17 Is Anything Sacred?

******

     For quite a few years I have been chasing a rabbit around the track though I have never been  a greyhound.  But now I have doubts that the chase is sacred or the rabbit real.

      I, as a human being,  I have a non-binding bond with the rabbit.  I harbor the delusion that my long-standing quest is sacred, that is; blessed by a higher power. The poor rabbit has no idea that I have been chasing him for sixty years.

      Were I, a smart dog, I should realize that the rabbit is not real. This is a continuing fable about the nature of reality, how the humans abandoned reality, and how the animals are going to save humans in spite of themselves.

      By the way. all the animals watching the dog track knew, at first glance, that the rabbit was dead as a doornail. They also knew that the dead rabbit was being sped around the track by the Engine of Culture and not by Mom Nature.

For the game of creation, my brothers,

a sacred yes is needed:

 the spirit now wills his own will

                                                Nietzsche

                                                          ********

      As the morning brightened so did the spirits of our animal throng. Each had found a partner and formed two circles waiting for Mary, the white pelican and facilitator to set the tone.

     Mary said, “The inner circle will start the dialogue while trusting that their outer circle will have their back and remain quietly supportive. Please understand that we will, from time to time, reverse the circles and my partner (Andi) will become the facilitator. In this way, all will experience the role eventually.”

     Mum, the nanny goat bleated, “ As I understand it, there is a problem with human consciousness.  This, I accept, but there is a deeper level to my own individual consciousness. We goats are rather forthright and I think our relationships with each other lay beneath our individual consciousness.”

      Hooie hooted, “What if I felt, deep down in my feathers, that all that really matters is our relationship with our mating partner. Humans are animals too, because they came into this world through mating. Mating is sacred. Something must be held in awe.”

    “ I have been wondering about that because of the alarming suicide rate among young humans. Have they given up? Have they lost the feeling for the sanctity of life?”, crooned Coqui, the frog.

    Ducky quacked, “ I was over in Soufriere and heard people talking about the problems in the United States with drug overdoses. They said that in Dominica there is a mutual helping each other and young people are returning to the Island.” 

     Milvus, the black kite squawked, “Yeah I heard about some stuff too. Maybe some humans are trying to help themselves. What I heard encouraged me to find out about the UBUNTU movement.”

  

      But we have been separated from nature. Believing that we are not part of this great creation. Our society has been divided and separated on so many levels that we hardly understand the word unity any more. The UBUNTU way of life will allow people to reconstitute a unified society consisting of smaller harmonious communities that truly embrace living in harmony with each other and with nature. As these united towns begin to mushroom, the large cities will no longer attract people in the hope of finding a job to survive, because the small town will provide work and exciting opportunities for every single one of us. 

                                                                                            Michael Tellinger

     “Wow, said Jake the basset hound, “I am encouraged by any human helping one another and that gives me more nap time.”

 suggested reading: UBUNTU Party https://youtu.be/4sxwXjqawEw

     

16 Chewing on Consciousness

******

    As author, I apologize. I have taken us into a zone of extreme fogginess. I know how we yearn for certainty. If I just jump right into the abyss, my own consciousness is changing with each encounter whether, I look inside myself or think I can know what you might be conscious of.  But you all steady my boat like outriggers and hopefully we don’t tip over. I must trust that there is a communal consciousness and I quote from BillyG below, “If you can think it...then it can be...however all must be of one mind.”

    Way back in 1968 Buckminster Fuller (inventor of the geodesic dome) told us “we are all astronauts on Spaceship Earth.” Put Buckminster and BillyG together and bingo you are in, like banana pudding. 

God, to me, it seems

is a verb,

not a noun,

proper or improper.

