Do rocks have a consciousness?


 Be true to your nature, an individual, like a round and polished stone among the jagged throng!

That is what this little round stone said to me in reply to a question I had been asking myself.  Namely, "Do rocks have a consciousness?"  And what it said is the caption you read under the picture itself, "Be true to your nature, an individual, like a round and polished stone among the jagged throng!"  How do I know it spoke to me thus?  It was on a hike I made to Ponytail Falls in the Columbia River Gorge earlier this month.  I was planning on hiking to Triple Falls by way of Horsetail Falls, but there was a landslide that blocked passage to Triple Falls leaving me two choices.  I could continue on, to the Oneanta trail head and walk back down the Historic Columbia River Highway or, I could go back the way I came.  I debated for a few minutes and ultimately decided to go back the way I had come.  As I passed behind Ponytail Falls, I turned around to look at the falls one last time.  As I did so, I wondered if I might be able to get a better picture of the falls from down closer to the stream the falls fell into.  So, I backtracked yet again to get to the side of the stream, and as I was making my way down the bank, I was looking for solid footfalls.  That is when this rock stopped me in my tracks and spoke to me.  This rock had been calling to me the whole time, helping me with my choices in direction and even having me backtrack twice so it could deliver its message and an answer to my inquiry.

The small polished round stone spoke to me in another way as well.  As Joseph Campbell had put it in one of his talks, Nature creates in circles.  Nature's consciousness, if you will, is that of a circle.  We exist in a circle, as you can see by looking out at the horizon.  Campbell also referenced a 12th century idea that God is an infinite sphere whose circumference is nowhere and whose center is everywhere.  Alternatively, the consciousness of man is a square.  This is why we create cubical shaped homes and buildings.  Nature doesn't create such things.

This rock wasn't just saying the above to me, it was showing me that it is me.  It was a mirror of who I am and who I can be.  I am that polished stone, becoming more and more polished with the passage of time, among the jagged throng.  How powerful a message it sent me that I have a choice to be my own individual self, even while surrounded by the jagged throng.  The jagged throng, all the while thinking they know what is best, thinking they know what is right.  Even when all those about you are losing the precious moments of their life by living with the shoulds and musts and thou shalts rather than being authentic to themselves.  Cast off the thou shalts and to thine own self be true.  You are a gift in this world and in this time.

What other lessons can we re-learn from time spent in Nature, especially when combined with such contemplative questions?  Does the earth have a consciousness?  What is Nature trying to communicate to us?

For what questions has Nature provided you with an answer?

What questions do you ask Nature?  Answers are awaiting you if you are willing to be your authentic self and ask away.

R.E.S.P.E.C.T. is now spelled N.V.C.

It was important for Marshall Rosenberg to write Non-Violent Communicaiton (NVC): A Language of Life to share his vision of how communicating in a non-violent way can aide human beings in getting needs met in a way that is beneficial for all parties involved. The key distinctions are that the current language of our culture is violent and not in alignment with communicating in a way that allows all parties in a conversation to have their needs met. Through first observing, then expressing feelings and then needs, and finally making a request that allows the other party to choose to respond in a way that meets their needs, can foster a connection that contributes to both sides getting what they want and need. NVC has opened a whole new world of communication that I see can foster a dialog that meets my need for mutuality and connection. Having read Dr. Marshall Rosenberg's book and attending the Worls School's class on Non- Violent Communication, I now have a new tool of communication available to me that will contribute to my being able to express what I have observed in a given situation. Once I have communicated the observations, I can then express my feelings around what it was that was observed. After having expressed my feelings, I can then share what needs I have around those feelings. I can then make a request of the other party that is applicable to the current moment and that also gives the other party an opportunity to then communicate their feelings and needs in a way that contributes to both sides having their needs met. While I struggle with the process around NVC at this point in time, my vocabulary around my feelings and needs has grown tremendously. I see this as a first step in eventually mastering the language of NVC. As I continue to develop my skill in understanding my feelings and needs, my ability to naturally express my feelings and needs in a non-violent way will flow more easily. Also, as my vocabulary grows and my needs start to become met more fully, I will have more space to inquire as to the needs of others in a way that is harmonious and non-violent. This possibility of being able to communicate in a way that meets my needs and also allows me to contribute to the needs of others getting met is incredibly exciting.

