What Do You Believe?

[Gannon]

I've had too many tangible experiences to ever deny that there must be something else...some other, or rather Other. When being nudged by some odd internal suggestion to do something I would not ordinarily do...and simply doing that novel act causes results for someone far in excess of even the wildest imagination...I cannot escape knowing that I've participated in something so much larger and more intricate than mere co-incidence or random chance.

That said, I estimate that our reality can be described in the fuzzy function of combining the basic storylines of The Matrix, Monsters Inc., The Adjustment Bureau, and Total Recall [[the original, not the remake). I'm not sure Heinlein's "The Number of the Beast" has been successfully put to film...but there is significant truth in that story as well.

Heinlein's basic premise is: We may be able to imagine into being entire universes, and most surely ours is the product of someone else's imagination. All it takes is a time/space machine to prove it.

After much consideration and study of the latest merely-human misunderstandings of the substance of reality and the mysticism beyond reality...I conclude that there exists an infinite multitude of adjacent multiverses which contain the potential of every act and decision of each and every sentient being, but this continual moment of Now serves to forge the path of the perceivable Universe within which everyone alive today agrees to participate.

Or to badly paraphrase an old philosophical mentor, the Book of Life might be viewable by the Maker as complete, but each page is written as it is turned to be read...by the collective actions of each and every one of us breathing and blinking and hopefully thinking beings. We co-create reality as the potentials of the future become the tangible collective memory of the past.

Somehow we are all a part of the Creator in this creation, and It doesn't seem to mind one whit if we don't recognize It as such. I fully believe that it is simply enough to be the best you can...for yourself, your family, and your community...and to apply your gifts and talents, within the constraints of your abilties, to the overall good of humanity...in only the way the exact combination that is YOU can.

There is so much more to this...I'm not sure I can wrestle language enough to attempt to contain it all. I'll read all that again in the morning after some rest, it was a very busy day. I'm tired.

[MizMotown]

Mr. Toads Wild Ride... lol...

The Grand Illusion [[Styx)

Welcome to the grand illusion
Come on in and see what's happening
Pay the price, get your tickets for the show
The stage is set, the band starts playing
Suddenly your heart is pounding
You're wishing secretly you were a star

But don't be fooled by the radio
The TV or the magazines
They'll show you photographs of how your life should be
But they're just someone else's fantasies
So if you think your life is complete confusion
'Cause you never win the gameJust remember that it's a grand illusion
And deep inside we're all the same
We're all the same

So if you think your life is complete confusion
Because your neighbor's got it made
Just remember that it's a grand illusion
And deep inside we're all the same

America spells competition
Join us in our blind ambition
Get yourself a brand new motorcar
Someday soon we'll stop to ponder
What on earth's this spell we're under
We made the grade and still we wonder
Who the hell we are

I've had too many tangible experiences to ever deny that there must be something else...some other, or rather Other. When being nudged by some odd internal suggestion to do something I would not ordinarily do...and simply doing that novel act causes results for someone far in excess of even the wildest imagination...I cannot escape knowing that I've participated in something so much larger and more intricate than mere co-incidence or random chance.

That said, I estimate that our reality can be described in the fuzzy function of combining the basic storylines of The Matrix, Monsters Inc., The Adjustment Bureau, and Total Recall [[the original, not the remake). I'm not sure Heinlein's "The Number of the Beast" has been successfully put to film...but there is significant truth in that story as well.

Heinlein's basic premise is: We may be able to imagine into being entire universes, and most surely ours is the product of someone else's imagination. All it takes is a time/space machine to prove it.

After much consideration and study of the latest merely-human misunderstandings of the substance of reality and the mysticism beyond reality...I conclude that there exists an infinite multitude of adjacent multiverses which contain the potential of every act and decision of each and every sentient being, but this continual moment of Now serves to forge the path of the perceivable Universe within which everyone alive today agrees to participate.

Or to badly paraphrase an old philosophical mentor, the Book of Life might be viewable by the Maker as complete, but each page is written as it is turned to be read...by the collective actions of each and every one of us breathing and blinking and hopefully thinking beings. We co-create reality as the potentials of the future become the tangible collective memory of the past.

Somehow we are all a part of the Creator in this creation, and It doesn't seem to mind one whit if we don't recognize It as such. I fully believe that it is simply enough to be the best you can...for yourself, your family, and your community...and to apply your gifts and talents, within the constraints of your abilties, to the overall good of humanity...in only the way the exact combination that is YOU can.

There is so much more to this...I'm not sure I can wrestle language enough to attempt to contain it all. I'll read all that again in the morning after some rest, it was a very busy day. I'm tired.

[Gannon]

Mr. Toads Wild Ride... lol...

The Grand Illusion [[Styx)

Too funny. I listened to them during my formative years, and owned that vinyl album...but the lyrics didn't resonate with me until I got older.

I just searched to learn when that Cobo Hall concert was in the late-70s where I nodded off at the stage-right end of row six on the main floor...and became the target for anyone with an empty beer cup. Thankfully they were empty, and their tossers too full for accuracy. We had spent a wee bit too much time on the roof deck partying, and I needed a nap before the show!

One site says they played Cobo Hall twice in 1978, March 31st and November 11th, and then again on 1 November 1979. I believe it was one of the November shows, because I wasn't driving yet. The 1981 show location is not recorded, but I cannot imagine them playing anywhere but Cobo.