2010.01.07 07:00 - Words about words

The Guardian for this meeting was Storm Nordwind. The comments are by Storm Nordwind, who started the session shovelling some of the snow that had accumulated in the Play as Being pavilion.

This was a wonderful gentle conversation, between gentle and inspiring people, yet it covered so much. We started with small talk about the weather but it quickly developed through the topics of stereotypes, accents, words, poetry, left/right brains, devotion, books we're writing, places we're traveling to, and inspiring our children ... all in less than 80 minutes!

Geoff Baily: happy new year storm
Storm Nordwind: Good morning all
Geoff Baily: hi Eden HiStorm
Eden Haiku: Good morning! You were shoveling the snow Storm?
Eden Haiku: hello Geoff, nice to see you this morning ;-)
--BELL--
Storm Nordwind: Yes Eden. I need to keep it clear
Eden Haiku: :-)
Geoff Baily: ;)
Storm Nordwind: The ice around the pool has nearly melted now. Perhaps warmer weather is on the way in SL. :)
Eden Haiku: oh oh, winter stops on Twelfth Day of Christmas like in Europe ;-)
Geoff Baily: we will see!
Storm Nordwind: The weather is naturally very deferential to human needs
Storm Nordwind chuckles
Eden Haiku: Yes, Iot is cold in Europe now, as well as in Florido too it seems.
Geoff Baily: very cold
Storm Nordwind: We have -18 here this morning by the Front Range
Eden Haiku: Brrrr
Geoff Baily: but not as cold as that Storm
Eden Haiku: It is your first winter in the States Storm?
Storm Nordwind: I have visited here in winter snows before. But this is my first complete winter.
Storm Nordwind: We must be on our 5th or 6th major snowfall - I've lost count

Talking about the weather, we gently move on to talking about stereotypes.

Storm Nordwind: Still the Englishman: talking about the weather!
Geoff Baily: ha ha
Eden Haiku: One our favorite subjects here too!
Geoff Baily: sterertypes r true 'perhaps)
Eden Haiku: I like your 'perhaps' Geoff...
Geoff Baily: thats wht they r stereotypes
Geoff Baily: i was given a book called 'watching the English" for Christmas
Geoff Baily: by Kate Fox an anthropologist
Storm Nordwind: Ah yes... a worthwhile read
Eden Haiku: One of your French friends's gift, I suppose ;-)
Geoff Baily: not finished it yet
Geoff Baily: not os actually, an English friend Eden
Storm Nordwind: My ex used it to try and understand me. AFter ten years, though, it didn't work!
Geoff Baily: hi Eliza!
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Everyone :)
Eden Haiku: Sounds interesting, I will take a note...
Storm Nordwind: Good morning Eliza!
Eden Haiku: Hi Eliza!
Eliza Madrigal: Good Morning! :)
Eden Haiku: Aren't Scottish Storm? You must not fit into the Englishmen category!
Geoff Baily: I find many of the things she says about the English apply to the French
Geoff Baily: Heresy!!
Eden Haiku: Ah ah!
Storm Nordwind: No I am not Scottish. I was simply an Englishman exiled in Scotland for 6 years!
Orl Auer: hi
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Orl
Storm Nordwind: Hello Orl
Eden Haiku: Ah, ah, I was wondering why I could undesrtand your accent...
Geoff Baily: hi Orl
Storm Nordwind chuckles
Eden Haiku: Hi Orl
Orl Auer: hi Eden, Eliaz, Geoff, Storm

And with stereotypes and accents, it seems natural to begin talking about words.