It's Rapport - No, Not Michael

How can establishing rapport lead to miraculous things occuring? I met a man last week in the local park playing catch with his dog. I had casually interected with this man before at the same park, but never got his name, although I did get his dog's name. I figured I would go and talk to him and his dog. We had a few minutes of general chit chat, and it was through this that I had apparently built some rapport with this man. I had introduced myself and he told me his name. As we continued to talk, he started to share a very personal story with me about how his son had committed suicide almost exactly a year ago. I did nothing special during his sharing other than to be fully there listening to him. He was emotional during our discussion, and felt some relief by the end of our time talking. We acknowledged that what had happened was a true miracle, for before I left on my walk I had written a scene change about wanting the Law of Attraction to reveal to me related to the Celebration of Life. I mentioned this to the man, and he revealed to me that he was going to be having a party to celebrate the life of his son in the next week. We hugged each other and on my way I went. This was such a powerful example of the Law of Attraction at work, but also how important building rapport is in allowing another person to open up and share things that may be very personal. The Law of Attraction totally allowed the manifestation of celebration of life for me in this instance. Often times, we have needs that we can get met through interaction with others. This was definitely the case for me, when I had an exchange with this stranger that was miraculous and reinforcing for me. None of this would have been possible if not for my first being fully present with this individual in a way that built serious rapport in a very short time. This interaction was so powerful, I literally had the shakes afterward and I had to note to myself the power of the Law of Attraction and the power of truly being there for someone in a way that establishes rapport. What are some examples in your life where you were able to establish rapport with another? What came up for you at that time?

Choose It or Lose It

Here is the mind-blowing good news - we can choose how we spend our time. Time spent in joy, or time spent experiencing any enjoyable emotion, affects the attraction equation by more than any other factor. Many people have spent so many years pleasing everyone but themselves that they have no idea where to begin exploring what it is that they want. Can you relate? The exploration begins and ends with emotions. I ask myself what brings me my greatest joys, and look to do those activities that have the most intensely joyous emotions attached. Allowing yourself to do something you love that you haven’t allowed yourself to do in a while will get you started on the path to sustainable enjoyment and creating and attracting more of what you want. It is that easy. How would you like to explore your ultimate potential? What can you do today to start you on your path?

Ask and It Is Given

Up until very recently in my 43 years of physical existence, I have struggled to ‘find’ my life’s direction.

Can you relate?

It is through studying concepts like those described in Ask and It Is Given that I have been able to discover that I have only to follow my internal alignment system, i.e., my emotions, as they are what provide my life’s direction. I don’t have to figure it out in my head and then set out to find it, because following my emotions is like putting myself on autopilot. Everything I want and need is already there, and when I do those things that I enjoy and I experience enjoyable emotions, I am by default following my life’s direction. My mind-body-spirit already know what my life direction is and my emotions around the choices I make lead me right where I have been longing to go.

How cool is that?

Who wants more of that? If you do, all you need to do is ask (and it is given).

Think and Grow Rich

May I share something with you that has made a huge difference in my life and millions of others?

I guess I always understood at an intellectual level that being authentic and sincere about what you are doing or sharing with another person was important. But, I didn’t really FEEL the magnitude of how important this was until I read about it in Chapter 7 on Organized Planning in Hill’s book. His story of how the depression was created because companies and people weren’t treating their customers with respect. They had lost their integrity of purpose and were not coming from an authentic place of mutuality. This breakdown caused a major financial crisis back in 1929, and really resonated with me because I see the same thing happening today with the Great Recession and the banking bailouts.

Here is what truly resonated for me: I learned that I need to apply the same principles of authenticity and integrity to my everyday life and in all of my interactions. I know this because when I don’t, I don’t feel well. In other words, my emotions are telling me that I am not being true to who I really am when I don’t act with integrity and authenticity. After realizing this, I discovered for myself that I have the choice of deciding who I want to be, and that choice is guided by my emotions. If I feel enjoyable emotions and space when making a choice, then I have made a choice that is in alignment with my true self, and if I feel painful emotions, I am not in alignment with my true self and I may want to choose again.

Sex Hormone Chewing Gum - A Book Review?!

Sex hormone chewing gum! - Can you say Viagra? And soma, the choice drug in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. What a scary similarity it has to the prolific use of Prozac and other anti-depression drugs in our modern day society to keep folks in a state of suspension, a state of perpetual happiness, when an individual needs help in coping with their life.

Excerpt from Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, c. 1932:

The Controller, after reading a paper scientific paper submitted for publication entitled “A New Theory of Biology”, makes the decision to not publish the paper because as he states, “The author’s mathematical treatment of the conception of purpose is novel and highly ingenious, but heretical and, so far as the present social order is concerned, dangerous and potentially subversive.” Upon the title page he writes - Not to be published.

After further consideration he thinks to himself, “the paper may cause the higher castes to lose their faith in happiness as the Sovereign Good and take to believing, instead, that the goal was somewhere beyond, somewhere outside the present human sphere; that the purpose of life was not the maintenance of well-being, but some intensification and refining of consciousness, some enlargement of knowledge. Which was, the Controller reflected, quite possibly true. But not, in the present circumstance, admissible.”

The key phrases here, the ones that ironically trigger an intellectual response in our current time, are the very ones that the Controller espouses that the scientific paper may trigger in Huxley’s world. Again, the key phrase here being, “that the goal was somewhere beyond, somewhere outside the present human sphere; that the purpose of life was not the maintenance of well-being, but some intensification and refining of consciousness, some enlargement of knowledge.”

Here, it is not that Huxley is pointing to a higher power, or a religious figurehead, when he refers to the purpose of life. In fact, the Sovereign Good, as he refers to it, is the present circumstance’s religion, with Ford (their term for God) as the figurehead.

