Friday, March 4, 2011

Castle Walls - Reprise

Constructed around the same time as the Tower of London (late 11th century), Dover Castle stands as one of the earliest castles built by William the Conqueror after his conquest of Anglo-Saxon England. Duke William had the castle built near an old Roman lighthouse and burgh, which King Harold (the last Saxon king of medieval England) established sometime before the Norman invasion in 1066. None of William’s constructions, however, survive to this day. The great keep dates back to King Henry II’s reign in the 1180s and is still there today.


"Our purpose is to consciously, deliberately evolve toward a wiser, more liberated and luminous state of being; to return to Eden, make friends with the snake, and set up our computers among the wild apple trees. Deep down, all of us are probably aware that some kind of mystical evolution - a melding into the godhead, into love - is our true task. Yet we suppress the notion with considerable force because to admit it is to acknowledge that most of our political gyrations, religious dogmas, social ambitions and financial ploys are not merely counterproductive but trivial. Our mission is to jettison those pointless preoccupations and take on once again the primordial cargo of inexhaustible ecstasy." - Tom Robbins

Thomas Eugene "Tom" Robbins, born July 22, 1932, is an American author. His best-selling novels are serio-comic, often wildly poetic stories with a strong social and philosophical undercurrent, an irreverent bent, and scenes extrapolated from carefully researched bizarre facts. He is probably best known for his novel Even Cowgirls Get the Blues which was made into a movie in 1993 by Gus Van Sant and starring Uma Thurman, Lorraine Bracco and Keanu Reeves.

I am building now. These last years are under construction. I have come home to myself. I have done my life as I did the beginning of it. I rehearsed and mastered and then began. It is what I do now and not a moment too soon.

Castle Walls

I stand on ramparts
I have built, indeed to lift
Me up to heaven.

But I trained with a master
Who instructed me on doors.

So below my height
Are doors well made, wide open,
And to my left, stairs.

December 31, 2008 3:30 PM
First posted 11 May 2009
and I heartily recommend that post.

4 comments:

  1. Ohhh, I can't thank you enough for this. There's been too much in my ear contrary to this recently. I lose my bearings. Frick. Tom Robbins. God, i love that man, his humor and sensibilities. and then this quote! what a gift. i will get up from here and wash my face and start my day. hope. this is hope. hope without the poison.

    what are your doors for? for more to enter? and too, for our trivial political gyrations, religious dogmas, social ambitions and financial ploys to leave through? why do we allow ourselves to be so preoccupied in pomp? is our ego that faulty we need a societal viagra?

    let's shed it.

    do i need to knock to come in?

    xo
    erin

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  2. Erin, i thought we were urged to climb the stairs, the door's already open :)
    But it's all a mystery to me anyway:)
    Christopher it's a joy to read your posts again. I like what Tom Robbins says, of course i had never heard of him either. Thank you for introducing all these inspirational voices.

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  3. Hello Christopher. Erin sent me. Said I should go here for hope. So here I am.

    Tom Robbins. "Mystical evolution - a melding into the godhead, into love". I believe this too. I have difficulty envisioning it. I can't make out the blueprints to the house I'm working on. Doors! It needs doors! As it is there's nowhere to enter. What a rookie mistake.

    I really like your poem.

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  4. All life, in whatever form is an exchange of substance for energy. Stuff comes in, stuff goes out. Doors are fundamental. There is a skin, an inside and an outside, and there is a way to allow an unbroken flow. If the flow is interrupted for any length of time, life dissolves very quickly. This is true on every level, in any metaphor, or else life is a lie.

    As the Buddhists have put it, "interdependent". The primary illusion of life is to look at the boundaries and thus say, "self sufficient". Self is universal and persistent but it is secondary, a principle, not a necessity. The necessity is the flow of substance for energy.

    Doors are fundamental. "Controlled access gates which stand open except in very temporary and local emergencies."

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The chicken crossed the road. That's poultry in motion.


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