Our lives are filled with more myths than we can even imagine.
DB - The Vagabond
*********************
Think of going to the supermarket, purchasing a few cans of food and a couple of boxes of cereal. Think of bringing them home and putting them on the shelf. Then think of taking them off the shelf everyday, reading the labels but never opening the box and pouring out the cereal or opening the cans to get at the fruits and vegetables
If you think that's stupid, you're right. But now think about all the ideas and theories you've bought, that reside nicely on your mental shelf, that you never open up to inspect and enjoy or discard. Think of the brainy little trinkets you carry with you like items on a charm bracelet that you've picked up from here and there and which you never look at.
When the ancient Greeks went to the theatre they already knew the plot. All of their plays were based on Homeric legends every school kid grew up with. Each play was reaching into the story to extract more wisdom and understanding.
Why didn't the Greeks get bored? Because those myths and legends struck at the heart of their lives. They still do. Sisyphus's task was to push a heavy rock up to the top of a hill only to see it slip and roll back down to the bottom. Endless, pointless labor. How are you doing with your rock? Damocles was forced to dine with a sharpened sword hanging over his head by a single hair. The knowledge of everpresent danger. .
Myths have morals but they don't have morality. They can help us to be careful about many things but they can also lead us in directions that are injurious or wasteful. Does holding a wooden clothes pin in your mouth really keep you from weeping when you chop an onion? Do you still put butter on a burn instead of cold water? Do you still keep your bananas out of the refrigerator so they can spoil faster? Some people still wound or mutilate themselves to bring them closer to God. In some places they search for aphrodisiacs in Rhinoceros horns. Somewhere in Africa they think having sex with a virgin cures Aids.
On the other hand Plato's famous Myth of the Cave has great lessons to learn. On the simplest terms it teaches us that we spend most of our lives looking at the shadows instead of the realities. That's a lesson of profound importance and benefit for all of us.
Check out the charms on your bracelet. Examine your ideas and theories. How many of them are myths or based on myths and are they good ones or bad ones?
DB - The Vagabond
********************
Does anyone know how to rearrange the titles under "My Blogs" on the home page?
If so, please reveal the secret to me.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++=
WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
Given the resources and opportunity, what one thing do you want to do in 2010 that you've never done before.
You have all Winter to answer. Answers will be posted on the first day of Spring.
19 responses so far.
DB - The Vagabond
Showing posts with label plato's cave. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plato's cave. Show all posts
Monday, February 22, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Sanctum Sacriligium
I care not for a person's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.
Abe Lincoln
******************
I am the beggar on the steps of the temple asking for and living on alms. There is no bench between here and the market. There is one stone about knee high. I sit on that to rest with my groceries at my feet, my cane in my lap and mutter out loud to myself as an old man should. Those who pass by think there's a crazy old man sitting there. And they;re right. I sit in the cave staring at the shadows on the wall. I am one who knows they are only shadows that others call realities. As with others before me and after me I try to interpret those shadows.
I am a caricature, a cartoon, a shadow on the wall that resembles an old man with a cane who mutters to himself and never goes to church.
I will remain on the steps and not enter the temple because I've been inside and I know it is a magnificent and beautiful chamber of hypocrisy. Inside is preached the negation of life, the removal of the vital forces of existence, the degrading of the innocent, the veil that covers true holiness,. The great door of the temple is an invitation to enter the sanctum of false security, to relax into the arms of unreason, to join in the celebration of a paradigm of delivery to an unknown source and to emerge cleansed and purged of the need to affirm any responsibility for ignorance and wrong doing.
Humanity is dressed in white robes of purity which cover up the sweat of true worship if there is any.. I no longer listen to what men in pious robes or everyman costumes tell me what God thinks, says, does or doesn't do. The simple fact is they don't know. They are staring at the shadows in the cave like everyone else. Concepts of God change with the flickering decades.
They can hang the Ten Commandments on the wall if they want to, but a plaque on the wall is not going to save anyone. There is no less paganism today than there ever was. Once outside the temple people go about worshipping the old gods of money, power, medicine, war, litigation, vengeance, hatred, exclusivity, status, prejudice, bias, ignorance: subtle sorcery, beliefs and practices of every shape, size and color.
One may get to heaven by being good. Good is what we are supposed to be. But leave me the freedom to try to be better than good. Don't coax me to accept your faith. Don't pray for my immortal soul. No one has the right to do that. Don't quote scripture to me. I've read it over myself many times. I wonder how many pious pseudo deists, including the ones in the robes, visit the fatherless and widows and keep themselves unspotted from the world.
I will practice my religion, if I practice any, at home, away from the candles, choirs and cheering mobs. And I know my dog and cat, if I had them, would prefer it that way.
DB - The Vagabond
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++=
Sunday Puzzle
One. two
How do you do.
-------------------------
Below is a list of Jazz Greats, first two name only. Your mission is to supply their last names.
Good luck.
-----------------------------
David Warren
Benjamin David
Edward Kennedy
Thomas Wright
Earl Kenneth
John Birks
Nathaniel Adams
Francis Albert
Gerald Joseph
Ernesto Antonio
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I await your answers.
******************************
Weekend Puzzle.
Sing along.
It's fun and easy.
