
follows after openness.
Inspiration,
as mysterious as it may be, spurs the engines of creation and human limitation is
broken by the freedom that inspiration offers. When it seems like we've reached
our full potential, inspiration is what gives birth to transcending that
potential. Maybe inspiration is just a consolation for the limitations that we
face, showing us that we are more than what we appear to be. And, who knows, maybe
limitations exist so that we can experience transcendence.
Imagination
and creation engage our beliefs and ideals but inspiration transcends them.
Honestly, I
don't have any answers beyond simply this...the fact that we experience
inspiration at all is our triumph over limitation. Inspiration compels us to
ascend to realms beyond our manifestation of being into the triumph of freedom
and victory over fear and doubt.
Inspiration
is the engine of creation.
Another way
to say it is that we create motivated by the triumph of inspiration and this in
my opinion is the essence of life and it's ever-increasing enhancement. Transversely,
how often do we experience the nudge of inspiration and fail to act only to
experience life and creation as fleeting as a windblown kiss.
This divine
spark is the initial cause of every motivation found in the human experience. This
triumph is a triumph in our awareness that ultimately expands our perceptions
and leads us towards the wonder of truth and beauty even in the darkness of lies
and ugliness and chaos.
One thing
I've always trusted as much as myself is inspiration. I'm always seeking to
magnify my openness to it. Inspiration is the God of my being. It is the light of
a firefly in an attempt to magnify that light to illuminate a universe that exists
within.
Da Vinci
said, "For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth ever more
with your eyes turned skywards for there you have been and there you long to
return." I think this statement perfectly describes the nature of
inspiration. When I draw or paint or embrace my imagination and create, it is
an attempt to take flight and climb the winds of inspiration and transcend my
own mode of existence.
Men have
always dreamed of flying. I've laughed at some of the attempts they've made and
even my own attempts but never at the attempt to reach the expectation of
triumph and the expression of inspiration. We see the wings fold up and a man
falls face first into the ground. You see these hopping umbrella machines or
any number of contraptions that were doomed to fail at conception. We hear the
story of Icarus and Daedalus and witness the tragedy of loss, and the triumph of
freedom intertwine, and we see the risk and reward of inspiration and
transcendence.
What never ceases to amaze me is man's unwavering
persistence to retain the expectation of triumph. That expectation, though
often met with abject failure, is not the defeat but rather triumph because of
how the expectation is reborn in the next attempt. We've all seen the failures of
someone or even ourselves as we fall face-first into the ground, and the dust flying
up as a result and then that slight movement attempting to get up yet again. There's
more pain and getting up than falling down at times and shame can be our
undoing in regards to this. We fall out of planes and the parachute fails. The
expectation isn't death, instead we brace for impact and we're not unrealistic
we know we're going to break every bone in our body, but our expectation is
that we will somehow crawl away and survive it.
One of my favorite
cartoons as a child was The Roadrunner. In this cartoon a coyote spends his
whole life attempting to catch a roadrunner for a meal. He experiences one
failure after another whether it be falling off a cliff or being crushed by a
boulder or blowing himself up or catapulting himself face first into the
ground. As funny as the premise of that cartoon is, no matter how great the
Coyotes attempt and failure, each new scene began with the same expectation and
enthusiasm towards success.
Evel Knievel
was a daredevil whose career was prominent in the 1970s and in his attempts to
take flight drew thousands of onlookers who he remarked, gathered to watch him
die. He broke every bone in his body over the course of his career and his life
and suffered greatly and old age as a result. His was an expectation of
triumph. Nothing can ever take that away from him. This man took enormous risks
just to experience transcendence and he succeeded not only in being motivated
by inspiration but by leaving an inheritance of the same. I think it's ironic
that his feats were performed on Triumph motorcycles.
Life is the
place where we experience inspiration, transcendence and hopefully, triumph. It
comes with high risks and costs but the people who truly live their lives will
leave a mark of inspiration, transcendence and triumph.
Inspiration
offers the ability to transcend and spurs the engines of creation and that's
what we're seeking...we're seeking to give birth to inspiration the same way
inspiration gave birth to us. The experience of transcendence that somehow
turns our gaze skywards towards freedom.
