Monkey Cowboy
Show down in the French Quarter. Lucky Dog is about to get a free ride to Boot Hill.
I Am Confused, is that a Problem?
I Am Confused, is that a Problem?
I have been using the question, "I am confused, is that a problem?" as a personal 'catch phrase' when I meander and twine with the internet.
Before I read a certain book, I didnt really know what the phrase meant, because I was, you know, confused.
The saying does express something that I feel about life, art and personal philosophy. I do not intend for the phrase to have a negative interpretation. It sounds negative, but I saw it as somehow positive.
Confusion is generally seen as a state of mind to be avoided at all cost. Even delusions are preferable to confusion. When we dont understand things, we invent explanations. NOT KNOWING is usually experienced as an uncomfortable state of mind.
In the movie, "Empire of the Sun", a doctor yells at the protagonist, "Stop thinking so much. You think too much." Eureka. Hmm, is that my problem? Maybe, I think too much.
I thought, Maybe, I will read some philosophy, maybe that will help with the confusion.
Soon, the book, "A Parliament of Minds", came my way. I bought it for twenty five cents at the Franklinton Public Library. They sell donated books, when there is no more room for books on the shelves. I love coincidences.
Printed in 2000, by the State University of New York Press, it is a book of relatively current philosophical thinking.
So I read it. And now I will quote from it.
This statement comes from David Rothenberg, associate professor of philosophy at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Philosophy doesn't make you settled, you know. In that sense it's different than meditation; it makes you more and more confused and through that confusion you can be much more alive and sort of wonder about the world. You know, wonder is the best thing philosophy has to offer. You have to wonder about this amazing planet, this amazing place where we are, and not get bored and not think there are too easy answers. Just keep asking, keep exploring.
Rothenberg expressed what I had sensed in my muddled, thinking brain. The concept has been there, in my cranium vault, it took Rothenberg to give me the words.
I had thought and thought, going in circles, back tracking, jumping forward, interweaving and tangling, untangling, and retangling.
Eventually, I arrived at an acceptance, even a celebration, of not knowing. I embraced mystery.
Before I read a certain book, I didnt really know what the phrase meant, because I was, you know, confused.
The saying does express something that I feel about life, art and personal philosophy. I do not intend for the phrase to have a negative interpretation. It sounds negative, but I saw it as somehow positive.
Confusion is generally seen as a state of mind to be avoided at all cost. Even delusions are preferable to confusion. When we dont understand things, we invent explanations. NOT KNOWING is usually experienced as an uncomfortable state of mind.
In the movie, "Empire of the Sun", a doctor yells at the protagonist, "Stop thinking so much. You think too much." Eureka. Hmm, is that my problem? Maybe, I think too much.
I thought, Maybe, I will read some philosophy, maybe that will help with the confusion.
Soon, the book, "A Parliament of Minds", came my way. I bought it for twenty five cents at the Franklinton Public Library. They sell donated books, when there is no more room for books on the shelves. I love coincidences.
Printed in 2000, by the State University of New York Press, it is a book of relatively current philosophical thinking.
So I read it. And now I will quote from it.
This statement comes from David Rothenberg, associate professor of philosophy at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Philosophy
Rothenberg expressed what I had sensed in my muddled, thinking brain. The concept has been there, in my cranium vault, it took Rothenberg to give me the words.
I had thought and thought, going in circles, back tracking, jumping forward, interweaving and tangling, untangling, and retangling.
Eventually, I arrived at an acceptance, even a celebration, of not knowing. I embraced mystery.
