QUESTIONS

ABC Wednesday & more prompts below
Try my Paranormal Flash now!

REMEMBRANCE DAY

11 November, Remembrance Day,
Think of those not here today,
Died in service to freedom’s song,
Taken from those to whom they belong,
Cherished always, such regret,
The glorious dead, never forget

BLOGGER BARD

Questions are intellectual milestones along a journey of discovery. I
say ‘questions’, and not ‘answers’, because whilst questions are
definite, answers rarely are. In all my years of research, answers have
been elusive. Indeed, I’m satisfied that, what we class as an ‘answer’
is really the latest definition of how we see ourselves as being, rather
than a reality. This is so for a specific reason.

We always answer a question
within a paradigm.

Questions mainly come in two forms – ‘how’ and ‘why’. ‘How’ questions
are based within a scientific methodology, whilst ‘why’ questions tend
to be of a religious or spiritual nature. Prior to Monotheism, most
questions seem to be about ‘why’. This was because intellect was
locked in a cyclical mindset based around nature. Most eastern
philosophy is still based in this mindset. However, in the idea of the
One God, monotheism broke the cycles, instigating a linear mindset
where man had to advance, providing a definite beginning and an end.
This would eventually lead to the ‘how’ questions of science. But
further to this, with the breaking of the cycles, our mindset moved
from nature to society, and thence to the individual. The new
paradigm was materialist, atheistic and scientific. Hence, we can see
‘how’ and ‘why’ questions as coming from specific mindsets, with any
answers based fundamentally within the attitude. To me, this has
proved destructive for knowledge. Such questions should not be
polarities – should not lead to conflict – but should form a duality of
knowledge – distinctly different, yes, but in intellectual balance. The
day we realize the importance of this duality of knowledge, then
knowledge may be just that.

Eye On the World
Essays on everything from science
to religion, politics to crime

BRIT NEWS: Bosses told make
new jobs fit in with family life. This
seems a good idea at first, but the reality
is it is about choice for the individual rather than
the family – part of the move towards giving you the
power to design your own life divorced from all other influence.
Except, of course, the provider of the means. Consumerism.

BRIT NEWS: It is clear by next Summer the Tories will be in govt. I’d
like to introduce the main characters to my o’seas friends. PM will be
David Cameron, who once said we should hug a Hoodie. Other
principles will be George Osborne, William Hague (a Yorkshireman, he
cannot pronounce ‘h’), portly Europe lover Ken Clarke, and on the
sidelines London Mayor Boris Johnson, and how about Anne
Widdecombe for good measure. I’ve decided on a Robin Hood theme
for these people, so from now on they will be Cameron Hoodie,
Sir G of Osborne, William Ague, Friar Ken, The troublesome
Sheriff of London and Maid Widdecombe. Of course,
Robin Hood took from the rich to give to the poor.
Hhhmmm. We’ll see.

BRIT NEWS: So the Lisbon Treaty is sealed and a
bureaucrat run European Super-State is with
us. For a brief moment I thought I’d vote
UK Independence Party in the coming
election as a protest, but realised it
is more important to get Labour
out. So I’ll vote Tory, and
when they’re in power
I’ll expect them to
save the UK from
totalitarianism.

FUTURE ZONE

What’s ahead … and Beyond!!!

One Single Impression
ReadWritePoem – 3 Word Thursday
Friday Flash 55 – 3 Word Wednesday

UNIVERSE INCARNATE

To die, dark tunnel, heavenly light,
Particle sucked into darkest night,
Soul enlightened, sent right back,
Black hole munching matter snack,
Reborn in another man,
Reality recycled to a plan,
Planets and lifeforms at their end,
Reform, reborn, eternal blend

PLANET ECHO

Sci Fi: They landed on the planet amid a battle. The small settlement
was under siege and the peaceful looking aliens looked so frightened.
This was in stark contrast to the attackers, who you could tell lived
for war. The Earthers immediately ran for cover into a cave. It was
there they found the ancient rimestock, and learnt of the sorrowful
history of the place; and it was obvious it would pudify. As one they
seemed to know what they had to do. Taking up arms, they counter
attacked, and soon the settlement was saved. Thanked, the Earthers
took off to carry on their journey. Leaving orbit, the wormhole took
them by surprise and they landed on a planet amid a battle. It was a
different area to where they had previously been, or been before
that, and before that, and before that … But they knew nothing of
this. They simply found an almanac and felt ashamed. Confabulation,
knew the aliens, made excellent mercenaries.

