Life thoughts, Rants and Observations

quest for a center

eccentric person

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“Our culture made a virtue of living only as extroverts.

We discouraged the inner journey, the quest for a center.

So we lost our center and have to find it again.”

Anaïs Nin

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I used to think society’s, or civilization’s, journey could be followed left to right, maybe not on a horizontal line and more like a roller coaster, but definitely like a timeline of sorts. I imagine I thought of it a bit like continuous improvement even if it had some fits and starts.

I do know we certainly talk about it this way.

Agriculture revolution, industrial revolution, whatever revolution. Internet 4.0 <implying 1.0 and upwards>. And we relentlessly tie #’s to people to show “growth.”

But I think I was wrong. Heck. I think everyone was wrong.

I actually think the better mapping of society and civilization is viewed like an atom.

Different cultures and people and ‘civilizations’ zooming around like electrons circling the nucleus.

From a grander narrative perspective this seems like I am suggesting who we were is what we are and what we will be. And, yeah, simplistically I imagine I am on some level.

And if you buy that, conceptually, because all these electrons zooming around … because culture, and civilization, is made up of billions of ‘ones’ it may often seem like we lose our ‘center.’

We really don’t.

Honest.

We don’t.

The center is always there. It is solid. It remains, and will always remain, the compass for that which is right.

The nucleus holds it all together.

However.

What circles the center, the billions of ones with different demands and different needs and different likes and dislikes all of which desire different accoutrements for happiness, they never remain still and very often collide with each other.

And exactly the same time there are media channels and advertising and movies and magazines all screaming at the top of their lungs trying to distract us from our center with slivers of less then meaningful distractions. Distractions that make us question our center or maybe what we think is important <which can be very different from our center>.

Let’s face it. some of the people circling the center can be real noisy shits. In addition, the shit that circles our centers can be noisy sonuvabitchs. All so noisy that … well … it can be the only thing you hear.

And therein lies my point.

I disagree with Anais.

Society, or civilization, doesn’t lose its center.

It cannot.

Why?

Because the ‘ones’, the billions of electrons themselves, never lose their center.

Because we, the ones, the individuals, don’t lose our center and have to refind it.

We just cannot hear it on occasion.

Or maybe we just don’t listen to it hard enough.

Or … well … maybe it whispers to make it more meaningful for us.

I don’t really think it matters.

Because we don’t lose our center.

The center is always there, it is within us, as individuals and as a whole. It is the 7+ billion <give or take given the few raging assholes in the world whose center is in their ass> and it is within the ones and it is all the same center.

Call it the moral compass.

Call it the good that resides within everyone.

Call it ‘knowing what is right & what I wrong.’

Call it the soul of humanity.

But ever suggesting we lose our center?

C’mon.

We never LOSE it.

We may misplace it on occasion.

We may just not be able to hear it over the cacophony of Life.

But, we never lose it.

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bother you as much, the randomness of life, the thief of the treasure, the world, There is a crack in everything, there is no formula for good choices, there is truly only one beginning, They only let you be this happy, think of entitlement as someone else’s problem, think society’s, think we are on our way, thinking the right way, this i am today, this inherent individualism, thoughtful discussion, thoughts, time, time and choices, time and resources, to make an end is to make a beginning, to only come this far, To trust is to live, too careful, torture numbers, torturing numbers, towards a world that is what ought to be, traditional business hours, transformational people, trapped in philosophical debates, trappings of an ongoing discussion over our moral compass, tries to catch its breath dealing with everything, True moral judgments, truly talented get as much exposure as the moronic idiots, trust, trust crisis, trust crisis in the world, trust in the other fellow, trust issue 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July 10, 2021 by Bruce

Written by Bruce

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