My Chuck Taylors

I have chuck taylors on designed by Albert Reyes.

There’s a quote hidden on the inside of it that says

“If you cant be good, be careful.”

Touché.

Just thought I’d share.

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…

Le Penseur – A monologue

 This piece is copyright. Please obtain Authors Permission before copying.

I am not the great thinker you think I am,
No one – not even Rodin grasped the torment I was faced with
And no one ever will.

The concept of ‘knowledge’ has never been understood by those who are not burdened with it.
My hand is rests on my head not from divine inspiration, but from despair.
My hand rests there from the overwhelming and persistent thoughts filled with fear and confusion.
Knowledge does not give life, but instead perversely sucks it out of your very soul.

I have been misrepresented; my desperation mistaken for glory.
Though my thoughts may contain inventions and great ideas,
Each one is cursed with fear and bound with worthlessness and misery.
No matter how many patterns I find, how many discoveries I make,
I will never answer the tugging question, the one that keeps me bound to this life of misery.

Knowing so much has only shown me how much I will never know -
The important thing – life’s largest question -
The question of life itself.

This is why my heart is heavy
It is why my burden is unbearable
This is why I must droop,
Why my body bends in this way.

It caves to the greater being,
to the life force – the very thing that distresses me the most,
will be the thing I must eventually surrender to.

That is what I know, but cannot comprehend.
The necessity of faith terrifies me,
For faith is never definite.
It is a hope, a naive way of thinking designed for the comfort and the protection of innocence,
Something which was robbed of me long ago.

The prize given only to a select few,
This prize of Knowledge -
Although gives glory -
Steals innocence and naivety;
Steals happiness, and simplicity.

Watch as I, and those like me turn hard, cold, and numb to the outside world; to stone.
We always do…

Eventually.

Euphoria

It started with a comment
A statement here or there
Each and every one would hurt
Those words I had to wear

What Started as a comment
Then went to a kick
“Kids will be kids” you say?
Don’t be a dick.

At first it hurt a little,
But then too far it went
You pushed the limit, silly boy
Your words, I had to vent.

You started with a Comment
But I was no longer accepting those
My ship had finally sailed for sea
My time – it had arose.

Yes, it started with a Comment -
A casual nudge and snigger
Although they’d stung in present tense
Those words had made be bigger

You see, the problem was no comment
could finish what you started
Those words demanded something more
They never were half-hearted

Don’t blame me for the things that came
After all…you’d said it well
‘Kids will be kids’ you’d said.
And as I watched, you fell.

: )

AUTHORS NOTE: Euphoria is now more than a word to me.
It is something that I can finally say that I have experienced and yes, it truly was.

 

Moral Values

Twenty Four.

Sixteen.

Twenty Four.

Sixteen.

 

Maybe if I say it a few times that will make it sound ok?