Photo: South Dakota. In the Badlands. I talked to these guys for a while. They were good listeners 🙂
“What One Fears, One Destroys”
Tag Archives: Quotes
Casting a Net with Language
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Photo: A lightening bolt during a monsoon rain reaches down to the mountains. Only appearing for an instant, the image was caught by repeatedly opening the shutter. It took about a hundred shots for the timing to capture that less-than-a-second flash of light. The difficulty in catching the image seems to parallel the quote. It can take many casts of a net made of words to catch simple facts in an ocean of information 🙂
A Human Zoo – A High-Tech Slum
Photo: I took this photo in the Hayden Valley of Yellowstone National Park. It was absolutely amazing there.
The Many Flames of Life
I love fire. Always have.
A Passionate Embrace.
Cozy snowy days by the woodstove.
Well, not quite a Haiku’s traditional 5-7-5, but fire is still poetic. Fire is symbolic of so many things. Transformation, purification, life force, power, strength, destruction, rebirth, transcendence, inspiration, enlightenment.
Truth and Knowledge. Light and Heat. The Intellect and the Emotions.
“Baptism by Fire” restores primordial purity. An intermediary between the Source and all of us tiny Particles of Awareness.
Fire is a good visual representation of our emotions. Anger, I believe, is the most destructive – a raging inferno. Passion, the most inspirational, a slow intense burn. Love, a steady light. Life, the precious spark.
The blaze in the feature photo above represents that out-of-control burst of anger. Hatred. The stare of death.
While this image . . .
the steady, passionate burn of the heart. That electric heat, tingle of fire, with the brush of a lover’s hand. A slow, deep delicious kiss.
And there’s another image I truly love, from my background of being a health care provider – The Keeper of the Flame. I found this pin at a military surplus store. I was told it was a German medic’s pin. The hands delicately cradling that life force.
And here’s one, a story for another day, perhaps, of a long ago camping trip in the mountains of Colorado. The howling winds channeling through the mountain pass. Filling our eyes with smoke and ash as we reached for those life-giving flames.
But anger. Yes anger is the most destructive. A fire that can consume us. Destroy us physically and mentally. We might think it’s directed outward, but the amount of negative energy that burns within can kill. An insidious suicide.
I end with a link to a friend’s blog. Lucid Being recently posted “Solving the Anger Issues! – Open Leader.” It’s a good read.
As for that spiritual burn in all of us – don’t let that fire go out.
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Nature is Knowledge
Photos: I captured the one above in the early morning at Canyonlands National Park in Utah. The landscape peering out from a natural rock bridge looks surreal. As does the Green River Overlook below. Like looking centuries back in time. There is knowledge in nature. So overwhelming, the scenes will bring you to inner silence.
“I have learned that the point of life’s walk is not where or how far I move my feet but how I am moved in my heart.”
― The Seven Paths: Changing One’s Way of Walking in the World
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Hold On
Photos: From Grand Teton National Park
Woody Guthrie
A friend posted a link to a Woody Guthrie song on Facebook the other day. He is a big music fan and appreciates a lot of the older musicians. It was the anniversary of Guthrie’s birthday, July 14th.
I knew the song well, but I went to the link on You Tube to listen again and that’s when I noticed them. The comments.
I look at a lot posts now days, not for the actual content, but for the comments. It is sort of like taking the pulse of the public. True, it is not a representative sample of the general public and one shouldn’t put too much emphasis or importance on these minority of remarks. But it can be amusing at times. Or enlightening.
Everything, and I mean everything, seems to be politically charged right now. I saw a post about the FBI crime statistics and immediately people were trying to link crime with political party affiliation. Heck, they should just look at the politicians themselves for that. Plenty of criminals there.
But the average murder, I imagine, has more to do with passion, the heat of the moment, or a robbery or other crime, or something else much more mundane. When I worked for the top court in my state, I had to review all of the state’s death penalty cases. I can guarantee you not a single murder case I looked at had anything to do with politics.
But people see what they want to see.
I imagine the politicians are patting themselves on their backs. They have successfully, maybe too successfully, divided the country into polar opposites and many people just can’t wait to add their commentary and witticisms to any thread on social media. And I’ll give some credit, some of their remarks are actually smart and funny 😊
Insults have become popular, though, so there is a whole bunch of eye-poking and head-slapping going on out there. I’ve generally quit trying to add rational thoughts to the mix as the responses are, well, just kind of out there in the ozone layer, what’s left of it.
