| Friday, February 16, 2007 |
| the eternal present |
 repost: 3.11.06
I wake to sleep and take my waking slow. I still can't sleep, and I come to have difficulty now knowing what I have dreamed and what I have not. I dream our conversations. Sometimes I dream that I'm writing. I dream that I'm writing or speaking with you, and I wake and I can't remember. Did we speak or did I merely dream it?
But they're not like ordinary dreams, they're like Descartes' hallucination. In these dreams if dreams they are I perceive by the natural light our conversation entire. I dream the conversations, I dream my letter, it's entire in my head, all of it, as though I'd written you it. I see it, I see it clearly and distinctly, I see you. I see the small puddle of light that illuminates us at this hour and this place. Yet I cannot forget even in sleep that I have been deceived by similar illusions. I'm invented after all; you are invented too.
To clearly and distinctly perceive, to know by the natural light; for Descartes this meant the natural light of reason, the shining lamp that illuminated the darkness, that was bestowed by God and like that other Fiat Lux, men were meant to use it to dispel the darkness around them, the break of day chasing away the shadows.
Turn it inward not outward, and the mind's contents are rendered transparent to us. No hidden corners there, no shadows for Descartes, no unconscious beliefs or desires or motivations. Only that which we clearly and distinctly perceive can we know for certain, he writes. To establish what I may know, I will begin first by doubting everything I can. Certainty is in those things which are revealed to us by the natural light, that beacon in the mind calling and knowing.
This is how you and I see each other.
Let us all every one stand forth and be revealed, blazing, known entire, in the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.
'Only connect...'
E.M. Forster, Howard's End |
posted by O @ 13:36   |
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| 8 Comments: |
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Amazing how the simplest thoughts are the hardest to unpack. To sleep, perchance to dream...
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I've always loved that word, 'unpack'. :)
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i get caught in thought and dreams. there are times when i dream it's so real, the sights, the sounds, the touches. yet, there are times when i wish i could pull from dream back to reality.
the mind is such a mystery to me at times. what we hold in there, what is buried and then what we find.
i fear at times a mind is more powerful then we think and can destroy.
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"I think we dream so we don't have to be apart so long. If we're in each other's dreams, we can play together all night." ~Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes
Personally, I've never been a huge Descartes fan, I suspect I prefer my philosophical meanderings a little more grounded. But dreams again, are yet another matter and while I often dream in riddle and middle, I sometimes partake of something bigger than myself.
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Oh, sweet sweet lovely dreams! I can't clearly remember mine of late, but they are flashes that burst in unbidden throughout the day.
But when I can't recall anything at all, I am agitated. My dreams are my security blanket.
Je pense, donc je suis.
-p
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i think that i envy those of you who remember your dreams... i really don't. that said, lately i haven't been sleeping well and i've been having weird waking fantasy things and i cannot figure out if they're real or not!
in one i got bitten by a zillion bedbugs... imagine my relief to wake up and NOT be covered in bites !!
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i'm pretty sure i left a comment on this
and i'm pretty sure others have too... thus i must ask
you okay doll?
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dear bad influence girl,
I'm sorry--I've just been too busy. I didn't mean for you or anyone to worry. I found and posted your comment--more soon, and thank you for being concerned. All is well!
very best
O
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Closed/on Hiatus
![Your writing in the other hand [sic] is pure filth and disgusting.](http://www.gotbears.com/gund/sesamestreet/75985.jpg){kind=link}
Amazing how the simplest thoughts are the hardest to unpack. To sleep, perchance to dream...