The World Late And Soon

The world is too much with us; late and soon, 
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;— 
Little we see in Nature that is ours; 
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! 
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; 
The winds that will be howling at all hours, 
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; 
For this, for everything, we are out of tune; 
It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be 
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; 
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, 
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; 
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; 
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

When William Wordsworth penned this lament of the Industrial Revolution in 1807, he could not imagine just how materialistic and divorced from Nature we humans have become.  It never ceases to amaze me how little we modern humans know of the Natural cycles and processes that feed, cloth and sustain us.

I recall an incident in 1996, when Comet Hyakutake rolled through the Solar System putting on a rather amazing display during closest approach to Earth.  One evening, I was laying out on the lawn with my binoculars and camera capturing images and observing the comet.  It was early evening and a group of neighborhood kids had gathered around trying to figure out what I was doing.

"What are you looking at," one asked.  As I glanced around at them, I was truck that not one was looking up to see what was clearly hanging over their heads.

"Comet Hyakutake," I replied, pointing up at the glowing object stretching nearly 1 degree across the sky.

"What a comet?" one asked.  Only two or three of the dozen or so kids actually followed my pointing finger upwards.  I was floored, or at least grassed.

These were all school-age kids who apparently had not heard anything in school about one of the most dazzling cometary displays that I could remember, much less they.  When I was in school, at least the science teacher would have made a whole series of lectures on the subject and assigned us to go out and observe the phenomenon and make a report.

These kids had no idea the comet was putting on such a display, nor even what a comet was.  And so was born Uncle B's impromptu astronomy class.

For a week, we met on the lawn at sundown to note how the comet had changed, moved and behaved.  We looked through the large field binoculars I owned and kept an observation log with drawings and notes about our observations.

They were awed, as was I.  Me, not so much by the comet, which was truly awesome, but by the ignorance of these children who ranged from kindergarten to fifth or sixth grade.

Perhaps, I reasoned, growing up on a farm with infinite dark skies, no TeeVee or games or devices and a rather nice telescope I had gotten on Christmas,  Maybe I was an aberration, an exception.  But my peers were equally informed, even if they didn't have an interest to sit out on cold winter nights and stare at the Universe.

Many of the children seemed completely unaware that there was a sky, much less that it was full of things to look at and that moved around on schedules that were years, decades or even centuries long.  Not only did many of them not follow my pointing finger, I had to prompt them to look up.  The comet was quite obvious, even in overlit city skies at sunset.  It was one of the most arresting sights in the night sky I have ever seen, not to mention in that March of 1996.

Later that year, I noticed two families on the street had shiny new telescopes and could occasionally be seen out in the yard watching the Moon or planets.  I felt gratified that I had opened some horizons for at least a few people, and several of the kids would occasionally wander by to ask if anything fun was going on "up there".  Since they asked, I assumed they weren't doing any independent research, but at least they were now aware of something called "the sky".

I could go on with dozens of similar examples: how I taught my wife gardening and to plant seeds during the New Moon and harvest during the Full Moon.  She's become an obsessed fanatic about gardening now, loving the daily changes in plants and the satisfaction of eating things she nurtured from seed.

Of my own children, one is an animal lover and operates a pet grooming and training service.  He got that from the dozens of exotic pets we kept when he was growing up, such as snakes, gerbils, rats (snake food), turtles, a Great Dane and a Basset Hound, and others I've since forgotten without looking through the photo album.

The other loves mountain, jungle and ocean environments.  She leans more to the artist side, like Dad, but has gone on dives, jungle excursions and mountain hikes, and prefers the more natural settings of Austin or Denver, to the industrial life of Houston.  Perhaps she was influenced by our annual treks to New Mexico to explore canyons, mountains and rivers.

They both know about the mass extinction known in geology as the K-T Boundary.  We would stop along the highway road cuts in West Texas to notice that in one layer, there were millions of sea shell, plant and fish fossils, then a thin white line, then above it...nothing.

The point of all this is that anymore the schools are worthless and the gee-gaw tech distractions are multiplying like rabbits, but with very little effort and a lot of fun, the Universe will teach anyone willing to listen.  We stumble over it, walk past it and live under it every moment of every day if we stop just for a second to notice.

