Friday, July 10, 2009

The Rubicon (at Its Source) is a Trickle


Perhaps it is not necessary to pinpoint the exact moment - the sequence of events; the cast or stage settings - that divide what went before from what is now.
The event itself is drenched in static, soaked in fear and over time, decorated with all manner of first-person imperfect significance.
Some call it innocence, some naivety: but with its loss comes the realisation that all is not set in stone; that statues will fall (by human hand or by slow decay); that nothing is ever absolute; that everything you were told, everything you were taught, is an interpretation.
The feeling of dread that ensues is merely the brain adjusting and correcting its neural paths – evolution to ensure survival.
Being cursed with awareness of the process (emotion) is what makes it uncomfortable.
But who wants to learn what they need know?
Far better to know what we need to learn.
Chemical activity knits together our sensory receipts, weighing up urgencies of input against possible survival responses – I am/I exist in the moments between call and response; idle processing time – the ghost in this meat machine.


14 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Far better to know what we need to learn", hmmmmm....maybe this was why I was such an egg-head in school. Really, most of us know what we neede to learn by 7th form( if not earlier ). The rest is gained through life, itself. And who better a teacher?

James Higham said...

Existentialism required here.

the walking man said...

Alter the chemical activity to alter the concepts of what we are attempting to evolve into.

Garth said...

Subby: not sure if I got that one right at all :)

James: non-sequiturs welcome too

Walking Man: the chemical activity (synaptic firing) is unalterable, it is the paths created that can be altered.

Barlinnie said...

I get a real sense of Hitchcock with your photie my friend. Needless to say, bloody good work again.

Garth said...

Jimmy: Thanks again - not sure I deserve any link to Hitchcock tho' :)

James Higham said...

In the sense that "everything you were told, everything you were taught, is an interpretation."

Garth said...

James: or as Yodood so eloquently put it:
"No thing remembered is ever again seen as it is,
But is laden with barnacles of meaning"

James Higham said...

And those barnacles are bstds to sand off too.

Yodood said...

As a tortured soul once said on Babylon 5, "You cannot know my pain until you understand my fears."

Diane Dehler said...

Hi Pisces,
The moment the innocence is lost it's ghost awakens. Very thoughtful post. Hope all is well in your world. I agree with you about selective reality. lol

lady grinning soul said...

beautiful reflection on the nature of consciousness and knowledge. i love the incorporation of terminology relating to the brain's processes.

Garth said...

James: can't find them most of the time :)

Yodood: Babylon 5 at it's peak was an incredibly well thought out work.

Princess: thanks for dropping by :)

wandering savant: we are little more than a complex series of impulses ;]

Roxanne said...

I guess it's you know what you need to learn before you learn what you need to know. How was it?

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