Once, apparently not liking my ideas, a person fired back that they had my IP address and were going to come to my home, rape my mother and kill my whole family. Another time, I was called a “Communist putz” because I had said something regarding the greed and materialism I see in the current culture. The level of civil discourse sometimes deteriorates in cyber world.
I like the blogging world much better. People are generally more positive here, more thoughtful in their presentations, and willing to have a real discussion.
At any rate, this song was no different from any other post. It was politicized quickly. It was a folk song about America, after all. And forms of government became a point of contention. Not surprising considering Woody Guthrie often had the words “This Machine Kills Fascists” written on his guitar.
It seems to me that the lines have been blurred between our form of government and our economic and maybe even our religious systems. Democracy is not the same as capitalism. Socialism is not the same as Communism. People worshiping money or monetary systems are certainly not religious in any respect.
I did like one of the comments though because I thought it showed a level of balance so here it is:
“Considering human history and the teachings of the major world religions, it seems that your statement about greed being a natural human trait is largely true. It’s also been recognized as an evil impulse for thousands of years by virtually every strain of human thought. One way to view capitalism is the institutionalization of greed. It has benefits and drawbacks, and most world democracies have settled on a capitalist system with some governmental regulation as “the best of all possible worlds.” Those who advocate for unfettered socialism seem to be ignorant of or OK with losing all of capitalism’s early benefits: constant innovation; rewarding hard work, talent, intelligence, and risk; and a strong individual work ethic. Those who advocate for unfettered capitalism seem to be ignorant of or OK with the oligarchy that quickly overtakes it as the rich use their power to stifle innovation, fix markets, and disconnect the link between talent, hard work, and upward mobility. They seem to also be OK with the violent revolt of the disenfranchised that must surely follow.” — Patrick Lollis
Any thoughts?
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The Woody Guthrie song link: This Land is Your Land
Feature Photo: I found this photo on the Internet in the public domain. It was linked back to an NPR site with an interview about Woody Guthrie.
BTW: I added the Politics section to my blog because sometimes I’ll have to write something that wanders into this pasture. But you may have noticed that I don’t post too often in this section. I am still working on the art of presenting controversial topics neutrally. I like to keep discussions alive and love to hear what others have to say. Being extreme in one’s presentation may be provocative, but the discussion will usually deteriorate and die quite quickly that way. I’d rather have an open mind and listen to well articulated ideas 🙂
One Day
Photo: A rose at a botanical garden. As you zoom in, the rest of the world disappears.
Writing to Survive
A while back I wrote a piece about how movement, physical movement, was necessary for our creative minds. In fact, this was a trait we learned and passed on by the forces of evolution. To eat, we moved. As we moved, we learned to think. We had to be creative problem solvers on the move, and we survived.
That article was called, “Move Your Body, Move Your Mind.” And there, I explored the first “rule” in the book, “Brain Rules,” by John Medina. This guy, Medina, is a smart guy. He is a developmental molecular biologist.
This technique works for me, by-the-way. I get some of my best story ideas when I’m out hiking on the trail and I allow my mind to drift. Evolutionary vestiges repurposed. I hunt for words as my food is all neatly packaged at the grocery store now.
Well, the second “brain rule” is our ability to engage in IMAGINATION! More specifically, our ability to substitute objects in our minds so that one object can represent another, or maybe a whole bunch of different objects. This has been called “Dual Representation Theory.” More basically, SYMBOLISM.
It seems our fossil history shows that our ancestors evolved a lot physically since humankind’s estimated beginnings somewhere around 7 to 10 million years ago, but there wasn’t a lot of mental evolution going on until about 40,000 years ago. And then. Bam! We went from stone axes to painting, sculpture, fine art and jewelry. Soon, there would be mathematics and science. And, of course, more advanced communication. What caused this big change?
Apparently, it was the weather.
The changes weren’t fast, but they forced adaptation. Brought us out of the trees and into the savannah when food sources shifted. To become more streamlined and save energy we became bipedal.
In order to master survival in all of the biomes on the planet, our brains enlarged. This brings in another concept – Variability Selection Theory. Two powerful aspects of the brain developed. A database and the ability to improvise using that growing database.
And since survival not only meant staying warm and eating, it meant not being eaten too, community concepts evolved. There was safety and better hunting in numbers. And this meant learning to negotiate.
This raises the “Theory of Mind” or the ability to make inferences. To peer inside another person’s mental life and make predictions, to understand their motivations. All necessary skills to develop allies, cooperative behavior, and group species survival.
