Wednesday, April 16, 2008
discovery - Wednesday Apr. 16, 2008
today’s Musing written and published from south Calgary, near Fish Creek Park
walk report: -4C/24F, bird songs roused me before the alarm; sunny, calm; lawns decorated with white frosting afford footprint art opportunities for Gusta, I stuck to the bare sidewalks; my pace is quickened these last few days in part because my ankle is getting so much better, in part because I am trying to walk more distance (illusion of exercise) in a shorter time (so much to do); my blood is moving faster, my body is moving faster, my head is racing and my waist line is steady-as-it-goes
citizens of the world, we swagger in collective arrogance that we know it all, have it all, need and want it all – yet, consider that we are civilization still in the starting gate, 50,000 years of learning got us to this moment; the next 50 just another split-second in time which, depending on your view, makes life wholly insignificant or the most powerful force
clichés dot our vernacular describing JOL not being destination - the journey is what is all about – poppycock; as surely as Wal-mart’s ‘reducing prices every day’ will never get them to zero, we (the collective 6 billion) will never know it all or reach a point of all knowing
looking around at a world of technology, medical breakthroughs and the leading edge of so many leading edges, one must wonder what’s left to discover, what’s left to be learned about reality or about dreams when we think we know so much; sadly, I think we know so little but sit complacent that ‘so much is known’ that we each can only contribute our collective insignificance, like a grain of sand in the Sahara; each year’s exponential increase in the world’s body of knowledge must surely be getting us to some penultimate level beyond which we cannot go, soon the increases will be in minute increments of learning some nuance or beating a world record by 1/100th of a second, eventually there must be a maximum, right?
most JOL are littered with unplanned, unexpected and often unfulfilling side trips to destinations never imagined or known about before landing there; before you roll your eyes and speculate I’ve ingested too much caffeine this morning, consider that the JOL is not from Calgary to Vancouver or London to Frankfurt; consider that the JOL is from birth to death or from ignorance to enlightenment
the JOL could last a second of epiphany or a lifetime of hum drum; things that change the world and life on this planet fall into two groups (doesn’t everything?) the first being things about the planet’s behavior (like spinning every 24 hours, revolving around the sun every 364.25 years, wobbling to create seasons, grinding away a new mountain range every few million years) and our behavior, our JOL
our JOL is full of discoveries; these fall into two groups, those we were looking (chemists in a lab trying till something works) for and those of us who look up now and then to say ‘ah+ha, look what I found!’
I am sure many great things have been discovered by people who were not looking for anything, but I suspect the overwhelming statistic would be that anything worthy of making life more valuable for our world, anything worth knowing that improves the human condition and the development of civilization was discovered by someone or some group of people who were looking for something, open to discovering anything that showed up wherever it showed up
loving discovery, I sit on the edge of my seat in anticipation of what happens next – my journey of life (JOL) is neither destination or trip; it takes place in many destinations and along the pathways between them, but for me the discovery of something new on purpose or by accident, is the beverage I thirst for, crave and chase every day; some days it involves learning new things about a butterfly, some days it involves learning something about the world – every day it involves learning something about myself
Mark Kolke
338,704
197.8
... with your voice, teach in order to learn
What do you think? Join the discussion - comments are welcomed - please write.
To subscribe to Mark's Musings daily email distribution, write to mark@markmusing.com
©2008 MaxComm Communications
walk report: -4C/24F, bird songs roused me before the alarm; sunny, calm; lawns decorated with white frosting afford footprint art opportunities for Gusta, I stuck to the bare sidewalks; my pace is quickened these last few days in part because my ankle is getting so much better, in part because I am trying to walk more distance (illusion of exercise) in a shorter time (so much to do); my blood is moving faster, my body is moving faster, my head is racing and my waist line is steady-as-it-goes
citizens of the world, we swagger in collective arrogance that we know it all, have it all, need and want it all – yet, consider that we are civilization still in the starting gate, 50,000 years of learning got us to this moment; the next 50 just another split-second in time which, depending on your view, makes life wholly insignificant or the most powerful force
clichés dot our vernacular describing JOL not being destination - the journey is what is all about – poppycock; as surely as Wal-mart’s ‘reducing prices every day’ will never get them to zero, we (the collective 6 billion) will never know it all or reach a point of all knowing
looking around at a world of technology, medical breakthroughs and the leading edge of so many leading edges, one must wonder what’s left to discover, what’s left to be learned about reality or about dreams when we think we know so much; sadly, I think we know so little but sit complacent that ‘so much is known’ that we each can only contribute our collective insignificance, like a grain of sand in the Sahara; each year’s exponential increase in the world’s body of knowledge must surely be getting us to some penultimate level beyond which we cannot go, soon the increases will be in minute increments of learning some nuance or beating a world record by 1/100th of a second, eventually there must be a maximum, right?
most JOL are littered with unplanned, unexpected and often unfulfilling side trips to destinations never imagined or known about before landing there; before you roll your eyes and speculate I’ve ingested too much caffeine this morning, consider that the JOL is not from Calgary to Vancouver or London to Frankfurt; consider that the JOL is from birth to death or from ignorance to enlightenment
the JOL could last a second of epiphany or a lifetime of hum drum; things that change the world and life on this planet fall into two groups (doesn’t everything?) the first being things about the planet’s behavior (like spinning every 24 hours, revolving around the sun every 364.25 years, wobbling to create seasons, grinding away a new mountain range every few million years) and our behavior, our JOL
our JOL is full of discoveries; these fall into two groups, those we were looking (chemists in a lab trying till something works) for and those of us who look up now and then to say ‘ah+ha, look what I found!’
I am sure many great things have been discovered by people who were not looking for anything, but I suspect the overwhelming statistic would be that anything worthy of making life more valuable for our world, anything worth knowing that improves the human condition and the development of civilization was discovered by someone or some group of people who were looking for something, open to discovering anything that showed up wherever it showed up
loving discovery, I sit on the edge of my seat in anticipation of what happens next – my journey of life (JOL) is neither destination or trip; it takes place in many destinations and along the pathways between them, but for me the discovery of something new on purpose or by accident, is the beverage I thirst for, crave and chase every day; some days it involves learning new things about a butterfly, some days it involves learning something about the world – every day it involves learning something about myself
Mark Kolke
338,704
197.8
... with your voice, teach in order to learn
What do you think? Join the discussion - comments are welcomed - please write.
To subscribe to Mark's Musings daily email distribution, write to mark@markmusing.com
©2008 MaxComm Communications
