Wednesday, September 05, 2007
"To resist the sheeplife our supposed masters plan for us, we must enter the wilderness, both inner and outer, and search for knowledge. Unless we have a hankering for desolate places, this need not be literal. We do not quest for an actual wilderness, but the spirit the wilderness represents: we must seek the margins, both of society and of our minds. We must reject comfort, and seek out a wild, free, unfettered life. We must get out into the world away from that which is familiar, and fall into chance meetings with bikers and businessmen, with soldiers and protesters and hobo-saints. We must be open to them and the tales of their days, for in doing so we explore the outer reaches of our very selves. Of course, this is not without risk. Dragons have always lurked in the blank parts of the map. But even aside from the dangers out on the road, we face the fear of those we leave behind, those grown fat and dull on their ruminant lives. The common slur is of insanity, but what do we care for such pettiness? Hemingway had it right: we will `face eternity, or the lack of it, each day'. Madness, in the sense of an apartness from society bringing a lack of regard for its petty rules, has always been entwined with the search for enlightenment. What do such trials matter compared to what we will gain? In shedding the certainties that bind us, we will be free to embrace the truth that we are transitory. Existence is fleeting. There was nothing before, and there will be nothing after. There is this, and this alone. Can we afford to squander our scant time here in deadening ourselves with the dark light of television, with intoxicants, with the corrosions of faith? Unthinkable. We must fling ourselves out, and glory in the wonders beyond our sight. This world will arc on, but for each of us the twilight comes, and it comes harder than we could ever imagine. We must not be unknowing. We must not go to the bolt-gun as the lamb bred for butchery. We must truly experience existence. At least then, when it comes, we'll take the shot knowing that we stood and screamed that for a while, we too were here."
From "Unquiet Desperation"www.myspace.com/unquietdesperation
From "Unquiet Desperation"www.myspace.com/unquietdesperation
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