Heritage

Dawn awaked slowly, as if sunlight was stretching out the nightly laziness before starting its daily routine to bring life to the rock that revolved around the bright star.

The high forest trees made pergolas reaching out anxious to be the first to receive the caress of the warm rays coming down from the sky.

Far below on the loose dust around the feet of the giants of wood and leaves, an infinite world of life began changing from nocturnal creatures for daytime ones.

Giant lizards also showed signs of life, some of them seeking sustenance in the juicy leaves of large ferns and other scanning the air in the perennial search for prey, their early breakfast.

Further below, in hidden caves, and millions of tunnels, still in their last nap, mammals swarmed the tiny hollows beneath the surface of the earth.

They were young, full of life and with a special quality. Without developing a sense of personal and external perception, they had the first glimmer of understanding when developing ideas. They could not yet link two ideas produced in series, their recognition of reality was as if facts were illuminated by a stroboscopic light with intermittent flashes, and any conceptual sense was born, reached a maximum meaning, and then ebbed out of the mind leaving place to the next thought.

This apparent 'cacophony' of lights and shadows seemed unproductive, but it was not so; as the outcome of these fixed feelings gave them the possibility of developing a tight and successful community.

Among the large presence of them was a copy, a little male, who for reasons that would have pleased to discover to any paleantropologist, this little male had achieved a position that could be called of a leader, but such idea was too well advanced to have roots in the existing clans.

This little leader, whom for convenience we can call Primi, was in the process of convincing Llambi, a little lady in their environment, it was convenient to have offspring to continue to keep the species on the ground, or rather underground.

Given the stubborn nature of Primi, all signs pointed to a success in his mission to get a family.

At the time we found him trying to put all his qualities in a head wide awake, fleeting instinctive thoughts indicated the need to get some groceries for himself, and for Llambi, so as to show his devotion for her.


If, at this time, it had been possible to fly above the planet's atmosphere, it could have been seen a picture of terrifying proportions. A huge chunk of cosmic rock approaching at high speed on a collision course with the world inhabited by our heroes.

Within minutes, the well-known landscape vanished in a cloud of debris and waste torn down by the impact and a wide black cloud covered all corners of the world bringing death and destruction to all things that dwelt on the earth's surface.

In an incredible display of levity, Nature, let the small mammals covered by the caves to survive, and in time, to repopulate the planet.

.................................................. .........................


The Coronation of Sucolbitl, lord of all the land you can see, was culminated with a party that lasted for many days but before the celebrations, the sovereign commissioned the elders scholars of the kingdom to find Sucolbitl lineage to the first parent, and so prove to the eyes of the world his nobility.

The sages devoted to working following all lines of heraldry that found in the libraries of the realm, but could not pass the sixteenth ancestor records for lack of more information of those so distant times.

What they could not know is that if many centuries before there had been the possibility to know the DNA, and the background of its processing, with extreme surprise had they discovered that at some point after the cataclysm that changed the owners of the planet, Primi and Llambi were Sucolbitl earliest ancestors, an important man on earth now, who had inherited genes from that emerging leader that lived in our simple Primi.


The music is a fragment of "Primeval Tribute" by Heart of Darkness.

© 2014 Od Liam.

Brain, mind you!

For once in a blue moon I looked for Elf instead of avoiding his presence.

The reason was easy enough, I was preparing a job about the interaction of brain and mind. I was trying to test my ideas with another being, and I felt reluctant to talk about this pseudo-scientific subject with other human beings since it was probable that they considered me as a freak.

When I told all this to Elf, his expected answer was, of course:

- Which you are!

I let the remark go unanswered, I was asking advice not trying to start a skirmish.

Seeing I was serious about the topic, he hide a smile and asked with perfect composure:

- What have you in your mind?

-Not in my mind, mind you, I said trying to show him I am as good a punster as he is, - but in my brain

And I started to explain to him the theory that "the mind" is a kind of effluence of the active processes which start in the brain and are determined by many variables, such as experience, health, feelings, et al.

Where I envisioned a difficult task, it was not so. Elf posed as a royal guy, listened to my explanations with a look of attentive stance on him.