confabulation – false memory
pudify – to cause to be ashamed
rimestock – almanac

I DON’T DREAM

I don’t dream – well, no! I suppose I must,
Yet before I awake they always combust,
Mere fragments, incomprehensible in every way,
Those impressions simply refuse to stay,
No nightmares have I ever had,
I suppose for that I should be glad,
But I feel I’m missing out on such a lot,
Sometimes it’s hell being a soulless robot

FLASH 55 – THE ALIENS ARE HERE

Sci Fi: The alien pressed a button and another UFO shot through the
sky. Immediately, he began posting on the internet, stirring up
interest; the odd bug-eyed picture. How ugly that alien looked. Who
will it abduct today? Satisfied, he’d created enough conspiracy
theories to guarantee no one would believe he was here for another
day.

THE ABDUCTOR

There’s no doubt he was an errant soul,
Hankered to always achieve his goal,
Though his people had had enough of him,
Murky past, acting on perverted whim,
So banished, he was, to another world,
There he wouldn’t get the girl,
But they forgot his flying saucery,
And birthed the alien abduction story

© Anthony North, November 2009

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

NEW IDEAS

ABC Wednesday & more prompts below
Try my Paranormal Flash now!

BLOGGER BARD

As my regular readers will know, of late I’ve been working on a new
book. This has meant trawling through 25 years of unpublished
essays. In doing so, I’ve realized there is much more to it than a
single book – I’ve planned a whole series, requiring much editing,
rewrites, publicity and chasing agents.

I’m sorry but this means
more change.

In order to find time for this – and to visit my blogger buddies who I’ve
neglected of late – I’m now having to cut out some prompts I do, and
cut down to one Magazine Post a week for the foreseeable future.
This will appear on a Tuesday. I assure you there will be no more cut
backs. This should give me the time I need. Also, whilst reacquainting
myself with my essays, I’ve decided to begin future posts with a kind
of ‘back to basics’ series of flash essays laying out my ideas in the
raw.

All my ideas begin with
a single philosophy.

I call this Patternology, or P-ology. We live in a specialized world
where knowledge has been split up into many unrelated disciplines.
Whilst this has advantages, I’m certain that much knowledge is
missed by not taking a holistic overview of knowledge. P-ology is a
discipline that looks for patterns in this overview. I see it as a
bedfellow to specialization which can never offer truth, but questions
just where we are. Everything I do stems from this idea.

Eye On the World
Essays on everything from science
to religion, politics to crime

BRIT NEWS: New report says
begin formal education at 6. Please save
education from expert’s indecision. No wonder
education’s a mess.

BRIT NEWS: Brown to talk tough over public sector disquiet?
Labour always goes amid mass strikes. Why not go now? Save the
hassle.

GREEN NEWS: Is UK govt planning tax for nuke power plants? They’ll
come. Climate change beaten by global Nuke Pox? We must say no.

BRIT NEWS: Revenue to investigate 27 MPs over their tax
payments. Is the law finally catching up with
the lawmakers?

BRIT NEWS: Royal Mail hiring 30,000 temporary
staff to defeat striking workers. We can
expect severe disruption this week.

READ WITH MUMMY

The Magazine Post with a gentle hint of horror

One Single Impression
ReadWritePoem – 3 Word Thursday
Friday Flash 55 – 3 Word Wednesday

ELUSIVE

I’ve tried to get there many a time,
But often things just don’t chime,
Many roads I’ve been down, lost,
Who knows what is the cost,
I try to think of it in jest,
But I think my GPS is possessed

FLASH 55 – REALITY TV

Fiction: He was sat in front of the TV. He felt movement, opened his
eyes, lazily. It was just a little man but menacing, creeping forward,
dagger held high, ready to stab him. He shook himself – watched the
screen, where a man smiled wickedly as he held a dagger. He would
stay awake from now on.

