Galactic questions

Recently it has dawned on me, like the sun at the end of a moonless night, that I know not nearly enough about the wondrous galaxy we are moving in and the other star systems that inhabit the universe it flys in. It has gradually become apparent to me that I should really make an effort to gain a greater understanding of it, its properties and its apparently eternal movement. It is disturbing that such a thing as this universe, which possibly holds all the information about the very formation of the situation we as a race find ourselves in, could become so ably ignored. A major problem of course being the common thread that is trotted out by many along the lines of 'we have it all figured out'. In fact, we certainly do not. We have idea's, idea's based on factual information that has been witnessed after the fact. Carl Sagan himself, in his 'Cosmos', says, 'maybe infinite'. We cannot understand this as mortal beings. We find ourselves with 'evidence' that something has occurred, and then try to piece this 'evidence' into a picture through calculations based on what we can measure and see. A big problem for science at present is the supposed existence of 'dark matter', that which we cannot measure and see. And yet this is not a big story for the world's media. Or for humanity at large, is that not strange to you at all? Why do we no longer look with incredible wonder to the heavens? Because we have figured it all out? It is to me absolutely laughable to suggest that we are anywhere close to having it figured out. The research must continue.

The Red Tree

A big red tree adorned the lawn of the house, an old man played guitar in its warm shadow. The sun had blazed but sank low, halfway below the horizon, still casting warmth before it, and beautiful soft colour saturated the sky. Ulysses had walked a way from where his car had been parked, and the scene was good, it stirred his imagination, and lit up corners of his memory.

The man looked up as Ulysses strode slowly, but purposefully through the gate. He smiled and added a little riff to the blues standard he played. His lyrics finally lightly dusting Ulysses's ear-drums. He had a voice tinged with many things, and it had a worldly but friendly tone. Ulysses walked the long driveway, the music lending itself beautifully to the dusk that placed itself slowly across Ulysses's view of earth.

The man on the guitar stopped.

"Before you come any closer stranger, praytell, what your first name," he spoke in a low easy voice, "I would take a measure of thee, from the vision I see before me, coupled with the name they parents chose and who I perceive you to be after I have heard you speak."

Ulysses hailed him from the fifteen yards that remained between him and the man.
"My name sir is Ulysses, my parents named me for the Greek hero, but in the Roman tongue. I have walked about ten miles, after my car went to rest further back down your road."

The old man chuckled, "My road? It is no road of mine, just as the red tree that stands above me is not mine either. I am but someone who dwells in the vicinity of these things. The government say they own the road, but they do not. It is something that remains for a time, and in that time many use it, many more than ever pay for it, I was just the ten minutes gone singing an ode to that road."

" I would like to hear that." Ulysses said carefully, a half smile creeping onto his face.

The old man lowered his eyes for a moment and spoke slowly, "Would you now? Would you now?"

"Come over and sit down then, on the log there."

Ulysses walked to the log, it was several years old, but solid enough to have retained itself well against the weathering of time. Mushrooms grew in part of the bark, and an enchanting turquoise flowered vine wrapped it self about the base of the trunk, along what had been its upright side. It looked a comfortable seat, especially after the trek he had endured.

"alright then, the man spoke, I will play you my song."

He shifted his seat slightly, before quickly going about checking if the sound of the guitar was right for what he would try to do. He smiled briefly, before hitting the strings with his fingers and beginning.

The sound was strange, morose but optimistic, with undertones of love and violence, and the odd moment of pure beauty. Ulysses sat rapt, the music flooding his being.

The old man started to sing, a song about another man, who lived on the road many years ago. The music rose and fell, as the story weaved through the chords, setting itself a-flight, airborne on sound-wavws. Ulysses was astonished, he had never expected something so penetratingly magnificent. He was almost aghast, and felt tingling down the base of his spine.

The song carried him into its legend, he became the protagonist, moving through the music. The old man's hands rhythmic and blurred, then still and beating, as the music changed up and down.

The sun sat on the edge of the world, the last light creeping across the plain. As the last strains of the song reverberated in his brain, Ulysses hoped he would be able to lodge in the house that sat off behind the man.