I explained the modern theory of mind from brain, developing a good defence of the ideas sustained by important scientific men as Robert J. Sternberg,  Roger Penrose, Stuart Hameroff, and other eminent men in the study of this theme.

As I progressed in my lecture, and seeing the gnome was not interrupting me as is his whim, I grew in confidence and talked about the experiments that proved the way the ontological mind emerged from the brain (all with those spiky words as "ontological" which I was not too sure I understood its meaning, designed to impress the imp).

When I finished my serious speech, Elf turned on his heel, and without a word lost himself into the Archive.

I was stunned, I didn't know if he was showing his contempt for my work, or if he felt insulted, or what...!

I was just starting to walk out of my mind, and look for another audience when he came back from the Archive with a piece of paper in one hand, and a dark blue crayon in the other.

Still baffled, I asked him:

- Why a dark blue crayon? I was almost sure there was a dark reason to use that color

He looked at me with that expression of commiseration he uses for all my questions, and shaking his head answered slowly as if he were doubtful of my understanding capacity, he said:

- Because, as incredible as it may be, this was the ONLY crayon that I could find in the box!

Looking at me askance, he started to draw, after a while he looked his work putting the paper far from his head, added a point, or a line, here and there, and then show it to me asking:

-Do you know what is this? I looked at him first trying to find if he was ironic, but could not find any trace of irony in his voice.

Then I looked at the paper:

- Yes, I was laconic, not knowing where he was going.

The picture was of a human arm with a hammer in attitude of hitting an iron nail into a wooden block.

When he was satisfied I have seen the drawing fully, he asked:

- Where is, as per your understanding, the will to hit the nail? In the arm? or in the hammer? Just forget about the rest of the human body for a while.

Still confused, I tried to answer my best option:

- In the arm , it was a guess, of course, but the arm was at least human, while the hammer was not! So it stood to reason that he arm could handle a "will", and the hammer did not.

- Right, answered the sprite to my relief. And then added, destroying my relief, -Partially

- Now, which one is the brain, and which other is the mind? asked my Nemesis, adding bewilderment to trepidation.

- I... I... it seems as if the mind is the hammer, and the brain is the arm. I was so perplexed as an African camel in a fog! I tried to associate the arm to the brain since both are in the same body, so I was left with the discomfort to pair the mind to the hammer.

- Exactly wrong, Elf said this with a smile so it does not looked as an insult! But, I was not sure!

- Look, the idea came to the mind, the brain accepted it, and they both hit the nail... But, and mind this big, big BUT, if the brain is damaged, the mind will still want to hit the nail (you can see this in handicapped persons wanting to do something but prevented for the lack of instrumental body), so which one is the master and which one is the instrument?

- If... if you put it like that... I was so much flummoxed, I could not but speak hesitantly.

- There you are, now, where are those "brainy" ideas of so famous scientist about the mind being exuded by the brain? What they forget is René Descartes simple postulate: I think, then I exist.

This is a simple way to say I am the mind, then I can use my brain (the instrument, or the hammer in my drawing) to express my mind needs and desires in this reality.

Did you understand this little puzzle?

Before I could collect my scattered brain cell to express my mind ideas, he went again into the Archive, and I could hear him mumbling something about "this poor humans, always taking reality by the tail".

I promise I could not understand his whispers, but his voice was full of pity.


The music is a fragment of "Mindfulness" by Hans Enrik Bay.


© 2013 Od Liam.

Foreboding

Darkness surrounded the isolated house, high trees mixed their lower boughs with the low shrubs that covered most of the place. Silence was ominous, not even the doleful hooting of owls, so common on the isle, were heard.

My heart beating at an inconceivable rhythm seemed near to collapse, my mind working overtime was very clear, dread spreading over my soul gripping it in its talons and bringing it to the feeling of being high on a promontory and ready to jump to emptiness.

There was no promontory, only this desolate piece of land with a horrid cabin in the middle of a hideous forest.

Why I felt this strange sense of high rocks? It was so vivid I almost faint of fright!

The owls' hoots? Common on the island? How do I know there are owls, and that I am on an island?

