*
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
June
21, 2002
©
2002:
JAN COX
You
either do what you have to do and pretend that it is what you decided to
do,
or
you try to GetAtTheThing.
You
have to listen to your stomach; you have to listen to your thoughts;
you
really have to listen to your stomach,
but
you can stop pretending that you listen to your thoughts because you want
to.
Your
physical temperament cannot be denied,
but
your thoughts do not have to be embraced;
family
IS family, but uninvited guests are
never more than just that.
How
can you be what you are not, and how can you fail to recognize that;
how
can you not be what you are,
and
how can you not realize when you are being conned into thinking otherwise?
How
can a rock change its molecular structure,
and
how cannot smoke appear able to;
how
can smoke appear able to, and your thoughts not recognize kin?
A
porcupine in the morning is a porcupine all day,
and
story tellers carry -- by their stories --
themselves far away.
How
far from home do you have to be before you realize you live in a mobile
home;
digestion
has no travel agent, and mind’s is as vaporous as the journeys it takes.
There
is a disease that afflicts but a few, its name: I
didn’t know I had it ‘til you told me.
Question:
how can something be as important to the few as ChasingTheThing
is,
and
yet, unlike eating -- someone has to tell you about it?
How
can Saint Quantum’s Day be such a significant occasion
if
you never heard of Saint Quantum until you heard of his day?
When
the bowels speak -- you listen;
when
thoughts speak -- who do they have for an audience save
themselves?
When
a naturalist studies the world -- he studies the world;
when
thoughts study things,
they
say they are studying whatever it is that they say they are studying;
the
naturalist can point to the particular tree he is studying;
thoughts
can point only to themselves,
and
can only say that they are pointing elsewhere.
The
scientist has a microscope through which to examine things,
men
have but themselves, and the selves they feel within them doing their examining
are their microscopes -- and they are forbidden
by law to say so.
There
is a rumbling down below, and one above;
from
the penthouse you can see the sidewalk;
on
the sidewalk there is nothing to look at;
in
the penthouse you are penthouse blind,
but
the architectural design is such that it is hardly noticeable.
Everybody
begins with a bus ticket in their pocket and a desire to ride;
no
one knows where; everyone imagines;
muscles
say they are fine where they are;
neurons
have no idea where they are -- thus do they be the would-be travelers.
Question:
do only the ignorant go to school? -- if so,
then
those who do not must already know.
Muscles
do not go to school.
How
can a creature know more than it knows? –
it
must if it is able to think it is ignorant.
How
is it possible to be smart enough to say that you know you are ignorant
without
already being smarter than you are capable of seeing you are?
Rocks
are totally without ignorance since rocks know completely what they are
doing;
thoughts
say rocks are not doing anything -- until a man looks at them
through
a microscope and realizes that at some level, everything is in action;
thoughts,
as they hold momentarily steady to look at things through the microscope
of themselves, see not themselves always, at some level, in action.
Question:
how can you become unignorant and know about a thing
if
it keeps moving? -- “But it does not” say thoughts, as they dance
the heebie jeebie.
The
stomach can keep an eye on itself; the I cannot;
when
born, men see with their feet; when dying, they follow their feet;
between
the two events, man looks at everything through thoughts,
and
thoughts look at everything through thoughts,
but
no one is in there with them to point out to them what they are doing.
Men
worry over leaving foxes to guard a hen house,
while
not seeing that without the foxes there is no hen house.
Who
is inside the hen house?
Whoever
the foxes say is there whenever they look in.
When
do they look in?
Whenever
they want the hen house to exist.
Men
in Milan with the bus ticket in their pocket can go anywhere they like;
all
they need do is say they want to be in Madrid and they are there.
Once
there, Madrid does not feel right;
does
it have something to do with the ticket;
was
the wrong destination chosen;
thoughts
believing in the maps they have drawn are in for a life time of
displacement
and adulthood.
Children
also like to go places, but they do not yet call flying carpets, Cairo.
“The
ground sometimes, seems to be shaking under my feet.”
“What are you standing on?”
“What
kind of question is that?!”
