What is it about passion and fervor for anything or anyone that can lead so many otherwise intelligent people astray? I am a passionate individual. And mixed with a modest portion of intelligence covered in a creamy arrogance sauce with a yummy side dish of selfishness, I have encountered any number of dead ends on my way to the fulfillment of my desires. But then, I’m an idealistic jester whose very satirical nature side tracks any serious attempt at influencing life and culture.
But why is it that even those stoic souls who worship at the altar of rationality and fervently believe in the power of the mind to trump the emotions at each and every turn, the phlegmatic Mr. Spocks, if you will, in cold contrast to the sanguine Dr. McCoys, still fall prey to mystical associations and conjurings of the most fantastic kind?
You think not? Show me the logic of concluding from the DNA record and the organic complexity of living creatures that homo sapiens derived from completely random, undirected processes taking place over exceedingly long lengths of time. I’m not sure that a high priest of any ancient pagan religion ever had to make a greater leap of faith in order to promote the local deity du jour than is made by the modern scientist in his fervent attempt to deny the possibility that intelligence of any kind may have played a role in our genesis as a species.
And as if this uncontested road of scientific certainty isn’t enough to open a case for doubt, there is always the extreme opposite end of the intellectual spectrum, if you will, namely the loosely defined movement known only as the New Age. Occultism, Neopaganism, Astrology, Human Potentiality and Universal Truth, recycled ideas, warmed over and spiced up to be fed as fresh meat to an uneducated clientele looking for new experiences to scratch their itching ears.
Of course, one might easily assume that a healthy balance would be to position oneself somewhere in the middle of this line between “pure” rationality and “mystic” spirituality and, it may be that most of the human race finds itself somewhere along that line. But there are a good number of us, who seeing the weaknesses inherent in each of these two opposing ideas as well as, and this is more important, the potency that there is more to nature of reality than this limiting duality, have fallen, headlong as it were, onto another possibility.
For the most part, the allegedly unlimited human mind appears trapped in a dualistic world, a kind of cruel, philosophical dialectic, if you will. We speak of good versus evil, Yin and Yang, Occident versus Orient, male and female, slave and master, up and down, right and left, mind and body, hot and cold, right and wrong, black and white, capitalism versus socialism, liberal versus conservative, anarchy versus totalitarianism, ad infinitum.
And this conundrum concerning opposites is not solved by mental gymnastics like trying to explain false dilemmas (Morton’s Fork as an example) or emotional appeals that we look for the shades of ‘grey’ between the black and white or the a hybrid version of opposing ideas like ‘bi-sexual’ or the proverbial ‘middle of the road’. While these may be correct within the confines of their own usage, they just reinforce the notion that our reality seems rooted (or stuck might be a better word) in the duality of opposites.
But there is another dimension to this seeming limitation that cannot be found out by rational inquiry or mystical musings but is nonetheless as real and plain as the nose on my face.
@ 2010 Joseph Ricciardi Jr
Friday, February 26, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
DAY SEVEN
Ah the seventh day. God rested on the 7th day of Creation.
Where do we find peace in this world?
Is it to be found within ourselves…this same self that cannot even accomplish the good that we will to do…sometimes even doing evil that we don’t even want to do? Although that certainly doesn't stop a lot of very convincing writers from exhorting us to look within ourselves to find the answers. I guess they think that thanks to that unintelligent, unmonitored, freestyle event called evolution, every person who is born has universal truth encoded on their DNA. Tried looking within myself for answers - came up empty and miserable.
Do we find peace in a supplement? Ginkgo, Noni, Aloe, Algae, Acai, Alfalfa, Chlorophyll, Cranberry, Maqui, Royal Jelly, Spirulina, Greens, Reds, Proteins, and on and on and on…
Do we find rest for our souls in meditation? Yoga, Tai Chi, posture, focus, concentration, contemplation, bells, drums, chants, incense, candles, sounds, smells, music, atmosphere, the great outdoors, and on and on and on…
Is it in the heart? Is it in the solar plexus or the spleen? Is it between our ears or between our legs or sitting upright on top of our heads? Is it first sight, second sight or the third eye? Can you enervate peace? Breath it into being or capture it in a dreamcatcher on the wind?
