To thine own self be true

for trivializing and insulting Martin Luther King by selling away his idealistic words and message to Dodge Ram to crassly sell motor vehicles. The idea of “service” King had in mind had nothing to do with how trucks ‘serve’ their owners. The ad was nothing short of a disgrace and a shameless abuse of the greatest American of the 20th century. Humanism and idealism have got nothing to do with trucks. This is easily the poorest example of the transfer technique I have ever seen in advertising. The notion that Dodge Ram trucks fulfill a need described by King and that they are as significant as anything to do with King is nuts. Only an incredibly stupid, shallow dope would believe that King would have ever endorsed trucks driven by a largely white demographic in 2018.

(Ulysses waving at people on a train passing his hometown Ithaca)

“Death,” she said, “is not an easy thing for anyone to understand, least of all a child, but every life shall end.” She looked at Ulysses. “That day came for your father two years ago.” She looked back at Bess and Mary. “but as long as we are alive,” she said, “as long as we are together, as long as two of us are left, and remember him, nothing in the world can take him from us. His body can be taken, but not him. You shall know your father better as you grow and know yourself better,” she said. “he is not dead, because you are alive. Time and accident, illness and weariness took his body, but already you have given it back to him, younger and more eager than ever. I don’t expect you to understand anything I’m telling you. But I know you will remember this–that nothing good ever ends. If it did, there would be no people in the world–no life at all, anywhere. And the world is full of people and full of wonderful life.”

And then there are the best moments, the magical ones, when dream and reality fuse and one cannot tell the one from the other, when dreams do, indeed, come true for a period of time. All suddenly becomes wildly and crazily possible.

These moments emerge materialize suddenly, intuitively, beautifully, infusing life with great unexpected meaning and purpose. They just happen.

So, dreams do sometimes come true and assume a real tangible form with great clarity and wisdom. They are what they are, though brief and quite remarkable, apart from the rest of life experience.

True moments of being with the sublimer freedom of/for two. And the best exchange of mutual gifts of self.

In all of that, Love.

For if a man should dream of heaven and, waking, find within his hand a flower as token that he had really been there–what then, what then?–Thomas Wolfe

is easily the most limited and limiting factor in people’s lives. No fear is worse than irrational, ego-based, self-imposed fear.

“A man can do all things if he will.”–Leon Battisa Alberti

beyond the uselessness of rush-hour traffic, meetings, the lies of others, the pretence that one’s job is essential and defines one’s life and the many sacrifices made for a buck. To be owned by the machines, the failing system. The selling of one’s soul and spirit daily. The inner dying inside for an illusion of importance and purpose.

As I have said elsewhere, I have never regretted retiring early at 52 and having this much freedom since. It has been most me–what most of my life has been about–being my own person, being true to myself.

Ten things are necessary for daily living: freedom, family, civilized moments of being, curiosity, humor, music, good conversation, the experience of beauty, true sensibility, and always having something to look forward to.

The rest of it–the consuming ‘sold-out’ digital life, wars, violence, agendas, hypocrisy, cynicism, corruption, phone solicitations, advertising, fame and celebrity obsession, cruelty, barbarism, dumbing down, care-less government, declining social systems–is off my radar.

‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world.–Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Ulysses”

“I stand here dazzled with my heart in flames at this world of wonders, world of wonders, world of wonders, world of wonders…“

(Bruce Cockburn–Canada’s top folk-singer, folk-songwriter, and folk-guitarist of all time)

“Infinite possibility is good, not bad.” –James Gleick, The Information

What do you know? What do you want to know or need to know in a given moment or situation? ‘The Information’.

You could be an executor dealing with a parent’s estate and phoning various people and companies to get information. You could be a parent telling a child how something works or why something is the way it is. You could be the same child learning what happens when you topple building blocks. You could be a student taking an evening class on intuition, trying to learn more about how it may work.

But always the quest to know, to get, to use, or understand some kind of information.
I think even the quest for relationships or a special someone who might be your ultimate partner in life falls along the same lines as another kind of information we seek. Getting to know someone, find out about someone, getting close/r to them. In our relationship choices, we want to know what makes that person ‘tick’. We want to see if they sync with us in attitudes, behavior, values, and tastes. ‘The Information’, the lowdown on them.

So much then, simply comes down to the information about something, someone, some process, some area. Our perpetual and restless curiosity that keeps us searching daily and over long periods of time.

Some of these information quests are themed as in the case of say an image or adopted totem, such as owls, that seems to ‘take over” our interests and sometimes become passions, even obsessions. And, in turn, the information we seek tells us much about ourselves–who we are, what makes us ‘tick’, what motivates us, and what makes us unique as individuals. The information that defines us.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Our minds, bodies, sense, feelings, spirits, and souls are constantly processing information from a world of sources. Life and whatever understandings we arrive at are not just one thing but a multiplicity of layers and levels of experiential information. I believe that once we understand and appreciate that we are receiving and sending information from many sources that we will better understand ourselves and how we might become more attuned to that wealth of information which many times threatens to swamp us and literally boggle our minds. (“I am large… I contain multitudes.” –Whitman)

To adapt an old quotation (“The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your thoughts.”), The quality of your life is determined by the information of/in your life and an understanding, appreciation, and expression of that information. In that, potentially–Maslow’s “self-actualization”, personal fulfillment, happiness, and the potential for true, significant connections.

ps/ Of course, whatever incoming information has to be filtered, sometimes critically questioned, examined for truth and personal usefulness and positive applicability. In much the same way, whatever information is expressed requires that it be beautiful, true, honest, heartfelt, or necessary in some way.

The matter of what information becomes personally meaningful, knowledge or wisdom is finally left to each individual. In the end, personal choice and the limits and limitations built into each person come into play. And so many other factors including such qualities as imagination, empathy, sympathy, and love.

“[They] almost hear a meaning in their noise.”–Thom Gunn, “On the Move”

What an ironic use of the word from its primal meaning in beautiful, natural birdsong….

“And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.”–John Keats, “To Autumn”

–the average cost to purchase 1,000 fake Twitter followers.