Questions

I know it's been a long time since I've talked about it, but I'm the 2010 guest editor of The Porpoise Diving Life. Curious about what the HELL that could possibly be?!? Think it sounds like I'm a closet marine biologist? Uh...unfortunately, no. Still curious? Go HERE to find out.

This month's issue, which is going to be released in the next week or so, is on the topic of "Questions." I'm writing a piece for the issue myself, so I've got this topic on the brain.

Here are some quotes that have me thinking:

-“But we have been taught to see before our eyes have found a way of seeing
for themselves.” (Arthur Symons)

-“If the doors of perception were
cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.”(William Blake)

-“Hardly anyone is able to see what is before him, just as it is in
itself. He comes expecting one thing, he finds another thing, he sees through
the veil of his preconception, he criticizes before he has apprehended, he
condemns without allowing his instinct the chance of asserting itself.” (Arthur
Symons)

-“Our normal expectations about reality are created by a social
consensus. We are taught how to see and understand the world. The trick of
socialization is to convince us that the descriptions we agree upon define the
limits of the real world. What we call reality is only one way of seeing the
world, a way that is supported by social consensus.”
(Carlos Castaneda)

Here's my thoughts today...

Early on in our lives we learn to process our experiences, our feelings, and even our senses. We are taught “right” and “wrong,” “acceptable” and “unacceptable,” “normal and abnormal,” and this skill helps us to process what happens around us as we grow in awareness. Everything we see, hear, think and feel must be qualified: is it this or that? But what if those designations are merely mental constructs and not the irrevocable truths we have learned to call them, whether that be something as complex as a moral designation or as simple as what color an object is? What would happen if we, as much as possible, separated what we see, hear, feel and experience from the “sorting system” we’ve been conditioned to use when processing our experiences?

Thoughts?