Quote of the day:
"I am surprised by the sheer number of blogs, diaries, and web profiles that I read that seem to be the real voice of the person you’d never be allowed to see in real life. Myself included. The internet has become, in large part, a great place for those who feel unheard, unfelt, or unseen to mouth off, show off, get off, and write off. Just the other day, in fact, someone remarked to me how without a delicate network of plastic cables, wires, and service providers, they’d be otherwise invisible."
From Angstlos and his brilliant August 30th blog found here:
http://cmj912.diaryland.com
Today's Blog:
I keep reflecting on the book "The Road Less Traveled" and its theological branding of identity politics. Comparing forgotten byways with the sparks that join one human to another, the secret to joining individuality and commonality must lie somewhere within.
As we package up our world with logos, adjectives, and mass marketed trends, our reliance on words like "fresh", "new", and "groundbreaking" signify we remain very stale indeed.
Each of us drowns in our own self created version of terminal unique, wearing our logo'd individuality, all the while sporting varying takes on a universally Made in China origination. Our identity issues seem to trump our humanity- The extremes rule the day. Either we stand NRA'd and super sized, penis'd-up!, with a four inch lift, letting our "practical" urban 4x4 Humvee trucks protect us from commonality or, we crouch incognito and enlightened, treading lightly in our politically correct, obscure but environmentally friendly Volkswagens. All the while wishing really hard the world was powered by bicycles. We recycle ourselves into a utopian state of denial. One that refuses to accept that mankind consumes and that nothing is sustainable forever. Not even a Volkswagen.
I guess I reside in the perpetual "none of the above" column. Neither camp has my allegiance. I somehow made a left turn, bypassing the mid life crisis that was originally scheduled for broadcast during this time period. Instead I've landed back in the rebellious anarchy of some prolonged adolescence. I'm impatient with the planet. Especially when it comes to our species interaction, and how we market ourselves to one another.
It's all empty rhetoric. It's such a waste of energy to "be" anything these days. Consistency is so overrated. We proclaim, we promote, we brand, and we pretend without accountability.
I'd like to say I'm exempt from this behavior but I am a shitty liar. I secretly admit the pretty little sport utility vehicle, the one with the matching colored balls hanging off the back bumper is so tough and butch. Or whatever adjective such a ridiculous and empty and sadly proud statement is supposed to represent. I tip my hat in respect to anyone whose insecurities are so profound that they can display such an item and not be aware the parallel statement those dangling testicles make.
Translation: If you have to display your balls off your back bumper, chances are you're lacking 'em.
But then again it takes balls to make such a supreme ass of yourself. Especially in this very public way. It's sort of a chicken or egg type of debate. Which came first? The insecurity? Or the testicles? Either way the result is the same. Divorce court or therapy. Or both.
This summer I've danced with the mirror of insecurity and watched it crack. Humanity dazzles me with brilliant inconsistency which is dangerously competitive with my own hypocrisy and stunning foolishness. I've decided that human brilliance seems to rest not so much in what we create but in what we have the vision to leave alone. These days, leaving well enough alone seems to be in ever short supply.
Here is a great example of the road not so less traveled, from the world of dating.
A journalist acquaintance confessed early last winter that he'd decided to find himself a mate. His search was methodical, purposeful and Internet based. He has at least a dozen profiles, all of them starting with the required butch cigar looking ridiculously out of place dangling from his postured mouth. These poses attract that initial and all important coffee date-the reward of endless hours spent trolling online. Although it was only February, he'd already been to coffee over 60 times so far. During our phone conversation, I listened fascinated as the man confessed he always knew within the first few seconds of each coffee date if he'd found Mr. Right.
Sadly, even after instant confirmation that this or that baited fish wasn't a keeper, he still had to endure the rest of the "interaction". He bemoaned all the time these coffee interactions wasted but admitted they'd spawned a friendship or two.
Still, time was a wasting...especially when he could have already scrambled right back to the Internet to find the next potential "spark" or trophy fish "catch".
How cool.
Humanity, we've all become just another consumable commodity, much like Ramen Noodles, Cowboy Equipment Underwear or discount DVDs strewn through the rack at Best Buy.