"What do you think?" the old man croaked, voice crackling under the strain of the song it had sung.

"Amazing man, can you tell me your name?"

The old man smiled, the same smile of earlier, though a little more haunting.
"My name? Haha, I am no-one, you are alone in this field."

Ulysses started, there was no one there, no old man, and no guitar, nothing save a large magpie that looked at him with a quick quizzical eye before flying off into the gumtree that sat, now menacingly, above the deserted house. He got up, it was almost dark, and this was a strange road.

Ebb and flow

The ebb seems to ebb for so long on occasion, the empty feeling inside, the nothingness that creeps over oneself. I have observed it from outside myself on more than one occasion.

It is merely the mind betraying itself, pulling away bridges it made for itself earlier, leaving dangerous drops that need to be carefully negoiated. I fell briefly only the weekend gone, into a period of self loathing and fear. My weakness leaves me disgusted at my frailty. I attempted to cover up the advance of it by leaping into a drinking session, in order to numb myself to it.

This merely ended up providing me with a moment where I felt as though I had ostracised myself from my own friends through egocentric stupidity.

It is nice to write about it, having recognised it for what it was, I had failed at this in the distant past, and it caused me no end of trouble. I feel as though again I have bested the beast that rears up over me on occasion. I will continue to do this for the rest of my days, as my self belief remains exceptionally strong, even though at times I know that I have not ably demonstrated to anyone why it is Ibelieve in myself so much.

This is a question we should all ask ourselves, I think. What is it that makes us go on through life? What is it that we think we are going to achieve, that we think we can achieve in this reality?

There is always some reason to hold on for tomorrow isn't there, or else you wouldn't. I trust if you bother to read this then you have some interest in self preservation, as you are merely gathering information in order to glean from it that which you may find useful (you'sful).

Anyway, there is no reason to bang on to long on this is there.

It is the ebb and flow which makes this life so intensely wonderful on occasion, that is something to remember. For with no ebb, there would be no flow, no high and no low. Flow on friends, move through the universe, step through the door, into the self that waits for you somewhere else a lot of the time, the self that knows you, that is locked into the essence of this magical space and time.

I would advise that you take some time this week to sit for a moment and enjoy your own company in silence. It is a peace we forget about these hectic days.

Migration stations, Space awaits

I often wonder why more is not made of the move to the realm of space. Logical progression, all the 'sci-fi' movies and programmes for years have merely been a preview for the future, what will mankind become? Surely if mass deaths are caused by some human phenomenon there will be some who have an opportunity to survive, whether it be beneath the ground or in orbit.

If it is beneath ground then they can occupy themselves with surviving and building potential sustainable space travel vehicles. If it is in orbit, then why just orbit? The generations who follow us will be as the ones who came many years before us, into the unknown they will go, though of course, charting and navigation methods having changed considerably since then so they will have a good idea of what they approach over distances, though of course, will never be quite sure what they are doing for a long time.

We remain unsure of ourselves now, which leads to the situation we have now where powerful people feebly clutch onto that which they have, as they see images of death and destruction across the planet, there hearts hardened by fear. Feebly, cling on to, their fear.

Outwardly pretending they are powerful with items purchased to boost their status, so that others might 'envy' them. I despise envy and I have managed to avoid it as an emotion that I experience over the years, which was of course no easy process, as it still dogs me on occasion. I would urge you to try to do so, as I feel it gives me a happier and more ambitious outlook when I do no engage in it. I will not envy someone who has something, because I always believe that I am capable of reaching some mental plain where it will only matter to be alive and safe. I am sounding like a goddamn hippy again now, peace and love, hahaha.

Back to space and away from megolomania. The human world is weak, consumed with death, we strive to function in it, constantly questioning what we are doing and then for times slotted right in and doing it, because of some goal we think we will achieve. Goals being of course essential in progression, and the goal of space and the further development of humanity and our understanding of our own capacity is the greatest goal of all.

This will come as we engage ourselves completely with the greater universe, travel through it, and learn its magic on a larger scale. Entire civilisations of humans could populate the solar sysem and then the galaxies and so on. If you were negative you would immendiately think, oh no! heaven forbid!

