It was early evening, and I had come in carrying the whiff of two cycle oil from cutting up the long-dead balsam that had once flourished besides the barn, and I was appalled. While doing the manliest of chores, and stoked with the pleasure of not loosing a leg or appendage once again, I saw that in the interval my wife had gone out and bought fireworks for the night. Box fireworks at the local K-Mart. Apparently reading my face, her eyes narrowed as she said, "yes, I bought some fireworks. You probably don't approve."
Brushing a few wood chips from my shorts, I replied, "You would be right."
Sure, I was asking for trouble, but you don't put on a teen-pop album and ask a concert violinist, "pretty good, huh?" And I fancied myself, if not the violinist, then his most ardent of admirers. As a child I lived for fireworks, and after moving to Wisconsin found myself in fireworks heaven. I don't really care for them that much anymore accept around the 4th, but still, I know my stuff. In Wisconsin, it is illegal to set off anything that flies or explodes without a permit, but somehow they have managed to allow the sale of ANY kind of fireworks, even those big star-burst bombs that could take out an SUV. Naturally, no one pays attention to the permits, and on this weekend, the entire area is alive with ground-rocking explosions and bursts of light that in other places would signify a major battle. I have been in these major battles myself, and it was risible that I could condone these legal pop-guns.
But they were what we had, and my son and his friend dutifully lit them off as they shot sparks a mere 6 feet or so from the ground, emitting only an occasional spray of cackles no louder than crow calls. Ah, well, I had a beer and a lawn chair and bug spray. The Founders might yet be proud that we could now live our lives in such colonial banality, free from harboring lobster-clad soldiers in our homes under the order of some King George the umpteenth.
Far more interesting, however, was our dog's reaction. She was slightly afraid, but very interested in every aspect of what my son was dong, staying rigidly alert as he set the little canisters up, lit the fuses, and then jumped back at the start of incomprehensible fountains of flame. I could see that she was trying so hard to understand it all. Perhaps she thought that somehow - like the arrival of the car from the market - that this would bring us platters of meat, which we would of course share. Alas, no meat would come, and I assume that afterwards she simply went back into the house knowing that she did not know. At the very least, her incomprehension did not seem to affect her sleep.
As for me, I lingered over the incomprehension of the dog. For decades now I have made internal models of what reality must be, those models changing as more information has come in. Taking in mind certain phenomena like out of body experiences and psychic abilities, I have come to believe that our consciousness is like a thin membrane into which, as being members of this world, we have poured all our conscious efforts - to such an extent that it is all we think to be real. But this consciousness floats on a see of cosmic consciousness that operates at a much greater depth and simultaneously with our ephemeral consciousness. We are normally not aware of this under-girding, for that is what makes us part of this world. But sometimes it comes forth in obvious and stupendous ways. It also manifests in strokes of insight daily, ourselves seldom even thinking about how this knowledge came to our attention without thought.
This bicameral view would also place us all on the same level, the idiot and the genius, as well as the sinner and the saint. Beneath it all, we are fully connected and absolutely equal. Why we must live with this thin veil of superficial consciousness is currently beyond me, although I have heard and read many explanations: original sin, karma, working our way back to God, chance and so on. Of the latter, I am still uncertain -but of the former, of our oneness of deep conscious, I have little doubt. I myself have internally experienced it, this cosmic duality. Such an experience is not confusing, but liberating. It all makes perfect sense at the time, and after many times, one lets go of the dichotomy. Somehow, like our ephemeral selves, this dichotomy has been allowed to exist by some reason greater than our own ability to grasp.
So, yes, we might be like the dog who comes in from the fireworks display having had this remarkable experience, but no closer to the motivation for it than before. Yes, and more - like her, we might not even be capable of understanding the motivation with our human brains, ever.
But perhaps it doesn't matter. The founders of our nation might not have grasped why their god - however they understood it - had given us inalienable rights and equality as human beings. But they understood perfectly well that this was indisputable, and that has made all the difference. So it would be of great importance, too, if we were to understand that we are one under the skin, that we are all brothers and sisters with timeless and immortal roots, apart from all the fuss of daily life. We might never understand why this apparent contradiction between our individuality and our oneness came to be, but that does not change a thing. Treat others as you would like to be treated, says the golden rule. While this may or may not make sense socially, it makes sense ultimately, in that we all are united - not as cooker-cutter drones, but as humans each deserving, from the start, the very same privileges as everyone else.
