03.23.00
Mike Joyce here. You're listening to the numbero uno station on your AM dial. Today I'm sitting out on my balcony and reflecting on the marvelous weather North Carolina is having today. On a beautiful day like this, many topics spring to mind. However, this gray-matter theater can come up with only one word; Life. That's right...I'm talking about the whole enchilda, folks. Time, growth, duty, urges, physical, mental and spiritual health, knowledge of self...and even that all-to-important liberation from self. I'm talking Hindu philosophy, moksha, the whole idea of "you're not THIS, you're THAT!"
Over this past year, my family and I have, in a way, breathed down my sister's neck, prying endlessly to find out what direction she wants her life to go in. A hard question to ask of a nineteen year old who lives (at least through our parental lenses) from party to party. I'm one of the lucky ones. I've my dreams perma-plaqued in the forefront of my mind. But it's not the destination that I am striving for...it's the journey. If more people think this way, I believe that they can rise one or more levels in their appreciation of Life. Just a little bit of patience...and opened baby blues is all that is required. Because the path to our destination isn't always a straight one. Sometimes we follow the wrong path and we have to go back...sometimes we choose an easier path...and there are some who lose sight of it. However, fate will make it reappear (that is for certain). Maybe it doesn't matter what path we all embark on...just that we simply, embark.
The next logical question one may ask is, "How can I embark?" Simple. By just BEING!...Going with what is natural. Life is a marvelous festival,...a scenic journey with nature and the cosmos as our guide. Because when it boils down to it, we are all ignorant and stubborn. But in all reality...we're all just little mice, dancing to the Piper's tune. We're mesmerized. Entranced. Dancing with abandon. Denial of it all just makes you dance all the faster. And O' how we love that Piper. And are we not coming closer to any sort of answer? "In what?," you ask. In the Tune...in this..the MUSIC. Keep with me here! Doesn't it make sense? Music...a life-giver. Would we all not be savages without it? And through mere observation can't we pen-point its' Godly traits? I mean...for one, you can't escape it. People use it to bear their souls, to praise, to tell stories and to love. Nature/wildlife and its' melodious serenade. I've never known anyone who didn't fancy music...because it's universal...we have no choice but to give in to it. It's life's anesthetic, in that it mends...it's life's aphrodisiac, in that is shows us how to love. I believe the lesser-known Aussie group, The Saints said it best with these lyrics...
"All my life I searched upon the reason for us being here. The universe and all that it contains. I tried to find the secrets inside the brain. ...Twenty years I've lived and tried to find who my creator was, but now I let the pieces fall in place. It's funny and shows upon my face. Chorus: The Music goes round my head, and I can't here a thing you've said."
However...Can't leave out the not-so-pleasant. Can't have the Yin without the Yang. I'm speaking now of change...life's metamorphosis. Is change good, or is it just what people say to convince themselves that they are happy when something bad happens? Like the proverbial Lemmings we think of change as pushing us closer and closer to those watery cliffs. But like soo many things in life, it is all a matter of perception. For example, in this age, divorce is a biggie. A definite change for the worst (for most). But think of this...
"Wolves mate for life, but our species lives a lot longer, maybe too long to stay hitched to the same post. Well, individual opinion aside, divorce looks like it's here to stay. So instead of seeing it as a king of failure or dead end, why not celebrate divorce as the beginning of something? A fresh start. Another chance to step up to the big wheel. Like Swami Bodhidharma says, you can't have a thing until you let it go. In other words, when things look real bad, maybe it's better to find a new way of looking at them."
And another example from in and around the same source (from the perspective of a Native American)...
"Death, like the white man, wasn't happy in his own land. He didn't think his kingdom was big enough. He wanted more. One night, when the good spirit was asleep, Death attacked the world. He killed a lot of people, and took the Chief's prettiest daughter as his bride. She pretended to be a good wife, but one day she secretly fed him a pumpkin seed. The pumpkin grew and grew inside Death. Finally, he exploded, and a million pumpkin seeds covered the earth. ("I still don't get it") A lot of people died, but a good thing came out of it too. ("what was that") Pumpkins. It's the same with white people. They cleared the forest, they dug up the land, and they gave us the flu. But they also brought power tools and penicillin and Ben and Jerry's ice cream."
In truth, we all must embrace change. By refusing to change, we refuse to accept that there is any order in life and is therefore counter-productive. Now, please don't misinterpret this..dropping $100 on a new tattoo or puncturing your face with various ornaments is not what is meant by "change." Our friend Alexander Pope best explains this in his classic, "Essay on Man."
"The general ORDER, since the whole began, Is kept in Nature, and is kept in Man. ...And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite, One truth is clear: Whatever is, is right."
And where are we now? Have we become enlightened in the slightest? Probably not. Most of us, including myself, is somewhere between the end of the line and the middle of nowhere. Yet another important factor that I've neglected to mention stares me dead in the face, and that is that we are not alone. Very important this is...For we depend on one another each and every day of our lives for our mutual survival. ..which leads me to share with you what Brother Einstein once said...
"Strange is our situation here upon Earth. However, there is one thing that we do know, that man is here for the sake of the other men, above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy."
Good folks...I hope all of this helps give you insight or at least a newly-found perspective. For you see..I am a lover of life. Life, a raging rapid...Me, a giant sponge. A student with an abiding love of secrets, conundrums and fantasies. A lover of the entire "system." -"A system is like the tail of truth, but truth is like a lizard. It leaves its tail in your fingers and runs away knowing full well it will grow a new one in a twinkling (Ivan Turgenev)." It's a beautiful curse...a therapeutic plague. Seem to come up with the answer, another question arises from the dark. Each attempt to answer, forces you to reexamine the previous question with a keener eye.
Well...in ending..I believe my fellow name-bearer, James Joyce can best end what I've started.
"Welcome O Life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race."
This is Michael Joyce,
...Bidding you all a fond farewell,
.......And wishing you all Oi, Solidarity and most of all, Love.
...................Until next time,
Rob
QUOTATIONS SITED
1) Your humble narrator, Michael Joyce
2) Australian music group, "The Saints"
3) Quotes from TV Series "Northern Exposure"
4) Alexander Pope
5) Albert Einstein
6) Ivan Turgenev
7) James Joyce