Futile Endeavours Inc.

Incorporated, isn't that funny? It sounds like 'embodied'.
That's the title of the story of my life btw. I remember when I was maybe around 1st grade, 6-ish years old or so, I started thinking as if I was writing a book about my life. I'm not doing that as diligent anymore as I did back then, but it's still all about the story for me.
And sometimes I think that's kind of the only truth in all those freaky wild rides we call life.
We like to pretend we are all one, everything is just this or that, there's an unification to be achieved, but the truth is: every story is different.
Isn't that amazing? We look at the stars and wonder how it can be there are more galaxies than sand-corns on all our beaches. But does anybody ever wonder who those billions× tens of thousands of stories are being written, played, produced for?

*interlude*
I remember when I was around the same age as we talked about earlier 6-ish, I really wanted to go to ski class the next day, but there was no snow, I stared out the window, prayed "oh dear God..." as if it was the most important issue ever and I pictured how the snowflakes started forming and how they floated towards me and my window...
and it #ing did start to snow!
*end/interlude*

I have a really complicated relationship with religion, now as a grown up. As a child I was super into it, that was just a fact.
But my story developed, things got more complicated. The protagonist had to endure a few disappoinments.
A love story that hurt me so bad I still can't talk about it.
But ey right? Forever unhappy in love. Isn't that kind of the ultima romance?
Weirdly it taught me something else: you can never be convinced what the writer of the story really intended.
Because there's a meta level to everything. Every good story has meaning on at least 2 levels.
Some people are just happy with the obvious banal storyline.
Some want more than what's actually there.
If you pay attention over the years without falling too deep in the various traps or rabbit holes, you get a glimpse behind the curtain.
And it will # you up, you might do what I did and start running around 'the end is nigh!!!'
...until that loses steam because the bang just never came.

My point is, God (my interpretation) is a story teller.

a reply to: Peeple

If you pay attention over the years without falling too deep in the various traps or rabbit holes, you get a glimpse behind the curtain.

Without falling too deeply into those rabbit holes. I hear you Peep. For decades I thought that when we peeled back the curtain we would all see the same thing? What a child I was. Because just like all these stories we write to explain their lives to ourselves, there are just as many curtains to lift. Just as many. And what is seen beyond one may be entirely different from what is behind another.

I love the conversations that basically go,

A.Here is what is behind the curtain, see?
B. Nope, THIS is what is behind the curtain.
C. You're both wrong.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

Well 'being right' obviously never was the goal.
I still like to argue. And since we're all story tellers too most of the time we make what we saw behind the curtain sound more interesting than it was.

a reply to: Peeple

I was working on a full length, very intricate story about when I prayed for the back tire of my bicycle to hold air. I was 7 or 8. My older siblings wouldn't wait for me to patch my tire. I pumped up the flat, instantly lost air.

So I prayed, "Please let the air stay in the tire so I can catch up. Just long enough to make it to _____ [ a town 11 miles away ]. After that, it's okay if it goes flat."

And sure enough, that's exactly what happened. I was so self conscious pushing my bicycle all the way home, thinking that passing motorists would laugh "Stupid kid should have asked for more. hah hah hah!"

a reply to: Peeple

a reply to: pthena

It's cute, you asked for what you needed. Who knows...

a reply to: Peeple

I have a really complicated relationship with religion, now as a grown up. As a child I was super into it, that was just a fact.
But my story developed, things got more complicated. The protagonist had to endure a few disappoinments.

The reason that I stopped writing the intricate story was that I had given some advice.
link to advice
I was going to throw much melodramatic angst over whether I owed something to Lord Enlil (god of air) or something to Persephone (on account of the pomegranate tree I was standing next to when I prayed).

But after giving advice I decided F___ it, and quit writing.

Nice thread.
I've been thinking lately of the countless stories people have told, through the written word, music, and film.
Every so often someone produces one that just transcends it all.
It can be really hard to put it into words. Not many people can because they're usually too busy trying to flaunt their intelligence and impress you. A couple of modern philosophers that I really like are Terrence McKenna and Jordan Peterson.

Peterson says that instead of trying to find happiness, or 'fulfillment' in life, we should try to find meaning. That resonated with me.

I think we could use a musical interlude here.
There are many versions on youtube.
I like to read the lyrics too.

Electric Light Orchestra - Can't Get It Out Of My Head

a reply to: pthena

I love Dune, the original first book, and the movie with Kyle MacLachlan. I watched it with my father, when I was way too little for it, but it spoke to me. Mua'd ip

You should still write yours though, you never know whom it might inspire.

a reply to: ColeYounger


That's very far down in my downloads from the time way back. Super smart man.

But sorry I don't know Peterson.

Uh-huh... many many stories.

It was odd waking up to base reality that one time when I was swimming with a group of trout in this pristine stream in the mountains and then focusing on these little AI drones fixing my headset and murmuring psychically amongst themselves that "too bad the machine broke as this one had illuminating emotional responses that we were close to coding."

I'm kidding as the experience was actually a dream... or in a dream I had... or was it...?

Never mind... or is it "always mind!"?

a reply to: Baddogma

And we ask ourselves, "how weird can it get" and can we take it if it gets real weird? The answer is NO....but with a little more practice, maybe...

a reply to: olaru12

Wiser words have been written, but I agree ...
exponentially so.

Q: What else would a vast, infinitely complex consciousness do other than grow by spinning fractally expanding possibilities in infinity?

When we are children, magic exists, we pray for snow and it snows
When we become adults the magic subsides, we pray for snow and it rains.
The difference between child and adult are our mental constructs. The mental constructs that stand between us and the magic.