The world is too much with us, late and soon!  Why not set aside some time in Life to unplug, sit back and just observe the glorious pageant going on all around us for free!  We bought our ticket at birth and it's good for a lifetime.  There is nothing a movie or gaming studio can produce that is even a fraction as amazing and entrancing as a simple bug crawling across the floor, like that cockroach in the corner I need to go stomp on.

Pausing At The Threshold

As is our wont on Sundays, we will trip off into some heavy-duty navel staring today.  Contemplating the nature of reality is something most people don't do enough of and should.  After all, as creatures that inhabit this Universe, it is our job to figure out the nature of our existence and whether or not we can perceive, and even inhabit, other creations, natures and/or times.

A lot of folks are familiar with the yin and yang symbol.  Many are likely familiar, at least vaguely, with the meaning behind it.  It's safe to say most readers here will know that the black and white areas represent polar opposites...ANY polar opposites -- positive/negative, light/dark, heat/cold, etc.

The nature of these opposites is that they cannot exist without each other.  The one is defined by the fact that it is not the other.  We only know joy because we can distinguish it from sorrow.  We only know light exists because sometimes it is dark.  If any one of these conditions existed without its opposite, we would have no way to define it, much less experience it.  It simply would be the way things are, and like humans are prone to do, we would ignore those things without definitions.

What most people seldom consider is that yin and yang are actually THREE things -- light, dark and dusk.  In every instance of opposites, there is a dividing line that separates one from the other, like walking into an air-conditioned room on a hot summer day.  At the threshold, there is a line in which both conditions exist simultaneously before one of the other engulfs you.

Think about how many superstitions there are concerning thresholds and doorways.  On New Year's Day, you are supposed to kiss your beloved in a doorway.  Newly married grooms must carry their brides over the threshold.  One must never exchange gifts at the threshold.  The list is quite long.

Thresholds are magical places where two worlds blend in a mystical way.  "Threshold" is used to mean places of entry or beinning, though not always in a good way (pain threshold).  But in all cases, a threshold is the barrier between two extremes -- inside/outside, heaven/earth, etc.

This concept of a barrier between opposites suffuses nearly every culture one can think of.  Not only do we have yin/yang, but the Hindus speak of Shiva (destruction), Vishnu (balance) and Brahma (creation).  The Christians have the Father (creator), Son (creation) and Holy Spirit (the bond).  Many ancient religions have Sky, Earth and an implies boundary or threshold between the two.  Even our skin is a threshold between that which is within us and that which is without.  Our senses allow the inside and outside to blend across the barrier of Self.

In all these metaphors for Universe, there is always a balance between the two extremes, and this balance is the threshold.  It is through the threshold that we leave one and enter the other.  There is no sense of 'good' or 'bad', only one state of being or another.  And across all these descriptions there is the 'threshold', the boundary, the pivot where the two halves of Universe meet.

It's a fascinating concept, and what's more interesting is the idea always seems to imply some sort of finite and infinite acting in unison.  Our selves are defined as enclosed spaces separate from Universe with a threshold called skin and senses between the two.  We take parts of Universe into us by breathing, eating, etc., remove what we need and release the rest back into Universe.  In the same fashion, our cells are segregated from the rest of the body by a threshold called the membrane wall.  It allows oxygen and nutrients in while releasing waste, yet at all times maintains a separate identity as 'cell'.  Similarly, Earth and Sky, and so on.  Always with a finite entity separated from an infinite one via a threshold that allows both to exchange information in one form or another.

What's more, the scale of this system runs from sub-micron to vast distances.  Whether one speaks of quarks and gluons or galaxies and space, there is always some defined space, a threshold and the infinite outer space.  In all cases, balance is maintained between the two by means of the threshold.  Once that breaks down, the finite ceases to exist and it merges with the infinite once again.

I find all this rather fascinating.  It is an apt metaphor for anything -- closed and open economic systems, closed and open social systems, closed and open physical systems, closed and open conceptual systems.  Yet, in all these systems, one must have a threshold in order to define that which is closed and that which is open.

The Hebrews painted their thresholds with blood during Passover.  People remove their outer clothes at the threshold.  Superstitions and rituals abound across thresholds.  In fact, gates, doors and thresholds figure into just about every myth and legend one can think of.  There is some kind of crossing point, whether physical or spiritual, in every great cultural tale.  Hell, even in the abortion debate, there is the implied concept that a baby is tissue on one side of the vaginal threshold, and a human being on the other.