Storm Nordwind: Accents and dialects are strange. It is as though we need words to convey meaning, yet so often the words get in the way of the meaning!
Geoff Baily: but they also give context
Eden Haiku: Bienvenue Orl.;-)
--BELL--
Orl Auer: Words lead to magic : when you have the perfect formula (good keywords) on Google, doors open !
Eden Haiku: ;-)
Storm Nordwind smiles
Orl Auer: as in SL wghen searching !
Geoff Baily: one of my teachers (40 years ago) could tell anyone's home to within 5 miles in the UK by their voice
Storm Nordwind: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"
Orl Auer: Yes, it is Arthir C. Clarke
Storm Nordwind nods
Eden Haiku: Hear something on the radio yesterday about the last sentence of a press release. About the seath oy a young singer called Lhasa de Sela.
Eden Haiku: It said: After Lhasa's death, it snowed for 40 hours on Montreal.
Eliza Madrigal: Oh
Eden Haiku: Words can convey magic and empathy.
Geoff Baily: true
Eliza Madrigal nods
Orl Auer: yes, you are right

Moved by Eden's story of a death, I share a recent haiku.

Storm Nordwind: Snow softens all sound / Feathers falling on a grave / A teardrop freezes
Geoff Baily: empathy
Eden Haiku: Beautiful Storm!
Geoff Baily: ;)
Eliza Madrigal: striking, Storm
Storm Nordwind smiles

And Orl shares the start of one of his poems.

Orl Auer: Close to the colonnades, the peachtree has flowered. And the sky is so blue that it fades In the Tyrrhenian Sea and who gleams.
Orl Auer: it is the beginning of one of my poem

The original French of Orl's poem is "Près des colonnades, le pêcher a fleuri ... Et le ciel est si bleu qu'il déteint ... Dans la mer Tyrrhénienne et qui miroite."

Eden Haiku: Words. All amde up of a few sounds, a few letters. In India they call it the MatrikaShakti: the mother of language.
Storm Nordwind: Words, like all tools, can convey beauty, peace, friendship, love, information... and be the vehicle for harm, ignorance, and assumption. When we open our mouths, we are partaking of something very powerful.
Eden Haiku: Nice poem Orl!
Orl Auer: only the beginning, Eden
Eliza Madrigal: yes thanks for sharing that part, Orl :)
Orl Auer: you are all peaceful and delightful
Orl Auer: i rest in peace with joy
Eden Haiku: Yes, true. Could be the sword of Manjushri cutting through ignorance as well as ignorance itself. Like when one of the bad gauys in ' Avatar' says 'Wake up'
Eliza Madrigal: powerful when we let our fingers play across the keyboards, too...
Geoff Baily: but its so easy to use words casually. Lovely start to the poem Orl
Eden Haiku: yeah...typoeing...
Storm Nordwind chuckles
Orl Auer: now we have translators in SL, it breaks the barrels between nations
Eden Haiku: Thai Ping.
Storm Nordwind: :)
Geoff Baily: barriers?, Orl or is it the demon drink that does it??
Orl Auer: Baebl , lol
Orl Auer: Babel, lol

We move on to talking about words themselves, and about those for whom words is their limitation rather than a tool for expression.

Storm Nordwind: We can use words to free us from words
Eden Haiku: You mean as a path to freedom?
Storm Nordwind: Like a tantra, Eden
Storm Nordwind: I had a debate with a teacher... is it possible to know anything without words? :)
Eliza Madrigal: Words can be like certain people... in a room seeming to take up no space in fact give it somehow...
Eden Haiku: Allowing things to be born you mean Eliza?
Eliza Madrigal: maybe... words freeing from words seemed to bring this to mind...
--BELL--

Left brained or right brained? I watched the sun rise over the mountain range of the Sacred Art Museum roof...

Eliza Madrigal: What did the teacher think, Storm?
Orl Auer: words are pointers, like a finger tio the moion
Storm Nordwind: The teacher thought no, Eliza, and I thought yes.
Orl Auer: to the SElf
Storm Nordwind: But she was trying to teach us all about madhyamika so it is was a complicated discussion!
Eliza Madrigal: teaching doesn't work if only using words, perhaps... but hm, no words...
Eden Haiku: Yes, that is so true!
Orl Auer: thinking witout thinking (pensar sine pensar)
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Storm Nordwind: It's like a right brained person trying to explain things to a left brained one. The right brained will always see the left brain point of view, but sadly the opposite is rarely the case!
Orl Auer: right brain is about holistic and intuition and left brain logic
Eliza Madrigal: so intuition can make room for logic to play
Storm Nordwind: yes Orl, and being holistic, it can also embrace the left
Orl Auer: yes, it fuels it
Orl Auer: contemplation leads to action then
Eden Haiku: Yes, sadly the opposite is rarely the case.This is clarifying things for me Storm ;-)

The right brained person has to live in a world populated and largely built by left brained people. So naturally they have understand both worlds simply in order to survive. The left brained person, on the other hand, can choose not to inhabit the world of the right brained!

