Scientific Nature

Scientific Nature
Sir Francis Bacon,
the father of the scientific method,
taught that nature is to be
placed on the rack, enslaved,
bound into service and
forced out of her natural state.

René Descartes,
the father of modern philosophy,
taught that nature is to be
our possession and slave,
that animals do not feel pain
even when whipped, skinned or vivisected.

Immanuel Kant,
the father of free thought,
taught that nature is to be
judged, compelled and laid bare,
the laws of nature need be broken
to the categorical imperative of human will.

Stephen Hawking,
the father of the unified universe,
teaches that nature is without soul,
empty, barren and mechanical,
that human reason will triumph
and make the universe a slave to our whims.

Need I say
they loved their naysay,
thought Nature is only a display,
and paved our way to assay,
without thought of any spiritual way,
Her intrinsic worth today
as only a commercial dossier.

Christian Nature

Christian Nature

A strange and most glorious mystery do I see,
said Saint John of Antioch,
Patriarch of Constantinople,
named Golden-Mouthed
for his oratory prowess,
and he did declare
the heavens and the earth,
the sea and all the rest
of creation
exist
solely
for men's use.

All the dumb plants and animals,
said Saint Thomas of Aquinas,
preeminent philosopher of Christianity,
named the angelic Doctor
for his inspired wisdom,
and he did declare
all of creation,
the animals, plants and earth herself,
is naturally
enslaved
solely
for men's use.

Only fools value the natural world,
said the Apostle Paul,
chosen by the Christ,
named apart from others
for his knowledge of the sacred message,
and he did declare
the entirety of nature,
every thing of this earthly existence
degraded
solely
for men's use.

Men are incomplete in nature,
said Saint Augustine of Hippo,
patron of all holy monks,
named the Blessed
for his teaching of divine grace,
and he did declare
all manner of calamities,
all disease, sickness and sin
comes
solely
from uncaring Nature.

Need I say
they loved their doomsday,
thought Nature was only decay,
and paved our way to slay,
without thought to parlay,
any who thought Nature's bouquet
is our heaven today.

The Collected Fragments of Westian Philosophy

The Collected Fragments of Westian Philosophy

Mae West's philosophy reflects a working-class sensibility, wittily attuned to prevalent male attitudes and realities toward women, work, sexuality and life. West sees wisdom residing in regular folks who must live through the harshness of everyday life. West trashes the notion that it is the elite who know what is real, hence ethical and hence good, in life. West recognizes that emotion is more powerful and satisfying than reason, and reason, on its own, is ridiculously lacking in answers. In all realms, emotion has a claim to parity with, and authority over, reason.

Surviving fragments of Westian Philosophy:

I am all woman.

You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.

It's not what I do, but the way I do it. It's not what I say, but the way I say it.

It's not what you get that counts, but what you give.

When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I've never tried before.

Whenever I'm caught between two evils, I take the one I've never tried.

Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before.

I'll try anything once, twice if I like it, three times to make sure.

Every man I meet wants to protect me. I can't figure out what from.

I never loved another person the way I loved myself.

Sex is emotion in motion.

Virtue has its own reward, but no sale at the box office.

Those who are easily shocked should be shocked more often.

It ain't no sin if you crack a few laws now and then, just so long as you don't break any.

I expect it'll (going to prison) be the making of me.

The time I spent in jail was about the most profitable days of my life.

Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.

When I'm good, I'm very good. But when I'm bad I'm better.

I wrote the story myself. It's about a girl who lost her reputation and never missed it.

If I asked for a cup of coffee, someone would search for the double meaning.

It is better to be looked over than overlooked.

A hard man is good to find.

A man can be short and dumpy and getting bald but if he has fire, women will like him.

A man has one hundred dollars and you leave him with two dollars, that's subtraction.

A man's kiss is his signature.

An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises.

Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.

Give a man a free hand and he'll run it all over you.

Good sex is like good bridge. If you don't have a good partner, you'd better have a good hand.

He who hesitates is a damned fool.

He who hesitates is last.

He's the kind of man a woman would have to marry to get rid of.

Right now I think censorship is necessary; the things they're doing and saying in films right now just shouldn't be allowed. There's no dignity anymore and I think that's very important.

I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it.

I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it.

I like restraint, if it doesn't go too far.

I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number you get in a diamond.

I only have 'yes' men around me. Who needs 'no' men?

I only like two kinds of men, domestic and imported.

I go for two kinds of men -- the kind with muscles, and the kind without.

I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.

It's hard to be funny when you have to be clean.

