DRAWN UPON
… for GD
Tuesday Aug. 19, 2014
Drawn upon … the blackboard, the page.
Drawn upon experience.
Is your life drawn, and if so, who has the pencil?
There is no great debate, there is no argument – there is only struggle for understanding, wresting with ideas and ideology, and knowing some things for certain.
Ah, there’s the rub eh?
Knowing for certain.
Who knows?
Certainty and fact are easy if there’s a lab and microscope – or a calculator in sight. We like certainty, facts and accountable professionals to certify the certainty. It’s a bit like absolute zero. Is that really zero, or is zero … zero?
Zeros and ones are the code of our communication and calculation – which all makes sense in matters of science and facts, of anything you could Google or Bing. They can probably bring precision to feelings too.
But what about belief?
Some believe one thing – and ten other people believe ten other things. The belief in one, the disbelief in others, feels absolutely certain to every one person. So, is that certainty fact? Is someone’s zero actually zero, and is someone else’s brimming full actually overflowing?
In the fullness of time, future residents of this planet will know much more than we do now. Knowledge balloons at exponential rates and can only continue – as does our curiosity – to know more and more and more about more and more.
One day, ages from now, when man knows many factors of how much we know today, will we know all? Will we know then? Will we know when and how we got here? Will we know why we have feelings? Will we know why we care? Will we understand out search – not for knowledge, which seems apparent, but our search for needing to know they why of life?
Can we be content with an easy life and a happy peaceful ending?
If there is meaning, power and a force we don’t understand, can we ever understand that?
And if there isn’t, then what is to be debated in life – is not the existence of such meaning, power and forces – but rather to understand our need for them.
Wonderful lunch yesterday with GD; so nice to catch up, to have this semi-spoken debate that keeps running along, part like a checker game, part like croquet, not competitive or combative but advancing inquiry into each other, into ourselves – from meeting to meeting.
As it should.
It should be long.
It should be drawn.
Out.
Mark Kolke
column written/ published from Calgary
morning walk: 16C / 58F, more clouds than clear – but not threatening, though the forecast calls for lots of rain later today and the rest of the week (to golf, or not to golf? that is a question …), Gusta’s nose was on a strange trail this morning – a schizophrenic rabbit perhaps, because the zig-zagging path her nose took, with dog following of course, was not something you could map. But you could laugh. I did. And, there were no rabbits in sight ... but clearly, Gusta believed there were.
Reader feedback / comments always welcome:
Why Write-How Right (morning walk) - don't you love the early morning world? The bird sounds that only pierce a blackened sky starting to unfold into early morning light. They shouts as if to urge the daylight on so they can go home to sleep. The other sounds of night creatures as they make their way to their dens or nests or wherever it is they disappear to while the sun lights the sky. Then the first mockingbird shrills its good morning to announce a new day being born. My most favorite time of day when it is ushering through the birth canal to make its presence known with anticipation for what will emerge with the rays of the early morning sun. Life is good indeed! GW, Bon Wier, Tx.
Hello Mark. I believe change is hard because of the perception of it being painful to make the change at some level. The level is usually subconscious. Reprogramming required and all that stuff!! When the change feels like it will bring less pain than not changing, change happens relatively quickly and easily. This is what Tony Robbins and many others promoted long ago and it seems to be true. Best regards, MM, Calgary, AB
Nice closing sentiment. Thanks!!!! Gw, Bon Wier, Tx.
