Visions of Reality

This year, as in every year, I try to pickup something new. Something that will grab my attention and time. Something that will give me an appreciation for those who are already involved in what I have decided to play with. Some years I succeed, some years I fail, but it is always fun.

This year I'm an artist. 

Well, I'm not an artist, but I am learning. I read and look at techniques and try them out to see what works for me. First thing I look for is pretty basic; how do I hold a pencil or brush correctly? I know from playing and teaching guitar that embracing bad techniques from the beginning makes it very hard to change as the difficulty increase. From my research, I find that different people use different techniques so am trying to find what works best for me. 

The most fun so far though has been seeing. Sounds like something we all do everyday, but it is different when you look at something you intend to draw. Shapes and textures, shading and perspective, all add to the world. 

And the details, man. I have either enhanced my viewing pleasure or have totally screwed my world. A tree is no longer a tree. It is not a composite of a trunk, branches and leaves. Oh no, it is detail upon detail. It is about the sun and location, about wind and water; it represents its life.

Hell, the world is becoming almost unbearably complex.

I can almost envision painters living in a younger earth, where miracles seem to be the norm, where gods are the truth. Would that complexity help someone's religious stance on the world? 

The rich during the Renaissance in Europe hired painters to create religious themed artwork so I would think that regardless of the faith of a painter, his pockets were filled with coin to keep the wealthy happy. Maybe it wasn't their vision, but their production of religious paintings that helped make religion palatable. Some of the religious paintings I have seen capture strong emotions and put stories into a more understandable form for the world. 

Whatever the link between art and religion in the past, it would seem to me that understanding complexity in nature would eventually effect science. Observation is a key part of developing theories, perhaps artists also were enhancing reality.

When the rich retained another artist to produce some religious foolishness, maybe they unintentionally were promoting science and the slow death of delusion. Possibly they were hoping to find the door to heaven when actually they were opening our eyes to visions of reality.

Fish

I finally had a chance to swim today and it was awesome. Usually when I open the gate and walk onto the deck, the pool is full of people treading water. Well, some bounce up and down in the shallow end, exercise of some sort I'm sure. Never very inviting to me; I'm a fish

Well, maybe I'm a grizzly. I stalk the deck growling at the water's inhabitants. Every so often take a swipe at them with my long arms. No reaction. Bastards. I head back home where I feed on fermented fruits and work on my temper. They'll be sorry.

I was born in California and the earliest pictures of me are running around on the beach. Growing up in the Chicago area, on every sunny day of every summer I was hanging out at the community's pool. I was in the water always; swam in school and was a fairly good diver. 

Of course when young I was involved in many sports. Participated in track as well where I ran and ran; racing around the track. Leaping hurdles with abandon, I was an antelope as well.

So not being able to swim a few laps, which my out of shape body needs, has been driving me crazy. I try different times of the day, always seems crowded when I show up. Last year while visiting, I only got in one swim the entire time I was here and that was in the unheated pool. Jo tossed a frisbee and I couldn't help but chase it down, even as it plunged into the water. Apparently on many days I'm a dog. In fact I remember being called a dog by many women, so must be true. 

Always had pools in the family after growing up and moving out of Illinois. The first home I bought in Michigan had an in ground pool in the backyard. Great selling point for me. Had a young stepdaughter and her and her friends had great times there. Hell, I had great times as well. Great diving board, not some crappy springboard, but one where you could actually get altitude. I scared the hell out of my second wife and friends many a time. I flip around in a pike position over and over because of course, I'm also a dolphin.

I've thought about the fun I've had in all the pools, lakes and oceans in my life. Great times all. I think, how do I get the people lazily hanging around in my habitat to move. I mean, it is my habitat, because I'm a fish. I dream about creating a large whirlpool that sucks them all into the vortex and down into the depths of the world leaving me my private water, but though the dream is fun the reality is they're still there.