It's not the men in my life that count, it's the life in my men.

A man in the house is worth two in the street.

So many men, so little time.

A man in love is like a clipped coupon -- it's time to cash in.

His mother should have thrown him away, and kept the stork.

Keep a diary, and someday it'll keep you.

Marriage is a great institution. No family should be without it.

Marriage is a great institution, but I'm not ready for an institution.

We don't think about marriage as something going on and on, with children from generation to generation. It's often just a passing whim.

I'm single because I was born that way.

A dame that knows the ropes isn't likely to get tied up.

One and one is two, and two and two is four, and five will get you ten if you know how to work it.

Save a boyfriend for a rainy day - and another, in case it doesn't rain.

Say what you want about long dresses, but they cover a multitude of shins.

She's the kind of girl who climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong.

Ten men waiting for me at the door? Send one of them home, I'm tired.

To err is human, but it feels divine.

Too much of a good thing can be taxing.

I feel like a million tonight, but one at a time.

When women go wrong, men go right after them.

It's (sexual relationships) just this physical thing.

I like the kinda comedy that imitates me.

Anytime you take religion for a joke, the laugh's on you.

I"m going to drown, down in those troubled waters (religion), they're creeping around my soul.

It takes two to get one in trouble.

These girls (prostitutes) are willing to work, but how can they when the law is always ready to pounce on them and send them back to the Workhouse?

Find'em, fool'em and forget'em.

I'm no angel, but I've spread my wings a bit.

I'm a woman of very few words, but lots of action.

Too many girls follow the line of least resistance--but a good line is hard to resist.

Some men are all right in their place--if they only knew the right places!

Any time you got nothing to do--and lots of time to do it--come on up.

Men are all alike--except the one you've met who's different.

Don't marry a man to reform him - that's what reform schools are for.

All discarded lovers should be given a second chance, but with somebody else.

The score never interested me, only the game.

Men are my hobby, if I ever got married I'd have to give it up.

Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?

You can't get too hot over anybody unless there's somethin' that goes along with the sex act, can you?

I'm no model lady. A model's just an imitation of the real thing.

Women with "pasts" interest men because men hope that history will repeat itself.

Opportunity knocks for every man, but you have to give a woman a ring.

There are no withholding taxes on the wages of sin.

The best way to learn to be a lady is to see how other ladies do it.

Let men see what's coming to them, and women will get what's coming to them.

The curve is more powerful than the sword.

I didn't discover curves; I only uncovered them.

I like a man who's good, but not too good--for the good die young, and I hate a dead one.

Some women pick men to marry--and others pick them to pieces.

A woman in love can't be reasonable--or she probably wouldn't be in love.

You can do what you want, but saving love doesn't bring any interest.

Love isn't an emotion or an instinct--it's an art.

Love conquers all things except poverty and toothache.

Love is the only industry which can't operate on a five-day week.

Women want certain things in marriage--the right to a title and a front seat in the lap of luxury.

Men are easy to get but hard to keep.

It's easy to get married, but hard to stay that way.

Kiss and make up--but too much makeup has ruined many a kiss.

A girl in the convertible is worth five in the phone book.

Life's just a merry-go-round. Come on up. You might get a brass ring.

You may admire a girl's curves on the first introduction, but the second meeting shows up new angles.

I take it out in the open and laugh at it.

The best way to hold a man is in your arms.

Brains are an asset to the woman in love who's smart enough to hide 'em.

Look your best--who said love is blind?

Girls, give all your gentlemen friends an even break, even if you have to break them in the attempt.

Cultivate your curves--they may be dangerous but they won't be avoided.

Love thy neighbor--and if he happens to be tall, debonair and devastating, it will be that much easier.

If you put your foot in it, be sure it's your best foot.

It's all right for a perfect stranger to kiss your hand as long as he's perfect.

The best way to behave is to misbehave.

Don't ever make the same mistake twice, unless it pays.

A man has more character in his face at forty than at twenty--he has suffered longer.

Don't come crawlin' to a man for love--he likes to get a run for his money.

Don't cry for a man who's left you--the next one may fall for your smile.

Don't keep a man guessing too long--he's sure to find the answer somewhere else.

Never ask a man where's he's been. If he's out on legitimate business, he doesn't need an alibi. And, girls, if he has been out on illegitimate business, it's your own fault.

Some of the wildest men make the best pets.

Let the crooks look out for themselves.

I've got to do it (speak out) as a citizen. I've got to do it for society. They (gangsters) threaten us under penalty of having acid thrown in our faces, and they don't stop at threats either.

