Does that sound reasonable? If not, you're likely a bit confused or even turned off to this Stream already... and that's not very far into it. Can't see a reason to go on reading this, you may say to yourself. I'd probably do the same if I were you. Why go on doing something that pays no dividends of any kind? If we can't gain why lose the time doing the big 'It' ? Reason.
We may not sit around behind the wheel of our cars and stare at the lonely black ribbon of asphalt ahead of us and know we need reason. But reason has to be ingrained in our DNA... always a last chance reason - "it's in the genes" as if we all really bought into that line. How many of the big us really have a close knit connection in our understanding of genes and DNA? Very few I'd bet a gene or two on.
Now reason... there's a word that the majority of us have heard that we can pretty much relate to. Even if we couldn't give a Webster definition, we have a clue as to what a reason is. At it's basic core reason is an answer to a why. Note the "an" answer. What can we do but give ourselves "an" answer before we move on. We would be in a turmoil if we didn't agree to one of our answers to move us along on the 'thought pike.'
We gotta keep moving... changing... gaining... and we can do it without a serious reason. There's always the "because i want to" or "so who cares if that's why i do..?" Sure there's more. No reason there shouldn't be. But the real reason is within us - me, you, he, her, them... all have reason that is fabricated from experiences gained through personal living. My reason varies from your reason. Indeed, the reason for my reason is not your reason without understanding my reason until i begin to understand, if not accept, your reason. That sounds a bit un-reasonable, but it's all i got right now... moving forward. That's the reasonable thing to do...
Idleness is a waste in the eyes of the majority. It's their guilt that they see when they see others idle. Upon witnessing idleness, they immediately see themselves as being the idle one, and that must be erased. It's not a good image to carry around in one's head. All those voices from years and years ago up through possibly the present, reinforce the wrongness of being idle. No reason but others carry that guilt around and it sticks with those that get too close to the guilty. We're all guilty. We have reason to be. We don't follow all the societal rules. We think thoughts that are so unlike us (what if 'they' knew..?) that even we can't believe our thinking! It's too unreasonable.
Our reasons for being reasonable are the only factor of our reasoning. If we could find one reason and stick with it, live it daily, live it as if that one reason was the only reason to exist, then we'd surmise that we are so reasonable that any other reason is just a fluke that is intruding on our purpose.
So we return to that eternal fact: yin/yang... reason/unreason. They both are, they both make up our paths of thought, our thinking... the search for unquestionable answers to the constant why, what, where, when, who that spins inside mind, the perpetual motion of thinking, thinking, thinking... seeking answers to this or that, on any level, All this is not reserved for the 'brainiacs' of the world. No, it's all of us... we are all endowed with thought. And because of thought, we have to reason in order to go on. Those that have difficulty in accepting a reason have difficulty in moving forward.. ahead.. onwards and outwards. We have to reason to the degree that allows us to continue being our potential... homo sapiens sapiens. That's the name science has given us humans.
I wonder if science should rename us homo sapiens duality. We cannot seem to simply be. Witness the life around us - from mammals to plant life, from fish and sealife, plankton to viruses... the list is powerfully long and it's all life... and all this other life accepts it's own unique life, period. But we humans are so unreasonable. Some of us may accept 'A' and move on, while sure as death there's another side that will not accept 'A' and insist on the validity of 'Z'. It happens constantly ... never-ending. Humans sure do think, but the thoughts we think are as scattered as universal dust. And like dust, our reasons seek out a place to lay and play. Dust is not particular.. even if wet it still lays around. Dust is the true beginning of all matter, that eventually settles down and becomes... simply becomes that which it is. No reason, no question. From dust Life became and to dust Life shall return. There is no reason but the reason we choose... we alone, we as a family, we as a community... it matters little as long as we have a reason to accept and live by. That's about all there is to it. And for that amount of simplicity we still hunt each other down and kill each other's reason. How unreasonable is that?
reason will continue to necessitate questioning.
cecil
10 august 2008
Picture of the week:
[8.08.08]
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Photo taken from our deck in a south-westerly direction.