September 18, 2003                                                               © 2003: JAN COX
 
 
 

Everyone has two names:
the one you tell people to call you by,
and the one they actually think of you by (your goofy name);
everybody also has a third name, but no one can say what it is  -
they feel it’s there --  but they don’t know what to call it --
a sensation scattered widely over the lives of men (feel they):
"I know that something is there  --  I just don’t know what it is” -
I know that something is there  --  I just don’t know what it is:
what better name could be for the sub flooring of that CertainThing
of such driving interest to the few.

In all human activities, dilettantes are satisfied to but slightly scratch the surface of whatever one may strike their fancy,
but note: all activities other than eating and sleeping are dilettante-designed,
and further mark: men do not normally hold in their consciousness,
a continuing remembrance that this is so (for example):
in that activity they have designated as religion,
behind the world wide spread idea of there being a god,
men feel (despite the notion’s flaws and improbability) that there is
something there  --  a something beyond the name they have given it;
it is this feeling that has kept the idea of god alive throughout man’s history
without it having a shred of supporting evidence
(same is true in every other verbally identified area of strictly mortal activity
[art, drama, mythology: the totality of human culture]);
none of such satisfies the needs for which it is purportedly intended,
yet interest therein remains  --  why?  --  why are endeavors that fail, yet pursued?  --  because men have an incessant feeling that there is something more to these various intangible things they have named than the attributes which go along with the name:
men feel there is something more to every one of the purely human interests,
and activities to which his mental attention is drawn than he can describe:
by any measure, a completely astounding (though unacknowledged) situation (to wit):
man’s mind has created a whole other reality besides the physical one
into which he is born,
and even though his thoughts are totally responsible for this world,
deciding what gets in, and controlling all the action,
he still feels that there is something behind each of his own creations
that he cannot name, identify and comprehend,
as though an author who creates a fictional character: sets all his scenes,
writes all his dialogue, and alone describes his thoughts and feelings,
yet has a feeling that there is something more to his invented figure than he knows:
what situation could be more astonishing!  --  and more bewildering still:
that no one gives it any account.

Man’s mind does not make up all the stuff it does for no reason:
in part it is for entertainment, and in part it is a search for information;
the entertainment aspect is to distract ordinary men’s minds from the fact that they
do not know how to successfully pursue their interest in information, (put crudely): they watch movies to keep them from thinking about the fact that even though they created, god, they can’t get to the something they feel is at the core of the idea.
But everyday men make no such connection,
they profess to believe there is a discrete distinction for instance,
between pulp-fiction, and holy books; between cartoons and philosophy;
between history and mythology  --  but it’s all a big dream.

By nature (not to mention by all they deem rational) men’s minds know the names of everything they have created and placed in that other reality singular to humans,
yet they do not confess to the reality that each and every one of his mental inventions represent the same thing: man’s hunger to know what the unnamed something IS which he irrepressibly feels is in all of his creations,
but which somehow stays beyond his ability to name and identify.

The entertainment side of all this is what keeps collective humanity sane and stable, via distraction; the few however, cannot be so pacified;
once they (if they ever do) recognize for themselves the obvious fact that
the human mind created everything man believes to exist which he cannot touch,
they are then freed of that initial, meaningless distraction, and can move to the muscular question: what is going on in that the mind creates intangible things
which it then claims and accepts to be real objects,
which it then feels contain something of more importance than the mind intended
in its original creation?
Now there is an inquiry worthy of a human with some suspicion of what
the mind is actually capable (at least in him).
The relentless, happy pursuit of this question (never mind: the answer)
will eventually crack the whole thing open, and all the juice, seeds and secrets
of the curious melon will be spread out before you.

Every man has two names  --  neither of which have any relevance whatever
to the certain man in strenuous search of the key to what is going on
in the thing men call, life,
and the faster he gets over the fact that he appears to have a name,
the quicker can he get down to a focused investigation of why it naturally seems so.

First very thing every morning, amidst much hand clapping, shouting,
and an overall display of happy excitement, one man leads a cheer for his cells:

On the first day of life on one world (sorry: that should be: first day of school)
the headmaster addressed the assembled:
“It is hormones and sex that bring us together,
but it will be neurons and a love of information that will keep us here,”
and 99.99999% of the class bolted for the door.
    Certain noises,
    frighten girls and boises;
an actual grown man (on the other hand) silently holds:
“Anything that troubles me (as I now understand: trouble,  and: me  to be)
no longer troubles me.”
 
 

Two things will keep you alive: breath and excitement;
the two normally decrease by age in man together;
even the certain man can survive with less of the former  --  but not of the latter;
it is an original lack of excitement over the fact that they do not understand
what is behind their own instinct to create a mental reality that puts men to sleep,
so you see how necessary is continuing excitement to continued awakening, no?!