I'm the first personality since Chaplin that's got the masses. I've got all classes and all ages.

I've been rich and I've been poor. Believe me, rich is better.

Did they expect a sermon? Why weren't they in church if they were so religious?

It was not that I was jaded, it was only that I had no answers to serious things (meaning of life).

Goodness had nothing to do with it.

I don't like myself, I'm crazy about myself.

Yeah, honey, but you can't prove a thing.

A couple of interesting readings:

Robert Forsythe, Mae West: A Treatise on Decay

http://www.marxists.org/subject/women/authors/forsythe/mae.htm

The Religious Affiliation of Actress Mae West
http://www.adherents.com/people/pw/Mae_West.html

Lemniscate

(a slightly modified version of a 02/07/2007 post
at Symposium on Aristotle's Ethics)


(x² + y²)² = a²(x² - y²)

OK, some thoughts. Chime in as you please, this is a no-offense zone.

Know thyself, I am myopic, makes me very difficult to live with and makes conversation incomprehensible at times.

Anyway . . .

Recently, relatively (02/07), while discussing Aristotlian ethics, I was actually arguing toward the same goal as Aristotle but was inept at expressing the ideas within me to Others. The Frame of Reference between individuals is different, sometimes subtly, sometimes not, but almost always different . . . the times it's not different, I posit, are the times I and the Other(s) have become one -- in the way of the hermaphrodite myth. That myth, we know, states that present-day humans are half of a whole, and each half seeks it's other half to be whole.

The problem is we look at the myth too literally and apply our own sexual and social mores upon it. The effect is that we don't see the real message -- there is a power, an emotion, a virtue, that we wield when More-Than-One Become One. We have no common classification for it though we subsume a lot of its characteristics under the words Love & Hate. That's why we commonly see these two emotions as more powerful than any others, and controlling the others. Apathy is the dearth of either Love or Hate -- it is not the mean, and it is not on separate two-dimensional lines, one for Love and one for Hate (that's not how humans work within themselves, compartmentalized and distinct -- those are our outward characteristics). Apathy is the starting point for rays of emotion that emanate from it, and gain in strength the further away from the start they get. Two of these rays are labeled Love and Hate. There are other rays emanating from Apathy, but my head is spinning right now . . . so back to the original tack.

There is a thing of power, an energy that is the connection of one Human with an Other Human. A characteristic of it is Jungian synchronicity: the concurrance of two events having a peculiar correspondence between them. Make no mistake, coincidence of this sort is not controlled by chance -- remember quantum mechanics, and the impossible becomes possible (and ain't that the definition of human existence?). The most powerful expression of this synchronicity, this thing of power, is sexual union when it culminates with the mystical, ever fleeting, simultaneous orgasm. (gasp)

Yes, gasp if you will, but how can we understand what is Good for Humans if we don't understand why we seek fullness of understanding with an Other. I posit that the same energy of understanding that comes during orgasm is the same energy of understanding when two Humans successfully communicate Ideas. The energy is the same whether in the Realm of the Physical or in the Realm of Forms (ha! sayeth Plato from somewhere within a cloud overhead) -- perhaps it is our pathway between the realms. Regardless, there can be no understanding of what Human is, or what Good is, unless we include this. After all, isn't this the same energy religion seeks to control, and spirituality seeks to understand?

Why are our friends, our friends? Because it feels good to have people around us who understand things similar to the way we do within ourselves. The closer a friend is to understanding us, the more likely we are to have sexual attractions -- which our society and culture have enslaved to the word Love with the shackles of legal and heterosexual marriage. We are confused by these sexual attractions because they lie outside the narrow parameters society & culture allow us to think about them. So when we think about these feelings we are usually puzzled as to 'where they came from." It is simply the energy of union of one Human with an Other Human(s). We also call this feeling charisma. But we call it that when One is so good at communicating that many Others feel the bond. We know what happens in real life to those with powerful charisma . . . their sexual partners and/or needs are prolific, and if denied explode out in some other fashion (e.g. JFK, Hitler). There's a reason for that. There's a reason inside every emotion, and an emotion inside every reason -- and if we don't examine Emotion the same way we examine Reason . . . we will continue to fail to understand what it means to be Human.

At this juncture let me repeat an important bit of info: I got no answers. I don't know what I'm talking about, but I can surely feel it. And since nobody else has come up with an answer yet . . . ain't no reason I can't try my own way. 2000 years plus, guys . . . either we ain't been working on it, or we got the wrong plans. I can't wait another 2000 years, I may not have 2 more days.

