Great Divides

I thought the movie Beginners was a great movie and The Prince of Persia was silly, but I enjoyed both in a high and low sort of way. Paradise and silliness, great divides, yet connected in a strangely human way.

I read that the etymological root for Paradise is "motherly bread baker." I don't believe it, but I do love the idea of it.

I read that it is more fun to watch a bad cat than it is to watch a good cat. That it is more fun to be a bad cat, metaphorically speaking.

I read about a retired seeing-eye dog once, it was so highly trained that it didn't know how to be silly or to be bad. The new owner longed for her to chase a squirrel or steal a bite of food, to tip over the trash and thoroughly rummage around in it. She claimed it was a delightful day when the dog finally lolled around in her pansy flower bed seeking a bit of sunshine, destroying all the pansies but gaining a bit of wildness, badness.

I read about an old woman who was asked about one particular year in her life. The year she lost a child and went blind. The old woman's response was "that was a bad year."

I can't remember a thing about 1982. What did I do in 1982? I washed socks and peeled onions, this I know, but not because I remember it. I don't remember breathing or bathing or pulling weeds either, but I know I was alive and doing what needed to be done. 1982 -- was it a good year or a bad year?

Paradise and silliness seems uniquely human. And not all things are the truth.

Great divides of philosophy, culture, religion saddens me by degrees. Separateness is a given, but I hate to see it manifest into hatred. Hatred lies like a glacier and yet Paradise lurks under there somewhere.

My life is what it is for reasons not remembered. I have been silly before and I will be silly again. As for Paradise -- I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Silly or bad sometimes you just have to cross the "do not cross" line into Paradise.