Players

[poliphilo]

I think Spirit is like clear, untainted water poured out into earthen vessels.

Earthen vessels- that's Biblical innit?

I think this world is an experiment.

And not to be taken entirely seriously.

I like Shakespeare's insight- the one he keeps coming back to- "all the world's a stage/ and all the men and women merely players."

We are here to try on different roles. To find out what can be done with a certain set of genes and social circumstances.

Why?

Well, why not? Perhaps for no better reason than that it's an interesting thing to do.

Between lives we are subject to the judgement of our peers. They are not unkind. They will have made the same mistakes themselves.

Is this experiment devised by God? I think not. I hate hierarchy. I think the only God or Goddess that exists is Spirit- omnipresent, unstructured, playful- and that we're It.

Comments

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of playfulness.

The Presbyterian catechism is interesting:

"The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever."

(One must first set aside the irony of such a light-hearted observation coming from the dour and fatalistic Presbyterians.)

And Jesus is about not worrying about things so much--"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow."

In the end (I look back at my meandering, often confused life), he is correct.

(I'm thinking--and have been thinking--of my childhood pretending, wherein I imagined many dollhouses on the grass, and I was small enough to fit inside, and I could choose any one of them, and then, when bored, move on to the next.)

I also like to explore your idea that these are all gene combinations and fate--where we land.

Maybe it's meant to be fun! The Garden of Eden: a perfect place for play.

We all dream of such a world, and we say it will be true in Heaven.

But, hold: you live in a beautiful place, where wind blows in from the Irish sea, and you have such views, even from your window!

And I am hearing birds right outside, and it's raining here, and I live in the foothills of mountains.

Eden, right now--and all for the joy of it.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

(I'm thinking--and have been thinking--of my childhood pretending, wherein I imagined many dollhouses on the grass, and I was small enough to fit inside, and I could choose any one of them, and then, when bored, move on to the next.)

Have you looked into housesitting? If you sell your house you could move from place to place that way. Some people do that and never own a house.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I did once look into housesitting, Karen, and tried it once.

But the other person's stuff is always there, and I can't move it--

I stayed for three months in a woman's house for her, and she had hideous figurines on her mantle, and tacky things I didn't like all around--finally, her presence oppressed me.

I like the idea of having nothing in a space, and then slowly adding in interesting things.

And I love best the idea of moving on when I get bored with it all.

I need a portable, blank cube with one window and one door.

[barbarakitten-t.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of having nothing in a space, and then slowly adding in interesting things.

i sometimes wish that i could have a fire or something so that i don't have to move anything into my new house and so that i don't have to decide what to get rid of...

i have 40!!!!!!! (i counted them saturday because i was going to cull, but they are all still okay and i may wear them....) t-shirts for work. these are walmart "haynes her way" type t-shirts that all cost $8 or less and i wear them to work with jeans or skirts (i love working for a university library where i can wear jeans and a polo shirt with a "librarians control all knowledge" logo one day and a very nice dress the next day and a denim skirt and cotton blouse the next, and knit leggings with a tunic the next...and they are all okay becuase there is a minimal dress code and if people bitch about what i wear i can take it to the union rep....)

so, i have 40 t-shirts and they are each a different color and they are all wearable and i may have marcey go through and pull some for herself...but i ended up putting them all on hangers and into my closet because i can't get rid of anything!!!!!!!!

if everything disappeared and i started over...tc and sean tell me that in 6 months i'd have the same problem as before...

damn.

a portable blank room sounds wonderful.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

a portable blank room sounds wonderful.


...back to my dream of a quiet, empty white yurt.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

A Tardis. I want a Tardis.

Then I could set up home in any place or time and move on whenever I got bored.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I see I have something new to learn about!

Off to read.

[jenny_evergreen]

*falls over in shock* (Doctor Who is one of those things so basic to my experience, the idea that someone has not encountered it is overwhelming. :)

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Dr. Who?

How did I miss Dr. Who?

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

Funny...I know so many people who have NOT heard of Doctor Who that I am impressed when I meet someone who knows of him/them/er, ah...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

But how splendid to have the Whovian universe to explore from scratch.

I was around for the first broadcast of the very first series- with William Hartnell.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

All Whovians know a TARDIS means Time and Relative Dimensions in Space.
I"m surprised, with all your other surprising knowledge that YOU don't know this.

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

I wish I knew more about how to do this in Europe. chuckle Wouldn't that be ideal??

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Children often have this vision of the world as Edenic. Have you read Thomas Traherne's account of his childhood in the Centuries of Meditations?

‘The Corn was Orient and Immortal Wheat which never should be reaped, nor was ever sown. I thought it had stood from Everlasting to Everlasting. The Dust and the Stones of the Street were as precious as Gold. The Gates were at first the end of the World, the Green Trees when I saw them first through the Gates Transported and Ravished me; their Sweetness and unusual Beauty made my heart to leap, and almost mad with Ecstasy, they were such strange and Wonderful Things; The Men! O what Venerable and Reverend Creatures did the Aged seem! Immortal Cherubims! And the young Men Glittering and Sparkling Angels and Maids strange Seraphic Pieces of Life and Beauty! Boys and Girles Tumbling in the Street and Playing, were moving Jewels. I knew not that they were born or should die...’

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

And that is how he saw his world as a child! (surely his ecstacy exhausted him!)

I had a friend whose toddler broke a vase. They ran into the room where they'd heard the crash, and he was staring at the glass shards with amazement.

My friend said he could suddenly see through his child's eyes the miraculous transformation of the vase into pieces of glass. There was no judgement or guilt involved, of course--it was just another wondrous part of his new life.

This child also chased the moon across a field, running after it with his hands up in the air. His father caught him before he ran onto the railroad tracks.

I wish I could go back to the freshness of first childhood--I suppose we all wish for that.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Traherne lost his ecstasy in adolescence, then recovered it in adulthood (which is rare.) The Centuries are one long book-length ecstatic utterance - and, yes, they are rather exhausting to read.

The broken vase is as beautiful as the unbroken vase. Yes, yes, yes!

[jenny_evergreen]

The broken vase is as beautiful as the unbroken vase. Yes, yes, yes!

Which is why the duality you and I speak of above is not one that must or should be seen as "good/bad"; if only more people could see that...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

This is where Christianity comes a cropper. By insisting on a God who is All Good it creates a "problem of Evil" which has bedevilled all attempts to create a Summa Theologica.

[jenny_evergreen]

Speaking from (humbly) experience; but what a beautiful exhaustion!