There is no need to give up on humanity yet though, it is possible that reason can be gained. For we never have had it as a planetery group. Reason that is, as unreason has frequently been the fare over millions of years.

What Sir Isaac Newton would have given for access to the information systems and equipment available now. Those at the pinnacle of scientific endeavor of course more appropriately deserve the reverance of the populace, instead of the current worship of artists, be they musicians, be they sportspeople. Though of course, science is essentially an artform, though a far more exacting process is engaged in in many ways.

Still, inspiration is vital for these pursuits, and of course, the artists who currently get the plaudits do of course give something to the population, even if it is a little silly at times, musicians, being particularly guilty of this on occasion.

Rocket ships. My daughter, the other evening at a friends house, walked out with a book in her hands saying it was the special book about space and that told me it was a book about rocket ships and going to the moon, it was an amusing moment. I do tend to prattle on at times. She hears it more than most. Still, I am glad she has a head for it, I think it is the future, and as I said in the opening paragraph, cannot understand why it is not more of an agenda being pursued, if only for the reason that it could well be something that could unite the people of earth into larger groups. Even perhaps a continental triumvirate? This would certainly end the so called 'resourse crisis'.

The media are the fool who bow down to money in the biggest way, feeding us the 'idea' of what life could/should be about. Then again they do gratify us by stirring us to happiness and moments of learning. It is always a two edged sword isn't it. Though of course greater accountability in the media for the education of mankind as a group is a priroity that should take precedence. Rather than the current fashion for 'hits' and 'sales'. Fuck that, idiots. We are spiralling into a mess, but then again, we are not. There is control still for the people over the machine, and we have a chance as to maintain our diginity in the face of a system that threatens to overtake us completely.

Let us take back control and explore the galaxies, as sentient beings, rather than the sorry, sad, tortured beings we sometimes are now, caught up in the dance toward a death that so many fear, suckered into consumerism and media constructs, rather than upgrading your mental plain, and believing in the future of humankind.

Sentient beings we can be, for there are those that have gone before us, there is a certain resonance about the universe, a reverberation, it will coninue with or without 'earth', so it would be good for those who follow us if we make preparation for their progress into a galactic conscioussness.

Self indulgent ego stroking?

Straight reckoning it, true thinking, rue thinking, you thinking? I am, not. Arrange your prejudices in a line, before they consume you with guilt, let them lead you to a new thought, if you can bend your mind in such a manner. Or perhaps align your knowledge in order to make a new bridge to an old reason.

I like to think I think things that are new, though I am sure every thought I have has been through another mind on some occasion. Whether it be the lowliest slave in the court of some debauched historical king, to the very mind of the greatest being to ever grace the universe, whatever that mind could be. Let me babble, because I will.

Do you ever think you could be something else? Something special? Or do you condemn such a thought as vanity? Self indulgent ego stroking? It is, it is. Mind you, the ego must be stroked, as it is ego which keeps us going, humility is a beautiful thing, though it is horribly overrated.

I believe I am something quite magical, and I hope you who read this do to, because this universe, and its beautiful mystery is something that is unexplained, and there is a magic in that, and we are very much a part of that magic.

Energy courses through the universe, unexplained energy, masses of it, causation, deprivation, voids, supernovae, black holes.

Never forget the amazing magic of the thing that gives us life, the very god, the very reason for our creation, beyond religion, beyond humankind. Always remember love, that thing which accumulates and spills through us, to people who sometimes feel they are beyond it, love saves them.

I remember many years ago, running through Wellington, bombed out of my gourd on all manner of drugs, feeling the weight of technology on my soul, the torturous pressure of modernity, and then seeing a person who smiled at me, and relief running through my veins, feeling it, coursing through my body. Beautiful moments. So many of them.

Some kid asked me for two bucks today, 'For a feed' he said. I was glad to give it, even if he was just accumulating for a hit. Just so he knew that people have not given up on him, and because I had enough, and I could spare it.

I spent an evening hanging out with friends, from the rafters, like bats, though there are no rafters in this house. We actually just sat around and had a few drinks and a barbeque. It was nice, and easy, the conversation was good, and the time was well spent.

