On Leaving The Tribe

Collectivism
is comfortable:
you know you belong,
and what to think,
never mind
the Ayn Rand connection.

The first fracture
was actually a schism:
I could not accept
the tribal god.
Social benefits
for the weak,
incapacitated,
needy;
universal healthcare;
abortion;
assisted dying;
secular government;
weapons control;
the list of differences
between my thought
and tribe-thought
continued to grow
exponentially.

I am alone now,
not surrounded,
and frustrated,
by people and ideas
that I cannot respect,
nor understand.

I am content now,
meeting likeminded people
in the most unusual of places,
realising that tribe-think
is retrogressive socially
and developmentally.

With personal horizons broad enough
one has the vision
of a small blue planet
floating peacefully
through the cosmos:
one journey,
one species,
one destiny,
one tribe,
together.

The Deleterious Effect of Routine on Aging

Stick to a routine,
they tell me:
it is important to keep
regular.
But why?  I respond.
Regular is boring;
regular is deteriorating;
regular numbs the mind.
What about the marvel
of serendipity,
the magical chaotic carpet
that has brought me
here, now, content?

You must focus,
they chant:
it will help
remembering things.
I already remember,
I scream:
why must I change
who I am
simply to become an older,
and less capable,
copy of a former me?

But you are older now,
they repeat,
and have to take care
of yourself.
They will repeat some old adage
or other,
designed to show me
the encapsulated wisdom
of the ages.
I laugh aloud,
and alarm the dog,
and do a little soft-shoe,
sip some fresh ground
Fair Trade coffee.

Then, abandoning all advice;
not caring for routine,
or focus,
I write this poem,
and continue to age,
but as me,
not a frail but organised,
focussed but bored,
copy of this
one and only
original
me.

On The Dangers Of Multi-tasking

On the very first page
of the instruction booklet,
“How to Properly View Reality”,
it is quite clearly stated,
“Focus.”

In physics,
the “double slit experiment”
permits viewing of
light and matter
as both waves
and particles.

In multi-tasking,
as focus
is divided,
one is never
sure,
from a physics
point of view,
if what you are treating as a wave
is, in fact,
a particle.

When uncertainty rules
your complementary variables,
at least
your principles
remain.

On Becoming Something Quite Different

It doesn’t have to be
a quantum change,
or monumental at all,
to shift to strange;
to stand in
bewildered wonder
at a reality
too different,
too alien,
too welcoming
to be comprehended
at all.

It can be a little thing,
a “yes”, or a “no”,
a left turn
that should have been
right.

(refrain)
And you won’t understand,
you can’t even know,
the madness that now stands before you.
And you won’t understand,
you can’t even know,
until it’s too late,
and you do.

Reality Check

Everything we see is filtered through
the lens of self.
All we learn is distilled
by conditioning:
familial, cultural, commercial,
and religious.

My truth is your blasphemy:
your dogma, to others, insanity.
The rules by which we live
apply only in our individual
egocentric interpretations.

We walk through life
unaware of the strangeness,
the fantasy,
the terror,
the sociopathic pulse
that throbs unseen
beneath the surface
of what we all know
as our lives.

We are tribal:
our religions, cultures, philosophies,
are created to make each tribe special,
non-inclusive and xenophobic,
wary of others
until they conform.

We are groups in search of common vision,
and, until that vision emerges
societal progress will stagnate,
or continue towards restoring
the archaic past,
glorified by holy books
and autocratic godspeakers.

The time has come to abandon the fantasies
from the childhood of our species,
and embrace progress and a greater good for all.
It is time for inclusiveness,
equality, and a commonality of purpose
that will define us as humanity,
and carry us forward to a brighter tomorrow
in a shared reality
that all can see.

The Falling of a Leaf (Reality Check series)

Autumn,
and photosynthesis
decrees
a period of winter dreaming.
The tree slows,
living on stored food,
and little energy.

The leaves,
released from factory duties,
celebrate
with colourful display:
a tribute to summers past.
They fall.  They become one
with the earth
from whence they came.

The fallen leaves
did not develop
myths and fables
of a Father Tree
that created all.
They have no expectation
of a leaf reunion
on the Great Oak In The Sky.

They live.
They perform their tasks.
They celebrate their completion.
They fall.
Their elements become
part of all that was,
all that is,
and all that will follow.

Their lives are fruitful:
they grow;
they work;
they age;
they fall.
The universe does not destroy:
it transforms.

May we learn from leaves.
May our autumns blaze with colour.
May our transformation be joyous.

On Successfully Traversing the Gaps Between Realities

Consider, then:
being,
being you
being you in the vast chiaroscuro
that is
your reality. Created
by you,
for you.


Imagine, now:
the trauma
the carnage
the devastation
that,
time and again,
slams
all of us
to a stunningly
different
place.


Remember, fondly:
the serendipity
by which you live,
waltzing
through life-changing
events,
creating,
participating
in the wonder.
,

Consider: when
acceptance
becomes the vehicle
of change,
what
will
reality
bring?


~James D. Fanning, 05Aug2015