it's a very strange time. we've all the knowledge that's ever been discovered by humankind at our finger-tips, all the creations: music, dance, movies, history, the list never-ending (almost). yet many prefer ignorance. 'let's throw the bath water out with the baby.'
have we lost our stamina? t.s. eliot maintained we can't stand too much reality. my god, the reality we can stand seems little enough. yet perhaps we do more knowing less, a cause for optimism in the face of change. bizarre, how much is lost upon those who would adopt a certain posture to save themselves from ambiguity. i call it 'the mad tea party.' angry and crazed. if they can preserve their little piece of the world they will be saved.
alas, in a hundred years we'll all be dead. give that a thought. of course, the grand religions promise paradise, eternal life, and rebirth. and i'm not immune. the last seems the most interesting. at least you can imagine you've met your friends (and enemies) before and will again, each a parent, then lover, slave, teacher, acrobat to entertain. even if this means the joys and pains of a bodily life don't end for a long time.
heaven, on the other hand, envisioned by the imaginatively impaired, seems a pretty dull place. the devil has all the good lines and the best people choose the fires of thought in hell over the blindness of bliss.
what i mean to say is, whatever you have is better than what you don't. i hope my friend ed, once an avid cyclist and now a paraplegic, will find pleasure in expanding his mind with an ipad and the one finger he can move. it's not easy changing from the physical ecstasy of rolling down an incline to climbing the steep mountain of an educated and enlightened intelligence. i wish him well.
new photos at www.pbase.com/wwp/mf
a few old opens by a younger and wiser me: www.pbase.com/wwp/quatsch
and last but not least a brief peek into the artistic process: www.pbase.com/wwp/stud
