Hello BSTAK-ers, Fellow Kaufmaniacs, and Friends In Andy!
And Welcome To The Fold, new members Goldstone and Penny Lane!
Some of you have contacted me, letting me know that you received the BSTAK Vol. 2 quizbook, and what you thought - glad to have your responses, and glad also that you generally approve! It gave me a "kick" to write it, and so far, the San Diego distribution goes veddy well!
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The dominant topic for this week is, eventually, "Might vs. Right", although I meander awhile before getting there, including covering some personal stuff. The point of this BSTAK-TOW is specifically to feature a little piece written by Mister Andy, which appears at the end. However, in rereading, I realize that I cover quite a bit of other ground before getting to the short story...so, just trust me, this eventually leads up to AK.
I'm not too worried about the lengthiness of this BSTAK-TOW, because I forsee times in the future when they will be quite brief. (R. Buckminster Fuller, or "Bucky", to whom most of you have heard me make reference at least once, has a decent TOW in three words: "Unity Is Plural." But that's a Thought for a different Week. I digress.) There may even come a week when I decide to take the week off, so I figure I'm giving you some extra now, in advance for then! *_*
Onward!
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I'd like to start by recalling a thread that some of you may remember...the one about "opposites", from several months ago. (It was one of those BBs where people would rather talk about fluff, and I keep herding them into philosophy.) The thread started off by talking about whether there really ~were~ opposites, or whether things that are generally paired, like good/bad, light/dark, up/down, were just more or less of the same quality. More or less good. More or less light. And so on. After some 150 or so posts, the thread wound up being about whether reality is objective, subjective, or an objective base that is invested with subjective meaning.
I don't think we ever answered andy of the questions to andyone's satisfaction, but we got a lot of talking done. (Incidentally, those of you who have seen the second BSTAK book, this was the thread that gave birth to that notion about "Is there an opposite of music", which is posed as part of the "Life Quiz". Nothing new under the sun, you see? *_~ )
Richard Bach's "Illusions" brings up the idea of "Cosmic Advice" from the random opening of a book. The main character is instructed to concentrate upon an issue, and then open a book to a random page; the words on the page would be a cosmic response to the question. It is said, by Bach, to work with andy book or newspaper. I believe this to be a more specific take on the larger, generalized principle of "When the student is ready, the master will appear." (Just one girl's opinion.)
Well, I've been concentrating on this opposites question for several months, as I said. A BSTAK member reccomended a book to me that I now reccomend to all of you: Neale Donald Walsch's "Conversations With God". Believe it or not, right there on page 31, is a straightforward answer to my question, in plain English, about dualities, and three-in-ones (The Triune Truth). As Bucky would say, patterns of twos or threes "that ALWAYS and ONLY co-exist." And it's understandable, and makes sense.
Here's the relevent quote:
"The Triune Reality is God's signature. It is the divine pattern. The three-in-one is everywhere, and found in the realms of the sublime. You cannot escape it in matters dealing with time and space, God and consciousness, or any of the subtle relationships. On the other hand, you will ~not~ find the Triune Truth in any of life's gross relationships.
...Some of your religionists have described the Triune Truth as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Some of your psychiatrists use the terms superconscious, conscious, and subconscious. Some of your spiritualists say mind, body, and spirit. Some of your scientists see energy, matter, ether. Some of your philosophers say a thing is not true for you until it is true in thought, word, and deed. When discussing time, you speak of three times only: past, present, and future. Similarly, there are three moments in your perception - before, now, and after. In terms of spatial relationships, whether considering the points in the universe, or various points in your own room, you recognize here, there, and the space in between.
In matters of gross relationships, you recognize no 'in-between.' That is because gross relationships are always dyads, wheras relationships of the higher realm are invariable triads. Hence, there is left-right, up-down, big-small, fast-slow, hot-cold, and the greatest dyad ever created: male-female. There are no in-betweens. A thing is either ~one thing~ or ~the other~, or some greater or lesser version in relationship to one of those polarities.
Within the realm of gross relationships, nothing conceptualized can exist without a conceptualization of its ~opposite~. Most of your day-to-day experience is foundationed in this reality.
Within the realm of sublime relationships, nothing which exists ~has~ an opposite. All Is One, and everything progresses from one to the other in a never-ending circle.
