As it pisses down out my window…

Now this is what you call a day that confounds no matter how you look at it.Outside its been hot as Satan’s butt-crack in a sauna in hell while he does jumping jacks… yeah, needed the imagery… but now suddenly it was cloudy a bit earlier on, that passed and now its raining good and proper. Not cats and dogs mind you but raining nonetheless. And its pretty damn awesome.

Is god in the rain? or is it the purple haze talking..?

Personally I love the rain and however it may make me sound to others, the line from V for Vendetta says it so well, “God is in the rain.” and I say this because I’m very much someone who when it rains looks at it like a symbol of life in so many ways – it revives, it rejuvenates, it gladdens the heart and quenches thirst… and most importantly it washes away everything, all the bile, the blood, sweat and tears. Nature sends rain of its own accord and we can’t control it or predict it beyond a certain limit and no matter how much we get good at predictions the simple truth is we are far, far away from having any control over it – though I don’t doubt we will someday. But back to the point at hand, rain beautifully shows that you can build what you want and do what you want but the world keeps turning, nature keeps on moving ever-forward and time keeps on keeping on.

To some this might seem sad or scary – because I sincerely believe that the vast majority of the problems in the world come because we can’t get past the things that scare the crap out of them: fear of people around you, fear of money, fear of success, fear of failure, fear of being picked on, fear of being out of the crowd or isolation, fear of death, fear of life…
Its why I’ve always believed in the simple truth that comes out in the line, “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” When I think of this line its not to belittle anyone else, not to sound superior or pretentious – though one might understandably think thus – but because its a fact. We are so busy in the rat-race and trying to survive that we forget the difference between an existence and a life.
And that is the core of it.
Life moves on, the world keeps turning, time and tide wait for no man. These are things we throw around all the time but most folks don’t think of the real implications of it which is what I was getting at with the rain earlier on. Yes, all these things are true without a shadow of a doubt – but they apply to more then just the moments ahead of us, they apply to our family, our city, our heritage, our culture, our religions, our society and in fact our very civilization itself.
All of it is just temporary.

Go read it dammit!

I don’t say we should descend into anarchy and follow the Tyler Durden model but there are things in that philosophy which are true nonetheless. There are ideas about freedom, consumerism and control and the like that we don’t spend enough time thinking about. We talk a good game but in the end tend to falter somewhere between talking a thing and keeping at it. We reach a point where considering further rocks the mental boat and so we let stop there.

This is why I love science fiction I must admit. It allows you to really go out there – like “Last and First Men” by Olaf Stapledon which just blew my brains out the back of my head, evolved me a new one and then stomped all over that one. Simply put for those too lazy to looks it up, its a story that starts on a somewhat contemporary Earth setting and charts our species’ future over the following 2 Billion Years! Try and imagine that, and this is not the safe and happy future of Star Trek, this is the future where Humanity evolves and things change and at points we destroy our planet and survive and rebuild and eventually leave it and move to another planet and how we change then… In the face of these questions, like when considering the cosmos, most people’s souls and minds can’t take it (I don’t blame them really) and they don’t want to comprehend the insignificance of not only our race and our world but ourselves!

Here’s the thing though – the very point of it all is in that idea. None of us is capable of really seeing all that can be, we are just one grain of sand on the vast ocean floor… But though that may be true, there is more to it.
To look at it like that scares even me shit-less but try this:
In the face of that lets make our peace with it and consider for once the TRULY bigger picture. And just so we’re clear, I’m not talking peace in West-Asia…
Humanity is our responsibility.
With the acceptance of the truth of our place and all that as already rambled upon, we have two options: try and do the best we can and build a better world where everyone is at peace and no one wants for anything OR realise that in the grand scheme it may well not matter so who gives a flying fuck and live like you’re going to die anytime.
Honestly I don’t fin either idea horrid but the second one for me comes down to where do you draw the line and that again brings us to the core of our problems – no matter what we do, we can’t agree as a people on most anything and you can feel free to bitch about this at me but the stuff that entire people’s have died and are dying for like race, religion, ideology and the like… these are meaningless the way we treat them. At least greed, avarice and desire for power – that I don’t like but I get. The others, no… I’m afraid I don’t honestly.

Annoying and cliche, but simple truths often are…

But enough going on for today, the fact that I’ve posted two days in a row has taxed me to my limit so now I’m going to go stare out my window at the beautiful rain as it washes my city clean… at least for a little while… And so I leave you with this, a video that never ceases to make my eyes turn into saucer plate ala pretty much any manga/anime ever: (watch it in HD on full-screen, trust me!)

Cheers…