Keeping clever

The musts of the past need to earn their place in our future.

Freundshaft

Bis da in dem Garten
Seh'ich ploetzlich ein Stueck
Der Spitze des Hut's
Ein's haesslichen Feindes
Dann gehe' ich sofort
Er folgt mir hinaus
Den Garten zu lassen
In Ruhe


Of course this German poem, which I wrote, is not to describe friendship in general, but that sad occasional experience, where a tension or discomfort unexpectedly arises between friends that is difficult to define, understand or resolve. The poem just came to me one day as a result of an experience while travelling and I wrote it down. I post it here only for art's sake.

Wrong about knowing

For probably every individual on earth, the two concepts of WRONG and KNOW are used in relation to and to represent a different set of beliefs & values, and yet, in so much written and spoken expression, they are treated as absolute. For each person both words relate to the important process of discovery. When one "knows" something, often what they really mean is that they "believe" that thing according to what they have discovered in life so far. And when a notion is called WRONG, it is usually called so in relation to the always evolving BELIEFs of the judge, whether or not there exists some reliable and/or independent corroborative opinion. l believe that a healthy understanding of the notions of KNOWing and WRONGness and how they relate to life, relationships and emotions is one possible seed from which successful strategies for resolving all human conflict might grow. To this end, I propose the following definitions:-

-----o0o-----

WRONG (adj.) [of a fact or idea] arousing in the hearer, reader, or perceiver a sense of internal conflict or the desire to reject [the fact or idea]

KNOW (verb) to have a feeling [i.e., towards an idea or notion] that it is right (i.e., not wrong)

----o0o----

In employing such definitions of these words (and appropiately applying them to exact synonyms and opposites) we acknowledge both the emotional and/or manipulative basis for the use of these words in general and the relativeness and limitedness of our human perception.

Speak to live v live to speak

A person's mother tongue as defined in literature and as understood and used by him or her is a complex and ingenious means of recording, expressing and even enhancing life. However I have come to believe that even the most powerful language, due to life's unpredictability and due to our short-comings in expressing or understanding life fully, can never describe accurately and completely even one person's whole life experience. Words can be used to convey a singular notion, or perhaps to serve as a filter for viewing and describing a collection or selection of phenomena, but spoken Ianguage cannot fully represent the minutae of one's miraculous life. Moment by minute moment, the details of the miracle of a life unfold, and, although many experiences and sensations within that life can be described in words, many will never be and many of those could not ever be. Like the infinite number of minutely different musical tones that exist between two adjacent notes on a piano keyboard, whose sound the composer can perhaps imagine and some of which the singer can sing, but which the pianist cannot voice on his instrument, there exist experiences that are never expressed, feeIings never expressible, and many not even noticed by us at a concious level. Some ideas may be able to be conveyed in another tongue, just as a pianist can use another instrument, but much of even one person's life and life experience will never be outwardly expressed, in words anyway. Such unspoken, unshared mysteries within us are like undiscovered treasures and an important factor in what makes each one of us unique.

Wayne Carter.
12/11/04

The starting point...

To have lived at all is a wonderful gift.