We think. We
do. We reach a destiny. We have these notions about our existence and that it
is finite and about leaving a legacy. Ultimately, knowing myself, I'm trying to leave the same thing inspiration
gave to me...the same motivation...the same transcendence...the same
inheritance...to leave a physical trace of the inspiration that says I was
here.
I was here.
That is
what's so remarkable about humanity, it is our record of inspiration that began
at the dawn of time till now and onward.
Who knows
maybe inspiration is the consolation for all the limitations we face. If that's
the case then maybe life is about experiencing again and again that
transcendence till we finally get to a place where we become the inspiration
and we are always in connection with it. It doesn't come and go or somehow show
up unexpectedly but rather is always present in our being. If it is, I can
think of no better destiny to strive towards.
So, what is our
triumph?
Our triumph
as human beings is that we still look up. We still feel that deep brewing
movement of inspiration that calls us skywards. It's been said that when love
and skill work together expect a masterpiece. How often do we see our life as the
masterpiece that it is meant to be? How often do we see inspiration as the
flight of our being? That is where our life literally exists and inspiration is
the connection our soul has to anything we call divine.
Within the
ideals associated with inspiration we discover perfection and that perfection
is you...experiencing inspiration and ultimately flight that is unfailing.
May your
inspiration be as open as the sky is to anything that takes flight, even if that
flight is as fleeting as a windblown kiss.
In honor of
those who dare to follow after inspiration.
GB
Friday, July 30, 2021
Finding Camelot
Finding Camelot
I've been divorced since 2009. I took the divorce very hard and I
didn't understand how I could give everything of myself to my marriage and
family and still have no support. I stopped believing in everything because if
you do your best and that's still not good enough, it means that no one shares
the same beliefs anymore.
One night I had a dream where I was climbing a mountain and as I
climbed the mountain I thought about events from my life that made an impact on
me along the way. I wasn't alone in the dream. There was a woman who was like a
guide as we climbed. When we made it to the top there was a golden cup resting
on a stone and it was empty. She explained that as I climbed up the mountain,
the higher I climbed the more the cup emptied. She also explained that the cup
will refill itself on the way back down but the cup had to stay there. Somehow
climbing the mountain allowed me to pour out the old to make room for the new.
Before we embarked on the climb my guide said something to me, she
said, "The sword in the stone cannot be removed alone." I barely
remembered what those words she spoke were but she led me to a plateau on the
mountain and I couldn't believe my eyes. I saw a gleaming sword sticking out of
a stone. She told me that the sword was my own Excalibur. Then she repeated her
words, "The sword in the stone cannot be removed alone." I walked up
to the sword and tried to remove it but it wouldn't budge. I asked her to help
me and that it takes two people to remove the sword but she turned her gaze
downward and refused to help me get my sword. This made me very angry. Why
would she lead me to something I can't have? I didn't understand. She told me
that I was no different from Arthur and that If I was able to remove the sword
it would only be to wave it in the face of my enemies and vanquish them. The
sword represents revenge to me rather than a way to establish justice. The
stone is my heart and if I remove the sword I will bleed to death. She told me
that I was only meant to see it and know that it exists. The reason Arthur was
able to pull the sword was because unlike any other that went before him he saw
every hand that believed in Camelot joined to his and pulled the sword for a
shared hope and vision of Camelot.
My guide at
this point made it very clear that I would have to go the rest of the way alone
to the very top. When I climbed the rest of the way, I stood there and I looked
across the span and saw people also standing on their own mountains. It was
perfectly silent. All we did was look at each other. I'm certain that moment
was different for each of us. There was a kinship. It was humbling.
I turned and
started my way back down the mountain passing the sword and cup and seeing
myself as having fulfilled a quest to find Camelot only to find a belief instead.
And maybe that belief is only shared by those who complete the quest. I woke
from that dream unable to recall any more that what I've shared here.
I wrote a
poem to commemorate it...
Dear King Arthur now I know
Your wisdom fails not to bestow
Those who went before your
story
Were only seeking selfish
glory
The secret door to Camelot
Is found in simple
counterplot
The sword held tight
inside the stone
Will never be removed alone
We all have our own personal quests and our own mountains to climb. I
don't even know if anyone wants to find Camelot anymore. I only know that what
I found was the courage of my convictions again and that I have a purpose and
vision and values that are worthy.