- As an aside, my take on Ford as being the God of Huxley’s society, is that Ford was the father of the assembly line and a prominent figure of the industrial revolution. It is Ford’s assembly line concept which plays a prominent role in the development of the castes, the different classes (Alphas, Betas, Deltas, etc.) if you will, that make up Huxley’s utopian society.

Is it somewhat ironic then, that some 80 years after the publishing of Huxley’s seminal work, sustaining lasting happiness is perhaps the ultimate purpose in life? Have we come full circle? Or, is Huxley’s vision an extrapolation, an exaggeration, of prevailing thought during his time. That happiness is the ultimate purpose in life? If so, the Controller’s thoughts as to, “the goal was somewhere beyond, somewhere outside the present human sphere…” could be somewhat troubling if his alternately stated purpose of life is not taken collectively. The enlargement of knowledge, if taken as a singular recommendation, does not produce lasting happiness. It is that enlargement of knowledge, when undertaken in combination with the act of intensification and refining of consciousness that provides purpose. Huxley’s position may very well be that understanding your life’s purpose leads, by default, to happiness. This is reflected today in so much of what is written in self help books. Find your passion, your purpose, and attack that with all you have. Immerse yourself in your passion and happiness will be yours. Happiness, as a religion, or as a means to an end, is not happiness at all. It is a sham.

How does one enlarge knowledge and intensify and refine consciousness? That is a question that must be answered.

Consciousness:

· The fact of awareness by the mind of itself and the world

One’s consciousness can only be truly refined if a balance is attained between the mind and the world. If you refine consciousness only from a personal perspective, you promote ego, and a large ego is counter to lasting happiness. The mind is elevated through the expansion of knowledge but, it is important for the mind to understand its place in the world. There is a collective mind as well, which is made up of the minds of all individuals. Keeping that perspective, and promoting and encouraging others (the world) promotes the necessary balance that leads to purpose, fulfillment and true happiness.

The Controller reveals by way of quotation, to Bernard, John (the Savage) and Bernard’s friend Helmholtz, that he is evidently familiar with the work of Shakespeare. The Savage asks of the Controller pertaining to Shakespeare, “Why can’t the society make a “feely” (a kind of movie that can be felt while it is being viewed) of Othello.” The Controller indicates that it cannot be done, because Othello is old, and the masses wouldn’t understand it. You cannot make a tragedy in a society that only experiences happiness for they wouldn’t understand it’s real meaning. They would only see it as something unreal and farsical. They only understand the new and consume the new. Consumption of the new is what keeps them happy. This also seems eerily similar to the consumption society in which we now live. Our culture preaches that consumption leads to happiness, but as people soon find out, this is not the case.

Huxley’s portrayal of utopia should cause us pause. It raises serious questions as to where we are headed as a society. Eighty years after the release of Brave New World, have we progressed in such a way that we are heading directly toward what Huxley so prophetically predicted? It seems so in many ways. Current genetic research could easily lead to human engineering. The human genome has already been cracked, and further study of genes progresses.

How soon before we start pumping genetically superior infants out of baby farms? Pulling them straight from assembly lines and handing them over to new parents? And whose genetics will we be handing off? What messages will our scientists have planted hypnopaedically (while they were sleeping)? How close already is our marketing to a supposed innocuous form of propaganda?

Why aren’t our Alpha-pluses taking steps to stem the tide of these trends? Is it because they get richer off of the lower castes by remaining silent? Or, have they already been sent to their island?

The Beginning Of All Action Is Thought

Zen Master – “The beginning of all action is thought.”

Yes, thought is the beginning of all action. “No duh”, right?

But, we need the right kind of thought. I am not talking about the thoughts that are flying around in your head all the time. I am talking about those thoughts that arise when you are in a state of calm and quiet. Like those brilliant thoughts that come to you about 3:00 in the morning, only better.

Now, take a few extra minutes to think about what you will do tomorrow that will contribute to making tomorrow a better day for you and possibly for someone else. Perhaps your action for tomorrow is setting a reminder to repeat the breathing exercise from yesterday’s post. By doing only that, you will further develop your ability to get in touch with your body, realize the tension you are carrying around and use breath to calm and relax you. Perhaps in a renewed state of relaxation, your mind being calm, a new idea will come to you. One you thought about many years ago:

- a hobby that you want to start up again
- a place you want to visit alone, or with friends and family

Make a commitment to yourself now to take an action to make that thing happen. It doesn’t have to be a big thing. Start small and work your way into bigger things.

The Best Year of Your Life

I read another book during my vacation break. It was a relatively short one, 300+ pages or so, called The Best Year of Your Life, by Debbie Ford. In the book, Ford offers three general areas of focus, or phases – Dream It, Plan It, and Live It. It sounds pretty simple, and it is, if you take the small steps necessary to take yourself through each phase. I’ll let you read it for yourself, but wanted to introduce it here briefly, in the event anyone was interested in checking it out from their local library.

If you recall my post from yesterday, my stated “challenge to myself” of writing 300,000 words in a year is part of my initiative to make 2012 the best year of my life.