It's a remarkable idea to ponder because the implications are literally boundless.  It even has the ability to return magic into our daily lives as we become aware of all the times we cross thresholds every day, even as we cross the threshold from reality into dreams.

One of the most important things to fall out of this kind of thinking is that all thresholds can be crossed if we chose to do so.  We are only 'outside' inasmuch as we haven't yet gone 'inside', and vice versa.  Thresholds are only boundaries between one form of existence and another, not barriers.  Thresholds are not limits, only measurements.

Therefore, we are only limited beings insofar as we are not willing to cross thresholds.  However, as our superstitions, myths and rituals concerning thresholds would imply, crossing them is not to be taken lightly.  In the end, though, we can only know ourselves and our place in Universe by experiencing what is both 'in' and 'out' of our thresholds, in every sense of that concept.

Try spending one day thinking about the thresholds you cross and that cross you.  It's a very eye-opening experience.

Oh, and if you're really getting baked on this idea, remember that there is not only a boundary between yin and yang, but also a boundary around both that separates them from...something else.

How Fragile The Mind

Weltanschauung.

It's a German word composed of welt (world) and anschauung (overview).  Germans are masters at hooking together a couple of simple words to make really complex ideas.  The word means 'one's view of life, the Universe and everything, and one's place in it'.  Not what you'd call a narrow word.

From birth, we spend years on our parents' knees, in school and in our personal experiences building a weltanschauung.  We decide what to include and what to exclude, what our definitions are, and most importantly what boundaries we place on the Universe.

Some of us erect very narrow and simplistic walls, such as God is an old, bearded man in the sky and my country right or wrong.  Others construct much broader realms.  Still others place no limits on their Universes and instead allow for ever increasing information and ideas.

Those with the most narrow weltanschauungs are the most vulnerable.  They can have their Universe destroyed quickly and decisively by a single idea.  Their boundaries are so close to home that any attack whatsoever will hit dangerously close to the core.

Those with broader weltanschauungs push the point at which their definition of the Universe is challenged further out, until some reach the point where they have no expectations or definitions to destroy.  We call those people Buddha or Christ.

Our weltanschauung is the foundation upon which all else is built.  When it is undermined, all that we know and understand is completely destroyed.  Suddenly, we are faced with endless possibilities and boundless space.  Most people are terrified of this and work quickly to re-erect the walls of their Universe.  They don't want to deal with such vast unknowns.

Weltanschauungs can be very difficult to destroy.  Like putting a stick into an ant pile, thousands of little workers spring into action at the first signs of trouble and start piling the bricks up as fast as they can.  Without their definition of Universe, people are at their most vulnerable and pliable.  Their weakest flank is exposed and they will do anything to seal off the howling winds of Unknown.

For each of us, the Universe is created when we are given a Name.  If you read sacred texts, they almost all begin with the idea of some being 'speaking' the Word and creating the Universe.  How many of us consider that when we speak a Word, we create a Universe?  This is why we are forbidden to speak the Name of God, because that would limit God to some Universe, which cannot be done.

Throughout our lives, we pick up Names.  At birth, we are given a Name that creates our family.  In school, we earn nicknames that create our social groups.  As a Catholic, I was given a Name at Confirmation that created a Soldier of Christ.  Most of us are given numbers, which are just Names with different letters, that create things called Taxpayers and Citizens.  We give ourselves Names so that when someone asks, "Where are you from," we can create a thing identified with a certain piece of dirt.

If you are lucky, you learn more than one language in your life.  One language limits our Universe to only those things expressed by that language.  But learning other languages expands our Universe to include things that cannot be expressed in our Mother Tongue.  In this way, our Universe expands.
 r
A few of us, though, push on into the realm of Things With No Names.  This weltanschauung is very hard to attack, since you cannot destroy something that doesn't have a Name.  No one can take from you that which cannot be named and defined.  Without a Name, things don't exist.

Those who understand this concept have remarkable power.  They are able to destroy the weltanschauungs of others and reconstruct them in any form they like.  If you can yank the Universe out from under someone, then in their mad rush to rebuild, you can hand them whatever materials you like.  They will dutifully stack them up to rebuild the boundaries of their weltanschauung.  This is how mental manipulation works.

This mental control can be done on a mass scale, such as the JFK assassination or 9/11, or it can be done on an individual scale, such as punching someone when and where they least expect it.  In the resulting confusion and cognitive dissonance, the aware Name can recreate another's Universe.