                                                                          Buckminster Fuller

                                                           *******

     Andi, the osprey, chirped, “The Texas shooting massacre is at the very heart of the human problem, but the event is clearly a point where our group can look inside the beast.”
    “I believe I see what you mean,” fluttered Free, the butterfly. “All humans are captives of their own consciousness. All of us here, as animals, understand that climate and consciousness are inseparable.”
     Coqui, the frog, sang, “Whoa, this is a far out finesse and too tricky for me. You took more frog-hops than I can follow.”
     Mary, the white pelican, seeking consilience. or a jumping-together of knowledge, crowed, “We as animals know that Mom Nature not only controls the weather, she is the weather. Marjorie Merriweather (excuse the pun) may have built Mara Lago a few feet above the ocean but one of Mom’s hurricanes could soon destroy it. As global warming continues so goes hurricane intensity and Pres.’s pad along with it.”
    “ So the climate(weather) and the consequent storms are in a lock-step dance”, chirped Andi, "just as war amongst nations cannot be separated from war amongst individuals.”
     “Does this mean that humans could save themselves by a change in consciousness?” quacked Ducky.
    Hooie’s eyes rolled back in his head, “Hold it right there! Are you saying that individual consciousness and group or national consciousness are locked in with each other ?”
     BillyG bleated, “ I am seeing a whole lot of tribalism and the USA is split right down the middle.”
    Leda, the dragonfly, buzzed, “Please elaborate on ‘tribalism’ amongst humans, BillyG.”
     “Just after WW II most people wanted to help Europe and McArthur even led us into helping Japan. But since then humans have gradually split-off into fragments such as white evangelicals, liberals, conservatives and so on, loving like-minded tribes and hating the other tribes,” replied BillyG. “If you can think it...then it can be...however all must be of one mind.”
“ Why, pray tell? What happened to the human race?” sighed Jake, the bassett hound.
     “Words(language) are said to be the substance of consciousness. Language is tricky and can have double meanings as well as creating hurt and resentment,” hummed Hummy, “humans may be out on a limb that is about to break.”
     “Yeah, but there has to be more to that. All this fear, hatred, resentment and rage must be driven by something. What is it?,” squawked, Cackle the grackle.
     “ What I am about to say may imply dismay, but look at it this way,” rapped King, the kingfisher, “All fear is driven by loss of trust in the future.”
     “But who or what is driving that?”, whispered Cesar, the iguana.
   “ A smattering of truth might include loss of attention to Mom Nature, too much attention to TV, thinking that ignoring politics will make go away, losing touch with God, ignoring the wisdom of those close to us, and most of all fear that loving each other will make us frighteningly vulnerable,” bleated Mum, the nanny goat.
      Hearing that last phrase from Mum terrified Fregata, the frigate bird, and he bolted into the blue, seeking as much altitude as he could muster.  He was repeating to himself; I need freedom more than I need the group….. I need freedom more than I need the group.
      But the mantra failed as he was pulled gently, by a tractor-beam as if from the Starship Enterprise, to the ground, the cave, and his group.

suggested reading: Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, Edward O Wilson . 1999

15 The Circle Created

The Circle Created  15

*****

      The small group moved gradually toward the lip of the cave where light shone through a mist of the morning. 
     Following Hurricane Maria there was an obvious change in the landscape. The trees were stripped bare of leaves, people were walking about aimlessly; and there was an eerie silence across the mountainside. But they felt each other‘s presence and found comfort. They were trusting one another.     

*****

     Myrtle the turtle and Mira the sloth chose each other for good reason; they both thought everything was going too fast.  They found power in togetherness. Inadvertently, the two of them, were creating a double circle in which the other animals would eventually “pair-off” as well. Some would find their “partner” for less obvious reasons. But creativity works that way. Mom Nature gives courage to those who seek a change in direction. 

    They would finally find that human maniacal-ego could only be overturned by finesse. Those who are somewhat faint-of-heart can become caped-crusaders via “pairing”, but wait; let the others catch up. Mira and Myrtle finessed their way through persistence, a prime ingredient of creativity. 

     “I am so relieved to be here and especially grateful that we found each other,” Myrtle said, turning toward Mira. “What a strange turn of events; what brought us together.?  What possessed us to think we could help humans? And then the storm brought us all together.”  
     Feeling comfortable, Mira replied, “Together in our journeying through life and treasuring each new experience, we embrace the double circle.”  

  As facilitators go, Mary, the white pelican, was no slouch; as she noted silently that the other animals were “pairing-off”. Was it out of mimicry or another strange but marvelous intervention of Mom Nature?  Buddy, the agouti, was chatting with Shazam, the Amazon parrot, as though old friends. King, the kingfisher, was locked in conversation with Hummy and Ducky, the duck, was whispering to Bertie, the Peregrine falcon. And so on, through the rest of the group pairings continued, and as if by magic, a double circle was created.

     Now, 24 animals, paired off,  formed the circles and continued chatting.

Mary wondered what could be so mesmerizing to bring these animals to this point. The simple but profound experience of watching the group gave a boost of confidence that all was well in Dominica and perhaps, to humankind. If she could have listened in on 11 conversations, she would have told her counterpart, Andi, the osprey, that they were talking about human consciousness and how it was different from animal consciousness.

     Andi blurted out, “I flew past a home near Soufriere and saw a startling news flash from Texas. In a tiny church in a small town in Texas some 24 to 26 people were gunned down by a lone guy with no political or religious issue but came from within this tiny community. He had issues with the mother-in-law of his former wife!! Sounds like angry human consciousness to me. 
     Day by day we are getting closer to the human condition, a problem in consciousness based on the evolution of the human brain into a machine in conflict-with itself.”

   Mary, though taken aback, tried to remain calm and said, “Let’s take this to the group and hope they can make sense of it.”

Suggested reading:   The Origin of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.  Julian Jaynes 1976