Sometimes I think of the cave man, who,
For thousands of years, viewed fire as a random gift
From above; something that could not be created
Or controlled, but only stumbled upon in rare,
Perfectly burst storm, such as striking of lightning.
I think of that critical moment in history
When man finally learnt to create fire 'on demand,'
Whenever he wanted to, with his own two hands --
That day marked a radical upgrade in men's evolution.
I ask myself what turned out to be a life-changing query:
Was it possible to reverse-engineer inspiration?
To live our lives in such a way that we could
Experience inspiration 'on demand?'
My whole life, I have thought of inspiration
As something that was 'nice to have' by chance,
But now I understand it was absolutely essential
And that its absence in my life was the key cause
Of all my misery -- I'm obsessed with it at all.
I've now realized that trying to live my life
Without being inspired is like
Trying to drive a car without gas:
It doesn't matter how powerful the engine is
If there's no gas in the tank, I'm going nowhere.
Is it possible that we are as a species
Have simply not yet discovered a mechanism
For reliably capturing and harvesting inspiration
As our immediate need for lighting our internal fires?
And if so, what is to stop us from learning how?
I was immediately struck by your thinking about how humans first discovered fire. It seemed to me that early humans were, by nature, curious about materials and particularly, rock, for tools. By chance, they would easily come across flint and discover that it would make sparks if they struck it against other, perhaps harder, rocks. Sparks would lead to embers and embers to fire. Rubbing two sticks together, the friction creating heat enough for fire, would come later. I don't believe there is any indigenous peoples ever found that didn't have fire. But then, trade between indigenous people was probably far more prevalent than war.
Inspiration is accelerating almost beyond human capacity to comprehend… Hence the recent conservative viewpoint wishing for the good old days when information was not so "in our face." The rate we are understanding our universe is incredible, even though most humans don't care or are not involved. Can't wait to see what happens. The 21st century is rolling out new inspiration all the time.
You raise some very interesting questions here, particular about the power of inspiration and how we can capture it to our advantage. If we had the answer to that question, we would probably advance by leaps and bounds on the trajectory of a higher evolution. Perhaps that is what is to come. Meanwhile, I take my little nuggets of inspiration as they come to be, with gratitude and respect.
Timeless wisdom and advice on the art of living for today’s young and old: The art of thinking, the art of loving, the art of working, the art of leadership, the art of growing old.
A new translation by Sergio E. Serrano of this inspirationa
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Inspiration is accelerating almost beyond human capacity to comprehend… Hence the recent conservative viewpoint wishing for the good old days when information was not so "in our face." The rate we are understanding our universe is incredible, even though most humans don't care or are not involved. Can't wait to see what happens. The 21st century is rolling out new inspiration all the time.
Ron