Preposterous thoughts vied to gain access to my awareness, I seem to remember...

No, I do not remember how I reached here, I was in a blank state and then the fetid breath of the island soil reached me without warning.

There must be a rational explanation, always there is a rational explanation, but at the moment it eluded me. I could only experiment the abominable, the obnoxious, and awful felling of being pushed into the snout of evil.




I approached the cabin, my quivering hand reached by its own volition the rusted clasp that was used to lock it, the atmosphere was charged with small sparks apparently coming from my own body.



I do not want to enter there!

What pushes me into it?

What weird force urges all my being into an action so revolting I would die if let my body performs it?

How can I stop this... this terrible compulsion heaving my viscera, and making my heart hit my throat in desperation?

The door turned with a high shriek of rusty and decayed hinges, but the noise was attenuated by the thick silence of the woods.

To my harried senses appeared a point of light over the wooden table that was  miraculously held erect by a lonely leg.

The tiny light grew quickly, and scathingly into a high pitch howl that slowly changed from the Banshee Cry it was performing into the... clock alarm.


The music is a fragment of "It's Alive" from Oldboy movie Sdtrk.

© 2013 Od Liam.

Faith, that jolting experience (II)

When you find a person who believes the deity is a constant and real presence, you find a rare phenomenon in the soul of this person (yes, supposing the soul exists; if you feel awkward with this notion you can call it whatever you want since there is no doubt that an intangible “something” lives inside our heart, skull, or mind that we call “I”).

The first surprising fact you find when you look close to the beliefs “owned” by this religious person is that those beliefs are a certainty, the person “knows” God exists, “knows” He is in charge and “knows” that despite the unsecured sight we have of the world at large, there is a Plan, a Design to be followed up to a Happy End, childish as this seems.

This surprising fact is the basal stone which has maintained religious Faith alive through so many years since the first of us opened the eyes to the wonderful sense of being aware of the difference between the rest of the world and that sentience called “I”! This “knowing” fills up the vacuum in our soul so aplenty that life takes a new and wonderful meaning.

The mystics, who have experienced the sense of the divine, are so strongly attached to the anchor of belief that it is a certainty. And, wonder of wonder, those whose experience were not mystic develop a strange certainty almost as strong as that of the mystics.

What makes all this possible? How can a person “create” something so incredibly wonderful? Theologians’ explanation is that no person create it since it is too big a notion as to be thought by a human being, so what?, well, as incredible as it may seem, the explanation states that it was revealed by the owner of every space in the Universe, included souls, God Himself. Agnostics sustain it is a psychological reaction. Choose the one you like more.

The simple fact that every one of the creatures are so tightly bonded to the Creator can develop a strong and secure sense as to close the gates to insecurity and vulnerability.

Be this true or not, this Faith moves mountains and makes people better in their own ways since it removes the need to be defensive and guarded against the imponderable.

Compared to desacralized Faith this is Ambrosia, this is the Golden Fleece, this is the Shangri-la every one of us dreams about!

Unfortunately, these different “Faiths” have, as anything else in the universe, a dark side we know too well. Three mistakes named:

Fanaticism, fundamentalism, bigotry.

Deeply seated in those insecure feelings we develop in life facing uncertainties is the need to keep safe our beliefs; those beliefs that give us a harbour for our fears, when our Faith is not based on something as strong as a God, or if you prefer as good as a psychological reaction, we feel threatened and anything that menace those beliefs are a menace to us, personally.

We “must” fight all and everything departing our paths. This fight is a distortion of real Faith. This gives birth to those three mistakes mentioned above and through them a myriad of errors, cruel actions, and dreadful attitudes.

Starting from this narrow lane of thought humankind had divided into factions, each faction had created new concepts to keep its needs addressed and, of course, as those concepts are not the same since the veneer of knowledge, intelligence, and culture are different, even those factions near enough to share some beliefs are far enough to dissent on basic things and ways of thoughts.

This is true in both situations. Scientific and religious beliefs have its divisions, and each one of them its followers, developing, by the way, many different manners of defining the same thing and a rejection, sometimes brutal rejection, of any definition not agreeable to theirs.