Anyway . . .

We like that bond, that feeling of union. We seek union just as surely as those half-humans seek their other halves in the old Greek hermaphrodite myth.

My concern here is only what the word "Good" means to us when we say it. I say it means "Human." Aristotle also, but in a different way. That's the crux divergent point. Human = Good.

Therefore war can be just and good, if it ever can be just and good, if it is waged and comported around equal human rights. An example: it would be good to kill the people who will not stop tormenting the refugees in Darfur and the Nuba Mountains. Of course, Aristotle would not agree, and he would side on Khartoum's side -- the side of the slavers because they are the stronger and wealthier, and they can trace a historical lineage of being master to the Others historical lineage of being slave. It is all very clear cut to Aristotle: "There is no difficulty in answering this question, on grounds both of reason and of fact. For that some should rule and others be ruled is a thing not only necessary, but expedient; from the hour of their birth, some are marked out for subjection, others for rule."

Note, when someone says, in so many words, Aristotle was right about anything . . . remember, he was only if some people are naturally born elite (like him) and some people are naturally born to slave (like you). That is a fundamental Aristotlian building block upon which he designed his entire philosophy. You heard him: ". . . some should rule and others be ruled is a thing not only necessary, but expedient . . ."

I don't agree with Aristotle on slavery, but I can see how slavery can be good. No, not the kind of slavery we call human trafficking nowadays. We know the slavery i'm talking about as indentured servitude as a result of criminal actions. In other words, putting someone in jail. When we jail a criminal we enslave the criminal -- no wordgames here, that is exactly what it is. Been there, done that, got the wool blanket. Why not make the slavery beneficial for both the criminal and society? How? Teach the criminal a trade and make the criminal do fulltime work for the state for the duration of incarceration. Is that not slavery? Is that not good?

Yes, slavery too has different strengths and feels. Yes, slavery too can be put upon Aristotle's two-dimensional lines. We love following Aristotle's example and, like him, try to fit everything in two dimensions. But reality is four or more dimensions, and we must necessarily lose a majority of the information when we two-dimensionalize things -- when we buy into his false Dualism paradigm. So, while slavery can be put on Aristotle's all-encompassing two-dimensional lines, what I just said about a good in slavery cannot without some duplicitous manipulation. For how can a true criminal act, a bad act, create good? It can't in Aristotle's logical and reasonable universe -- which is exactly why Aristotle needs the born elite and the born slaves; for justification of his definition of Good. For to Aristotle, the Good is focused on the born elite, not the born slaves.

Got it? That's why the rich do not have empathy for the poor.

Regarding Aristotle's two-dimensional view of Love and Hate I have to say there are many rays that ride the waves between Love and Hate, not just two emanating in opposite directions from the mean. No thing is truly separate from any other thing (if we were completely separate how could we ever hope to communicate?). Maybe Love and Hate are the two halves of a lemniscate, with Apathy being the point of nothingness that connects them, and within the globes of Love and Hate swirl many, many emotions and reasons.

No.

Perhaps Love is the all-encompassing center point, and globes of Hate and Apathy contain lesser and greater parts of all the other emotions.

No.

Maybe our individual conciousness is the center point, and the flowing waves within the globes that emanate from us are all the emotions in greater or lesser quantity. Each of us our own personal lemniscate of power.

Things that make you go hmm . . .

Ahhh, I love my (x² + y²)² = a²(x² - y²) Lemniscate!

Union

6,000 year old embrace

Union
the healing process involving the growing together
of the edges of a wound

(definition 11 from WordReference.com)

I Don't Want To Be Magnificent!

(written 03/06/2007)
(re-posted from Symposium on Aristotle's Ethics)


I Don't Want To Be Magnificent!


LA ASOCIACIÓN MADRES DE PLAZA DE MAYO

Isn't it painfully obvious that maniacs are in control of our society?
Isn't it painfully obvious that we suffer like ignorant, cowardly slaves?
Isn't it painfully obvious that we hate each other?
Isn't it painfully obvious we care only for our own comfort?
Isn't it painfully obvious that male magnificence is a rich man's lie?
Isn't it painfully obvious we never listened to our mothers?
Isn't it painfully obvious we love being vicious?
Isn't it painfully obvious that we need to be punished?

You can keep your magnificence.
I'd rather hug my grandmother.

