Hello Authors' Den readers and commenters.
Finally, a personal response from me, Sha'Tara, the cosmic entity with the many names and crazy ideas some of you like to worry poor ol' Regis with by ascribing them to him. I am actually a real person, and Regis the Limerick Man, is just nice enough to be my messenger. We live in the same town of Chilliwack, he on his mountain overlooking my kayaking playground, the Fraser River, and I by the Hope River where I throw my kayak in to reach my summer playground.
I have my own page on AD, but by the time I could make it attractive enough and popular enough to make it worth my while to post there, I'd probably be dead!
Many of you have been commenting on my articles (essays), short stories and poems posted on Regis Auffray's page. I certainly owe all of you a huge thank you for your efforts. Those comments have been a source of further inspiration and encouragement to me and I have been terribly remiss in not replying sooner. It wasn't all about lack of time, it was more... "What do I say in response" without putting the proverbial foot in proverbial mouth?
But I must respond, at least to some recent questions.
M. Flack asks, When you make reference to "The machine is the Matrix, man’s consensus reality" are you also making reference to what Carl Jung referred to as the collective Mind?
I would say, yes, that is probably the same idea, although I am no expert on Carl Jung's philosophy.
Jane Noponen Perinacci asks, "May I send a copy of this to my son?"
My reply applies to all who come across anything that I write: all ideas are, by definition, public property. I do not own them, nor does anyone. They are the wild birds that fly above our heads on their wonderful migratory pathways to their own destination. We see them go by, we admire their songs and flight patterns, but we do not follow them or capture them to keep. If we did, they would die and so would our world.
Therefore, anything I write can be copied, shared, used, cut-n-pasted, hacked and cracked, misquoted and misunderstood, and if it is on paper, can be used to light a camp fire as well. Only one request here: please don't ask for permission - by the time you get it, and you will always get it - you will have forgotten the essential: that a thought you wanted to share got lost because you got busy doing something else in the interim. Ideas themselves cannot be altered, though they have the power to change individuals.
By the same token (like that trite line?) anything anyone writes lends itself to any kind of interpretation, and none of it is ever wrong. No matter how one views a ladder, by stepping up, rung by rung, all get to the top. I like to see how different individuals interpret images made by words, especially in a poem (if my "truncated prose" can be called poetry). By tasting various interpretations, the work becomes more meaningful, especially to the writer.
Processing ideas... that reminds me of this quote I really enjoy contemplating: “Try to go through life a little bit edible. You never know when you’ll meet someone hungry.” and its corollary: “Try to go through life a little bit hungry. You never know when you’ll meet someone edible.” (from “Half Past Human” by T. J. Bass) All ideas are edible but as anything edible, individual taste and requirements take priority. Not all ideas should be automatically ingested. A lot of mine need a serious lathering of condiments. That's where you come in.
Ronald Hull, you are a challenging, tough owner of your own solid views. If you lived in my town, (Chilliwack, B.C., Canada) we'd have to have a regular session, over coffee, beer or whatever, maybe at Homers' Restaurant, by the fake fireplace. We'd have to ask them to turn down the infernal radio, of course... In fact, I'd like to have a regular group meeting with all of you so we could each enrich the other.
Question: Ron, what if (all of observed life is always "what if" in my mind) genetic manipulation that took place on earth long ago was not a natural process? What if man only accepts that it was because he's been taught to believe that? What if it was done deliberately, with shall I say, "malice aforethought" meaning, with intent to open the planet's resources to exploiters, make it more amenable to residence by an alien life-form and reduce its ability to reject the alien intrusion? What if current "invasion" of GMO's is just another wave of change that the planet, and man, are going to have to deal with, as usual, through adaptation lasting thousands of years? What if the fears surrounding this "new" development stem from truly ancient Earthian memories buried in the gene pool?
To those who don't ask questions, but add their own thoughts, I see you as fellow travellers, pilgrims, wondering what the "city" is going to be like when we get there. Will we be treated to the spectacle of a mass hanging in the public square, or will we find ourselves amongst throngs of merrymakers in a fair?
When we look at life, we should be able to see through ourselves - a thought somewhat illustrated by this picture of and from, photographer Laura Williams (Facebook) The title of the photograph is "Invisible Reflection" What do we see when we look through ourselves?
Neerja
I don't see any need for some ancient manipulation to have created what exists here. Recent scientific studies only reinforce Darwin and others. Strangeness is out there, but we are becoming more comfortable with this place, subject to both manmade and natural perils. The human mind is a torrent of ideas--only the strong ideas survive.
Ron
Love ya!
Jane