Thirty two years ago I reached beyond this world and asked for help from the only source of help in this universe and without reservation or hesitation I was given a peace that I have never understood nor can I describe except to say that it abides with me and lives in me.
I have friends who have struggled to find the Secret to peace, happiness and prosperity seeking it among the stagnant pools of tradition or the poisoned wells of self aggrandizement. In their zeal to know and understand, they have swallowed the first lie believing that they themselves have the power within themselves to control the universe and draw good unto themselves. At best they are a bit foolish. At worst they become ensnared by a deceitful lie that masquerades as the truth; false light leading the unwary off the path and into the tangled wood.
Who would want to drink from the muddy waters of man’s philosophies and vain deceit when we are offered living water from the author of life? Not me and hopefully, not you.
@ 2010 Joseph Ricciardi Jr
Where do we find peace in this world?
Is it to be found within ourselves…this same self that cannot even accomplish the good that we will to do…sometimes even doing evil that we don’t even want to do? Although that certainly doesn't stop a lot of very convincing writers from exhorting us to look within ourselves to find the answers. I guess they think that thanks to that unintelligent, unmonitored, freestyle event called evolution, every person who is born has universal truth encoded on their DNA. Tried looking within myself for answers - came up empty and miserable.
Do we find peace in a supplement? Ginkgo, Noni, Aloe, Algae, Acai, Alfalfa, Chlorophyll, Cranberry, Maqui, Royal Jelly, Spirulina, Greens, Reds, Proteins, and on and on and on…
Do we find rest for our souls in meditation? Yoga, Tai Chi, posture, focus, concentration, contemplation, bells, drums, chants, incense, candles, sounds, smells, music, atmosphere, the great outdoors, and on and on and on…
Is it in the heart? Is it in the solar plexus or the spleen? Is it between our ears or between our legs or sitting upright on top of our heads? Is it first sight, second sight or the third eye? Can you enervate peace? Breath it into being or capture it in a dreamcatcher on the wind?
Thirty two years ago I reached beyond this world and asked for help from the only source of help in this universe and without reservation or hesitation I was given a peace that I have never understood nor can I describe except to say that it abides with me and lives in me.
I have friends who have struggled to find the Secret to peace, happiness and prosperity seeking it among the stagnant pools of tradition or the poisoned wells of self aggrandizement. In their zeal to know and understand, they have swallowed the first lie believing that they themselves have the power within themselves to control the universe and draw good unto themselves. At best they are a bit foolish. At worst they become ensnared by a deceitful lie that masquerades as the truth; false light leading the unwary off the path and into the tangled wood.
Who would want to drink from the muddy waters of man’s philosophies and vain deceit when we are offered living water from the author of life? Not me and hopefully, not you.
@ 2010 Joseph Ricciardi Jr
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
DAY SIX
What is it about us human beings that makes us have to relive some of the same mistakes generation after generation? Wouldn’t you think that if something bad happened to my father and he told me about it or warned me about it, that I would avoid that trap.
It sounds logical but for some strange reason life doesn’t work that way.
I mean how many of you have children or younger brothers and sisters or grand children or somebody younger than you that are just doomed to repeat the same failures in marriage, love, sex, drugs and rock & roll that many of us went through?
What is it about youth that makes it impossible to believe that churning milk long enough turns it into butter whether you want it to or not. Same thing with poor lifestyle choices: they get you into places you don't like being.
How many times do we hear young people, or how many times when we were young people, did we say or believe: “Oh that won’t happen to me!”
“Oh yes, Betty is an alcoholic but that will never happen to me...bartender one more round!”
“Tommy was a drug addict but I can shoot up that heroin or take a little meth and nothing will happen to me…hand me the bag…”
Yeah and we’re all going to live forever and we can live any lifestyle we choose and we’ll always stay perpetually young. Now this would be an instance where a fairy tale rather than bringing clarity to reality would actually cloud good judgment.
Of course nobody actually believes this but try to find the one young person in a thousand that actually does something about it without being forced by some circumstance to change?
I was NOT that young person…at least not before I turned 21 anyway. I could do anything to my body and mind and nothing was going to happen to me.
And I know why it was that way for me. I knew that things I did were wrong and I knew what the right things were to do but I just didn’t want to change. I mean my younger self was more than willing to ruin things for my older self if it meant I could have a little more fun.
