Jessica Sticktight close-up, (Hackelia micrantha) [ click photo for next . . . ]
Jessica Sticktight close-up, (Hackelia micrantha) [ click photo for next . . . ]
Remarkable how such a pretty little forget-me-not
like flower can produce such noisome offspring!
BUT:—everything has a bright side!
Biomimicry already back in the 1950's gave us
the now ubiquitous velcro, immitating similar hook
& hold structureS on the Burdock seeds.
Eagle Cap Wilderness
On the road in the Northwest of America.
[ double-click text to play ]
FOUR METAPHYSICAL MINIATURES
(i)
We shape the world and the world shapes us.
Have you ever noticed how by now even presidents hold a
microphone as if they were hosting the Tonight Show?
Or how presidents now patronize members of the media
by using their first names at press conferences. They are
supposed to be "buddies," one understands, and a buddy
would never be too critical of a friend, now, would he,
or she?
(ii)
We shape the world and world shapes us.
The universal commercialization of discourse is
the bane of real dialogue.
We wouldn't take a crook seriously if he were to demand he keys
to the bank, the safe's combination, and free gas for the
getaway car. So why do we listen seriously to the highly-trained
spokespeople of fantastically moneyed, vested interests?
Truth and clear reasoning do not begin with conclusions
intended to greenwash our brains into a deep soporific state,
hoping thereby to gain permanent access to some resource,
or maintain some profitable status quo. Truth and clear
reasoning begin with real problems, real listening,
begin with real contradictions, troubling facts, and above all,
with honest, civil, disinterested debate.
(iii)
We shape the world and the world shapes us.
One wonders:
Who was the first man to look straight into the lens of a camera
and lie to the whole world without the slightest trace of remorse?
Was it President Johnson? President Nixon?
No, it must have been the first soap commercial.
Or the first rockstar singing about a lost love
that never happened.
Now, even children do it.
(iv)
We shape the world and the world shapes us.
Putting a young person behind the wheel of a car turns the
key on an equally powerful, self-reinforcing, set of illusions:
of control, of freedom, of independence.
How different is the reality that no one wishes to see, as the car
itself takes control of our thought and perception, or bank account,
and as the illision of independence begins to flounder as we
discover we have chained our souls to the sinking ship of a
quickly disappearing resource, one which is harmful not only to
ourselves, but also to all those around us.
Reason enough to pause in a moment of quiet reflection
before turning the key.
All Photographs & texts by Cliff Crego © 1999-2011 picture-poems.com
(created: VIII.28.2008)