Storm Nordwind chuckles
Storm Nordwind: Long and hard experience Eden :)
Eliza Madrigal: Sure Orl, the logical person might deny that though
Eden Haiku: A fellow right brainer hey?
Orl Auer: there is also fuzzy logic
Storm Nordwind: Yes Orl. Sadly neglected and even ostracised

The way of the devotion combined with the way of the mystic...

Eliza Madrigal: "Why are you wasting all that time meditating and contemplating?"
Orl Auer: because i am in love with God
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Geoff Baily: you can just be
Orl Auer: sure but i am precede in my contemplation : somebody awaits for me
Orl Auer: Him
Orl Auer: I am his delight
Eden Haiku: Bhakti feels so nice, though. Being 'in love' with God like when chanting mantras...I like that too Orl.
Orl Auer: yes, thank you Eden we spoke also from karmla yoga
Orl Auer: karma
Orl Auer: action
Eliza Madrigal: Hey Mick!
Orl Auer: hi mickorod
Mickorod Renard: Hiya everyone
Eden Haiku: Once my karma yoga was to pick up spinach in the garden, The community ate my many-hours work in one slurp, eating their soup ;-)
Geoff Baily: Hi Mick
Eliza Madrigal smiles
Geoff Baily: ;)
Eden Haiku: Hello Mickorod!
Mickorod Renard: Hi:)
Storm Nordwind: There are two approaches (at least): the Bhakta keeps a slight separation from their adored one, the better to enjoy them, whereas the Tantrika becomes one with their deity... interesting
Storm Nordwind: Hi Mick
Mickorod Renard: Hi:)
Orl Auer: we may speak of fusion or of communion : slighlty different
Storm Nordwind nods

From where do words arise? Can we make them arise?! ;-)

Eliza Madrigal: when action (including words perhaps) arises from that wordless place, then 'one torch can dissipate the accumulated darkness of a thousand eons'
--BELL--
Mickorod Renard: is there a strand to follow,,that I am unaware of? please forgive me for being a bit ignorant
Eliza Madrigal: (tilopa)
Eliza Madrigal: Even if its gone in a slurp, Eden. heheh
Storm Nordwind: We're talking, mystically at times, about words (it seems)
Mickorod Renard: ok thanks
Eden Haiku: How compelling Eliza! Words arising from a wordless place, that is how how I would like to write.
Storm Nordwind: Words as the expression of the wordless
Eliza Madrigal: it seems to me you do, Eden :)
Eden Haiku: I have been rewriting the opening chapter of my new novel for months now. Did not struch the right note yet...
Orl Auer: -> i am reality
Storm Nordwind: Then write all the others chapters Eden, and come back to it! ;)
Eden Haiku: Haikus can catch glimpses maybe but novels are tricky...
Mickorod Renard: thanks eliza
Eden Haiku: ah ah...not a bad idea Storm!
Orl Auer: poetry is very poqwerful : John of the Cross, a mystic spanish
Eliza Madrigal always hopes that a book will come to her in a dream
Geoff Baily: perhaps the words will come after your visit to India Eden!!
Eliza Madrigal: Ah, yes inspiration
Orl Auer: yes !
Storm Nordwind hopes that a book will come to him in the post before he has to claim a refund and doesn't have to just dream about it!
Eliza Madrigal: hahaha
Geoff Baily: ;)
Eden Haiku: My feeling is that the book already exists, and my only humble task is to synthonize it.

When words have arisen, shall we let others see? Is the sign of an artist to know when to leave alone? Meanwhile, Eden's typo is very revealing!

