Perhaps one of the greatest transitions a person makes over the course of his or her life is the transition from being surrounded by close elders, to being surrounded by those who are younger. As a rule, we outlive our grandparents, our parents, our aunts and uncles, even our older siblings. Eventually, our greatest friends and family will be, at the most, our own age or only slightly older. Most will be much, much younger.
I wrote several months ago in one of these entries hat we do an astonishing amount of 'prepatory work' before we go out and experience the planned experiences. That is, on top of the 1/3 of our lives we spend unconscious, we noodle about with head (and body) hair, washing, shampooing, makeup, nails, dressing, as well as house cleaning, organizing, paying bills, laundry, folding, ironing, cooking, cleaning dishes, as well as buying supplies for all of the aforementioned activities (but a few of the number that coule be listed). And the worst part is, so many people - I reckon most - work at mundane jobs which in themselves provide no memory on any given day that doesn't simply blend in with memories of the previous day, or the day before that, or the day before that.
My belief is that the best way to to decide about what path to take in the future, whether it be in the next hour or in the next decade - aside from trying new things often - is to take an honest, meditative look back into your memory and identify the most salient and striking images and sensations. Avoid re-enacting the unpleasant ones, and pursue thematic variations of the pleasant ones. There are so many lessons readily available yet unlearned, so many ideas waiting yet untaken, so many limits imagined yet untested, sitting in your conscious memory. Just take some time and silence to dig them up.
When do we hear total silence, anyway? It's got to be almost never. There's always something bashing against our eardrums, and there's nothing we can do about it. I can hear a bunch of things right now (keys typing, my fridge, etc..), and if I stopped all of them, the quiet background sounds (cars outside, etc.) would take their place. Even with absolutely no sound from without at all, there's my own heartbeat to keep me company.
The phrase 'deafening silence' was taught to me in high school as an example of an oxymoron, but it isn't an oxymoron, is it? Silence really is deafening, in that it makes you unable to hear a thing (i.e. deaf). Of course that definition of 'silence' treats it as something positive, rather than as a kind of absence. So is a shadow, but we don't normally consider shadows to be absences, at least not until we take off our literary hats and put our science hats on.
I wrote several months ago in one of these entries hat we do an astonishing amount of 'prepatory work' before we go out and experience the planned experiences. That is, on top of the 1/3 of our lives we spend unconscious, we noodle about with head (and body) hair, washing, shampooing, makeup, nails, dressing, as well as house cleaning, organizing, paying bills, laundry, folding, ironing, cooking, cleaning dishes, as well as buying supplies for all of the aforementioned activities (but a few of the number that coule be listed). And the worst part is, so many people - I reckon most - work at mundane jobs which in themselves provide no memory on any given day that doesn't simply blend in with memories of the previous day, or the day before that, or the day before that.
My belief is that the best way to to decide about what path to take in the future, whether it be in the next hour or in the next decade - aside from trying new things often - is to take an honest, meditative look back into your memory and identify the most salient and striking images and sensations. Avoid re-enacting the unpleasant ones, and pursue thematic variations of the pleasant ones. There are so many lessons readily available yet unlearned, so many ideas waiting yet untaken, so many limits imagined yet untested, sitting in your conscious memory. Just take some time and silence to dig them up.
When do we hear total silence, anyway? It's got to be almost never. There's always something bashing against our eardrums, and there's nothing we can do about it. I can hear a bunch of things right now (keys typing, my fridge, etc..), and if I stopped all of them, the quiet background sounds (cars outside, etc.) would take their place. Even with absolutely no sound from without at all, there's my own heartbeat to keep me company.
The phrase 'deafening silence' was taught to me in high school as an example of an oxymoron, but it isn't an oxymoron, is it? Silence really is deafening, in that it makes you unable to hear a thing (i.e. deaf). Of course that definition of 'silence' treats it as something positive, rather than as a kind of absence. So is a shadow, but we don't normally consider shadows to be absences, at least not until we take off our literary hats and put our science hats on.
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