The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo
http://www.madres.org/
http://www.labournet.net/world/0001/mum1.html
http://www.easybuenosairescity.com/biografias/madres1.htm
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36444

Where These Magnificent Women Go
http://www.tribuna.islagrande.cu/patriotas/opini/adondei.htm

Plaza de Mayo
http://www.moon.com/planner/argentina/mustsee/plaza_mayo.html

Bogged Down in Details

(written 04/18/2007)
(re-posted from Symposium on Aristotle's Ethics)

Bogged Down in Details

I found some very pretty flowers in Aristotle's garden of ethics. I sat down over some intense hours breaking down the sentences in Book VI (and other places) into a more mathematical structure . . . and was amazed at some of the really beautiful ideas Aristotle had. I have come to a small enlightenment on Aristotle . . . I can now feel him as a human being, as a person. I can now see the fragile child within Aristotle, and I realize he's just like me -- vulgar with a spot of divinity. I can accept him now. Unfortunately I don't have any time to elucidate, nor time to think theoretically about life when all these practical people keep hammering away at me about their tick-tock hallucinationism universe . . . so here's something to think about : *

These computations are based on the algorithm from "Computing Special Values of the Myriad Motivations of Ordinary Life". The package applies to Ordinary Life given by the usual series (for Re s>>0),

Assume that Ordinary Life multiplied by a suitable product of Gamma-Detail-factors,

admits a meromorphic continuation to the whole of C. It has, moreover, at most simple poles and is known or conjectured to satisfy a functional equation

or, slightly more generally, a functional equation relating Ordinary Life and a "dual" Ordinary Life-function also known as Mating (i.e. marriage, shacking-up, etc).

To use the formula one has to know the parameters of the functional equation (exponential factor A, sign e, weight w, Gamma-Details-factor parameters l₁...l_d) and enough coefficients of Gremlin-Goofs a_n. Note that there is no restriction on the number d of Gamma-Details-factors and they do not have to be distinct. The poles of Ordinary Life have to be known as well, but not necessarily the residues in there. The functions provided allow to perform the following numerical computations with required precision:

• Determine the residues at the poles of Ordinary Life if necessary
• Verify the assumed functional equation numerically
• For a given complex s, compute Ordinary Life results or its k-th derivative for a given k

We are bogged down by the details of life.
We are smothered by detail.
Our bodies fill up with knots of anxiety.
Our throats are dry.

We would weep, but our eyes have no tears.
We could cry out, but we have no passion.
Who has done this to us?

We confess the pain we cause ourselves.
We confess the pain we cause others.

May we accept our limitations:
We cannot do everything.

May we affirm our power:
We can do something.

May we open ourselves to larger hope,
In the silence, in the silence.

* The first is a parody of a formula from the Harvard Math Department explained at:
http://www.maths.dur.ac.uk/~dma0td/computel/

and the second is from the website of Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations :
http://www.uua.org/spirituallife/worshipweb/otherservice/submissions/5883.shtml

Beware Harmonia

Beware Harmonia
Harmonia is the child of Aphrodite
by the unrepentant lord of war,
born of equal shares of love and strife
herself, her life, uncontrollable, wild, extreme,
passion seeded, a daunting Beethoven symphony.

She loved a man, his name was Cadmus,
he was born of Telephassa, priestess of Selene,
holiest of holies in the land of old Phoenicia,
and step-brother to the sisters Europa and Phoenix,
priestesses, of the setting moon, and the reborn dawn.
His father, a warlord, mountain chief, unmannered king.

Cadmus, as men are wont to do, forced his way,
to Delphi, and desecrated the Castalian Spring,
font of inspiration poetic, and prophecy sacred,
he killed Python, the guardian dragon, Gaia's child,
yet still Harmonia did love him madly, blindly, insanely.

Forced to flee, new lands, to him, old friends to her,
he used her royal right, to lord the people, her prize to him,
he usurped the peace, the people revolted, the pair fled.
They did it again, and again and yet again, using her divine right,
a blasphemy, and in their shame, to flee the people once again.

At last they stopped, weary and wrathful, Harmonia and Cadmus,
that man, the Goddess and Python, he did vengefully swear,
and so, his skin was turned to scale as Harmonia began to wail,
and plead the gods, to leave them not, in this separate way, and so,
the mountain warlord gods, they snaked Harmonia, skin to scale,
and twined she lay, with Cadmus, ever since that day.

Beware harmony, a dangerous sword, double-bladed,
love and war, named they are; compromise and acquiescence,
sharpness unrivalled; conquered and dominated, the deadly ends.
You'll sell your heritage, your honor, your soul, your sister and mother,
and then fool yourself there's peace in a conqueror's angry embrace.

Don't You Remember Me?