Mickorod Renard: I wrote a novel about a year ago and have left it in an unfinnished condition
Eliza Madrigal: goodness Mick... just needs cleaning?
Mickorod Renard: I have lost the momentum
Orl Auer: to tune it ?
Eliza Madrigal: yes maybe we can know without words, but can we convey?
Geoff Baily: you are giving birth to it Eden?
Eden Haiku: Yes, tuning in. I did that for most of my books. Published many of them. But this one, this one...I want it to be great!
Storm Nordwind: Mick... are you keeping it from us? Get thee to thy keyboard!
Eliza Madrigal: When I was a child I hated to hear 'be patient' but it is seeming like a very powerful word these days!
Eden Haiku: And yes, Geoff, India is a scared ground of inspiration for me.
Mickorod Renard: he he , I thought it was great,,the first few times I read over it,,now i have lost my feeling that its any good
Geoff Baily: sacred!
Storm Nordwind chuckles
Orl Auer: you have to be abandoned when you write, i think
Mickorod Renard: thats a nice way of putting it Orl
Eliza Madrigal: hmm...the sacred ground the book will be made of...
Eden Haiku: Very revealing typo of mine. India is also a scared ground indeed, as well as sacred. ;-)
Eliza Madrigal: :)))
Geoff Baily: hmmm
Eliza Madrigal: fearful and wonderful perhaps
Orl Auer: it is indicible Eliza ?
Storm Nordwind: Like a blessed Mother who may both chide and embrace
Eliza Madrigal: MMM
Eliza Madrigal looks up indicible...
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Orl Auer: like the tao ?
Geoff Baily: the lake one can drink from or drown in
Eden Haiku: Yes, reading Shantaram recently was a great experience, The writer makes me see things I have bee unabled to se by myself in India, even when living there for almost a two years stretch.
Eden Haiku: What is your novel about Mick?
Eliza Madrigal: ahhh incommunicable....

We talk about parents (and grandparents) sharing moving experiences with their children... somehow interleaved with trying to persuade Mick to finish his book!

Mickorod Renard: I noticed the bit about snow falling and ts noise deadening effect....I undertook that the other night,,made my son stand in it and listen to the stilness
Orl Auer: iam alive and living, that is the key for me
Eden Haiku: Snow, yes, is so soothing...
Mickorod Renard: my novel..is about what happens in a characters mind when he is in a Coma
Eliza Madrigal smiles. How special, Mick! Was he able to stop and really soak it in with you?
Mickorod Renard: amongst other wierd twists
Eden Haiku: oh oh...lots of possibilities,,,
--BELL--
Mickorod Renard: yes,,he didnt really have the same attention ability that i seemed to have..thats a trend of the young I guess
Orl Auer: we are always beginners !
Eden Haiku: Talking of your son, not of your character?
Mickorod Renard: yes,,he he
Eliza Madrigal nods :) They remember later sometimes, adding attention then
Mickorod Renard: but I noticed,,even in a distracted fashion,,the way it makes you become more aware of self
Storm Nordwind: They watch media screens - music videos for example - that change 2 or 3 times a second. The art of watching a single scene for a prolonged time has been largely lost.
Eliza Madrigal: being able to stand the silence
Eliza Madrigal: me too, really... even having a meditative practice when the context changes it can be a task
Mickorod Renard: I can cope well with the silence,,but coping with the comotion of my thoughts is hard
Eden Haiku: When I was about 8 years old, my grandpa showed me the rising sun, saying there was nothing as beautiful. It is one of my fondest memories. I remember this rising sun so clearly.
Storm Nordwind: Wonderful!
Eliza Madrigal: Ahhh, yes so nice
Storm Nordwind: And you've shared it with all of us since through your writing :)
Mickorod Renard: yea,,I have taken my son to see many interesting things like that,,I bet he has forgoten most
Eden Haiku: I felt he transmitted something very precious to me that day.
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Geoff Baily: so important Eden
Eden Haiku: No, Micko, I'm sure it is so precious for him. He might not know or tell now.
Mickorod Renard: Eden,,,have you a book that I am unaware of,,and that I may like to read?
Eden Haiku: About coma? Not yeat. A freind of mine named Mickhorod Renard is finishing one...;-)
Eliza Madrigal: hahaha
Mickorod Renard: he he
Storm Nordwind: 15 love
Eliza Madrigal grins
Eden Haiku: ;-)
Mickorod Renard: :)
Geoff Baily: so?
Eden Haiku: Challenge for 2010 Mick?
Mickorod Renard: I tried my best to give my son much insight,,but he still went crazy when he hit his teens
Mickorod Renard: to finnish the book?,,it was a challenge last year
Mickorod Renard: I failed
Storm Nordwind: They lose their sense of humor at 12. Girls especially. They get it back... but only after they've left home! :)
Eden Haiku: Takes years to write a novel...;-)
Geoff Baily: we all have to learn for ourselves Mick

