Truth and Infinity
“Sham furniture, sham decoration, sham jewellery, sham wine, sham literature of the lowest type were poured out upon the mediocre masses who eagerly swallowed all the rubbish because it was cheap and, to them, undistinguishable from the real and good. By degrees they were joined by the stupid rich to whom good and bad were naturally undistinguishable. Thus there grew to be an immense public in the world who, soon, so got to prefer cheap and sham that with the distortion which familiarity with inferior things produces on the intellect, they actually ended by viewing with detestation anything truly great in literature or art.”
John Ruskin
"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. "
Greek Proverb
“All men bear within them their own divinity, and it needs some adventure of the spirit, some gesture against materialism for each man to gain his inheritance.”
George Russell AE
A WET DAY
The expression, ‘your not a wet day in the place…’ is a common one in Ireland. Used by a boss or co-worker when you are not long in a new job and it is deemed that you are taking liberties. The perceived grievance might well be taking time off, asking about your wages or over familiarity, eg. ‘…and your looking for looking for time off’ , ‘… and you want more money or ‘ …and your slagging people.’
Generally said in jest and with some exaggeration to be sure but as I am currently in that position myself I decided that as today was the first wet day of my employment that I should mark it here with some thoughtful words and therefore pre-empt any such remarks. Of course the pre-empting is only for my own satisfaction, as this would indeed be a pointless exercise in any workplace. The certain knowledge of a ‘wet day’ or many of same, having occurred during your employment are easily ignored when the opportunity for use of this witticism arises. When the phrase lost the meaning of its exact wording is unknown, it may never have had it, but be warned not to rely on literal interpretations as it has not been unheard of to have the phrase unexpectedly directed at you after up to one year of continuous employment.
So, Wednesday the 18th May 2005, my first wet day.
Try it yourself. The definition of a 'wet day' should be that it started to rain from about noon on for the rest of your 'working day'. Stay as close to this definition as possible unless you hear someone mention it being 'a wet one', 'wet out' or any reference to the day being 'soft'. If you do hear these descriptions then take that as a bona fide 'wet day'.
I occasionally write about music for Anorak which can be found
here.
A rare word from your sponsor.
Don’t despair if there’s a lengthy break in my posts, I have never treated this as a 'normal' blog, just free web space. Also from time to time my own working and social life catches up on my free time and I don’t always have the hours to devote myself to this line of thought.
I have privately been describing Truth and Infinity as a process, part of my art, where I think out loud, getting closer to what I want to say in a paper collage, album concept, novel or whatever. I suppose that’s true for a lot of the posts but some are still pretty much isolated from anything else I’ve done to date. That’s not to say it won’t be realised at some point in the future.
I know that T&I has made me more fearless in getting my idea’s out of my head and into others, also an essential trait for any good artist. Ultimately I like to see it as forming some link in the chain of thought, old and new(I hope, original thought being so rare). To exist as long as the site is hosted, its words to echo eternally through cyber space! Well, every positive action bears good fruit at some point.
Stephen Rennicks
One last thought, which needs to actually be thought about.
Be yourself.
“Disease is a departure from Nature; health a return. To realise this is to possess the secret of life. Nature is just, and the unjust must perish for their intemperance; Nature is impersonal, and all that is personal must pass away. Nature envies nothing, is jealous of nothing, and is a stranger to ambition.”
Manly P. Hall
The above quote reads as incredibly extreme in this day and age; I can’t help but think of the human face behind the reality of cancer and Aids. But it is a reality, people get sick no matter how nice they are, no matter how many good deeds they do, nature acts without mercy. Nature has no use for mercy; it is the ultimate self-perpetuating system of life in all its forms. Humans are just one of those forms and we are completely at its mercy.
So what am I trying to say here, don’t smoke or have unprotected sex, don’t take risks with your health in general as nature will undoubtedly bite back? Sure there is that but what exactly is our wider role in nature or do we even have one? Are we here just to live as long as we stay within natures laws, experiencing the universe through the viewpoint of human consciousness. Pretty much, its good to remind ourselves of that every now and again!
I could wrap this up with some cliché about dinosaurs but I’ll just add that while we exist we can reflect that all that is personal must pass away. That new car, nose job or affair isn’t worth the stress. Concentrate on what comes naturally, the simple things are what matter. While we’re here let’s try to beat nature at its own game, or at least meet it halfway.
Stephen Rennicks
“A famous medieval astrologer is said to have predicted the time of his own death. When the fateful hour arrived and he found himself in good health, he committed suicide lest the accuracy of his science come to be questioned. If the dietician can prove the truth of the saying that men dig their graves with their teeth, the psychologist might also add that they fill the graves with their thoughts. A brittle thing is the thread of life, and the mind can snap it, often with comparatively little effort. To set limitations upon the self, or to inhibit in any way the free action of destiny, is a grave mistake.”
Manly P. Hall
