StarsInKansas
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Stars in Kansas
There may be a few things that defy description. Of this I am not certian. I am certian of very few things in this life. Though if there is only one thing of which I am certian this would be it. If anything defies description it would be stars in Kansas.
Kansas doesn't have stars. What?" you might ask. "Kansas has a great veiw of the stars." The trouble with Kansas, as with all states, is they don't exists. Nor do stars for that matter.
Kansas is a complex system of ideas, thoughts and beliefes that exists only in the minds of the people who choose to be motivated by it.
What is a place, truly? Can we define a place outside the realm of our mind? If I say Kansas is a place, I would be correct in the most conventional sense of the term. I could drive to this place and I would know when I arrived. In fact a sign would most likely welcome me when I drove accross the border. But is this truly a place? Suppose every person and all signs of the human race vanished from the face of the earth. Then supose a new person crawls out of the nearest pond and wanders accross the land. There would be no sign to greet the weary traveler to the wonderfull state of Kansas. There would be no roads to help him on his way. How would he know where he was? He might find a meadow filled with slow stupid rabitts. He would name that place Old Country Buffett.
Do our eyes and mind conspire to deceive us? Do they work together to keep us in a box of unimagination? We refuse to live outside the realm of our eyes and mind and yet we refuse to realy live in it. How much of our world is a mirage an illusion? How much of it do we realy experience or even notice?
Do these questions drive you or mearly distract?
---DavidSiegel
these questions have driven me consistently since I was an infant. the first one, that many children really -get- is the one about color:
When I see blue, and you see blue, how does -anyone- know you aren't seeing what I see as red, and calling it blue?
Now, probably, some scientist has 'answered' this. I'm interested in seeing such answers, and just as interested in contradicting them, most likely :)
My work, and life, are intricately bound with these questions, and until my society succeds in finally extinguishing my human person, I will remain at the service of mutual rescue, uplift, and -real- exploration. Preferably in community, but just as passionately in isolation, if circumstances demand as much.
You know, some of my best friends growing up, were color blind. One was mono-chromatic, and one could see yellow. Sometimes, what I called green, they called other things. And sometimes, they couldn't distinguish it at all versus other neighboring colors.
How do we know we see the same thing? We don't. We can communicate and we presume. But even when there is nothing to prevent you from seeing something, does not mean you are conscious of it. Seeing is more of a mental process then a physical one. As any mental process, it is easy for our minds to miss something, or fool itself.