In terms of what we see as real, there is our emotional view of life, what we believe about the world beyond ourselves, what we see for a purpose to life, but there is another seemingly more easy to define reality-- our physical reality. That's simple, right? We can see it, measure it, evaluate it. Except...
We don't all live the same physical lives even within the same country. The experience of someone who is living in poverty is so different from someone in wealth and not a lot like someone with even a secure middle class lifestyle (although that can sometimes change pretty fast).
Our physical reality is defined mostly with what we look like, how intelligent we are, who our parents were, our ethnicity, personality, where we live, our friends or associates, age, wealth, health, the schools we attended, and so forth. We do all have certain basic needs but beyond that, the whole experience of being human varies a lot.
Evaluating at our physical reality might start with our bodies. That can be weighed and measured, right? Except, what we see from the outside of us-- taking away the clothing we choose, is hiding a lot more. We have muscles, tendons, bones, organs and even that's not the end of what's there. Take an electron microscope or an atomic force microscope and look at the clusters of atoms, neutrons and the energy that holds it all together and makes it work. No matter what it might look like outside, we are beings of energy. Some think that's some new agey term but it's not. We look solid but we are not-- nothing is.
We live as though the physical reality we know today is what is stable and will be with us-- all the while we know it's in a state of constant change. Even our cells are constantly renewing and the physical being we were years ago isn't the same today and won't be in another set of years. And that's not taking into consideration ordinary aging.
We do though go along as though what is will continue to be because it's how we have to live. Then comes the unexpected-- the thing that is supposed to happen to someone else.
It could be as simple as going for a walk in the woods, losing the trail, realizing we are lost-- and it's snowing. A canoe overturns in a cold, stormy lake and no one is near to help us. A grizzly is on the trail ahead, roaring as it heads straight for us. There is a truck careening toward our lane. We turned too sharply, heading off a tall cliff. There is a violent attack of the terrorist or madman sort and we are in front of the gun or see the bomb exploding. A tsunami has turned the world upside down.
Can we ever prepare for such physical events? Should we try to?
After the most recent shooting by a madman, I read an article from Ted Nugent, who has never been high on any list of mine. He said we all have to be prepared to face evil. I understand what he meant; but what he didn't explain is how we do that. It's not like terrible things announce themselves or come in predictable ways.
Since the first shootings in malls began to happen many years ago, I have been aware of sounds that I hear when I am in public places; but I realize if I happened to be one of the first ones targeted in say a restaurant, there's not a thing I can do. And please, the talk about everybody carrying a gun is ridiculous. It would not make this whole thing better or increase our chances of surviving violence.
Very few people are trained to use a gun or would be able to in time. The more likely thing is they would shoot the wrong person and find themselves going to prison. I've had a concealed weapon permit for many years now, pretty much since they were first allowed in my state, but I almost never carry a gun in public for the obvious reason it's more risky to have one, maybe have it stolen, than to not have one.
We can't even stay home all the time as that isn't always safe given what happened to that Connecticut family in a home invasion. If you are asleep when your home is invaded, tell me how the gun is going to help? Well it might but the physical reality is we can't live on edge waiting for that. Our physical health would be destroyed let alone our emotional lives.
Maybe we know too much of that kind of thing. Our media loves it and whenever an event occurs that catches the attention of the public, they are soooooooooo all over it creating stories to draw in viewers with no real concern for more than that 15 minutes until the next big thing happens.
I was in a big box store in Tucson last year when a young man drew my attention. I am not sure why. It might have been how he was dressed (duster coat) or his demeanor (not paying attention to anybody around him as he strode straight ahead). I have seen all that before and not thought watch out. This time I did and thought where would I go if he started shooting. No, I didn't run out of the store as I knew most likely the energy I was feeling wasn't really dangerous.
Was he actually exuding an energy that radiated danger? I don't know, but Farm Boss, who was in the same store but not with me, when we talked later said he had also seen him and felt the same sensations. Was it baseless? Most likely, but I felt there was an energy field around that young man that you could feel and it wasn't good.
He didn't shoot anyone; so what good did my going on alert do? Frankly it might not have helped if he had started shooting as something like that happens so fast. Can we really protect ourselves in such situations?
Physically I know what I'd do if I saw a grizzly charging toward me. I am even emotionally prepared that it could happen when I hike certain places. Except is that part of the stress I feel today when there is no grizzly? Does trying to be prepared help us or stress us? Naivete doesn't help but neither does paranoia. The trick is finding a balance somehow.
