Time Suckage

As another birthday rapidly approaches, I wonder why I get so angry. Birthdays are times of celebration, cake, presents. But each year I end up in a ball on my couch rocking and crying...At what? I think I have finally figured it out. I am mourning the loss of time, the days I didn't do all of the things I was supposed to do this year. For example, write an award winning novel, get married, lose 30 pounds. Time will forever be an enemy which is both ironic and useless to resist. Because even as I write this, time continues to pass, fleetingly by.

Door into Ocean

"But one must learn to know oneself in order to know who one is. For what comes after the door is, surprisingly enough, a boundless expanse full of unprecedented uncertainty . . . it is the world of water." (Jung, 1969, p. 21)

Dead Trees

I am often mesmerized by the form trees take in the winter. Simple, naked, dark limbs provide such a stark contrast to the pristine white snow that lays innocently over them. It is such a beautiful example of the cycle of death. A tree rids itself of the cumbersome leaves of the previous year and with each leaf, it slowly suffers, dies a little, in order to restore its vitality for the upcoming year. The tree in a Hillman sense experiences a displaced passageway through a door, shedding it previous self, to die and be reborn again.

Death, Transition, Remembering, Doors

The passage through a door or window represents death, but it doesn’t represent the end of life. In fact, it represents the rebirth or transition of one’s life into something else; some say something more magnificent or more enlightened. In order to release the opposition of the two worlds gained through the transition, it is necessary to experience loss and remember what has been lost. This cycle of loss, death, transition, remembering and rebirth, by crossing through a passageway, is exemplified by the ancient Sumerian myth of Inanna, and her descent into the underworld. In her journey, she loses everything material and external, allowing her to be reborn with the more important gift of knowledge.

Death Ain't Half Bad?

There is an older woman delivering a manifesto in the coffee shop I am currently studying at. She has cornered some young college students and is talking about the government declaring martial law in MT, secret concentration camps, and other secret conspiracies that we aren't aware of. She is not worried for the older experienced, wiser generation, no, she is worried about the younger generation. I am intently listening for the key to this dissertation and then it comes. "Thankfully, I have found Jesus Christ, the lord our savior. This enables me to sleep at night." Simultaneously while I am listening to this woman spout, I am reading about "doors and windows" and "death and rebirth." I come upon this information, "But death is also something which has been notoriously misunderstood, and in many respects, this misunderstanding has been promulgated, encouraged, and promoted as a means of control by various covert agendas." Then I hear the woman speak of Satan and the moralesness of people. Then I realize things are so interconnected. Death, fear, control, and hidden agendas. Death isn't to be feared, that is what Hillman is trying to repeatedly express in his novel. Death has been given a negative image to illicit fear, to gain control from various parties. Death isn't the end, it is just the decomposition of your material self, the passage to another realm of consciousness. Does this make the year's of programming to view death in a certain light any easier to change? I am not quite sure, but I am beginning to understand how words are manipulated to gain control, everything is cyclical, doesn't have one definition, but is fluid. Now I just have to figure out how to survive amongst the changing definitions.

The Science of Sleep

Melanie, has attempted to light a fire under my non-rapidly blogging behind. So Melanie Smith, I dedicate this blog to you. I recently watched an amazing movie very pertinent to this class. A movie that everyone should see entitled, "The Science of Sleep." It is directed by Michael Gondry who directed "Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind." One of my all time favorite movies. The main character Stephane's "fanciful dream life begins bleeding into his real life". Michael Gondry explores not outer, but rather inner, space. He also explores the interaction between the worlds we inhabit: nature, society, and the mind. This very much relates to our discussions in Sexson's classes. How do our anxieties, hopes, fears, and yearnings affect our dreams and our reality? What do the dreams mean for our waking life? Where do the dreams end and the reality begin?

Boycotting Reality

Sexson sarcastically posed the question in class on Wednesday, "Who would like to live in the world of Don Quixote and Romanticism?" Where is the fun in that! Especially, when we can live in a world of hyper realism, where everything we do and say is exactly how it happened, total and utter fact. Amidst modern society's obsession with reality television, celebrity gossip (I am guilty of reading US Weekly daily), and the latest political or social scandal, I am beginning to long for a world of Romanticism. A world in which there are values in place and honor to be gained through one's actions of nobility and valour. Where people's fate is determined upfront based on their actions and character. There is no accountability for one's own actions. Our sue happy society has managed to find a way to pass the blame to anything and everything around them. I am sick and tired of watching ridiculous people degrade themselves for a lens, fame, and money. The fact that I know more about Britney Spears pathetic life and not about how to improve daily life around me is...quite frankly...sad. So maybe I will start my Quixote revolution, in which delusions of grandeur and honor take center stage over REALITY, Bluck:(