Then finally, I show up and no one is in the pool. Oh yeah, my personal playground. I hiccup a few times to get the gills a moving and jump in. I read an article about humans and fish sharing that gene but I really don't know much about science or mathematics or anything else; hey, today I'm a fish.

But finally, a long glorious swim. Backstroke, sidestroke, breaststroke and all the damn strokes; yeah baby. Damn signs said no diving, but hell, a couple of quick back dives from the side of the pool were in order and how can anyone not do a can opener or some such dive that throws water all over the place? I leap in the air, spread my legs and grab my balls; The Preacher is what we called that when I was young. Seemed appropriate at the time.

Apparently, though I am human first, I am everything. 

Litter

I was walking the beach today and came across an ugly example of human idiocy. Empty containers from a fast food joint that at one time contained burgers, fries and cokes. Well, maybe tacos, nachos and a root beer; who knows, didn't examine too closely.

I've read here and there others who have had a distaste for people who seem to enjoy leaving their garbage for others to clean up. It's an odd habit, one I don't understand. Even though I don't have the immaculate home that others have, I don't walk out into the world throwing my shit around.

Do people that have clean homes throw their garbage in the street?

It is not a problem in most places I'm at. Sometimes high traffic areas get messy, but if it's high traffic someone is probably going to get paid to clean it up. I guess the mess hits harder when it is an isolated incident. Those that inhabit the beach usually like it clean themselves.

Doesn't matter I guess, probably upbringing.

What came to mind while walking, walking, walking; was that religion is a special kind of litter itself. As life comes into the world minds are pristine. Perfect creatures to be imprinted with the best that mankind can offer. Instead, at an early age, the waste starts building up.

Religion litters the thought process. Where reason is fairly straight forward and shows almost immediate results, religion wanders around the synapses fucking up all our thoughts. Instead of a child studying a blade of grass and wondering, "how does it grow," he walks on it not caring. If he sees a bird flying through the clouds, he can easily accept that birds fly, and that clouds form, without needing to understand why.

God crushes the desire to know. The answer is already there; magic.

As children go through school, some will want to know why things happen as they do, others will not because they believe they already have the answer. Those that grow up wondering "why" invent and explain what information our senses gather. Those that grow up content in the knowledge that there is no other solution to the world than god, do not. Though good schools, whether religious or not, do turn out thinkers; what a challenge to overcome. What if a child never had the litter of religion to clean up before they could move into the realm of reality? How much greater would the world's knowledge be?

Religion turns the minds of our children into a wasteland.

Enter Night

For those who enjoy the audio listen here.


In another world's tale
in a land that's for sale
where religion does prevail
and logic is assailed
where reason is derailed
and science is impaled
on a bronze rusted nail
a theocracy is unveiled
the sound of man's wail
but to no avail
we cannot help but fail
when religion prevails

Curiosity's appetite
vanishes like candlelight
remember you thought it was alright
to enter this long night

Conservatives had a plot
using god as a prop
scientists become laughingstock
no need for an astronaut
creationism came as a shock
to those who mock
evolution was forgot
hardly an afterthought
climate change will make it hot
you'll die in the weather's onslaught
you're own neck you garrote
you know not what you have wrought

Curiosity's appetite
vanishes like candlelight
remember you thought it was alright
to enter this long night

Where magic rules what happens
where priests are our captains
and the thoughts you imagine
are left in shambles
for your mind is in shackles
and evolution is a scandal
where questioning is an infraction
against the rich in their mansions
a place where your grandsons
will deal with the phantoms
of science and atoms
and the reality of dragons

Curiosity's appetite
vanishes like candlelight
remember you thought it was alright
to enter this long night

The anointed ones will rule
using the bible as fuel
showing disdain and ridicule
for the thought of a molecule
acting neutral
while leaders are untruthful
you've given them approval
by your steadfast refusal
to elect leaders with scruples
during a time that is crucial
now resistance is futile
you're a fool fool fool

Curiosity's appetite
vanishes like candlelight
remember you thought it was alright
to enter this long night

Also posted at Atheist Universe.