Meditation for January 5th
On Absolutes
People have been more absolute in their convictions now than ever before. People either know precisely why they exist and what their purpose is because of held beliefs, or they don’t care at all and don’t want to know. Either way, it is an absolute. At some point in the common era, people gave up trying to grasp the complex truths about our existence and settled for simple, yet untrue, answers, or omitted most of the facts.
People have decided that because their pizza pocket takes no longer than 90 seconds in a microwave, they no longer need to wait for the truth. They want an answer now, and the loudest voice wins. And if one agrees with the loudest voice, it’s because their beliefs were already aligned.
Our very soul thrives on uncertainty. Having an existential crisis on why we are here, what is the point, and what happens after we die is the very nature of being human. Animals feel, have communication, some mate for life, and others even have opposable thumbs, but feeling the very crushing weight of all the universes on our lonely minds is the very essence of the human experience.
We grab for religion, philosophy, and science for answers. As time gave way to technology, the answers never seemed enough to solve life’s mysteries. We found an answer to one thing, and the left and the right of that answer became new mysteries. Science, philosophy, and religion fought over the mysteries, but even with science’s more proven methods of answering them, it was never enough to squash the need for religion and philosophy.
What happened? People shrug their shoulders at these mysteries and don’t care. None of the mysteries have been solved, but either the little answers we do have are enough, or who gives a fuck. It’s as if we hit a plateau and are slowly declining in both curiosity and intellectualism.
We have become no better than animals because we have turned our backs on not being absolute. It’s okay not to know, but it’s life to keep asking.
Being so absolute has squashed art, poetry, and music. Art is the mortar in the bricks of uncertainty. The fear and awe of the very fabric of reality around us have given rise to the most beautiful music, art, and poetry ever made. Certainty has given us Banksy, Drake, and Taylor Swift—just faraway echoes of yesteryear’s art.
The phone gives you Absolutes. Put the phone away, and everything you see will become terrifying and awe-inspiring. Get scared again of existing. Stop pretending that you have any idea on what you are doing here.
Prayer
They say the Absolutes,
Is the formless nothing,
That something came out of.
This is where the awe comes from,
That this amount of something,
Went out of all that nothing,
But to have all of this,
We had to give up the absolution of nothing,
For the maleable fabric of reality.
I need to remember that when I want an absolute,
I want nothing.
Amen
Craft
Foccaccia Bread
Ingredients:
1 3/4 warm water
1 package of dry yeast
1 tbspn sugar (or honey)
5 cups of all-purpose or bread flour
1 tbsp salt
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
- Combine the flour, yeast, salt, and sugar in a bowl.
- Stir in the water and oil to make a dough.
- Turn the dough out and knead until smooth and elastic.
- Let the dough rise in an oiled bowl.
- Punch down the dough and place it on a prepared baking sheet.
- Pat into a rectangle, brush with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt.
- Bake until golden brown.
Goal
Despite what we want out of life, there are no absolutes as long as there is stuff.