Reality

I've been having the most surreal time lately. Real indeed, but almost like a postcard scene, almost too perfect. No complaints from me ... just a rather bewildered admission.

I have new bike tyres, what an awesome improvement!! And i managed to fix a problem i've had for over 2 years now. The spark plugs caps had cracked, and i was experiencing a "missfire" when opening throttle, it's been really annoying for years, suddenly fixed. The magic of knowledge.

I haven't posted much, just thoughts that creep into my mind and swirl the colours and patterns for a while, most relaxing. But the mental winds and tides still flow, sometimes stronger sometimes weaker, bringing all sorts of smells, sounds and sights to me. Always shifting the perspective, always re-evaluating past concepts and seeing if perhaps there's a [i]better[/i] view of all this.

Better ... such a flighty word, so loaded with expectations. And of course the inevitable [i]here[/i] that needs improvement. Reality is. Not much we can do to change it. But our consciousness isn't fixed, it's driftwood on the open seas, sometimes up, sometimes down, always moving, swirling rolling towards some distant shore.

My post earlier this week, "Back to reality" was a thoughtless heading, but strangely apt. And when i read an essay by Robert Pirsig on reality, and escaping therefrom, well it synched in many unexpected ways.

Cruising Blues and Their Cure
By Robert Pirsig, Esquire, May 1977

If this is so, then it follows that those who see sailing as an escape from reality have got their understanding of both sailing and reality completely backwards. Sailing is not an escape but a return to and a confrontation of a reality from which modern civilization is itself an escape. For centuries, man suffered from the reality of an earth that was too dark or too hot or too cold for his comfort, and to escape this he invented complex systems of lighting, heating and air conditioning. Sailing rejects these and returns to the old realities of dark and heat and cold. Modern civilization has found radio, TV, movies, nightclubs and a huge variety of mechanized entertainment to titillate our senses and help us escape from the apparent boredom of the earth and the sun and wind and stars. Sailing returns to these ancient realities.
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But we cannot live in the reality of planet earth anymore. We are bound to playing this charade of civilised life day in and day out. Among a people who believe rain is to be avoided at all costs, well you could hardly imagine it being "reality" any more than reality tv. But it IS real, every day you get up and ... things happen. My reality is fairly pleasant, mostly. But the problem is in the escape, where i wish to be elsewhere, doing something else, being something different too. Which is the escape, and which the reality?

Most of our 9-5 is escaping reality, facades for the office, inventing relationships for profit, and speaking of surreal concepts which nature, humanity, and me feel absolutely fuckall for. Reality. Return to. Just give me some of that old time reality, and i think i'll be ok. A snarling dog, a screeching car. And suddenly your brains screams LIFE!!! At all costs. Rain, wet and cool and fragrant ... a small flower, your child, beaming as she discovers some hitherto unknown insect.

So i'm going to keep on living a little ... looking for that QUALITY in life. Making dynamic decisions that embrace myself and my challenges in to one unbroken form.

I wish you a fantastic day!!!