Writing 300,000 words in a year may very well require more than just posting to a blog. In fact, I am sure it will require much more. But, this is a good thing as it may very well lead me down other avenues and open doors to new opportunities. That is my true goal for 2012; open new doors and explore new opportunities for myself to make it my best year.

How will I do it? I am sure I’ll find that out along the way. That is part of the fun and excitement of starting a journey without necessarily knowing the destination. Don’t get me wrong, this is very challenging for me as I am a planner. When I go on vacation, I like to have my trip pretty well planned out. Just ask my wife and she will attest that this is true. If we are away for a week, I pretty much know what I will be doing five out of the 7 days. But, this is a new journey. An important journey to be sure. It is a journey of discovery (more properly, self-discovery). I will plan along the way, taking care to ensure I do the things I need to do to achieve my dreams and live my best life.

What are you doing to make 2012 your best year?
What steps did you take today to make tomorrow better?
What steps can you take this week to improve next week?

Perhaps you have yet to take action today to make 2012 your best year. Maybe you are saying to yourself that you are too tired, or too busy. We’ve all been there. If this is you right now, then I am asking you to do me a favor. Stop for a second and follow these steps – it will take less than 30 seconds of your time.

- Stop what you are doing and concentrate on your breathing.
- Breathe in two or three times and really concentrate on the flow of your breath in and out for those few seconds. This will force your mind to stop chattering about whatever was flying around in your thoughts before you started reading this.
- Close your eyes and feel the tension in your body, then, release that tension.
- Stay in that state of relaxation as long as you want, or for as long as you can. If you struggled to remain quiet and calm for very long, don’t lose heart – you’ll get better at it the more you try it.

Now that you are calm, take satisfaction from the fact that you have now accomplished something today that will contribute to making this your best year. Congratulations, you are on your way already!

The 300,000 Words in a Year Challenge

I am going to challenge myself in 2012 to try and write 300,000 words, or essentially 1000 words a day, six days a week. I "borrowed" the idea from Chris Guillebeau, the author of The Art of Non-Conformity, which I read over the holiday break while in Kauai.

I guess you could call it a resolution for the New Year, but I don't really do resolutions as my will power generally isn't up to the task. However, this challenge intrigues me for several reasons.

First, I like the feeling I get when I create something through the written word. It gives me a sense of accomplishment so often lacking in my day to day life.

Second, it is a viable discipline for me to create what hopefully some would call art. I wouldn't consider myself an artist in the classic sense of the word, i.e., drawing and the like. Although I have dabbled in that area very minimally and may have some talent, I have yet to make the necessary allowances of time to develop any kind of real ability. Writing is something that comes more naturally to me and hopefully it will flow naturally to many readers as well.

Third, I am hoping it will help me with my ability to focus and to also clear the slate as it were, to keep fresh ideas coming.

Fourth, writing is an opportunity to share something and contribute positively to others. One of Chris's concepts is that in whatever you do, you need to ensure you contribute to the well-being of others, and I agree holistically.

Lastly, it is my sincere hope that as I continue to write, my writing will improve, both grammatically and conceptually.

In my reading, I have come across several similar recommendations around how to capture ideas to write about later. Some call it a wheel book, which is what the Captain of a ship would use to capture daily events, e.g., the captain's log. The concept is simple - keep a small journal, small enough to be carried anywhere and be available at all times, so that when an idea comes, it can be captured in the near term and expanded upon later.

In having a notebook available, you can write ideas as they come so as not to forget them - alas, ideas are fleeting. But also, writing ideas down allows one to park them and free up their mind from the clutter that is rolling around inside. And I totally need that. Not that I have a zillion ideas or anything, but I get a good one every now and again, and it would be nice to be able to park it for later reference.

As a for instance, one idea I have is to take quotes that speak to me and create blog posts for those on this blog. I mean the blog is called Cathartic Squirt, and what better way to provide some catharsis through sharing intellectually stimulating quotes and opinions about said quotes. You know, how the quote speaks to me, asking for other’s opinions on how it speaks to them, thus creating a dialog which may lead to more ideas. I’ll start with the two below, the latter elaborating on the former.

Quote from Jim Rohn taken from Chris's blog (http://chrisguillebeau.com/3x5/how-to-write-300000-words-in-1-year/):“We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret and disappointment.”

Quote from Chris Guillebeau:
“In choosing to write, you must choose the pain of discipline. Good news: it’s not that painful, once you get used to it. You just have to make it more important than other things you could spend time on. Make your art your obsession. Fall in love with it. Experience withdrawal symptoms when you don’t give it your attention.”

I need discipline, and I need a sense of accomplishment. Doesn't everyone? It helps get you through the day and is what gets you up the next morning so you can feel it again. Writing is a great way to productively fill the dead space within a day. If I can become an artist through the written word, I will have accomplished something very significant.