CLIFFHANGER TECH

Site click here … or …
Wear (where?) … write on above … to …
On … read it, badge …
The … wear (it) loud, just proud,
Code display it … image poem …
Your the (one to) get the …

SMELLY ONE

Fiction: To experience xenization. It was uncomfortable at first. He
was maleolent and his pigritude was almost debilitating. Hence, I
struggled to place one step in front of the other. It had been a single
thought that triggered it off – a flash of memory – and he was in me,
possessing me. I could feel my mind disappearing, but I fought to
keep my sanity. I could not go back to my teenage years.

maleolent – foul smelling
xenization – walk as a stranger
pigritude – laziness

A GHOST’S LOVE

Reckless heartache, jangle soul,
Harrowing dirge, cannot feel whole,
Caught in sorrow, purgatory’s home,
No escape, never atone;
I killed for her, that was my boast,
But then revenge made me a ghost,
Yet I crave those moments of bliss,
Don’t fret, my love, it’s just a kiss

© Anthony North, October 2009

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

KNOWLEDGE

ABC Wednesday & more prompts below
Try my Paranormal Flash now!

PROF ISAAC GALISTEIN

I worry about knowledge today – mainly because much of it isn’t
knowledge at all. Rather, we have become information junkies,
erroneously thinking that holding such information is knowledge. Yet
true knowledge is what you do with the information. Knowledge is the
outcome of thought. Knowledge is taking this information and
producing awareness and wisdom. Knowledge, today, is simply
data-processing, as if we’ve become an appendage of the computer
rather than the other way round. The machines seem to be winning.

Eye On the World
Essays on everything from science to
religion, politics to crime

WORLD NEWS: A busy time for
world leaders. UN meet and then G20.
Dictats fly – Iran, you naughty country; bankers,
we’ve some hard words for you (he,he, titter the bankers).
Rumours of Obama snubbing UK. But, hey, he eventually cuddled my
own idiot Prime Minister. Yes, folks, Soap Operas are alive and well.

HEALTH NEWS: A researcher has suggested the high rate of
Dementia in the UK could be because of the Second
World War. In effect, stress in youth can
trigger the reaction in later life. An
interesting idea – and one
that further research
should be carried
out on.

FUTURE ZONE

What’s ahead … and Beyond!!!

Poetry Train
Heads or Tails – ReadWritePoem
Three Word Wednesday

PHOTO PROOF

I await the photo of absolute proof,
A subject that always remains aloof,
Image of the future of all,
By going right back to that energy ball,
Before it became all that is,
Brought to life by nuclear fizz …
Oh, what knowledge it would invoke,
Was it God or a cosmic joke?

MELT DOWN TIME

Sci Fi: They knew the time tunnel had reached melt down when the
periods began to merge. Was that a real Viking up on stage doing
hard rock? Was that a real pole dancer pinching Caesar from
Cleopatra? And when the Soap writer became Elizabethan, they
knew they’d never look upon Shakespeare in the same way again.

FUTURE ME?

Finding hope, so hard to do,
Things change, I must imbue,
A better course than my image so bland,
We’re building a future – but hell or grand?
I see my reflection before my eyes,
It’s so very easy to criticize,
Is it future me, no better than the past,
Or the me that’s gone, angst amassed?

AMBITION
(Updated 30 Sep 09)

I look to the future, what do I see?
So easily it could be ugly;
Ambitious species we certainly are,
Through arts and tech we could go far,
Conquering the Cosmos for one and all,
Incredible ideas continually enthrall,
And propel us onwards all the time,
But if we’re not together, it’s not worth a dime

© Anthony North, September 2009

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

INFO-BOOKS

Booking Through Thursday
More prompts below

PROF ISAAC GALISTEIN

In trying to decide which is the most informative book I’ve read
recently I’ve drawn a complete blank. The reality is I delve into many
informative books every day. My bookshelves are brimming with
encyclopedias – not only two full sets, but encyclopedias on so many
different subjects. I guess I’m an information junkie.

If there’s something I don’t
know I want to know it.

And I have to say, a good reference library often remains a better
source of information than the internet. I’ve often wondered if my
thirst for information is an obsession. I suppose it is – maybe even a
way in which to grasp self-esteem. Though I counter this by pointing
out it is not a simple data-processing mentality. I collect information
in order to try to think things out – come up with ideas. But if this
mentality is an obsession, we’ve got to remember that most advances
come through this process. I guess that means the world is crazy.

