Transition from Translation

Despite disparate dialects,
we’re unabashedly united,
in parroting to one another,
                flippant,
                   antialtruistic,
                       anthropomorphic assignations
uncharacteristically categorizing
   flora and fauna,
      mammals and microbes,
                mobile and immobile,
                      spined and spineless,
                           sighted and sightless,
                                 cognizant and incognizant
as incidental, fragmentary, pale imitations of us…

in lieu of comprehending the incomprehensible,
                by explicating the exceptional,
                contextualizing with lent lenses.

Rendering impossible the resurrection of Babel
                to befit all drawing breath
in a universe none have created or control,
                into a lingua franca all can extol. 

Skin

The opaque cloak covering my soul,

not even a lover can slip beneath for a peek.

The slightest brush elicits a sense of the fire within, on even the coldest of days.

Upon reaching loan maturation, it dissipates to the eternity from which it came,

leaving nothing

but memories in its wake. 

Coming Back As A Stone

There are some that believe in reincarnation.  I’m not among them, although I am perfectly willing to admit that I know no more about what lies beyond mortality than you do.  Who knows, maybe we’re both wrong.  Nevertheless, thinking about reincarnation, I was contemplating what the optimal comeback would be.  Unimaginative people say they want to come back rich.  Little do they realize that what they’re unwittingly wishing for is enslavement.  After all, you’re extremely unlikely to ever run across a rich person who isn’t completely paranoid of losing what they’ve accumulated.

It’s surprising how many people want to come back as animals.  The vast majority of people have practically no connection whatsoever with the natural world these days beyond Instagram pics and perhaps a visit or two to the zoo in their youth.  Even if you’re talking about less exotic species, one wonders where the inspiration sprung from because most urban dwellers experience little more than pigeons in the sky – which they rarely refer to in loving terms – and practically no one in suburbia could name even two species of birds that frequent their backyards if asked.

Honestly, if I had the option, I think I would choose to be a stone. Not a small one that could be kicked around easily by whatever irritable creature came upon it – but a sizeable one in a desolate place. One would be impervious to heat and cold and never go hungry. Money would be unnecessary, thereby freeing up all sorts of valuable time which wouldn’t have to be wasted in search of it.  There would be some banality in terms of the view since one would not be able to shift one’s perspective – being rooted to a single spot.  Mortality too would be banished.  (Perhaps instead of complaining life is too short you would be complaining it is too long.) But then again as a stone there would be no motivation, let alone any capacity, to complain about anything at all.

One would sincerely hope for a very grand view indeed with a lot of change going on around it in terms of speciation, natural decomposition, and rebirth so as not to go completely mad from boredom.  Of course, I am making the rather hefty assumption that as a stone I would have a sense of consciousness that would allow me to perceive and process.  Were that to be absent in its entirety, it would be a peaceful, but certainly uneventful afterlife.  But who knows, perhaps there is a state of being in the compaction of mineral life that provides a consciousness beyond anything we have ever imagined.

Negotiating Evolution

I was out and about bird watching the other day when I began to contemplate the wide-ranging implications of having a “bird’s eye” view of the world.  Birds have an absolutely unique vantage point from which they see more of earth’s goings on at any singular moment than any other living form on the planet.  And yet, for all of this visual curiosity and magnificence they take in at any given moment – they’ll never be able to recall a single second of it, even mere moments after its occurrence.

When speaking of evolution, most people remark upon traits that once desirable are discarded through time as new needs arise.  And yet, I think you hardly ever hear of anyone discussing traits which we can indeed use, but would prefer to discard if only we had the power to manipulate our own elemental being.  Just as birds can never know the feeling of recall, many people wish they didn’t.  So many among us wish they could forget something they have seen – whether it be a moment of embarrassment, or something traumatic which has severely impacted their lives.

One wonders, if inter-species communication were ever realized and we held a conference what goods would be traded around the table?  Would humans be willing to trade memory for flight?  Would birds trade literacy and being grounded by legs for song and sight in UV light?

