RUDIMENTS, pt. 1,239
(horrida nostrae mentis purga tenebras) -
('cleanse the horrible darkness of our mind')
Many people would be surprised
to learn that the oldest thing in
New York City is from 1425 BC.
Yes, it's true - as well as it's
false. It's one of those curious
things that have built up over
time, not only 'really,' but backed
with a good story, and covered
by guidebooks galore. Out on a
little rise called Greywacke Knoll,
and well behind the Metropolitan
Museum at 81st St., is Cleopatra's
Needle. So called. It's one of two
(another is in London). What
always stunned me was that
a person could stumble upon them,
them, quite by accident, in NYCity
or in London, and, not knowing
anything about them, either be
perplexed or impressed by them.
The entire story behind it all is
actually rather mundane, as are
the lengthy, hieroglyphic, writings
and markings upon it. One of the
things about language, once you
remove it from its 'creative' aspects,
is many times the banal uses it
was given - ancient cuneiform
writing, when it was finally
deciphered, often turned out to
be little more than archaic
Assyrian records of goods and
services catalogued shipping lists
and manifests, census info, etc.
The writing on Cleopatra's Needle,
in much the same vein, is but a
long paean to the conquests and
triumphs of a certain leader and
ruler of the time. All nice, but.
Be all that as it may, the paradox
of it is in the seeing of this very
old manifestation of the real world
from ancient time, plunked in the
classy middle of Metropolis, USA,
without really a word or reference
as to the place, situation or occasion.
-
No one would care, really. The usual
New York person - other than the
tourist, who would be guidebook-led
to such a sight as this - neither knows
much nor cares about it. All my many
times there, in my fascination, I was
always struck, oddly enough, by the
direct attention given to this obelisk
by the Jewish people. I'm not by any
means casting a wide net here, but
it was always a New York Jewish
type, quite honestly (if you take this
as 'anti-Semitic' or any of the other
current terms for super-sensitive,
candy-ass-skin propriety, you can
go suck yourself off or find your
pleasure in any other manner you
may choose - just don't, in a facebook
way, go accusing me of it here. I'll
cut you off at the knees), who hovered
and carefully examined, and read,
observing every facet it had. That too
too always fascinated me - this
ancient, tribal, person being fixated
there on an ancient, desert-Egyptian
relic, finding perhaps some resonance
in all those ancient, Biblical stories
of nomadic passage and flight, across
those same lands. Truly invigorating,
and it put mostly to shame - in my
eyes - the mass of otherwise jaded
and complacent New Yorkers who
gave this no mind, nor care, at all.
What is it, after all, that resonates
back to us through all our human days
and ages? What strange messages and
personalities linger in that odd fog
which makes up Reality? And who is
it, anyway, who we truly serve?
Do we not, must we not, honor
that ancient echo we may hear?
-
If life and history have any reality
at all, it must certainly exist at this
divide. We wear the 'present' as
our cloak, and then pretend to 'own'
the past, by designation. Walking
through shades of meaning, whoever
is 'in charge' at any, changeable, given
moment, can define and identify the
past' by and with the characteristics
they choose to give it. Everyone else
just goes along. Forty years ago, the
stupid-life was defined by cigarettes
and mood-rings. Today, not a whit
of that is left and everything has
been redefined and sorted anew.
So then, what is the proper designation
for a thing such as Cleopatra's Needle?
What is it now representing? Does
it bear any real meaning for anyone
anymore? Is it even worth the stop
and the stare? I believe so. And if
there anything left in this shit-fouled
commonplace day, (which there really
isn't), it can be superseded by at the
least using your own mind, and the
brain which it inhabits. Stop and
smell the mental flowers. If the
world is a darkness, it's a wide
and open darkness and it's for
each of us to walk our own way
through.
-
Communitarian politics are just
plain stupid - like those ancient
cuneiforms, they just end up as
prattle by evil, insincere and
basically stupid people cataloguing
and listing their own wants and
needs, and convincing others of
the same - and - in this late day
and age, succeeding. It's a damn
shame that we've let it come to
this pass. A world both destroyed
and decadent.
-
We are drunk with mayhem. We
are drunk with illicit fears. We are
rattled at every turn by those who
would spread falsehood and deceit
so as to subjugate us. Sometimes
Satan comes in the name of the
Lord.
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