Time is such a sublime realm, in which what you call past, present, and future exist inter-relationally. That is, they are not opposites, but rather parts of the same whole; progressions of the same idea; cycles of the same energy; aspects of teh same immutable Truth. If you conclude from this that past, present, and future exist at one and the same 'time', you are right."
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So - dualities are of this earty, and trinities are metaphysical. I'm going to be on the lookout for "threes" as signpost guides pointing towards greater "system integrity" truths.
Bucky identified the triangle as being the "perfect" structure; the strongest, the most efficient, and on, and on.
Bob Dorough, for "Schoolhouse Rock", wrote a song entitled "Three Is A Magic Number". Years later, when I met him, I asked when he knew that "Schoolhouse Rock" was ~really~ going to go, and he replied, when he wrote "Three", and came up with the line, "A man and a woman had a little baby - there were three in the family."
Remember that song???
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OK, so now we've identified what will be called "right", which doesn't mean having the right opinion, or being on the side of right, but rather makes reference to the "higher" truths, and what will be called "might", which points to the "gross" or "earthly" matters. "Right" is the higher, more evolved road. "Might" is much easier, and requires less thought and effort.
It was Abraham Lincoln who popularized the idea, in America, of Right triumphing over Might. And it was Albert Einstein who eventually wrote that concept down in the equation, "E = MC squared".
Energy becomes matter becomes energy becomes matter, but none is ever lost in the conversion.
This means that the physical content of wealth in the Universe can ~never~ decrease, and the METAPHYSICAL content of wealth in the Universe can only, ever increase!!
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Now, Einstein disagrees with Neale Walsch, in that he (Einstein) said that everything humanity does is motivated by either fear or longing. Walsh says that everything is motivated by either fear or LOVE. I am not sure who is correct, yet, but I would like to hear what you guys think, and what your personal experiences are.
Are "longing" and "love" synonymous? ~Can~ they be, when one man is a man of science, and the other a man of philosophy?
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To digress (again), here's a little bit of what "Conversations With God" has to say about the matter of matter and energy:
"Emotion is energy in motion. When you move energy, you create effect. If you move enough energy, you create matter. Matter is energy conglomerated. Moved around. Shoved together. If you manipulate energy long enough in a certian way, you get matter...
...Thought is pure energy. Every thought you have, have ever had, and ever will have is creative. The energy of your thought never ever dies. Ever. It leaves your being and heads out into the universe, extending forever. A thought is forever.
All thoughts congeal; all thoughts meet other thoughts, criss-crossing in an incredible maze of energy, forming an ever-changing pattern of unspeakable beauty and unbelievable complexity."
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Having laid the groundwork for the Might/Right issue, I would now like to share with you one of my favorite short stories by Mister Andy. It's from "Poetry and Stories", and it's a short, ironic gem.
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"Dear Aunt Matilda"
By Andy Kaufman
May 19, 1965
"Dear Aunt Matilda,
I am a lonely soul. Because I am lonesome, I never take a bath or brush my teeth. Because of this, I always have a wonderful aroma surrounding me. At first, I thought that it stank, but now I have gotten used to it.
The other night, my father came into my room and saw me for the first time in three years. While holding his nose, he ordered me to take a bath. When I refused, he pushed me into the shower. I was forced to wash my body and brush my teeth. Ever since, I have been made to brush my teeth once a week and take a bath once a month. Now the aroma isn't around me any more. Every time I try to reason with my father, he put me down as though its unusual for a boy never to take a bath or brush his teeth. I am very frustrated about this. What should I do?
--Frustrated
Dear Frustrated,
Why don't you tell your father where to go? He has no right to tell you what to do. If he objects to you talking back to him, hive him a upper-cut to the right jaw. If he can still beat you up, call me and I'll handle him for you. If he can beat me up, I guess that's tough on you (although it may hurt me too). If that be the case, I think you'd better forget my advice and do as he says. After all, he may be extremely stupid, but he is bigger than you."
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And with that, Ladies and Gentlemen, I bid you a wonderful, happy week!
All roads lead to Rome/Roam
All roads lead to Lenny
All roads lead to Hix
All roads lead to Andy
All roads lead to Other Roads
All roads are a Mobius
Ut! Trvth Is Universal!
Solidarity Through Andy!
Solidarity Through Diversity!