Wednesday, April 09, 2008
seem to be - Wednesday Apr. 9, 2008
today’s Musing written and published from south Calgary, near Fish Creek Park
walk report: -5C/23F, fresh, clear, quiet, trees seem to be proudly bud-ready yet leafing out is still weeks off; Mallard drake meeting in middle of a street – Gusta’s invitation to play was declined in favor his flight to a higher point, stoic head high as if to answer ‘we’ll see’
separating dreams from delusion is difficult for dogs, ducks and most of us; world changes - plate moving against plate, occasional earthquakes, some tidal waves and volcanic eruptions dot geology – evidence of inexorable slow pace of change, every epoch, epoch in and epoch out over thousands of millennia with little large scale drama in the shorter term
most of us, I believe, hold to the notion we can defy this natural order; chief among these seem to be the pace of societal behavior; we push information/ideas through glass, air or space so fast it seem instantaneous or even faster with scant (we’ll see) evidence ubiquitous information flow changes anything on a grand scale in this world very quickly
whether China’s democratization is inevitable is debatable; I see Olympic Torch Relay protests as a much less galvanizing moment of change than they seem to be a a footnote on a slow turning page of a long old book (Tiananmen Square is on that page and, a few pages before, there were dynasties and a long wall construction project) which, sadly, will soon pass from our daily thoughts as mass attention shifts to some other cause du jour; in a year or ten Tibet will sit where it always has been where mountains move millimeters each millennia
two quotes from Mao Tse-Tung seem appropriate to recall:
“The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history.”
“In waking a tiger, use a long stick.”
I remember a story about when Charles de Gualle asked Mao what he thought of France three hundred years after its revolution; Mao answered, ‘we’ll see’
seasons change – varying by a day or two but generally they arrive and leave on time, each year, every year throughout the years no different than that tree wanting to leaf-out or the drake wanting to pounce on a great hen after she chooses him (for idle-time fun, do some research on mating habits of ducks; the literature suggests ducks have a process we humans would reject because males seem to be brutes and ultimately female choice would seem to be what wins the day – clearly, no correlation to humans)
we mix what is real and what we wish for leaving ourselves as confused as Ponce de Leon searching for gold and power – not youth as lore indicates; driven by news of water that would give more pounce to his ounce (if you know what I mean) he explored and developed Florida in a fruitless search for the fountain of youth (he should have Googled Bimini) but then maybe he got to visit with some wintering Mallards instead
change takes time – its pace is something we crave to control, accelerate and impact in terms of direction but there seem to be a set of lessons found in nature to suggest that just won’t happen quickly because we want it to or because we become better at searching for it or better communicating with each other
we’ll see
Mark Kolke
338,872
196.4
... 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: -5C/23F, fresh, clear, quiet, trees seem to be proudly bud-ready yet leafing out is still weeks off; Mallard drake meeting in middle of a street – Gusta’s invitation to play was declined in favor his flight to a higher point, stoic head high as if to answer ‘we’ll see’
separating dreams from delusion is difficult for dogs, ducks and most of us; world changes - plate moving against plate, occasional earthquakes, some tidal waves and volcanic eruptions dot geology – evidence of inexorable slow pace of change, every epoch, epoch in and epoch out over thousands of millennia with little large scale drama in the shorter term
most of us, I believe, hold to the notion we can defy this natural order; chief among these seem to be the pace of societal behavior; we push information/ideas through glass, air or space so fast it seem instantaneous or even faster with scant (we’ll see) evidence ubiquitous information flow changes anything on a grand scale in this world very quickly
whether China’s democratization is inevitable is debatable; I see Olympic Torch Relay protests as a much less galvanizing moment of change than they seem to be a a footnote on a slow turning page of a long old book (Tiananmen Square is on that page and, a few pages before, there were dynasties and a long wall construction project) which, sadly, will soon pass from our daily thoughts as mass attention shifts to some other cause du jour; in a year or ten Tibet will sit where it always has been where mountains move millimeters each millennia
two quotes from Mao Tse-Tung seem appropriate to recall:
“The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history.”
“In waking a tiger, use a long stick.”
I remember a story about when Charles de Gualle asked Mao what he thought of France three hundred years after its revolution; Mao answered, ‘we’ll see’
seasons change – varying by a day or two but generally they arrive and leave on time, each year, every year throughout the years no different than that tree wanting to leaf-out or the drake wanting to pounce on a great hen after she chooses him (for idle-time fun, do some research on mating habits of ducks; the literature suggests ducks have a process we humans would reject because males seem to be brutes and ultimately female choice would seem to be what wins the day – clearly, no correlation to humans)
we mix what is real and what we wish for leaving ourselves as confused as Ponce de Leon searching for gold and power – not youth as lore indicates; driven by news of water that would give more pounce to his ounce (if you know what I mean) he explored and developed Florida in a fruitless search for the fountain of youth (he should have Googled Bimini) but then maybe he got to visit with some wintering Mallards instead
change takes time – its pace is something we crave to control, accelerate and impact in terms of direction but there seem to be a set of lessons found in nature to suggest that just won’t happen quickly because we want it to or because we become better at searching for it or better communicating with each other
we’ll see
Mark Kolke
338,872
196.4
... 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
