Your Right To Say It

   
     There is a book I go back to every now and then to read a part I haven’t read before.  Its called Tying Rocks To Clouds: Meetings and Conversations With Wise and Spiritual People by William Elliot and its one of those books that you can pick up whenever and you needn’t read from beginning to end (I still haven’t finished it).  It is non-fiction and in it Elliot has sought out leading voices in spirituality such as Ram Dass, The Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, B.F. Skinner and many others.  He interviewed them all with the same fundamental questions about existence and their personal beliefs.  I thought it would be interesting and fun to try to tackle these questions for myself and post them up here.  I invite Nick and all of you to do the same and share your own answers.  There are twenty-four questions and at first I was going to finish them all and then start posting.  However, this is pretty heavy stuff we’re talking about here and I realized that each question not only required a lot of contemplation on my part, but a lot of words too.  The answers themselves could take you in a thousand different directions.  So this is only part one of a series.  After this I will try to post two at a time, making this a 13 part series.  So at the rate I’m going: Part 13, copyright 2009.  I really hope thats a joke.   

1. On What Main Beliefs (Or Truths) Do You Base Your Life?

      I believe that life is a relative experience.  Everyone is living their own reality; their own universe.  This universe is based on the sum of their experiences combined with how they think the world should be and how they negotiate the way it actually is, as well as some inate identity you were born with (have you ever heard how a baby’s temprament never really changes as it grows into an adult?).  Keeping that in mind, I feel that there is no one right way to live.  What works for some people will not work for others.  It’s my experiance that this idea contradicts many other peoples beliefs (basically that there is one right way to live and they’re striving to achieve it) so it scares some or atleast makes some feel uncomfortable.  It shouldn’t.  This notion is something to be embrassed and loved.  The universe runs on infinite diversity in infinite combinations.  This can be seen all around us.  It is diversity that keeps the ecosystem flourishing and keeps the universe alive.  It is when governments, religions, and people try to proclaim that they know the right way that everyone should follow that people become truly at odds with each other; people are persecuted, get hurt, die, wars start, etc.  That is not to say that I don’t believe in rules or laws or that those that harm the community shouldn’t be dealt with in some fashion.  I simply believe in compassion, because even though I say that I believe we are all living our own seperate reality I also believe in the paradox of this–we are all in it together.  We are alone, but not.  And at our most basic we are all the same person, aren’t we?  We all want the same things.  We want to be loved and give love, to be nourished, to be respected, to enjoy life and be happy, to create and be productive.  Simply put, I’d say try to be happy and at peace with yourself above all, do what you feel is right, and try not to hurt anyone along the way.

Nick posted this list and his responses over at his personal blog TCRA.  Then he tagged me with it, meaning that it was my turn.  Also I believe that he, like many who have visited this site, just wanted some activity on my end.  Sometimes I need a little extra push as I am a world class procrastinator.  On top of that I’ve been busy with work and school and other aspects of my life.  I just wanted to thank everyone for their support, interest and patience.  Rest assured there will be more posts in the future and that your comments have not fallen on deaf ears (or would that be blind eyes?).  An especially loud shout-out goes to Inaeth whose posts I’ve followed with great interest and whose blog I visit regularly now.  Iif you haven’t yet, go check it out right now.  He’s a cool cat with an informed view of the world that puts me to shame.  Now let’s get to it —

A Book That Changed Your Life – It’s hard for me to say that any book literally changed my life.  However, a book that profoundly affected my outlook on the world and the way I think about things would have to be Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.  I have a poster up in my room now that was inspired by Ishmael and I think speaks to the spirit of the book.  When you first look at it up close it is a mess of white squiggles and blue blotches.  It’s only when you step back that the message reveals itself:      

           “The genius of seeing that which is so evident as to be unseeable”

A Book That You’ve Read More Than Once – Slaughterhouse Five Or The Children’s Crusade by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

A Book You’d Want On A Desert Island – A big one.  That floats.  I’d use the pages for sails. 

