Trying to get back

 

Impressionism / John Henry Twachtman/ Wild Cherry Tree

I think that I have been lax lately in posting here.  But since I don’t really have that much in the way of a following (Google analytics sez between four and six visitors a day) and the days have been halcyon and the nights perfect for sleeping, ,I am not ashamed.

Been pondering things while walking.  One of the things that I have been pondering is the ideas behind what is consciousness (I freely blame M. For this.  Next time I visit he will need to buy all my beer as recompense).  But more and more, I am coming to the conclusion that while an individual might, in his own head, come up with a valid definition/description of consciousness, that understanding must pretty much stop there.

The reasons for this are twofold:

1. In order to convey/instruct on the nature of one’s understanding, one must necessarily fall bad on the piss-poor tool that we call language.  A failure waiting to happen right there.

2. The idea that something that can be understood by a specific individual can be conveyed to a different individual assumes that “all men are created equal”.

Taken together, I think that this makes a universal understanding of consciousness completely out of the realm of possibilities.  I am writing this next line in all caps to emphasize the level of my belief.

THE IDEA OF SOMETHING BEING IMPOSSIBLE DOESN’T MEAN THAT IT SHOULDN’T BE ATTEMPTED.

I tend to doubt that I have a chance of breaking through to an understanding of consciousness.  One being the simple fact that if I were to make the attempt, I should have started fifty years ago and went a different direction than the one I took.  But I am still giving the thing a go, because if nothing else, it helps me in other ways.  It lets me get the odd glimpses of a world that my senses don’t allow me full access to the data required.  I see now through a glass in a dark manner;

I have come to the conclusion that there are people out there who have better and maybe more senses than I have.  Maybe the ability to sense what is happening in the world is not democratic.  I know there are folks smarter than I am.  I am absolutely certain that there are people out there who are stupider than I am.  My eyesight has needed corrective lenses forever, My hearing is way above average, smell and taste both solid.  Sense of touch is marginal. My sense of the occult and senses I think that are likely, but not addressed by “the science”, is probably below average.

But I think that full understanding of consciousness is akin to mysticism and mathematics.  I think that the ability to fully comprehend and internalize any of the “senses” is variable within the species.  Even worse, the grading system appears to be the now discredited “curve” where only 10% of the students got A’s.

My GPA is around 3.0 in life.  Theory and deep understanding might be “beyond my ken”.   But, I will still keep up the effort.