Catching Stars in Butterfly Nets

Things That make life worth living, #3

16:  The Internet.  An unmitigated disaster by most sane standards, the internet's original goal of a massive, world-wide communications line for educated thought and artistic expession has been nearly completely overwhelmed by the largest amount of porn seen on planet earth.  many websites are subject to random, malicious attacks planned and executed by forum members so powerful, they hold even their own moderators at bay (that would be the /b/tards, or the collective "Anonymous", if you will).  shock sites filled with images and videos that go far, far beyond titillating, beyond disturbed, and well into the pathologic.  It is truly a no-man's land.  It is perhaps the only no-man's land left on earth.  the few laws that govern the internet are simple and unambiguous, and I love it that way.  the knowledge that you can find nearly anything on the internet is a gleaming becon of freedom in a world that seems more repressed than it needs to be, and this brings me to my next thing.

17:  Freedom.  Not physical freedom, but the freedom to think whatever you choose.  in everyone there is a will to defy the collective and think their own thoughts, and they have the complete and total freedom to choose.  thinking differently may often take more willpower than people are used to using, but wants are mental limitations we put on ourselves to make  our lives less boring. 

Hamlet: Denmark's a prison.
Rosencrantz: Then is the world one.
Hamlet: A goodly one; in which there are many confines, wards and dungeons, Denmark being one o' the worst.
Rosencrantz: We think not so, my lord.
Hamlet: Why, then, 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me it is a prison.

I think it's topical to quote the theme to the short-lived Fox television series "Firefly":  Take my life, take my land/take me where I cannot stand/I don't care, I'm still free/you can't take the sky from me.

18.  Zen.  Not the religion, but the state.  Zen is the pinnacle of insanity, where upon reaching the summit, you become sane.  Zen is the duality of nature, light and shadow.  Zen is the Pope not noticing that a small dog is pissing on the hem of his holy garments.  But all that "I can figure it out, therefore I'm better than you" bullshit aside, zen is the knowledge that the ultimate knowledge is beyond knowing, and the consideration that this knowledge is the ultimate knowledge.  Going back in time to kill your own father is very zen.  in practical tems, Zen isn't just paradoxes, though.  those who are truly zen would laugh at their own death, just as they would laugh at others'.  But zen is difficult to teach.  i can show you zen, explain it brilliantly but simply, as I have above, lay it out in two sentences, as I have above, and it is still up to you to figure it out.  But before you say "Dan, if you can't teach it to a five-year-old, you don't really know what you're talking about", I may note that you are a mature adult (or close enough).  can you teach what maturity is, or can you only describe and demonstrate it and hope I get it?

"My hand is not so great that showing it would make a difference." -persuader user from Kino no Tabi.