I am probably subjective in my outlooks to the world, to understanding our humanity, and attempting to have a positive outlook. That's a mouthful! Granted that our attempts to achieve a peaceful existence full of potential and choices with freedom and dignity are besmirched with the news headlines reporting the opposite around the world. Fighters with evil intent to cause horrific suffering very similar to Nazi behaviors of our past is happening now! The conflicts of the Middle East continues with propaganda and analyses attempting to explain how this has come about. Our ability to govern ourselves in question with Israel politics now so familiar to us with our own governance in disarray.
Yesterday in a challenging hike up the ridges and valleys of Kahuku Oahu I thought I had an insight. We were climbing then descending some steep inclines and one more challenged hiker was getting in shape after being absent from hiking for a number of months. We assisted him mostly down the more challenging sections both enjoying our challenges and attempting to make sure we had a successful hike rather than a fall with injuries. So what's the insight? Subjective reasoning again, I think there are some people who would not enjoy assisting another would see the challenged hiker as a hindrance to their enjoyment of the trail. Oh, no you may exclaim! Well I partly agree that most of the people I associate with would find the assisting necessary and agreeable to them but there is a minority who would not. How much of a minority? I think substantial. How else can we understand how significant groups endorse gerrymandering, racial exclusions, resistance to assisting those in poverty, maybe homeless and impaired? Our congress may be influenced by this type of minority that will use any means to create chaos and dysfunction to prevent democracy from functioning! Am I taking too big a leep from some impressions I had while hiking or maybe there is a kernel of understanding I'm attempting to be aware of.
While hiking one of our participants who knows the words and songs of folk singers mention Bob Dylon's song
My Back Pages Song by Bob Dylan
Crimson flames tied through my ears, rollin' high and mighty traps Pounced with fire on flaming roads using ideas as my maps "We'll meet on edges, soon, " said I, proud 'neath heated brow Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth, "rip down all hate, " I screamed Lies that life is black and white spoke from my skull, I dreamed Romantic facts of musketeers foundationed deep, somehow Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now Girls' faces formed the forward path from phony jealousy To memorizing politics of ancient history Flung down by corpse evangelists, unthought of, though somehow Ah, but I was so much older then. I'm younger than that now A self-ordained professor's tongue too serious to fool Spouted out that liberty is just equality in school "Equality, " I spoke the word as if a wedding vow Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now In a soldier's stance, I aimed my hand at the mongrel dogs who teach Fearing not that I'd become my enemy in the instant that I preach My existence led by confusion boats, mutiny from stern to bow Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats too noble to neglect Deceived me into thinking I had something to protect Good and bad, I define these terms quite clear, no doubt, somehow Ah, but I was so much older then I'm younger than that now Source: LyricFind Songwriters: Bob Dylan https://www.google.com/search?q=my+back+pages+lyrics&newwindow=1&sca_esv=573681836&sxsrf=AM9HkKl-GqBzRsD-fqR8t-4BPV239ggMtA%3A1697426906049&ei=2q0sZdHUAp-i0PEPs7m6-Ac&oq=my+back+pages+bon+dylan&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiF215IGJhY2sgcGFnZXMgYm9uIGR5bGFuKgIIADIKEAAYRxjWBBiwAzIKEAAYRxjWBBiwAzIKEAAYRxjWBBiwAzIKEAAYRxjWBBiwAzIKEAAYRxjWBBiwAzIKEAAYRxjWBBiwAzIKEAAYRxjWBBiwAzIKEAAYRxjWBBiwA0iQFlAAWABwAXgBkAEAmAEAoAEAqgEAuAEByAEA4gMEGAAgQYgGAZAGCA&sclient=gws-wiz-serp
So here is Theory of Memory "Long, long ago, before I was a tormented artist, afflicted with longing yet incapable of forming durable attachments, long before this, I was a glorious ruler uniting all of a divided country—so I was told by the fortune-teller who examined my palm. Great things, she said, are ahead of you, or perhaps behind you; it is difficult to be sure. And yet, she added, what is the difference? Right now you are a child holding hands with a fortune-teller. All the rest is hypothesis and dream."
Just spend some time thinking and appreciating this short poem on how we live.
SIREN "Before that I was a waitress. I wanted to marry you, I wanted your wife to suffer. in which all the parts are sad parts. think this way? I deserve Everything was clear to me: that proved she didn’t love you. if she loved you wouldn’t she want you to be happy? if I felt less I would be a better person. I was a good waitress. I could carry eight drinks. Last night I saw a woman sitting in a dark bus- in the dream, she’s weeping, the bus she’s on is moving away. With one hand she’s waving; the other strokes an egg carton full of babies."