Writing allows one to put oneself out there for others to judge, aka you, the reader. That can be a frightening prospect, but again, I am optimistic that I can provide something through writing that others (you again) will receive positively. Will it all be art? Most assuredly not, but all art is subjective, and as long as someone likes some of it, then it will be worth it. Even if no one likes it, it will have been worth it as I will still have accomplished the goal I set for myself. That is, assuming I can stay at it day in and day out. But, I need to look at it not as a task, but as my obsession.

All we have is now, so isn’t it better to use any dead space productively? Again, productive may be subjective here, but you get the point. Stick with me, and I promise my writing will get better.

For those less adventurous types, this is an opportunity to live vicariously through me. Hopefully you will be motivated in some way and as I face setbacks and overcome obstacles you can share in the successes. I have a real opportunity to be an example for others to follow. And then those that do follow can be the inspiration for even more people. Pay it forward, as they say.

Off to a start, maybe not a strong one, but no one said it had to be strong. As long as it is a start - but more on that tomorrow.

Making every blog post 1000 words or so every day is probably not the best way to get a blog off the ground. I suppose not everyone has the time, or inclination, to read someone else’s 1000 word opinion, so we’ll see how it plays out. I will try to spare everyone after this initial plethora of verbitude.

So, how long does it take to write 1000 words you may ask? Well, to create this post it took approximately two hours and it contains approximately 1000 words, not including the title or the ones I lifted from Chris's blog (although I did count the word verbitude (twice) which isn’t a real word). I hope you won't hold me to that.

If you made it through the post, you accomplished something today as well - you read over 1000 words - congratulations, and thanks for sticking with me to the end! Or should I say the beginning? 1000 down and 299,000 to go!

Koi Pond #1

This is the first in what I am planning to be a weekly series of video posts I will be making in 2012 to contribute to folk's sense of inner peace. The idea being that you can take a minute or two out of your busy work week to reset.

This is your cathartic squirt for this week. I am hoping you will take the opportunity to put everything else in your life aside for one or two minutes and enjoy some tranquility.

I hope you will enjoy, and I welcome your comments, on the one minute video of a Koi pond at the Kauai Marriott in Lihue, HI I made and posted below.

I find it helps to just concentrate on my breathe in and out while watching - it helps calm the mind chatter.

Human Nature = Human vs. Nature

I was watching television this morning (halogentv.com if you care) and on a commercial break there was an advertisement that struck me. It was Bono from U2 talking about how the current generation wants to do something to be remembered by. The reason it struck me is it seemed to ring true that the main reason people do things is to be remembered and not just because they are the right thing to do which seems selfish.

Sometimes, probably most times, it feels good to do something because it is right, or because it helps someone else. But, is there still a selfish aspect to this? I suspect it is so.

Will our selfishness wipe us out as a civilization? I don't think we'd be so selfsish as to do that knowingly. If things got bad enough we would band together to survive. But even that would have gone too far. Is survival the end game? Are we willing to sacrifice what we have, what was here before us?

While people for the most part probably agree that climate change is real, and human technology has had an impact, are they willing to be unselfish enough to do things during their lifetime to minimize the impact and not just because it is en vogue?

What if we consummed less? Will making less of an impact today make enough of an impact tomorrow? This generation will never know the damage it has done and many don't think of the impact we have made in the last 3000 years as damage at all, but consider it progress. Ultimately I fear it may be 1 step forward and 2 steps back.

Will we survive? I think so. What legacy will we leave behind? Is our concern over our legacy the only thing that will drive us to do the right thing? Or will it even motivate us at all?

If we are waiting for our legacy worries to kick in, we may be waiting for an event that never comes.

In 100 years, all the people here now will be no more and the world will be totally repopulated. Let us ask ourselves what we can do for them. Not because we care what they will think about what we did or didn't do, but because it is the right thing to do.

Karma - He's such a positive influence in my life

The common perception of Karma as it is espoused today seems to be a misnomer. That common perception being - what goes around comes around. This definition implies that Karma is something external. Like it is some entity floating around in the ether like the angel of death during Passover.

I see Karma as more complex and profound than that, happening at a minute internal level.

I see Karma as an anti-magnet inside of each person. Where a magnet attracts things of the opposite polarity, Karma, or the anti-magnet, attracts things of a similar polarity. So, if you have a negative attitude, or your Karma is in a negative state, you feel that bad things are happening to you and so the opposite would also apply. If you feel you are in a positive state, your Karma is positive and you will feel like positive things will happen in your life.

This is why it is not always the case that people that do you wrong will have bad things happen to them. If they wrong another person, but feel their actions were correct, and they feel positive about what they have done, then it is possible that they won't see any negative effects to their actions.

People site Karma as justification for not taking action. It is really a rationalization to make themselves feel better about something that happened to them - perhaps because their Karma was negative. This is not representing Karma correctly.

Karma is a paradox. It is internal to each person, but is in everyone. If your Karma is negative, how do you make it positive? Each person has to answer that for themselves, but at the end of the day there really isn't a way to do it other than to forget self and decide now that from this point forward you will have a positive outlook on things.

There is nothing to it but to do it - for 21 days straight until the new habit of positive attitude and outlook has been created within you. It takes 21 days to create a new habit.