What’s really intriguing is to realize that this is actually not just a condition of youth but it’s a systemic problem for everyone their entire lives. Listen to how this man describes the condition:
For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I…For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
His name was Saul of Tarsus and he is one of the writers of the Bible, specifically The New Testament.
If we’re all subject to like passions and our natural course is to be contradictory and self destructive then how can any of us escape?
@ 2010 Joseph Ricciardi Jr
It sounds logical but for some strange reason life doesn’t work that way.
I mean how many of you have children or younger brothers and sisters or grand children or somebody younger than you that are just doomed to repeat the same failures in marriage, love, sex, drugs and rock & roll that many of us went through?
What is it about youth that makes it impossible to believe that churning milk long enough turns it into butter whether you want it to or not. Same thing with poor lifestyle choices: they get you into places you don't like being.
How many times do we hear young people, or how many times when we were young people, did we say or believe: “Oh that won’t happen to me!”
“Oh yes, Betty is an alcoholic but that will never happen to me...bartender one more round!”
“Tommy was a drug addict but I can shoot up that heroin or take a little meth and nothing will happen to me…hand me the bag…”
Yeah and we’re all going to live forever and we can live any lifestyle we choose and we’ll always stay perpetually young. Now this would be an instance where a fairy tale rather than bringing clarity to reality would actually cloud good judgment.
Of course nobody actually believes this but try to find the one young person in a thousand that actually does something about it without being forced by some circumstance to change?
I was NOT that young person…at least not before I turned 21 anyway. I could do anything to my body and mind and nothing was going to happen to me.
And I know why it was that way for me. I knew that things I did were wrong and I knew what the right things were to do but I just didn’t want to change. I mean my younger self was more than willing to ruin things for my older self if it meant I could have a little more fun.
What’s really intriguing is to realize that this is actually not just a condition of youth but it’s a systemic problem for everyone their entire lives. Listen to how this man describes the condition:
For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I…For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
His name was Saul of Tarsus and he is one of the writers of the Bible, specifically The New Testament.
If we’re all subject to like passions and our natural course is to be contradictory and self destructive then how can any of us escape?
@ 2010 Joseph Ricciardi Jr
Monday, February 22, 2010
DAY FIVE
Even in my first life…that one that ended all those years ago on that porch…even back then I was always intrigued by fantasy. Myth, science fiction and fairy stories all provided a vehicle to describe the indescribable parts of life.
It was Clyde that once told me that “we do not retreat from reality, we rediscover it. As long as the story lingers in our mind, the real things are more themselves... By dipping them in myth we see them more clearly."
Certainly for some, fantasy is an escape and God knows we all need to escape sometimes from the stifling reality of the sweatbox we call the daily grind. But much more than just mere escape or a child’s daydreams, well thought out fantasy allows you to pass through a wardrobe or a picture or travel in a rocket ship into another world and by interacting in that strange or bizarre environment see and understand our own world that much more clearly.
But even beyond that, fantasy gives voice to the reality which lingers just beyond our vision…the reality that we all knew as children that the world was much bigger and more awesome, in the true sense of the word, then most of us are able to recall when we get older. In that sense, fantasy has the power to awaken within us, if only for brief time, the sense of wonder that sometimes finds itself buried beneath the burdens of adulthood.
“My father says that almost the whole world is asleep. Everybody you know. Everybody you see. Everybody you talk to. He says that only a few people are awake and they live in a state of constant total amazement.” (Patricia to Joe aboard the TweedleDee in Joe Versus the Volcano)
`Contrariwise,' continued Tweedledee, `if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.'
@ 2010 Joseph Ricciardi Jr
It was Clyde that once told me that “we do not retreat from reality, we rediscover it. As long as the story lingers in our mind, the real things are more themselves... By dipping them in myth we see them more clearly."
Certainly for some, fantasy is an escape and God knows we all need to escape sometimes from the stifling reality of the sweatbox we call the daily grind. But much more than just mere escape or a child’s daydreams, well thought out fantasy allows you to pass through a wardrobe or a picture or travel in a rocket ship into another world and by interacting in that strange or bizarre environment see and understand our own world that much more clearly.