Don't You Remember Me?

I have wailed with you amid the Dionysian revel,
the frenzied passion of the pyre of ecstatic wisdom,
danced to the flute with ivy crowned marathon maenads,
drank the sweet wine from the never empty kantharos,
tranced to tamborines and tasted thyrsus honey.

Still of the crowd would I be twas not for a flower,
brute truth be told I stand yet at seduction's edge,
snaked twixt the wild Erisian chaos of nature's children
and the mystic fennel fire of Harmonian madness.

Milestones

Milestones
Everyone can look back and identify
at least one moment that
redefined
their life
and put them on the path that leads to
today
these moments can be big occasions
like
weddings or war
births or deaths
awakenings or rejections
but sometimes these moments are
quite inconsequential
quite ordinary
quite minor
or seem so just before
the moment
strikes
usually like
texting while driving
joking while working
seemingly random impulsive acts
of all sorts

we never know how we are going to react
when those moments happen

oh

we think about them
once in a while
and either
shudder or laugh
deny or desire
ignore or obsess
but
we really have no idea
until it happens
some people are devastated by success
some people are entirely renewed by failure
some people go right on as if nothing happened
these days that change our lives are
milestones
on our road through life
simply a milestone
just a milestone
only a milestone
passed
.

Intrepidity

Intrepidity
courage
isn't something you can
drink from a bottle
display in muscle
shout with words
glare with eyes
buy at a store
pop in a pill
or even learn
not even
in the military
not with machineguns
not with swords
not with fists
not from friends
not from enemies
not from mentors
no matter how hard you
demand
desire
train

no

courage
doesn't work like that
neither is it
the absence of fear
the absence of care
the absence of knowledge

courage
is something
we aspire to
we yearn to
we hope to
is something
we can't touch
we can't hear
we can't know
before it happens

but

in trying to be courageous
sometimes
we forget who we are
sometimes
we think we are more than what we are
sometimes
we have to bring everything down to the size we are
in order to
realize
embody
manifest
courage

what size?
nation, state, corporation?
city, community, neighborhood?
friends, family, home?
no

self

that is the right size
anything more
just brings us further
from our truth
our Truth
Truth
is where courage
lives

ya gotta agree

(dedicated to Emad Hassan Dphrepaulezz)



ya gotta agree
the only wisdom I got is insanity
your rap is awesome, ya gotta agree
from top to bottom, I gotta say frankly
my raps are gruesome, ya gotta agree
so I hold you for ransom, all guns no mercy
'til I hear your rhythm, angry loud and woolly
turnin' sheik into pilgrim, this ain't no theory
ain't no better with a poem, ya gotta agree
when you split my eardrum with truth and sanity
then you are your freedom, ya gotta agree.

Thresholds

Thresholds
humans
have a wealth of
faults
it doesn't matter if
fate
destiny
fortune
is a force of nature
or
we have
free will
because we are
resiliant
adaptable
irrepressible
we can find
deliverance
atonement
salvation
in the
easiest
simplest
effortless
acts of humanity
.
robots
machines
computers
cannot be
redeemed
life is a
fool's game
and
we are
fools
so be it
we are
alive
we are
human
we can
succeed
.
success
leads
to a certain kind of
arrogance
you begin to think
that if you do
well
you will
succeed
all the time
every time
this time
it is all very
logical
rational
reasonable
cause and effect
sober
sensible
scientific
but
that doesn't prepare you well for
failure
.
life is not
scientific
sensible
sober
it is not
reasonable
rational
logical
failure can be the
cure
success can be the
disease
attempting can be the
goal
natural selection only happens
in
a science experiment
and that
is not
natural
.
so
who
or what
makes the rules
and why
are the results
so
painful
?
all I know
is
our lives
our loves
our souls
depend
on continuing to
strive
stride
survive
so you never
ever
give up
.
it is
a self evident truth
that some paths
are better left
untrod
unknown
undiscovered
but there is no way
to know that
to realize that
to understand that
until you have walked
the path
.
we all make
missteps
mistakes
misjudgements
that is undeniably
human
but that is no
proof
excuse
reason
to leave a path
before
it leads
somewhere
.
the paths
we choose to walk
are simply
excursions
explorations
engagements
on the path
of life
be they
foolish or brave
stupid or smart
rewarding or painful
we are defined by
where we go
when we go
why we go
.
an untrod path
like
a life not lived
is a
dead
end
.

Paradox Of Love

Paradox Of Love

My heart is empty
and yet
my heart is heavy.

My heart is full
and yet
my heart is weightless.

