americanifesto: good

Dreams are, in essence, hallucinations. While dreaming, we see, hear, and feel things that exist nowhere except within the subconscious mind. Absent the type of appropriate sleep that facilitates reaching dream-state, we humans tend to become listless, our brains foggy, our moods sullen and prone to depression. Some research suggests that dreams help improve social interactions. Another theory is that dreams help us connect with our emotions, reducing the burden of negative ones such as fear and worry.

Consequently, it is important to do everything possible to get a good night’s sleep that is neither too long nor too short. This author knows that strenuous physical exercise during the day helps him fall asleep quickly. He also knows that the presence of both light and sound keep him from sleeping well, wherefore he makes his bedroom dark and quiet before going to bed. One of the reasons he doesn’t drink booze is because he knows that the use hard drugs such as alcohol poses a danger to healthy sleep patterns. Also important is not eating food or drinking water before bedtime, as these can interrupt nocturnal cycles.

There are few if any drawbacks to having the kind of sleep that allows to occur dreams, but many risks associated with poor sleep-related habits. For long-term health and a free bout of beneficial hallucinations, please skip the mind-altering drugs and try to get a good night’s sleep.

americanifesto / 場黑麥 / jpr / urbanartopia / whorphan

05 April 2017

a new order

When embarking on a speculative enterprise, be it personal or professional, keep in mind this quote from Niccolo Machiavelli: “There is nothing more difficult and dangerous, or more doubtful of success, than an attempt to introduce a new order of things.”

Writing in 1513 of the Common Era, Machiavelli was talking about the perilous task of nation-building. His words, however, can be applied to any imaginable effort, goal, task, or undertaking. The above lesson applies to the following: persons seeking to adopt good habits or rid themselves of bad ones; families welcoming new members into their midst; and communities adapting to conditions such as an economic depression, purposeful wealth inequality, or widespread environmental degradation.

Though not an exclusive list, the previous examples indicate that Machiavelli’s teaching covers a range of conditions, exigencies, and topics. As this whorphan struggles with the twin challenges of truly understanding and fundamentally altering the ways in which his conscious and subconscious brain works (without resorting to helpful chemical substances), he sometimes remembers the teaching, and uses it to stay patient with himself.

Sometimes, though, he forgets, and wallows then in quiet, howling desperation. Mahalo.

americanifesto / JPR / whorphan / 場黑麥

31 January 2013

on drawing well

In the years since the author drew his last set of pictures, he has forgotten how difficult it is to transfer an image from brain-stem to paper. To expand his overall portfolio, however, he has added physical artistic expression to his daily protocols; in addition to his two writing sessions, he now allocates time for drawing, making sculptures, and graphic design.

This unworthy whorphan thought it hard to write well; then, he tried to draw well. Writing and drawing share certain fundamental rules, including those of symmetry, planning, composition, patience, and simplicity. Whereas, however, one can fix a broken sentence by following the guidance of Messrs Strunk & White and look in a dictionary for the correct spelling of a thousand different words, one of the only ways for the artist who works alone to correctly depict the bent leg of a kneeling woman is to act as his own model and hope that the interface between finger, hand, wrist, arm, and brain works well enough for him to accurately reconstruct the desired shape on paper.

Drawing the Grigovian coat of arms was easy compared to trying to capture a human form in motion, but with enough tries and dozens of body parts sketched out and promptly erased, he finally has something with which he is satisfied. The only way to get smarter is to play a smarter opponent (The Principles of Chess, 1883, as quoted in the movie Revolver, by Guy Ritchie); the only way to sharpen artistic skills is to practice them every day. As he works, the old lessons – those learned in gymnasium and college – float up from the sunken wrecks of distant memory, guiding his hand as often as they remind him of the need to be humble, diligent, and forgiving. Among the lessons he remembers most vividly is to not press too hard when drawing with a pencil. His mother taught him this when he was a child; it is as true today as it was then. In practicing yoga daily and getting better at it with something akin to painstaking slowness, he is learning another lesson passed down through the ages: piece by piece, the the treasure of the universe is amassed. Gradually, he may just make something of himself. Failure rarely kills. Mahalo.

11 January 2013

trees tease amputees

Trees are fascinating creatures. If one should lop the top off of a sapling, the growth-nodes directly below the cut will send forth shoots that, if left to their own devices, will keep reaching for the sky until they erase all but the last signs of injury. Some trees, such as hybrid poplars, grow so large within a few decades that they become hazardous to power lines and dwellings alike. The speed with which these poplars attain great height and wide circumference means that they will provide much useful lumber once they are felled. Their felling, however, shall require specialized equipment, many thousands of dollars, and much personal risk, which is why they still stand, today. On the one hand, these poplars are a nuisance; on the other hand, they are beautiful and majestic beings that are only doing what they were designed to do: to grow tall, quickly.

Human bodies function differently. Our limbs don't grow back once they are removed, and our bodies tend to stop growing once they have reached a terminal height. We surmise that an individual's maximal height is determined by a range of factors, including epigenetic markers, food supply, and such environmental conditions as average daily temperatures and levels of atmospheric pollution. Human minds, however, and our elusive but ebullient spirits, are more akin to the tree than we might image. Cut someone down to size, and she springs right back. Hack away (verbally, of course) at a person's high-flying dreams, and she aspires merely to greater heights. Such is the resilience of the soul that it will emerge from the ashes of its erstwhile destruction time and again, through Holocaust, gulag, and Inquisition, suffering the slings of televised content and the arrows of religious fervor but always and again re-inhabiting the pulsating core of these our poor mortal coils.

Human amputees often suffer from something called phantom limb syndrome, a condition characterized by the experiencing of pain in such parts of the body as are no longer attached to it. Do trees suffer from phantom branch syndrome, always yearning for tops that were lopped off and pining evermore for twigs and berries that will never be? I think that, similar to the more psychologically-resilient persons among us, trees accept the lot thrust upon them by the shifting winds of Fortune and make do with such gifts as they receive, even ones that come cloaked as curses. To conquer the desire to judge things as good or bad according to a narrow, human view of the universe is among our greatest challenges. Who among us can know for certain that what is lamb today won't be wolf tomorrow? Not I, dear friend, but, then, I am but a lowly whorphan of poor and stunted intellect.

(The author does not intend to disparage of amputees, human or otherwise.)

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