Paradoxed and Paradoctored

 

“I can believe things that are true and things that aren’t true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they’re true or not.
I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and the Beatles and Marilyn Monroe and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen – I believe that people are perfectable, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkled lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women.
I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone’s ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline in good sex in America is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state.
I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste.
I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we’ll all be wiped out by the common cold like martians in War of the Worlds.
I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman.
I believe that mankind’s destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it’s aerodynamically impossible for a bumble bee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there’s a cat in a box somewhere who’s alive and dead at the same time (although if they don’t ever open the box to feed it it’ll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself.
I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn’t even know that I’m alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck.
I believe that anyone who says sex is overrated just hasn’t done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what’s going on will lie about the little things too.
I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman’s right to choose, a baby’s right to live, that while all human life is sacred there’s nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system.
I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you’re alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it.”
― Neil Gaiman, American Gods

 

To embrace paradox is to further understanding. Light is a particle and a wave. God is one and many. The truth is silent and rather loud and can be understood but never fully. It is possible to love fully and dissolve into a greater whole while maintaining individuality. It is possible to know it all but understand nothing. Eventually if you follow any question far enough back you reach paradox. It is ok to contain both, to contain all.
Blessings, G

 

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Abstract DreamscapeAbstract Dreamscape by G A Rosenberg

 

Love and WisdomLove and Wisdom by G A Rosenberg

 

No Path But My Own

 

“To go wrong in one’s own way is better then to go right in someone else’s.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky

 

This belief that we know better for anyone but ourselves is a pestilence, a means of control and manipulation that can strangle the will and crush the spirit from any.Equally foul is the conceit that others know better our needs than ourselves for that is the way to sheepdom. It’s better to learn from all without absolutes enjoying the contradictions that arise and holding the paradoxes while listening to that spirit and will within us and trust to its guidance. Thru uncomfortable paradox we learn more than any teacher could show us. Yes by choosing my path I’ll screw up but I’ll do it magnificently. My life has always been a series of falls and rises and will continue to do so. Our mistakes can be great teachers as well. For ultimately each person’s way is unique and the most anyone can show is their own path which may illuminate our own but never determine it.
Blessings, G

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After A Fall Something ArisesAfter the Fall Something Arises by G A Rosenberg

 

Showing off how the cards look with borders on:
 

Wands-Queen (FB)

The Hermit (FB)
Swords-Two (FB)

 

A Curious Paradox

 

“Wake up! If you knew for certain you had a terminal illness–if you had little time left to live–you would waste precious little of it! Well, I’m telling you…you do have a terminal illness: It’s called birth. You don’t have more than a few years left. No one does! So be happy now, without reason–or you will never be at all.”
― Dan Millman

 

It seems to me a curious paradox. On one side the I that is me is currently living the one life that I have to live. I should live each day as if it were my last one and take death as my advisor. On the other side there is a part of me that is timeless, It is beyond ego and nothing this identified self does or will do in its perceived brief time matters as much as the action itself, one more character that this eternal self plays. From one perspective everything matters because each moment is precious. From the other, its all part of a much bigger picture. Actions now may have ripples later on but then events then may affect this one. Few people tho can be in this world and may maintain an eternal perspective without at least living their temporal life at least a little.
Being happy feels better than the alternatives. The chemicals happiness releases into the bloodstream a lot more pleasant.
Blessings, G

 

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Extraterestrial on A Lonely PlanetExtraterrestrial on a Lonely Planet by G A Rosenberg

https://www.facebook.com/thebestoftumblr2/photos/a.195792080581860.1073741828.195763197251415/277963922364675/?type=1&theater

 

RadienceRadiance by G A Rosenberg

Compassion and Paradox

 

“Toast, toast, toast…nothing trite, nothing corny, nothin crude. There went most of my repertoire. I remembered once I’d heard a wise old barkeeper say once, and used it: “To the ones who weren’t as lucky.”
–Spider Robinson

 

I recently thought of a paraphrase of the old capitalist motto: “He who dies with the most joys wins”. By this, I mean that a life measured in moments of joy, love and wonder seems much more worthwhile than a life measured in things acquired. Of course, to really up our joy levels, it helps if we discover and live our life’s purpose, our true will for a life filled fulfilling one’s purpose would almost naturally be a life enjoyed.
I have had friends challenge me on this. They ask me how I can enjoy my life when there is so much misery around. The very planet itself suffers from the rather horrible things being done to her. People live in terror and poverty and shame. Where is their joy and how can I possibly be happy without turning a blind eye to all of the pain. The simple answer is that I can’t turn away. I feel the suffering of others and feel it acutely. I do what I can and it is never enough.
Like so much in life there is paradox involved. Can I help others best by wallowing in misery with them or can I do more by radiating the joy of a life lived to its fullest? Compassion can often mean that our heart hurts and we feel the joy of existence simultaneously. This is seldom an easy balance but a worthwhile one to find.
Blessings, G

 

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Projecting From the CentreProjecting From the Centre by G A Rosenberg

 

HumaniformHumaniform by G A Rosenberg

 

Multi-WheelsMulti-Wheels by G A Rosenberg

Meeting the Paradox

 

“How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress.”
― Niels Bohr

 

I have found it so easy to get stuck in my own point of view at times. I’ve held on to a belief or a thought about such things as my own abilities or my feelings about others, only because either an alternative point of view had not entered the picture or I did not put more effort into seeking it out. I mean ideas we have for years are comfortable yet holding on to them unchallenged is the fastest way to stagnate that I can think of….
Yet when I do consider the alternative view and find the value in it amazing things start to happen. I may not be able to reconcile the two things that easily (How can I have no artistic ability yet start to make art?) yet in that reconciliation and synthesis I can claim a part of myself that I’ve refused to before. By considering a new way of approaching reality I can change my reality into something far beyond what it was before.
Blessings, G

