Monthly Archives of: April 2022

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Territories

April 27, 2022
18 comments

I like this song by Rush. It has a lot of meaning in this day and age regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine and regarding wars that are the result of perceiving via separation.

Territories

I see the Middle Kingdom between Heaven and Earth
Like the Chinese call the country of their birth
We all figure that our homes are set above
Other people than the ones we know and love
In every place with a name
They play the same territorial game
Hiding behind the lines
Sending up warning signs

The whole wide world
An endless universe
Yet we keep looking through
The eyeglass in reverse
Don’t feed the people
But we feed the machines
Can’t really feel
What international means
In different circles
We keep holding our ground
Indifferent circles
We keep spinning round and round

We see so many tribes — overrun and undermined
While their invaders dream of lands they’ve left behind
Better people — better food — and better beer
Why move around the world when Eden was so near?
The bosses get talking so tough
And if that wasn’t evil enough
We get the drunken and passionate pride
Of the citizens along for the ride

They shoot without shame
In the name of a piece of dirt
For a change of accent
Or the color of your shirt
Better the pride that resides
In a citizen of the world
Than the pride that divides
When a colorful rag is unfurled

Expanding Territories … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2022
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Existing in (and “as”) the Past…

April 20, 2022
8 comments

We — most of us — live in (and “as”) the linear past, moving into what we think is the future. However, this future is, for the most part, a projection or fabrication from the past, and when unusual things later pop up we arrange them to fit into our storage of narrow past recognitions. (These recognitions constitute what we “are.”) We can fool ourselves into thinking that we often live in the present — in some kind of here and now — but usually it is the clockwork past deluding itself. Self-understanding and critical self-awareness may go beyond the limitations of all this. Such understanding and awareness are not merely the result of some learned processes or taught techniques.

Eye of the Ivory Mystery Snail. … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2022

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The Particular and the General…

April 6, 2022
19 comments

Many of us primarily live in the particular and not in the general, not in — or involving — the whole. We merely function as we were taught, and we exist in (and as) the particular. For so many of us, the particular is apart from the whole; we try to solve things by focusing on the particular as apart from the whole. Then conflict ensues and even more problems arise. We see ourselves primarily as separate human beings. We must change.

Sh.t happens! This handsome, large stone is coprolite… fossilized Dinosaur dung from the Jurassic Period. (It no longer smells!) … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2022