To expand is to dive with eyes closed

With only a very common knowledge to have for myself I am left to ponder certain things while lacking existing knowledge to supplement the final thought with, in terminology or evidence or discourse. However as evidence goes, which surely is the strongest of the three in relating our lives to ideas, its capability to persuade is very strong. Although, persuasion is still not the correct term. Persuasion suggests two or more opinions and the drawing of one to the other, for the gain of the opposing individual or for some deeper meaning for its retrieval for the persons involved. Unearthing, revealing, excavating, and uncovering are deeply more accurate and practical to relay the true meaning.

Because at the event of any communication, between people or in the catacombs swirling beneath your psyche that prompt both thought and feeling, a dissection can always take place. It seems that eventually one will find themself on a common path that leads toward some basic truth, that either reflects a culture or a human standard.

"The curtains here remind me of the cloaks of some knight from long ago"

Firstly, all that you read is dependent on the origination of meaning attached to each word. Curtains, remind, cloaks, knight, long ago. Those stand out, because their higher (or is it lower, and more standard) meanings are easily traced. Where did we first learn these words, and what was the flavor of their connotation when they were first birthed into our web of thought. What are the memories you can recall when you learned these words and what were the events of your life, or others' lives, when you were first were able to put all together into a single thought, and lived enough to recall them back in the form of a memory.

"I saw a spider and I screamed"

Were we all children who played with insects and smaller creatures knowing that through some benefit and authority we were free to ponder them authoritatively and not be questioned why that is? If we shared the earth with giants that at will were to toy with us the way we toy with others, would we be intent primarily on their captivity or destruction to preserve our comfort in our role? Intelligence is only the opinion of the person defining intelligence of course, and so judgment inevitably is the necessary condition of its activation. Right to wrong and allowed to disallowed. We could even devise, with proper foresight, an even grander judgment that would set the entire species of man to a certain belief, as it's often said that if you can think it, surely you can do it. With more mastery of the world this belief certainly overwhelms and distracts from anything else, even to a complete enslaving to its ideals and limitless horizons amidst our own culture and its created obligations we are drawn towards throughout the process. And because to live is also to not know death, definitive evidence is invariably in perpetual escape of our grasp to finalize and produce the final piece of evidence we need to justify all things, and then relax knowing that we pushed along, all along, from one of the more easier truths were set towards since youth to retrieve.

All of us are equipped with incredible evidence towards action and thought, as our experience in simply living can afford us this. Exercising expressions of this truth with other people surely is reserved for those who practice these founding principles, but when mixed with culture, suddenly people unleash themselves as practitioners of correct ways, knowing that even in their minds' depths something is incomplete, that oddly bypasses its own question by urging the person to convince others of this same, incomplete truth. The journey of self-interrogation through all recorded history suggests only two things: that something significant is being worked towards or we are exercising too much of ourselves with no benefit but mental work as a hobby. But the passion elicited from these lifelong struggles of truth-seeking is overwhelming, even to its guiding of culture and forcing those of us who dwell on less complex matters to be rushed to choose a side and join the wave bearing a mantle of some kind, even if it's simply anarchy. Happiness doesn't seem to be the final goal anymore, as happiness and satisfaction are now divorced from one another. Satisfaction concludes desire, which concludes thought and choice, which all preclude the constant repeating of this same cycle, until we have no more time left and either we die or take ourselves out of the race in some fashion.

Ah, madness.

Massive update coming soon

Hold me to it. Sometimes that helps.

요즘, 나는 축복입니다.

Eastbound and Up!

Me being a jerk and taking a picture of an old lady bending over. Great shot though.

Ok I'm going to move very quickly with this one. I've been doing a lot of reading recently, by Gene Wolfe who is a VERY good author, and so my own pride with my writing is temporarily disabled out of fugacious shame of my own abilities to write. It too shall pass though.

On New Year's Day I took a bus at 2:10 to Yeosu. Yeosu is in the same direction that Boseong is, but an hour and a half more east. It lies in a bit of a gulf, surrounded by islands and a clear view deep into the waters that lead into Japan. As you'll hear about I once received a job offer here, and I turned it down to come to Mokpo. Wikipedia and general Internet word-of-mouth should have done a better job at describing the city, because it is an amazing place to see. The city is spread into different sections, with each having its own seclusion by way of mountains or hills that separate and hide the other portions. These all are connected by roads, but along these roads there are remnants of an older Korea, with older housing and older roads. I was able to navigate this divide by walking around, a lot, in Yeosu. Well worth it though.

I got there at 5:30 on Friday, and I was able to direct a taxi to a downtown portion of the city. I ate dinner and found a Korean girl to attempt a conversation with for an hour or so. After we finished I went to the obvious hotel district (they had one called "Ben Hur" motel; awesome) and found a room for 40,000 won and stayed the night. I woke up the next day, and after walking around the city and admiring it all (Yeosu receives a year-round pleasant climate because of its location) I headed for the water. I was even able to shed my coat, which lately had always been a foolish idea. This is about the time when all of this happened. Enjoy. :D







On the 14th and 15th of this month I don't teach, and I'm planning to take another trip. But I don't know where yet. I'm thinking of heading somewhere to the northeast, into the mountains. I've researched about the area and I have a lot of interest in traveling there. And I think I'll do just that. Enjoy, and I'll be sure to update this blog as or as not as consistently as I've been inclined to do.

Peace to you,

Anthony