This ability to draw upon our databases and make inferences reminds me of the “predictive processing framework,” described in my piece,“My Intuition Tells Me . . ..”
With basic survival skills being mastered, humans could focus on more advanced pursuits. Those beyond only the four F’s – fighting, feeding, fleeing and fucking. And thus, in addition to art, music, mathematics, and science, us modern-day bloggers have electronic storytelling.
I think most of us still like the fucking, we just have more time for more things beyond the big four now. 😊
Storytelling is an ancient art, and we wordsmiths spend a lot of time in the world of symbolic thinking. We don’t use this creative process for basic survival like our ancestors did. Or do we ??? Maybe writing and creating worlds is survival for some of us. And I suppose some us actually do feed ourselves by writing, a lean diet that is . . .
But basically, every word we use is a symbol, either a subject or an action or a feeling. Every word has to represent something tangible in the physical world or summon an image or feeling into the mind.
In fact, symbols can convey meanings or reveal details of reality beyond just a physical image. Symbols can carry strong emotions. They can summon memories of sounds and smells and touches. Of happiness and laughter.
And as writers, we employ that Theory of Mind in multiple ways. We try to look into our reader’s heads, make predictions, understand what drives them. Figure out how to lead them through the story.
There are times when we want our words to evoke a particular image and have that image be universal for all readers. But there are other times when we deliberately want those words to convey multiple meanings, to give the reader a choice. Or to show contradictions between choices. Maybe they’ll choose a meaning that even we never saw as a possibility.
If we are writing fiction, we have to develop the mental lives of the characters we create. We add predictability and motivations for their actions, even providing historic context. Their fictional life traumas that have helped develop their passions, their fears, their hatreds, their loves, their essence. So the reader understands the next move on the chess board.
So, this survival skill of making inferences has evolved into us examining the minds of non-existent entities and developing believable characters based upon what we anticipate would be their universal actions. Wouldn’t we do the same thing in the same situation? And we do this for entertainment, not for negotiating the next mammoth hunt.
Whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, the art of writing is stacking symbols in some sequence to complete a portrait. And we want to draw the reader in so they feel like they are a part of the story. A bystander. A witness. Or maybe even an active participant.
Symbols may relate to objects, but they don’t equate to objects. They reveal essence. Symbols are inclusive and expansive and evolve over time acquiring even more meaning from multiple sources.
Meanings may differ depending on peoples’ cultures. The Owl, for example, to the Pawnee symbolized protection, while to the Ojibwa it symbolized evil and death. To the ancient Greeks, the Owl represented wisdom.
According to Joseph Campbell: “Symbols are only the vehicles of communication; they must not be mistaken for the final term, the tenor, of their reference.” This implies that no two people would experience the object of the symbol in the same way. Maybe so, especially with cultural variations, but it seems the essence of the experience can be shared more universally with a symbol than with bare words.
With context, it seems to me that symbols are the supersonic highway of communication. The brain is able to process a symbol as an all-encompassing experience in a nanosecond. Faster than the blink of an eye, a complex story unfolds in images and associated feelings.
Symbolic thinking is said to be a uniquely human skill, and it allows us the ability to understand each other and coordinate within groups. And with that, I’ll leave you with a few symbols to make of them what you will. 😊
What do these images inspire in your minds?
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Note: If you want to read more, there are some quotes on symbolism below.
Photos: An angel inside an old Spanish mission. The great Horned Owl. A sculpture in an art gallery court yard. Street sculptures in an eclectic small town. A vulture crosses it’s folded wings to make a heart.
A sort of Rorschach test 🙂
Quotes:
“Symbolism is no mere idle fancy or corrupt egerneration: it is inherent in the very texture of human life.”
― Alfred Whitehead“Things do not have meaning. We assign meaning to everything.”
― Anthony Robbins“Symbols can be so beautiful, sometimes.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions“If you have to ask what it symbolizes, it didn’t.”
― Roger Ebert“In many college English courses the words “myth” and “symbol” are given a tremendous charge of significance. You just ain’t no good unless you can see a symbol hiding, like a scared gerbil, under every page. And in many creative writing course the little beasts multiply, the place swarms with them. What does this Mean? What does that Symbolize? What is the Underlying Mythos? Kids come lurching out of such courses with a brain full of gerbils. And they sit down and write a lot of empty pomposity, under the impression that that’s how Melville did it.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction“A religion is a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods in men [and women] by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing those conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.”
― Clifford Geertz“The same principles that make a spiral galaxy also create the structure of a seashell and unfurling of a fern. This is why ancient spiritual people used natural symbols to convey universal concepts.”
