Authenticity

Dear you,

Hot August thoughts in my 1,028 square feet of shelter.  I am preparing for something as I hide from the heat, shut out construction noise, and come down from political sugar highs.  I am in listening mode, taking in thoughts from others, their shared experiences and reflections on whatever "this" is we are doing. Via book form, I listen to Richard Todd in The Thing Itself, On the Search for Authenticity. He writes "The landscape is literally contested turf, a battlefield of competing dreams."

Hot August strife in our little nation, indeed the landscape of contested turf and competing dreams.

Some of us dream of a place where people are tightly wrapped and constrained.  They dream of everyone and every venture fitting their points of view:  old roles and rules must be followed, the wild world must be tamed and strip-malled, chatter must override thinking, posing must be judged as superior to unsettling authenticity.

Then there is a competing dream: We dream of the unique individual running her/his life. (I heard Kamala Harris' vice presidential pick challenge the constraining forces on this point in his first rally, "Mind your own damn business." Yes, sir. Exactly.) We can dream of a lush world that is cherished and not exploited.  We can dream of knowing what is real and privileging that above the scam of commercialized everything.

Dreams inspire action. Successful actions are fueled by intelligence.  Intelligence is gained from study, observation of the very real (which is here behind the veil), and authoritative listening, knowing we have the power to distinguish between facts and lies. Are you thinking about The Matrix now?  In that film's world, reality must be found.  What seems to be is not there; it is a blue-pill side effect. Todd references that movie in his book, an obvious example of our search for authenticity. And who can think of The Matrix and not think about Keanu Reeves, the actor portraying the ultimate searcher?  Yes, I get it, he's an actor who isn't really searching, just a guy playing the searcher.  But the actor himself spends plenty of time thinking about reality and growth. Hence, the photo above and his words:

"Be aware of the quiet ones, they are the ones who actually think. The smarter you get, the less you speak."

And on this hot August day in my 1,028 square feet, I thank Reeves and Todd for dropping by. I'm listening. 

Let us all be the quiet ones, the smart ones, the ones searching for authenticity always.

Abstractly yours,

Joyce