It's about time...

Thinking About Thoughts

It's said that every thought, ever thought, exists.  Granted, that celestial repository is elusive, but not necessarily impossible.  Is it possible that the energy produced by thinking imprints a quantum fabric so fine that, like our nose, looms before us?

We humans have always wanted to preserve our observations, knowledge, and wisdom.  The universe may do that by default and perhaps some of our distant ancestors knew this.  But in the meantime, they had to invent language - to translate thoughts "inside the head" to the ears of those apart.  Then they told stories, and their children re-told the stories and so on.  Yet, as with every generation, since Eden, the youth were sending their inheritance to hell in a hand basket.  To protect the integrity of their thoughts they learned to inscribe symbols in stone or other more permanent manner.  Let the foolish youth mess with that!  There was value in having previous thoughts (aka learning) available.  As one wag put it, "invent the wheel once, not a gazillion times."  But I digress.

Now our thoughts are kept for what may be a forever in the cloud of cyber space.  Recently I read some emails sent long ago from my late father.  His gentle and delightful musings exist, available to those with access.  I had to think of our own postings on Facebook, Twitter, emails, and such, placed in that weird realm of frequency imprint.  In that sense, thoughts have become immortal.

That realization prompts the admonition "post not that which you may regret."  Not quite an edict from a prophet, but it seems to have common ground with the ancient adages - be deliberate in your thinking for it lives beyond your temporal experience.  Your grandmother told you that -  if you can't say something nice about someone then don't say anything at all.  Or, as your humble writer would posit, what do you want as a result of your thinking?  It's a heady thought.

In a sense we are the product of who-knows-how-long of thinking.  We're adding to that body of thought/energy.  What do we want?  What kind of world do we wish to bestow upon the upcoming generation?  What labors to invent another wheel may be spared? They'll create their own world, as we created ours, for sure.

Yet, when considering all that we've thought, from a higher realm, it would be nice to know that our efforts, our thoughts, helped create a better life experience.  That can only be accomplished now - in this moment.  I'm sure my late parents are doing that in their own manner.  It just may be that the celestial frequency is getting closer and closer...

The Edit Heard Around the World

Benjamin Franklin perused the draft of Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence.  The young Jefferson had hit the crux of the matter:  We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  There was a problem, he thought, with the great truths.

If they are sacred, then they would be sacred only to those whose beliefs recognized such.  Anything can be denied.   After all, there were still those who believed the Earth to be flat.  The truths of creation were more than sacred and undeniable.  They were self-evident.  The inherent truth of every person's life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness is obvious, it requires no teaching or training to comprehend.  Every born child knows it.

What the Congress was seeking, Franklin knew, was a statement transcending man made law that would appeal to and be understood by anyone, anywhere, at anytime.  Franklin drew a line through sacred & undeniable and wrote instead self-evident.  It was quite possibly the most important edit in history.

Self-evident.  No more would a person's life experience be determined by whatever benefit or privilege was granted by a capricious earth ruler, theology, or regime.   The fundamental Right of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness was knowable to all.  No longer would any person owe his being to another.  It was an earth-shaking reality that terrified tyrants.  On September 11, 2001 the earth shook, an aftershock of the declaration of self-evident truth.

On that Tuesday I was at work, but planning to take off the remainder of the week on a camping excursion to Arkansas to work on a novel.  There was a buzz, a murmur, going around the various offices.  A colleague had a mini-television in her office and was watching the news.  She reported that an airplane had crashed into the world trade center in New York.  Bizarre, I thought.  Although huge, all but the most disabled aircraft should be able to avoid them and land in the water.  I went back to my office to clear up my desk.

The second plane struck the other tower.  That's no accident.  That's an attack.  The 21st century was inaugurated with its own Pearl Harbor.  My concern went to my daughter who was in Queens, and to friends who worked in Manhattan.  Calls and e-mails went out. A young nephew called attention to the obvious:  911 - the date and the emergency call number.  I hadn't recognized that until then.

 The low-pressure dread in my gut was that my daughter, and her generation, had been violated and thrust into a war as had my parents.  My generation were mostly the "cold warriors" whose focus was preventing nuclear war.  The Berlin wall came down.  Then, the USSR crumbled.  Maybe, just maybe the toils of the 20th century were setting the stage for freedom throughout the world - the heritage of those self-evident truths.  Yet I know, as an amateur historian, that the struggle for freedom from tyranny is a never-ending cycle, in fact, it seems to be the human drama as individuals learn the truth of their identity and their Rights by relation to the Creator.

The decade since the suicidal attacks on the United States has resulted in more, not less, freedom on Earth.  "We, the People" are global.  The self-evident rights transcend the repression of tyranny, secular and religious, even in the most dangerous neighborhoods on the planet.  I am optimistic.  The future of the USA is wonderful.  More and more other people learn their self-evident nature and free society expands.  911 is all about freedom.  Freedom triumphs.

And, thank you, Dr. Franklin, for your contribution.

Artifacts from the 9-11-2001 attack

There Was A Time...

There was a time

when there wasn’t

although I can’t remember

when it was.

When, then and now,

to be, a thing unthought.

All present and accounted for

in an array of life compressed

knowing that once

it was expanse.

Occasionally we can touch

that link in life

when our prattling succumbs

to the Truth of the present

and we realize, perhaps,

that we are what was.

And is.

And shall remain.

History is composed of the actions of the present, remembered after a while.  People are pretty much the same in any time or place, therefore it’s of value to study the past and learn the evolution of thought.  The Gnome suggested that I think back as far as I could.  I did.  This was the result.

Thinking, again...

CREATION

To learn of the wonders of creation

and its beauty

take three steps

turn around

and look yourself in the eyes.

This verse caught the Gnome off guard.  He spent three nights turning around in circles.

Score one for humans!