Some
take SeekingToGetToThatPlace
to be a cure for their illness
(plumbing
problems in the penthouse);
how
can a new map cure an ill caused by cartographical dependence;
what
poison can prescribe its own antidote;
what
snake carries a venom extractor,
and
who can ever be cured who is ill only because they say they are
and
there is no one in the penthouse with them to say otherwise?
Why
live alone?
Why
live in bunches?
Why
think about your feet when they never think about your thoughts?
If
you are lost, should you not ask someone to help you find your way?
Who
teaches robins to sing and eagles to fly:
“Not
a fair comparison” say thoughts;
who
taught thoughts what, “comparison” means?.....
.....come
on, we don’t have all day -- who?.................
...................that’s
right! -- they did --
"Sayyyyyyyy
--
who’s running this classroom anyway?!"
There
are as many solicitous voices in the wilderness as there are wildernesses;
everyman’s
thought container is a wilderness,
thus
do all wildernesses take with them everywhere they go --
a wilderness.
No
need to ask: “How do I get out of here?” the asking IS
the, “here”;
can
“e” escape the word, “escape”
and
what is it that you are looking at when you say you examine your
life?
your
feet? your stomach? your family? your job?
Men
generally are intended to be satisfied hanging around the bus station,
discussing
travel and this-&-that;
what
is the problem with this if you are not going anywhere anyway? --
none,
obviously,
but
not so obvious is the chance a few people have of one day
looking
up from their penthouse staring and seeing the bus station for what it
is –
no,
you do not see the bus station;
when
you manage this kind of LookingUp what you see is seeing
for what it is.
“Teacher,
will you please just give me the answer to my question?”
How
is it that there is a certain question that afflicts but a few,
and
is the most important thing in their life, and yet --
they
did not know what it was until someone told them.
If
no one can tell you TheAnswer
(which no one can)
then
how can anyone tell you even TheQuestion?
Stomachs
always know what the problem is with them (if there is a problem):
thoughts
always know what the problem is with them (just as soon as they invent
it).
There
is a specialized engine that only runs with rocks in it;
rocks
are everywhere -- always on the move;
rolling
and tumbling -- polishing wherever they touch.
The
sheen on thoughts is from their own reflection;
intestines
do not need to look in a mirror -- they know how ugly they are;
when
it comes to aesthetics -- who has the better taste;
who
would you trust to drive to keep you as far from the cemetery as possible?
--
your
feet or your thoughts? -- wrong question:
who
DO you trust? --
and
who do you privately call, Daddy
who assists you in your search
only
by his saying that he does -- if you ask him.
"Teacher!
-- this room is making me dizzy" --
is
such a child even intelligent enough to be told the obvious;
"Doctor:
it bothers me when I do this"
"Well don't do that"
"Heyyyyy
-- who said that?" -- who indeed.
Someone
keeps calling you on the phone -- mostly, harassing calls;
"Hold
up," says the phone company,
"I
am not sure that you can talk about me like that" --
"Teacher
-- I'm still dizzy."
How
long you figure can a reasonable man ride a merry go round
before
he realizes that it takes him no where?.........okay, how about for six
billion men.
How
can it be that a few do sense the lumbregoto
of this circular activity,
yet
attempt to cure it while still pacing up and down on the carrousel.
"Perhaps
I would be done with it and just shoot myself in the head --
if I could find it" -
now
there is a man with potential.
What
kind of haunted house is it anyway that you live in
wherein
every time you confront a ghost he vanishes, and you become him,
with
your mind made clouded as to what just happened.
Who
can you trust? -- a smart man, certainly not the thing that just
asked that question.
No
one but a con man tells you how honest he is;
thoughts
do so every time you naively take them to be your thoughts.
"Teacher!
-- Johnny stole my book!" --
"No, no -- he slipped
you one while you were not looking.
"Now let's all turn to page twenty three" --
"But
Teacher -- I AM page twenty-three" --
"Very good, young man: an A + for you."
Question:
Why is it so noisy in most classrooms?
'Cause
no one knows what they are talking about.
Question:
How do you know you are on the right track?
You
discover you have a taste for tracks, and recognize 'em when you eat 'em.
A man who ChasesTheThingToTheEndOfTheLine
Too fat eyes/I's -- that's the problem -- too fat to see that the microscope they clutch
J