Eye On the World
The ‘Y’ Files

GREEN NEWS: Scientists warn
that climate change may affect the
geology of the Earth, with melting ice and
increased rainfall causing earthquakes, eruptions,
erosion and tsunamis. I’m not quite sure it will be as bad
as that – we must always beware of doom mongers – but these
ideas must not be simply shelved, as I’m sure many would like.

BRIT NEWS: As positive signs of recovery begin to emerge, Labour
and the Tories square up for the battle of the spending
cuts. This is going to dominate politics for years -
which should make us think. Once recovery
comes, folks, it’s payback time! And
it isn’t going to be rosy.

FUTURE ZONE

What’s ahead … and Beyond!!!

One Single Impression
Sunday Scribblings – 3 Word Thursday

THIRST

Quench your thirst, it’s there for all,
Energy, power, let it enthrall,
Drive us on to conquer the world,
Oil and gas, let technology unfurl;
Never mind when it is gone,
We then begin the nuclear ones,
And when we advance we’ll capture a star,
Suck out its heat – we’ll go far

PLANET SIMPLE
(Quilly’s word meanings below)

Sci Fi: They were ready to panask, and cookie had prepared the
creature, ready to put it on the spit. They’d been on the planet for
nearly a month now and reached the phase where they were to try
living on what was available – after all, if it was to be colonized, this
is how it would be. Of course, it took some getting used to. There
was ice even in the heat of summer – not water-based, I must add –
and they had to be careful of stiricide. The one disappointment was
the lack of sentient life – after all, initial surveys from space had been
hopeful, with signs of construction, but it was obvious they’d have to
be ruricolous. It had been argued that maybe the primary species was
so advanced that mere humans would not understand their degree of
sentience. And as the creature was speared by the spit, it could only
agree.

ponask – cook game on a spit
stiricide – falling of icicles from a roof
ruricolous – living in the country

TATTOO

Tribal frenzy, know friend and kin,
Etch identity under the skin,
Time goes forward, sail the seas,
Pirates bring artwork, for many to please,
Sometimes stating the worst in cost,
Numbers, gas chambers, Holocaust,
Identity then forged through fashion and fad,
Artworked people feel so glad,
Finally the aliens come our way,
See tattooed tech planet – stay away

© Anthony North, September 2009

My good friends at The Self Love Project have given me this
award. I’d like to thank them for this. Much appreciated.

HYPOCRISY

ABC Wednesday & more prompts below
Have you had a go?

BLOGGER BARD

I used to think that one of the greatest wrongs was to be a hypocrite.
In most cases I still think this is true, but experience has taught me
that life is so varied that sometimes hypocrisy is inevitable. For
instance, I believe it is wrong to kill, but I would hope that if no
alternative existed, I would do so to protect a loved one.

As a teenager I rebelled
quite a lot.

I now realize this is essential – it is part of growing your own
character for adulthood. But as a parent I do all in my power to stop
rebellion. Parents do. Yet on one level this is hypocrisy, but it is the
way it should be. Hence, it is impossible to not be a hypocrite at
times. So how do we deal with it being wrong, but also, at times,
right? I suppose we should realize that life must always be a balance,
and balance is best achieved through moderation in all things. In this
way, the hypocrite in us all is reduced.

Eye On the World
The ‘Y’ Files

CRIME NEWS: Official figures
show British police detected just
47% of reported violent crimes in the
year to March 2009, leaving half a million
unsolved. Add the vast majority of crimes that
go unreported and this is a deplorable outcome. They
need to look at themselves and realise their organisation is
too big and they’ve become divorced from society. Modern policing
is becoming part of the problem.

GREEN NEWS: The 10:10 Campaign is gathering steam in the UK,
asking people to sign up to 10% cuts in carbon emissions by
2010. Of course, it will fail. True green will not come until
a new breed of entrepreneur pairs with a new breed of
engineer to begin new smaller firms to produce the
new green tech that Big Biz and Govt won’t
touch. Big is bad. Think small.

