Full of sound and fury . . .

[Wishfarple]

At times he heard within him a soft, gentle voice, which reminded him quietly, complained quietly, so that he could hardly hear it.  Then he suddenly saw clearly that he was leading a strange life, that he was doing many things that were only a game, that he was quite cheerful and sometimes experienced pleasure, but that real life was flowing past him and did not touch him.  Like a player who plays with his ball, he played with his business, with the people around him, watched them, derived amusement from them; but with his heart, with his real nature, he was not there.  His real self wandered elsewhere, far away, wandered on and on invisibly and had nothing to do with his life.  He was sometimes afraid of these thoughts and wished that he could also share their childish daily affairs with intensity, truly to take part in them, to enjoy and live their lives instead of only being there as an onlooker.  

I suppose it's not really ALL a game, but most of it is.  How many things we do every day which amount to nothing much!  Get up, go to work, cuss at the stoplights and cops and old pensioners out for a morning drive-and-fuck-up-traffic.  Sweat all day, break for lunch, drive home.  Every few weeks, get paid.  Our ration of food pellets, of time on the big metal wheel, of space to burrow and make a nest in.  How much does any of it MEAN?

Well, I'm trying to tie it into the reason we're all here.  Not HERE here.  Here on this website, talking about this goddess.  We're here because even a funny religion gives a sense of purpose.  Even just pretending to venerate a cockroach, or a floating clip-art head who smokes a pipe, enriches our lives in some way.  See, most of life, obviously, is a big game.  Religion is the manifestation of the drive of human beings to try to stop playing the game.  To take our ball and go home, and just you wait because I'm telling my big brother on you!  

Maybe there's more to it.  PROBABLY there's more to it!  To play with that pet metaphor a bit more, I sure as hell don't know who's turning my heat-lamp on every day, or who sprinkles that food in my tank.  But I'm not GOING to know any of that.  I can guess, I can observe, I can make shit up, but until I die and float to the top I'm never going to come in contact with that all-powerful force.  It remains as much a mystery today as it did when I was 7 and Santa Claus was still going to visit in a few weeks.  I suspect I won't know any more on the day I do go to that big fishbowl in the sky, but hopefully I'll have gotten to eat a lot of really excellent algae and swim through some cool castles.  With the sunken chests that open and close, and the lights and skeletons and everything!

My point is that there's very little we do that needs to be done.  You need to sleep, shit, and eat.  Beyond that isn't really any of your business, but it can be fun.  Pissing all over someone else for doing something you don't personally approve of is MORE pointless than how pointless you think what they're doing is!  So is taking offense to someone doing so.  They're not the ones buying the fish-flakes, it doesn't matter what they think of you.  Remember that it's a game, and remember what games are for.  EVEN if there is no higher power, and this is all random chance, it's still a game.  Hell, in that case it's maybe even moreso, because nothing we do matters at all to anyone!  

So, the next time someone gripes about life being meaningless be sure and laugh, if only to yourself.  Of course it's meaningless, that's kind of the point.  That's what makes it really pretty incredible to get up every morning.  You can do what you want, read what you like, sing however loud you want to, and fuck whatever you please.  

Just, please.  Leave me alone to sit over here and be a huge, flaming hypocrite.  And keep your damn fins off my mealworms!

[EraPassing]

My favorite quote?  From a comic book called "Whisper".

"Why kill time if you can kill yourself?"

Just sayin'.

[Malaul]

thats also a Caberet Voltaire line too

[EraPassing]

That might have been where the comic got it, then, Malaul.

[Hoshiko]

Of course it's meaningless, that's kind of the point.  That's what makes it really pretty incredible to get up every morning.  You can do what you want, read what you like, sing however loud you want to, and fuck whatever you please.  

Just, please.  Leave me alone to sit over here and be a huge, flaming hypocrite.  And keep your damn fins off my mealworms!

We can't leave you alone over there by yourself. We're all hypocrites, and that's where the snack bar is!

I have this theory, kind of a play on the whole "life as a school" and "life as God observing our play" theories...