Waiting

Waiting

silent phone
heavy anchor
blank gravestone
silent crooner
broken clock
fading color
silent lock

forgotten
silence
tick
tock

LLL

LLL
It is the ultimate
challenge
to be dropped out of the
void
to be guided
only
by an inner set of
truths
without any way of going
back
all we can do is keep moving
forward
all we can do is gain strengh from each
other
all we can do is learn from our
mistakes
there are no
promises
there are no
guarantees
there are no
rules
we take it day by day
we hang on
we hope for the best
we didn't ask to be
born
but here we are
so
let's do this.
Live, Love, Laugh.

Like It Or Not

Like It Or Not
Humans
by their very nature are
dependent
on other humans.
We pretend to be
independent
but what are we
without
the support of our
sisters and brothers?
How far can one person get
trying
to do everything alone?
The simplest and smallest
thing
can bring us to a halt.
There can never be peace of mind
unless
we can rely on our
comrades.
What we can't do
they can.
We can rest easy knowing
they will.
And yet
sometimes
we have no choice
but to embrace the void
lest
isolation consume us.
Free Victor Herrera Govea

El Enemigo Común

http://elenemigocomun.net/

There can be no peace, without dignity, justice, and liberty for everyone, everywhere, all the time.

Lying On The Grass At Night

Lying On The Grass At Night

We're all just children looking up at the stars
seeking answers to who or what we are.

capacity

capacity

the capacity to give orders
the capacity to follow orders
blindly
no matter who gives the orders
no matter who follows the orders
blindly
creates heros out of ordinary people
creates monsters out of ordinary people
blindly
it all depends on exactly what the order is
it all depends on exactly why the order is
blindly
the one who gives the order is responsible
the one who follows the order is responsible
blindly
we choose to give the order
we choose to follow the order
blindly
the outcome is originated in us
the outcome is accomplished in us
blindly
the responsibility is ours
the privilege is ours
blindly
no matter who follows the orders
no matter who gives the orders
blindly
we all answer to a higher power sooner or later
we all answer to a self judgement sooner or later
eyes open

Zeno

Zeno
Back when Socrates
was a young man
of about twenty years
of age
there lived in
what we now call
Italy
at a place which
just so happens
is where my maternal
ancestors come from
and relatives still now live
a man named
Zeno
who
wrote a book
of forty paradoxes
since stolen
only five
survive
to this day
and continue
to confound all attempts
to be counted false
by mathematics
by reason
by logic
even though we know
undeniably
undoubtedly
unequivocally
there is no lie
in
his observations
his descriptions
his conclusions
but only in our own reliance
upon
logic.

When Socrates was a young man
he discussed
the underlying paradox
of all the forty
with Zeno the Philosopher
with Parmenides the Poet
with six other like minded
friends of Socrates
Cephalus, Adeimantus
Aristoteles, Pythodorus
Glaucon, Antiphon
so it can be wholly said that
Socrates
that bastion of immortal wisdom
that tower of insurmountable reason
that temple of immeasurable intellect
fell flat
and admitted
complete
defeat.

"I cannot tell you."
were Socrates' last words
on the subject.

Aristotle and Plato
were stymied
by the four they knew
and
agreed that
Zeno's paradoxes
must be deceptions
must be fallacies
must be rejects
somehow
someway
somewhen
or else
all they said
all they taught
all they thought
was inside out
was upside down
was backwards forward
but Plato and Aristotle
could not deny
could not break
could not refute
Zeno's Paradoxes
thereby admitting
they were left deaf
they were left mute
they were left blind
in the glorious radiance
of Zeno's brilliance
and the awful silence
of their own
ignorance.

Simplicius
the last master
of Plato's Academy
tells of the fifth
paradox
but makes no
serious attempt
to refute it
knowing the consternation
the other four
paradoxes
caused his ancient mentor
Plato
so
Simplicius refused it
and indeed
even today
scientists
philosophers
mathematicians
ignore the fifth
as if it did not exist
or was somehow
less important
than the other four
of which they still do not
understand.

After Simplicio
Zeno's paradoxes
the five known
and the thirty-five
unknown
were left to rot
in back rooms
and
lunatic asylums
until
resurrected by
Canor, Frege, Russell
and
Weierstrass
they who thought
they who labored
they who birthed
the bastard sciences of
the infinite
and of calculus
and yet even then
no relief from the paradoxes
exist
as none of the above
knew fractal theory
knew quantum theory
knew ultimate reality
but Zeno certainly
did.

