"Enhance Enhance Enhance"--Ramathorn

The Power of Exploration

Power is not control. Power is not skill. Power is limitless, and it comes from ability. It comes from the ability to step forward, both figuratively and literally. To be able to move with time and encounter the next step with grace, wonder, and curiosity. That ability is power. Time moves forward and no matter how hard a person tries to control what will happen in the next moment it is always a bit different than they expect. Even perfect skill is powerless in passing moments, because before a person can prefect a moment, it has passed as the next arrives. To step forward and explore the next moment is the most powerful tool in the human arsenal.

The unknown is a fleeting instance that is always present. Albert Einstein once said, “Reality is an illusion, albeit a persistent one.” However, Mr. Einstein was not correct. Reality is not an illusion, although an illusion is reality. Illusion is nothing more or less than a structured perception of reality. Reality is chaotic because there is not a power to control it, predict it, or skillfully manage it. The only way that sense is placed upon reality is in a hurried reflection where complete understanding never occurs. This quantitative and qualitative reflection could be equated to a man whose task is to study and count the eggs in his basket as innumerable chickens continue to lay, constantly adding to his task. While reality is not the illusion that creates a structured view of the universe, it is persistent. Such an illusion is created by the past in which the human mind consistently exists. The persistent reality continues to bombard the mind with new moments to be structured in the past.

The mind may be doomed to the task of dwelling on the past, yet this is when power comes into play. The power of ability to face the unknown without worry of understanding it is the power of love and equality and freedom, all rolled into one. This is exploration. Discovery is not exploration, and thus the way exploration is most commonly viewed has missed-the-mark. Exploration is purely an acceptance of loss without gain. Discovery is gain. This is the point where western world view divides so sharply with that of the east. Westerners are often obsessed with gain as results of productivity, competition, achievement. This division is especially prevalent with the yogis and gurus of India. Baba Ram Dass, formerly known as Dr. Richard Alpert, traveled to India and wrote a book about his literal and spiritual journey called, Remember Be Here Now. The book is filled with pages of phrases and guidewords that constantly confront the reader with huge ideas that stand quite contrary to western world view. Often when ideas of power and enlightenment are presented to westerners words such as gain are used. However when the meanings are really penetrated they appear simply as existence and acceptance. This type of thinking is often a lifelong struggle and more often in the Hindu religion a struggle of many lifetimes.

Maybe the power of exploration is beyond mastery for most individuals. Yet, even without mastering such a power and always implementing it in every moment, by working towards such a goal the present can be experienced as the wonderful, curious, and beautiful place it is. The illusion can be broken and reality can exist in its bewildering state of love, freedom, equality, and power. To realize the power of such ability is only a step away. Choose the unknown. Choose to explore. Choose to be, today.

Making A Thanksgiving For The Ages

Life is suffering because there is no elsewhere. When you are in death the beyond becomes the present, but while alive, life is the only presence. Our fate is to sit before a continuous coin toss. One side of the coin is the Light and the other side is the Abyss. Life's one constant duty is to continue and be filled with experience. Spiritual seekers often attempt the struggle of turning the current coin to the Light side. While this can be rewarding, one must turn away the Light that is readily available to do so.

There is no action of wasting time only using it. Shall we be spiritually productive with our time, constantly struggling to dawn Light from the Abyss, or shall we be spiritually content with our time and recognize that there is Light, here and now.

If we are for this life, we seek to dawn light from the abyss. If we are for eternity, we may sit with grace throughout our suffering. In this season of thanksgiving try being eternal by turning away from the struggle.

Relax with the effort of knowing that one side of the coin is always consumed by the Abyss. That is the side facing away from us. We are given suffering so that we may feel grace. We often have the hardest time seeing what is right in front of us, and what is in front of us is the Light; if we accept our suffering we can let in the Light and recognize grace.

Lonesome Whispers On A Busy Black Friday

The sound of the city kept the sidewalks buzzing with a nearly indiscernible buzz. However, exclamations would ring out every so often. There would be the directions of a mother herding children, requests from beggars, and an assortment of other apparently mundane statements that can be overheard by the passerby populace. Most snippets of conversation lack context for the eavesdropper, but are plain enough that basic inference skills would suffice in filling in the lacking areas. Of all of the audible comments one stuck out to me as a particularly interesting case. It occurred when a woman walking by, within earshot, said, “I always have been an outcast and I always will be.” Upon hearing this my first reaction was an empathetic frown, and I think most people’s first reaction would be to attribute the statement as applying to the woman, which was my follow up reaction. This secondary reaction led me to question my primary reaction forcing myself to take a step back from the situation and consider other possibilities. Maybe this woman was talking about some other person who had been telling her this, or she had read it, or it was on a t.v. show. I also thought about how someone may assume that she was referring to herself because of the fact that she is mildly overweight (not obese). I remember many programs that focused on the anxiety and isolation that often accompanies and perpetuates being noticeably overweight. I thought about other reasons why someone would feel this way. Maybe she has some other oddity unobservable in my momentary evaluation. But really… do we have to be noticeably different to be an outcast? Can’t people be amongst other people, function day to day, and interact like a normal person but feel separated? I’m not a psychologist but I would imagine that this would be a symptom of depression. Many people are plagued by depression and it is addressed in a variety of manners. Most commercials I’ve seen have said that depression is due to a chemical imbalance in the brain. There are many anti-anxiety/anti-depression drugs on the market today, but in every case that I have observed of people on these drugs a zombie-like apathy or seemingly, faux excitement seemed to be the result. I feel like depression should be given more attention in our society because of its pervasive and often unknown presence. Many times people are around and possibly enabling persons with depression without even knowing it. Because of the nature of depression the afflicted are unlikely to discuss their struggle with other people when such interaction may be an important component of the condition’s improvement. Returning to the woman on the side walk, it is important to keep in mind that this woman was not talking to herself but walking with another woman, and obviously, if she was referring to herself, talking about feeling isolated. I know she said outcast and not isolated, but if to be an outcast is not to be isolated than one may find community with other outcasts similar to themselves. Hopefully everyone can find someone to connect with in such a large and often apparently ‘small small world.