I thought I would write something for the mere sake of hitting the keys, and I think though I have said precisely nothing in the course of this missive, I feel better for saying nothing. The universe is my god, and I believe in love.

I also believe in hatred and evil, things that I have felt, violence that has gripped my being on occasion. Why should they be viewed as bad things though? If we are merely animals? Predatory prehistoric traits handed on by a genetic code. There can be no guilt or misery if evil and hatred are merely the imbedded genetic code that we carry on from our ancestors. Therefore we can kill with impunity and feel no empathy for those who suffer. We can laugh at those who suffer, make jokes about their pain, for we are innocent of their pain, and there is no transgression in their suffering on our part.

So switch the channel to sport, pop the popcorn in the microwave, crack open a beer and sink into the couch, in debauched comfort. We have risen to where we are through sheer evolutionary prowess. Survival of the fittest, laugh at the weak, for they are weak. Lurch on into the new year, with new understanding of your own evolutionary greatness. Ride on into the sunset, mind clear of emotion.

I think I prefer to care. Just because I can. Love can save us.

Break your mental chains

What is it that I think I know that no one else does? I am not sure. Billions of people on what is termed a planet, a planet in a solar system in a galaxy in a universe that apparently is stretching, growing or something along those lines. The possibilities seem infinite at this stage.

Alas, due to some reason we have reduced ourselves to finite possibility. We most of the time are told to ‘live in the real world’, which is of course the world of finite possibility. The world where you attend school for a time get a job, accumulate possessions friends and family before dying, hopefully comfortably and with a nice funeral.
In a universe where the possibilities seem infinite, I believe many of us have chosen to believe that which is told to us, that is, many of us have chosen to think of things in quantifiable finites, rather than in the realm of possibility. A rather excellent cliché is ‘The possibilities are endless’, and it is inarguable most of the time. Even within the realm of quantifiable finites.

It seems that if you were to become too concerned with quantifiable finites, you would begin to consider your fellow humans to be quantifiably finite as well. This is a rather disturbing development. Because of course now you can think of people as similar to possessions or quantifiable goods. It is a small leap sideways in the mind, consider the ease with which you are able to do it, thanks to years of indoctrination.
You would, caught up in quantifiable finites, then begin to care less for others and in fact be apathetic in the face of their distress or misfortune. That thing which apparently represents our opinions, the media, of course backs this up. Its programming consisting apparently of what is ‘hip’ or ‘current’, when in fact it is the regurgitation of a governmental control system that has been in place for thousands of years. This much is while not obvious, easily discernable to the eye that wishes to see.

The sideshows of humanity, sport, movies, war.
The things that consume us; all of them representations of superiority and frequently repeatedly glorifying violence and death, the food of the media, that which makes it tick.
In the age of enlightenment, many billions still suffer, without that which would make them able to turn their mind toward the collective human effort to understand the reality of our existence. Many and most are as equal a being as anyone else on the planet is, but this is conveniently forgotten by many now, why should I feel guilt for the plight of those who do not help themselves.

Humanity survives on humanity, without others, you would be nothing, and as nothing, you would disappear. Finite possibility, finite possibility is too be dispensed with at all costs. It is necessary for the good of humanity and the future of it that infinite possibility is returned to its place as one of humanity’s formative notions. Limiting and trying to quantify is unhealthy and unwise and leads inevitably to hardship and death for someone somewhere, however indirect it could be, it still happens because you buy a particular product that someone somewhere goes without and quite possibly suffers, these are the possibilities of quantifiable finite notion.

With a notion that embraces the unlimited possibility of the universe, you could therefore never arrive on a quantifiable finite as a future, other than a guess at when your mortality would cause you to succumb to time and its soft whisper. On the other hand, perhaps fate would have other plans for you, a skiing accident or kicked to death begging in an alley. Either way, you would be unwise to have ceased believing in the possibilities of the future of humankind. The unfathomable possibilities that an ever-expanding universe actually represents to humankind, that which should make us superhuman, though in actuality we have become distracted from it by vanity and self loathing, a wicked combination of the two that makes us ultra competitive, paranoid and destructive, to self and others.

