When I started telling my wife about the idea I’m writing about, she ‘virtually’ [as opposed to reality] threw up her hands and started singing ‘lalalalalalalala’…
I realize this may not make sense to many of you.
something to think about…
Light enters the eyeball, gets reversed, top-to-bottom; and then is converted into electro-chemical signals which are sent through the optic nerve to the nerve cells in our brains.
We then perceive the world as if we were watching a flat-screen TV or a theater screen…
There is no light inside the brain; in spite of what our snarky schoolyard buddies told us when they looked into our ears.
We create the light we see.
We create this light in an instant; so fast that it seems sort of like a ‘reflection’ but it isn’t.
Neurons firing in a Functional MRI
Among the evidence for this concept are those whose vision is ‘quirky’—people with color blindness; people with Irlen’s Syndrome, whose brains cannot process black letters on white paper—but can process black letters on colored paper; people like a friend of mine who has a ‘hole’ in his brain—there is a portion of his brain where no ‘gray matter’ exists; as a result, he sees without depth perception.
We seem to be living, here in America, in a place where darkness is gaining the upper hand; yet, we create the light we see. We can be light for the world, if we choose to live this way. It’s a choice.
A routine traffic stop should not be a life-threatening situation; but it has become that way.
It’s a choice.
Portland has become highly-ranked city on a number of surveys. I’ve heard numbers above 100 for people moving to Portland every day. However, we don’t have housing for over 100 new people per day. In fact, we have a LARGE homeless population, in the thousands, some of whom have been priced out of a place to live; because the landlord raised the rent. Because they can. Housing is at such a premium that a landlord can ask nearly any number they want, and someone will accept it. Cheaper than where they came from. Buying houses has become problematic because housing prices are also skyrocketing.
Because they can.
Whether they should, apparently doesn’t enter into the debate.
Being a landlord is a ‘crap shoot’. My son is a ‘third-generation landlord’ of my parents’ first house. This summer, while working on the house, I realized I have painted that house for 50 years… Excellent tenants, good tenants, and tenants that I wish I had never known about. During my years of working at the City, and due to the generosity of my parents, we were able to live frugally on a single income. We didn’t need the rent to make ends meet; so we usually rented it out at below-market-rates. When it became time to have the last couple move out, we needed to evict them, because they couldn’t find anywhere else to live as cheaply; and he apparently felt no need to work for a living. We rented to her; she let him freeload off of her ‘back-breaking’ work as a retail manager.
Background for a movie poster
Every now and then, as an illustrator, I’m given the opportunity to play as I work. Work is no longer ‘work’; it becomes play—until my body tells me it’s time to stop, when I’m not ready to be done for the day. Then, play becomes work.
It’s perception.
Even the pain that I feel throughout my body these days is perception. Some days, I’m so engrossed in my project that pain is moved far back in my perception—until I need to use the bathroom; and the pain comes rushing back.
Jesus said that His followers should be like a city on a hill, whose light could be seen from all around. The light is pretty dim, these days.
And yet, we create the light we see.
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Tags: artist depression freelance illustration neuopathy pain persistence, Christianity, faith, hope, Jesus, material poverty, mental-health, Nerve Pain, Neuropathy, persistence, Polyneuropathy, self-employment, surviving
Chronicles in Ordinary Time 