Original? thought

This is a post from my original MySpace blog, that I thought was worth bringing over.

I was reading a post from k-os, an amazing musician, the other day about whether there are any original ideas out there anymore. He was mostly talking about frustrations around so-called pop culture, and how mixing what is "popular" and what is "underground" has come to represent originality. I can understand his frustrations. Many times when I read or watch something that is "popular" it pisses me off because it feels forced, devoid of any passion for being artistic, and is mostly a vehicle for marketing some useless product that attempts to replace the need for human interaction.

This brings me back though to a conversation I had with my friend Jeff a few years back that seemed to start along this path, and lead us to think about if there are or ever where any original ideas?

If you take a purely philosophical approach and think of thought as an evolutionary event, wherein no thought can occur without the previous one happening first, and each new thought is child of the previous, then you can trace all thought (and therefore originality) back to the first thought. So if you look at inventions as an example, each new product or invention is a derivation of it's predecessor; the light bulb is just a different was of lighting a candle.

If you go around in circles looking for originality when you think about it in that way, it can frustrate you because it challenges your notion of the people that inspired you and the idea that anyone can leave a lasting impact on society. And then it will probably depress you because you see a deterioration of the human desire to be be original and therefore praise originality. When I think about what the vast majority of people in our society hold up as artistic expression and drew inspiration from, it scares the shit out of me, it really does.

I've been saying for a while that the future of our society scares me because we seems to have relinquished control of our free will to sensationalist marketing. And the strong of us who are able to recognize this either do our best to fight the good battle, or have given up.

What do you all think?

p.s. I am well aware of the irony of using MySpace as my forum for these thoughts

mmmm, basmati

I stopped at Moby Dick House of Kabob for dinner, I love that rice, it's so buttery good. But I was waiting in line to pay, and I was behind these two 16-17 year old girls that were acting goofy and silly, kinda in their own world having fun. They were being loud, but not really bothering anyone, and it made me think that they were being innocent in an adolescent way. That lead me to think of two things. First, another aspect of innocence is the environment you in, and the people you are with. Second, that to a degree, part of innocence is being able to live in the moment.

It makes good sense that you are most comfortable when you are around only people you are close with. When you are around people you may not know very well, at some place you are not familiar with, or, honestly, someone you don't like, you are not being your true self; you start putting up those barriers to protect yourself from potential harm.

I see a few things I can do with that knowledge. I could avoid any situation where I may be uncomfortable, never taking risks to meet new people, or go new places, thus ensuring the maximum amount of time being innocent. Sounds pretty boring and lonely (hmm, yeah.) Or I can recognize when I am in situations where I am not comfortable enough to be my carefree innocent self, and just accept that as a fact of that moment, with the hope in time, that acceptance of un-comfort becomes comfortable.

Jimbo mentioned in his response that one of the ways we lose our innocence is when we get older, we begin to feel pain and become guarded against taking risks. Part of that comes from the ability to know, to an extent, the reaction to many of our actions. That may be the beginning of our unfortunate habit of looking forward and backward, rather than focusing on the moment. It is obviously not logical to live in the moment 100% of the time, but I know I am guilty of spending too much time in my head rather than being in the moment. So expand that out. When I was watching those girls happily being in their own world, it made me think about when I was that age and hanging out with my friends, I'm sure we acted in a similar carefree manner. And then I'm sure in 10-20 years from now, I'll see people my age, and think about how I was that much more innocent then (if I continue on the same thought path I am now, of course). So if we keep the sense of innocence in the time plane of "then" it would seems difficult to honestly be innocent.

What is innocence?

I was listening to a cool song by k-os the other day, "The Ballad of Noah," and he talks about overcoming struggles as a child, and how his innocence was deterred, but his inner strength prevailed, and now his innocence is returned. And that got me thinking about how if I could return to that child-like innocence, maybe life would more enjoyable, and I wouldn't filter every moment through the experiences of the past.

But there is a problem. The same experiences that chipped away at my innocence are the same ones that hide innocence's true nature from my soul. What is innocence, and does it have to be child-like?

I define innocence as child-like because it is the purest form. Children have no choice but to be innocent, because they have not experienced the type of pain that causes them to not trust. So is innocence trust? And if so, of whom or what?

I think trust is a key element, but it needs to be more like a type of blind trust, wherein you are not making a conscience decision to trust, you just do because that is your nature.

I think another element to innocence is adventurous curiosity. I initially thought curiosity alone was enough, but there is the opportunity to be complacently curious, and there needs to be activity and intention behind actions. A baby doesn't sit on the floor and wait for someone to put something in it's mouth, it crawls around putting anything and everything in it's mouth.

So far, innocence to me involves a trusting soul that is open to experiences, and a sense of curiosity that actively seeks experiences. (Notice the commonality in those 2 traits?)

This is all for now. I really want to hear what you all have to say, especially those of you with children, as you have had the chance to see pure innocence in your own flesh and blood, and what impact that has had on your own innocence.

Fucking Gnats

I have a gnat infestation in my office, and it is getting worse. I keep forgetting to bring in my home remedies (vinegar and dish soap) but I have gnat guts all over my office from smashing them against my desk and the walls, they are crazy little buggers.

So I have not posted in a while, I'm not sure why. I have been thinking through a bunch of stuff the past week or so. I started reading a book by Deepak Chopra called "The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desires" And no Ian, it is not about what you think, you cheeky bastard. It deals with recognizing coincidences in your everyday life, and then harnessing their power to better see our destiny.

I'm about 150 pages in, and the biggest thing I have taken from it so far, is that many of the things I think about the soul, energies and love, are not as unique as I thought. That may seem like a bad thing, but actually I've been very relieved. For one thing, Chopra has a much stronger personal trust in his beliefs, and is therefore able to articulate more clearly his thoughts and philosophies, and that is something I've been working towards.

Lately, many of my thoughts about my personal philosophy have been moments of clarity surrounded by millions of other thoughts. I am working to refine them, but when my only sounding board is my own brain, productive conclusions are hard to come by (one of the reasons for this blog.)