Living in the Moment

 LIVING IN THE MOMENT 

 For only a minute 

 once a day 

 turn off your cell phone 

 put your mental checklist aside 

 stop thinking about 

 what you're going to do next 

 and 

what you should have done earlier 

 and 

 just 

 listen 

What People Say And Do Is Different

  What People Mean  
  by Margaret Mead  

 What people say 

 What people do 

 And what they say they do 

 Are entirely different things 

 Margaret Mead 

Words Can Only Describe

 Words Are Not Real 

 Words describe

 but are not things 

 in themselves

 except for 

 occasional magic 

 when sound and rhythm 

 combine to make 

 an incantation 

 known as poetry 

An incantation or enchantment is a charm or spell created using words.The term derives from Latin "incantare" (tr.), meaning "to chant (a magical spell) upon," from in- "into, upon" and cantare "to sing".https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incantation 

Considered by many to be the most perfect poem in the English language, Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan sings with its own enchanting music.

 Kubla Khan 

 or  

 A Vision In A Dream 

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan 

A stately pleasure-dome decree: 

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran 

Through caverns measureless to man 

   Down to a sunless sea. 

...

...with music loud and long, 

I would build that dome in air, 

That sunny dome! those caves of ice! 

And all who heard should see them there, 

And all should cry, Beware! Beware! 

His flashing eyes, his floating hair! 

Weave a circle round him thrice, 

And close your eyes with holy dread 

For he on honey-dew hath fed, 

And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Complete Poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/43991 

What Is Now Proved Was Once Only Imagined

 The Power 

 of Imagination 

 William Blake 

 What is now proved 

1972: Apollo 17 command module floating above the moon in 1972. Notice the similarity in shape and even the similarity in construction with the module (below) in the Méliès 1902 sci-fi animated film: A Trip to the Moon. 

 Was once 

 1902: Still from the Méliès 1902 sci-fi film: A Trip to the Moon. The command module that held the astronauts was inserted into a super-gun to send it to the moon.

 Only imagined 

See my related in-depth blogs about 
The Work of the Imagination
http://deconstructingtime.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-work-of-imagination.html
and
The History of the Future
http://deconstructingtime.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-history-of-future.html

What Is Knowledge?

What Is Knowledge?

The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility … 

The fact that it is comprehensible is a miracle.

Einstein

What we can *know*

is confined

by our ability to imagine

realities 

in the universe

that can be translated 

into our narrow 

symbolic thought

Part of a draft of a letter by Galileo in which he described the power of his new telescope. In these drawings he noted what he observed when he first looked through the telescope at Jupiter and was able to see its four moons. 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Galileo_manuscript.png

Winter Solstice Poem, December 21, 2016

 Winter Solstice Poem 

 For people of the North 

this is the key moment

             
 when the Sun lingers for a week 

 on the edge of darkness 
     

Today we celebrate with lights

-- a long held tradition --

                       
 to coax the Sun back from its gloom 
                                     

revealing that our feelings

are much more ancient

than we realize

Christmas lights are now the traditional way to mark the end of the year -- but come from our ancient traditions.

We're All Just Animals

 OUR ZOO 

 Let's keep it simple: 

 We're all just animals 

 that live in a zoo 

 known as civilization 

New York City (left); Halloween in Austin, Texas (right)

"Let us consider that we are all insane. 

It will explain us to each other; 

it will unriddle many riddles..."

Mark Twain