13,693. RUDIMENTS, pt. 1,191

RUDIMENTS, pt. 1,191

(enjoy the deep forest)

People used to put that sign

out which read, 'Gone Fishin' -

in the old days, when stuff like

that was still done  -  to signify

that their little store was closed

and/or that they were away on

vacation. Maybe country people

anyway; I don't know how hokily

prevalent that ever was in the big

cities. No matter. My own version

of that  -  lo, and after all these

years  -  would simply be 'Gone

Mad.' I seem to have been  -  or 

was told so  -  fortunate to have

grown up in the small era when

Humankind's self-awareness

seemed to grow by leaps and 

bounds. I always believed it was

all crap anyway. The ancient

Greeks perhaps best summed it

up as hubris; a kind of false or

mislaid pride about oneself and

one's achievements. Like thinking

you can control Nature by

building a dam.

-

It always seemed to me that the

self-awareness of 'Humanity' which

supposedly began with the 'Space

Age' consisted in little more than

having somehow a certainty then

that the world was, indeed, round.

Photos from space were said to

have confirmed all that  -  which

then led to the sub-industry of

'Saving' our Spaceship Earth, and

the rest of that drivel that went

nowhere except in enforcing yet

another form of 'Pride.' False

again indeed. If anyone was

intent upon 'saving' the planet

Earth, why then would they

continue any of the greedy steps

of commerce that Capitalism

purveyed; essentially 'More' of

everything! 78 brands of toilet

paper, 100 brands of cereal, all

arrayed in lines down supermarket

shelves in a maddening frenzy of

redundancy, overuse of resources,

commercial sameness with any

differentiation really based only on

the usual lies and misrepresentations

creating 'demand' that such 

commercialization brings : scent,

texture, appeal: Saving the planet?

-

It's all very funny, in addition to 

being false, pathetic, and based on

insidious lies. A perfect example, in

its way, is this very laptop I am now

typing this on  -  I'm getting 'pop-ups'

that propose to tell me how to avoid

getting pop-ups. If that makes sense

to you, let me know. Somewhere

between the shtetl and the synagogue

there has been passed the cathedral

of commerce by which we are ruled.

At every step we are assaulted, nay,

pummeled, by the ostentatious

mistruths of commerce, all in the

vain hope of peddling something

(or 'nothing') which has first been

defined as a vital 'something.' 

-

In the end, having achieved all the

self-awareness that comes forth

from the froth of accepting such

self-imaginings, we realize that none

of it exits with us, that we leave

this life  -  certain or uncertain -

with absolutely no reservoir of

remains about that which we 

assumed as the components of 

our lives. If any grave or tomb 

could allow its boney inhabitant 

to talk, there'd be very little to say  

-  inasmuch as all the 'assumptions' 

of that day's self-awareness would 

now seem as stupid as one of Jay

Leno's cars. 'I have, therefore I am?'

-

On the way station to death, there's

a stop called life. Take it all for what 

you will. Enjoy the deep forest and

undertake your own conclusions.