Tuesday, May 6, 2014

if i

many years ago people just like you and i walked this earth because we had no other choice.  our food our curiosity and our livelihood depended on our bravery to cross the hills guided only by the wisdom passed down to us from those who came before.

we share many things with these people who came before although we belong to a new time of industrialization and global communication.  this way of living is still new to us.  we are unsure of our own futures and curiosities in the same way that wanderers once did not know if they would survive to see the other side of the hills surrounding them.  we are faced with new problems which create a new hunger inside of us that fuels the very question of human being: where do we fit into this world and how to we come out of it with the promise that future generations will be able to prosper?

if i stayed home i would stay hungry.  i've tasted the fruits of question and i've seen the view from beyond the hills which proverbially embody our curiosity of the world.  i know now that i have a job to do and i know that there is a temporariness in my wanderings as one day this same world will eat me up as it has all of my ancestors before me.  having said that i also realize that i am to find meaning and reason in my travels and to pass on the knowledge i've gained so that the people of the world might too feed that hunger to know what exists on the other side of the hills.

now i know too that i have been at times asking the wrong questions and sought only to better myself in my travels however i seek not forgiveness for my indulgences of the world; i know that every step i've taken in my path around the earth has been a step i desired greatly at one time and every step has taken me to where i now reside today.

today my eyes are wide open in my preparations to again walk the strange corners of the earth which harbor great amounts of knowledge and understanding to be gathered and i know how to survive the calamity which stands between man's curiosity and man's wisdom.  i'd be lying if i said i wasn't nervous about my ensuing travels but with nervousness comes extra attention to safety and if i weren't nervous i would be foolishly ambitious; an ambition which claims the souls of many who have walked before me.  i speak both physically and of course metaphorically as there are many ways to be harmed not only to the body but to the mind which is equally as fragile.

i'll be home again and i'll carve another line into the side of my eyes, a trait which i've learned displays the experiences we've written in our lives and i wear them wisely and proud.  i'll tie another string around this earth and before long i'll begin the process of knitting a thread of curiosity in the same manner as the wanderers who came before me and those who have yet to walk.

2 comments:

  1. The Dokkodo says not only should we "not regret what we have done," but that we should never depend on a partial feeling, and finally Musashi says "“Do not sleep under a roof. Carry no money or food. Go alone to places frightening to the common brand of men. Become a criminal of purpose. Be put in jail, and extricate yourself by your own wisdom.” (All metaphorical of course).

    The thing I realize now is that we're all kind of crawling along our own path to wisdom. Nerves and fear, these are tools like happiness and love. The easy decisions in life carry no fear, and these tend to bring us little light.

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  2. Man's curiosity and his quest for meaning and answers against the great unknown is what liberates him; or at least, it's his attempt to attain freedom. Now, I'm at a time in my life where I've become pessimistic and I've almost lost faith in this joueny... for I see these attempts as futile actions and as old as humanity itself.
    You were right when you said that one can be harmed physically or metaphorically, because I have been on journy for meaning and freedom... but my joueny left me stranded in the middle of a dead desert with no roads leading back home...

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