Without a Song

Sit down at a keyboard or a blank piece of paper. Fill it. Take 20 minutes or so to do so. That’s the assignment. OK.

Today not OK.

The yesterdays of years past were OK. Lots to think about. And so to write about. Pages filled quickly. They posed questions of the times. They suggested answers, or at least possible answers. So many options to choose among. So many ideas to sort through. So much yet to understand. But the process was exciting, enticing. Searching for meaning among the heaps of ideas always present is both a challenge and a joy.

The mind is agile if you let it. It can swing and turn on a dime. It can whirl into the third or fourth dimension in a flash. With those movements the mind follows and knows its company is good. All is OK. All makes sense. Maybe not to you and I at any given moment, but it does all fit together.

The sum of the parts equals the whole. The whole broken apart yields all the parts it needs to become whole again, when they are pieced together!

Recently my mind is at peace. Seemingly it is whole. Yet a nagging sense of something missing echoes my conscience. Am I on the precipice of discovery? Or the abyss? Peace or abyss? How does peace enter such a picture?

Not sure. But I’ll take a stab at it.

Today the keyboard beckons but the page remains blank. Well sort of; after all you are reading the page, right?!

Yes, you are. But the ramblings of my mind are what you are reading. Whether there is cogent thought presented here is open to broad interpretation! I am willing to go forward with this. It is in the end an exploration of what we think, the thoughts not thought before, or at least ideas placed in relation to other ideas ill fitting as they are.

The exploration is what we are about. It is the commentary on what is happening around us. It is the finding of meaning in a complex universe where everything is possible and every resource is available to address needs. The finding of the necessary needle in the mounds of haystacks is but one of the mysteries we labor over. Yes, once the needle is found, one must consider which problem it is among the many it will be used to apply its solution.

Is it a medical conundrum we are focusing on? Or a political one? Or a geopolitical enigma desiring solution over the ages? Perhaps it is a marital issue or a workplace disagreement we struggle over. So many layers of consideration. Of problems and applications of balm.

The ordered mind sorts these things out to a point. Society, however, is not an ordered mind. Society is a construct of millions of minds contorted by history and experience over time thus further complicating the playing field. Order, you see, is relative; relative to time, place, history and context. All are in play all the time. We do not have the luxury of stopping time, performing an exploratory surgery or autopsy on the problem to discover the best solution. No; we have only our wits to use and palliate the circumstances. Not solve. Palliate.

Stop the world we want to get off? Hardly practical but at times we wish it were possible.

If what we are experiencing is uncomfortable and unpleasant, perhaps we need to find another approach to handling it? Do you think? And does this involve only ourselves?

No, it doesn't. All are involved who are affected by it or want to control it for their own reasons. That’s where diplomacy and sharing enters the picture. Whether this is an international peace issue or a medical discovery puzzle matters little. Defining the problem is the first order of business. Identifying who is involved is the second. The third is knowing the resources available for solving the enigma. The fourth is the hardest: sharing and working with people at odds to craft the solution. Then apply it.

It doesn't matter if the issue is financial, relationship, construction, medical or musical. We can perform the dance solo or in ensemble. The universe of experience is more complex but more rewarding if we engage with all of the others.

It is why the universe is so complex. Not one of us has the answer. At least not alone. So why do we continue to fill blank pages?

Engage.

March 18, 2015