If the Name is the brick by which we build our universes, then Belief is the mortar by which we stack them.  Beliefs are those things we hold to be true despite all evidence to the contrary.  These things color our Universes because we deny all reality to believe certain impossibilities or non-sequiturs.  For instance, believing that one;s country is exceptional or that it can do no wrong, or one's god was slaughtered but rose from the dead three days later, are examples of things that shade and skew our view of reality.

The problem with weltanschauungs, especially those that are too narrow or fragile, is they make us vulnerable.  We can be controlled by those who have the power to manipulate our world view.  They can force us outside our mental constructs and put us on very shaky mental ground.

When you build a house, you want to believe that it is a solid, secure house.  But then something happens to cause your house to collapse and you are left in the cold, shivering and shaking with the rain falling on your head.  Someone comes along and says, "Here, come in my house."  Now they are in control.  Now it is their house that gives you shelter and you must accept their construct if you want get out of the cold and rain.

This is why it is so important to challenge our weltanschauung all the time.  We must constantly re-evaluate the bricks and mortar that we built our house with, otherwise it will be all too easy to destroy our house and leave out in the cold.

For this reason, we must listen to conspiracy theories and alternative researchers.  We must consider their arguments, if they are well-built, and look around us to see if there is evidence that supports the argument.

When we do this, we expand the walls of our house and find stronger and stronger bricks and mortar with which to build.  Granted, we might reject an argument because we don't see credible evidence of truth.  But sometimes we come across a strong argument, good mortar, that allows us to expand and strengthen our house.

The reson for this is that if our weltanschauung is large enough and strong enough, we can never be at the mercy of those who would use us by destroying our world view and offering their own as shelter.  We cannot be controlled if our house cannot be destroyed.

If we have properly considered alternative ideas, then when something happens to challenge our world view, we can deal with it and not be left in the cold.  If one day, NASA announces the existence of life off the planet Earth, our world view has already considered the possiblity and cannot be shaken by this new fact.  If one day it is proved that the government was complicit in 9/11, this new information cannot shake our foundation because we have already considered the possibility and incorporated it into our world view.  If it is proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that there is a massive conspiracy to defraud the world through the financial system, we have already made that part of our Universe and we cannot be controlled by those who would use our disorientation to control us.

The more possibilities you build into your weltanschauung, the less likely you are to be prey for predatory powers.  If we are certain that life is only a small part of our existence, then the threat of death has no power over us.

It is most important that we take time to regularly push the boundaries of what we hold to be true.  Even something as simple as acknowledging the possibility that some outrageous idea could be true gives us a strength that cannot be attacked.

The ultimate weakness of every human being is the limits of their weltanschauung.  Once those limits have been pierced, we are prey to whatever force that offers us shelter.  It is vitally important to constantly push the boundaries of possibility, to challenge our beliefs, to entertain new and strange ideas.  If we don't, then our walls of reality are too narrow and we are vulnerable.

The next time you feel compelled to reject an idea out of hand, stop.  Instead, listen to the idea.  Examine the evidence.  And if you can allow that something is possible, no matter how improbable, then you have just strengthened your world view against attack.

Many of us stop learned even before we leave school.  Our 'teachers' spend a lot of time building a world view for us.  Our job is to break those walls and expand them ourselves.  We are tasked with spending our entire lives pushing the limits of what we know, believe and consider possible.  The more we do this, the less likely it is that someone can take control of our reality.

Those who live in glass houses cannot throw stones, but those who live in double-paned, Kevlar reinforced quartzite glass houses can play baseball indoors, if we wish.

Summa Dat Olde Tyme Religion

Well, it's Sunday, so that means time for a sermon. I'm not in the mountains, so let's call this one, "Sermon on the Delta," in honor of the Kali Malang, or Unfortunate River.

And Jayzus said, "Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened. Ask and it shall be delivered to you."

Man looked to the Heavens and saw lots of pretty lights. Some, seven of them, moved around, so he named the days of the week after them and perceived a black curtain around the whole affair with little holes that let through the Light From Heaven. These he called stars. Being rather full of himself, he declared that the whole darned thing rolled around the Earth in several repeating patterns, which he called days, months and years. And all was good.