THE CRIME POST

It would be criminal not to read it

Carry On Tuesday
Heads or Tails – ReadWritePoem

FATAL DECISION

He wasn’t bad, just confused,
A young life so often abused,
Turned to crime, inevitable, deemed,
It certainly fuelled his self esteem,
Career grew from theft to killing,
On wanted lists he got top billing,
Cornered, he couldn’t get out through stealth,
So he took the decision – shot himself

SHOULDN’T SAY

Fiction: ‘Don’t speak, words will only steal the moment.’ I should
have heeded those words. After all, I’m a fanatic where security is
concerned. I told him so in the bar. He was an amiable chap – got
me speaking on the subject of identity fraud – and surely there was
nothing wrong with telling him. It wasn’t as if I gave away any
secrets. I’d never do that. It was as I returned home that my wife
pointed out how remiss I’d been, forgetting my account details and
phoning her. Yes, I should have kept my mouth shut. The fiend had
stolen my voice.

THOUGHTS ON ME

Unconscious mind like branching tree,
Sun illuminating, enlightens me;
Conscious mind, bricked in thought,
Jailed and limited, amounts to nought;
Let memories stream up without duress,
Of courtship, of my kids, of great success;
But what of thoughts of failures, of pain?
Without their lessons, we live in vain

© Anthony North, September 2009

GREED

ABC Wednesday & more prompts below.
Have you had a go?

POLLY TICKS

Let me make something very clear. Greed is not bad. In order to
succeed both individually and as a society, we need to be stimulated.
Due to this, we have urges. Without them I doubt if humanity would
have advanced at all – and greed is one of those urges.

The problem comes in the
level of greed we display.

Be too greedy and we hurt both ourselves and society, so it’s a
matter of balance. Sadly, though, in today’s capitalism we have a
glorification of greed, with it getting out of control. This was not how
capitalism was meant to be, originally devised by Adam Smith as a
philosophy to go alongside thrift. We seem to have turned something
noble into a feeding trough.

Eye On the World
The ‘Y’ Files

BRIT NEWS: New guidelines
for schools say Heads must recruit
unqualified ‘minders’ for classes as teachers
are not to cover for absent colleagues. Which idiot
thought this up? Is it part of the growing planning on paper
without seeing what works in reality? Administrators should manage,
not dictate.

BRIT NEWS: The traditional pint beer glass has been decreed too
dangerous as it is often used in assaults. Oh dear, so are
fists. Let’s have them all chopped off! I hate this
mentality that, because a few do something
wrong, everyone must suffer.

RATTLER’S TALE

A Voyage of the Imagination

Carry On Tuesday
Heads or Tails – ReadWritePoem

YELLOW

Yellow streak ran down his spine?
Mellow, maybe, not cowardly kind;
Pleasant fellow, didn’t like a fuss,
Don’t bellow, he won’t cuss;
Many people don’t like woe,
They’re not yellow – be nice,
Just say hello

FUTILITY

Fiction: If only it hadn’t happened – the telephone ringing – three
times. Oh, the futility of it all. But isn’t it all futility in the dead of
night? They’d argued – over everything, but mainly his belief she had
a lover. I’d known he was in one of those moods and I’d intervened,
going to their flat. I found him in the lounge sulking – she was in the
bedroom – I could hear the sobs. Well, I’d calmed him, and it would
have been fine … until the phone call. He picked it up. Listened. A
voice said: ‘Hi, hon, I’ll come round tomorrow at ten if that’s ok.’ I
saw the shock on his face. I grabbed the phone – asked who the hell
it was. But by then his anger had boiled again. By the time I got into
the bedroom, it was all over, her eyes staring blankly into nowhere.
Oh, the futility – especially as it was a wrong number that started it.

STARCHILD

From soil to cosmos all is one,
From tribal chant to quantum song,
We are whole, we knew it’s true,
‘Til fractured living did imbue,
The idea that we’re all alone;
One day we’ll remember – atone

© Anthony North, August 2009

RATIONALISM

Including Sunday Scribblings and One Single Impression
Have you had a go yet?

PROF ISAAC GALISTEIN

I’ve got some unorthodox ideas and I’m always being told by some that
I ought to be more rational. Well, I think I am rational, applying reason
and logic in everything I think. So why don’t all those ‘rational’ people
get it? Well, I’ve never yet come across a branch of rationalism that
hasn’t got an agenda behind it. And it’s these agendas that tend to
get in the way of a wider knowledge. Hence, the rational thing would
be to accept your particular rationalism as part of the search for
knowledge, and not its entirety.

