March 14, 2002                                                                         © 2002: JAN COX
 
 

If you look at a map of florida it is laid out thus:
at the top of the state is the capitolCity where laws are made,
and a bureaucracy maintained;
in the middle is where food is grown and processed,
and at the bottom are the major recreational areas.

Up north, the legislators believe they run things;
it is by far the most vocal area of the state,
and being in session day and night all year round,
they feel obligated to constantly make decisions and proclamations even though they may or may not have any real life relevance to affairs in other areas.
The work going on in the middle of the state requires no comment by those involved; while essential, it is carried on almost entirely in silence,
and for the most part, goes unnoticed.
In the south, the sounds of beaches and nightlife, though sometimes noisy,
mean nothing; merely expressions of excitement and pleasure.

The bureaucrats and ostensible law makers depend on language to such an extent that their use thereof is about all to be heard state wide,
and that being so, within the confines of their insular, verbal-based world
they feel themselves to be the, decision-makers & spokesmen-for-all.
To an outside observer, the reality of the place is clearly otherwise;
all of the pseudo serious-sounding noise does come from up top of state,
but all the essential work is carried on further south,
and the fun enjoyed by most of the population takes place even below that.
All in all, florida is a curious state --  but a nice state --  a liveable state --
an enjoyable state, and a typical state  --   not unlike yours.

There was once an explorer who went around secretly examining states;
by the time he arrived on the scene, all of the states had been visited and named,
and people believed their knowledge of them was complete.
But from an early age, our natural-born explorer somehow realized that
what the people around him called their knowledge of the internal operations of
the states was distorted and disjunctive;
they held widely accepted maps which even his childish observations showed flawed, and after a few false starts of trying to point this out to others,
he realized he was on his own and became private in his activity.
 
 
 
 

Men in TheCity have the maps they need;
men in TheCity make the maps appropriate to their individual understanding;
CityMen make maps and maps make the minds of CityMen.

Out on ThePlains, there are no maps, and best of all –
there are no OfficialMaps you must or can use to get you there.
 
 
 
 
 
 

In TheCity, even those who rail against fame
wish to be known for their anti fame position  –
there is simply no way around the normal operations of the human mind  –  or: when you are in TheCity, there is no escaping the life of TheCity –
and especially that most populous of neighborhoods in the very heart of TheCity,   known to the un traveled by the name: Irony.
 
 
 
 
 

In TheCity, being fair of looks is better than being fair of mind;
being strong is more useful than being insightful,
and having wealth in your pocket brings you more power than
anything you may have in your head;
this is how it is and to find fault and complain about it is to be mentally
ugly, weak and destitute.
The clear-headed-of-ThePlains n’er see anything wrong with the way things are --  only with how their original thoughts say that they are; (a totally unnatural distinction sufficient to make Khan The Gengley sweat pork chops).
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The City version goes: “If you were suddenly infinitely wealthy --
what changes would you make to your life?” --
The Outsider’s edition says: If you were suddenly wide awake,
what changes would you make to your life  --  and answer this:
since you can say what they would be  --   why don’t you make them now?
 
 

All men are frauds,
not because of the fronts they sometimes feel obliged to present to others,
and not because of sub conscious fooling they do to themselves,
but are frauds due to life making men’s thoughts say:
“I think so-&-so” when it is not them, (the “I” in the sentence),
but rather the thoughts thinking the whole thing;
thoughts: those make-believe-law-makers & bureaucrats up in CapitolCity.
engaged in a patent misrepresentation  --  in a clear fraud.
 
 

Compared to the sophistication and complexities of CityPeople,
an awakened man is simple and shallow.

                  Everyone has the map they need;
                  a man who finally understands where he is headed, needs no map –
                        --  not any map that is available to him;
                 the only maps the true explorer can ultimately use
                 are those he discovers-come-creates for himself.