Waging War with Aging

 There was never a time when AGE was not on the forefront of my consciousness.

Itty bitty little Tot

"How old are you young man?" came the generic introduction from strangers since the first days I started stringing syllables together.  And ever since those yonder years I have strung together my identity based on that number.

As a kid, what feats you could perform was directly proportional to your chronological age medal. 
A 6 and 9 year old were never gonna be fairly matched. 
I looked up to the older kids, as if they were superior in ways higher than their height.  I guess the immediate threat of pummeling goes a long way to a pseudo-respect.

The Dawn of Social Dynamics and Hierarchies

As I reached the age where I started to like girls, I based my potential targets on their age.  "How old are you?" was a precursor to sending the friend over to tell her I have a crush on her.  You could never "date" anyone two years younger...especially if you were a girl for crying out loud!  My girl cousin always judged how well I was doing by how old the girl I was dating was. 

Then came the surmounting of bases.  The average age for the first kiss is 15.  To me there was nothing sweet about being 16 and still square.  I'd kissed girls at 8, but I didn't think that counted.  Unfortunately your suaveness is inversely proportionate to your trying.

Young Adulthood

Since I was 19 I felt like time was running out.  Nowadays that's laughable!  But I was a deer caught in the headlights of my options.  I have yet to solidify many of these options, and guess what?  Strangely enough the oncoming vehicle hasn't squished me!  Hmm, maybe it's not real?  Life may not be all about having it figured out according to their standards!

In America it's all about reaching 21 so you can party.  21 year olds in other countries are already phasing out of that novelty, having been able to legally drink in clubs since 18, and practically since 15.  The party scene blurs the next few years.  But it's a blissful blur.

The graph started out-running me with its statistics:
     the average person finishes college at 23
            starts a career at 24
                     gets married at 29 (27 if you're a girl)
                            buys a house at 34
                                ...
                                     dies at 79.

If my life is already mapped out for me, then what's the point of living it?
And if I've gotta check certain flagpoles like a ski race, then am I really free...to ski?

Middle Age

Ooo the ying yang black and white phase of middle age!  On the one hand we've got things figured out to a large extent...on the other hand, we may realize that all our figuring has been on the wrong math equation!  Barking up the wrong tree becomes unbearably noisy, and we're sometimes forced to rethink our identities.  Children leaving home calls roles into question.  Losing our sexual appeal is a deep loss if that's what we have built our worth on. 

It's a time of re-evaluation.  This is always a good thing.  Seldom a comfortable one; always good.

Old Age

As the circle of life closes on itself it again bares too diametrically opposed states:

1) Despair at the loss of everything.  Including dignity, status, and life itself. 
When outward life slows down, we go inwards.  If we hate what's in there, the journey's gonna suck.

OR 2) Hope and peace in the seeds of legacy and regeneration that you have sown. 
A re-prioritized sense of the importance of spirituality emerges. 

Which brings us back to the end of my last post.  Yip, it's about religion.

Cos religion (or spirituality for all those hung up on terms) is a huge deal, no matter what phase of life we're in.  It's like, figuring out the rules of a game before you get too involved in playing is a sure-fire way to increase your chances of winning!

Let's not spend our lives climbing the ladder of success only to discover it's leaning against a building that's been labeled for demolition.

Not to end on a morbid note or anything...here's a little happiness:
LIFE ROCKS; GOD IS EPIC; FALL'S COLORS APPROACH (and another summer awaits!)

The 3 Phases that Everything, and I mean Everything, Goes Through (According to Hegel) - PART 3

     The Grand Finale

Oooo you excited little critter you!  I know you can't wait for me to reveal what Hegel's 3rd phase is!  Good news: I'm a compassionate individual and you have to wait no longer!

Yes the 3rd, and final phase is called...

DIFFERENTIATED UNITY

The circle finally closes on itself like a golden 18th century ring.  It's a marriage of the dispersed elements that were haphazardly causing mischief in the second phase.  It's a new unity that's not primitive like the single life of the first phase, but not overly self-conscious like the adolescent 2nd phase.  It's adulthood, and it's anything but boring!

This Differentiated Unity brings about a new harmony as we can transcend our obsession with difference.

Hegel says that this is evident in Christianity in which God & humanity, Law & grace, Self & Other are reconciled.  There may or may not be confetti involved.

It's love, see, that allows us to live by the Spirit of the Living WORD instead of the written letter of the LAW.  Make sense?  Ok it's abstract...

...but it's also not.  Let me summarize:

When we are young (and when history is young, and philosophy is young, and thought is young) it is necessarily simplistic in its constructions of the universe.  Ignorance is bliss and it's a jolly good phase what...if you can be satisfied with it. 
Once consciousness (or global communication) allows for the idea of contradictory ideas, we are flung into an overly self-conscious phase in which we question everything, and for a while lose our identity.  Woe is us. 
But never fear, because if you are willing to expose yourself to the Dark Knight...no wait, the Dark Night, then the 3rd phase will dawn with new, unifying light: You can transcend difference without some tacky eclecticism.  You can be yourself because you are accepted just the way you are because of something that's happened on a cosmic scale.  

