light

in the dark without a spark
the sharks will stalk prey in the park
dogs and trees silently bark
as man tries to make his mark
hark, we hear the man remark,
"it must be real, call it a quark"
these silly concepts are the spark
that release him from stifled stark
they are the words that bring the light
the light that makes all the things bright
the bright light providing man his sight
and with this sight, he sees all's all alright
but both in night and in the light
we can not know just what is right
there's always light that allows fright
light that lets us see the night
see the world as a we might
see our being as a fight
unsure of how light might smite
destruction as an act of spite
light will be just as it will
with no intent to thrill or kill
but certainly not sitting still
it is as it is meant to be
while we think that we can be free
the light is all that lets us see
it's all that shapes what we call we

we are all circles

everythings a circle. everythings a cycle. it's all just movement in loops and spirals.

one of my favorite books is titled, "I am a Strange Loop" - it's basic point is that the concept of the self arises from nothing more than our mind's ability to represent itself and continuously update that representation as it is affected by experience. it serves as an argument for the computational nature of the mind and the possibility to computationalize consciousness. The concept comes so naturally that I had no trouble accepting nearly every point as i quickly turned through the pages.

This account of our conscious awareness won't be the focus of this post, but it will be beneficial to understand the foundation off of which i intend to contemplate the nature of interpersonal love.

to distract myself, i often spend my time on tumblr, usually favoriting and reblogging pictures that resonate with my mindset. about a week ago, a picture (accompanied by some text) on my dashboard caught my eye. i was quick to favorite it and after a few days, when i had time to spend updating my personal page, i reblogged the photo and added a caption similar to what is now the title of this post - "we're all just circles"..here is the photo:

for all of my life and, i assume, the lives of everyone living today, homosexuality has been one of the most culturally controversial topics. I have posted once before about the concept of marriage and the inability of many to accept the transformation of the term - and, in turn, our culture - to account for the union of homosexuals, but i have hardly delved into the topic of homosexual love.

to be clear, i've got a strictly hetero-orientation. I'm just nearly obsessed with the concept of love because, in my opinion, it is an all-encompassing notion that can explain all interaction. not only does it impact our interpersonal relationships, but it really is the driving force behind every interaction a being can have with its environment. beings love beings and that love is what guides them in continuing their existence. everything in existence should be thought of as a being. all of existence is the greatest being of all and that is my concept of god. if there is a word denoting a tangible concept, then in my mind, i would consider that concept as a being. say we have concept x, if we can say x is being x, then x is a being. the sweater i am wearing is a being because the sweater is being a sweater and an item of clothing and whatever else you can think of the sweater being (if i wear it as a turban, then it is being a turban). and i am certainly a being - there should be no qualms with that. there is some degree of love between me and my sweater and that love is what has guided me to wear it today. i love existence, so i choose to continue to exist - to interact with the beings of existence.

so..about the picture..

as you can see, people are represented as circles with protruding shapes representing their gender. sexuality is guided by love. sexual orientation is accounted for by how these different shapes overlap.

while it is important to be aware of the sexual inclinations of others in some instances, for the most sexual orientation should have no bearing on the judgments we make about the people we interact with. i love women..but i also love men..and i love all animals - independent of their gender. it's our expression of love that causes people discomfort.

when in a relationship of mutual love (in an ideal world, this would be a redundant phrase), the best thing to do is learn and be aware of the desires and tendencies of your relationship partner. it's best to express love in such a way that all parties involved are satisfied with the nature of the loving relationship. the only way to have this awareness of desires is to communicate with your partner. it is not enough to signify their sexual orientation with a silly symbol.

we are all just circles. attracted to other circles through our loving tendencies. maybe one day, each person will be expressed by their own unique symbol to allow for computer analysis to determine all orientation and desires of that person - in this hypothetical world, love would not be free. luckily, in this current day, we are all internal. while our bodies are the unique symbols that represent all that we are, there is no computer analysis that can determine exactly what it is that will make us happy. often, not even self-analysis can reveal that.

it takes action and interaction. eventually, through this, we can hopefully find others whose satisfaction and happiness is inversely correlated with our own.

this is easy with simple objects lacking happiness or the ability to feel.. we can project whatever happiness we have held within onto these beings and feel satisfied with the pleasure we receive from these interactions. once the concept of life is introduced, we must have a much more keen awareness of the states of the beings  we interact with. everything that lives has goals. the ability for us to understand those goals and do what we can to assist, or at least not hinder, the being's pursuit of goals is the sole(soul) purpose of love.

man or woman, gay or straight, we should all love each other. we should work to understand where we all stand amongst each other and act accordingly. we love for each other. life would be incomplete without it. we're all circles and none of us wants to be empty.

essentially

how to get at essence..