Thus the "inalienable rights" of our nation's foundation might well have deeper roots than we have ever thought. FK
Brushing a few wood chips from my shorts, I replied, "You would be right."
Sure, I was asking for trouble, but you don't put on a teen-pop album and ask a concert violinist, "pretty good, huh?" And I fancied myself, if not the violinist, then his most ardent of admirers. As a child I lived for fireworks, and after moving to Wisconsin found myself in fireworks heaven. I don't really care for them that much anymore accept around the 4th, but still, I know my stuff. In Wisconsin, it is illegal to set off anything that flies or explodes without a permit, but somehow they have managed to allow the sale of ANY kind of fireworks, even those big star-burst bombs that could take out an SUV. Naturally, no one pays attention to the permits, and on this weekend, the entire area is alive with ground-rocking explosions and bursts of light that in other places would signify a major battle. I have been in these major battles myself, and it was risible that I could condone these legal pop-guns.
But they were what we had, and my son and his friend dutifully lit them off as they shot sparks a mere 6 feet or so from the ground, emitting only an occasional spray of cackles no louder than crow calls. Ah, well, I had a beer and a lawn chair and bug spray. The Founders might yet be proud that we could now live our lives in such colonial banality, free from harboring lobster-clad soldiers in our homes under the order of some King George the umpteenth.
Far more interesting, however, was our dog's reaction. She was slightly afraid, but very interested in every aspect of what my son was dong, staying rigidly alert as he set the little canisters up, lit the fuses, and then jumped back at the start of incomprehensible fountains of flame. I could see that she was trying so hard to understand it all. Perhaps she thought that somehow - like the arrival of the car from the market - that this would bring us platters of meat, which we would of course share. Alas, no meat would come, and I assume that afterwards she simply went back into the house knowing that she did not know. At the very least, her incomprehension did not seem to affect her sleep.
As for me, I lingered over the incomprehension of the dog. For decades now I have made internal models of what reality must be, those models changing as more information has come in. Taking in mind certain phenomena like out of body experiences and psychic abilities, I have come to believe that our consciousness is like a thin membrane into which, as being members of this world, we have poured all our conscious efforts - to such an extent that it is all we think to be real. But this consciousness floats on a see of cosmic consciousness that operates at a much greater depth and simultaneously with our ephemeral consciousness. We are normally not aware of this under-girding, for that is what makes us part of this world. But sometimes it comes forth in obvious and stupendous ways. It also manifests in strokes of insight daily, ourselves seldom even thinking about how this knowledge came to our attention without thought.
This bicameral view would also place us all on the same level, the idiot and the genius, as well as the sinner and the saint. Beneath it all, we are fully connected and absolutely equal. Why we must live with this thin veil of superficial consciousness is currently beyond me, although I have heard and read many explanations: original sin, karma, working our way back to God, chance and so on. Of the latter, I am still uncertain -but of the former, of our oneness of deep conscious, I have little doubt. I myself have internally experienced it, this cosmic duality. Such an experience is not confusing, but liberating. It all makes perfect sense at the time, and after many times, one lets go of the dichotomy. Somehow, like our ephemeral selves, this dichotomy has been allowed to exist by some reason greater than our own ability to grasp.
So, yes, we might be like the dog who comes in from the fireworks display having had this remarkable experience, but no closer to the motivation for it than before. Yes, and more - like her, we might not even be capable of understanding the motivation with our human brains, ever.
But perhaps it doesn't matter. The founders of our nation might not have grasped why their god - however they understood it - had given us inalienable rights and equality as human beings. But they understood perfectly well that this was indisputable, and that has made all the difference. So it would be of great importance, too, if we were to understand that we are one under the skin, that we are all brothers and sisters with timeless and immortal roots, apart from all the fuss of daily life. We might never understand why this apparent contradiction between our individuality and our oneness came to be, but that does not change a thing. Treat others as you would like to be treated, says the golden rule. While this may or may not make sense socially, it makes sense ultimately, in that we all are united - not as cooker-cutter drones, but as humans each deserving, from the start, the very same privileges as everyone else.
Thus the "inalienable rights" of our nation's foundation might well have deeper roots than we have ever thought. FK
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