alphamail: a blog with some rhyme or reason

is life poetry or just a myth understanding?

our lives become a personal narrative, that is why we are often told that everyone ‘has a story’ and this must be true for even if we feel that our experiences and the events that make up the passing years that we refer to as our life seem to be ‘ordinary’ or ‘mundane’ they are nonetheless unique to each individual…

If you’d rather listen to this item here is the audio version:

 

and somewhere on that journey (which, for many, may last 80 years or more: a period that at first seems long by a mere mortal’s measurement but which is, by cosmic standards, less than a fleeting moment) things occur that cause us to acquire knowledge and understanding that in turn helps to inform our opinions and worldview…

yet, we exist in an environment increasingly fraught with mis- and disinformation, beset on a daily basis as we are, by messages emanating from multifarious sources each vying for our attention, each aiming to be absorbed and accepted, each attempting to ‘influence’ the way we continue to see the world around us… each either consolidating or conflicting with the personal biases that we have acquired en route from the ‘cradle to the grave’…

in this world of the third millennium, numbered in many people’s calendars as marking the years elapsed since the alleged death and resurrection of one of the world’s greatest mythical/spiritual figures (although he was by no means the only such figure)… we are exhorted, arguably more than ever today, to invest our faith in science and to trust those who have in some way contributed to the ‘understanding’ humanity currently has of life, the universe and everything…

in ages past ancient civilizations used myth to try to explain mysterious aspects of the world around them but today as that shroud of mystery wears thinner than it has ever been before, possibly even dangerously close to exposing the naked flesh of that thing some call ‘reality’, many people have found their ‘faith’ shaken, perhaps even shattered and an increasing proportion (of those in the so-called ‘developed world’ in particular) have rejected the possibility that there may be something greater than the incessantly inquiring mind of man! they have rejected the possibility that in this modern world the vestiges of myth may yet contain messages of wisdom that they might do well to heed…

for me, born with an innately artistic temperament yet forced, often feeling like a square peg hammered into in a round hole (although I would prefer to restate the aphorism as a ’round peg’, which feels more apposite for ‘art’, into a ‘square hole’ which seems to me to better suit the concept of ‘science’), to attain a scientific education, I have come throughout the passage of more than six decades, to arrive at the view that investing all our misplaced ‘faith’ in science alone is an aspect of species-related arrogance that may yet prove our undoing!

this web log, reborn as it is today in late 2021, having appeared in several previous incarnations all now lost to the vagaries of technological trials, tribulations and faux pas aims to be an occasional opportunity for me to examine my own evolving myth, to discuss the importance (that I perceive) of metaphor in this material realm, and to extemporize and generally prognosticate on the importance of nurturing that element within each human creature that some may like to call the ‘soul’ or the ‘spirit’ (yet which may just be ‘creativity’ or ‘imagination’… or simply ‘consciousness’?) and which is the thing that I feel is so often neglected, to the individual’s potential detriment, by far too many in this current, challenging and fear-ridden era… as we all traverse tentatively and erratically through this current ‘collapse of civilization’ that could also mark the dawn of the era of extinction for the earth’s self-proclaimed ‘most intelligent’ species!

let’s see how it goes during this ‘reincarnation’ of a ‘blog’ that I have now chosen to christen (I have to say with uncharacteristic arrogance! 🙂 ) ‘alphamail’ — but which will no doubt just amount to occasional jottings, but hopefully, with some rhyme and reason!

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al g smith: after 30 years working in the UK business and academic environment as business owner, in hospitality management, management training consultant, university senior lecturer. he has been a independent researcher/author/artist/website developer for the past 19 years assisting many other business owners in achieving their objectives… al now works with his partner costanza magnocavallo  providing personal and spiritual development coaching and energy healing consultations via: spirit|shines website