The photo above is from a webcam. Not it nor the earlier digital are real as both are images and reflections of reality. We never see our own faces but simply reflections of it. Is that what we call reality also?
9 comments:
A beautiful and wise Lady !!
After seeing an good mate going trough a difficult moment because of a disease caused by using cigarettes I made it my own quest to spare as many others as is possible from the very same experience, though shortly I realized that regardless of how great the arguments are it's nearly impossible to have a smoker quit smoking, not necessarily because the actual arguments aren't sufficiently good and not necessarily because the smoker just isn't happy to quit but merely due to the fact nicotine is a more addictive drug than heroin and also cocaine (scientifically confirmed).
Then I realised that there's in fact a method to stop smoking with out stopping smoking, thus allow the smoker his or her pleasure and also habit yet save them from the dangerous effects of smoking cigarettes.
The Things I am speaking about are electronic cigarettes. You can read regarding most of the side effects connected with smoking and how a [url=http://electroniccigarette0.com/]electronic cigarette[/url] can help you quite cigarettes or simply permit you to follow your habit and get your kick with no damaging negative effects associated with cigarettes on my web site http://electroniccigarette0.com
P.S. I hope this will not be deleted because of having a link to my web site as I merely attempt to inform and help.
May God bless you all
Chrissy M.
Interestingly, Chrissy, it had been deleted by blogger who I really appreciate for their system that catches most spam these days. I went looking for it though in the spam list, found it and okayed it which blogger lets you do if something landed there by mistake. Because your link and discussion relate to physical health, I think it's appropriate to be in this comment section. Links are allowed when they relate to the topic.
If a reader is not confident a link is safe, I suggest they put the topic line into a search and get the information that way.
I couldn't help but think of the people who built fallout shelters in the 50s. When I asked about them, my mother and dad more or less told me to forget about it but I heard mom tell dad that she wouldn't want to survive a nuclear holocaust. It confused me at the time but I think I understand what she meant now.
And yes, I've come in contact with people like the young man you saw in the store and they frighten me, too. I believe that evil does exist in this world and that some of us have a more heightened sense of it than others. Obviously you and your husband both have that.
I believe we can sense when another person has bad intentions. A serial murderer purchased a reproduction of a drawing of mine and wanted to contact the model. The art dealer gave him my number. From the instant I heard him, flags went up. The day before the model had told me she only sits for me and don't give her name to anyone. Unfortunately the college did give him her name but she evaded his smooth talk while another woman was kidnapped before police caught him.
Good post. We can't prepare for every eventuality and we would live in constant fear if we expected disaster to befall us.
I think we should always be alert to our surroundings and act on our sense of danger, but beyond that we have to trust that bad things are really rare. The odds of something happening like the Tucson shooting are very small.
I have lived many years and was only in danger one time. I had a boy friend who stalked me and threatened to kill me. I became very aware of my surroundings during this period of my life and did what I could to avoid danger.
We take in all the information our senses perceive over a lifetime and build our own reality or world view from it. But, there are forces that attempt to manipulate our world view; political ideology, religious dogma, the latest scientific theory, the evening news, even popular psychology and culture. There’s a Bible verse that I like that says, “Don’t let the world squeeze you into its own mold”. That’s good advice. We need to become logical thinkers and filter the information we receive through a healthy skepticism.
In regard to unexpected happenings, we write the narrative of our own reality. For most of us this narrative must contain certainty. We don’t like to think that we could be done in by improbable events. I read a book by Nassim Taleb titled “The Black Swan - The Impact of the Highly Improbable” In it he tells the story of a turkey who lives for 1000 days and is comfortable and well fed. All he has learned in his life indicates that the comfort will continue indefinitely. Then one day the farmer shows up with an axe. We would like to think that we have control and then when something extreme happens, whether it’s being blindsided by a truck or winning the lottery, we have to create an explanation that makes it appear less random. We are all living a story that we tell ourselves.
I try to be prepared for anything and everything, and invariably I find that still, no matter what happens, I'm under-prepared. Whether emotional responses are real, I'm not sure. We make up emotions. As for the physical... I'm still working on that one, too, because as you suggest, there is more to the physical than meets the eye. Thing is, emotions and the physical body ache equally as much. Maybe only the sensation is real... or maybe we just make that up, too.
Post a Comment