I had a conversation last night about the way we change. How sometimes we are not stretched but instead compressed. It made me think of swords, how they are forged, how they function, and what their purpose is. We as human beings are in a never ending war against entropy. Like swords, we must be forged to become strong enough to fight back, and also like swords, we are only dangerous when we are moving.
Lots of news. Some of it good. Some of it heavy. Some of it personal. Some of it not even related to me. Lots of new experiences–some exciting and some not. It’s all happening at once because that’s just how life is sometimes and I am reminded of the phenomenon of sensory overload. You literally black out because there is too much information for the mind to process happening all at once. I’ve not blacked out and I’m not in bad shape, but I am definitely processing and adjusting. To clarify–that’s a good thing. Life is about new information and experience and change. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t all add up fast when it comes at you all at once.
Also, this is the first poem in the new poetry notebook! Not sure if I’m pleased with it but that’s part of the process too.
Writing this poem this morning while sitting across from my bride as soft music plays. Hard not to get a little romantic.
Realized this morning that I made a typo several weeks ago in my poetry journal with the result that all my days going forward from that typo have been mis-numbered. Oops.
If you haven’t read “The War of Art” and are professional creative an entrepreneur I highly recommend reading it. In it the opposing force to the creative spirit is named “resistance” and I’ve been fighting it this morning. The result is today’s poem. Not sure where the imagery came from.
Still feeling the poems from “The Dragons are Singing Tonight.”
I have no idea what prompted me to get on Twitter this morning. I usually stay off of social media, especially first thing in the morning. But I did and I found an interesting trend that reminded me of my time in Huntsville where feral hogs are a genuine problem.
They’re an invasive species that consume pretty much everything, destroying crops, driving away game, and even on occasion causing problems with livestock. They are smart, aggressive, and there’s nothing left to hunt them to control the population. They don’t even have the decency to taste very good!
All of which got me thinking of this wonderful quote…
“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again: bu already it was impossible to say which was which.”
–George Orwell, “Animal Farm.”
Got to thinking during my quiet time this morning about something my bride said to me about the way I have focused on becoming a writer. I am purpose driven. This year more so than any other time in my life. That said, I’ve been sluggish lately, especially in a creative capacity.
Good changes are in progress and I need to take advantage of the opportunities they are affording me. To do so I am going back to basics. Today I am returning the the goals that I set for myself this year. I am re-examining my processes and the balance in my life.
Before we get to today’s poem, please forgive me for a bit of a rant.
I had a conversation the other day with a very intelligent individual who firmly believes that we are about to destroy our planet and that the only solution is an immediate curb to our population growth. One child per household. Because that worked so well for China.
I do not disagree with him on the fact that our planet is on the verge of a massive system collapse. We have massive, and massively intricate, interlocking ecosystems that we have been steadily breaking down with delayed, exponentially increasing consequences. The planet is going to change soon. Dramatically. So will we.
His argument hinges upon the idea that our rate of consumption of resources and energy is fixed. That we will only have the means to correct that by not being so crowded for resources, especially when the crash happens.
My response is this: more people equals more solutions.
There’s a perceived flaw in this reasoning which is that we are waiting for geniuses to come along and solve our problems. Genius doesn’t work like that.
I stand by my argument. More people equals more solutions. The answer lies not in our ability to control our baser urges but in our ability to innovate.
NASA is currently experimenting with biomining in space–that is using bacteria to mine asteroids. The military has developed an artificial brain called SENTIENT capable of writing new software. 3D printing has reached the point where it can work with organic compounds and the techniques used are not nearly so wasteful as our typical methods of construction. Artificial Intelligences are being developed to act as expressions of ourselves. Children are growing up immersed in electronics. Forms of education we thought hyper-advanced 20-30 years ago are now common place.
As our population has exponentially grown over the last hundred off years, so has our technology. So has our ability to innovate. We are not increasing our population to wait for a handful of outliers. What we are doing is working to raise the overall standard.
Things are going to change. It’s inevitable. Some of it will probably be bad. Call me an optimist, but I think that more of it’s going to be good.
Exciting transitions in my life. Reminders that the struggle of life, the constant fight against entropy, is a gift.
The Everyday Poet 