But even beyond that, fantasy gives voice to the reality which lingers just beyond our vision…the reality that we all knew as children that the world was much bigger and more awesome, in the true sense of the word, then most of us are able to recall when we get older. In that sense, fantasy has the power to awaken within us, if only for brief time, the sense of wonder that sometimes finds itself buried beneath the burdens of adulthood.
“My father says that almost the whole world is asleep. Everybody you know. Everybody you see. Everybody you talk to. He says that only a few people are awake and they live in a state of constant total amazement.” (Patricia to Joe aboard the TweedleDee in Joe Versus the Volcano)
`Contrariwise,' continued Tweedledee, `if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.'
@ 2010 Joseph Ricciardi Jr
Sunday, February 21, 2010
DAY FOUR
What is a Ragamuffin anyway?
Webster says it’s a ragged, oafish person…a ragged disreputable person, poorly clothed, often a child.
That’s me…well at least it is me when I try to wrap myself up in all the glorious works my hands have created for myself. And I’ve always felt that my figs leaves were a lot nicer than a whole bunch of other fig leaves I had seen.
But come to find out…there ain’t nothing new under the sun…the thing that has been will be again…and all that piss and vinegar pride I wore as my youthful crown was nothing more than a bunch of leaves and grass that withered and dried up…not even enough kindling to make a good fire…and it left me cold and naked.
And then I got invited to this most wonderful feast I’d ever been to and this incredibly kind groom gave me a beautiful suit of clothes to wear to his wedding…and I haven’t been cold or naked since…except…well…let’s say that I’m still a ragamuffin at heart but I’ve got a good benefactor who despite my shortcomings, covers for me when I’m wandering a little by the side of the road.
Now not all that wander are lost you know. I’ve met a few good friends on the side of that road…one is a former priest and struggling alcoholic and another is a beautiful soul who no longer sings on this earth…and meeting them both has made my life fuller.
Rich was a stranger in this land and on this road to righteousness, although we falter in our steps, he always knew we were never out of reach of aid. And I remember what Susan said: How love is found in the things we’ve given up more than in the things that we have kept. And when home is just another place where you’re a stranger and far away is just somewhere you’ve never been, I hope that I remember, he was my friend.
And Brennan, God love him, Brennan showed me the valley of desolation far away from the Hallelujahs of piety. And introduced me to a gospel made for the weak and sinful with hereditary faults and feet of clay. He wrote and spoke for the smart among us that know we are stupid and the honest among us who admit that we are scalawags and ragamuffins and misfits.
And as the Caterpillar said to Alice: Who are YOU?
@ 2010 Joseph Ricciardi Jr
Webster says it’s a ragged, oafish person…a ragged disreputable person, poorly clothed, often a child.
That’s me…well at least it is me when I try to wrap myself up in all the glorious works my hands have created for myself. And I’ve always felt that my figs leaves were a lot nicer than a whole bunch of other fig leaves I had seen.
But come to find out…there ain’t nothing new under the sun…the thing that has been will be again…and all that piss and vinegar pride I wore as my youthful crown was nothing more than a bunch of leaves and grass that withered and dried up…not even enough kindling to make a good fire…and it left me cold and naked.
And then I got invited to this most wonderful feast I’d ever been to and this incredibly kind groom gave me a beautiful suit of clothes to wear to his wedding…and I haven’t been cold or naked since…except…well…let’s say that I’m still a ragamuffin at heart but I’ve got a good benefactor who despite my shortcomings, covers for me when I’m wandering a little by the side of the road.
Now not all that wander are lost you know. I’ve met a few good friends on the side of that road…one is a former priest and struggling alcoholic and another is a beautiful soul who no longer sings on this earth…and meeting them both has made my life fuller.
Rich was a stranger in this land and on this road to righteousness, although we falter in our steps, he always knew we were never out of reach of aid. And I remember what Susan said: How love is found in the things we’ve given up more than in the things that we have kept. And when home is just another place where you’re a stranger and far away is just somewhere you’ve never been, I hope that I remember, he was my friend.
And Brennan, God love him, Brennan showed me the valley of desolation far away from the Hallelujahs of piety. And introduced me to a gospel made for the weak and sinful with hereditary faults and feet of clay. He wrote and spoke for the smart among us that know we are stupid and the honest among us who admit that we are scalawags and ragamuffins and misfits.
And as the Caterpillar said to Alice: Who are YOU?
@ 2010 Joseph Ricciardi Jr
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