Posted by thecelticgiraffe on Jan 20th, 2008 5:34 PM

Today was very cold and windy in South-Central Pa.


"Blow, blow, ye winds, with heavier gust!
And freeze, thou bitter-biting frost!
Descend, ye chilly, smothering snows!
Not all your rage, as now united, shows
More hard unkindness unrelenting,
Vengeful malice unrepenting.
Than heaven-illumin'd Man on brother Man bestows!

...from Robert Burns "A Winter Night"

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Posted by thecelticgiraffe on Jan 17th, 2008 4:46 PM

The ancient term used by the Hopi Indians was KOYAANISQATSI (ko.yaa.nis.katsi). A crazy life. A life in turmoil and disintegrating. Life being in such a state that it calls for a completely new way of living. Life out of balance.

The world began as a simple natural group of elements and parts that existed in harmony with each other. This was the first layer. This layer was nature at its best, unaltered by man, left in a natural rhythm that took care of itself. Nothing hidden underneath it and nothing on top, covering it. The first humans to see this thought of it as beauty, because that is all they knew. They lived among this nature, in harmony, not using more than what was replenished or leaving waste that went unused.

Time passed, and man, without comprehending, gradually built another layer of complication on top of this first layer. The process was so slow that it was hardly noticed. This was probably a bi-product of technology and the evil desire that man has to gain power over others, to be smarter than others, to gain financial control and to have things that are bigger and better than others. Sometimes change was due to necessity, such as the building of a better way to store grain so more people could be fed longer. Still, when one ‘piece’ was laid yet another was added with no thought to a natural balance. It was a self-centered effort. Man was building a leg here and a leg there, to unknowingly support the next layer.

At a time when this new layer was nearly closed in, there were parts of it where even more gaps or holes existed and the temptation for man to correct these areas, or fill them, was left unchecked. These were areas where new growth was started, as if a seed was planted in a fertile hole. Soon this new layer was almost completely covering the old layer and man began to forget the old layer. To this man attributed beauty, because newly born men and women knew no other layers had existed, as they grew from childhood to adulthood.

This was repeated over and over and each time it was known as a thing of beauty by the next generation, because each generation could only see its little small area and did not have a view from the sky. The time when dreams began at the first layer was forgotten.

But each new layer was not completely flat. This is where the problems began. Hills and valleys were many. Man was unable to control the balance of the layers. Only one part of the layer could be seen at once. Where there was opportunity there was an accumulation of greed and technology. But it was disproportionate because this type of behavior does not consider all of nature or every potential problem. Eventually man actually developed the desire to build new layers thinking this was what man’s purpose was. Now, to man, the definition of beauty was “increasing or enlarging everything and every action”.

Nature could not keep up, and the natural flow of life was distorted, as it still is now. Nature demands its own pace and will fight back if forced in the wrong direction or out of balance. The layers have built up and have hidden and distorted those layers underneath. The path has become distorted and bumpy, shadowed by valleys and hills. The way forward is not clear and the way back can no longer be seen. The interactions of man on this path are now complex and confusing. It is Koyaanisqatsi.

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Posted by thecelticgiraffe on Jan 17th, 2008 6:03 AM

I CALL on those that call me son,
Grandson, or great-grandson,
On uncles, aunts, great-uncles or great-aunts,
To judge what I have done.
Have I, that put it into words,
Spoilt what old loins have sent?
Eyes spiritualised by death can judge,
I cannot, but I am not content.

William Butler Yeats from "Are You Content?"

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Posted by thecelticgiraffe on Jan 14th, 2008 8:00 PM

Then catch the moments as they fly,
And use them as ye ought, man:
Believe me, happiness is shy,
And comes not aye when sought, man.

Robert Burns "Bottle and Friend"

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