jakebe | A Seperate Thing (Reply)

Hey there, all...

Welcome to

lynxkitten and any other person I may have missed. <:) Venting bit by bit over the past few weeks has helped a lot as far as getting comfortable inside my own skin. It's a process that I find really fascinating, learning to just be who you are; without sounding *too* egotistical (hopefully), I think your own personal quirks are the most interesting. You really *notice* something you do for the first time and you stop to wonder, "Where did I pick that up?" And you have to go back through all of this forgotten country to trace it back, and in a lot of cases the end result is nowhere near as good as the trip it took to get there. But ain't that always the way? I've been thinking a lot about well, everything, and I've come to the conclusion that I really don't *know* much of anything. I know a little about a lot, though. Seems to be the common thing, anyway. What would I like to learn? The idea of learning new things has consumed me recently, so there's this ever-growing list of things I want to delve into: theology, philosophy, Linux, Russian, French, mythology, faerie tales, writing, history, poetic criticism, poetic theory, etymology, popular culture history, singing...and the list goes on. I've been reading voraciously these days; mostly things about Buddhism and Zen, and how they've mutated as they've gone from place to place. It's very interesting, American Zen is already a very distinctive 'brand' in and of itself, even though it's relatively a baby as far as Buddhist history goes. The implications of American Zen extend quite a bit from Bradbury to Kerouac, and all sorts of unexpected places in between. It's developed into something very distinctly Western, but also very distinctly Zen...I think that we've taken to it quite nicely. ;) Even though my nature is more inclined towards Soto, I have a secret interest in Rinzai; there's something alluring about the intensity of it. I've also been wondering about the nature and possible existence of God. Is there a God? What is it like? Why do we believe in God, so strongly, especially when we can't experience the divine in any way readily tangible? There are some folks who would disagree already; God *can* be experienced tangibly...for a lot of animists (myself included) God is everywhere...at this desk, inside this keyboard, inside me, all around the air. It's not something that can be logically explained. It's just something that I know. But that kind of explanation can't be translated to a skeptic so that he understands what I mean. And there's the rub; God can't be communicated, only experienced...and how else can you share an experience except through communication? The best that words can do is point to a reflection of something; you can only hope that the person thinks to look at the source of the reflection. Hmm...this should have gone elsewhere. It's amazingly uncool to talk about matters of faith and spirituality these days. You either get people wanting to tear your opinions down or people who just want you to shut the fuck up. :) Anyway, I'm here sipping weak (but good!) coffee, trying to get my focus for work. I'm trying to organize the New Age/Occult section, and it's going to be an absolute beast. :P There used to be different subheadings under it, but they've all been shuffled around so much. Another big problem is that it's really hard to pin down what the hell these people are talking about. "Are you talking about...soul journeys?" "Well, yeah, but not really...it's like....x." "What's that?" "Well, x is sorta like travelling to another dimension." "Oh, so you're talking about planar travel." "No, that's not it either." "Well, shit." And so forth and so on. The best you could do is use the most fanciful, vague terms possible and hope that people get it. So I'm going to put my metaphysical poet hat on today and hack through all the stuff. At least Wicca, Magic(k?) and the Unexplained are all easy to identify. :) Hmm, the coffee seems to have done it's job. Work for me!