 

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Fading In and OutLines Fading In and Out by G A Rosenberg

 

Tongues of Fire
Tongues Of Flame by G A Rosenberg

Compassion and Pity

 

“While pity shows a lack of respect for other human beings, compassion has its roots in a deep respect for others. Pity is an emotion; compassion is a connection. Compassion sees the other as equal. Compassion happens when we care for another person enough to make his or her problems our own.”
― Matt Litton

 

In the past couple of weeks I have met people who have presented me with an interesting paradox. They simultaneously demand both pity and respect and tho I try hard I just can’t do it. Oh I can feel compassion for them easily enough. I know their lives and know that while they have it rough, so much of their suffering is self-inflicted. Yet they don’t seem to wish for their suffering to end as much as they want people to feel sorry for them and take care of them. Then they resent the people helping them and push them away and then berate their would be benefactors for their lack of respect and bemoan their fate. It’s a cycle that’s rough.
But then we humans are a contrary lot and often the major things we have to work out end up paradoxical in some way. Whether we need self-esteem, connection or openness, we find the oddest ways to stop ourselves from getting them. May all beings be released from suffering indeed. Especially that which we inflict on ourselves.
Blessings, G

 

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Emperor's FoundationEmperor’s Foundation by G A Rosenberg

 

StarheartStarheart by G A Rosenberg

Here There be Designations….

“I asked the Zebra,
are you black with white stripes?
Or white with black stripes?
And the zebra asked me,
Are you good with bad habits?
Or are you bad with good habits?
Are you noisy with quiet times?
Or are you quiet with noisy times?
Are you happy with some sad days?
Or are you sad with some happy days?
Are you neat with some sloppy ways?
Or are you sloppy with some neat ways?
And on and on and on and on and on and on he went.
I’ll never ask a zebra about stripes…again.”
― Shel Silverstein

 

One thing that most map makers will tell you is that they dislike having blank areas on their maps. Areas where its not quite mountain or prairie, dessert or ocean but some undefined combination of one or more. It was easy a millennium or so back. If there was an undefined place on the map and intrepid explorers not yet found to explore it, the mapmakers would simply put “Here be Dragons” and that was enough for most people. There seemed very few people willing to prove them wrong. If not dragons than just about anything can be put down. It helps if its something that’s slightly intimidating.
We see that a bit now with psychiatrists and therapists mapping their patients’ heads. They too seem to share a dislike of undefined and paradoxical areas. Dragons don’t seem to hold the terror that they did so long ago so now these cranial mapmakers have a new set of mythological creatures, equally guaranteed to cause terror and reluctance to explore further. They call these designations. They use mysterious acronyms like ADHD or PTSD or anyone of several others to define them and then treat them with drugs that make the designations meaningless as those taking them tend to become a lot less interesting to map as their behaviours become if not more animated, more socially acceptable. Whenever these drugs seem to stop working or cause unexpected behaviours, new drugs are tried. No new mapping is done, after all the area in question has been mapped off already, we ‘know’ there are dragons there. It just becomes a matter of treating them. It becomes a matter of finding the right drugs to shut off the behaviours rather than mapping what’s causing them in the first place.
Yesterday we talked about paradox. Today about areas that are less than defined. Both cases where there is not a simple one to one correspondence between map and territory. Both solved with quick fixes. Ultimately both seem to have a lot in common with that story of the Emperor’s New Clothes.
Blessings, G

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Entering the Bone CityEntering the Bone City by G A Rosenberg

 

Spider's JewelSpider’s Jewel by G A Rosenberg

The Emperor’s New Paradox

“You have to systematically create confusion, it sets creativity free. Everything that is contradictory creates life”
― Salvador Dalí

 

I trust contradiction and paradox. It’s comforting to know that as soon as one point of view is expressed, an equal and opposite run arrives especially as we increase the scope of the question. When we are confused our mind becomes open to possibility and imagination.
Don’t get me wrong. I can enjoy and appreciate certainty. Some people wear it well and it seems to look good on them. Of course you look again and it starts looking like the Emperor’s new clothes… brilliant garments he was taught to believe existed when in reality he parades around naked…secure in the fact that no one will gainsay him. Yet children always know or those with the heart of a child. The child hears people admiring the Emperor’s clothes and gets more and more confused until he speaks out his confusion and people see that the Emperor’s clothes, his certainties never existed in the first place.
So I will continue speaking paradox and avoiding certainty. I may never get dressed but at least I’ll be creative.
Blessings, G

 

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Spinning ChaosSpinning Chaos by G A Rosenberg

 

Indigo TunnelIndigo Tunnel by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – January 2, 2013

“A poet is a blind optimist.
The world is against him for
many reasons. But the
poet persists. He believes
that he is on the right track,
no matter what any of his
fellow men say. In his
eternal search for truth, the
poet is alone.
He tries to be timeless in a
society built on time.”
― Jack Kerouac

 

In the physical, can we truly move beyond time? We acknowledge the ever Now and the ever here yet scramble to locate ourselves, for each moment perceived also becomes unique. No one is the same age as me and no one has seen this road before. With empathy and compassion we can feel another’s road but to feel it is not to tread it but to understand it.
I enjoy this ever changing snowflake now for the paradox it is. Being in my head may be painful at times but would not trade it for the more i work the manual for mine, the more insight i have into others in the here now with me. We all journey together on the same journey yet our destinations have already been met. I love talking in paradoxes. Paradoxes may be the only language that exists to describe reality mechanics..
Blessings, G

 

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There to Catch Should I Fall

There to Catch Me Should I Fall by G A Rosenberg

 

Infinite Amazement

Infinite Amazement by G A Rosenberg