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A Parable

Started by AFK, December 22, 2011, 01:56:39 PM

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AFK

As my eyes came open, there she was, lying at the edge of my bed.
Welcoming me to the day with a warm smile.
At first, I was a bit shocked and flustered.
Who is this woman?  What will my wife say if she wakes up?  Wait, why isn't she waking up?  She is a light sleeper after all.  I didn't bring this woman here.  I didn't welcome her to our home, but she might think-

"Be at peace.  She will not awake. This is your moment and yours alone." she replied.   

"Are you-?", I questioned in my head.

"Yes, I am" she replied. 

"Why-"

"-am I here? To affirm what has troubled you so.  To bring you some solace.  And to ask you to cast outward upon others that which you hold inside under great pressure."

"How do you-?"

"I just do.  It's part of this gig.  To sense and perceive these thoughts.  And I am here to tell you it is okay.  That your thoughts are with much merit."

I paused and pondered. 

"You are quite right.  The world is mired in misery.  There is much concentration on the doom and gloom on this planet.  This is, of course, quite understandable.  There is indeed much strife for so many.  But, you are also right that it is also a trap to become so absorbed in this.  That it is prone to suck in all of the life and light.  That even those with earnest intentions to right the wrongs, can get lost in the darkness.  The world needs more light.  The world needs more joy.  The world needs more frivolity."

I sat nodding, listening to her words.  Words that seemed to be elicited and registered through mere thought and feeling.  It was as though they were just floating in the air and gently being absorbed by my mind.

"You are given but a cosmic heartbeat to exist in this universe.  It does seem a pity for much of that to dwell in pain and misery.  It is as was told all of those years ago.  Too many have forgotten the art and joy in playing games.  Even those who earnestly wish to create a better world.  They become so lost in the mission, that they forget to enjoy.  You and others must help people remember.  Remember to laugh.  Remember to revel in the packets of pleasure this reality presents.  To afford oneself those moments where they let their troubles and the troubles of the world melt away as they seek refuge in a rejuvenating chortle."

"But there is just so much negativity all around.  The news reports on all of the awful stuff everyday.  People are out of work.  People can't heat their homes.  People struggle to get their three squares."

"Oh, yes, this is all quite true.  And the world DOES need champions fighting for and alongside those who are straddled with these very significant struggles.  But those champions will be useless without hope and joy in their own lives.  They need to live and embrace what they are fighting for.  They need to be ambassadors for joy and inner peace.  To share the possibilities at the end of the dark tunnel, and to stride hand in hand with great resolve towards those possibilities."

"Yes"

"This was a vital part of what I bestowed so long ago.  Nonsense as Salvation.  Take yourselves too seriously, take the world too seriously, and I fear you will be doomed to fail time and again.  It's time to amp up the Nonsense.  Bring the Joy and Laughter.  Spread far and wide the Silliness and Glee.  Wield these and together, you will all make great strides.  Share these with others.  Grow the Army.  For sure, the darkness will still obtain many victories."

"Indeed"

"But, at least when the time comes when you fall as one of its victims, you can die with a big ol fucking grin on your face.  Knowing, that you enjoyed the hell out of life, and then some.  That is victory.  That is a treasure that cannot be taken away.  Bestow it onto your brethren."

And with that last word she was gone.  The room had grown dark again.  My wife still sound asleep next to me.  I felt calm and reassured.  I lied back down and drifted back to sleep.  Waiting for tomorrow. 
Cynicism is a blank check for failure.

LMNO

Damn, that was really good stuff.  I know we give a lot of lip service to "Nonsense as Salvation", but I like how you clarified the Why and How of it.

AFK

Speaking only for myself, I know there can be a tendency to really get too deep into the horror of the horrormirth that is around us.  Lately, I've really been doing a lot of pondering and reconsidering, and thinking that I really need to adjust my outlook.  Not to forget or discount the tragedies of this existence.  But to remember that I need to invest in myself and my family and be whole myself, if I am to have any kind of meaningful and positive impact upon the surrounding environs.

This is a manifestation of those thoughts. 
Cynicism is a blank check for failure.

Cramulus

#3
:mittens:

I like that, Rev. :)

It brings to mind a few words from our old pal Doloras, which I'd like to x-post here:




For everyone who's given up hope


If "tomorrow" is the first lie of the Devil, perhaps the second lie might be that our own contribution has no value; that we are powerless to make a difference in the world. It is very easy to believe that this is so, seeing clearly our frailties & weaknesses. But this is a lie, nevertheless.

- Thanks, Vicious Bob. I post this in response to the overwhelming negativity, bitterness and nihilism which have become the common sense of the liberal-leftist Internet in this day and age, this era of accelerating capitalist crisis, ecological collapse, the collapse of hopes that an imperialist war machine led by an intelligent black lawyer/academic would somehow be qualitatively different from one led by a borderline imbecile white fratboy, etc., etc...

