Monday, February 15, 2010

Questions And Answers

Home from the corporate wars. My porch cat thinks that if he polishes my concrete I respond better. He rolls in the same spot, uses his back as a polishing rag. I figure he will wear my front walk down a bit in a couple decades at this rate. Long before that, I am sure my concrete will get a shine. He has gotten fat eating at two houses now.

Here is one way God answers prayer. Erk. Why is He so damn enigmatic?

Questions And Answers

I hear you call from
halfway across this old world
as if from my heart,
the same kinds of things
I lay in the lap of God,
demanding reply.
He does and says this,

The questions are important,
the answers are not.

April 2, 2009 3:57 PM

12 comments:

  1. This sounds like the answer to a posting I just read at a friend's blog. I think I'll point him in this direction.

    Missed you. I've been living life.

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  2. Everyone's welcome here, I hope.

    I've been missing you too, Karen. Living life is good.

    hugs to you
    hugs to Michelle too.

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  3. Hi man. I had cats too, and they always end up eating everywhere, but the polishing thing is quite particular, they all have their peculiarities like us.

    Good concept embedded in the poetry. It reminded me of a movie where they built a machine to provide the ultimate answer about the universe, and when they finished it said 42, then they realized they forgotten to build the machine to output the ultimate question for that answer.
    Lots of things to say about the 2 last sentences, but I guess that is enough for now.
    Take care

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  4. Mariana, I do believe it is Douglas Adams who wrote that. I have always particularly liked it.

    Another way to approach such an answer is George Polya's. He said there is an answer, but unfortunately it is so perfectly general that no particular applicaton is possible. That one has the ring of real truth. If you want application it isn't general enough to be the answer to everything.

    Staying with the question instead provides a sufficient basis for further work. That is strongly the case in spiritual work. It however does not ease the human itch for quick and easy answers.

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  5. I liked that poem...your friend speaking of the very things you lay in the lap of God. Reminding that we should always question, but never demand an answer. We may not like the reply. And just to have someone call and say they understand, they feel it too, they know the struggle, the joy, the heartache, whatever....is an answer to being alone.

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  6. I have found from my experience that the questions being more important than the answer only holds true when the questions are not really the correct questions.

    IE when the questioner is getting it wrong (according to the teacher or the one with the answers)

    or

    when the persons with the answers would rather not divulge the information that the other is seeking.

    it's a power trip (abuse of power) type deal.

    When the questions are important it to me seems that way only because it reveals the knowledge of the person who is questioning while the person with the information that is being sought after is never revealed.

    The info is intentionally kept hidden.

    which seems to me to be not a good situation as it has a sense of sever manipulation by one party when the statement "the questions are important, the answer to the question is not important" or anything similar to that.

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  7. Sometimes a teacher knows that the journey is more important than the arrival. Sometimes the question holds bigger possibilities than any one answer allows. Sometimes living is not linear, not suitable to the metaphor of an arrow aimed at a target. Sometimes a straight line is not the shortest distance. Sometimes I have too many examples to choose from.

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  8. or just stop as soon as the tires start spinning (before they dig down)

    stop as soon as the tires start spinning instead of moving the tractor.

    don't be afraid to leave it out in the field overnight while it is still not stuck.

    at least then when you go back to it (even if the conditions outside ie the mud, are exactly the same or even worse) now when you come back to it you can decide if you really want to spin those tires without going anywhere and dig them all the way in to where you are really fuct (stuck)

    don't you ever get that feeling (the little premonition or forshadow)
    right before something bad happens and then after it does happen (something bad) you remember that feeling (your conscience saying "this isn't going to turn out good")

    with practice you can become aware and become in tune with that sense or ability your sub conscience has to "see the future" (or what is at the end of the path if you continue down it)

    it scares the fuck out of some people. They think that you are some master manipulator, or "cheating" or not telling the whole story about how you knew.

    and when you tell them calmly that it was just your intuition or a strong "gut " feeling the kind that cannot be persuaded by things that are not true. The instinct that smoke and mirrors or half lies cannot fool.

    at which point right around 90% of the people who are trying to fool you (for whatever reason or whatever now almost unrelated to it silly litle secret they are still trying to hide)

    becomes the only color they cannot stop from emitting right before your very eyes (mostly I see it as misplaced anger or passive aggressive very manipulative or misleading use of language ) the first is not intentional the type of person that emits that " I'm hiding a secret" hora of light does this subconsciously.

    The person who uses carefully chosen words (or thoughtfully left out words ie manipulative) is emitting an hora consciously.

    If this conscious behavior is practiced,after a while the manipulative person begins to manipulate without even trying to. After that becomes second nature to them sometimes they don't even believe what they are doing is manipulative. They actually start believing their own lies.

    it breaks my heart.

    I am referring to people in my life , so please don't take this as an attempt to fuck with your mind or trying to guilt trip you.

    I just thought I'd share with you the thoughts that for some reason streamed with the thoughts that came next in the never ending train of my thoughts. (the thoughts after my mind to a second to write back to you)

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  9. Interesting. I am not taking this thing personally at all. I feel you have stories to tell about some of the people in your life. I am not sure why you might be choosing my blog to tell these stories, why it is that I say something on my blog, something about a poem I wrote a year ago, and it leads you to such comments coming from some place in your life.

    What can it possibly matter?

    We are well met perhaps. I write from places hard won in living as I have, aiming at dying well in the outcome of my own life, having taken a few more real steps down the real road. I am not doing anything more than that, though I do live with an impossible ideal of lifting the whole world some way toward a better end. In the meantime I aim to learn how to love and be loved. If there is manipulation in me it is toward these ends. That is why I do not take what you say as aiming at me.

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  10. thank you for your patience and today's post. Both were blessings

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The chicken crossed the road. That's poultry in motion.


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