Conversations with Calliope- Dialogue with My Muse

JOE: Good morning, Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. I take it your backup computer is behaving this morning.
JOE: It is. Nice to be with you.
CALLIOPE: What's on your mind today?
JOE: I had an interesting conversation with my friend Gerry yesterday.
CALLIOPE: What did he have to say?
JOE: His comments were about my exchanges with you. He knew me many years ago when I was trying to figure out the meaning of life and what to do with mine in particular.
CALLIOPE: And?
JOE: He saw our conversations as reminiscent of my earlier struggles. To him it sounded like I was still locked in the same struggles which plagued me then.
CALLIOPE: Do you agree?
JOE: I had to stop to think about it. I was not aware of the similarities before he mentioned them. In some ways he is right. I still have many of the same questions about the meaning of life, how it should be lived and what makes people act as they do.
CALLIOPE: Do you think you have changed over the years?
JOE: The questions are still the same. Maybe my challenge is to spend my life pondering the same questions and keep coming up with little insights about them. In that sense I haven't changed. However I don't feel the desperation I once felt to have the answers. I now look on the same issues as life's mysteries. I can contemplate them and explore possible explanations but don't feel a life and death struggle or that my life will self destruct if I don't find the answers immediately. I think I have become more patient over the years.
CALLIOPE: What do you think he was getting at?
JOE: I think he would like to see me be able to relax more and enjoy life rather than being locked in a struggle to understand it. He encouraged me to explore activities such as painting which I did briefly and then jumped right back into the fray with my writing. I think I will do a little painting today. Talk with you tomorrow.
(Public Stocks- Renaissance Faire)

Conversations with Calliope

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. Did you just get up?
JOE: I think you know me better than that. I was up before five, read the paper, walked with Carol, served her breakfast on the porch, watered my plants, did some painting, wrote today's journal entry and now here I am.
CALLIOPE: Impressive. And I thought you were loafing.
JOE: I must admit the thought did occur to me. I thought you could survive for a day by yourself. Once I got painting, I felt more enervated and ready to do some writing, at least with you.
CALLIOPE: I'm flattered. Is that all you plan to do today?
JOE: No. My story, Child Bride was posted a few days ago in Critique Circle (www.critiquecircle.com.) I plan to read the critiques posted and take them to heart. I am trying to be more observant, especially of myself and my inner workings.
CALLIOPE: What prompted that?
JOE: To some extent, reading Eckhart Tolle's Power of New and The New Earth. Yesterday I received a copy of Guy Finley's book, The Essential Laws of Fearless Living and started reading it last night.
CALLIOPE: What have you discovered so far?
JOE: The message is similar to Tolle's but to me the writing is more accessible. His essential point is how to stop worrying about all the things you think about yourself and concentrate on just being who you are without worrying about it.
CALLIOPE: Sounds good if you can do it.
JOE: I hope to. I think my recent funk came from fear that I wasn't a good enough writer. If I'm hopeless I might as well give up writing. Finley points out that entertaining such thoughts gives them life and lets them take over who I otherwise could be.
CALLIOPE: Interesting point.
JOE: I plan to read more of his book over the weekend and will let you know what I discover on Monday.
(Riverboat- Erie Canal)

Conversations with Calliope

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. Anything exciting going on this morning?
JOE: Nothing like the story contest last Saturday. Just a quiet day at the computer.
CALLIOPE: Did you have any more thoughts about Rushdie's comment on discovering the why by exploring the how?
JOE: I have been thinking about it. I would enjoy having a conversation with him about this but can only speculate on what he meant unless I can find some writing of his which develops this further. I think one part of what he means has to do with product and process.
CALLIOPE: Now you have some explaining to do.
JOE: I think the question "why" leads to an explanation, the end result of whatever exploration takes place. This kind of answer is a product or a conclusion. Asking the question "how" looks instead on the process of arriving at a conclusion rather than on the product or final result. The process is much richer than the product. I also think it is more important to understand the process rather than the end result.
CALLIOPE: In what way?
JOE: If you look at the usefulness of both in living our own lives, it becomes clearer. The conclusions we reach about the nature of life are just facts to be listed and maybe shared. Our lives are more than a series of facts. We each live in an ongoing process of exploring who we are. In coming to understand our journey, why we are on our particular paths becomes more clear.
CALLIOPE: I think I see what you are getting at. Don't you think it is important to know what your life means?
JOE: I think it is the search which is important. If we reached final conclusions about our lives and could sum them up as an explanation for our existence, there would be nothing left to do but sit down and wait to die. There would be nothing else to explore.
CALLIOPE: In other words life would effectively be over.
JOE: That's the way I see it. I guess its time for me to get back to my exploration of today. Talk with you on Monday.
(Cabin in Oramel, NY)

Who Owns God?

Karen Armstrong wrote a book called The Battle for God. In it she wrote about the struggle over a period of centuries for people of the major religions to come to terms with the implications of the modern world and their age old traditions. It does not seem that this battle has ended. Some people have opted to reject the modern world and cling to their own particular beliefs. Others have chosen the modern world, rejecting all religions. Some have tried to forge their own way realizing that their solitary path has few guideposts to make their journey easier. Some people see it as their job to convert others to their view of God and reality. Others see it as their job to get others to see the fallacy of any religion. Still others have chosen to live the best life they can without help or interference from others. Those of us who think about why we are on earth struggle to make sense of our lives and discover the purpose for which we are here. Is there a way for us to help each other with this search without being dogmatic in our efforts?

(Stone relief in Santillana, Spain)

Bartleby the Scrivener

I was looking through a discussion of various authors and their writings yesterday when I came across a reference to Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville. I remembered sitting in Mr. Melville's pew in the seaman's bethel in New Bedford and feeling some of his spirit. I was also intrigued with a story about a scrivener, which literally means a copier or writer. He spent his days copying financial records when he "preferred" to do so. Apparently a very mysterious life lay behind his public persona. I sometimes wonder what lies within the lives of people we deal with as we need to and then tend to dismiss and take for granted.

(Photo- Window in the Tower of London)