You may think Karma is upset about being misrepresented, but Karma isn't too worried about it and remains in a positive state and will be attracting positive things to itself going forward.

Is any of this true or accurate? Probably not, but I feel good about it.

Book Review: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Holden Caufield likes to use short sentences. It is like reading the Dick and Jane books. But with more adult content. I am not kidding. Holden Caufield likes to say he's not kidding a lot too.


Starting out, Caulfield seems quite normal. Six chapters in, you start to wonder. He seems flawed. And so does everyone one else around him. Are they flawed? Or, do they just seem that way through Holden's eyes?


Holden seems like a bit of a loner. He seems to not have any drive. He has no care about the consequences of his actions. He is an adolescent's adolescent.

Salinger captures the thought process and rythyms of an adolescent quite well. He makes the shallowness of Holden's thoughts entertaining if not repetitive.

As I have read other reviews and commentaries on the book, it is apparent that there are many subtle poltitical references in the pages from the times when it was written. McCarthyism and Communism are both posited because of the red hunting hat. The references are very subtle which lends the novel a certain brilliance. You don't pick up on them as you read the story, but they make sense after you read it and discuss it..

I had an expectation that something terrible was going to happen to Holden, and perhaps he senses it himself. The end of innocence is near.

Does he see adolesence as a good thing or a bad thing? I think he sees it as both, but he doesn't see that adulthood will be much different or better. Too many phonies. Too many people not understanding him or his thoughts.

The book is an interesting dichotomy because it doesn't have much to say, and at the same time it has a great deal to say. It just doesn't come right out and say it.

It kills me when English teachers assign this kind of stuff. It really does. To a student reading it, it really seems to be a total waste of time because it isn't saying anything right to your face. But the discussions that the class could have about the subtext could be quite interesting. That kills me. It really does. I'm serious.

I found several stories within the book quite funny. Like the boy stepping on the woman's toes and Caulfield saying he probably broke every toe in her body as if her skeleton were made of toes rather than bones. Or the graffiti he says will be on his grave stone. Or the tension breaker in the Hall during a serious speech given by a benefactor to Pencey.

Will you feel good after having read The Catcher in the Rye? You can be the judge of that, but I don't think you will feel it was a waste of your time.

By the way, I really hate it when someone says you can be the judge of that. I really do. It depresses me.

It doesn't really depress me. If you read the book, you'll get it.

Book Review: On the Road by Jack Kerouac

Book Review: On the Road by Jack Kerouac

Part I
Chapters 1-5 (NY, NY to Denver, CO)

My initial impressions after having read the first five chapters are that the author seemed innocent but tried to put on airs of having a worldly sophistication. Perhaps I had this impression because I had a preconceived notion going into the book of what Kerouac would be like from reading on the web about the authors of the Beat Generation and their apparent willingness to experience drugs and sex and then write about it. Or, perhaps he did have a worldly sophistication when it came to matters that he was involved with on a day to day basis, but when he started traveling across the country it opened his eyes to the wider world, the Midwest, the Plains, the West that he became an innocent again; an innocent on the road if you will.

For anyone that has made a drive across the States, it is fun to relive their experience as they follow the map of Kerouac's words. Kerouac, of course, made the trip in a time before the Interstate Highway System existed, and the places he describes take one back to a time that was simpler and more innocent. Reading these initial chapters makes one want to be a part of that time, a participant in the adventure and Kerouac does his best to take the weary reader along as his companion. He is the attractive one with his thumb out enticing someone to stop and as he greets the driver we surreptitiously slither out from the weeds and into the back of the vehicle, unnoticed, to experience what little we can through Kerouac's eyes.

There is a certain romance to the initial chapters of the book. A romance congruent with the simplistic and naive urchins he encounters during his hitchhiking across the Midwest and the plains.

Chapters 6-11 (Denver, CO to San Francisco, CA)
As in so many other aspects of our lives, and similar to my initial impressions before starting this book, Kerouac's descriptions of his time in Denver through to San Francisco don't seem to jibe with his expectations of what he would experience going in. His group of friends from New York has split into two factions in Denver. While he walks the thin line between the two, everyone seems to be busy with their lives. Of course Sal (Kerouac) parties and tries to 'make it' with the girls like any other single young man, but eventually he gets the itch to move along and head further West.

In San Francisco, he joins up with a former buddy but quickly wears out his welcome. While he at least gets a job while he is there, you can sense the lack of desire to be tied down, to have any commitment. And so, inevitably he slinks out of the picture leaving the rest of the world to their troubles to seek out his next adventure on the road.

Chapters 12-14 (San Francisco, CA to NJ)
Love’s labor lost.
Sal finally makes his girl. A Mexican beauty on the run who has a son and an abusive husband. The relationship, which lasts for only 15 days, plays out like the relationship of a couple that has been married for 50 years; the blissful courtship, the bout with distrust, the acceptance of fate, the deep love, the day to day doldrums, the sorrow of good-bye. Along the way there is family and friends and love and good times shared among them.
More bus stations and buses and trips through Indiana at night.
And alas, there is always manana. Manana, calling like a siren from back East.

