unsafe paradox

[mat james]

unsafe paradox

My life
is no renewable resource.

Is the only safe bet
encircling death?

Is to be "alive"
to be adventurously
un-safe?
(is embracing risk any safer than eschewing it?)

Believing without defining:
Is this freedom?

To do without justification
to love without reason
to pursue without certainty

Should I encircle death
live an un-renewable adventure?
...movement in paradox.

MatbbgJ

[Alsiony]

Hey Mat

I have come back and fore to this a few times now, and I expect I will continue to do so

There is much in just these few words altogether, and they inspire me to think on much too

So if I may be bold enough to share just a few thoughts?

Believing without defining:
Is this freedom?

Personally and broadly speaking - 'yes' is the answer here, although for me, perhaps the word 'believing' runs the risk of being misinterpreted (rings of blind faith) - I would probably say -feeling understanding without needing full and thorough definition- (not as poetic maybe haha)

I think that sometimes, craving the 'full facts' and absolute details is a red herring, a flaw in being human perhaps - to want to have everything sewn up and everything and it's consequences accounted for, it's not the point, infact, if one becomes so obsessed with turning some things so completely inside out, the very opposite of understanding can sometimes occur. For example - big questions like 'Why are we here?' - I don't believe in any such question. When you get hung up on 'Why you are here' that question becomes a set of blinding head lights, and you are a rabbit who has become stuck, transfixed by something that is actually freezing you to the spot and in the end is simply going to run you over.

...It is very difficult at times, you can get to feel lost if you feel no justification or reason or even some minimum level of something coming back to you - like love in return, on whichever kind of level that may be. It's not much to ask, it's not wrong to want to be on the receiving end of love without reason at times. I don't see how it can be wrong to need some kind of confirmation at times. Sometimes it's the case that it just isn't there when you feel that you need it, and then you have only yourself to fall back on. But I wonder, with this in mind - it does seem sometimes that people fail to recognise what is right under their noses. I have done it before myself, I have failed to recognise something at the time, and it has happened the other way round too - I have failed to be recognised. I had a close friend who committed suicide a number of years ago - it is a known fact that I am the type of person who will take a phone call at 3am, and I will get into my car and I will drive a few hundred miles or whatever the distance. But the key is that sometimes feeling lost is the barrier, even if you feel as though you have a real depth of understanding, something missing at just the wrong moment can result in a feeling of great insecurity.

Sometimes there is a gift of love, sometimes there are answers, sometimes there can be a sense of justification, a sense of reason - just depends on whether you are open to recognise it. And I do feel that we get these things largely from each other and the world around us, both near and far. On the other hand, at times no - it feels as though there really is nothing, sometimes there is a hollowness, but like all things, fulfilment too must have it's partner. (I'm not speaking in especially theological terms, because really, beyond that - it's all the same thing to me anyhow, macro/micro etc)

I think that being open to receive is far more fundamentally important than wanting to ask a question at times. It is almost more willing as well. What I mean is - so many prejudices and subconscious conditions are put into the contexts of questions, so asking a specific question can be a barrier in itself, before you have discovered anything - you have already put the greater subject of it into a box!
Perhaps people feel they will learn and understand less by adopting this approach? That they don't have enough time to try to be just as plainly and universally receptive as they can - I don't know. Maybe I am wrong? I don't mind if I am - I have no need to be right, I feel like I deeply understand certain things, but anything I may fundamentally feel does not involve an intrinsic personal fear of being 'wrong'.
Perhaps then, being ''alive' is to be adventurously unsafe'. Death as a part of life, should be embraced and understood as something that will one day come, and, hopefully, accepted when the time comes - the primary concern right now should be encircling and living life.
The safest bet, the surest bet of the here and now atleast, is the winning bet that is also actually happening right now (perhaps individually we just weren't aware of our own particular bet being placed at the time )

- Life is happening right now... whatever age each of us is - now it is the time to live.

A
x

[Yorkshire Lad]

The safest bet, the surest bet of the here and now atleast, is the winning bet that is also actually happening right now (perhaps individually we just weren't aware of our own particular bet being placed at the time )

- Life is happening right now... whatever age each of us is - now it is the time to live.

A
x

Hi Alsiony
There sure is alot of gambling going on here but then life is a gamble don't you agree . The only thing we don't know when we place our wager is the distance and even though the course will be undulating the ground hard and the hurdles big we should all try and enjoy the race because the only certainty is that we all reach the finish at some point
Yorkshire Lad

[mat james]

hi guys,

Perhaps then, being ''alive' is to be adventurously unsafe'. Death as a part of life, should be embraced

Yes;this is the theme I am clumsily touching on, Alsiony (and Yorkshire Lad).
What does one "do" with the time that "life" allows (before death comes, which is more certain than even those taxes poeple talk of).
There is no correct response, of course, to this pondering sponge of a question.
But to live "well"; this is within our grasp, as you put it, "right now".
To go, "before" the fears
to live, this "un-safe life" is alluring
I don't mean doing dumb things
I mean doing interesting, exciting, fullllfilling, off on a tangent wishful things; following a long laid-to-rest passion
it could be camping on Mt Sanai or Mt. Fuji
or fishing in the local creek
or travelling a day with no point of direction
whatever ones "madness"; doing it for a while, or for a life till "safe bet" death whistles a tune
"To be, or not to be?
That is the question!" / quest/ ...movement in paradox ...

Occasionally, I live life this way, and when I do; I am dangerously content/happy
That is where my little poem exploded from, I suppose.
Mat.