This is the well known, not written, principle that states we must destroy everything we do not understand or see different to us and our ways.

Difference is not wrong, WE are different in the manner of puzzle pieces are, if we just take the place we are designed for, the image appears clear and beautiful. But that is not the case, we think the image MUST be as we imagine it is, following our principles and beliefs (aka, tainted Faith, since it is tainted by our own ideas, or those inherited), so if we find a different piece in our puzzle, we try to cut and warp it to conform our idea of the whole, destroying that “different” piece in the process and thinking we did it a good turn.

We prefer to kill, since it guaranty there would be no remonstrance from that quarter, instead of trying to understand each other and be very much alive, as it was meant since we are born.

There is a long way to walk yet for humankind to accept differences, and with it faith as a reality as concrete as to produce actual facts, my guess is we will reach that stage but it would take many, many individual casualties to make humankind shine in its own glow.


The music is a fragment of Beethoven "3rd Symphony" by Jansoms BRSO.

© 2013 Od Liam.

Faith, that jolting experience. (I)

WARNING

This essay is the product of a feverish mind, so if you are not in the mood of delving into unnecessary pseudo-psychological thoughts, which would be the normal human state, my advice would be to skip it, make a good sandwich, get a nice glass or cup of your most liked beverage, and skip this with grace and easiness.

Faith as a scientific interaction

We live in an agnostic world in the best case, or in a nihilistic one in the worst.

This seems the current definition of our western society nowadays, but it is far from the truth.

We cannot deny there is a strong tendency to create a concrete world, based on science (whatever this means) and where everybody who do not toe the line to these beliefs is considered crazy, simpleton or moron and must be left behind with no one glance back, a kind of ostracism if you do not “equal” the herd model. This is effective with teenagers and some adults in need of a self-esteem booster.

This culture tries its best to keep humankind with the feet on solid earth, I am sure its followers are absolutely convinced they are right and performing a good deed. The question here is about what difference they make on reality.

When you make an exhaustive analysis of this phenomenon you find in a surprising way that, despite the efforts realized to keep everything accounted for, we are dealing with a huge slice of that thing most dreaded by unbelievers: Faith.

From long ago in the western religious fields Faith is one of the three theological virtues: Faith - Hope - Charity. The order was not aleatory. Faith opens the way to mystic environment where, based in Hope, will find the final Charity (Absolute Love). This seems to be an unacceptable way to achieve things and knowledge in this world without faith, but…

What is the path to achieve knowledge in the actual world?

Premise - Test - Evidence.

These are the three virtues of science; as a complement of this path, anyone can walk it and repeat exactly the same situations and conclusions.

Now, few of us can follow this path since we have not the training to do so. So what are we really doing? We believe the scientists are saying the truth, we have, hrrmm… sorry, faith in their work.

Here you go! The world is based on faith, or it will not work, it is impossible for us, all of us, to test and prove everything and anything.

If we do not develop an open mind we restrain ourselves to narrow paths and clearly set close boundaries to our learning.

Something cannot be proved by a set of concrete rules? Well, maybe it does not exist or maybe it does but cannot be proven by a set of concrete rules! This open-minded feeling should be the gist of agnosticism, not the “not believe until proven” which is the demanding action of these days.

We must remember that if this “open-minded” business is good in itself, it is subjective.

You have never seen a ghost… they do not exist for you.

Right! I agree.

You live in a haunted house… and ghosts go bumping in the night, they are very real to you.

Right! I agree.

Listening to many agnostics, one would imagine that this appeal to authority as a criterion is unscientific, though perhaps nowhere is authority appealed to so unscientifically as by modern scientists and modern critics.

Now, can you tell me why should I accept “scientific” faith and not “religious” faith?
I can hear your answer: “Because whatever a scientist said can be proved… (I add) by another scientist!”. What about me; I am no scientist, so I must believe whatever scientists say.

Cool! I agree.

Now again, whatever any mystic says can be proved… by another mystic! What about me; I am not mystic, so I must believe whatever mystics say!

Cool! I agree.

