Pink Elephants on Parade

Look out! Look out!
Pink elephants on parade
Here they come!
Hippety hoppety
They’re here and there
Pink elephants everywhere Look out! Look out!
They’re walking around the bed
On their head
Clippety cloppety
Arrayed in braid
Pink elephants on parade

What’ll I do?
What’ll I do?
What an unusual view

I can stand the sight of worms
And look at microscopic germs
But technicolor pachyderms is really too much for me

I am not the type to faint
When things are odd or things are quaint
But seeing things you know that ain’t can certainly give you an awful fright

What a sight!
Chase ‘em away! Chase ‘em away!
I’m afraid, need your aid
Pink elephants on parade
Pink elephants…
Pink elephants…
Pink elephants…

Sitting down with your kids to watch a nice family movie is something we all plan to do one day. Elephants hallucinating from accidental drunkenness is not really the ideal film you’d choose to watch; but then again, the scene never demanded to be understood…

This obscene act in the film always terrified most of us as kids…but why? Its trippy nature and famous film sequence has seemed to stay in people’s memories, 20, 30, even 40 years after they’ve scene it…

Just what was Walt Disney trying to imply when he added this in? Surely this was not merely entertainment

I found a quote which told me much what I was curious about:

The song along with the segment itself has been ingrained in pop culture as an infamous allusion to not only intoxication but a subtle jab at LSD hallucinations.

Check out this picture that was released by the Drug Enforcement Adminstration America:

Look familiar? It’s perforated blotting paper. No prizes for what it’s for.

Well, just letting you know what’s on my mind…don’t really know what I’m trying to say; merely just thinking out loud.

You can watch the movie  clip here:

 

 

 

black swans, plato and agnostics

THERE’S A song on one of my CDs that has always struck me as unique. Its one of those songs you just know is different. It’s called Black Swan by Thom Yorke, Lead singer from the band Radiohead. Thom is an incredible songwriter whose songs are often political and always have a story behind them…

So one day I was thinking about the words, and how he refers continuously to this “Black Swan”. I decided to study further what the term actually meant, and why he wrote about it.

When I looked it up, it turned out that the term ”Black Swan” actually comes from ancient Western belief that all swans were white in colour. No one had ever seen a swan of any other colour, so it was just presumed that no other existed. The 17th Century discovery of black swans here in Australia metamorphosed the term to connote that the perceived impossibility actually came to pass. In that context, a black swan was a metaphor for something that could not exist.

It really made me think; just because we did not see something, did it mean it did not exist? I looked at it from a deeper point of view. How many things have I shaken off for that very reason?

As I looked further, the word ‘epistemology’ (Theory of knowledge), came up. This theory was first started by Plato, a Greek philosopher who explained it well.

He asked three main questions -”What is knowledge?”, “How is knowledge acquired?”, and “What do people know?”. There was a really good picture that totally spelt it out….

So here’s this big issue each of us are faced with – grappling with the fact that there is so much we don’t know that is real, so much we think we know that isn’t, and there is just a cross section when the two meet – a place where we can never be sure what really goes there…

There are so many Black Swans in our World, but one I specifically would like to address here is something which is usually a touchy subject, God.

If one has not encountered God personally, how can it be known that he exists?

Agnostics may say that one can never box God into the category of the Known Truth, but if you think about it, he is actually OUTSIDE the concept completely. He CREATED the truth. Until we die it is only Him that will know what fits into which category. He is the absolute truth, and not bound by the laws of our world.

Us mere humans will only be able to guess which goes where, but knowing that God truly exists and having a relationship with him helps us to box things into areas where they really go.

Not always comprehending the stuff that lies in the truth is ok, and to be expected. Take infinity – the lack of time. We live in a world where the law of time binds us, and because we have never experienced a timeless place, we can’t comprehend it. It’s like a Black Swan.

One day we will see it, experience it for ourselves, and realize that it really does exist. But until then… I guess that’s why we have Faith.

I thought I’d just share with you my thoughts – would love to hear yours…

Alice in Wonderland

“If I were looking for a white rabbit, I’d ask the Mad Hatter.”
“The Mad Hatter? Oh, no no no…” 
“Or, you could ask the March Hare, in that direction.”
“Oh, thank you. I think I’ll see him…”
 ”Of course, he’s mad, too.“
“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.
“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.
“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”

My current obsession at the moment:

Alice in Wonderland.

Random, yes. But the story has intrigued me ever since I was a child… I’ve always loved the strange things that happen through the books, and the magnificent creativity behind it.

Alice in Wonderland is not just any ordinary child fiction. It is filled with underlying philosophy and secrets.One of the main reasons I loved it so much was the absurdity… I loved her curiosity. There is such beauty in the unknown. I find strangeness quite compelling.

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary-wise; what it is it wouldn’t be, and what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?”

Many a days (and at times, our dreams) are spent imagining in our own worlds. Nonsensical ideas, impossible feats. The possibility of existing in a realm without time would, and should, usually scare someone, but Alice embraces it with wonder. Over time, after being in such a realm, Alice learns, to accept the impossible. Maybe one day, after this life, we will have to accept our new reality, If there is one….

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where-” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
“-so long as I get SOMEWHERE,” Alice added as an explanation.
“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”

One of my favourite Characters is the Cheshire Cat. He is annoyingly witty, and, like all the other characters, mad. His quote, which is at the top of this entry, is one of my favourite quotes because of the fact that whether Alice accepts it or not, it will still be. She must face the reality which she has now been presented with. Everyone in Alice’s Wonderland, is mad. As a child that should not be a trait that would appeal to most young children, but to me, it made the story even more compelling.

Alice: I simply must get through!
Doorknob: Sorry, you’re much too big. Simply impassible.
Alice: You mean impossible?
Doorknob: No, impassible. Nothing’s impossible.

As I grew up, I learnt that the story was apparently based on drug hallucinations. Whether this is true or not, does not take away from the story itself. It was widely known that Lewis Carroll smoked marijuana, but whether or not he took hallucinatory drugs was debatable. But the fact is, WHO CARES??!!

The incredible mystery and beauty behind his novel will not change; his truly was a masterpiece, even if we never do find out what exactly he meant, and whether Alice was a real person…

Well I’m off to read Chain of Hearts by Maureen McCarthy… Maureen, if you’re around, enjoy the free publicity!

“Fan her head!” the Red Queen anxiously interrupted. “She’ll be feverish after so much thinking.”