[Alsiony]

Occasionally, I live life this way, and when I do; I am dangerously content/happy

Exactly the same here (in my own kind of way) - for instance, perhaps up to a few times a year (and never for more than 2 days), I go off alone. Sometimes there is a loose plan - never a full itinerary though (I really wouldn't like the idea of that!), other times I really haven't a clue and I just 'end up' places.
It's a really healthy thing to do - and I certainly don't mean as in exercise from all of the walking
So it feels to me that going for a long walk (as I put it, when I do it) fits into what you are saying here ...

I don't mean doing dumb things
I mean doing interesting, exciting, fullllfilling, off on a tangent wishful things; following a long laid-to-rest passion

I am finding this idea even more interesting than usual at the moment ... as I have been having a more in depth look at the whole question of sacred spaces and what makes them sacred, but even more in depth studying of philosophical views on leisure and life etc at the mo' - Aristotle, Epicurus and Paul Lafargue - some of what I am learning I already think - and some of it has been quite enlightening (looooong way to go still )

A
x

[Yorkshire Lad]

There is no correct response, of course, to this pondering sponge of a question.

Mat.

Hi Matt
Here is the nub of it all in that one sentence . There is a correct response but that response must be on an individual basis . We must all seek our own happiness and destiny ! Obviously things happen in life that are out of our control ( illness, death of a loved one , etc) but that should not stop us from trying to be happy in life after all we only have one ( I think !)
YL
Treat everyone as equals
For that is what they are
They simply choose a different life
And follow a different star

[Alsiony]

Treat everyone as equals
For that is what they are
They simply choose a different life
And follow a different star

So true YL, and I agree also that there is no correct answer here. Life is an individual process and journey - as well as a group one in many senses.
Everyone is different, and the freedom to be so, is so very precious.
However you personally choose, or in whichever way your individual path goes - perhaps the real point is whether or not you are living well as Mat puts it.
Most answers to any kind of in-depth questions,including that of achieving a genuine sense of happiness can perhaps only be realised if you are in as honest a state of 'being' as you possibly can be, well I know that is just my opinion

I don't know if I sound like an idiot, but there must be a reason as to why many people will choose a phrase such as 'I felt alive' to describe particular moments or events that happen in their life when they also felt particularly free and somehow fundamentally engaged?

A
x

[mat james]

"He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much; who has gained the respect of intelligent men and the love of little children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who has left the world better than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who has never lacked appreciation of earth’s beauty or failed to express it; who has always looked for the best in others and given them the best he had; whose life was an inspiration; whose memory a benediction." (Bessie Stanley, 1905)


"To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.

(apparently--- "inaccurately attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson",... http://www.transcendentalists.com/success.htm )

These often quoted, apparently related quotes above are great; but they miss my point: the abandonment; the Quixotic folly I am alluding and aspiring to. That tangential "Who gives a shit? just do it anyway and it is about bloody time!" attitude; that bi-polar fix that you know you will one day/one-moment regret; but do it I will !!.... for this is living "authentically", as they say.
I think the understanding that death is just around the corner somewhere/sometime aids this tempered yet cavalier abandonment that blossoms into innocent delight and fun.
"I am I, don Quixote, the Lord of la Mancha; my destiny calls and I go
may the wild winds of fortune carry me onward
whither so-ever they blow
onward to glory I go!" (Man of la Mancha)

Ha ha!
"Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts."

MatbbgJ

[Yorkshire Lad]

Matt
I apologise if I have taken this thread down the wrong line it was not intentional . I suspect age is the overriding factor here . I have had all my "Don Quixote " thoughts ( unfortunately not many moments though ) but now I am quite happy to live the quiet life of acceptance of " what will be will be " . That does not mean however there isn't a touch of envy when I read your posts on this subject but my time now is for regretting not getting

yl

[Alsiony]

"Who gives a shit? just do it anyway and it is about bloody time!"

"Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts."

Perfect ways to say it! This is what I was alluding to in the last two lines of my last post.

People like this are very rare though - a dying race it sometimes feels

Well I don't know if that really is Emerson or what now! - That's something to look into a bit more then - I already have these words penned out above my desk

[Alsiony]

Matt
I apologise if I have taken this thread down the wrong line it was not intentional .

Oh Mat - same here

[lonndubh]

Hi Mat
Enjoyed your thought provoking piece
The lines that speak the passionate heart and
made me ask again if posterity will count for anything
this song came to mind
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6IPyVzZDnA

[mat james]

prosterity

Maybe not "prosterity, but maybe posterity may hang around for awhile, lonndubh .

Don't apologise guys (A + YL); I have enjoyed all your interpretations/comments. Thanks for taking the time to make my little post (poem) meaningful.
Sometimes I don't know what I am on about myself. These ramblings come from some unconscious impetus and I may well mean several misunderstandings .

Yorkshire Lad, it sounds like you are in a pretty good "space".

Regards, MatbbgJ (mat-belly-button-gazer-James) {A title inferred by manna, quite a while ago.}

[Yorkshire Lad]

Yorkshire Lad, it sounds like you are in a pretty good "space".

You could say that ! Without going into too much detail something happened two weeks ago today and now I have my life back . The strange thing is Matt when it happened I thought my initial reaction would be to do the things you talk about but no the opposite happened and now I just want to enjoy what I have . I haven't made my mind up why that is yet . It could be for security but I suspect it is contentment that drives my will to just stay where I am . No climbing Everest or swimming oceans just living for this moment thats all I want out of life !
YL