Despite my thought may seem “unscientific” I think we are attaching too much belief to science and too little to religion. And it is not just coincidence but causality. Since the famous (often misquoted) statement from Marx about the “opium of the people”, we are riding a crusade backward, doing the same thing crusaders did against those infidels but now against those faithful.

And we must not forget that for each agnostic abusing a faithful there is a faithful abusing an agnostic, fundamentalism does not help in any field!

From a psychiatric point of view, human beings are very much as a vacuum box, this vacuum is the outcome of the poor control we have over ourselves and our environment.

Notwithstanding all the efforts we have exerted since we become aware of being alive we cannot predict a small event in the next seconds of our time with absolute certitude. Oh yes, we can, with a grade of exactitude written in the unreliable laws of statistics, say what is going to happen but there always is a number, sometime a large one, of variables that must be left out of our equation since we cannot, even with a computer, manage them all.

And yes, maybe in the future we will be able to do so, but not now, which is the time I am interested in since I am not sure (there we go about predictions) if I will be alive the next five seconds.

We can see we cannot master our person or our environment so we feel: insecure.

We know we are in the maelstrom of events that can change our life in seconds; this is the essence of our feeling insecure, unsafe, and vulnerable. This condition is what creates the vacuum in our core; this vacuum is a strong need to find a safe harbour, a place where everything is accounted for and make us feel sure of ourselves and our environment.

This vacuum attracts anything that can promise, not even give the certainty, but only the promise of that certitude, of that safe feeling of being secure. Hence the need to believe in something, anything, so we start to take Nature (capital N), Science, People, Anything, Nothing as the fulcrum of our beliefs, and use the lever to assert our insecurities.

In recapitulation, we have two paths in our secular Faith: we believe what we want to believe, or we believe nothing at all!

So much for desacralized Faith!

Now, just for the sake of balance let’s review the opposite, sacralized Faith, this somewhat discredited path, but let's make a separate room for it.

(to be continued)



The music is a fragment of "4th Symphony" by Ludwig van Beethoven, performed by Jansons BRSO

© 2013 Od Liam.

Good and Evil?

I was, again, trying to keep a veneer of order in my mind, it is a waste of time, you know.

As soon as I get some resemblance of tidiness in my Archive, there comes Elf with an "urgent" need for something and everything is back to a huge mess on the floor of my mind.

But I keep trying, and getting the same answer when I remonstrate with the impish goblin, to wit:

-Sorry, I am busy with more important matters, so I cannot lose time in these petty things.

And here I am, sorting adjectives, nouns, verbs, the whole mambo-jumbo, and placing them in their correct location to wait for the next foraging from Elf.

I was finding some difficulty to correctly label some adverbs that look like adjective and vice-verse when I heard a loud cough from behind the file-holder furniture I was trying to organize.

I just ignore it, but to ignore Elf is as you try to ignore a thorn in your eye!

There was another loud cough and the file-holder trembled as if there were an earthquake, which was impossible, in my mind.

Elf

A second later a spiky ear showed from behind the furniture and a muffled voice said:

-Oh! I didn't realize you were here.

-Stop pretending, -I said irked, -you saw me trying to keep a kind of order here, but never offer to give a hand, your only concern is to ruin and spoil all my work, and it seems you enjoy doing it, I should add!

-Oh! I do, do I? -the sprite was dancing on his toes as if he were commanded by a puppeteer.

- And, do you remember how many times you reject my advices and make yourself a disgraceful figure, while I suffer shame in front of my people who laugh at the certainty I have to make a valuable human being from you! yelled the imp with a red border in his pointed ears, sign he was angry.

-Shuddup, you goblin! -I shouted louder, and added, -nobody asked you to come and meddle in my life, you... you... -I was short of adjectives to qualify this little bane of mine!


-What!? -Elf was violet all around, and the colour was so strong that it seemed his head was surrounded by a violet cloud, -What!?, -he repeated, and choked in his own breathing.

-Nobody asked me!? -I started to be afraid he would develop a heart condition, then I got confused thinking I do not know if he has a heart.

-You know, you, small piece of an old ungrateful shirt -I never heard Elf using strong words, he always finds a euphemism to express his thoughts, and this is an example.

