TEP UP ON THE FLYING HORSE

FEBRUARY 2, 2006. We all come to the crossroad where we make the deep choices. How will we live our lives?

I envision a contrast. There is the rabbit. I see him hopping forward, munching plants. He hops, he munches, he hops again, and he munches.

That is how he goes. Eating the next thing. Moving to the next piece of nourishment. Finding small satisfactions just ahead of him on the path of time.

He may be thinking about some giant leap. We don’t know. But he doesn’t take it. He just pushes on. He finds no other way.

The contrast is Pegasus, the flying winged horse. Here, from Shakespeare, Henry V:
"When I bestride him [Pegasus], I
soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air; the earth
sings when he touches it; the basest horn of his
hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes."

There is always an inclination to believe that every person is endowed with small or large abilities, and must make peace with what has been given.

Why? Because it seems a comfortable view of existence. Estimate your role in the grand play, and then live it out.

In fact, go one step further. Arrange (yes, arrange) your perceptions so that they come around and feed back to you a confirmation that you are correct; you have seen your proper role; you have found it; and now you can act the part.

See only and precisely what is necessary for the role. When you do that, you are home. Don’t see more. That would be confusing.

This is a good description of self-imposed mind control.

But then, in the world literature, we come across quotes like these:

“The world is but a canvas to the imagination.” (Henry David Thoreau)

“Probably the difference between men and the monkeys is that the monkeys are merely bored, while man has boredom plus imagination.” (Lin Yutang)

“The only way to find the limits of the possible is by going beyond them to the impossible.” (Arthur C Clarke)

“Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model.” (Vincent Van Gogh)

“Everything you can imagine is real.” (Pablo Picasso)

“Imagination is the living power and prime agent of all human perception.” (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

“The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.” (Albert Einstein)

“The human race is governed by its imagination.” (Thomas B Macaulay)

“Formerly, we used to represent things visible on earth, things we either liked to look at or would have liked to see. Today we reveal the reality that is behind visible things, thus expressing our belief that the visible world is merely an isolated case in relation to the universe and that there are many more other, latent realities…” (Paul Klee)

“One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have christened reality is an even greater illusion than the world of dreams.” (Salvador Dali)

“All the works of man have their origin in creative fantasy. What right have we then to depreciate imagination?” (Carl Jung)

When you take up imagination, you embark on the great work and the great adventure. You don’t have to travel. You don’t have to change a visible thing in your life. You will make those changes, later.

The light on the bridge at night says: you are here; you are at the place where you make a decision; to be what you have been, or to engage the energy of new islands of realities.

JON RAPPOPORT www.nomorefakenews.com