Our life narrative here dissected and changed with a parting bus ride.
The dream doesn’t rescue the maiden. Strong feelings, longings, and delusions are described.
Louise Glück "You want to know how I spend my time? I walk the front lawn, pretending to be weeding. You ought to know I’m never weeding, on my knees, pulling clumps of clover from the flower beds: in fact I’m looking for courage, for some evidence my life will change, though it takes forever, checking each clump for the symbolic leaf, and soon the summer is ending, already the leaves turning, always the sick trees going first, the dying turning brilliant yellow, while a few dark birds perform their curfew of music. You want to see my hands? As empty now as at the first note. Or was the point always to continue without a sign?"
Have you ever looked for courage, for some evidence that your life has changed
"There was an apple tree in the yard— this would have been forty years ago—behind, only meadows. Drifts of crocus in the damp grass. I stood at that window: late April. Spring flowers in the neighbor’s yard. How many times, really, did the tree flower on my birthday, the exact day, not before, not after? Substitution of the immutable for the shifting, the evolving. Substitution of the image for relentless earth. What do I know of this place, the role of the tree for decades taken by a bonsai, voices rising from the tennis courts— Fields. Smell of the tall grass, new cut. As one expects of a lyric poet. We look at the world once, in childhood. The rest is memory."
Recently
I read an article about the controversies at Stanford University in
which the author describes how bias and discrimination over the
recent massacre
by Hamas was incorporated in the discussions and
comments of the students and
professors. Instead of dialogue and clarity both some of the students and faculty behaved with biased rancor. My take is that universities can be a place to be critical and thoughtful and a place to attempt to magnify and take sides with attempts to vilify and discriminate. They do represent our social disarray.
March 21, 2024 When studying history one approach is to look at the culture, group, tribe, city, and state to see if they endorse basic freedoms. Firstly the freedom of an individual to move from one location to another. Secondly, the freedom to disobey some person, group, or authority, and the third is the freedom to create or transform social relationships. Included in these freedoms is the ability to make promises in these relationships (the third freedom) and the the freedom to run away from a difficult situation is related to the first freedom. A slave cannot make promises since they have no rights. According to Roman law during the classical period, slaves could be mutilated and killed by the owner without repercussions. The family members under the patriarchal system were subject to the head of the households direction and could be abused, restrained, and beaten without repercussions to the perpetrator. In certain cultures throughout history monarchs became ve...
April 20,2024 I just finished walking 3.4 miles in under two hours from my home to the post office and back to mail a birthday card to my granddaughter. I wanted her to get the card before her birthday, I wanted to get exercise to keep my body including my heart healthy and maintain my better body weight, and be out with sunlight and mild breeze. As I walked on the streets, parks, and stores to the post office I obeyed the crosswalk directions and signals, kept to the side walks and paths, and did deposit the birthday card at the post office. Earlier I greeted a friend who comes every few years to fix my computer which he did and we talked about his new job, his wife's job, some background about his parents and Rebecca shared some interests in jewelry making which his wife enjoys. His wife teaches at La Pietra Girl's school and I commented that we hiked with another art teacher from this school in the past and that the school had some horseback riding classes. ...
January 31, 2024 My adventures in hiking are less intense and much less risky due to age, health changes including cardiac pacemaker, atrial fibrillation, past heart attack surgeries and stents, torn achilles tendon, peripheral neuropathy, loss of vision especially in left eye with macular hole treatments ongoing, etc. Tomorrow I'll hike up from Hawaii Kai up Hahaione Ridge towards Kuliouou Trail. Here the elevation gain is over 900 feet in four + miles on a secure trail without ropes or severe narrow drop-offs. I'm missing the Kahekili Trail hike with the Solemates and Rusties Group. Here's why https://the-wanderlust.com/2015/01/kahekili-manamana/ and https://www.google.com/search?q=Kahekili+Trail+in+Ka%27a%27awa&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#lpg=cid:CgIgAQ%3D%3D,ik:CAoSLEFGMVFpcFB2RUFzOFk4cndCaE1TcEVkRnZ6QUdKQXlrSzRfNjNKb3FPcEw0 I show you this 1827 feet climb in less than three miles round trip because I would like to go but...
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