One More Human

All times are, as Dickens said, the best of times and the worst of times.  It is also an obviously logical step to realise that each new year or discovery goes further to prove that we are are, at least, trying to step towards an age of wisdom, yet we are always fighting against the fools.

I am not one whom anyone could ever accuse of suffering fools gladly.  I like to think I am forthright and when it comes to discussing an issue that I feel needs discussing then I believe I go into said discussions well armed with facts.  Yet I am baffled by the binary nature of humanity. Our reduction of complexity to a 1 or a 0 - them or us - black or white - up or down - right or wrong.

We need go no further back than the last seven days to prove the premise that as we obtain, as a species, a great understanding of the universe and ourselves - which I believe to be wisdom - we are still plagued by nonsensical dogma and with peoples who can stare facts in the face, unblinking, and still be unconvinced.  This week alone we could talk about how the Voyager probes, two crafts launched back in 1977 (and let us pause to consider the advancements since those pre-interwebs and mobile phone, super computer days) that have travelled some 14 Billion km from earth - by a long way the furthest any man made object has travelled away from - well home.  They are also still transmitting data back to Earth and the information continues to force us to rethink that which we thought we knew about or solar system.

On the other hand, we have a court in Jerusalem sentencing a stray dog to death, by stoning no less, as they fear it may be the reincarnation of a lawyer who insulted some judges.  Apparently this mongrel pooch entered a court room and refused to leave.  The judge, being of sound mind of course - being a judge and all, was reminded of a curse passed on a secular lawyer some 20 years ago that would force his spirit to enter the body of a dog.  Fortunately, this littlest Hobo escaped before punishment was met out.

Whether this story is true or not is in some ways irrelevant to me as, well I know without the veracity of this story been proven, we have a lot of crazy! Indeed, many articles would say - matter of fact - that Judaism considers dogs to be an impure animal.  What does that even mean, impure? Well, obviously impure means that it is not pure.  In religious terms that is often thought of as being immoral or sinful, if one is impure.  It could perhaps be just that it is a composite of more than one thing - which, biologically speaking aren’t we all?  Since our DNA comes from those we are descended from?  Am I not the mongrel of my parents?

I digress, what does it mean though - an impure animal?  Without knowing much on the sliding scale of animal purity I would guess that pigs are at the most impure end of the Judaism scale.

To think that we have this notion of purity when it comes to species of animals is something I can’t get my head around.  Whilst my dad always told me to understand the other persons point of view more than they do, some shoes I just can’t walk that mile in.  To put credence in books that were written by people with no concept of evolution or genetics is beyond me (when it comes to this idea of purity).  That dietary laws exist in cultures based on an animals purity, be it from Leviticus, Deuteronomy or some other crazy bat shit book is all the same, crazy talk!  (it should be noted that bats are not pure).

Indeed, even to this day, which birds that the Torah deems as impure and not to be eaten is a matter of contention.  Are we really talking about how many angels can fit on a pinhead?  Still?  It is strange to consider that their is an explicit and implicit ruling of animals considered impure too.  That the Kangaroo and Koala are on the implicit list, as god didn’t see fit to provide details of species that nomadic folks thousand of years ago didn’t know anything about, makes me question the all knowing nature of this deity.  Why did he not provide an exhaustive or at least more comprehensive listing in regards to the purity of fauna.

It is strange that a lot of the ideas of purity are based on the fact that an animals does or does not have a cloven hoof or if it does or does not chew cud.

Surely I am not the only person who would be roaring in laughter about our backward nature if it wasn’t acting as such a lead anchor to our progress.

All of us are all to aware of the dangers of crazy and of the ideas of purity.  I need not cite what obviously springs to mind on that the issue of human purity.  But, let us not go for that - just look at today.  We have countries and cultures where woman are seen as subservient to men, where people of differing skin pigmentation are looked upon as lesser, or the craziest crazy of them all - where people kill over the differences in supernatural sky dads that neither side can prove exist.

If I didn’t chortle I’d cry.

To consider the last ten years when we have seen the increasing painting of Muslims and Islam as the great evil just reminds me of how, a little over 10 years ago, the fights in my home country and across the sea, where between so called Christians.  Catholics and Protestants.  Again, I can’t get my head around the idea of hating someone else as they believe something different from you - when neither of you has any evidence to make your claim more valid.  The notion is alien to me.