It is not of course all doom and gloom of course, there is certainly much fun and hilarity to be had playing the games of a warped mind, and to be quite truthful they still pique my interest on occasion, which is a good thing. For it is often in these induced states that we discover more about ourselves than we ever do trapped in the mentality of the physical indoctrinated world.
Beyond the realm of finite possibility, when the suffocating gauze of the physical world is rendered less overwhelming and the world sometimes referred to as the ‘spiritual world’ is revealed to us. The world that is ulterior to that which is termed ‘physical’, the world where the mind has its edges dulled and sharpened at strange points, points where possibilities can become endless, and where the future of humanity is often forged.

For where would we be without the dreamers, those who truly believe in endless possibility? In some sort of watered down stoic fascist existence believing the tripe spouted to you by the media and the notions of the ruling elite. Sounds familiar, though of course, we are not that far gone yet, while we still believe in love and the essential good of humanity, we are not lost. While we still harbor ideas of exploring the universe further, we are not lost. While we still feel any moment of sadness for the plight of another, we are not lost. While we still believe in the realm of endless possibility, we could never be lost. The possibility of you is endless, it is we who set quantifiable finites in place for what we can achieve, and it is our duty to the future of humanity to no longer do so.

Love flows, through us, away from us, toward us, and always it is with us

Flow over the keys toward yourself, if you can, you should be able to, if you are able to tap keys to make a sentence, then you can write, anyone can write, we all should, we should all, write, and bring others into the light of your mind in a particular moment, it is a duty that we have.

Do you not question yourself? Do you not ask yourself what it is you love? Do you not inquire of yourself at certain times, certain moments of quiet in which you are able to glance into the interior, those sweet moments, those peaceful moments, what is it exactly that I love?

What is it?

What is this life? What is this miracle of movement that reveals itself to me in every waking moment I behold?
Although not every moment is beautiful, there are those moments that make others more beautiful. Without these moments, we would be lost, for the times in which we are at a low are brought to bear by highs which are often indescribable. Delights and ecstasies that are able to be remembered and described to a point which conveys something of that which was experienced, but never quite gives the definition of the feeling.

We are alive. We live. We breathe, move, speak, and dance. We must flow in the manner that our atoms enable us to. For it is atomic, we are atomic, our god is an atomic god, whatever that god may be to you. There is no disputing that something is responsible for our response.

That much seems obvious.

Let me speak to you; let me say this, let me be the one to say that I love you. I believe in your innate beauty. I said to a friend when we were teens that I thought every woman on earth had an inherent beauty within her, he looked at me as though I was batty, and perhaps I am, but I believe it still. I believe every person on the planet has an innate beauty, from the most murderous fiendishly despicable to the holiest of holy.

It is the nature that prompts thought, the nurture that propels it, the propagation of genetic heritage and familial traits that underlines the current which it flows along.

Love flows, through us, away from us, toward us, and always it is with us. It is the enduring peace and truth of humanity. The thing that enables us to be at peace with ourselves, in the fleeting peace that we are able to experience in this modern age of mechanics..

It is an amazing life that we have been lucky enough to experience together, as you read this you experience the life that passes in every one of us. We must be more appreciative of the beauty and wonder of it, the marvelous magical nature of it. The splendid isolation, the enchanting company, the magnificent solitude, and the ecstatic gathering. Let us remember each other as we have been at our best and at our worst, and why it is that the worst will never supplant the best, why it is, why is it?

Magic. It is a kind of magic, wise words from a magical man that went before us.

Let it be as it was, let us try to rediscover that magic that we yearn for in that past that seems so unfathomable, that past that we feel we will never see again. It is folly to dispense with the things that make us human, and yet we do so at every turn. The dirt embracing greed that clouds our minds, the fiendish grasp for the ‘things’ we ‘need’, the things we need….

What are they really? Yes, they are those ‘hippy’ things, love, peace, and happiness. In the end, nothing else will suffice. We must give the peace we are able to find at times to every living thing, in a universal moment of understanding, if you can have one, one moment, then that could be enough, in that moment.

We are alone, we are ourselves, therefore, in that solitude, we must find solace. There can be no peace if you are not at peace with yourself, by yourself. It is the purest folly to think anything else.