While Kerouac enjoys many of the simple pleasures of his daily life and genuinely seems to take things in and experience them in a positive and genuine way, he always implies there is something better waiting around the corner or down the road. Surely he will get there and experience his dreams in reality if for once everything could come together as he envisions it in his minds eye. He doesn’t come out and say any of this, but it is there. It is like the somewhat bothersome hobo that he tolerates being by his side throughout the journey because he knows there is goodness within and at times he even acknowledges the goodness.

Part II
Chapters 1-11 (NJ to San Francisco, CA)

The second part of On the Road is a ’49 Hudson stream of consciousness trip back across the country with the Dean of extreme. Everything is dug – jazz, air, food, sex, booze, friends, the Mississippi, Old Bull, New Orleans, Oakies, bennies, pennies and a one handed man from Oregon.

Dean drives the machine. Mary Lou’s his muse. Sal is their pal. On and on they go with last stop, Frisco. Experiences are their goal along with stories from Old Bull. And everything is beat. Beat as in tired, used up, and run down.

Ultimately, Part II is like the Tilt a Whirl you rode at the carnival as a kid - you’ll have a great time going along for the ride, but before you know it the ride is over, and you and the rest of the gang aren’t feeling so great. You had best grab the food on a stick of your choice and try to avoid anymore sideshow freaks.

Part III
Chapters 1-11 (Denver, CO to San Francisco, CA to NY)

Like the cars they drive across the country, the antics of Sal and his friends are starting to break down. They try to maintain their exuberance but underneath, you get the sense of melancholy and resignation that the good times cannot carry on forever. Wives left behind and illegitimate children here and there seem to weigh heavily on the shoulders of the once ebullient cats of the beat generation. Their proud moniker of ‘beat’ seems now to have become all too real describing more the characters themselves than the generation around them.

Somehow in their desire to live life fast and full, they sped right through the times of their generation and have been left wanting on the other side and loneliness pervades. The consequences of Dean’s actions are attached to his ankle by a rubber band and when he finally arrives in NY, they are coming toward him at a speed that he cannot and does not want to comprehend.

Part IV
Chapters 1-6 (NJ to Mexico City)

Essentially Part IV is more of the same adventuring, but now in a new land that they have not yet explored – Mexico. This gives them a new energy and everything alights anew for them. Sal and Dean push ever onward smoking tea, smashing bugs in their headlights and getting delusions and dysentery.



Part V

The last goodbye. Through all the times they spent together, Sal and Dean’s last goodbye is sad and filled with melancholy. Dean is crazier than ever, and in the end can’t entice Sal along for one more trip.

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Overall, the book is a worthy read for someone interested in exploring their own spiritual journey. For that is really what the book was about – finding something out there, on the road, that is better than what is available when you are stationary. Ultimately it doesn’t appear they really find IT, but they know IT is there and they catch the occasional glimpse of IT and regularly say they are experiencing IT. And at the end of the day, that is all anybody can really do.

The question remains, was it worth going on the road? I think they would say yes, that they somehow lived their lives more fully. In the end though that is really left to the opinion of the reader which is what makes the book beautiful.

Kerouac leaves the reader asking themselves whether they can find fulfillment where they are, or whether they should look for it themselves On the Road.

What the World Needs

You know what the world needs?

Less agressive toilet paper in its public restrooms. I am thinking something 120 grit or above is manageable and not too much to ask.

And why so thin? Are you TRYING to sabotage my brief moment of rest? How can somthing so thin be so abrasive?

I'd raise my middle finger in defiance, but it is somewhat soiled right now.

Ego, Smeagol

I know, it's supposed to be ego, schmego but I do things my way. You got a problem with that?

Actually, I have a problem with it.

How can something so big and cumbersome be called something so small. It shouldn't be called ego, it should be called Supercalifragilisticexpiladociousgo. Wait, wouldn't that be what we would call the Superego? Freudian slip I guess.

My ego is 'my Precious' and I am Smeagol. My Precious tortures me but I must have it. It owns me and I can't set it aside, although I am trying. Life would be so much easier without it.

I had a dream last night that I walked through a spider's web. I have these dreams occasionally, and typically, they are no big deal. But this one was a little different. In this dream I spent the next few minutes looking for spiders crawling on me and found nothing - no big deal. Then all of a sudden, a few minutes later I see this huge juicy black widow shaped spider attached to my left arm. Except it wasn't black. It was a bright fluorescent blue and about 3 times the size of a black widow. I couldn't bare to touch it so I asked my friend to flick it off. As he tried to flick it off, it doesn't even budge, it just squishes a little, like it is fat off of my blood. Then, he tries to peel it off from the back and as he starts to do so, I see this long barbed fang protruding into my skin and I am freaking out, screaming at him to get it off my arm. "Get it off!, Get it off!"

And that is why I am posting this blog at 4:00 AM. The ego topic popped in my head after the cold sweat dried from my body.