words have their meaning respective of their uses. the essential meaning behind a word is impossible to ascertain outside of culture. so the essence of a word is completely relative of the circumstance of its use. only the user can understand the essence being expressed, but doesn't understand the full essence behind its use because in communication there is the output and the input. the speaker can only know what's going on with the word on his side of speech. he can only guess how the listener will understand the word. so with words..essence can never be known by an individual.

but can distinct objects be understood essentially?

the essence of a specific dog is different than the essence of the concept of dog. the word dog represents the overall concept of all things in the category of dog - this is the essence described above as being relative to cultural use of the word. but my dog..rex..there's an essence to his being. i can't get at the full essence but I know that there is essential truth to his existence. the only essence i can realize is in my mind with respect to my subjective experiences of his being. nonetheless, outside of human experience, there should be some complete understanding of my dog's being. certainly not solely in Rex's mind..he can hardly form concepts.

are there any concepts that represent things completely essentially? is there a mind that understands all that is as it is?

this is god. this is the goodness that is. essence is goodness and clarity is known only by the whole of existence. the closer we come to understanding existence in essence, the closer we come to knowing goodness and the more suited we are to be good and act as best we can.

acquiring truth and opening the mind to understand multiple viewpoints can prove difficult. every one has only ever known the world from the view of the self..grasping reality from the ultimate perspective of all being requires taking a step back and forgetting about putting the self at the center. we are a part of something bigger and it's important we know our place.

everything has an essence and it can only be understood in its relation to the essence of all other things. to understand the essence of one requires an understanding of the essence of all. we can never attain perfect essential knowledge, but we can realize that there's always more to essence than what meets the eye and that realization can let us always strive to build a more substantial base of knowledge on the essence of reality

rapture

what is hell on earth? - who's to say this isn't it..?

the rapture predicts that today the good will transcend and the rest will remain for hell on earth. i'm still here. i hope this isn't hell.

every day people die and their souls transcend singular human being. they are the good because they are doing god's work on earth. everyone being instantiates god's goodness. those who die will die and leave their mark in the impacts they've had. their soul resides in heaven in terms of the role it played in bringing goodness to their world.

there are none who bring no good. so today is the rapture. sure. people will die and their souls will transcend this earth. this happens every day. no need to label this one especially.

what is life and what is hell..?

we're just living and being..animals seeking individual goodness. the pursuit of the selfish good is at the core of our existence. how else to ensure survival..?

we gotta understand that the self whose existence we should work to preserve is the whole of humanity. the greater soul of human culture only reaches heaven when humanity no longer exists. heaven on earth is unachievable as long as humans exist. this doesn't mean that we need hell on earth.

hell is torture. we can't torture ourselves. we should avoid committing ourselves to hell in life. lets keep working for human goodness and avoid torturing ourselves with thoughts of what could have been. if something would be good and it still can be, then let's make it be.

the rapture is just a label of the day. interpretations of the bible often lead to misunderstanding. but if the misinterpretations bring about better action and greater good, then what are they really misunderstanding. the bible is meant to better human goodness. if it does that, then it is doing its job and it is being interpreted exactly as it should.

to those whose souls will transcend human life today, let you be remembered as good. death on the rapture ensures transcendence in heaven..but so does death any day.

who are we but what we be

heyo who's that fella over there? he's being ridiculous - that fella is ridiculous. he's being a champ - that fella is a champ. he's being kinda nerdy - that fella is kind of a nerd.

people can only know each other by what they see and observe. we can't determine who a person is by anything other than how they seem to be. the problem here is that even in our conception of their self as being instantiated by their being, we are still only getting a subjective perspective based on our experiential observations.

so when we conceive of ourselves, we can come to a better understanding of the self because our subjectivity encompasses ourself more objectively than any other individual's subjective experience of us could grasp. we know how we are being and we have a basic understanding of why we are being that way. we realize what we are being from our own perspective and try to realize who we are in the broad spectrum. still, we can only understand ourselves through our own perspective. we can imagine how we seem to be to others but we can never know. and really we can never know who we are in the totality of being because we can't grasp the entire causal network that being consists of.

we are nothing but what we be..but we just can't have a complete conception of what we are being. its good to try to grasp other perspectives, but all perspectives are subjective. we want to be happy and we should want to be good. we should strive to let our being be the best it can so that who we are is the best person possible.

we are being. and our selves are defined by what we be. but whose definition really matters? we want to be happy with who we are and we want to be happy with what we do. we should be who we want to be. and happiness will stem from that.

being good

let's just be honest..

let's just be good..

let's just acknowledge

love understood.

people are being

all that they want.

nothing but selfish

no goodness up front.

goodness is missed

goodness is had

the good are just being

overcome with bad.

now is the time to

look into the sky

to ask in wonderment

but goodness, but why?

how can we ever

know what is the best

if what makes us happy

is worse than the rest?

emotions are fleeting

love's always alive.

living for goodness

means letting love thrive.

it's time we consider

what we're living for.

life is for goodness,

there is nothing more