I am not an educated person nor am I gifted with unbounded intelligence however, I am quite capable of critical thinking and of questioning the obvious.  I have no place for blind faith, or even faith that can see, in my existence.

I have no faith in Faith or the Faithful.

The difference that I sometimes see between myself and most of the people I meet - which may well include you dear reader - is that I care less about that which people care more about.  If I use the metric of time spent on any given thing then, I would have to guess that a lot of my peers care more about watching fat people get thin (whilst crying a lot) and about people cooking food (for said fat people?(That would be a weirdo show - The Biggest Celebrity Master Chef or something).

What is strange though, if you ask me, is that to sit in the pub and talk about who you believe should win a cookery show - without ever having eaten any of the food - is considered normal conversation.  To discuss however, global warming or religion or a plethora of serious subjects is considered uncourteous or uncouth.  We have it drummed into us that you avoid conversations about politics and religion.

The idea that we shouldn’t discuss the activities of how we are governed harkens back to days when kings could do no wrong and we, the mere peasants, should not question or betters.  Let alone discuss them amongst our lowbrow selves!

But ‘politics’ in itself is such an umbrella term that people can throw out as if it gives a pass on a topic.  We could be talking about drug policy, civil rights, abortion, nuclear proliferation, the IMF, anything - basically anything - and that could be considered political as, in essence everything is political.

Shit, when I think about it in the grander scale it is all even more pointless.  We each move through the space time we inhabit for such a short period and, in the end, we will all be anonymous, yet we strut and bicker over that which truly doesn’t matter.

Do not get me wrong though, life isn’t about always being turned on and ready to make points or persuade others - there is indeed a time and a place - we just need to agree their should be more places and more times.  I for one love to waste time either by playing music or experiencing different states of existence through various drugs or experiences.  Fuck, in the past 5 minutes alone I’ve had a conversation with my dog telling her that I am going to have a quick cup of tea and then, despite it being 1am, I will then take her to the beach for a walk.

My madness and quirks though are generally unobtrusive and certainly cause no harm to others, no physical harm at least.  My mum has often told me that when I do get into some debates with people I can become arrogant and condescending as I hammer home points and do not accept here say or anecdotes as valid arguments.  To me though, if you have an opinion, you must have a reason for said opinion - a reason that is more in depth than ‘just because’.

In the spirit of full disclosure I should advise that I am presently rather wasted on a mixture of grass and E.  That is why I am even more disjointed and random than normal.

It is also strange that we allow verbal communication to wander but we expect written communication to be more rigid and topic sensitive.  More abstract rules that someone once pulled from their own arse.

To talk about what though is strange again, we could just look at Strepsils.  Yes, I mean the throat sweets.  How many people, myself well included in this, have eaten Strepsils or some such thing to assist in our sore throat or cold when - on the very packets - these products advise us that no clinical trials have ever proven the efficacy of the product.  I believe that we shouldn’t really read the packets of these things though as it just annihilates any placebo effect we could have gotten.

Whilst I was making my tea though I did have a thought - yes just one - as my dog followed me to the kitchen and I awaited the kettle to boil I patted her sides and belly and she will stand/lie there as happy as a dog can be, especially as they are impure.  How different are we though?  What does a dog want?  OK, I may be sounding crazy or redundant but, it is not sometimes our duty to state the obvious?

They want to be fed.  They want to have freedom to run around and sniff whatever they want to sniff be it trees, flowers or asses.  They want company, they want attention and they want to be loved.  We say that dogs are pack animals and that they need to feel part of such a thing.  Are we any different?

On that topic - love - it is such a strange thing too.  The various types we label it - be it of friends, relatives, food stuffs, current lines on a map, and of course THE love - that of another person, or mate, you know what I mean.

Whilst I consider myself to be quite logical I am confounded by the uncontrollable emotional head play that comes from some unknown place within that attracts us to a certain person.  It may be in some ways a biology thing or about shared interests or what have you - all I know is that if their is an off and on switch or a compass - I don’t possess them.

Others will proclaim opposites attract!  Any self reflection, by the vast majority of us, would show that all previous partners are - like all people - a mixture of common interests and diametrically opposed ones.  Again, the only certainty I have is that we go through periods where our inactive thoughts - or our active ones - will continually rest on another person.  We may dream of scenarios with them or possible plans etc, but we all too often find our thoughts somehow getting dragged back to a particular person.  That particular person often changes through our lives - but in any given period - most of us have such a person.