The pitfalls of linguistic equality

I took a short course in a fairly new field called ecolinguistics. At first, I was pretty excited.  As a nature enthusiast, the notion of being more cognizant of incorporating more respectful, inclusive natural references into my everyday speech and mindset seemed to be a nirvana elixir that I could sip on and share with others.  But just as with most elixirs, it’s the side effects which in the end far outstrip any sense of peace, hope and happiness that you felt after the first sip.

In this case, what I began to notice was a rather negative undertone pervading an otherwise perfectly painted placid paradise.  Because alongside all the notions of incorporating thoughts of natural impact in your decision making (i.e. consumer consumption) and dialogues (i.e. how you speak about the natural world in advertising and in general story telling) there was this ever present “don’t.”  Don’t be anthropomorphic, don’t be a typical greedy consumerist, don’t have the audacity to think that you’re smarter than the ant crawling up your arm etc.  It began to feel a bit like a stick and carrot game with the stick prevailing.

Typical human behavior seems to be almost entirely viewed as being the self-centered scourge of the planet.  In part it is, to be sure.  But just as they insist you are not to make blanket assumptions about the plants, animals and other elements of the natural world, I couldn’t understand the never-ending human bashing.  Practically everything I did, said and thought was wrong – no matter how unintentional or imperceptibly faulty per their theories.

I understand the point of bringing self-awareness to environmentally destructive behaviors and non-inclusive trains of thought.  But therein lies the scary part.  Telling people to open their minds to new perceptions is a grand idea with which no one can or conceivably would argue.  Yet, telling them that everything they currently do and say is reprehensible is not only judgmental, but passes the sniff test of being on the path to totalitarianism – in baby steps to be sure, but steps nonetheless.  I’m unsure whether their efforts will lead to a better world or simply imprison me in one of their design.  Only they know their motivation, and the more frightening prospect is that the results won’t align with their intent.  Encouraging me to open a gate is a welcome invitation, so long as it isn’t to a cell that someone has built with good intentions and one set of keys.

To Stop Or Not To Stop

Scene:  I was driving along when a dog began to cross the road.  I slowed down and then stopped while he passed in front of me at his leisure.  The car behind me immediately slammed their fist on their horn the minute I slowed and was beyond consolation when I stopped altogether for the few minutes it took the animal to pass.

There are two classes of people within our species – those who don’t hesitate to offer a helping hand and those who would swerve and  steamroll over a baby carriage on the sidewalk if it meant they could get even one inch ahead of anything they perceived to be in their way.  The dog crossing in front of me was of a notoriously violent breed usually used as guard dogs.  It had no discernible owner tag and was likely a stray.  A bad sort as many would say.  Yet still I stopped and allowed it to go about its path without interference in the hopes that perhaps one day should our paths cross again he might recall the gesture and return it in kind.  It’s a calculated risk, but if we don’t take the time to stop then we risk losing that which singularly defines us and us alone as humans – our humanity.

Posseable and Possesed

When you think about it the vast majority of our time is spent viewing the world in terms of things that we already possess and things that are possible to possess.  In your home you are surrounded by objects you posses.  Even your spouse and children are things that are inherently attached to you (whether they like it or not).  When you venture into the city and browse through shops you see things that are possible to posses.  If you’re single and looking you stare at ring fingers to see if the person who has caught your eye is already possessed or not (figuratively speaking of course ;)).

Nature isn’t necessarily immune from this viewpoint either.  How many people capture animals and keep them as pets – thereby making the previously unpossessed possessed.  In autumn as leaves fall to the ground, what you once could not reach high in the sky is now at our feet and utterly capable of becoming possessed.  Trees that tower stories above your diminutive frame are capable of being felled and thereby possessed.

It’s not limited to humans either.  Just click on any nature show and watch animals enacting the time honored tradition of hunter and prey – again possessed vs. unpossessed.  Even the soil upon which we stand is in a constant state of flux.  Avalanches, mudslides, earthquakes and eruptions are constantly overtaking what surrounds them and thereby irretrievably changing them.

I can’t help but think how interesting it would be to spend even a single hour of a single day out and about in my world and thinking in terms of what I can give instead of what I can take.