To thine own self be true

Definitely.

It is up to each of us to learn who we really are and to discover what our missing pieces are. Usually these pieces will pertain to relationships or to things we value and perhaps are not getting enough of, such as Nature, play, pleasure, the Arts, etc. And when we find these pieces, we will inevitably have to make choices relative to those pieces, values, and experiences–quite often to continue with them or to focus more on them.

I believe that there is a closeness, intimacy, and familiarity in this process that affects us deeply, often in feelings, mind, and spirit. I said yesterday that consciousness is one of the key 4 bedrock things about a person’s life. The more we know, the richer our lives. Knowing ourselves and accepting ourselves and others as they are is an important part of this process. Beyond acceptance, is continuing focus and choices relative to addressing our various inner needs. Finally, choices define us and how we deal with both contexts and processes.

(I have included a letter above from “Take Five” jazz great Dave Brubeck to a young aspiring musician which puts all of this in perspective. We have to be true to ourselves and only we can find the key or missing pieces we need to self-actualize and transcend.)

The dreams which we explore grow out of our responsibilities to ourselves, to our souls and sensibilities, to our Inner Childs. We have to learn to be responsible for our own lives (as well as others’–this grows out of the other). We more than anyone else, finally, are the final arbiters, agents, and authors of our own lives. We create and define ourselves, regardless of contexts and processes.

“A poet is a state of mind.”–Virginia Moore, “Saint Teresa”

There were so many
remote islands
you had passed
scarcely knowing them.

You may, in fact,
have preferred
the sunnier beaches
with crowds of people
to the south,
the slushy sand
and warmer weather.

But your curious boat
sailed on past
the deserted castles
on craggy hills,
the isolated outports
seldom visited
and quite unmapped.

Initially, there were
some islands
long, but thin
with lighthouses,
fishing fleets and
rough lives of men
you could not have
possibly known.

Maybe passing a
distant station on some
remote headland
one ran out to
wave at you,
more in disbelief,
that someone else
had found his sanctum
this far north.

Or, lucky, you may have
seen the wild ponies run
along the beach
of another solitary island,
their freedom strange
along the green waters.

But it was only then
when you entered
the high-cliffed fiords
with their steep water-
falls cascading down
that you first wondered
about home and
the possibility of return.

That cold barrenness
of final outposts,
the last land, with reindeer
champing grass
indifferently
by a deserted hut.

It was there standing
on the last ledge of land
at the edge of memory
that you found me
at last, as you stood briefly
facing true north,
a moment
with nothing but
limitless sea
whichever way
you chose to turn.

(signature poem)

Family
Friends
Nature
Touch
Health
The Arts (especially Music)
Language
Beauty
Acceptance
Gifts of Self
Learning
Humor

The Really Basic 4

Context
Process
Consciousness
Choices

(In Vancouver pondering over 1,000,000 copies of his books sold)

(A well-known, influential Canadian senior high English textbook author, 1980-today: authorizations in every province.)

*For a selection of my poems, use blog Search: Richard Davies/Poems.

1. Things will always remain the same. Nothing will ever change.
2. The Moment or The Opportunity will be there tomorrow. One does not have to act in the here-and-now.

The dumb luck of my life–so much of it, continuing…

For what am I most grateful beyond love, family, nature, the arts? 14 years retired from teaching now, I’d have to say the incredible freedom, including that when a preschooler, when a latch key kid (9 to 5, five days a week) when going to school–holidays built in, when 5 years at u; also including the holidays over the 30 years of teaching, plus 14 years mostly off since 2002. Freedom has proven the most valuable, cherished thing allowing me to slake my curiosity, follow my bliss, get to know myself, and develop my consciousness more than the average person.

Yes, consciousness, as this blog attests to, has been the main bliss, especially the past four years.

Today I am writing about another key Greek philosopher Parmenides of Elea (510-440 BC?). He is the first guy to suggest that if you can conceive of something, it must exist, whether or not it is found in the material world, outside of you. Unicorns, for instance. So subjective reality is every bit as ‘real’, especially to the viewer, as externally-agreed-upon-by-others’ reality.

He also connected thoughts, words, and things/others/external reality. Ideas do become expressed and get connected to others as well as to things we can experience. As I have commented on above–consciousness is (about) ideas and these get expressed in places like this blog to others, as well as to myself. (My blog is mainly me thinking ‘aloud’, after all.)

I do like the subjective reality part of Parmenides’ ideas. We all have memories (the past gets subsumed by our minds) and can imagine the future as a reality that will often mostly happen (again, because of the autonomy and power of individual consciousness, as well as individual will). Personally, I believe both subjective and external/objective reality (though the latter depends on subjective/personal perception anyway) exist, and that subjective reality may be as or more important than the other. It is after all, our own lives and own consciousnesses that we live with 24/7.

Earlier in other blog entries, I talked of how we search for information daily. For me, that often translates into ideas and knowledge as well as the personal consciousness changes that ensue. None of this is communicable without language, though you also have to admit the power of the representative arts like painting, photography, and dance which may be wordless, technically speaking, can communicate thought and feeling effectively, too.

Thinking, language, and consciousness are central, basic and–for me as a writer and sometime-performer–very essential. And the balance on the attractions and distractions of the external world reality depends heavily on key people, nature, and the arts. Those are all aspects which can thoroughly focus or engross my interests, pleasure, engagement, feelings, and thoughts. Nothing like a stimulating external environment to spur your own personal creative expression and response as well as consciousness, eh?

………………….

That all said, there is much pleasure and delight to be found in ordinary, common, or basic sense experiences. The empirical/physical world is meant to be experienced in many ways, on many levels. It is there one will find, experience, and confirm many proofs of life and philosophy. By itself, a mostly abstract, philosophical or platonic life is an incomplete, thin, relatively bloodless life. There are many times when E.E. Cummings’ “since feeling is first” is the better ticket to freedom, happiness, or love.