Will we be "in" this year and "out" next year? I mean has any other civilization in the history of our species ever survived speed dating, meterosexuals, and gasp, on line hook ups?
Dating, interaction, and intimacy is the next peer tested formula, complete with market surveys and checklists of lowest common denominators, all efficient and perfect. Feel the yawn.
But back to the journalist. He is perpetually single, and so far his allusive searching for that "spark", after his 60 coffee dates is bone dry. Visualizing the charts and statistics, market analysis and methodology such a search must inspire and produce, I wonder where a trend like this ends?
Bound and determined to not only ignite but immediately snuff out any potential spark, the single journalist reminds me of those dangling balls hanging off the bumper-the rigid parameters of the search all but guarantee that spontaneous combustion is no where in the mix and like the testicles, the issues that conveys about the dude is something that seems obvious to everyone but him. Dating, as strictly a numbers game, becomes more frantic and desperate the greater the search. The staggering diminished potential of any interaction is the obvious net result.
Over the weekend, I caught some parallel thoughts as I considered sparks, nature and leaving well enough alone. I spent a great deal of time on the edge of wilderness, contemplating perfection against the best of all things "Man Made."
Whether it's "Man Made" landscaping, or man made artificial love, it seems the more we force our pre-determined outcomes, the less they resemble what we envision. Leave nature alone and she does ok. Let's leave the formula's out of dating. The better the chances for experiencing something real. The minute we starting living and quite waiting is when availability knocks. Let love happen and live your life to the fullest in the in between time.
Or at least give yourself the chance for that spark sitting across from you, sipping his double latte, to ignite into a flame.
A Poem For Dianne...
August on the Fair Midway
As the moon rose over the rodeo...
Roughstock riders on their high
Bulls snapping like free fall ricochet
South Baldy standing at attention
Guarding our valley from the world
But the moon trumped all
Casting light on the darkness
We drove home without headlights
so bright was the night...
I could see my reflection cast on the ground
And in it I saw you.
Timothy Anderson
Prayer Requests:
For anyone affected by Hurricane Katrina...
For David, who may have had a mini stroke this week, and for his wife joyce, who is recovering from cancer...
Prayers of Thanks... that Mark seems to have passed all his medical tests recently with flying colors...
For Paul, who is going through a really rough time...
For Jay who shattered his Achilles Heel...
For Nancy who remains facing cancer concerns...
For Cathy, and Keith and ongoing health issues...
For my cousin Grant's infant daughter born several months premature...she's still hospitalized...
For my neighbor Dennis who is fighting a five year battle against cancer...
For Clayton's Sister who is going through a tough time...
For parents Vickie and Jimmy and their premature babies Heidi and Olivia...
For Stacy and Chris-who face frightening health challenges...
For Bobbi that her pregnancy continues without complications...Bobbi carries a boy.
For Brooke who is also pregnant. She is carrying a girl.
For all the cattle ranchers on both sides of the border facing Mad Cow fears...
Links, links, links...
Outstanding questions that should be raised as Roberts is considered for a spot on the Supreme Court...
http://www.detnews.com/2005/editorial/0508/29/A09-295790.htm
The saddest commentary yet on our so called political leadership-on both sides of the aisle...
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/28/opinion/28rich.html?pagewanted=1&th&emc=th
Maureen Dowd nails the spin of the administration with deadly accuracy...
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/27/opinion/27dowd.html?th&emc=th
Why the US, especially President Bush, can no longer continue to play hard ball with Canada...
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/27/business/27nocera.ready.html?pagewanted=1&th&emc=th
Grizzly Bear endangered listing remains hot topic in the Selkirks...
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002454635_grizzly28.html
Administration official proposes drastic and extreme rewrite of National Park policies...
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/29/opinion/29mon1.html?th&emc=th
More religiously motivated insanity...
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050828/ap_on_re_us/soldier_funeral_protests
Christians under attack in Iraq...
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002454622_christians28.html
Why Judge Roberts seems to be a judicial activist...
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/27/opinion/27satt3.html?th&emc=th
Recall campaign off and running...
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/jimwest/story.asp?ID=083005_rules
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/jimwest/story.asp?ID=083005_petitions
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