As a hopeless romantic, one of my favorite stories is that of the
Lady of Shallot. This story is one of many in the tales of King Arthur. It is a
romantic tale of a mysterious Lady imprisoned on the Island of Shallot. She is
cursed to never look upon Camelot for if she does, she will die. She has a
magic mirror with which to see the world. She embroiders a tapestry of
everything she sees in the mirror. One day she sees Lancelot in the mirror, and
turns to look at him directly and falls in love with him and the mirror cracks. She then gets into a boat and drifts away
from the island towards Camelot but before she reaches Camelot, she dies.
When she arrives in Camelot, she's laying on her
tapestry. When Lancelot sees her he says a prayer on her behalf.
The nature of love idealized becomes romance. Those ideals produce
courage and glorious motives that will never die.
So, where is Camelot? Well, I don't know really, but maybe it's
enough that the best of Camelot lives within each one of us.
Live forever my Lady of Shallot...Long live Camelot.
GB
Wednesday, July 28, 2021
Empathy...Ah the humanity
Empathy...Ah the humanity
When people talk about empathy it's usually in the context of individual empathy unless a tragedy occurs then of course that will trigger mass empathy. I bring this up because I'm always reminded of Bartleby.
Bartleby is a short
story by Herman Melville, written in 1853 after he wrote Moby Dick. The story
was also made into a 2001 movie starring Crispen Glover. In the story Bartleby
is a scrivener or legal copyist or a more modern and sterile description would
be a copier machine. Bartleby suffered a loss that no one is paying attention
to and so, in response to every request made of him he simply says, "I'd
prefer not to." Until finally his boss sees him and his loss without
triumph and cries out, "Ah the humanity...the humanity. This is empathy on
an individual basis.
Those words echoed
across time from 1853 to 1937 when the Hindenburg disaster took place. Herbert
Morrison was a reporter on the scene when the crash occurred and crying out the
words, "Ah the humanity...the humanity. September 11, 2001 that same cry
was heard around the world. This is empathy on a mass basis.
Empathy means to be
able to understand someone else's position and feel what they are feeling, and
usually it produces compassion and some form of intercession if the
circumstance calls for it.
People rarely
understand the nature of empathy. Have you ever noticed that people tend to be
more cruel when you are in the midst of suffering? It feels like the whole
world lines up to kick you when you're down. The reason that is, is because
people are terrified of the possibility of loss without an accompanying triumph
to go with the loss.
People find it
impossible to identify with someone who has suffered loss with no triumph
because the thought of putting themselves in the place of powerlessness and
hopelessness is terrifying. In fact it's more
terrifying than anything you find in a horror film because human loss is rooted
in reality. So when they kick you when you're down, and they will, just know
that they are doing so because they are confronted and terrified by the
possible reality that they could end up in a similar situation without hope.
So, they will say things like pull yourself up by your bootstraps come
on get up GET UP!
But what if there is no getting up? You can't have triumph without
loss...that's true enough, but what if there is no triumph to be won?
It is more difficult to express empathy on an individual basis than en
mass simply because of the way we see triumph and loss. If all we have is loss,
who wants to empathize with that? We want a happy ending more than relating to
those who have suffered loss. Empathy has become an afterthought emotion that
is only displayed after a triumph is gained, reserved only for those who overcome
the odds. People easily empathize with that because they say to
themselves...Even if I suffer similar loss I have hope. I will rise above. I
will overcome the odds because if that person can do it so can I.
Empathy in its' purest and truest form becomes the motivation behind
compassion. Empathy is not an afterthought. It is from a compassionate heart
without judgment or condemnation, not a heart of righteous indignation.
If you want to experience real empathy you must first give up your self-given
right to judge and condemn and in order to do that you have to face your own
fear of loss without triumph.
"Ah the humanity." If only we saw the individual tragedy the
way we see mass tragedy.
If we are to advance as human beings we are going to have to look at the
nature of empathy within ourselves and each other unless, of course, you'd prefer not to.
GB
Sunday, July 25, 2021
The Fig Leaf
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The Nature of Inspiration What is inspiration and where does it come from? Inspiration is like a myth and may actually be the only real ...
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Finding Camelot Ca melot is an ideal. It's the hope that courage will remember you. It's about finding something larger than yoursel...
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Empathy...Ah the humanity When people talk about empathy it's usually in the context of individual empathy unless a tragedy occurs t...