"Oh there he goes talking about religion again," you may say.

Well firstly, yes.

and Secondly...duh!!

Oh, and PS: http://www.AsleepInEden.com/

The 3 Phases that Everything, and I mean Everything, Goes Through (According to Hegel) - PART 2

Dum dum dee dum...Phase 2 of the growth: 

Now this part is both paradigm-shifting and uncomfortable.   Remember what it was like when you first realized that everyone was forming opinions about you?  Everyone!  Ah, the glorious hyper-self-consciousness of the teenage years!  What dawning had you awakened to?  Metaphorically, of course.  I'm well aware that you hardly ever awoke at dawn in your teenage years!

You awoke to the 2nd of Hegel's phases: A Dualistic Split.

This involves a fragmented view of reality caused by fractured divisions between Self and Other.

- In religion this is typical of the Judaism.  A chasm between people and God leads them to live a nomadic lifestyle and live in, what Hegel calls “an unhappy consciousness” (42).  Wondering around, waiting for paradise.  Some Christians...a lot of Christians...still inhabit this mindset.  The Law is something imposed on them from above; something they can never live up to.

- In child development this takes the form of developing the analytical left side of the brain through education and acculturation.  The terrible two's say waddup.  This process peaks in adolescence, when the child realizes the power of their own opinions.   

- This is the modernist phase of philosophy in which Descartes’ “I think therefore I am” rules.  And it's all about me.  Humans abuse the planet to make themselves nice pretty outfits, or to make their bank accounts look nice and pretty.  Hey, everything is a bank account, we begin to think.  Time is divided into neat little compartments, each allocated to particular causes.  Time itself is a bank account with an unalterable balance that we continuously make withdrawals from.

It's an uncomfortable phase because it's the recognition of how far we have to go.  We suddenly understand something of how little we understand (for some teenagers that takes longer than others :)  But it's necessary. 

At this point you could run back to where the world was unified and everything seemed hunky dorey...and live a life of denial...

Or you could jump down the rabbit hole head first and hope that hitting your head on the bottom causes you to become open-minded instead of well...the Mad Hatter.

If he was sane he'd never be spilling the tea!

Awakening to an Enchanted Reality in God...a Portal of 1's and 0's

Asleep in Eden.com

Go to ==> Asleep in Eden.com
Thank thee kindly!

The 3 Phases that Everything, and I mean Everything, Goes Through (According to Hegel) - PART 1

“Nietsche is dead” - God

There was this philosopher bruv Hegel who painted a circular yet progressive picture of time.  He reckoned that every kind of history (including philosophical, religious and even the history of the psyche of your eccentric neighbour Gerry) progresses through three phases (Postmodern Philosophy of Religion 38-42):

 PART 1 (Second and third parts to come...)

The first is called Monism .  It’s characterised by a primitive unity, harmony.  There is coherence between self and other as they’re all part of an undivided whole. 

-In religious terms this is exemplified by the ancient Greek, Vedic and Roman religions.  In Biblical terms it’s the unspoiled world of Eden.  Oral traditions emphasise this unity and its holism still penetrates the African worldview.  There is theanthropocosmic union between humanity, God and nature. 

The same concept occurs in biology and psychodynamics.   Babies don’t recognise the difference between themselves and others until they’re 6 months old.  Some cases of stroke victims as well as autism are characterised by a sense of blurred lines between self and other, with the boundaries bleeding into each other so to speak.  Jill Bolte Taylor speaks about the blissful realisations that came about as a result of a stroke in her left hemisphere.  Her right, holistic hemisphere didn’t differentiate between herself and creation.  

 http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

God Can't be a Luke-Warm Cup of Tea

     We can’t escape responsibility.  Each generation is responsible for inheriting the world, modifying it and then passing it on.  We only have temporary custody of this planet, but what we choose to do with it will have eternal consequences.  Pondering the profound and ambiguous may seem like trying to read in the dark – a futile attempt to extract meaning in a sphere where our senses are far too inadequate. 

“YOLO; Live for the moment, as long as you’re happy, it’s all relative.”  The acceptance of this apophatic existence may be mere excuses that justify living the way we want to.  “God may or may not exist...who knows, so why let it affect your life?”

See it can’t be a black and white issue.  Either this Entity/Force/Being/Power exists and the structure of things is the way that the prophets, saints and mystics have said it is…

…Or it’s not. 

Like C.S. Lewis said, either Jesus is a madman or real.  If he’s either then a vague respect for Him is inappropriate.

Sure there can be variation on what you see God as, but all the major religions advocate the fact that, since God exists, our lives should be rearranged fundamentally.  That’s the path to true peace.  The amazing thing is that this God, although infinitely bigger and deeper and transcendental, penetrates our lives.  Hello there ants, let’s have a cup of tea.

Boil that tea so that the substance transmutes to a higher state - from liquid to vapor.  Please.  If not, then ditch the tea and get your kicks from drugs.

“What is man that you are mindful of him, the Son of man that ...you set him a little lower than the angels”.  But God prefers human worship to that of angels because we have free choice.

Yes, I know you’re Mommy’s little angel.  Now what are you going to do about it?