Imperfect Knowledge

If we had perfect knowledge of what everyone around us felt
Would it change who we are?
If you could know how someone would react
Would it change what you say?
If you could test different scenarios as in simulation
Would you pick the one that best advantages you?
Or instead would you
Seek to bring harmony and advance peace in the world?
Would you use conflict
To protect your love ones or advance the cause of peace?
Or would we be hide-bound
By our experience with such knowledge?
The greatest challenge for us
May be to reach beyond ourselves and make a difference
even with imperfect knowledge.

I finished the book… Why Does the World Exist, by Jim Holt… without an answer!  Like a spam advertisement that tempt you to look, even though you know there’s really nothing on the other side.  Maybe that’s unfair, because there is the journey in thought to appreciate.

The quote at the end, I like: “Philosophy, n. A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing.  – Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary”

Well some roads are paved and some are a pretty dirt path decorated with flowers. But then some are rocky with intermittent trolls threatening the path.

The journey can be interesting, and requires no equipment.  Just our mind wandering a path illuminated by one’s thought, history, and the storied words of other thinkers.  Faith plays a role, if you like, with supporting thought or not.

A game of thrones of the mind of competing ideas and theories, could it be quantum coincidence we exist, multi-verse, God and the big bang, and much more.

And yet my mind aligns with a belief.  A belief that there is a God, that creates a world that allows the development of consciousness.  Consciousness is the knowledge of self… self-awareness.

I believe that the trillions to one odds that fortune not just our physical birth, but our conscious awakening, and that sense of self that develops as a result of evolved exposure of parenting, grandparenting, neighbors, siblings and chance occurrences, as well as the genetic dispositions randomly acquired from generations of breeding makes us an individual.

A sense of “I” that develops because of the physical constraints of our body and mind, and the name we or others give us… but over time we may start to realize that we are not I, rather we are “we”.

That we are part of a social fabric, and if we have the capacity to bring our minds to new heights, to really glimpse what we are a part of, then we have the perspective needed to consciously and with free will affect that fabric.  And our “we” lives on long beyond our “I” in the form of those strands that we’ve woven and the others we’ve influenced.

The brilliance of our “God” is the creation of not just a universe, but also the allowance for conscience to develop.  Allowing an opportunity for a piece of immortality for as long as we are weavers we are leaving a mark on others that carry that mark, that weave forward.

So why the world exists, instead of nothing, the answer that occupies the throne as I postulate is:  because it was willed into existence in a way that may be mysterious to us, but it’s echo is there for us to see in the residue of the big-bang, and furthermore the residue of God’s second greatest creation is the existence of consciousness, the awareness of self, the awareness and joy of sharing that self in the form of “we” and “us” such that we are better for all positive weaves and threads in our world.  A true miracle of life, love, and legacy.

Smile Enablement

Have a generous view of perfect

An expansive view of beautiful

For smile enablement ?

Image

I touch my right cheek
To tell you there’s something
On your left cheek
We are as mirrors facing each other
Reflecting onto each other
Right to left, left to right
Mirroring each other
Flat surface shines
But emotion’s depth
Requires texture to
Reflect clouds or sun
Across the brow of sky
So, come to the other side
See the world
Through this window
With synchronicity
Feel the depth of field and
Texture, felt and seen
Are we not quite the same, or
Maybe a reasonable facsimile

This week is Easter Week, a great time to consider how we find peace in forever turbulent times. 

With the grace of God, we seek to find peace in ourselves first, to accept what we know is not changeable, while seeking always to find the joy of improving ourselves and helping those around us.  Our imperfections make us human, while God provides us a path to peace through forgiveness that he shares, and we can then share with each other. 

So too this week we pray for and seek peace in our nation and a way to find dialog that is civil, principled, and respectful toward each other.  By finding peace within us, among us and then extending to the world we have hope always of a greater future for our children, grandchildren and beyond.

Rituals are part of our life, each day our world is ordered by these rituals.

Sometimes these rituals just get us through our day, sometimes they are about hygiene.

Sometimes they are about allowing our minds to rest while our body goes through the ritual of getting to work, or school, whatever is needed to make it to the next time we need to be focused.

However, the best rituals, are the ones that are not about ourselves but have a greater meaning for our relationships with each other.  The kiss goodbye, or hello, the act of communal prayer before an evening meal, or maybe good morning wishes. 

My personal favorite is the toast, the mere act of clinking of wine glasses with the sole focused intent of heart body and soul saying you are my focus right now, and I wish for your health and happiness.  It’s an act of purity, of love, of purpose.  Even if it’s just to say cheers, it means so much more.  It means my focus is at that moment to be in the present with you heart and soul.  Oh and of course there’s wine to share as well!

So next time you clink glasses, and share a sip, look in each others eyes and know that you are part of a ritual that extends back centuries, one that means for that moment we are one, we are a community!

Cheers!