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Message for the Masses
This might just be my all-time favorite comment left on my site. It was left by none other than Joe Chip here.
There are quite a few messages that I think need to get out to the “masses,” actually. No, I’m not thinking about turning the public on to drugs or magick, although the messages can be found in the esoteric and the occult, buried beneath a lot of the more… well, esoteric stuff. Messages like, taking deeper breaths will reduce stress, making you happier, seriously improve your life. You don’t have to and perhaps should not willingly feel negative emotions like stress and guilt. We create “reality” and are therefore responsible for crafting a good one; also, other people’s realities differ from our own and we might therefore want to avoid becoming inflexible in our beliefs. So if there’s a message that needs to be brought to the masses—and I believe there is—it’s that they don’t have to suffer the way they do, that there is hope.
That sums up so succinctly so many things I have taken me thousands of words to try to try and articulate for myself and others. Reading this almost, honestly, makes me a little teary-eyed. Thanks Joe!
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December 21st, 2006 at 11:10 pm
WTF? That “message” is in every xmas telemovie, every sitcom, and every advertisement for diet soda. It doesn’t mean anything and it hasn’t, doesn’t and won’t do anything for anyone. If anything, it’s a message that needs to be purged from the masses. Sheesh guys, I know it’s xmas and all but what’s with the hokey Charlie Brown shit?
I’m a little teary-eyed too… ROFLAMFAO
Merry xmas, y’all. Better luck next year.
December 21st, 2006 at 11:12 pm
Cynicism is a harsh mistress. It really doesn’t need to be like that though. Merry Christmas to you too.
December 22nd, 2006 at 5:31 am
Sheesh. If you’d just read a little Tom Robbins you’d see that he espouses the point almost verbatim (though I am not accusing anyone of anything - some truths may be universal and when people keep arriving at them…)
On one hand I share “the tear” that came to your eye - I have felt it before and feel it again from time to time. The first time it arrived in my eye was when reading some of the ideas and philosphies offered by novelst Tom Robbins.
“We make our own reality” + “You dont have to feel guilt and stress” = make happiness. Make it, like a factory and work at it - churn it out. Nuture it like a puppy. Set it up to succeed, like child. Pick it up when it falls down and care for it so it doesn’t leave you. Like the Beatles said, “It’s easy.” It gives me chills to think about that two word sentence, “It’s easy.” It’s easy for some of us and especially for those of us who want it. It’s so damn easy.
Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas
Skinny Legs and All
Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates
Jitterbug Perfume
Still Life with Woodpecker.
I’m sending you one for Christmas. You pick the title and tell me where to send it. Do it fast, christmas is coming.
December 22nd, 2006 at 7:46 am
The trouble is, Tim, that the message is out there- repeated endlessly, over and over again. it is only heard when we have the ears to hear it. And while you can proclaim the message far and wide, you cannot give people ears. It’s like water…when people are desperately thirsty, only water will do. The rest of the time, water doesn’t interest them.
December 22nd, 2006 at 7:48 am
BTW, Gary, Jitterbug perfume is probably my all-time favorite book. Somewhere, I still have an ancient and indestructable Still life, which i’d be happy to pass on…
December 22nd, 2006 at 9:45 am
I guess the message is falling on barren ground. There’s a very basic experiment you can do, if your cynicism doesn’t get in the way: smiling works backwards, and if you smile, you feel better at that instant. That’s all this post is all about: you make your own reality. I would have thought that would be obvious, especially to the people who read this site. I’m not a sweetness and light kind of guy, but I have successfully pulled myself out of a several year funk by forcing myself to turn around my own attitude. Perhaps the message is such a cliche because it is so distinctly true.
December 22nd, 2006 at 12:01 pm
This reminds me of something an old man told me who worked for IBM, a coworker of his retired and came back a few months later for a celebration. During small talk someone asked what was the most important thing he had realized since retiring. He looked around and said gesturing with his hands, “That none of this really matters. And you can’t see that, until your outside of it.”
Every bad thing out there, or good thing, needs people, take people away and it will dry up and blow away.
December 22nd, 2006 at 1:12 pm
me too!
Still, my tear comes from the realization that for most of the worldwide masses, who can barely afford to take a deep breath in leisure, who automatically cling to the family out of shear survival (when one can afford not to be constantly working), stress and death are their constant, unavoidable companions.
How fortunate we are to have the leisure to ponder such deep considerations of life, on our comfy couches. Maybe a little guilt is a good thing, as we dutifully separate our paper from plastics for recycling.(?)
December 22nd, 2006 at 1:27 pm
“purged from the masses”
how so? I don’t see that message being absorbed by the masses in a genuine way too often.
December 22nd, 2006 at 4:34 pm
Your right, too- who ever sits on their deathbead wishing the’d been more organized, or done more filing, or had a nicer car?
December 22nd, 2006 at 5:59 pm
who sorts plastic from paper?
life is to be lived. it is the only uncertainty. death is certain so don`t worry about it. it`s all taken care of. all you have to do is get on with the smiling and join LIFE (tm.)
sorry, i got my sacasm button stuck.
and by the way, you can never get those minutes back that you spent soaking the labels off the cans………..
December 22nd, 2006 at 7:02 pm
I read this at the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur when I was 14 and it has always stuck with me. I was in the middle of a rainy forest with a man smoking pot playing banjo 5 feet away from me. It was the most amazing self revelation and your post seems to be similar.
“Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such” Henry Miller
December 22nd, 2006 at 7:03 pm
Wow, really good point Jennifer. Thank you. That really solidifies something important for me, which I will try to meditate on during my time off. Thanks everyone else as well!
Next year in Jerusalem!
December 22nd, 2006 at 11:31 pm
i sat in starbucks tonight looking out at the rain and realising that most people would be thinking fuck, what am i going to do…….but i realised that i am totally happy at this moment to just see myself sitting here in that realisation enjoying my americano with no plans and a quiet apartment to retun to later. that feeling still persists now. not wanting anything, not uncomfortable in the least………….just peaceful.
henry miller is right about recognising eachmment. it is a decision to make them special.
December 23rd, 2006 at 12:57 pm
A little cynicism is good. It’s what keeps us from being duped by the government and stuff. Of course you can’t let cynicism take over your life any more than anything else.
The working-all-the-time thing reminds me of a lot of people in my area, including the direction some of my friends’ lives seem to be taking, and maybe what might end up being my fate.
Incidentally, I’m not sure the making-your-own-reality thing goes all that far.
December 23rd, 2006 at 3:40 pm
Remember the line from Thomas, about the seeds?
December 23rd, 2006 at 7:18 pm
Don’t misattribute the source here. It is TRUTH which keeps you from getting duped by the government. Cynicism is a conditioned reaction which occurs from people not telling you the truth over and over again. It isn’t a weapon of discernment or even a tool. Truth is.
December 25th, 2006 at 9:31 pm
But if you don’t know the truth, the conditioned reaction might allow you to at least figure out what’s not true in that you know bullshit when you hear it. Or maybe I’m just splitting hairs with the definition of words.