Remembering MyZou Homecoming

I remember being a little boy darting after candy to the sound of marching bands as a tractor pulling a large float passed leaving a wake of candy that vanished nearly as fast as it appeared. As a local kid who grew up in Columbia, my associations with Mizzou homecoming have been limited to the non-student role, that usually consisted of a morning parade filling my pocket’s with candy, covering my chest with political stickers and paw prints, and finally, leading to a cold football game, if I was lucky enough to get a ticket.

How many homecoming games have I been to? How many parades? Who did I go with? All of these questions are the details that have fallen from my memory over the years. So where did I get such a vivid image of homecoming? Perhaps it is one of those memories so often created to draw attention away from the stresses of the past; like an argument with my mother before I was dropped off to go roam the crowds, which could have very plausibly occurred and in my mental review been looked over and forgotten when contrasted with the powerful images associated with parade.

My memory of such parades is as sweet as the candy I consumed when my bag and pockets began to bulge. The interesting thing about this memory is how it affected my homecoming this year, my first as a student. With the tiger’s football success in the 07’ season and the strong start to the 08’ season the bandwagon began rolling. During this year’s homecoming despite disappointing losses coming into the game, much local businesses capitalized on the opportunity to associate themselves with the team and the university by decorating their store fronts. This is something I hadn’t seen in years past. I feel it added to the atmosphere of anticipation for the parade and game, and by fostered a sense of belonging to a community of Mizzou supporters. This was coupled with the exposure a student gets to other homecoming week activities. Despite this exposure, I associated homecoming with Saturday’s activities disregarding the activities happening on school nights when I had homework to do. As a kid, I also had gone around watching the Greek house deck shows on one or two homecoming Fridays, however with Greek friend’s talk of hours pomping and prepping I was, by association, burnt out on the event before it happened.The one pre-Saturday event I did attend was the almost midnight breakfast. Although this event was associated with homecoming, free food events occur throughout the year, so it was all about the perfectly timed snack and not Mizzou.

Finally, Saturday morning arrived. My memories told me that the parade was the thing to do, so I bundled up and after several delays set out the door with my roommate in tow. With the dining hall closed until eleven our first task was to get food. We decided to make our way down towards the parade stopping at Hardee’s on the way. By the time we reached the parade route the tail end was all that was left. I walked into the rest of my usual football game day feeling at a loss for the same boyhood joy. However, I was also contented knowing that my appreciation for each stress, happiness, and other feeling creates a constant contrast that servers to emphasize each situation, making joys more joyous, sorrows more sad, and any other feeling more vivid. I remembered that regardless of what the dominating feeling is, I have the power to make each day memorable or forgettable.

Girl Talk's Smooth and Grimy Grooves

Plug it in and play it. That is the trick for Girl Talk, the “Mad Scientist Mix Master.” Like Dr. Frankenstein, Girl Talk takes powerful patches and pieces them together into a creature ready for dancing. The songs push the outer reaches of many genres’ boundaries. “Hardcore Electronic Fusion,” is the one way to describe such thought provoking and dance inducing mixes. “Give Me A Beat,” “Hands In the Air,” “In Step,” and “Shut the Club Down” are each titles that announce their dance content. No matter what the title, each song is carried with a fusion of up-tempo and hard hitting drum sequences. On top of the drums, Girl Talk creates magic with a mash-up of music samples from a wide variety of artists that come from a wide ranging period of time. The samples are uncommon enough to leave the listeners refreshed while famous enough to keep the dance floor moving. Listening through each song is like fishing, only with the insurance of catching a whopper of a sample that you just cannot get enough of. Such sample craze can inspire the listener to do some record digging of their own in an effort to hear the song from which such an awesome sample was acquired. However, some of the clips used are only fractions of a second long with a song origin nearly impossible to place for anyone other than the man who is Girl Talk, Greg Gillis. These short clips are what help the continuity of such a jigsaw mix. Where do all of these clips come from? According to an NPR interview, Girl Talk describes using a sound clip library he creates with hours of dutiful music listening and clip extracting, and it is from this point that trial and error begins. Eventually, the kinks are banged out into a forged sound that can be called original. "Smoothness," is what Girl Talk says is his measure of success for each song and album. This successful smoothness contributes in creating a hardcore genre that is more accessible with its full and fast make-up. The lyrics range from pop, rock, and soul, to the various styles of hip hop, especially gangster/southern-club. In between these medleys is a constant stream of guitar and/or synthesizer riffs that make sure each song stays miles from silence. Girl Talk’s progressive step into “Hardcore Electronic Fusion” creates a creative wake for other artists to rise into the chasms of potential still existing within the music world.