I bring my Self to museums. Not because I'm interested in the past. The truth is I'm only fleetingly interested in the past. To be sure, whenever I bring my Self to museums, there are ample (if not neverending) interesting opportunities to study the past. Rather, what I get from bringing my Self to museums, are opportunities, given the past but no longer run by the past, to fully appreciate the present, and opportunities, also given the past but no longer run by the past, to be fully open to the new possibilities for the future. Whenever I bring my Self to castles, I'm enthralled with them. I'm completely enthralled with medieval castles. I'm completely enthralled with ancient forts. I'm enthralled with their bastions, with their moats, with their drawbridges, with their turrets, with their ramparts, with their armories ie I'm particularly enthralled with their armories and with their collections of ancient guns and weapons and swords and other instruments of mayhem and blood-letting and torture and destruction. To be clear, I'm not a gun guy or a weapons guy myself. That's not what interests me here. What gets me (not as a criticism of how we are but rather as an inquiry into how we are ie as an insight into how we're thrown to be), is realizing how much time, how much expense, and how much brilliantly creative energy we've (I'm talking about all of us now, I'm talking about all of humanity now) invested in developing implements which kill and maim - and we've been developing implements which kill extremely well and which maim very effectively for centuries and centuries and centuries. This is us, humanity, yes? At least this is one enduring side of us, humanity. Based on what's on view in these armories in so many of these castles, we've been doing this for a long, long time. And there's enough of a momentum to ensure we, without question, will continue doing it for a long, long time yet to come. Listen: I mean "without question" quite literally. I say it's because we don't question what's possible, that we keep the status quo, we keep the way it's always been, in place. I say it's because we don't question what's possible, that we've limited our own options by always trying to get from Life, rather than bringing our Selves to Life (to borrow from President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, we ask what Life can do for us; we ask not what we can bring to Life). I say it's because we don't question what's possible, that we're run by our past with no real appreciation of the opportunities in the present, and with no real appreciation of the new possibilities for the future - not just for us and for our own countries, but rather for our planet and for all its countries and for all its peoples. |
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