But of course the ruling ideas of our epoch, like any other, are those of the ruling class. The ruling class want us to believe that "the war is over and the good guys lost" (L. Cohen), that their rule might be an obvious disaster but There Is No Alternative. But let's put it this way - okay, let's just assume for the sake of argument that we live at the beginning of a civilisational Dark Age like, I dunno, the European Middle Ages or the Chinese Warring States period. There's nothing that any individual can do about it, not even Noam Chomsky, John Lennon and Black Dynamite all put together. So what is your motivation for remaining alive?

Should we all load stones in our pockets and go down to the local river like Virginia Woolf? Or get drunk all the time, which is the slow-motion version of the same thing? Or give up and join the rat race to get our piece of the pie before it's too late? (Don't worry if that means selling our soul - it's not as if our soul was worth anything, and if the world is fucked whatever we do, we might as well be actively evil as long as it feels good, right?!?)

Credo quid absurdum. The only noble thing that it is still possible to do is to act as if what you did actually mattered. That is, act according to principle, as opposed to automatic ideas based on what you picked up from the TV or social chatter. Even if you're wrong, you make it possible for others to do so.






(Doloras entered nirvana, parenthetically.)
All the great works of mystical literature say that the path to ego-loss is rapid-cycling-bipolar to the Nth degree. One minute God doesn't exist and you're full of crap, the next moment you're in Paradise eating from the fruits of the tree of Knowledge of Good And Evil and Endless Free Sex, and then God doesn't exist any more, and so on. Probably enlightenment comes when you realise that both are illusions, or as Hazrat-e-Pir Dr. Nurbakhsh would say, you give up on both this world and the Hereafter.

Because God doesn't exist in the world of blind matter and inescapable natural law. In contrast, the world of Love and Meaning and Compassion and really really good orgasms and cuddles and niceness and warm milk is nothing but God. We live in the hologram caused by the overlapping of the two worlds, to use Grant Morrison's terminology which I think he took from Philip K Dick.

Aphorism time:

He who tries to defend or describe or dismiss God with Logic is committing a foul sin against Logic as well as one against God.

I notice this in the similarity of the style of arguments made by both Catholic and Salafist theologians. Religion is just rules, which is a form of cause and effect and therefore of the hard, nasty world not the sweet, gentle world. I read a website by some heretical Muslims who argue that God has actually set Satan up as temporary ruler of the planet. That might be a pretty good metaphor for describing what happens in revolutionary events... when the Black Iron Prison springs a leak and suddenly the impossible becomes possible (almost a definition of the presence of God).

Because that never lasts, and what happens afterwards is that the sweet spring of flowing nectar which existed for maybe a year or two maximum gets damned and polluted and set to drive the waterwheels of the dark satanic mills. The ekklesia, majlis or soviets of workers and soldiers' deputies become new engines of oppression. The institutions founded to guard the message end up destroying the message. And that's the price of success - having to cut a deal with the Prince of This World. Compare the umma after the death of the Prophet to the Soviet Union after the Civil War and see what I mean......

To be true to the spirit of the Revolution, which is precisely identical to the Holy Spirit and to what makes cats scream in the night and poets howl at the moon, we have to refuse rules, schemas, hierarchies and brain death - while at the same time refusing the opposite trap, of going back to worshipping our own egos. As Ayn Rand put it (and screw her, by the way) - "in the name of the best within all of us".

We don't need any more Prophets or idols, but we will always need idolsmashers and the Enlightened Masters who come to wake us up. But they get taken from us too early, so let's appreciate them while we have them.



also
http://chaosmarxism.blogspot.com/2011/06/further-to-below.html



[slightly edited for brevity]

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

#4
How interesting! Great topic! I was just talking about this the other day.

http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=31062.msg1128679#msg1128679
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Slurrealist

 :)
It resonates with my own view on the world.
Let's bring back the fun, because fun rules!
"You're free, and freedom is beautiful. It will take time to restore chaos...but we will..."

AFK

It's funny because when I had my interview the other day they asked me a question about wellness and what I would to to make sure I take care of myself and my team.  I talked about the importance of being able to refresh when tackling the serious issues of substance abuse and mental health.  We can't champion behavioral health to others if we don't live it. 

I very much feel the same way when it comes to Discordia.  If we get too bogged down in the horror, and don't spend as much time, if not more, swimming in some serious silliness, then what good are we?  It's been a consistent thread in my version of Discordia. 
Cynicism is a blank check for failure.

East Coast Hustle

Quote from: RWHN on December 22, 2011, 01:56:39 PM
Remember to revel in the packets of pleasure this reality presents.  To afford oneself those moments where they let their troubles and the troubles of the world melt away as they seek refuge in a rejuvenating chortle.

I think Eris was telling you to smoke a joint.
Rabid Colostomy Hole Jammer of the Coming Apocalypse™

The Devil is in the details; God is in the nuance.


Some yahoo yelled at me, saying 'GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH', and I thought, "I'm feeling generous today.  Why not BOTH?"

Nephew Twiddleton

Strange and Terrible Organ Laminator of Yesterday's Heavy Scene
Sentence or sentence fragment pending

Soy El Vaquero Peludo de Oro

TIM AM I, PRIMARY OF THE EXTRA-ATMOSPHERIC SIMIANS

AFK

Cynicism is a blank check for failure.