01

In every situation there is what needs to happen, what can happen, what will not happen, and what happens. What determines what happens is a matter of time and chance, which the good book says "happens to us all." What it doesn't say is "all the time." We are here, now, by virtue of powers quite beyond our control. And what happens next is likely to be within the normal range, but even that isn't a sure thing. There is more that we don't know than we do know, and that should be encouraging to those of us who are sure it's all going to hell in our life time. We don't know as much as we think we know. About anything. The people who make a big show of being against abortion and pack guns to right to life rallies don't know what they think they know for sure. They are solidly against abortion in every possible case, and are solidly for their right-- they say it is a Right, now-- as in the RIGHT to bear arms (And bearing arms implies the RIGHT to use them in ways the user deems good and proper) in committing--COMMITTING, I say-- retroactive abortions anytime they deem it to be necessary. A pregnant woman cannot ever deem it to be necessary, but Right To Lifers can shoot anyone they decide needs shooting, any time, any place, as often as they like. They are oblivious to their own contradictions and swagger about under the illusion that they have no illusions, and no contradictions whatsoever. We don't know half as much as we think we know. Not even 1% as much. Bear that in mind, the next time you start to swagger around about anything. Humility and awareness are good for the soul. And doubly good for everyone else.
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02

"Yin and Yang" are terms identifying the foundational nature of contradiction at the heart of life and being. Life Eats Life! How's that for the fundamental contradiction at work in life itself? Everything lives (Even vegans) at the expense of something else. Everything lives because something else dies. The whole of life is energized by the fact of opposites. Gravity exists as a function of oppositional forces. Take away mass or momentum and what do you have? Relax the tension holding things in place and everything disappears like that (snaps fingers). We are defined and identified by the contradictions that hold us in place. Life is lived "between the hands," and truth is found there. "On the one hand, this, and on the other hand, that!" Purity exists by virtue of denial. So much does. If it weren't for denial and pretense, where would any of it be? Being who we are is always a matter of being who we also are, which makes it a matter of pretending to be who we are not, and pretending not to be who we are. Being who we are AND who we also are, with full awareness of both at the same time, would slow us down, bring us to a stop, and have us contemplate the opposites within in each moment of every situation as it arises. Which would be very helpful in a lot of, if not all, cases. It would raise the level of sincerity and integrity, for sure. It would allow us all to know what's what and what is also what about ourselves, smooth out our complexes and inconsistencies and make us responsible for living/acting in concert with our "other side" in all matters great and small. Living in full awareness of ourselves in action would bring about some compromises and negotiated settlements that would transform the ways we live. And I'm all for that. Which is why I hardly ever do anything, tied up as I am by my opposites that require acknowledgement and their balance due.
Thank you for sharing your sanity.
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