Later, thanks to a few wise-akers, man discovered that, WAIT!, it all really rolled around the Sun, and some of those lights had smaller lights that rolled around them. So they were persecuted and vilified and excommunicated. Then it was discovered that the Sun rolled around a galaxy, and later that the galaxy rolled around an invisible spot with a whole bunch of other galaxies, and the the whole danged mess was just one of many messes, which were all flying apart into Oblivion.

So man turned his attention to smaller things and invented toys for looking inward. There he found unseen critters, and cells, and DNA, and molecules, and atoms, and particles. Soon the inner Universe was just as big a mess as the outter, what with all those quarks and gluons and fermion, and bosons, und so wieder, ad nauseum. Can I get an Amen.

Undaunted, man kept building bigger and bigger toys to look farther and farther inward and outward, only to discover that there was more and more to find.

Thus Jayzus said, "Look and you will find." Buddha said, "Seek and the answer is there." Muhammad said, "Don't bother. It will just make you crazy."

So you see? I have absolute and unshakable faith that there is a God, and His Name is Henny Youngman. To have a sense of humor requires intelligence, and the Universe is full of humor. Everywhere you look. It's chock-full of one-liners. In fact, when our toys finally find the biggest and the smallest, both will turn out to be signs that read, "Gotcha! LOL!"

That being said, I have absolutely no faith whatsoever in any religion. You see, the Universe is God's Church. Just lay out under the stars one cool, clear night, and you will get all the healing you need. Free. No books, no priests, no buildings, no spectacles, no charge. It comes to you each and every night. And that's just one of the many building blocks of God's Chruch.

The real bullshit starts when a couple of folks get together and decide they don't want to work for a living, so they set themselves up as intermediaries to God. Ya just can't get to God without paying one of them. That's how is all works. They know all the secrets and they will tell you, for a price. Buy their self-serving books. Get their self-aggrandizing CDs and DVDs. Slowly, over the course of years, they will let you in on the secret, step by step, so you can Understand.

They sell tickets to a place that doesn't exist, so you don't go to another place that doesn't exist, commanded by someone you can't see or hear, whose ego is so fragile it require all life to eternally worship it. BUT! The trick is you can only worship in a certain way, and if you pay the priest, he or she will do it for you, and if you're luck and pay enough, they will teach you also. (buy the book and tape series for a primer)

Oh yes, I almost forgot to mention the Absolute Servitude. You must do everything the priests tell you, or you're going to Hell! (see the DVD series). And of course, they need giant mansions and private aircraft to shuttle them around the world to spread this bullshit. What? Feed the poor, clothe the naked and heal the sick? Hahahahahaha! Not when there are buildings to erect and revivals to put on! Priorities, man. Where's your head? We need to spread the (word). There are unpicked pockets yet to be explored!

Oh yeah, and if you don't believe, then you are going to Hell for all eternity. If you do believe, then run out and convert everyone you see. If they won't convert, kill 'em! Because our god is more powerful than all the other gods.

Sheesh!

Meanwhile, over our collective head, there is an amazing Cosmic Waltz going on. Not just 7, 8, or even 9 participants, but literally KAjillions, all performing a magnificent ballet with absolutely no imput from us at all. It was all put in motion long before we invented time to measure it, and it will exist long after we have gone the way of the do-do. Swirling and gliding in endless permutations out as far as our toys can see, and much further. It doesn't need churches, it builds its own. It doesn't need money, it has its own currency. In fact, all it requires from us is to lay out on a cool, clear evening and look up. Occasionally, its nice to throw some hope and good wishes out to it, as well. They often come back, free of charge. It doesn't require priests. You can look for yourself and make your own interpretation of it in the quiet of your own heart and head.

So next time the collection plate comes around, throw in a pair of glasses with the instructions to go out and "take a look" at God. Next time the priest tells you you're going to Hell for your sins while fondling your children, remember that right outside those sacred walls is God's church. It was built without a single human hand, and nary a dollar spent.

If the Universe wasn't so perfect and awe-inspiring, there wouldn't be a need for priests who want to distract you from it. Ipso facto. Churches crumble. Religions die out. But, the Universe just keeps on spinning away, waiting for you to take a look.

Oh, and send a little Hope out there. You never know what It will give back to you.

Oh yeah, and if you have a burning desire to give away some money, just click on the PayPal link or buy my books and DVDs. Thanks!