These are the thoughts that crawl around in this mind of mine. And you wonder why I don't want my ego in charge?

By the way, if you judged me, or labeled me while reading any of this, say hello to your little friend. I like to call him Precious.

Sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite.

Red Dragon Rising: China Consumes the World

The Russians used the scorch and burn technique against Germany in World War II. I think we are having a similar effect based on the need to fuel our economic growth and consumerism.

Were you ever curious about seeing some tangible evidence of what we are doing to the environment?

Check out this short video presentation of beautiful but troubling pictures captured by Edward Burtynsky of Canada at www.ted.com - http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/edward_burtynsky_on_manufactured_landscapes.html.

As China starts to join the ranks of high consumers, similar to ourselves, they unwittingly provide clear examples of what is being done to the environment in order to support their ever expanding economy.

Many of Burtynsky's photos show what is happening in China, but they can easily be extrapolated to what we have done and what we continue to do to our own environment right here at home. Of course what we did happened over a much longer period of time which made it potentially less noticeable. Or perhaps people just cared less or no one thought to capture it in photographs. Of course technology has accelerated the speed at which we can defile things as well.

Whatever the reason, if we don't make changes soon we may pay some high costs to recover what we took for granted. That is assuming we even can.

For additional information, check out the documentary, Manufactured Landscapes, which followed Burtynsky along on many of his shoots in China.

"Gunga Galunga" - Dalai Lama

As the great Carl Spackler once said, "It's in the hole!"

Okay, okay, that quote doesn't have much to do with this entry, but it does highlight three important things you should know.

1. Golf is a great sport.
2. Caddyshack is a great golf movie.
3. Historically, in great literature, the fool (our friend Carl Spackler in this case) can always be counted on to say some very intelligent things.

Carl also says the following in Caddyshack:

"So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I'm a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald... striking. So, I'm on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one - big hitter, the Lama - long, into a ten-thousand foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier. Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga... So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, how about a little something, you know, for the effort." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice."

See it on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkLH56VlKT0

I guess I could say I was on my deathbed and received total consciouness last Sunday morning while watching Eckhart Tolle's DVD - Finding Your Life's Purpose.

Let me try to explain.

I used to be such a worrier, always deferring happiness into the future using Now as a means to an end. 'The end' being some point in the future where happiness would exist for me. Except, when would that point be? How long would that happiness last? Would I be happy forever after having gotten to that point? Or, would I only be happy temporarily and thus start looking for the next thing to make me happy again? Why not just be happy now?

I learned something watching and listening to Mr. Tolle. The future only exists in the mind, just as the past exists only in the mind as your memories of Now. When we experience the future it will be experienced as Now.

I will leave it at that for Now?

If you are intrigued check out Eckhart Tolle's book The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment.

VHF = Veritable Hedonistic Fatties

Tomorrow is my 40th birthday and I must be getting old, because I find myself thinking about the youth of today and how the world seems to be going to hell in a hand basket.

Kids today seem to be so into themselves and their stuff. Granted, we are all very materialistic in this country, but kids today have everything at their fingertips - Ipods, cell phones, computers, video games, High Definition Television with remote. You name it and they have it.

When I was a kid we had four VHF and three UHF channels - only two of the UHF channels came in without major static and one of those was in Spanish. The one that did come in decent became the Fox network. Kids today probably don't even know what VHF and UHF are, let alone what they stand for.

We had a remote for our TV - it was the youngest child in the family that could walk, and if you wanted to watch a different channel, you told them to go up to the TV and change the channel. You'd watch that channel for a second while they stood there and if you didn't like what was on, they changed it to the next one and the cycle continued until the commercial was over and you inevitably ended up back on the original channel. If the commercial wasn't over yet, you'd have them cycle through one more time just in case something good came on during the trip around the dial. Probably the only thing that broke that up was when you tried a UHF channel and you had to fool with the antennae to get it to come in. And if the President came on, you were hosed because he was on every available channel. There was no Nickelodeon or Comedy Central. If the President was on you had better habla Espanol. That is why kids today are obese - they have a remote control. They don't have to get up and change the channel anymore.

If we wanted to call someone, we had better limber up our index finger because we only had a rotary phone. If you had a phone number with a bunch of nines or zeros in it, you were a loner with no friends because no one wanted to take the time to call you. They could ride their bike to your house faster than they could call you from 2 miles away. Only thing is, people didn't show up unannounced back then because they had something people today don't have. What is that called again? Oh yeah, manners.

And computers? Please. The computers back then were bigger than my house and cost 100 times more. Let me just put it this way, if you bought a calculator it cost $50 and all it did was add, subtract, multiply and divide. If you had the deluxe model it might take the square root of something. The Internet was a twinkle in Al Gore's eye.

Yeah, the kids today have everything and their parents had to mortgage everything they don't even own (read: mortgage crisis) to give it to them.

Two steps forward and three steps back.

Let's use a little restraint and common sense and get over ourselves and our need to own everything under the sun. Otherwise, we may not be around to see the sun.