-I was asked to mentor your worthless self by a higher echelon, where they think you should develop into something, something... -He seemed out of a word, too. As if defining into what I should develop was very difficult.

-Well, it is not important, but you should know I WAS asked, so stop being deluded about the significance of your tiny, insignificant being, if I were not here, you would be lost forever... He stopped yelling gradually until he reached a normal level of voice at the end of the sentence.

He was asked, if not I would be lost... What was this imp implying, moreover, what was he talking about?

I asked him, knowing it would be a pointless question:

-What do you mean? I would be lost? lost how, and why?

-Just forget I said anything, you moron. Can't you see that if it were for you to know, you would already know?

Elf looked somewhat frayed at the hem, as if he feel guilty to have said too much. I thought I could press him more to tell me what I wanted to know... Especially if he was pulling my leg as he always does.

-Maybe, I said diffidently, -if you tell me a bit more of all this I could work out your meaning here, and maybe, I could manage Evil and Good in a better fashion. I thought I was being clever.

-Evil and Good, my foot, he recomposed quickly, -What do you know about Evil and Good?

There was contempt in his voice!

This is the "core" of the reality: the real shifting sands. -He added with a trembling voice, I thought he was afraid of something, but I should know my goblin. He was trying not to be angry at me.

-The real quicksands, -he added, and went on in a sad way.

You cannot have anything valid on quicksands. You do not understand, not yet. My best bet is that someday, somehow you all will understand. Of course, it is only a bet.

Your perception of Good-Evil is blurred by your own lack of knowledge. You come from a long way to be told that because you ate the fruit from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, you received, in a magic way, a method to learn how to separate one from another, but my guess is who told you that was not telling you the truth. I mean the whole truth.

And we know how dangerous a quarter, a half, or a three quarter truth is.

I can accept human beings to respectfully differ, in the light of their poor understanding, but I cannot be at ease with the idea that they know the clear difference between Good and Evil in all the billions of minds on Earth, and unfortunately, that is the place where all Good or Evil comes.

With this forlorn comment, he turned and went quickly into the darker corners of the Archive.

I was stunned, how have we reached this point? I only was trying to get the mess in my mind addressed.

Always happens the same, we cannot have a civilized conversation, we start taking opposite position and end arguing about things I do not know if are true or just a big scenario invented by Elf to confuse me, and I am not sure I believe all of it at all.

Himmeldonnerwetter!

Now I will be thinking about this things for quite a while, and maybe I will lose hours of sleep trying to unravel the yarn the darned imp imprinted in my soul!

Himmeldonnerwetter!


The music is a fragment of "Winter" from the Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi, performed by Mari Samuelsen as violin soloist, and her ensemble.

© 2013 Od Liam.

Criollo Duel - An almost Borgesian tale

The lonely corner poured memories under the cone of shadows of the old gas lantern that survived despite the heavy stones that came from the hands of the little sparrows in disguise as small human beings.

Love hiding in a dark hallway whispered lies into the unfaithful ear as it drank anxiously from the bowl of  desire, but it was not alone, the hatred of jealousy approached stealthily travelling on a horse full of fury, and just feeling on its face the wild wind of revenge.

Two surprised screams were the prelude of the encounter and the knife found a sheath in the body of the thankless lass that forgot the promises made in the heat of another love.

As a shadow falls in the final solitude, two other shadows are face to face under the indifferent light of the lantern, the knives slow ballet unfolds in the night silence, and the calculated paces were accompanied by flashes of the lantern light on hard steel.

None of them will return from this journey, and the blood will stain the sidewalk mixing the empty bravura, and the futile defense of honor making all of it sink into the mud of eternity no one remembers.

Upon returning the calm, the gaunt moon looked almost without wonder on an everyday scene.

The lantern recalls that under its light were won and lost many lives, as in this very night, that copying the ways of a Shakespearean tragedy, all are dead, even the audience itself.

Leaving only reverberating the distant whistle that accompanies and envelops another solitaire ruffian that leaves its imprint on the fabric of eternal human passions.


The music is a fragment of the tango "Duelo Criollo" (Criollo Duel) by Juan Razzano and Lito Bayardo.

© 2013 Od Liam.