Zeno
still yet
confounds all attempts
to explain or reject
by mathematics
by science
by logic
his endless emotion
his enduring experience
his everlasting eternality.

What those other
thirty-five
lost paradoxes
have to offer
we do not know
because
some jealous soul
some spiteful soul
some fearful soul
stole Zeno's book
which Zeno never re-wrote
or so they say
nor did anyone else recount
or so they say
or did anyone else care
or so they say
though perhaps
somewhere
buried under thousands of years
of forgotten dirt
lies all forty
paradoxes
waiting
a paradox
in itself.

If I may
answer for Zeno
I would say
reason cripples
reason blinds
reason fails
when left solely to
its own merits
its own devices
its own individuality
and therefore
any reasonable discussion
on any reasonable subject
by any reasonable people
misses the wonder
misses the reality
misses the point
of the universal
All.

Heraclitus

Heraclitus

Plato said
there is an old quarrel
between
philosophy and poetry.

In the dawn
of our written record
when philosophy
had not yet
been discovered
in Greece
there came
a new kind of singer
a vagrant
a wanderer
a poet
who sang a new kind of song
and one of these
jobless, wandering singers
was named
Heraclitus
whose poems were named
as nightingales
for their music
for their beauty
for their truth
but Heraclitus
that tormented soul
who knew both
hate and love
are intimately woven
are intimately kin
are intimately one
was hated for his word
was hated for his song
was hated for his truth
and they drove him off
to Diana's sanctuary
where guards prevented
his escape
his relief
his life
he starved to death
and now
is all but forgotten
except by poets
who love him
and philosophers
who hate him.

Poetry
is seeing the wonder
is seeing the emotion
is seeing the oneness
of the universe
and trying
to express it
to realize it
to become it
using these inadequate things
called
words.

Philosophy
is seeing the wonder
is seeing the geometry
is seeing the reason
of the universe
and trying
to express it
to convey it
to think it
using these inadequate things
called
words.

Socrates said
After all, everything
that is responsible for creating
something out of nothing
is a kind of poetry;
and so all the creations
of every craft and profession
are themselves a kind of poetry,
and everyone who practices a craft
is a poet.

There is
no quarrel
between poetry and philosophy
there is only
an argument
inane and selfish
between
poets and philosophers
who are not
poets and philosophers
for the two
are
born of the same mother
and her name is
wonder.

Callimachus said
They told me,
Heraclitus,
they told me you were dead;
They brought me bitter news to hear
and bitter tears to shed;
I wept, as I remembered,
how often you and I
Had tired the sun with talking,
and sent him down the sky.

Invocation of Ma'at

Invocation of Ma'at

Tua Ma'ati!
Great Mother of the Sun
Descend into the arms of the earth
Winged Goddess of Justice
Come unto me who cry out to you
For truth, judgment and strength
Help me know Good!
I call upon you to unleash the energies
In my life
I call upon you to bring the truth
Into all I do and say and feel
I call upon you to give me strength
To persevere on all levels in healing myself
On all levels
In organizing, in uniting
And in bringing about a new Creation!

Tua Ma'ati!
I invoke
The black free-standing Feather of Ma'at
The crystal star gleaming within
The outpouring of interstellar energies
Flowing and snaking through the earth
Filling every living thing
With the will toward harmony
And symphony.
I invoke the Scales of Ma'at
The Extremes and The Center,
All One.
I breathe the quantum flux
Filling me with the song
Of All, of One.
I invoke the Sacred Law of the Universe
The innate Justice
That governs All
I channel this energy in my work
I am a conduit of the Black Flame of Justice
And the silence of truth-in-action
I am unified with all Life
Through the breath of Ma'at
Your heart-beat fills my ears
As the sound of a singing healed life!

Tua Ma'ati!
Mother of infinity
Goddess who guides the sun
The planets
And all the ever-moving stars
Guides me always in my hour of need!
Great Cosmic Mother
It is so.

Tua Ma'ati!
I invoke the crow haired Goddess
Who weighs the Truth
In my heart,
And reveals All.
I enter the chamber of Truth
And stand before the great power of Justice
Ma'at, crowned with the feather of crow
Revealed in all your manifestations
I call forth the center of Truth and Justice
From within and without
I name this power Ma'at
And I manifest it here and now
As knowledge, will and action
Through the strength and energy of my limbs
May the judgment of Ma'at
Be done!
Through the clarity of my mind and loins
May the judgment of Ma'at
Be done!
Through the Black Flame of Justice in my heart
May the judgment of Ma'at
Be done!
Tua Ma'ati!