July
16. 2001.
The
breakfast table was covered in newspapers,
technical
publications, popular periodicals & the son’s eyes & elbows
when
the father strolled in & requisitioned a seat.
”Science
attempts to explain the world as man finds it,
while
the rest of the pinheads, I’m sorry, while everyone else
tries
to explain the world that man has made up.”
and
as he poured coffee, loudly whooped:
”Makes
you proud to be a HoSap,”
(the
elder’s latest hip hop name for homo sapiens).
”Son,
I too once suffered from the bite of that vexatious
frontal
lobe flea which put me in hot study pursuit of philosophy, theology, the
arts,
and
all the social sciences,
in
my burning hunger to grasp, swallow, digest-with-satisfaction,
then
understand all of the intricacies; the ins & outs: the subtle,
revealing,
finer-points of the thing men call: The Life Of Man.”
He
sipped his brew, and theatrically rolled his eyes skyward:
”Oh,
what exciting times they were!
Always
feeling, (as I plunged through the volumes in my hand),
that
I was right on the verge of the, Final Breakthrough --
that
the, Ultimate Understanding was surely
no more than just a page away.
Same
as you have done:
I
roamed the obscure book stalls of the world,
and
would become deliriously, (and delightfully), sidetracked
for
long periods, searching for some super rare,
does-it-still-actually-exist
writing
that
caused all whose eyes ever caressed it
to
instantly be opened to the Supreme Truth.
Ah,
my boy, (teenage sex notwithstanding), it was a time of excitement,
unparalleled
in the routine annals of everyday men.”
(He
reached for a Finnish, then stopped -- realizing that he had only
begun.)
“As
is obviously a feature of our kind of peoples’ neural wiring,
I
had no interest in the physical sciences:
I
did not care about what mixture of what elements would produce what alloy,
I
wanted to know what mixture of what intangible elements produced
the
particular behaviors & beliefs in man.
As
seems the common replay of our type,
I
first looked at the religions around me, but scant discussions with
their
professional practitioners revealed they shared not my interest;
then
I quickly discovered Philosophy, (which at first encounter appeared to
be
the very mental-picture-mine for which I had been longing),
but
with equal rapidity I found it to be merely a mental gymnasium
in
which the game is based on the enjoyment of reflecting on the questions,
with hope for answers having been long ago relinquished,
and
from the view of the participants -- with very good reason,
but
it was not due to the good reason of them understanding WHY
their search for answers to their essential questions had been
abandoned,
for
their collective conclusion is always a mumbling about,
'certain problems perhaps being forever beyond the grasp of human intelligence.’
Don’t
you just adore it!” the father bellowed; cup
held high in mock tribute.
“They
are just sharp enough to strongly suspect that some of the
seemingly, fundamental questions & problems they pose, that so
rub men’s souls,
may
not be answerable or solvable due to some sort of inherent
limitation
to human comprehension, (which sounds insightful to kids),
rather
than realizing that they made up the questions,
and
thus all their proffered answers thereto are also trinkets of their imagination,
and can never in any way be substantial or satisfying.
There
is no answer or solution to the problem/question:
’What
is the sum of fourteen & yellow?’ or:
’How
high can a man reach on a Wednesday?’
Men
of science try to explain the physical world as man finds it,
being
driven by survival instincts in that their explanations are always of ultimate
practical benefit;
everyone
else are morons trying to explain a non-physical world
that
man made up, and now pretends he didn’t.
All
of our ilk eventually discover the various so-called, mystical schools/teachings/ideas
which initially seem to be the missing bridge from, here-to-there
--
that
transcends the hopelessness of philosophy,
and
the foolishness of religion,
and
gets down to hands-on methods that supposedly will finally
open
a man’s mind to the plain, but presently camouflaged,
truth
of why things are as they are.
But,
alas -- ‘tis not to be,
for those of the attempted meta-physical science
fall
instant victim to the same old common ill –
the
ill of struggling to solve imaginary problems,
and
answer non existent questions.”
Pater’s
paws went under the printed pulp, feeling around for a
Bismark,
‘til the empire’s replacement by the republic returned to
his
memory, and he abandoned his undercover search for
down
fallen sweets in favor of up rising comments.
”Life
to me is such secret mental fun, that I want you to join me, consider:
those
who can tell you -- what-is-going-on
do
not KNOW what is going on.
The
planet is stocked with people who, when asked about any subject:
politics,
economics, social conditions, the arts –
can
tell you the REAL reasons for -- what-is-going-on,
(can
detail the various nefarious conspiracies);
can
explain why a third party candidate never has a chance;
reveal
to you, who directs the rise & fall of the stock market;
what
is behind the increasingly immoral content of popular music, and on and
on, into the most distant corners of the most arcane of subjects --
just
as long as the subject is one that man has made up,
and
which doesn’t actually exist in the real world;
as
long as the question meets this one criteria,
anyone breathing can tell you precisely what-is-going-on
in any area about which humans speak.
In
the realm of things totally imaginary, made-up,
invented
& concocted -- everyone is an expert:
each
man knows as well what is really going-on
as
does any other man.
A
student does not know what is going on in chemistry
as
well as does his professor,
but
any believer knows as much about religion as does
the
head of his church, (or anyone who enjoys paintings -- art,
as
thoroughly as any renowned critic).
Ask
any ordinary, educated, sane & sophisticated person to explain to you
anything that occurs in the intangibly based realm of man’s
second
reality, and they can do so:
ask
them to tell you why the price of gold is so unpredictable,
and
why the small investor is always the only real loser in bear markets,
or
why the same type of men are always offered up as candidates by the only
viable political parties, and who actually controls governments from unseen
positions,
or
simply why the overall social, economic & judicial systems of the world,
indeed -- life itself -- so favor some men at the expense of
others:
simply
ask any ordinary human being walking the face of this planet --
WHY
this or that activity, singular to man, and thought-based,
is
like it is, and that person can tell you instantly -- and emphatically.
To
employ the metaphysician's vocab:
only
those fast asleep & totally in a dream can tell you
what
is going on in life, and why things are as they are.
Do
you read me young trooper ---
only
people who have no idea what is going on
can
TELL you what is going on.
Being
alive here amidst hoomans is sometimes more fun than I can hardly stand.”
He
roared like a moose who’d just won the lottery,
drained
his cup, then leaned over on his own elbows into the son’s face and said:
“Even
when you know, you cannot say what is going on,
but
what you can say is that:
anything that men say is going on -- is not.”
*
J
*”And
that includes anything said by thoughts in your own noggin.”
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