― Belsebuub, Return to Source: How Enlightenment is the Process of Creation in the Universe in Reverse“[A] symbol, like everything else, shows a double aspect. We must distinguish, therefore between the ‘sense’ and the ‘meaning’ of the symbol. It seems to me perfectly clear that all the great and little symbolical systems of the past functioned simultaneously on three levels: the corporeal of waking consciousness, the spiritual of dream, and the ineffable of the absolutely unknowable. The term ‘meaning’ can refer only to the first two but these, today, are in the charge of science – which is the province as we have said, not of symbols but of signs. The ineffable, the absolutely unknowable, can be only sensed. It is the province of art which is not ‘expression’ merely, or even primarily, but a quest for, and formulation of, experience evoking, energy-waking images: yielding what Sir Herbert Read has aptly termed a ‘sensuous apprehension of being’.”
― Joseph Campbell, The Symbol Without Meaning
Hieroglyphics with Soul
This storytelling challenge comes from Becky All-Inclusive with the axiom that no one succeeds alone. That we all have mentors, people who have spurred us on to greater things than we would have accomplished on our own.
You should check out Becky’s blog. How could you go wrong with a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Relationship Counsellor & Sex Therapist? I mean that’s the whole package right there 🙂
The Challenge: Identify that person who is/was the major influencer of your passion.
Rules:
• Share with the world your #OnePerson story.
• Pingback to the post (or add the link in the comments).
• Add the pictures, if you like.
• Humor and quotes are welcome.
• You can even come up with your own title for the post.
• And use your own featured image for the post.
• Spread the word: up to 3 – 5 bloggers.
Humm . . . Identify my passion and then identify my influencer. Seems simple, but now that I’ve logically laid out the mental process here, I have to say I’m confused. You see, passions have certainly shifted over the years, or at least some passions have. So which passion and which influencer??
Some may think that career paths match a person’s passion, but I don’t think that’s necessarily true. When I was practicing as a critical care nurse, I’d say my patients were my passion. Healing was a passion. That’s one time the career and passions aligned.
But my passions for hiking, being a naturalist, having that desire to continually learn and grow, certainly didn’t necessarily align with my careers. At least not very much. Especially the free-thinking part. 😊 I worked many a job where the boss just wanted you to shut up, never ask the question why, never try to improve things.
There was a time, before writing, that animals were my biggest passion. I loved having them around and had even decided I’d become a veterinarian and turn my passion into an occupation. But a big detour came along and my career path shifted, and those passions didn’t manifest into a way of life. I still love animals, of course.
Writing, or more descript “storytelling,” has definitely been one of my passions; a consistent theme in this lifetime. Something that does really burn in my soul. And before I retired, I was writing in the background of whatever my job was. At least that’s when I would engage in the fun kind of composing, not some formula-drafted work product like the attorney’s life. Now that I’m relieved of the work routine, I can write anytime and about whatever I want. No limits.
But did anyone ever inspire me to write?
And the answer to that question varies depending on the time. My father inspired me with the general ways to approach life. He led by example and reflected the qualities honesty, integrity, strength of character and strong work ethic. All to be applied to whatever my passions were. He was a mentor in life. I guess he was my first influencer.
I’ve been inspired by various authors, old and new. Thoreau, Emerson, Ellison, Herbert, Salinger, Hesse, Vonnegut, Moore, Brown. That list can stretch on for miles. And I can remember a couple of writers in the negative. “If that guy could write a book as awful as this is, and get it published, so can I.” But a good book I’ll write, not an awful one 😊
After a while, names fade. I’ve forgotten text. I remember a feeling. The feeling I had reading powerful words.
“A true piece of writing is a dangerous thing, it can change your life.” Tobias Wolff
And I have to agree with Wolff. Words can inspire. Words can bring you to your knees. Words can send you over the mountain top. Words can carry you to far away lands, or even to worlds that don’t exist, except on paper and in minds. Words are addicting.
Writing is magic.
Hieroglyphics with soul.
“Once writing has become your major vice and greatest pleasure only death can stop it.” Ernest Hemingway
Now that describes a true passion. One where only death can intervene.
I’m inspired to write poetry when I am in love. I’ve been inspired to write by societal injustices. I’ve had some of my work slashed to pieces by editors, but even that inspired me. To better learn the craft.
I’m inspired when I read all of your blogs. To see how others describe the world around us. It doesn’t really matter who or even what, if it’s good writing I like it. It helps me breathe.
