Monday, May 2, 2011

I Feel Beautiful in the Head Today

Took a walk in the woods today. Nothing helps me think better. Of course, the clarity with which I'm thinking while I'm out there, like a high or dream, quickly fades when I come back home. I keep thinking that maybe I should seriously consider being a hermit for a little while, just to see what happens. In any case, here's the general gist of what I was thinking about today. Or at least, it's the best I can do with what I remember.

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I kept thinking that I need to organize my life. Then I sat down by a stream and saw the rocks and pebbles strewn in random places, while the water flowed around them. It dawned on me that people say things like "get real," or "welcome to the real world." Their "real world" is full of grid patterns, straight lines, files, structures and numbers. We need these things to function, and yet the real real world is random, spontaneous and messy. Yet life, like the water, finds a way around everything with great ease. The real world can function, indeed it thrives, without the organization that we seem to need. So perhaps we're actually quite stupid in comparison with the world. I find that quite uplifting and encouraging.

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I think some ideas and feelings are self explanatory, and can't be otherwise defined. Love, anger, hatred, happiness etc. These things require no explanation because they are experienced at a very young age and the adults say to you, "that is anger," or "that is love."

We can give these things characteristics and descriptors, but we cannot truly get at the core definition. However, that sits fine with me. I would rather revel in their magnificence than try to say what they are or what they are for. I'm sure people might be getting tired of my Alan Watts references, but he describes a real philosopher as something of an, "intellectual yokel." Somebody who can't stop gawking at things and at the grandeur of life itself.

Props to the philosopher's who deal with that by defining things, and deciding whether or not that sentence makes sense, or whether or not this concept is logically valid. It's not for me, though. I am content in simply being.

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Existence is playful.

The sight of a bathing bird or a squirrel eating a seed brings delight to my soul. Everything bounces and jitters and makes funny sounds. It all seems so light. The flora around us blooms and explodes. It dangles and sways. It spins and unfolds. It runs on and on in it's own messy, wiggly way.

If you asked me, "What is the nature of our existence?" I might answer by humming a song.
Man, maybe I am going crazy.

4 comments:

  1. I love it! So serene, so peaceful to read, and I can't agree more. I really need to hit the parks more often.-Fia

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  2. Short trip... These walls are bouncy!

    As well, I take great pleasure in the simple things and I'm sure this labels me as somewhat of an intellectual yokel. Yet people seem to take me seriously at the same time, which is helpful.

    In fact, the times when people fail to take me seriously are rare enough that they actually strike me as odd.

    I think perhaps that the simple act of taking joy in life is a source of inspiration for everyone.

    Also, where did you go walking? I like how there are so many hidden valleys in Toronto.

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  3. I was walking through Mt. Pleasant graveyard, and ended up on the discovery trail. Just kind of walked until I found a decent place to sit and meditate. I found a little place where you can barely hear the city around you. It's almost unbelievably serene, considering where it is.

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  4. I know what you mean.

    People talk about order and "real life" all the time and they mean what order man has made- but right angles are bad for my brains. Give me the big Universe order any time... streams flowing this way or the sun rising here or the stars in their courses or the blossoms all knowing when to burst! Yours truly, ENFP

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