Eye On the World
The ‘Y’ Files

GREEN NEWS: Scientist at Imperial
College London are researching the leaf in
order to try to work out how to produce power by
photosynthesis. Such projects could be the key to our future
energy needs.

BRIT NEWS: Jobless approaches 2.5 million, a quarter of firms in
trouble over pensions. Why do I get the feeling this
Recession is going to change so much? Those
who think we can return to business as
usual are conning themselves.

FUTURE ZONE

What’s ahead … and Beyond!!!

COPSE SONG

Cut us down? Not a chance,
Don’t you realise we enhance,
Where you live, how you breath,
You wouldn’t cope without our leaves,
So go away with your saws,
We’ll send our wasp cops to lay the laws,
You need a copse wherever you go,
Or corpses you’ll be – to help us grow

THE ENEMY

Sci Fi: They had been attacking Earth for decades when it was
realised where they had come from. ‘They are born from our own
minds,’ the scientist confirmed. Which left the question: why? It was
the philosopher who provided the answer: ‘Once we had come to
peace with ourselves as a species, a new exterior demon simply had
to come – for without a threat, we do not evolve.’ So they thought
the enemy out of existence, no longer afraid, and were living in caves
within the century.

SCI FI DINNER

Oh, the five Star Trek captains simply had to come,
Without them it would be no fun,
Han Solo and Skywalker, they arrived too,
Tired and hungry, ready for stew,
I was in charge of this fantasy,
The perfect host, pouring the tea,
So after the meal they were still being fed,
And I’m not letting them out ’til my stories are read

© Anthony North, August 2009

INSIGNIFICANT

Find Friday Flash 55 below
Why not have a go?

PROF ISAAC GALISTEIN

I hear it all the time from science types. The human race is an
insignificant species on an insignificant planet, in an insignificant solar
system in an insignificant galaxy. Alternatively, those of a spiritual
bent usually decide that we are special in universal terms. So who’s
right? Well, I think both are. It is true that our place in the universe
may have begun as insignificant, but we developed abstract thought,
which makes us think. So we may be nothing, yet could the
realisation of our insiginificance make us significant? Maybe we’ve
made ourselves special.

Eye On the World
The ‘Y’ Files

BRIT NEWS: Govt wants to replace
internal flights with new super-fast rail network.
If investment had been kept up in rail it would be here already.

BRIT NEWS: House prices and manufacturing output show signs
of recovery? Too early, I think. If we don’t feel
enough pain, we’re not fully healing
the wound.

FLASH 55 – SHIPWRECK

Fiction: It had been tranquil when it first sailed. The maelstrom, when
it came, was sudden, waves pounding its hull, deafening noises
reaching it, as if the elements were laughing, dementedly. Finally it
began to sink, a fated hand seeming to force it to the bottom of the
bath. The boy continued laughing through the bubbles.

DON’T SULK

Don’t sulk; it’s not that bad,
If you’d stop it, I’d sure be glad;
Sulking affects more than you,
Makes those around you rather blue;
Sulking is infectious, see …
What?
How dare you say don’t sulk to me?

© Anthony North, August 2009

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TIME TO THINK

Including One Single Impression, Take This Tune and Sunday Scribblings.
Have you had a go yet?

PAPPA RAZZI

We’re not supposed to think nowadays. Media is always putting it
down, and academe doesn’t seem to do much either. The reason is
fear. You see, people think philosophy ended up creating communism
and fascism, and the conflicts and atrocities that followed. But I don’t
think philosophy caused the trouble, but the lack of a sense of
moderation following on from the philosophy. Similarly, it went bad
when holism was placed upon society – a tricky thing without
moderation. We should remember this, and think!

Eye On the World
Writers’ Tips
The ‘Y’ Files

NOTE: My Tweet length current
affairs are becoming restricting so I’ve
decided to resurrect my Mini Blog, which will
continue my reports. All it takes is one quick click
and back.