(The Father of The Essay/Genre)

“No pleasure hath any savour unless I can communicate it.”–Montaigne

One key model and influence for this discursive blog has been the famous French writer who changed Western civilization writing with the first essays, appropriately called Essays–the height of humanistic communication–published in 1580 and 1588. There is much of his approach I have consciously/subconsciously adopted and followed as my m.o. the past two years.

Montaigne reclusively worked in solitude and inwardly remained very free, his own man. He was solidly engaged in the examination of himself and others as they reciprocally illuminated and clarified one another. Although he was classically trained and academically theorized, he was also inclined, balancedly, to bring personal experience and observation to bear about his opinions on life and human nature. He aimed to tell the truth, even if some of it was unpleasant or unflattering to others.

Ultimately, he created a rounded, brimming self-portrait via his personal discursive essays which rambled like spirited one-man conversation, not unlike that of Socrates. This offered others glimpses not only into him, but into others and themselves. A process similar to Montaigne coming to know man better, then better understanding himself, as a representative of mankind. Above all, he aimed to discover universal truths about life experience and human nature.

As I continue to follow and express the seemingly never-ending flow of daily topics, I often imagine how much Montaigne would have enjoyed the blogging experience and the similar pleasures of having a Read-Only blog. There is a sublime pleasure to consciousness and expressing it for oneself and others. Still best of all is when creativity is ‘automatic’ with pieces ‘writing themselves’, like the previous topic on performance, and, even better, affirm the positive possibilities of human nature and life experience.

……………………..

Re. the second last sentence, this is something I have done at various times through drama, music, teaching, presenting, writing, and now blogging.

And it is always interesting and satisfying when deeply-held values and convictions are proven by or arise from personal experience and expression, as in the performer piece.

As I have sometimes said to others, if you wish to know, understand, and appreciate me better, then check out my blog. A self-portrait indeed.

These would be the most significant musicians, singers, and songwriters from my musical past going back to the 1950s, who are still alive and, in many cases, still performing

Jimmie Rodgers (singer) 1933-

Ian Tyson (singer, songwriter, Ian and Sylvia) 1933-

John Mayall (blues singer, pianist, guitarist, songwriter) 1933-

Willie Nelson (singer, songwriter) 1933-

Leonard Cohen (poet, singer, songwriter) 1934-

Bob Shane (singer, original Kingston Trio) 1934-

Herb Alpert (trumpeter, The Tijuana Brass) 1935-

Glen Campbell (singer, guitarist) 1936-

Don Everly (singer, remaining half of The Everly Brothers) 1937-

Gordon Lightfoot (singer, songwriter) 1938-

Sandy Nelson (drummer) 1938-

Judy Collins (singer, songwriter) 1939-

Sylvia Tyson (singer, songwriter, radio host) 1940-

Ringo Starr (singer, drummer, The Beatles) 1940-

Paul Simon (singer, songwriter, Simon & Garfunkle) 1941-

Buffy Sainte-Marie (singer, songwriter) 1941-

Bob Dylan (singer, songwriter) 1941-

Art Garfunkle (singer) 1941-

Eric Burdon (singer, The Animals) 1941-

Joan Baez (folksinger, activist) 1941-

Felix Cavalieri (singer, keyboards, The Rascals, Joey Dee) 1942-

Paul McCartney (singer, bassist, songwriter, Beatles) 1942-

Paul Jones (singer, Manfred Mann) 1942-

Johnny Rivers (singer) 1942-

Roger McGuinn (singer, guitarist, The Byrds) 1942-

Jim McCarty (drummer, songwriter, The Yardbirds) 1943-

Mick Jagger (singer, songwriter, Rolling Stones) 1943-

Chad Allan (original singer-songwriter Guess Who) 1943-

Joni Mitchell singer, songwriter) 1943-

Robert Lamm (singer, pianist, songwriter, Chicago) 1944-

Roger Daltrey (singer, The Who) 1944-

Ray Davies (singer, songwriter, The Kinks) 1944-

Pete Townshend (singer, guitarist, songwriter, The Who) 1945-

Rod Argent (keyboardist-songwriter, The Zombies) 1945-

Colin Blundstone (singer, The Zombies) 1945-

Eric Clapton (singer, guitarist, Cream) 1945-

Neil Young (singer, guitarist, songwriter) 1945-

Bruce Cockburn (singer, guitarist, songwriter) 1945-

Donovan (singer, songwriter) 1946-

Elton John (singer, pianist, songwriter) 1947-

Burton Cummings (singer, pianist, songwriter Guess Who) 1947-

James Taylor (singer, guitarist, songwriter) 1948-

Billy Joel (singer, pianist, songwriter) 1949-

Janis Ian (singer, songwriter) 1951-

Johnny Clegg (singer, guitarist, songwriter, activist) 1953-

Suzanne Vega (singer, songwriter) 1959-

“We fear the thing we want the most.”–Dr. Robert Anthony

“Fear is the prison of the heart.”–Anon

“Of all the passions, fear weakens judgement most.”–Cardinal De Retz

There is no greater self-imposed limitation than fear itself. Fear limits us from truly living and loving fully and freely. No question. I have watched others limit themselves this way time and time again. As I have said earlier elsewhere, we truly do it to ourselves by limiting ourselves from the fulfilled lives and loves we might otherwise have. These would be the most needlessly damaging and inhibiting manacles we put on our own lives. We and no one else. Ironically, this, in an otherwise world of beautiful limitless possibilities.

Abandoned to Nature