"In the limitless universe of his imagination he would not be punished for wanting the impossible. Why did the gods insist on limits and boundaries when any fool could see that these things were only rules and taboos -- customs made to keep people in their place? Rebellion was punished like this -- by taking away what little freedom there was, by encasing the spirit."
Boundaries. We establish them for ourselves, choose to abide by them for others, lean on them for structure, direction, guidance. What for? The only limitless behavior are our thoughts, our mind, and even then are we so structured to have to think about finance, about psychology, about law, about formulas, essays, tests. We write bucket lists because there are boundaries to our everyday actions. And as much as we talk about freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of expression, we are not. The visual limitlessness is right above us--there is nothing above us. But gravity holds us down to the confines of the earth, physics constricting our motion and norms constricting our behavior. Yet what puzzles me, and even troubles me, is that tomorrow, today, in an hour, I will continue to live by these boundaries, and abiding by the paths that I am already walking on. It is not that I think I do not have the potential--I do--but I cannot reach to no limit. None of us can reach to no limit. They say reach for the stars, but then the stars are the limit. There is so much beyond the stars, a universe we cannot grasp, cannot fathom, do not try.
I feel like I have a (perhaps annoying) habit of suggesting books to people that I feel resonate with something they've shared with me. Your blog reminded me so much of the short story "Zooey" from Salinger's "Franny and Zooey." Franny desperately wants to exist in a place of pure spirit, in a place of no limit and her version of God. She ends up mistreating her body/bodily needs and starves herself in an effort to distant herself from the very physical limit of her body. Despite her best intentions, it becomes clear that we, including Franny, are bodily creatures limited by our clumsy earth-bound bodies. Perhaps this is why I view imagination as a kind of escape - a tine on a fork reaching out towards something we cannot comprehend.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I'm also reminded of "Effect of Gamma Rays on man-in-the-Moon Marigolds" (by Paul Zindel)
ReplyDeletethe book is available many places, including Amazon (for Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Effect-Gamma--Moon-Marigolds-ebook/dp/B005FY07A4/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1349110214&sr=1-1&keywords=effect+of+gamma+rays
and the paperback (also from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Effect-Gamma-Rays-Moon-Marigolds/dp/0060757388/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1349110214&sr=1-1
You can watch the entire movie here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46AN5eop8II
I don't fancy ceilings --hated when teachers determined limits and boundaries of learning --according to agendas of that they could and wanted to teach! --really troubled me in elementary school --that's some of why I haven't forgotten --yet!
--or try watching all of Zindel's "Effect of Gamma Rays on man-in-the=moon Marigolds here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.solarmovie.eu/watch-the-effect-of-gamma-rays-on-man-in-the-moon-marigolds-1972.html
--or anywhere else you like --perhaps expose some marigolds of your "own" --but how to limit sharing --at least with various forms of "atmospheres"
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ReplyDelete--I don't yet --if ever--"know" all forms of "boundary" --nor all forms of "limit" --perhaps what i need to "know" most, slips through tines --rendering itself irretrievable for me --insitence on "limits" and "boundaries" is very powerful indeed --just to get here, I must observe "limits" and boundaries of traffic laws, for instance --without any limits or boundaries, would there just be (human-defined and executed) forms of chaos --but is "chaos" actually in-bounded? --actually "un-limited? --if so, still chaos --as most humans like to, or have been taught, or merely assume (via, popularization, for one thing) --or something else for which a name might be needed, a name for this bounded and limited form of "chaos_ --assuming that a "name" itself functions as a form of "ceiling" --is there always a form of "beyond" --on any/every sale --the infinite and infinitesimal
ReplyDelete(I think now of Grant Williams soeech at the end of "The Incridible Shrinking Man"):
Scott Carey's (Grant Williams) final narrated soliloquy as he shrank out of sight, but realized that he was still important in the scheme of the universe:
I was continuing to shrink, to become... what? The infinitesimal? What was I? Still a human being? Or was I the man of the future? If there were other bursts of radiation, other clouds drifting across seas and continents, would other beings follow me into this vast new world? So close - the infinitesimal and the infinite. But suddenly, I knew they were really the two ends of the same concept. The unbelievably small and the unbelievably vast eventually meet - like the closing of a gigantic circle. I looked up, as if somehow I would grasp the heavens. The universe, worlds beyond number, God's silver tapestry spread across the night. And in that moment, I knew the answer to the riddle of the infinite. I had thought in terms of Man's own limited dimension. I had presumed upon nature. That existence begins and ends is man's conception, not nature's. And I felt my body dwindling, melting, becoming nothing. My fears melted away and in their place came acceptance. All this vast majesty of creation, it had to mean something. And then I meant something, too. Yes, smaller than the smallest, I meant something, too. To God, there is no zero. I STILL EXIST!
from this website:
http://www.filmsite.org/bestspeeches17.html