BRIT NEWS: The Home Secretary has been asked whether Al
Qaeda sympathizers could have infiltrated MI5. Such a possibility …
… read more …

BRIT NEWS: Sir Bobby Robson has died. I never agreed
with all he did for football. One of the first to
buy foreign players for his team …
… read more …

RATTLER’S TALE

A Voyage of the Imagination

Twist In the Tale Archive

ANTICIPATE

I look ahead, anticipate,
Longing never dissipates,
Soon it comes, it always will,
Lots to do, must fulfill …
What is it? I hear you ask,
What could be this glorious task?
That which gives us joy and strife;
Just life

BIG CHANCE

Fiction: It’s a grand night for singing. The words of the old song
filtered into her mind as she stood there, the activity of the fair all
around her. And it was certainly her big chance. She looked up to the
stars before the action and they seemed so wonderful, as if they held
her destiny. Then the time came. He was there in front of her. She
pouted, knowing no one could resist her. He moved closer, his arms
encompassing her, his mouth beckoning hers, about to take her to –
to what? To the most important moment of her life, where her dreams
would come true, where nothing mattered but this moment; this
wonderful, fulfilling, magnificent moment. Then … ‘Cut!’ said the
Director. ‘We’ll let you know.’

WINDOWS

Look through the window, an amazing view,
Life in its majesty, events anew,
Reactions, assignations, trysts galore,
Fate notches up an inevitable score

Previously you were out, reacting with them,
They’re touched by your love, or maybe your phlegm,
A little piece of you is in their minds,
They dance to your tune, your thoughts of all kinds

See how your intention directs their ways,
Your sainthood, your devils into them strays,
And see how they hate you, or love you so much,
By their glance in your window; emotional as such

For we are all gods, having sway over life,
Our social mores creating happiness or strife,
Your face, as you look, above them flies,
And reflects your mischief back into your eyes

© Anthony North, August 2009

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WHY ARE WE HERE – ONE

Find Unconscious Mutterings and
Booking Through Thursday below.

We are well aware of the idea that life constantly
evolves. But how far does this process of evolution
go? Does it stop at life, or could it be argued that
evolution is a property of the cosmos?

For instance, if the universe began from a Big Bang, and has constantly changed from this point, does this show the property of evolution? And could a similar argument be laid down for known, and constant, change upon planet Earth?
The fundamental problem with the idea that planet Earth evolves concerns the place of life within the evolutionary process. Does life evolve separate to the planet, or is life – including mankind – part of the process of Earth’s evolutionary mechanism?
To accept the latter holds severe problems for science. It not only removes us from the top of the evolutionary tree, but would suggest a form of co-ordinated intelligence invested in planet Earth which is guiding us along.
There are, infact, many indicators that this is, indeed, the case. One of the absolutes of evolution is the idea that evolution only evolves what is required for survival. There is no surplus.
However, the massive explosion in the size of the human brain goes way ahead of our ability to use it. Our brain capacity is far greater than is required by this evolutionary law. Yet if seen as part of an evolving requirement of planet Earth, our brain size could fall into the evolutionary pattern.
French philosopher Henri Bergson would have had no problem with this idea. He believed that nature had an urge to create – a principle he called the ‘elan vital’. Such an urge would be above an individual species, placing all of nature within an evolutionary concept which could easily be seen as part of the evolution of planet Earth.
British physicist Peter Russell could have placed our big brain within this format. He theorised upon a growing planetary level of consciousness called the ‘Gaiafield’ – a self-reflective consciousness of all minds, forming a social superorganism.
In a way this is similar to psychoanalyst Carl Jung’s idea of a collective unconscious lying under the personal mind. But instead of being a species supermind, Russell would invest the property on a planetary level.

First posted, Jan 08. Continued Tues.

BLOGGER BARD

Funny Book

I don’t read many funny books. I read plenty of twisty
tales, which can be funny, but not actual humour. Then
again, isn’t it all relative? For instance, I read many works
that would be classed as pseudoscholastic – on lost
civilizations, paranormal, etc. Many ‘experts’ class their
conclusions as very funny indeed. I suppose ‘humour’
depends on the reader. For instance, I would class many
politician’s biographies as hilarious. Humour seems to be
in the mind of the reader as well as the writer.

Call back Sunday for Unconscious Mutterings.

© Anthony North, July 2009

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