I think that whoever is up there has a bunch of score cards. 20 or 30 dieties, all with great big wonderful shiny score cards. Most people average about a one most of the time. If you brush your teeth really enthusiastically you might get a 2, who knows. But in our coolest moment, we sometimes get as much as an 8 or so. Doesn't matter doing what, it could be religious exploration, or a good hand of poker, an awesome bellyflop, whatever. But in those moments where you suddenly get it for a second, and it's like a spiritual connection where you can do no wrong and you are part-god or goddess at one with everything, those 8's flash up and God jumps out of his seat and goes "Yeah!" Of course, damn St. Peter never rates higher than a 7.5, but what can you do?

And then some people, VERY rare people get a 10 once in their lives. Like that nun who set herself on fire, fuck yeah she got a 10. That was pretty cool, even for an extremist. And then God jumps up and down screaming "Did you see that? That was awesome!" and then he pulls them back up as soon as he can because obviously they're too influencial for us normals, and we can only handle a taste of them.

Now if you believe that you have to assume that even people like Jack the Ripper might get a 9 or so, because if man has a dual nature then god has a dual nature then man has a dual nature, whatever. And then there are those people like Ted Kaczynski who get a "Man, what happened down there? I really thought you had it, I really thought you'd go far."

Anyway, point is I'm happy if I never get a 10 and fully experience life. If I get a few 8's and throw in some really inspired toothbrushing now and again I'll have lived my life to the fullest (and that includes spiritual exploration, not just mental or physical.)

And then, if I'm really lucky and re-incarnation is true (and please, let it be true!) then I get a second shot at that 10, until I hit it and I can finally go up to that big party/folk music extravaganza in the sky.

Or not, but hey, it's better than what the catholics have set up for us, right? I'll call this other corner for lengthy gibberish now and go stand in it, if you don't mind.  

[Wishfarple]

You know, Hoshi, that might be the closest to the truth I've ever seen anyone get.  

I gotta add something about St. Peter, though.  Anyone with the balls to see a dude walking on water, say "ME TOO!!!!" and jump out the damn boat is doubleplusgood in my book.

Well then, here's to pulling a few 8's or 9's!

[Hoshiko]

You know, Hoshi, that might be the closest to the truth I've ever seen anyone get.  

I gotta add something about St. Peter, though.  Anyone with the balls to see a dude walking on water, say "ME TOO!!!!" and jump out the damn boat is doubleplusgood in my book.

Well then, here's to pulling a few 8's or 9's!

9's it shall be! To jumping out of the boat! <raises glass>

[Bob the Mediocre]

You know, Hoshi, that might be the closest to the truth I've ever seen anyone get.  

I gotta add something about St. Peter, though.  Anyone with the balls to see a dude walking on water, say "ME TOO!!!!" and jump out the damn boat is doubleplusgood in my book.

Well then, here's to pulling a few 8's or 9's!

Seconded, and seconded.

And that Foamy quote isn't bad either.

I'll just call my corner the shortwinded one, methinks.

[Malaul]

Foamy > *

[Zurtok Khan]

Wow, wisdom.  So shiny...

Here's to that 10!

Cheers!

[Hoshiko]

Thanks, I only had to keep Herman Hesse locked up in my closet for 23 days before he told me the theory. The mothball rations helped some, I'm sure.

I kept him in for an extra 4 days anyway, just for fucking with my mind with The Glass Bead Game.

It cost me over $20 in library late fees, too. Do you know how long you have to keep a book to accrue $20? I do. Over a year.

[Horab Fibslager]

i oncwe got a late fee at library. of cours ei didn;t pay it, cept in flirtation.


it'sa  curse or a gift dependijng on how you look at it.

[Hoshiko]

If you got a librarian to take off a fine by flirting then brotha, you earned that cursed gift.

I want to live in a library. I'm thinking of building a library instead of a house and living in it, among the patrons and books. That would be so cool. I would have a staircase off of the religious section that led to nowhere, just the ceiling and wall. I would sit there and read all day, and watch the people try to open the painted door at the top.

[Wishfarple]

I want to live in a diorama.  Ooh, or one of them glass globes that snow inside when you shake em!

[BipolarFastCycler]

The very fact that we know about their game, and the fact that we have fun with it have to earn us a few points! Do you think they enjoy us insulting the way others worship them (i.e. jacking-off in prayer, playing see-food with communion, or drinking holy water) get us good points or just piss them off? I have done all of those things and many more, so I would like to know.