Xenosthesia.com

Remember-It-All

What if we really know everything there is to know, but we have to relearn, and remember, it all?

This is an idea based on the fact that we all come from somewhere and we’re all going somewhere, though we can’t see that far. We don’t know everything, do we?

Any human who assumes to have reality dialed in is usually only deluded. Such a person is drowning in overconfidence.

You’ve probably met someone who has an answer for every question, but no questions of their own. These are people who have become static. They’ve stopped learning. In other words, they think they know it all. They have “no need” to learn more because they think they have all the knowledge possible inside their minds already. Of course, if they truly know it all, why haven’t they transcended like a Buddha? Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

It will also make you so, so “jealous”, but only with your best sarcastic voice. Wouldn’t it be nice to be sure of yourself in any discussion and on every possible topic?

We don’t know everything.

To that statement I would add an all-caps YET.

We don’t know everything…yet. Isn’t it a possibility that we’ve forgotten what we knew before we were born into these corporeal forms, and that we only need to remember it all?

Certainly some people are better at remembering than others, which leaves us with another question: those who claim to know it all, why are they so ready to make a claim of knowledge and not a claim of learning? Why is it more common for such a person to act as if it was all their doing? Are we supposed to believe this person never had a teacher, never read a book or watched a television program? Are we supposed to believe they collected all the learning on their lonesome without anyone else’s help? It would be easier to believe Sasquatch stole my sack lunch than the idea of an entity who knows everything due to a singular brain cell collecting facts from the universe by absorption and adsorption and osmosis and then imparting that knowledge through narcissistic monologs.

(And isn’t that an accurate description of a ‘blog post?) Yessir, we are getting to know ourselves better the more words come out of us, aren’t we?

All of this begs the question: Which are deeper, the mysteries of the universe, or the mysteries within ourselves?

Beach Love

No matter where you are or what you’re doing, there’s a way to escape. No one can make you do anything you don’t want to do.

There may be a time when the system which calls itself your society seems to be trying to force you to work for them. It could be through school, a job, or a “social norm”. None of these are truly required if you accept yourself as a free individual.

It should be noted, as a word of caution, that many who have realized this truth have gone too far beyond their ability to be self-reliant, and then fallen prey to a different kind of requirement. Illicit drugs, for example, are not a method of exhibiting freedom, only another way to enslave, or to be enslaved.

A great way to avoid the intentional and unintentional tyrannies is to go to the beach. Going to the beach can be done literally or figuratively. Even a person with a mediocre imagination can take a minute and picture a beach.

Call up an image of sea and sand. Imagine yourself wandering shoeless along the warm expanse of wet sand. Hear the waves gently pushing up the beach. See gulls capturing the breeze to glide, dip, and rise again.

Where will you go? What will you do on the beach today?

Anything you can imagine, because you’re free.

Beauty In Shadow

For every “safe to say” there’s a “sorry to say“.

For every break up there’s a make up.

Whether the make up is accepted or not will determine whether the couple will be elevated or devoured by the shadowy creeping things.

Probably safe to say the couple in question isn’t thinking about the creeping things. Sorry to say though, that the creeping things are definitely considering the couple, not as a couple, but as single units. Snacks to be savored over months and years. Slow demise once they’re single.

When boy leaves girl, or girl leaves boy, he or she doesn’t know an opening is created for the hungry devouring shadows to snatch one, to drag one, boy or girl, down into the darkness.

Boys and girls with determination will be more likely to escape. And it doesn’t matter if the boy or girl is determined to stay in the relationship or leave it. The determination to TAKE ACTION will get him or her out of the shadows and back to living. Only the ones who give up really become a meal for the many-limbed malevolence.

Making up, some will realize, doesn’t absolutely mean getting back together. In some relationships, making up means forgiveness and lots of distance. In those, often, the one, girl or boy, who returned from the creeping things, will recognize the shadows surrounding the other, and will know not to hang around. In those relationships, the beauty is in knowing.

Girls and boys who grow stronger from escaping the shadows, have a better chance than those who have not yet been down there.

Banana Smoothie

Banana smoothies are a great summer treat. You can take them with you if you have the right gear. A banana smoothie is thick and stays cold for a long time whether you drink it fast or slow. If you feel like you’re melting in the summer heat, here’s a recipe for a banana smoothie you could try:

Cut up one medium banana.

Drop it in a 24 ounce blender cup.

Add four ice cubes.

Open up an 8 ounce can of mandarin oranges. With a fork to hold back the orange slices, pour the juice into your blender cup. Throw out the oranges.

Pour milk in until you’re drink is at the limit.

Blend, then drink.

For those of you who work out lots, put your protein powder in right after the ice cubes.

You’re welcome!

Another Dead Soldier

Toy soldiers go mostly unnoticed, even though they outnumber us by at least one hundred to one.

Since 1893* these little warriors have been stamped out in a variety of poses, ready for battle. They are not printed in squads but in battalions. They’re printed by the thousands and sold one hundred at a time for as little as one U.S. dollar. Packs of these soldiers often come stocked with miniature plastic tanks, miniature fences, bunkers, jets, and even helicopters.

In a pack of one hundred you could find a few ready to shoot bazookas, a few more prepping to shoot mortars, and a modest majority aiming rifles in a variety of poses. You can set up mock warfare in all its inglorious forms with these little guys.

Keep digging through the pile. There will be a brigade of plastic soldiers posed in the act of throwing a plastic grenade. Don’t worry too much—these plastics aren’t explosive.

Also included is at least one soldier with a radio. He’ll be your least favorite. Why? Because he isn’t posing as cool as the rest. Not action like the others, the radio man seems impotent instead of important. Of course, if these were real warriors and this was real war, the one with the radio would be invaluable. He’d actually be doing stuff. As a member of the plastic battalion though, he’s less than fantastic. If you were the destructive type of child you might sacrifice him. He might end up on the front lines somehow and lose an arm, a leg, or the whole battle.

Some of the plastic army will lose the battle to fireworks (not included). Others will lose the battle to the lawnmower. Still others will lose by being lost. You’ll never know what happened to them. Hopefully it wasn’t your favorite one you buried in the sand or dirt.

Regardless of which plastic soldier is your favorite, you have to admit these are the best toys considering how simple they are.

*Close enough.