If you look christianity. Why did God empower the beast in revelation? Why did Jesus in Gospel of Thomas infer he was a beast? The beast is only a beast to the ego of man. The mental constructs that exist between us and the magic.

Terence Mckenna was one of the greatest free thinkers of our time. Yet he failed to find the truth. His powerful but limited mind was the wrong tool for the job. It is locked in the dance of dualities. Yet God gave us another tool in our arsenal. One that has no such limitation.

You need to dig deeper.

a reply to: ColeYounger

A good author wrote, “live life first, then philosophize later”. I like this thread.

a reply to: Peeple

I'm no novelist.

In the course of my wanderings I came into Port Townsend 8 years too late. The great novelist was gone. But the desk upon which the novels had been written was still there. There was a pen. The tour guide couldn't tell me if it was authentic or merely a prop. The desk was definitely the real deal.

And now here are the first two paragraphs of the unfinished manuscript of a short story called:

Deal With Enlil? or ... Holy Crap!

I had been running through all the events and words step by step, moment by moment, wondering if I owe something to Enlil or if perhaps He owns me. No sooner had I assured myself that it all amounted to a simple granted request when suddenly as a vision breaking through my false sense of security came the memory of the exact spot I had been standing. Oh holy crap! What have I stepped into after all? I better just tell the story so you all can see the enormity of the jam I may be in.

It was the Summer of my eighth year. There was a town a mere eleven miles from our home. My siblings and I would ride bicycles there occasionally when we came upon a few dimes or nickels. It wasn't much of a town really; just a gas station, a cafe, and a craft museum and gift shop that sold frozen candy bars and moon pies.

You can see the problem of melodramatic angst. I think the quick, short, matter of fact rendition above is better.

“So this is what I say and bear witness to in the Lord, that you should no longer go on walking just as the nations also walk, in the futility of their minds. They are in darkness mentally and alienated from the life that belongs to God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the insensitivity of their hearts. Having gone past all moral sense, they gave themselves over to brazen conduct to practice every sort of uncleanness with greediness.” (Ephesians 4:17-19)

futility: Or “emptiness; vanity.” According to one lexicon, the thought in this verse is that the people of the nations “walk with their minds fixed on futile things.” Their course leads to frustration and disappointment, which is one reason why Paul urges Christians to stop “walking just as the nations also walk.” Solomon, the writer of Ecclesiastes, sometimes used this term to parallel the expression “a chasing after the wind.” (Ec 1:14; 2:11) In the context of Ro 8:20, Paul describes a striving without attaining a goal or purpose.

in darkness mentally: Paul’s remarks are not about the intelligence of unbelievers. The Bible often compares lack of understanding, especially in a spiritual sense, to darkness. (Job 12:24, 25; Isa 5:20; 60:2; Joh 8:12; 2Co 4:6; Eph 1:17, 18; 5:8, 11; 1Pe 2:9; 1Jo 2:9-11) Those who have not come to know Jehovah God and Jesus Christ are “in darkness mentally” because they have no guiding light or sense of direction in their endeavors.​—Joh 17:3; Ro 1:21, 28; 2Co 4:4.

the life that belongs to God: According to one reference work, the Greek word here translated “life” means “life as a principle, life in the absolute sense.” (There is a different Greek word for “life” that means “way of life,” or “lifestyle.” See, for example, 1Ti 2:2; 1Jo 2:16.) Thus, Paul is saying that mental and spiritual darkness has alienated, or separated, people from Jehovah, the Source of life and of the hope of everlasting life.​—Ps 36:9; Ro 1:21; Ga 6:8; Col 1:21.

insensitivity: Lit., “dulling.” People who are immersed in the thinking and spirit of this unrighteous world have figurative hearts that are insensitive, or dulled. (1Co 2:12; Eph 2:2; 4:17) Thus, they have no desire to gain the knowledge of God. The Greek noun here rendered “insensitivity” is derived from a medical term that among other things refers to skin made insensitive because of calluses. Here it is used to describe the way the figurative heart could gradually become hardened, or unfeeling, toward God.

Having gone past all moral sense: The expression renders a Greek word that literally means “having ceased to feel pain.” It is here used figuratively in the sense that someone is ethically or morally insensitive. Such a person has ceased to feel any pangs of conscience or any accountability to God.​—1Ti 4:2.

brazen conduct: Or “shameless conduct.” The Greek word a·selʹgei·a denotes conduct that is a serious violation of God’s laws and that reflects a brazen or boldly contemptuous attitude.

every sort of uncleanness: The term “uncleanness” (Greek, a·ka·thar·siʹa) is broad in meaning. Here it is used in its figurative meaning, referring to impurity of any kind​—in sexual matters, in speech, in action, and in spiritual relationships. (Compare 1Co 7:14; 2Co 6:17; 1Th 2:3.) It stresses the morally repugnant nature of the wrong conduct or condition. Paul notes that such conduct was carried out with greediness. The Greek word ple·o·ne·xiʹa, rendered “greediness,” denotes an insatiable desire to have more. By adding “with greediness,” Paul shows that “uncleanness” may involve various degrees of seriousness.​

a reply to: whereislogic

Futile: incapable of producing any useful result; pointless.

I didn't ask for a bible lesson, I don't want it and if you can't speak from your own story and heart, I can definitely see a mental darkness in you.

a reply to: glend

lol that's kind of the point: the truth is subjective and that means you have to maybe 'dig deeper'.
TerryMcGuire got it.
But don't worry I do that sometimes too, writing all superiour while entirely being full of #.