A Book That Made You Giddy – The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: The Increasingly Inaccurate Trilogy.  “Zaphod Beeblebrox crawled bravely along a tunnel, like the hell of a guy he was.” “You’re a Jerk, Dent. A complete kneebiter.” “Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.” “Its unpleasantly like being drunk.’ ‘Whats so unpleasant about being drunk?’ ‘You ask a glass of water.’” “Ford, I think I’m a sofa.’ ‘I know how you feel.’” “If theres anything more important than my ego round, I want it caught and shot now.” “Don’t try to outweird me, I get stranger things than you free with my breakfast cereal.” “It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.”

A Book That You Wished Had Been Written –  I’m still holding out hope for this one: Kurt Vonnegut, 87 years old and running on nothing but unfiltered Pall Malls, mentioned a novel he was writing about a comedian back in 2001 when I was fortunate enough to see him at the Chicago Public Library.  He mentioned it briefly again in his latest collection of essays A Man Without A Country.  A new Kurt Vonnegut novel would be an event of epic proportions for me.  Would I give my right arm?  I’d give someones.  Second place goes to A Salmon of Doubt – the novel the late great Douglas Adams was working on when he passed away.  It may have become the 6^th book in the Hitchhikers series as Adams said it wasn’t working as a Dirk Gently novel and the last Hitchhikers book had a bummer of an ending.    

A Book That Made You Sob – The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall

A Book That You Wished Had Never Been Written – The Wooden Sea by Jonathon Carroll. Worth reading if only for how spectacularly baffling it is.  This one pissed me off so much I had to make a friend read it just so I had somebody to bitch with.  He has still not forgiven me.  Also, I could do without anything by Ann Coulter.

A Book That You Are Currently Reading – The Seven-Percent Solution by Nicolas Meyer.  Sherlock Holmes And Sigmund Freud Together Again For the First Time!  I swear to God it says that on the jacket. 

A Book That You Have Been Meaning to Read – You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers and Cloning the Buddha by Richard Heinberg.  Gotta clone somebody.

Hello, my name is Ryan and this is the beginning of The Blog.  I hope it will be a good blog.  It has the novelty of being written by two people.  Two old friends who grew up a block away from each other, who attended the same schools, had the same teachers and yet whose ideologies couldn’t be more different.  Nick is truly the Yin to my Yang, the Christian to my Agnostic, the Peanut Butter to my Jelly.

If you’re looking for the safe, solitary, mental masturbation of a solo blogger I suggest you take your business elsewhere.  Here we peddle the unnatural, sloppy, social intercourse that only 2 bloggers at once can have.  Never before have the boundaries of blogging been pushed so far.  Never before have metaphors been stretched so thin. 

You should know that I haven’t read what Nick has written just as he won’t read what I do until we post.  This may change down the road, but for now I think we’ll do follow up posts if we want to address each others directly.

For this first blog, Nick suggested that we begin by introducing ourselves, laying out who we are, what we believe and why. 

Without further ado, I am 24 years old and grew up the youngest of 3 children to a middle class suburban family.  There is a large age gap between my self and my siblings so I also have the traits of an only child.  I have a fantastic loner complex.

Growing up I didn’t have any interest in politics or world events.  Everything was perfect and safe from my neighborhood abode and the turmoil of the world seemed very far way, indeed.  I credit my girlfriend in high school with showing me the importance of having an opinion, being informed and standing up for what you believe. 

I consider myself to be a moral person and a Humanist.  I try to do right where right without any hope of reward or fear of punishment.  While my beliefs have been more refined over the years I can’t think of any one event that solidified it all for me.  At my most basic, I have always been this way and felt the way I do about the world. 

About a year ago, my mother told me a story about going to a parent/teacher conference \when I was in Kindergarten.  Play time back then consisted of diving into a box of animal toys.  Everyone wanted to be The Lion.  Each day, fights would ensue over who got to be him.  My teacher told my mother that I was the mediator, trying to make sure everyone got along.  I even came up with a system for who got The Lion on which day.  I remember this system.  I also remember one conniving little diaper rash who always lied about what day was his.  But I honestly don’t remember creating this system.  Still, I can’t think of a better story to tell you about who I am.

            Well, I if you’re not hooked by now, I can only assure you that the best is yet to come and platitudes are comforting.  To all of you blog enthusiasts out there; don’t be shy with comments, criticisms or suggestions.  If there is anything you’d like to see discussed on here, by all means let us know.  There are over 277,000 other blogs on wordpress.  Something might not get said. 

            Again, this is our blog.  Welcome to it.