I would like to be able to state that I do not suffer from that presently but, even whilst the thought to write such words came out, an image - a face - an idea of a person - she - whatever, will occasion to pop into my head.  Like a good many of us I am currently at the stage in my space-time journey where it is the age old Person A likes Person B but Person B likes Person C.  We often like to think of it in such a linear way - an arrow going out - whereas it is arguably more accurate and certainly more laconic to say Person A likes Person B but it isn’t reciprocal.

That we are capable, as individuals, to experience this compelling attraction to another person that defies logic or rational thought does not however, carry any argument when referring to the abstract and deities.  Well, not for must of us and most of the time - or at least it shouldn’t!

Why her?  We all ask ourselves that question - well 50% of us - that others ask why him? Is it because I think she is intelligent, witty, beautiful or that I admire the way she thinks - her reasoning and steps?  It is all of it and none of it.  It is the best of thoughts and the worst of thoughts.  It is that which makes the wise foolish.

I have faced the realisation, many times, that the person whose thoughts my thoughts default to currently, does not feel the same way that I do.  I know we have all been there at some point.  Yet, even with the certainty of such truths, we remain hopeful.

When the dream dies all that remains is the dream.

This is something I’ve said for years.  My friend Angelo does not like it.  I wrote a song about it called Dreams (http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_4903433) indeed I also wrote another called I Could Not Help (http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_4105498) which, as the title hints at, is about the helpless nature of attraction.  I may have a slight bias if one was to consider that I wrote both songs and I play all instruments in them and do all the vocals - but I fucking like those songs!

I do indulge in that warm feeling of delight knowing a few things in regards to even these two tracks.  Not just for the semi materialistic fact that people can buy them (and have bought them) on iTunes (http://itunes.apple.com/au/album/out-of-love/id376803930).  Nor is it restricted to the face I had in my head when I wrote them.  It certainly isn’t that I know on reverbnation alone the songs have been listened to 2,355 times - which for me is a fucking awesome shitload.  It is more the knowledge that from nothing, I created them.  I am the genesis of something tangible that is not bound my the knowing of me or even proximity to me or anywhere I’ve ever been.

The only other truth to note in all of this - is that I have no idea what I am on about - I think we have gone from Voyager Probes to Dogs to Love to Dogs and to music.

As I said before, I am rather wasted at present - that makes it sound bad - it is not. It is delightful, be it the visual or the aural pleasures or the way our unfettered minds stroll in ever more random ways.  I don’t know.

I do recall once writing a blog whilst on acid - that made no sense at all either.  I don’t edit or reread entries when I am wasted - not that I do/did that much anyway - but drug blogs I always felt should be 100% what they were - all errors and warts and shit.

I am sure some would actually consider my thoughts impure on the subject of love - in so far that, like us all, I’ve had a barrage of lustful thoughts.  Quite often in fact.  However, often my thoughts dwell on my curiosities - like I am sure we all do.  I have imagined and tried to gauge just how soft her lips are and what the first moment of impact would be like between our respective lips.

I have thought about how her back would arch and head go slightly back as I play circular hand and finger games on her breasts.  Those soft noises.  Of course I have, I am a man - and like most men - I am always ‘on’.  Well, in so far that to go from off to on, speed wise, is up their with 3×10 to the 8.

That is another strange thing isn’t it - that the Multiverse has a top speed of 186,282 miles per second.  Don’t get me wrong, that is a helluva fast fucking speed  - but, why can’t the universe squeeze out another few horses and up that to 187,000 miles per second? (Well, assuming we are talking about things that have matter, energy or information)

It is also strange, to me at least, to think that physicists measure such things in a perfect vacuum which we know is impossible to actually achieve.  A place without any particles at all.  That leads me back to thoughts I had the other night about how nothing can be nothing as once you acknowledge nothing it then becomes something.

Personally, I have something about words with a double u.  It seems as if it is linguistic indulgence.  I like that.  Vacuum over Vacum - it is perhaps why I scratch my head at times about how colour could ever have become color.  It, well it just detracts from the very colour of language and the word itself!  Pop in the U I say!

Anyway, now I am about to ramble more and should stop.   I fear this has already been too long for you!

As I used to always sign off;

Peace Be The Keeper

thenewvoice8