JAN’S FRESH REAL NEWS
                      © 2001:Jan Cox
                                        ***************************************************

October 11, 2001.
 
 
 
 

The more you live in your head, the less distinction you make between
the world of words and life.

The greater your fascination with the commentary in your mind
about life, the lesser your understanding of what goes on in life.

The intelligent use of the world of words is to temper what goes on in life, but ordinary men tend to let it distemper theirs;
in spite of the interminable verbal wrangling of political negotiations,
diplomats note: "As long as we are talking -- we are not fighting,"
but routinely do everyday people wage war in their heads with words
as surely and would-be deadly as any actual warfare ever waged;
in spite of the outwardly calm & uneventful lives ordinary men live,
in a private world of words in their heads do they live amidst
ceaseless stress & strife.

Man's physical environment has been made more comfortable by
his mind's being dissatisfied with its natural conditions;
in matters far less tangible, this has bled over into mind finding fault with
its mental environment, (as it were): being not at all satisfied with
the conditions it finds naturally in other people's minds,
(and that, [as they say on the planet Belmont], is what makes a horse race;
political party; religion, and normal life in a man's mind).

The more heed you pay to your private world of words,
the less you find life outside of you agreeing therewith;
there is an inherent antagonism between how men live life,
and how their minds think about it, (the mother of all progress),
but not acknowledging this natural, adversarial divide between the two
is the father of all frustration;
words tell men that they should be living in This Manner
while their instincts lead them to live in That Manner,
and the former is meant to collectively temper,
and make more placid the latter,
but when the arrangement is not comprehended,
a man's individual inner life is made disquieted and made more combative;
the running editorial commentary he hears in his head regarding
the running editorial commentaries that come from other men's mouths
gives an ordinary, inattentive man the unshakable stressful sensation that life --  as lived by homo sapiens  --  is being lived all wrong.

The power of the words in man's head is such that a sane, educated, sophisticated & perfectly normal person will stand with a straight face
and deny the clear physical reality right in front of him
if it conflicts with the commentary thereabout that he hears in his mind;
it is a story as old as the story of man, but one which is never given any notice save in most extreme examples, (mass madness; individual insanity),
but this glaring, in-your-face disruptive dichotomy is in minute-by-minute play in ordinary men's lives throughout each day --
and is ignored at the expense of 20/20 mental sight.

If a silent movie were secretly made of yours (or any man's) everyday life,
just the actions of you living your normal life,
and then somehow your inner world of words could be filmed,
just the things that go through your mind during a normal day,
and the two were shown simultaneously, side by side --
what would it reveal?
Would they bear any resemblance to one another?
Would the comments running continually through your head
seem in any way to be rationally connected to what you were actually doing at the moment?
At most, such a split-screen showing of an ordinary man's life
would force from him a nervous giggle,
and at best, from a desirous man, shake his sleep.

A tendency of those who want to understand more is to talk more,
(more specifically); those who want to understand more have a natural tendency to give more heed to the talk they hear in their head;
they talk more to themselves than the ordinary,
and they listen more to themselves talk than the ordinary;
this is an inherent condition that is a prerequisite for any ultimate
understanding beyond that normally provided to man,
but it can also be an ultimate barrier to pursuing extraordinary insight
if it is too long the primary fuel driving your search engine.

It is his own private world of words in his individual head that first ignites any man's interest in the extreme hobby of his mind trying to alter its own operations, but it is also this private world of words on which he soon comes to depend and with which he quickly becomes so comfortable,
that will be his final barrier.
The words in your head fire the starting gun for the race,
yet if you are not alert, will be down track to trip you up before the finish.

It is a situation easily dealt with in a day, (for those who want to do so),
all you need do is make a sixteen hour mental film of what you do and of what you think during that period,
then sit down in a quiet place;
compare the two for several seconds;
consider what it reveals, (which will wake you up),
then go to bed and start fresh tomorrow.
 

                                                       J