XMBB, HVAG AG ZEM ZO HVZGM GZERG HVWH UZC VMWJ EZX WEN HVME, UZC NZE'H LEZX FCGH XVMJM WEN UZC NZE'H LEZX FCGH XVME. AH'G ZEM ZO HVZGM GZERG HVWH WJM ZQMJ WEN HVME, AH'G ZEM ZO HVZGM GZERG HVWH GHWJH YBWUAE' WRWAE. UMG, AH'G ZEM ZO HVZGM GZERG HVWH UZC VMWJ OZJ WXVABM HVWH PZKMG AEHZ OWGVAZE HVME RZMG ZCH ZO GHUBM. AH'G ZEM ZO HVZGM GZERG HVWH UZC HVAEL UZC OZJRZH. SCH AH'G ZEN ZO HVZGM GZERG UZC PWEEZH.
FAKKU NCJWEHM
RZZN EARVH KJG. PWBWSWGV, XVMJMQMJ UZC WJM.
*************************
First prize goes to Just Plain Bill of the Blogspot Tigers
Second priae to Salemslot9 also of the Tigers
The Lion never left the holding pen.
Answer:
Well, this is one of those songs that you hear now and then, you don't know just where and you don't know just when. It's one of those songs that are over and then its one of those songs that start playin' again. Yes it's one of those songs that you hear for awhile that comes into fashion then goes our of style. It's one of those songs that you think you forgot. But it's one of those you cannot.
Jimmy Durante
Good night Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are.
Abe Lincoln
******************
I am the beggar on the steps of the temple asking for and living on alms. There is no bench between here and the market. There is one stone about knee high. I sit on that to rest with my groceries at my feet, my cane in my lap and mutter out loud to myself as an old man should. Those who pass by think there's a crazy old man sitting there. And they;re right. I sit in the cave staring at the shadows on the wall. I am one who knows they are only shadows that others call realities. As with others before me and after me I try to interpret those shadows.
I am a caricature, a cartoon, a shadow on the wall that resembles an old man with a cane who mutters to himself and never goes to church.
I will remain on the steps and not enter the temple because I've been inside and I know it is a magnificent and beautiful chamber of hypocrisy. Inside is preached the negation of life, the removal of the vital forces of existence, the degrading of the innocent, the veil that covers true holiness,. The great door of the temple is an invitation to enter the sanctum of false security, to relax into the arms of unreason, to join in the celebration of a paradigm of delivery to an unknown source and to emerge cleansed and purged of the need to affirm any responsibility for ignorance and wrong doing.
Humanity is dressed in white robes of purity which cover up the sweat of true worship if there is any.. I no longer listen to what men in pious robes or everyman costumes tell me what God thinks, says, does or doesn't do. The simple fact is they don't know. They are staring at the shadows in the cave like everyone else. Concepts of God change with the flickering decades.
They can hang the Ten Commandments on the wall if they want to, but a plaque on the wall is not going to save anyone. There is no less paganism today than there ever was. Once outside the temple people go about worshipping the old gods of money, power, medicine, war, litigation, vengeance, hatred, exclusivity, status, prejudice, bias, ignorance: subtle sorcery, beliefs and practices of every shape, size and color.
One may get to heaven by being good. Good is what we are supposed to be. But leave me the freedom to try to be better than good. Don't coax me to accept your faith. Don't pray for my immortal soul. No one has the right to do that. Don't quote scripture to me. I've read it over myself many times. I wonder how many pious pseudo deists, including the ones in the robes, visit the fatherless and widows and keep themselves unspotted from the world.
I will practice my religion, if I practice any, at home, away from the candles, choirs and cheering mobs. And I know my dog and cat, if I had them, would prefer it that way.
DB - The Vagabond
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++=
Sunday Puzzle
One. two
How do you do.
-------------------------
Below is a list of Jazz Greats, first two name only. Your mission is to supply their last names.
Good luck.
-----------------------------
David Warren
Benjamin David
Edward Kennedy
Thomas Wright
Earl Kenneth
John Birks
Nathaniel Adams
Francis Albert
Gerald Joseph
Ernesto Antonio
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I await your answers.
******************************
Weekend Puzzle.
Sing along.
It's fun and easy.
XMBB, HVAG AG ZEM ZO HVZGM GZERG HVWH UZC VMWJ EZX WEN HVME, UZC NZE'H LEZX FCGH XVMJM WEN UZC NZE'H LEZX FCGH XVME. AH'G ZEM ZO HVZGM GZERG HVWH WJM ZQMJ WEN HVME, AH'G ZEM ZO HVZGM GZERG HVWH GHWJH YBWUAE' WRWAE. UMG, AH'G ZEM ZO HVZGM GZERG HVWH UZC VMWJ OZJ WXVABM HVWH PZKMG AEHZ OWGVAZE HVME RZMG ZCH ZO GHUBM. AH'G ZEM ZO HVZGM GZERG HVWH UZC HVAEL UZC OZJRZH. SCH AH'G ZEN ZO HVZGM GZERG UZC PWEEZH.
FAKKU NCJWEHM
RZZN EARVH KJG. PWBWSWGV, XVMJMQMJ UZC WJM.
*************************
First prize goes to Just Plain Bill of the Blogspot Tigers
Second priae to Salemslot9 also of the Tigers
The Lion never left the holding pen.
Answer:
Well, this is one of those songs that you hear now and then, you don't know just where and you don't know just when. It's one of those songs that are over and then its one of those songs that start playin' again. Yes it's one of those songs that you hear for awhile that comes into fashion then goes our of style. It's one of those songs that you think you forgot. But it's one of those you cannot.
Jimmy Durante
Good night Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)