A Lone Log

The Only Prick in Town

Surfing for wallpapers one time … I came across this incredible picture … of snow capped mountains in the background … a lake in the middle … and in the foreground … a fallen log … whose bark was stripped in places … but was sturdy lying on the ground. The air was crisp and in the clear vision … the viewer saw every tiny detail in the scene … open to view … like a transparent will on issues.

It conjures in the mind … memories of fishing trips … camping in the woods … perhaps putting up a cabin nearby … or simply an occasion when someone may have painted the scenery. However to a man's mind … the long cylindrical shape of the log … in full strength … may have conjured something more than simply outdoors. In fact it might have mesmerized him into thinking … that his … was the only log in town.

But it was more than that. It reminded me of the times … I took leadership in clubs and societies … in school … when it seemed … I was commanding a certain activity … directing the members to take up to do … and guiding them as they did it. Then at work … it was a matter of assisting in directing the investment policies of the government. Elsewhere … it involved advising corporations to invest in Malaysia … and to watch with satisfaction … the inflow of millions of dollars … into the economy.

In college … it was a matter of moving young minds … in the direction of growth … learning new skills … and to watch their capability grow. In the Indic Mahabarata … such a man of accomplishment was the prince Duryodana. His father … the king … was born blind … and the mother kept close companionship with him … in effect taking her away from the children. Duryodana grew up without much attention from his parents. He became inventive … and eventually dreamt up … a big part of what he did … as the eldest son of the royal family.

The story ended with him dying … in a place like that beautiful picture with the log. He had run away after his army was defeated … and hid near a lake … the Indics called ' Manasarovar ' … meaning mind lake. The implication is that … he relied on his one log will … with respect to issues of reality … but the Pandavas … representing the world's social reality … fought to overcome the mere dreams … that an isolated log was on about.

We engage the experience commonly in our lives … and refer to it unmindfully. Its like the title of the opera … ' The Barber of Seville.' Obviously there's more than one barber in Seville. In doing so … the one log plays a powerful role in society … especially with regards to social groupings or varna. But it can also have the effect of taking away the mind … at a mere suggestion … of vandalized self possession.

In man's early experiences of the earth … such concerns were real with the merchant and warrior classes. History is dotted with its many faithful attempts to keep the trust … without running into self aggrandizement. Its a serious matter in the pathology … of the human. For the priestly class … it represented the beauty of God's creation … greater than man. They brought it to the one log … and made of it an iconic representation of God … and the one will of the universe.

The potential power of organization diminished the starlight propensities of the individual mind … and was substituted with sight brought by sunlight. And ever since … our affairs have been guided by the imperatives of the sun … for work … survival … security … and the definitions of physical reality. In time … it challenges the starlight qualities in the one log dream … and transforms the condition of the human … to the place of dreamless sleep … that science refers to as delta waves of the brain. It produces a meditative view of life.

From wish fulfillment … we awake to find … that the starlight qualities of the universe are aligned with the one log view. In keeping with its hegemonic view … man came to see the world in an egocentric manner … and the early church … defined the world as being … the center of the universe. Galileo and science … changed that … and today we view the world as heliocentric … in relation to the sun.

Herakles killed the Nemean lion … perhaps in allusion to the … egocentric one log experience. I don't have enough on it to simply pin it to the lion episode. But as the only log in the picture … it occupies a unique position in the mind of man in society. There are many who have and continue to perfect the experience in some way … in the name of society … but it has inevitably led … to a dismal end … sans reason … and subject to all nature of chronic maladies. Herakles was certainly another one of those who made the attempt.

Closer to home … my nephew Paul … in his youthful enthusiasm … played with the one log experience his entire life. He passed on yesterday from a heart attack. As a pilot … in a commercial airline company … he traveled the world … and had the fulfillment … to his heart's content … of the joys … and pleasures … a man away from home finds in his unrestrained freedom. Never landed his feet on the ground … long enough to take root. I figure most people thought it was a curio thing … and I'm sure that's the way they'll remember him.