Another great inspiration for me, of course, has been my daughter. It’s been amazing watching her grow into the strong and compassionate woman she is.
Just one person? One influencer? I don’t think so. It is a conglomerate of all these persons rolled into one. A powerhouse of inspiration. And maybe the desire to escape reality once and a while too 🙂
“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.” Ray Bradbury
And here’s a few other bloggers that may want to give this a try:
Novus Lectio
Midwest Bliss
Painting the Journey
Letters from a Wanderer
Searching for Grady
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Photo: Horseback riding at dusk. Sometimes it’s all a blur 🙂
Mary Gaitskill Meme: I found this on the Internet in the public domain. It was linked to QuotesGram.com.
Love Will Never Lead You Astray
Photo: An overlook from one ridgetop into a canyon, elevation some 5000 plus feet. The pine forest bathing in sunlight. It definitely draws you in 🙂
Warrior for Love
This is one of those quotes that kind of sticks with you once you discover it. We battle for those things with the most meaning. We can get lost searching for them. But it’s worth the journey to find true love.
Photo: Tromping around somewhere in ancient mountains.
Philosophy Doesn’t Feed Me
But it does nourish me 🙂
So, I was nominated by my friend, Raynotbradbury, for the quote challenge, but she added a spin to it for us to pick an ancient philosopher for the quotes and to fill in any explanations we wanted.
The Rules:
• Choose the author or philosopher (it should be one from the Ancient Time). Don’t know anyone? Google it lol. It shouldn’t be so hard.
• Choose 3 quotes of this author/philosopher. The country of origin – doesn’t matter (Egypt, Greece…Italy). Add any info or explanation if you like.
• Share those quotes and nominate 3 to 6 people.
• Oops, that’s not obligatory.
• The title for the post? Choose something cool. I know you are smart enough.
I really struggled with a title for this piece, I mean being “cool” is tough 🙂 I had put together an entire list I had to choose from. But I like how the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence does nourish us, but not literally “feed” us. And I explain the feature image and how I think it relates to the title below.
I chose the Greek Philosopher Socrates (470-399 BCE) for a number of reasons.
For one, he is credited with being one of the founders of Western Philosophy and with being the first moral philosopher. For another, a quote of his from his trial for impiety and corrupting youth has stuck with me ever since I first read about him, “An unexamined life is not worth living.” And for another, I was subject to the “Socratic Method” of teaching when I went through law school.
Because Socrates didn’t put any of his thoughts in writing, what we know of him is from the accounts of others, like Plato. I suppose, if you live by the axiom of “I write, therefor I am” Socrates may not have existed and was but a mere metaphor of analytic thought, a tale of others 😊
Regardless, his teachings have endured for centuries.
The Quotes:
I threw in an extra one. Actually, two counting the one above.
“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
“Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.”
“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”
“He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.”
I picked these quotes because I think they represent true wisdom. We should live our lives humbly with open minds, recognizing that material and superficial pursuits have no real lasting value, acting honorably, and having immense gratitude for all we have and all that surrounds us.
Socrates is a powerful representation because he was put on trial and sentenced to death for his thoughts. Did the Greek democracy have the thought police? Apparently so. Socrates called out and questioned prominent Athenians, logically defeating their views and policies and publicly humiliating them. The powers-that-be charged him impiety (not believing in the Gods of the State) and with corrupting the youth. Yes, that ancient democracy felt so threatened they decided they must put free-thinkers to death and not let that cancer of thought spread.
The concept of “impiety” (religious persecution) was one of the reasons the Framers of the U.S. Constitution built in freedom of religion. Thus, no State-sponsored favorite gods.
The Socratic Method of teaching used in law school works like this. We were given our assignments in advance of class and then grilled by the professors in the class room. The idea was to teach us the adversarial process and how to think on our feet – skills we would need in the courtroom. There are many a good tale of personal humiliation inflicted by the professors, but you learned to be prepared.
My Nominees:
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Photos:
Feature Image – DeGrazia – From the DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun. I’m not sure what the title of this painting is, but it depicts an Eagle and Indian, although the Eagle is somewhat vulturesque. Is the great bird going to devour the Indian and feed on him or nourish him with knowledge. This could be an image from a vision quest, after all. The Eagle represents the illumination of the spirit, healing and creation.
I don’t think the full image shows with the format of the blog, so here it is.
Socrates – There are so many pics of sculptures of Socrates on the Internet in the public domain out there that I have no clue that there is anyway to provide an accurate attribution for this photo.