And how do those children see us meantime?

Mickorod Renard: yes,,maybe one day he wont see me as a crazy too
Geoff Baily: can only help our children so far
Eliza Madrigal nods
Geoff Baily: the rest is up to them
Geoff Baily: as it was for all of us here
Eliza Madrigal: when they start seeing that parents are just people, they can feel vulnerable
Eden Haiku: I'm sure he does 'see you' Mick, but then he is a teenager...What can he do? Love his dad? No way!
Mickorod Renard: its an interesting point,,like how much should a parent interfere with a childs character
Storm Nordwind: Remember Mark Twain's famous quote Mick as consolation!
Eden Haiku: Famous quote Storm?
Mickorod Renard: I will have to look it up
Storm Nordwind: "When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished by how much he'd learned in seven years."
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Eden Haiku: Ah yeah, read it here in then logs...
Mickorod Renard: he he he ,,thats fantastic Storm
Storm Nordwind: You have to love them and let them go. A perfect lesson in perfect love.

Mick recalls his own early days.

Mickorod Renard: you know,,thinking back heaps,,when I was a kid I noticed how much precognition i had
Storm Nordwind: Oh Mick?
--BELL--
Mickorod Renard: I get the notion that when yound the lack of experience is made up for with hightened precognition..maybe i am wrong
Storm Nordwind: fascinating notion... maybe a heightened memory of times long passed?
Mickorod Renard: perhaps
Mickorod Renard: but i also remember knowing what was going to happen in tv programs etc
Mickorod Renard: my bro's and sis's used to get spooked by me
Storm Nordwind: But the ability disappeared when you were old enough to do the pools Mick? ;)
Mickorod Renard: yes,,I noticed that too storm

Many of us seem to discover, almost at the same time, that we have pressing engagements - offspring to ferry, batteries to charge, teachings to attend...

Eliza Madrigal: Ah, speaking of children my handful of a 14 yo daughter just texted me to come home from school (teachers have given up regulating phones I think ;-)
Eliza Madrigal: Thanks for a real special session everyone, will look forward to reading the rest :) Bye for now
Eden Haiku: Bye Eliza!
Mickorod Renard: bye Eliza
Storm Nordwind: Bye Eliza. Drive safely!
Geoff Baily: bye Eliza
Orl Auer: bye eliza
Mickorod Renard: perhaps there is something wonderful and li.......eeek,,battery deAD
Mickorod Renard: HAVE TO GO FOLKS
Storm Nordwind blinks at Mick
Mickorod Renard: thanks
Storm Nordwind waves
Orl Auer: bye, mick
Geoff Baily: bye
Eden Haiku: Bye
Eden Haiku: Well, as I have another appointment, I will say goodbye now. Nice being with you this morning!
Geoff Baily: bye Eden
Storm Nordwind smiles and waves to Eden
Storm Nordwind: Perhaps that's a good time to wind up the session
Orl Auer: as you wish
Geoff Baily: bye Storm thanks
Storm Nordwind: I too need to be elsewhere
Orl Auer: bye storm
Storm Nordwind: Namaste
Orl Auer: bye geoff